I
have been involved in and coached youth sports (first grade to varsity) for
many years. One thing I never expected from my players was perfection – “You must be perfect to be part of the team.”
But, I have spoken with many Christians that believed that “being perfect” is what Yeshua, the Jesus
of history, expects from them because of the verses below:
“You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect.”
(Luke 6:36 &
Matthew 5:48)
“You must be perfect like God!” You talk
about setting the bar high, how about having to reach heaven to hit it!
The
words -- “You must be perfect. . .” – printed in red ink
in New Testaments have caused a great deal of confusion and guilt in the
lives of many English-only Christian readers. The English word “perfect” means -- “completely free from faults or defects.” If there are two things
that are polar opposites its humans
and creatures completely free from faults
or defects.
But
when we use the Y Team
Bible Study Method and view Yeshua’s words through his 1st
century CE Jewish culture and Hebrew language, we discover a very different
meaning. Dr. David Flusser (Jesus ©
1997 The Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem; p. 83) places Yeshua’s
words in their cultural context and helps us understand what they meant to him.
The best way of translating this saying
is:
“There must be no limit in your goodness,
as your heavenly Father’s goodness knows no bounds.”
Matthew 5:48 is merely the conclusion to
a short homily where Jesus teaches that God reaches out in love to all
people, regardless of their attitude and behavior toward Him:
“. . . for He makes his sun rise on the evil and on
the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
In this Jesus is not far from the humane
attitude of other Jews. R. Abbahu said:
“Greater is the day of rainfall, than the day
of resurrection.
For the latter benefits only the pious, whereas the
former benefits pious and sinners alike.”
R. Abbahu lived about 300 CE, but there
is a similar saying dating from Jesus’ time. Thus, it is no wonder that in such
a spiritual atmosphere Jesus drew his daring conclusion:
“Love your enemies!”
(Matthew 5:44).
In other words:
“Return love to those who hate you.”
or
“Do good to those who hate you.”
(Luke 6:27).
Yeshua’s
message was this – “To the best of your
ability reach out in love to all people, regardless of their attitude and
behavior toward you, even if they are your enemies or they hate you.” Remember,
“love” for Yeshua was not an emotion;
he was talking about “doing acts of love”
– acts that protect and preserve lives,
make lives more functional and/or increase the quality of lives.
Take
another look at the example he used for “God’s
love (goodness)” – He makes the sun
rise and sends rain to everyone. He described God’s actions, not emotions.
The point he makes is this – make doing
acts of love a normal part of your life, just like the sun rising and rain falling are part of nature.
The
goal was to create learners that were “perfecting,”
not “perfect.” Just like in coaching
sports, the key moments for teaching players are when they fail to do something
correctly. For Yeshua’s followers those moments were called “sin.” In his language the primary
meanings of “sin” are “to miss the mark” or “stray from the path.”
Yeshua
also taught his followers what to do every time they missed the mark or strayed
from the path – TESHUVAH. The
word literally means “turn around and try
again.” TESHUVAH is usually translated “repentance,”
a word that is theologically loaded for most people. It is often viewed as punishment or something shameful; those meanings mostly come
from other cultures and later dates.
TESHUVAH is accomplished
by doing the follow:
(1) stop
doing the sin
(2) begin
doing what is right
(3) feel
remorse for the damage or harm that has been done
(4) repair
the damage or harm done to the lives of others by the sin
(5) ask
the person or people harmed (after doing #4) for forgiveness
(6) ask
God for forgiveness
What
I am going to say next is one of the most important things Yeshua taught but it
is completely missing from the teachings of Christian churches today:
For Yeshua and
the people in culture, God cannot and does not forgive sins people commit against
other people until those sinned against forgives the sinner.
The
idea that a person can commit a sin against someone and then be forgiven by God
in a prayer -- without the person whose
life was affected by the sin being involved -- would be incomprehensible to
Yeshua and his original followers, as well as the priests at the Temple in
Jerusalem. Why?
The answer is
because leaving the person harmed by the sin out of the process violates one of
the most important commandments in the Jewish Scriptures of Yeshua – do justice.
Justice demands
satisfaction of the demands of the one harmed by the offender. Justice is
also a cornerstone of healthy society. If Christians in America understood this
one point, it would dramatically change their expectations of what justice
means and how it is done. This is a discussion that every Christian needs to
have, after understanding what Yeshua taught.
Y
Team member, increasing your skills for doing TESHUVAH is a key part of your “perfecting
process.” Obviously, most of us will probably have ample opportunities to
practice the TESHUVAH Drill!
Shalom,
Jim
Myers
If you aren’t
part of the Y Team yet,
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