Last week, I got through Matthew 5:20. Today, I am going to wrap up Chapter 5 and see how far I get in under 1500 words.

Matthew 5:21-48

I have decided that I don’t need Richard Dawkins to be an atheist. The Bible itself, when examined without an emotional lens, makes no sense. And is a little nuts. Take, for example, Jesus’ words on murder:

21″You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ ²²But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Hell? For calling someone a “fool”? “Raca” means “worthless.” So I guess if you call your brother a worthless fool, you’re pretty much screwed. Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, all can be forgiven. Probably calling someone foolish, too, but it just seems so petty. Like, hurting someone’s pride (ahem, what happened to humility?) is important enough to talk about, but genocide, which is murder on a large scale? Not so much. And where do Christians go if they call their brother worthless as there is no Sanhedrin? I wish I could remember my theology notes on this passage, but all I can remember is the professor saying, “Yeah, that sounds harsh!” and doing some explanations that didn’t make much sense to me. Anyone out there pay more attention in their class?

Moving on to adultery.

²⁷“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ ²⁸But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Again with the pettiness. Rape is apparently not harmful enough to mention. Guess Ted Bundy’s okay! (That was a joke, person who is considering writing an indignant comment!) I wonder exactly how much sexual dysfunction has occurred due to guilt stemming from these verses? Hardly anyone takes verses 29-30 seriously, but entire book series have been written on how to not commit adultery in one’s heart. I actually remember discussing this passage in my NT class. Dr. Foster talked about how it was hyperbole. I wonder if maybe the entire passage from 21-30 are supposed to be hyperbole, too. If Jesus was 100% God and 100% man as at least Baptists like to believe, how could he not even for a moment have a thought about sex? It’s a biological need, which is why I find this passage despicable. It’s like making someone feel guilty for feeling hungry or thirsty. And thinking Jesus never, ever once thought about sex is like saying he never ever once even thought about going to sleep. Unless he wasn’t 100% man, but that throws some holes into Baptist doctrine, and they don’t tend to like that too much.

Divorce:

³¹“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ ³²But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

Well, guess I’m screwed, but so are many Christians.  Interesting how it talks about only a woman’s unfaithfulness. Women who divorce their wandering husbands are not in the Biblical clear. And if lusting after someone in your heart counts as unfaithfulness, almost every man has a Biblical reason for divorce. Really, how did I used to stomach this stuff? No thinking about sex, no getting mad at your siblings, no divorce, etc. This stuff is impossible, literally. And it gets worse.

Jesus goes on to talk about swearing, which is a big disappointment to the anti-gay rights crowd. This would have been a good place to put it since we’re on the subject of sexual deviance and murder, but nary a word. Apparently, it’s more important to tell people to say “Yes” or “no” when answering a question.

Back to verses moderate and liberal Christians love. They’ll ignore the murder and the lust, but not these! Similarly, fundamentalists and conservatives are all too happy to read about how to bounce their eyes and tell divorced people they aren’t allowed to serve in the ministry, but these verses are for the “Jesus is a pussy” crowd. Everybody knows them: they’re the love your enemies verses. But then, just about everybody on both ends of the spectrum ignore the last verse in Matthew 5, verse 48:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

And every single Christian who points out anything other people are doing wrong officially becomes a hypocrite. (coughcoughRickWarrenMarkDriscolletalcoughcough!) They do have Biblical logic, though, because while the Bible talks about loving your enemies and specks in other people’s eyes and being perfect, it also talks about correcting other people’s sins. More on that later, though, when we get to it.

Here’s my problem: the Bible sets you up to fail. You’re supposed to feel joy and peace because you’re forgiven, but it leads to a ton of pathology and guilt in the process. Nobody’s perfect, and expecting ourselves to be so leads to depression and all kinds of other mental anguish. When you’re expected to be perfect 24/7, you’re going to fail. You’re going to give in to the pressure and fall right off your pedestal. This is, I believe, the main reason you see so many sex scandals in the ministry. Everybody’s going to know if you get strung out on drugs. But if you have an affair with your secretary or a prostitute, or someone you can intimidate into silence through your authority like a child, there’s a  chance no one will ever know. The amount of cheating done by pastors in the ministry is staggering, but they don’t always get caught. Combine pressures of perfection with isolation and lack of a strong support system, you’re doomed, plain and simple. People point to big name pastors all the time, but it happens even on a smaller scale. The media just doesn’t usually care about the rural/mid-sized church pastors.

Off my soapbox and onto Chapter 6.

Matthew 6:

Basically, verses 1-19 just talk about doing your religious things quietly, and not announcing them to the entire world: giving to the needy, praying, and fasting. He talks about storing up for yourselves treasures in heaven, which just means not to place value on things (oops, prosperity gospel).

On to some nice, pretty verses on not worrying because God feeds the insignificant sparrow, and people are much more valuable than birds. Oh, yeah, and God has given more splendor to grass and lilies than even Solomon!  And how much more will he clothe his people! (Apparently, the 15 million children per year who die of hunger are not “people.” Either that or he is just too busy preparing a place in hell for the abortion doctors.) Really, no wonder Jesus was so attractive to some people. He said a lot of nice things and made some pretty nice promises.

Matthew 7:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged” is another one of those favorite passages liberal and moderate Christians (and atheists!) like to use on the conservative and fundamentalists! And the verses that talk about specks in other people’s eyes that I mentioned earlier come up here, too.

Verse six says,

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.”

I find the sidebar comments amusing. (I’m using the Women of Faith Study Bible, don’t forget.) It says,

“[These verse] can be better understood in light of the historical time period and Jewish custom . .. The phrase “what is sacred” refers to the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus is telling his listeners not to entrust the gospel of the kingdom–not to throw their pearls–to those who give clear evidence of rejecting the gospel with scorn and hardened contempt.”

Guess that guy shouldn’t have sold me that Bible, then. . . No, really what I find amusing is the “tear you to pieces” ending there. If you’re going to read so much into it to make it say what they did, then it makes you wonder if this verse means that even Jesus knew that what he said was bs because it’s certainly easy to tear these passages to little bits. Almost like he tried to prepare people for the eventuality that people might actually think for themselves!

Then the verses that pretty much made me stop believing in God:

⁷“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

So where was he when I banged on the proverbial door and begged him to come in, to show himself to me? I asked for a lot of things and I knocked a lot of times for a lot of nothing. Game over right there.

Then he talks about the narrow and wide gates which every single Christian takes to mean them. Oh, they’re surrounded by liberals, so they’ve entered the narrow gates! Oh, they’re fighting against the fundamentalists, they’ve therefore entered the narrow gate! The narrow gate doesn’t seem so narrow, and how the heck are you supposed to know how to find it or if you did? Thanks for the directions, Jesus!

That’s my word limit. We’ll finish chapter 7, and move to infinity and beyond next week! Has anyone read Josh McDowell’s book, More Than a Carpenter? Because I’d really like to know what made him think the Bible was so special. Seriously.

Tags: atheism, Bible, Bible study, Christian, Matthew, religion, secular Bible study

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Reading Through the Bible. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.