Jesus on Truth Telling – Matthew 5:33-37
In the first century, the Jewish community had developed a complex hierarchy of oaths and half-truths to get around the command to manipulate and lie to their neighbor. Jesus confronts these practices by compelling his followers to be committed to simple, straightforward honesty.
01. A Culture of Spin
The spin room is an area set aside for media representatives to ask debate participants or their representatives about the statements made within the course of the debate. Those answering questions will attempt to “spin” or influence the perception of those reporters in their favor.
We live in a moment in which the spin is all around us. We call it things like;
Public Relations
Image Management
Curation
Marketing
Advertising
Social Media
Filters
Although he spoke over two millennia ago Pontius Pilate's question animates so much of our own moment– “What is truth?” (John 18:38)
02. Do not take the Lord’s name in Vain.
Unlike the previous three antitheses, Jesus is not extending a specific command. Rather he is challenging and prohibiting a practice of oath-taking that had developed.
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” – Exodus 20:7 (ESV)
For as Jesus tells us, “the law and the prophets are summed up in Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
Through Moses, a prohibition was created so that the name of God was not a weapon of dishonesty.
03. A Culture of Oath-taking and half-truths
However, in the first century, the Jewish community had developed a complex hierarchy of oaths to get around the command to not use the Lord’s name in vain.
I swear by the heavens…
I swear by the earth…
I swear by the temple…
I swear by the altar…
This was little more than a workaround to justify lying, corruption, and dishonesty. For when they broke their oath at least they didn’t swear by the name of the Lord.
04. Oaths and dismantling ideas of two types of communication
Built into a culture of oath-taking is a theory of communication that suggests there are two types of statements;
one that is accompanied by an oath which should be kept,
and the other without an oath that we are less of an obligation to be kept.
For Jesus is casting vision for a Kingdom of people who will have no need for oath-taking, or structures of dishonesty, l because we will be people committed to the truth.
This brings us to two aspects of Jesus' command that are worth addressing separately.
Truth-telling in our public life.
Truth-telling in our personal life.
05. Truth-telling in our Public Life.
Now as we talk about oaths– one of the few places oaths are still practiced is in the public sphere.
Oaths of office
Courtroom oaths
Oaths of enlistment
Oath of Allegiance.
Camp 1: A Permissible Service
The first believes that Jesus’ words here apply specifically to interpersonal oaths. If you are called upon to perform a public service for the good of your neighbor then oath-taking is permissible.
Camp 2: A Holy Refusal
The second camp believes Jesus’ words to be the forbidding of all oaths. For if we are now citizens of a new Kingdom, as Paul refers to us, what obligation do we have to rulers of our day? This is an interpretation of a Holy Refusal that can put Christians in conflict with the political structures of our day.
“Taking it seriously can make disciples politically salty. I have the feeling that Jesus gave this Command, among other reasons, in order to make disciples always question the state and their relation to it. This Command is not as irrelevant as it at first seems.” – Dale Bruner
05. Jesus’ ethic of simple honesty
“The essence of swearing that Jesus targets here is about invoking something or someone else, especially God, to make your words seem more significant and weighty. The aim is to impress others with your seriousness or piety so that you get what you want. It’s a device of manipulation designed to override the judgment or input of others in order to possess them for our purposes. It’s manipulation, or, as we say in our culture, “spin”. And Jesus says it's evil. Instead of loving and honoring others with truthfulness, the intent is to get one’s way by verbal manipulation of the thoughts and choices of others.” –Dallas WIllard, The Divine Conspiracy
Jesus compels us to reject the culture of spin and manipulation and to be a people committed to simple, straightforward honesty.
06. We Learn to be honest when we learn to pray honestly.
Learning to speak honestly with one another begins by learning to speak honestly with God. To move beyond the pleasantries that often consume our prayers and to get to the gritty and uncomfortable truth.
One of the ways we can learn to pray honestly is by using the Psalms. The prayers, poetry, and hymns found in the book of Psalms cover the spectrum of human emotion and failure.
“...the Psalms are the great prayer book of the church because they teach us to pray without pretension. The Psalms allow us to rage against God and in our rage discover God’s refusal to abandon us. The Psalms, moreover, train us to speak truthfully because they force us to acknowledge our sins or at least to have our sins revealed.” – Stanley Hauerwas
1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes,
lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
–Psalm 13:1–6 (ESV)
