Complicating the Simple

Gospel: Matthew 5: 20-26

Theology is the art of taking the utterly simple and making it more complex and more difficult to understand.  Today's Gospel reading is a perfect example.  We have two simple commands: do not kill, and do not even speak ill of another in anger.  Now, put these simple concepts into the theology machine and you will find all sorts of contortions that seek to find exception after exception in order to avoid heeding the simple command.

Has anyone ever found a war or even an act of war to be deemed unjust? We always seem to find justification for war and its horrors, appealing of course to the Book of Joshua and not the Lord Jesus.  We find ever more creative ways to interpret self-defense to kill another, or apologetic to defend our maligning of marginalized and vulnerable peoples we look to exploit.  The unjust system of capital punishment marches on with the blessing of many a Christian church.

Today is a day for a return to the simple, for discernment on how we can live out this simple message of the Gospel in our own lives.  Today is a day for setting aside the complex and for imitating the Lord Jesus who lived this simple rule of today's reading in his own life.  Today let us put away all killing, all speaking ill of others, all malice and ill will.  Only then can we love God and love neighbor as we ought.