“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.” (Matthew 18:15-20 – NRSV)
Introductory notes
The phrase “member of the church” translates the Greek word adelphos (ἀδελφός) which literally means “brother”. The NRSV uses inclusive language in its translation of the Bible.
The word “sins” here translates the Greek word hamartano (ἁμαρτάνω). This is the primary Greek word for sin used throughout the Septuagint and the Christian Scriptures. It can mean failing, disobedience,
rebellion or missing the mark.
The Greek word ekklesia (ἐκκλησία) is used here for only the second time in the Gospels. The other time is in Matthew 16:18. It distinguishes the gathering of Jesus’ disciples from the others who gather in “their synagogues”.
The way of dealing with “sin” follows the Torah. The first step – “point out the fault” – is based on Leviticus 19:17-18: “You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” The second step, if required – “take one or two others along with you” – is based on Deuteronomy 19:15: “A single witness shall not suffice to convict a person of any crime or wrongdoing in connection with any offense that may be committed. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be sustained.” The third step is “tell it to the church”. The whole process is not so much about the sin as it is about the reconciliation, the healing of the community. And so the last lines of this text: “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.”
See also Luke 17:3 (on correcting a brother) and 17:4 (forgiving a brother seven times).
Reflection
Our English words “health” and “healing” share an etymology with the word “whole”. Unity and integrity are easily recognized as critical parts of our wellbeing and our being well.
This should not surprise us. We believe God is one and unifying. Our being human is a participation – a shared participation – in Being. The more closely we come to Being the more closely we come to other beings.
So why do we so often act in ways that are fragmenting and alienating? Why do we keep grudges and hold resentments, as if they were somehow our entitlement? Why do we treat others as if they were not one with us in Being? Why is it so hard to follow St Paul’s urging: “But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every
ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16 – NRSV)
Today’s Gospel prompts us to think about such questions. Communities are healthy or unhealthy, live or die in fact, on how well the members of the community deal with these questions.
Let me suggest one little practice that has big consequences: triangulated conversations.
Person A offends me. Instead of “speaking the truth in love” and working this out gently and honestly with Person A, I mention it – perhaps with a little resentment and yearning for consolation – to Person B. Person B then tells Person C and others. One day it gets back to Person A, with a fair bit of freight added. Person A is upset and talks to Person M, and so it goes. Over time the community builds mistrust and many undercurrents that divide rather than unite.
One of the most common forms of triangulated conversations is found in that way of talking we call gossip.
Do not engage in triangulated conversations! “If another member of the church (family, staff) sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone ….”
“Consider what happens normally in the world. When we are cursed, we curse back, if only in our hearts. When we are hated we pass the hate on; we keep it, so to speak, in circulation. Someone is mean to me so I take out my feelings on someone else, probably someone weaker than me. So it goes on – in the world of humankind. Tiberius Caesar, growing old and suspicious, is ever more likely to take it out on his government officials;
and Pontius Pilate is afraid of what may happen when he gets back to Rome if reports circulate about his ham-handed administration. Pilate, in turn, takes out his fear and spite on the subject people who find themselves at his mercy. The Jews, meanwhile, have reason enough of their own to be bitter and frustrated, and a would-be Messiah who doesn’t deliver the goods is an ideal target; and so the weight of the world’s insecurity, anger, bitterness, hostility, is heaped on to the head of Mary’s son, the young man from Nazareth. …
“But the divine way is different. Jesus takes temptation, hatred, curses – the bitterness of a bitter world – and he absorbs it into himself on the cross. Jesus, pronounced guilty as a blasphemer, for claiming to be the Son of God, demonstrates on the cross that he was speaking the truth, by doing what only the Son of God could do – loving his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end, the bitter end. And this pattern, acted out uniquely on the cross, becomes then for us, by the Spirit of Jesus working within us, the pattern we are commanded to live out, as we give back good for evil, blessing for curse, prayer for persecution. One might say that this is the vocation of the Church: to take the sadness of the world and give back no anger; the sorrow of the world and give back no bitterness; the pain of the world and not sink into self-pity; but to return forgiveness and love, blessing and joy. That is what Jesus was doing on Calvary. He drew on to himself the sin of the ages, the rebellion of the world and humankind, the hatred, pain, anger, and frustration of the world, so that the world and humankind might be healed, might be rid of it all.”
(N T Wright, The Crown and the Fire: Meditations on the Cross and the Life of the Spirit, William B Eerdmans, 1995, 52-53)