Compassionate Justice, Easier Said Than Done (Matt. 18.15-20)

Have you ever read the terms and conditions for something you sign up for?

When on a website, when we’re buying something online, or using an app on our phone, if we’re taking out insurance there are terms and conditions for all of these things.

I must admit, when I sign up for something online, I virtually never read them. Do you? For all I know itunes or Amazon could own a part of my soul!

Though thankfully, I think I’ve got enough insurance on the eternal life front.

Terms and conditions are a legal way of saying, this is our relationship. They set out what the company you’re buying from or employing you expect.

Do you think there are terms and conditions for Christians? Do you think there are terms and conditions to be a member of the church? Do you think that our relationships matter?

I think they do, and I think there are. Because relationships matter, how we treat each other matters, and compassionate justice matters.

It’s all about relationship. This passage is about relationship and what it means to be a Christian and a member of the church.

When we take this passage on its own, it looks pretty simple, it’s all about judgement right? But what if I told you it wasn’t.

Like all passages in the Bible we need to talk about them in a wider context, if we didn’t it would be a bit like watching an episode of your favourite soap, and only watching one scene from the episode. You might see Barry from Eastenders shouting, but not know why. Maybe someone lit the wrong candle first, I dunno. You’re never going to get a full impression of what’s going on.

Before this passage we’ve got a number of things Jesus has said. He’s talked about who’s greatest in the Kingdom of God. Jesus says, it’s children. We should all aim to be like children. Innocent, humble.

He’s talked about The Shepherd who leaves the sheep, and searches out for the one sheep who goes astray.

And who can forget the line “if you hand makes you stumble, cut it off.” Don’t do that. But that’s just before this too.

That illustration talks about the need to rigorously check ourselves, and to purge our own sins away.

So we’ve got to come at a situation with humility, with scrutiny about ourselves and we like Jesus need to seek out the lost and care for the individual.

Interesting stuff. We’re not coming into this passage with a notion of judgement. Perhaps this passage is all about compassionate justice, and reconciliation.

It all centres around conditions. There are four conditional sentences that are important

1.     If another member of the church sins against you.

2.     If you are not listened to

3.     If the member refuses to listen to them (the witneses)

4.     If the offender refuses to listen even to the church.

Three of these sentences involve listening. All of them are about relationship. This isn’t about convicting anyone, but about persuading the offender of their sin, with the minimum of embarrassment. Bringing them back, seeking them out like the lost sheep when they’ve gone astray.

In all this there’s a sense of care for the person who has wronged you, there are steps, terms and conditions, and even when ‘going public’ with the sin they have committed, there is still a sense of care and trying to get the offender to listen to reason.

It’s fundamentally compassionate. Instead of just accusing someone of something, and stoning them to death, as they would’ve done when this was written, the church has to have dignity and moral authority.

You try to sort it out, for the sake of the perpetrator. Even at the end it’s not about punishing someone, there’s no mention of that here, but recognising the breakdown in relationship between two people. 

As Christians when a member of the church sins against another, that is breach in the Body of Christ. This breach causes pain, and a relationship is broken.

As Christians we have a responsibility, our terms and conditions are to live peaceably with one another, and when we fall out, to try to reconcile. That’s not easy. But I believe it is what should set Christian communities apart. We don’t just cast people aside.

As Jesus said “they will know you are my disciples by your love.”

Notice how the one who considers themselves offended against initiates the reconciliation? The one sinned against shouldn’t just sit back and wait for the perpetrator to apologise like a good Christian should. No. They must seek out the person who has wronged them and attempt to reconcile.

Instead of stewing on their feelings, they first have a private discussion, then they bring witnesses, then they share it with the church.

The reason being that we are accountable to one another in a Christian community and if the church agrees with you, or a number witnesses do, then there’s a sense that your grievance is valid, if it’s confirmed by others, rather than a personal vendetta.

But again this isn’t a trail. This is all about reconciling and bringing back into relationship.

The line “and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” seems to suggest abandoning the person who does wrong right?

Well not exactly.

Firstly, it’s not the sin in itself that is the issue. I mean sin is bad, I’m not saying go around do whatever you want to people far from it.

What is the issue is the offender will not listen. It’s this lack of humility, refusing to acknowledge any wrongdoing is the issue.

Because there is no respect, the fellowship is broken. Therefore the community cuts ties this person, because there is no longer a sense of fellowship.

But Jesus cared for gentiles and tax collectors, and the church should do too. What this line I believe is actually saying is that this person who has broken relationship so badly, should no longer be treated as they were, but as if they are one who needs to be evangelised.

We still want them, we still care for them, but until their attitude changes, it is impossible for them to be in the same relationship as they were before.

If the offender repents and listens they are welcome with a loving embrace back into the fold.

This kind of justice is restorative because it’s not seeking to punish someone punitively, but gives them time to think.

How many of us when we were children, when we’d done something bad, or got angry, our parents said to us, go to your room, or sit on the naughty step?

Often it gave us time to calm down, to think about what we’d done, and sometimes, if we were in a humble rather than defiant mood, to realise we should say sorry.

It wasn’t pleasant for us, but it worked.

As Christians we have a duty to care for those who’ve wronged us. To try and reconcile with those who’ve done us wrong. It’s part of justice.

It’s also a massive challenge, and one we don’t often live up to. Luckily we have a God who will never cast us aside, who has reconciled us to him through the cross.

And that’s really good, because if God did cast us aside when we’re sinful, then I’d certainly click disagree on those terms and conditions. Amen.