Matthew 5:33-37

Matthew 5:33-37

Jesus said to his disciples:

“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,

Do not take a false oath,

but make good to the Lord all that you vow.

But I say to you, do not swear at all;

not by heaven, for it is God’s throne;

nor by the earth, for it is his footstool;

nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

Do not swear by your head,

for you cannot make a single hair white or black.

Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’

Anything more is from the Evil One.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, help me hear your voice amid the noise of the world. I want to respond generously to your call. I need to discern wisely what I need to leave behind to follow your Son. Grant me a wise and discerning heart so that I can live in your love and bring others to enjoy life with you.

Encountering the Word of God

1. New Covenant Truthfulness: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is giving the new Torah (teaching) of the Messiah, and comes to his fourth teaching. In the old Torah of Moses, the people were commanded not to make false oaths or to invoke God’s name in vain when making an oath or vow. “Oaths invoked God’s name as the guarantor of a person’s word. This is why it was so important not to break an oath. To break an oath amounted to taking the Lord’s name in vain (Exodus 20:7)” (Mitch and Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, 99). Jesus doesn’t want his followers to distinguish between when they are obliged to speak truthfully and when they aren’t. Thus, “If God’s people were truthful in every statement, legal provision for oath swearing would be superfluous” (Mitch and Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, 99). Jesus wants his disciples to be truthful always.

2. Correcting the Pharisees and Their Tradition: In Jesus’ day, the Pharisaic tradition had corrupted the commandments prohibiting false oaths with their subtle distinctions. It seems that Jews avoided using God’s name in oaths and swore instead by something associated with God. And so the Pharisees started to distinguish which oath formulas were binding and which were not. Jesus will pronounce a woe of warning on the Pharisees for this practice (Matthew 23:16-22). Some Jews were swearing not by God’s name, but by heaven, or by earth, or by Jerusalem, or by one’s head. “Jesus, however, shows how this practice still puts one in the position of facing divine judgment, for even these substitutes are intimately linked with God: heaven is God’s throne; the earth is his footstool; Jerusalem is the city of the great King; and even the hair on one’s own head was made by God. Jesus instructs his disciples not to engage in such devious oath swearing but to be straightforward in their speech” (Mitch and Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, 99).

3. Oaths and Vows are Permitted: It is important to realize that Jesus is using the technique of hyperbole when he says, “Do not swear to all.” Jesus is not overturning or abolishing the original commandments about oaths. Jesus “is not opposed to oath or vow taking, and he would certainly affirm the importance of following through with integrity on what one vows to do, in accordance with several Old Testament texts. Instead, using hyperbolic, poetic speech, Jesus is speaking to the heart issue of trying to get out of fulfilling one’s vows by semantic and technical arguments about the supposed differences between the objects upon which one based their vow.” (Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing, 193). What Jesus is saying is that if you are going to do this – having ways like the scribes and Pharisees to get out of truthful speech and the fulfillment of vows – then you shouldn’t make oaths or vows at all. As a wise teacher, Jesus simplifies things: Don’t make your vow complicated, just say “Yes” or “No” and then do what you’ve said. “Anything else is evil, coming from the evil one, not God” (Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing, 194).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have the words of everlasting life. I praise you for you are God, and I thank you for all you have done for me. I pray that I may always walk in the truth and in your light.

Living the Word of God: How am I living New Covenant truthfulness in my words and actions? Where do I struggle the most? Whom am I tempted to deceive with malice? What can I do better this week? From whom do I need to seek forgiveness for past untruthfulness?