Reflections on The Kingdom, by Sam Berg (Days 19 – 24)
Day 19 — Thinking about Life in the Kingdom March 17, 2025
Matthew 5:31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Bible commentators have strained to distill the nuances of divorce vis-à-vis adultery vis-à-vis remarriage, weighing the merits of other texts on the subject and seeking to come up with the best rules about these issues. The problem with that approach is that any further rules developed are only equal at best to the “righteousness of the Pharisees” (v. 20) which simply isn’t good enough. Jesus was not trying to close some loopholes in the Pharisaic legal system. That was not what life in the Kingdom was about.
The important point here is the effect of the husband’s divorce action on the wife. She becomes an adulterer. When we remember that in Jesus’ time on earth, the right to initiate divorce was entirely the husband’s, we realize that Jesus’ intention is really to elevate the status of the woman to that of her husband. They are equal in their capacity to sin. Some grounds for divorce in those days that were available to husbands were quite frivolous. But here Jesus emphasizes that wives had equal standing before God as did husbands.
The literal meaning of the Greek word translated as “divorce” is to throw away. Jesus was asking his hearers to reflect on the real effects of a divorce. Pay attention to the real person you are dealing with!
Reflecting on the account of Jesus conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 4, Jesus’ statement to her that she has had five husbands has usually been interpreted as how sinful she was in all of her marrying. And now she was cohabiting with a man she wasn’t married to. However, I think what Jesus was saying was, “You’ve been thrown away five times, and the man you’re with now doesn’t think enough of you to even marry you.” She ran home and told her family and friends, “Come see the One who really understands me!”
Day 20 — Thinking about Life in the Kingdom March 19, 2025
Matthew 5:33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”
Here Jesus recites the Pharisaic warning that one should not swear an oath with the intention of breaking it but recognize that such oaths are sworn in the presence of the Lord.
We have developed practices and customs that are intended to guard against the human tendency to lie, obfuscate, dissemble, perjure, trick, scam, con, pretend, feign, conceal, mask, disguise, or dissimulate. We make vows, we take oaths and we enter into covenants and contracts. We pledge allegiance. These practices are intended to elevate certain of our words to a higher standard of reliability than others.
“But” … and once again Jesus presents a qualitative difference for those who would seek to live a kingdom life. “I say to you….” “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” A way of life that is characterized by the repentance by which one enters the kingdom, that flourishes in the way of the beatitudes and that exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees is marked by something called integrity. Synonyms for integrity are honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility and more.
I would be willing to place my hand on a Bible and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but I would hope to do so even if I wasn’t required to place my hand on the Bible. The person whose yes is yes and no is no demonstrates a personal congruence that contributes to a kind of relationships within one’s communities that build, encourage and indeed contribute to kingdom life. That person is conscious and aware of the personhood of those others participating in the conversation. Such yes is yes and no is no conversation builds community and is characteristic o those communities where we love one another (John 13) and speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4).
Day 21 — Thinking about Life in the Kingdom March 31
Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another (John 13:34). He affirmed that the second great commandment is to love our neighbour and that it’s equal to the first, to love God with all our heart and soul and mind (Matthew 22:36-40).
But here he takes this love thing to the next level – several levels up. Love your enemy!
When we are living in the repentance that gives us entrance into the kingdom (4:17) and are flourishing with a life characterized by the beatitudes, we flourish as peacemakers and thus are called children of God. This then is how we live out a righteousness that is greater that that of the Pharisees (5:20),
For our enemies are just like us! The get sun and rain in our Father’s world the same as us.
One of my teachers said, “Love is equal regard.” Love is seeing our enemy as our equal. One of our pastors said in a sermon, every other driver on the road has been created in the image of God.
The great curse in human relations has been the history of “othering” some. They are not like us, the are “other,” the stranger, the foreigner, the persons of other races, other socio-economic situations, other sexual orientations and expressions,
Howard Thurman in his Jesus and the Disinherited writes, “hatred begins in a situation in which there is contact without fellowship.” This results in an “understanding that is strikingly unsympathetic.” This “unsympathetic understanding results in an active functioning of ill will.” And “ill will, when dramatized in a human being, becomes hatred walking on the earth” (pp. 65-68).
An example of contact without fellowship was when a transperson was approached by some Christians who said, “we love you so much that we will help you change.”
[Further episodes are expected and will be posted here as released.]