February 15, 2026
Matthew 5:21-37
Introduction
This text from Matthew is one that many a preacher will cringe at when they see it come up in the lectionary, but not because it is a bad text or because it doesn’t bring Good News. Rather we cringe because it is easily and often misunderstood.
And we cringe because the text is not nearly as literally as it’s made out to be. I’ll explain what I mean, and then a little later I’ll bring in an example I hope will make this explanation a little clearer.
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Jesus knows that life isn’t to be codified and that choices are more than a cost benefit analysis, more than getting what we desire, and more than simply following the rules. Now, I am not suggesting we throw out rules as if they don’t matter— Jesus didn’t do that. Jesus fulfilled the law. He recognized and revealed the law to be about life.
The law was never intended to divide people into categories of good or bad, right or wrong, law abider or law breaker. It was to point out the way to life. That’s what Jesus does. That’s why he could say he came not to destroy but to fulfill the law. Jesus did not come to make us good but to make us alive. He set us free to make choices that support, sustain, grow, and nurture life for ourselves and one another.
And before we can go any further into this text and its message what we need to understand is that when Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said … But I say to you …,” he is de-literalizing the law while intensifying and broadening its application. He’s making the interior aspect of the law as important as the exterior aspect. This text is asking us: What if we took to heart the choice between life and death? Because if we did, it would mean we would have to look at the law and our lives differently, realizing that keeping the law would not be the ultimate goal. Rather, keeping the law would be a means to life. It means that the choices we make would begin not with the circumstances around us but with the circumstances within us.
When Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said…. But I say to you…,” he is asking us to look within ourselves, to look at the circumstances within us. He is moving our vision inward. And this inward looking is not an escape from, or avoidance of, the world around us. It’s the recognition that the choices we make, the words we speak, and the actions we take in the world around us first begin and arise from the world within us.
And it’s that world within us—not the world around us—that Jesus is saying in this text that we have to go deeper into.
Move 1
Now with that understanding of this text (that may or may not be clear as mud) let me get at that example I mentioned…Do you all remember the fictional character on the television sitcom Leave It to Beaver named Eddie Haskell?
A couple of weeks ago, my son A.J. and I were talking about school, and A.J. shared some frustrations he was having about school. He told me it makes him frustrated and upset when he sees kids act one way in class and around teachers, but then at recess or the lunchroom or whenever teachers are out of earshot, the same students show themselves to be mean, rude, dominating, intimidating and so forth.
I affirmed A.J.’s feelings about such displays and then proceeded to tell him the world is full of those types of people and that they are today’s “Eddie Haskels.”
Many of us know the name “Eddie Haskel.” It has become an American idiom for a person who is insincerely polite and well-behaved, always saying and doing the right thing, but only outwardly when parents, teachers and other grown-ups are around, and then are the complete opposite when they aren’t around. What you see with these “Eddie Haskels” isn’t always what you get.
I don’t say that as a judgment or criticism of the students my son has encountered and will continue to encounter. I say it in recognition that sometimes my inside life and my outside life don’t match up. And I bring all this up, mainly, because that is what Jesus is getting at in today’s Gospel—our inside world doesn’t always match our outside world—and at times, whether we want to admit it or not… we all live an “Eddie Haskel” kind of life.
Move 2
You know what that’s like, right? Our inside world and our outside presentation of our world don’t match up. When have you lived like Eddie Haskell? When has your inside contradicted your outside? In what ways are you living a double life today? An Eddie Haskel life? I think we all know what this is like because it happens in all sorts of ways.
Has anyone ever asked how you were doing and you said, “I’m fine,” but really you weren’t because your life was anything but fine. Maybe it wasn’t the right time or person to tell what was really going on, or maybe you didn’t want to face what was going on— either way there was a disconnect from what you were feeling on the inside and how what you were telling someone on the outside.
We’ve all had times when we contradicted ourselves and we knew that we were divided and fragmented within. And I’d be willing to bet we’ve all been that one whose public expression of faith and the Gospel has not matched his or her private opinions, beliefs about others, or social media posts.
And that’s what Jesus is getting at in today’s Gospel, saying that sometimes we break the law even when we are nice people, polite and well behaved, and always say and do the right thing by keeping the law. Sometimes we follow the rules and break the relationship the law was intended to keep and support. That’s really what the law is about— to help us be in relationship with one another? Laws, and the bending and breaking of them, remind us that life and the relationships we have with one another are fragile.
Jesus knew this. And Jesus is trying to help us see the fragility of life and our relationships by using the law, and directing the law, showing us that the world within us can easily damage the fragility of life and our relationships.
Move 3
Now if your head is spinning and close to exploding, that’s ok. De-literalized what has been literalized for so long will do that. Which is why when I read today’s Gospel there’s a part of me that thinks, “Jesus, couldn’t you just have left well enough alone. We’ve got ten commandments, that’s enough don’t you think? Do we really need more rules?”
But here’s where my head goes from spinning to exploding. Jesus isn’t trying to be moralistic, legalistic or ambiguous, nor is he simply adding to the list of “thou shalt nots”. Rather Jesus is more interested in our wholeness, our authenticity, our integrity, and how or whether that gets expressed in our relationships with others. Jesus is asking us to look deeper into our lives. He’s asking us to name and deal with what’s going on within us so that it doesn’t become something going on between us. The inner stuff I ignore, deny, or refuse to deal with usually becomes outer stuff I transmit to, or project onto, another in ways that are not only harmful to others but also to myself.
We often try to control or deal with our outer world, our words and actions, without acknowledging or tending to what’s going on in our inner world. That’s sort of like controlling or eliminating the symptoms of a disease but not treating the disease that is causing the symptoms. You can be symptom free and still be sick.
Let me try to put that back in the context of today’s Gospel. I may not physically kill another because I control my behavior. Outwardly I say and do the right thing. But in what ways is my anger killing my relationship with another and leaving him or her dead to me? In what ways are my name calling and insulting of another ruining or taking his or her life? And in what ways is all that a betrayal of myself, a spiritual disease eating away at my life?
What we hear in today’s text might sound like Jesus is laying down the law, but he’s really inviting us into healing and wholeness by making us look at, and truly see, the world within us.
Conclusion
It’s from the depths of our hearts that our relationships arise. It’s in the deep heart of my life that I find love. But it’s also where I find anger.
It’s in depths of my heart that I find my faithfulness…but I also find my betrayals.
It’s in depths of my heart that I find compassion and indifference, forgiveness and condemnation, brokenness and wholeness.
When you look into depths of your heart what thoughts do you see? What’s there? What are the hurts and wounds; the longings and desires; the needs, hopes, possibilities, and dreams; the disappointments and regrets; the joys and sorrows?
What if we were to look deep into our lives and name all the truths and realities there, in the same way Jesus holds before us the law about murder and asks us to name our anger; or the way he holds before us the law about adultery and asks us to name our lustfulness.
What do you see? What are the thoughts of your heart? What might healing and wholeness look like for you today?
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Today’s Gospel is offering us the opportunity to align within us and our outside world. It’s offering us the opportunity to stop living an Eddie Haskell kind of life, and start living a new life in which we are more fully ourselves and more fully alive.
It’s a life which we do as Jesus asks—look within ourselves, look at the circumstance within us, and recognize the choices we make, the words we speak, and the actions we take in the world around us begin, and arise from, the world within us. That’s how I want to live, don’t you? Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, February 15, 2026
Gracious God, we come before you acknowledging you see us not just as we appear to the world, but as we truly are. And how grateful we are for the challenging and transformative words of Jesus calling us away from a life of mere performance and into a life of profound integrity.
Which is why we know we must confess it is often easier to follow the “letter of the law” than to examine the spirit of our own souls. We focus on the outward act, while harboring anger, contempt, or bitterness toward our neighbors.
And so we ask for the courage to look deeply inside ourselves to identify the roots of our resentment and the hidden shadows of our pride.
Reveal to us how we wear masks of righteousness and composure to hide our insecurities and our failings. Help us to dispel these illusions by granting us the vulnerability to be honest about our struggles, so that we may offer our brothers and sisters the gift of our authentic selves.
God of all life, we know we live in a world that often treats people as objects or means to an end, so remind us of the sacred dignity of every person we encounter. Then purify our hearts so our faithfulness begins in the quiet of our thoughts. Guard our tongues so that our “Yes” be “Yes” and our “No” be “No,” free from the need to manipulate or deceive. And soften our spirits and help us to seek reconciliation quickly, laying our gifts at the altar only after we have sought peace with those we have wronged.
Let your grace be the mirror in which we see our true value, and may that same grace be the lens through which we view others. Transform our inner lives so that our outward actions are not a performance, but a natural overflow of your love dwelling within us. Lead us in the way of righteousness—not a righteousness of rules, but a righteousness of the heart grounded in the love and grace of Jesus.
Please now, we ask, hear the prayers we lift from our hearts to yours, in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”