Pentecost 17, Year A
Matthew 18:15-20
If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.
But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; 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.
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.
The first thing to note is that this passage is really of one piece with next week's reading. There Peter will ask Jesus how many times a person must exercise forgiveness. And so together they form a short discourse on sin and forgiveness. But divided up as they are for the lectionary reading, one might say that this week's reading talks about the seriousness of sin, while next week concentrates on the seriousness of forgiveness.
If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.
I think one of the great mistakes made in reading this section is to think of it in terms of the modern notion of "conflict management". Many look at this passage and say that it is an example of Jesus giving his disciples (or Matthew giving his community) some guidelines on how to deal with conflict in the church. I am going to suggest that it is not about conflict. At least not in the sense in which we often use that word.
There can be various causes of conflict in any organization, including the church. Conflict can arise when there are two equally valid points of view on a particular matter. Or it can arise when there are two apparently equally valid course of action to be pursued. We might have conflict over whether to use this music or that music, or to use this style or that style, when both options may be perfectly reasonable. "Conflict management" can come into play when there is no underlying fault, no underlying sin. Jesus is not talking about managing conflict; he is talking about dealing with sin. And those are two different things. Jesus is talking about a situation where a member of the church sins against you. Indeed there may be no conflict whatsover; you might in fact choose to turn the other cheek.
However, this passage shows us that Jesus takes two things in consideration: the presence of sin in the church, and the seriousness of how to deal with it. Those who have been reading along with my study in Cyprian have already seen that the early church dealt with this same problem: what do we do when members of the church have obviously fallen in sin? Jesus does not seem to assume that the members of the church will be free from sin, nor does he assume that we will immediately know how to deal with such situations. I think it wise to see this passage in light of Jesus' entire ministry of reconciliation: Jesus takes both sin and forgiveness (reconciliation) seriously. It might be said that we contribute the first part, and Jesus contributes the second part.
So what do you do when a member of the church sins against you? Why not simply turn the other cheek and suffer in silence? Why confront such a sin in a fellow member of the church? Because sin harms the one who commits it. If I sin against you, I may or may not actually be harming you, but I am certainly harming myself. And so the loving thing for you to do would be to come to me and confront me with the behavior which harms me - even if I am the author of that behavior. What parent would not confront a child who is about to do something which knowingly or unknowingly, will result in harm to that child? So we come to a practice which might seem odd to modern ears: sometimes love means confronting sin.
Jesus is not interested in public humiliation; he is interested in reconciliation. And so the first step is private. Speak privately, not publicly. What does this mean? It means first off all that we don’t start off complaining to our friends or family or neighbours about so and so. There may be more wisdom in this than we imagine: perhaps when we come to the person whom we need to speak to, we find that we ourselves are mistaken about the sin. Perhaps I thought John took my wallet, but upon speaking with John in private I somehow discover that it was actually Peter. A private encounter can prevent a lot of public embarrassment. [Those who are partial to the ancient shame/honour codes can see how this angle fits into the process Jesus describes].
But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
Now who are the two or three others? This is not about taking your friends to whom you have already complained about John. Yet Jesus is firm: there is a next step. And why? Because there are many instances in which a person’s fault, a person’s sin, is not simply a private affair. Most, if not all types of sin, have an effect. Like the outward ripple of a wave after a stone has been thrown into still water, so is the effect of sin in the life of a community. Just as the sin moves outward, so the circle attempting reconciliation grows larger. There may also be sdome further wisdom that in going to the 2 or 3 others, I will discover that perhaps I am mistaken about my accusation. Or, the one who has committed the offense may simply reply in private that "It's just my opinion." And so having a few others who are (we hope) trusted and respected by both parties might help the offender to see the truth of the situation.
If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; 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.
Some years ago in the Anglican Church of Canada there were people who abused children in the residential schools. Would things have been different in the lives of many people if such a sin was dealt with in a different manner? Was anything covered up, hushed up and hidden? It’s hard to say, but one thing might be certain: Jesus' guidelines for dealing with sin do not seem to have been followed.
And so Jesus tells them that if the person will not listen to the two or three, then the whole community must be informed. Why is this? Well, we might be persuaded that we are in the right if we are confronted by just one. And we might even be persuaded that we are in the right when we are confronted with two or three. But then the case can be evaluated by the community as a whole: in that process there might be some further wisdom. Also, the sin might be of such seriousness that it requires the whole community to know about it. And of such seriousness that the community cannot tolerate it continuing.
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.
A few of these verses have echoes in other passages. We have already heard something of the binding and loosing themes. We see that things on earth are in fact connected with things in heaven. Or perhaps it is better to phrase it the other way around. In any event, I have seen these kinds of sayings taken out of context more than once. Jesus is telling us about the business of being reconciled, about the serious matter of sin, and the ways in which forgiveness is extended, and fellowship restored. It is in those situations when we are to ask as the church (two or more) for the gift of reconciliation and restoration. In particular, when we gather for the purpose of reconciliation, Jesus is there among us.
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