Yes. No. How Hard is It?

Before we get into today’s installment, allow me to say a word of thanks for your understanding about the brief interruption we had in our LDL production schedule. Between being powerless at the house for a little over five days, the invasion of a hurricane which led to said outage, and a couple of personal things, something had to give. However, we are back in the groove today!

Speaking of today’s installment, there are some parts of the Bible that are so basic and simple that one would think there’s really not much more to add to the words that are on the page. Today’s Let’s Do Lunch is based off one of these passages that is so obvious I almost feel apologetic for putting it out there for your consumption. Almost.

And, yet, this is one of those times where sometimes our initial reaction to a passage might lead us into missing something truly transformative upon further reflection, especially given the current state of our world.

Today’s reflection comes from Jesus’ words as found in Matthew 5:33-37 - 

“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

“What’s the big deal here, Lamar? We got it. Tell the truth; don’t swear an oath; let your word speak for itself.” As Lee Corso would say…”Not so fast, my friend.”

What if we took time to dive into this a little more to see the ramifications of this standard in our lives? Jesus is rejecting any effort to bolster our statement’s claim to the truth beyond the words themselves.

“Ok, Lamar. WE GOT IT.”

Well, let’s take a moment to ask ourselves if we can say that our lives live up to this standard Jesus set. Let’s take, for instance, our stated commitment to be a disciple of Christ, seeking to love God with everything we have and our neighbor as ourselves while also saying the scripture is the absolute authority upon which our lives are rooted.

We could unwind this in many ways to point out how all of us have room to grow in our complete devotion to Christ, hammering away point after point. While accurate, it might find us completely discouraged because we realize how much we fall short of this standard by which we say we want to live our lives.

Me? Yes, there is a time for radical candor with ourselves to do a careful and thoughtful examination of all these things. However, instead of delivering a flogging, let’s take a look at this from another perspective.

When we read Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:33-37, let us be inspired to realize that because of God’s love in Christ, we do not have to worry ourselves with proving the sincerity and forthrightness of our words. Ours is simply to be folks who say what they mean, and mean what they say.

Let’s not overcomplicate it.

Grace and Peace,
Lamar