This week’s Gospel lesson (Matthew 5:21-37) is the middle of a large unit (Matthew 5:17-48) within the Sermon on the Mount on the law and Jesus’ interpretation of a number of Old Testament commands. Our gospel reading next week completes this unit. However, next week I think it important to look at the wisdom/foolishness theme of the current 1 Corinthians unit we have been hearing in the Epistle before it too goes past. So today we’ll look at this law/commands section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. But as there is a huge amount of material … way too much for one sermon … and on some quite specific matters, this week I’ll simply take a look at something we can all intimately relate to – anger (Matthew 5:22). Thankfully, Jesus never leaves us relying on our resources when dealing with this area of life. Instead, dealing with anger his way draws us into his life and promise in all its depth and unsurpassed grace.
February 9, 2017
Pastor Matt Bishop