Friday, August 19, 2011
What Jesus Said about Being Good Enough - Anger, Lust, Marriage, Divorce, Part 15 of 34
TEXT: "You have heard that it was said to those of old, "you shall not commit adultery." But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell" (Matthew 5:27-30).
IDEA: Jesus' teaching about lust and adultery is counter-cultural.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand why Jesus' teaching is hard for us to hear.
Have you ever visited a different culture that you wanted to get to know? How did you go about it? What frustrated you?
I. C. S. Lewis imagined that we visited another culture and we were eager to get to know the culture and the people.
We would visit a theatre and watch a movie. We would be startled to see exposed on the stage without a thing on – a beefsteak. People in the audience would stomp and whistle. We would walk down a boulevard and would see advertisements for a familiar array of goods—television sets, automobiles, beds and bedding, car mufflers. Yet in every one of the ads there would be a beefsteak. Four-color ads in magazines would push merchandise, but every ad would also picture cuts of meat. We would listen to songs on the radio and they would be sung about the beauty and the attraction of steak. Many books would deal with people who had a deep affection for chopped steak.
What conclusion could you come to about the people in that society?
A perfectly natural appetite had suddenly gotten out of control.
How do you think the people in that society might respond to someone telling them, "Do not eat steak!" or "Do not crave steak"?
II. How do you think people in our society hear what Jesus said about lust in the Sermon on the Mount?
He said, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
As people read the Old Testament, nothing was forbidden except the act of adultery.
The penalty for that act was death (Leviticus 20:10, Deuteronomy 22:22). By Jesus' time the penalty was seldom used (John 8).
What exactly is Jesus talking about?
To look lustfully after a woman is to fantasize or even to plan on how to have sex with someone who is not your wife.
To put it succinctly, "I would if I could." If the only thing that keeps you from it is the woman's husband, social convention, or a lack of opportunity, then the motive is there.
The focus is not on sexual attraction which is not in itself sinful. But can sexual attraction turn to lust?
The emphasis is on the desire for (and the planning of) an illicit sexual liaison. The word for "desire" is the same word "to covet." It's from a person's "heart."
People in our society would shrug lust off or laugh it off or say lust is a "Puritan hang-up."
CONCLUSION:
Jesus is severely counter-cultural in what he teaches about lust.
