# Matthew Chapter 5 (Part 3)
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## Summary (Recap)
Jesus goes up the mountain sits down to teach his disciples. He commences with the beatitudes, offers metaphors to explain how the Hebrews have fallen, discusses his fulfilment of the law before offering a series of six 'culmination' statements that outline what is written and what Jesus commands.

## Imagery and Theme's
For this final part I intent to consider the last four culumination statements which are about divorce, oaths, retaliation and ones enemies. Firstly we have the teaching on Divorce Jesus equates divorce with adultery. Marriage has both a symbolic and functional purpose. Symbolically is an expression of love within which two become an indissolvable unit. Functionally an interweaving of persons at all levels of being in which no rivals or substitutes are tolerated. As with many other ancient cultues women had little legal power, and were not permitted to divorce their husbands. As such we can safely presume this comment is directed at a male audience and the comparison drawn between adultery and fidelity emphasises Jesus strong view of divorce and remarriage. Questions that aren't answered here might include What about Domestic Abuse? Or perhaps situations where one partner accepts Jesus and the other does not? What about in cases where a partner is unfaithful? These might be answered elsewhere but don't factor into this particular sermon.

From verse 33 we see Jesus discussing oaths and noting that anything more than a yes or no comes from evil. To understand this point consider for a moment the question, why are oath's necessary? If I must affirm that there is truth in my words on pain of some ill set of circumstances befalling me what does this say about my words the rest of the time? Ultimately we should aspire towards consistently speaking the truth. Furthermore if we cannot effect the changing of a single hair on our heads, how then can we ensure that the threat of our oath is to be carried out were we to lie? Oaths then are in themselves a form of deception where we concede that our words are not trustworthy and then to present the appearance of trustworthiness make a promise of harm against ourselve that we cannot enforce. For this reason Jesus speaks against such folly.

Verse 38 offers insight into retaliation. I quite enjoyed Wink's rendition of the enactment of such practices[^1] with the notion that such expressions are non-violent ways of protesting against domination. Certainly I find this more palatable than the idea that Jesus advocates we should be doormats. Perhaps Wink is right or perhaps Jesus is advocating delayed Justice. In which case it does raise questions about times that Jesus directly took action (such as in the Temple) rather than waiting for the Judgement of the father. Such ideas require careful thought and close attention.

The final section of this passage really denotes how impossible Kingdom life is in the natural; we must love our enemies and pray for those that actively oppose us. To cap this off the standard is *'be perfect because your heavenly father is perfect'*. We might as well give up and go home now right? I mean Jesus doesn't offer any insight into how this might be achieved he just says to do it. Taken in context with the first three verse of Matthew 6 perhaps this affords a broader picture of what is being outlined here. Perhaps the issue is about the public exhibition of moral virtue. Do not even the gentiles [read dogs[^2]] do good to those that are good to them? How are God's people to be distinct? Is it through perfection, fine be perfect because the father is perfect? Can't do that? Ok well beware not to parade your moral virtue before others, instead do good in secret. The Christian life is not about moral performance, but it's about love.

[^1]: Walter Wink, [What Jesus really said?](https://youtu.be/aCgBSleCbm8?t=305i)
[^2]: This is literally what the Jewish people considered non-jewish individuals to be. If your not convinced go read [Mark 15](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+15%3A21-28&version=NIV) where Jesus literally calls a women a dog!