Jesus and the Well-Ordered Community

By Peter L. DeGroote

I returned from my summer sabbatical thinking about the differences between a well-ordered Church and the teachings of Jesus. For my first Sunday back the lectionary presented an example of it being a problem from the start.

Matthew 18:15-20:

A.  Some observations:

1. Having worked hard to gather and keep a congregation going, the leaders of this early church were frustrated with internal disagreements getting in the way of the life that Jesus had taught them.
2. They understood that the law of love is the basic rule (Love of God and others) but they had to figure out what that meant when someone treated another badly and was unwilling to change. The same was true for those who complained of bad treatment believing they were deserving of better treatment than others.
3. So they sought a procedure to reconcile the differing parties. (Does this sound familiar?)

B. The  Procedure:

1. The first step was to involve witnesses to talk it over with the parties. (Relying on Deuteronomy 19:15: “Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses can a charge be sustained.")
2. Second, if that discussion didn’t reconcile the parties, the matter was sent to the congregation for decision. 
3. Third, if the congregation decided that someone was in the wrong, and that person would not change, they were to be regarded as toll collectors or pagans, which also meant they were no longer in the community. (The NRSV uses the word “gentiles” instead of “pagans” but the latter would have been the proper translation for the early church. However, its view of these “outsiders” was the same as the Jewish attitude toward them; i.e., they were something less.)

C. In the above, the community decided to give itself the power to reject “troublemakers.” It is easy to understand that and probably inevitable in some cases. But how do you draw the line? It can be a way to deny those who challenge our thinking and question the effectiveness of our witness to the teachings of Jesus. All of the great church reformers knew how easy it was for the church to deny them. It is good for us to remember that reconcilers are reformers.    

D. Further, in denial of Jesus' counsel to not judge others the community also empowered itself to treat (judge) those to whom they denied membership as pagans and toll collectors (inferior, unworthy, and, perhaps, something less than human).

1. This judgment was also contrary to Jesus way with people. Consider a few illustrations:
   >>Matthew 9:10: “Tax collectors and sinners” dined with Jesus.
   >>Luke 18:10-14: Jesus says that a tax collectors prayer is heard before that of a righteous man. 
   >>Matthew 21:31b: Jesus says that tax collectors and prostitutes will get into heaven before the religious leaders.
2. The judging is risky for a congregation’s spiritual health because it can lead to an underlying assumptionon that "we" are more approved by God than others.
3. The judging is also risky for our own spiritual health because it allows us to substitute a procedure designed to hold the church together for the teachings of Jesus—the teachings of the institution become more important than the teachings of Jesus.

E. From this passage and my experiences in churches, I draw two conclusions:

1. Our comfort level at church seems to arise from our ability to avoid controversy, keep things well ordered, and everything and everyone in their “proper” place.
2. Our spiritual health arises from our ability to energetically follow Jesus’ teachings. Unfortunately, it is not always a well-ordered and neat path. It is often messy.