Jesus Establishes the Church’s Authority
Previously in this Gospel, Jesus has spoken about authority in His Church. Today, He shows us how it works.
Gospel (Read Mt 18:15-20)
Today, Jesus teaches His disciples about life in the Church He intends to build. Earlier (Mt 16), He established Peter as its head, giving him the “keys” to the kingdom. Now, He addresses various situations that will undoubtedly arise in His community of followers as they seek to live the new life of that kingdom.
“If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.” In these few words, we see an approach to wrongdoing that is countercultural, then and now. He refers to His disciples as “brothers” to each other (as we are to Him). He knows the human heart well, of course, so He knows that brothers will sin against each other. What should Christians do when that happens? In one breath, Jesus tells us the appropriate action and its ultimate purpose. The sin is not to be ignored. After all, Jesus came to build the kingdom of heaven on earth. Sin is an outbreak of darkness in a kingdom of light; it cannot be glossed over. Sin is the antithesis of the happiness and health of the Gospel, so it must be addressed. However, the point of the exposure of sin by one brother against another is not retribution, shame, or vindication. The purpose of the confrontation is reconciliation, a return of the sinner to the bosom of his family in faith: “… you have won over your brother.” This goal of brotherly love is precisely what makes this teaching so difficult. Why?
When we are wronged, our first impulse is not usually reconciliation. We want to keep a distance from the offender, to move away instead of toward him. From there, we want to tell everyone we know how wronged we have been. After that, there’s a desire to get even, to hurt in the same way we’ve been hurt. In a truly countercultural way, Jesus interrupts this normal response. He helps us understand that because we are a community of love, our biggest concern should be the return of our brother to the behavior of love. So, we are to confront “him alone” with the problem first, hoping to quietly restore him to familial fellowship. That teaches us to be as concerned for his welfare as we are for our own.
If that doesn’t work, we are to take “one or two others” along as witnesses that a wrong has certainly been committed. The great value of needing witnesses to a wrong is that it prevents us from making frivolous charges against a brother. There is still restraint here, still a desire to restore the brother to his Christian family. If the brother “refuses to listen,” always the distinguishing sign of sin to the Jews, then the whole matter must be referred to the larger expression of the Christian family, the Church. In all this, the goal is to win back the lost brother. If he refuses to listen “even to the Church,” then he is to receive what, in all his refusals to “listen,” he really wants: to live outside of the covenant family of God. This is the final severe mercy extended to him. He will have the painful experience of a kind of exile from the happiness and health of the covenant community. Is this done out of hatred or a loss of hope? To suggest that would be an entirely illogical conclusion to what we have seen in these verses: a measured process that always aims at reconciliation. No, the exile from the presence of God’s community on earth is meant to make the sinner long for “home.” In addition, Jesus says that whatever the disciples, who are given His authority, bind or loose on earth is alsobound or loosed in heaven. Thus, the lost brother faces the very real possibility of an eternal separation from God’s presence, by his own choice of refusing to “listen” to those who speak for God. Strong medicine indeed!
