TEXT: MATTHEW 5:27-32
LISTENING TO THE TEXT
The clear message of this text is that it has something
to do with sexual purity. What has not been made clear is what this text
says about sexual purity. If the preacher were to translate this passage
as literally as possible it would read something like this: "I say to
you everyone who is looking at a woman for the purpose of desiring her
has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (See v. 28.) Jesus
emphasizes: "Anyone who looks with lustful intention." To highlight
this meaning, Frederick Bruner translates it: "Anyone who stares with
a leering look."
Where
Jesus draws the line between a "look" and a "leering look" is not certain,
but one thing is clear-Jesus is talking here about the intention. It is as
different as temptation is from sin. While Jesus may not be condemning the
look, what He is prohibiting is looking at another person "for the purpose
of lusting after him or her."
It was intriguing to discover that Jesus' words here are the exact same Greek words found in the LXX version of the tenth commandment: "You shall not covet" (Exodus 20:17). Jesus is connecting lusting after another person with coveting. He is saying that the combination of the two equals adultery in the heart. To covet means more than to be envious of another person-to covet implies intentional planning to obtain something for yourself that belongs to another.
An example of that can be found in Micah 2:1-2: "Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them" (emphasis added).
Coveting is plotting to obtain something that is not ours to take. Jesus applies that to lusting, because lusting is not simply admiration. Admiration recognizes what it sees, but then walks away, because it knows there are limits on what we can desire.
Lust is coveting. It is the obsession with acquiring what we do not have. When applied to sexual relationships, Jesus calls that adultery. Why? Because the heart is the ultimate origin of the physical act.
When the "looking" is for the purpose of desiring another in a lustful way, then that person is no longer experienced as a human being, but simply as an object of gratification, and temptation thus leads to sin.
Again, Jesus turns His focus to righteousness. Righteousness includes the refusal to devalue another human being by making him or her an object to be used for selfish purposes. That is against the heart of righteousness and, even more, against the very heart of God.
Jesus' disciples do not use people as a means to an end! Others are to be encountered as fellow human beings, created by God to be valued, esteemed, and deemed precious. People are sacred because they were created for a holy purpose by a holy God.
ENGAGING THE TEXT
The Need
A part of who we are as human beings is that we are sexual human beings.
A part of our identity is a sexual identity. There is a God-given identity
as a man; there is a God-given identity as a woman. And what God has created
is good in our lives. How do we remain pure, and what do we do when we
find ourselves moving from temptation to sin?
God's Answer
God's answer for sexual purity is found in a plan for action. Because
Jesus' disciples are the beneficiaries of purity of heart (Matthew 5:8),
they are now called to pursue that purity in intentional ways. Jesus says,
"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away .
. . if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away"
(vv. 29-30, NRSV).
Jesus is speaking hyperbolically, which is exaggerating the facts to make a point (See also 19:24). Jesus also referenced the "right eye" and "right hand." "Right" is symbolic for "precious" or "important."
Obviously, Jesus is not calling His disciples to a literal gouging out of eyes and cutting off of hands. But Jesus is making clear that disciples have to take decisive action against that habit with the potential to destroy what has been created to be good in our life.
Our Response
Jesus' call is a radical reorientation of the patterns, places, and people
that bring us into disobedience to God. When it comes to sexual temptation,
immediate and decisive measures are required (Genesis 39:12). If we play
with fire, we get burned. Better to take drastic measures than experience
total destruction.
When it comes to sexual purity, Jesus doesn't advise Band-Aids or gradual break-offs. Inappropriate relationships may begin in complete innocence, and may even be meaningful, but if it is moving into the danger zone it must be cut off! In the realm of sexual purity, a lack of immediate action can be fatal.
PREACHING THE TEXT
It will be important to clarify how this text has been misunderstood
in the past. There is a very real possibility that the congregation will
have actually heard this text preached in misconstrued ways. What is the
difference between a "look" and a "lustful look"? What is the difference
between sexual temptation and sexual sin? These can be confusing questions
that the sermon has opportunity to clarify. The connection between lust
and coveting will be informative.
The preacher should guard against insinuating that sexuality is bad. Human sexuality has a divine sacredness to it, because the union between husband and wife is so closely related to the transcendent union God desires to have with us. Our sexuality is sacred! For those reasons, it is to be protected and to be intruded upon by nothing and no one!
