Bp Miller’s Musings on Matthew 18:15-20

As many commentators have noted, we probably misread this text when we see it as some kind of legal code for dealing with conflict in the church. Although our congregation constitutions encourage us to follow the process outlined by Jesus, we should look for another way to read these verses. For this reason, I am thankful for the lectionary pairing with Ezekiel 33 (7-11), in which God says, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from their evil ways and live.”

Ezekiel’s prophecy is a reminder that what God desires always is life. The New Testament authors pick this up whenever they speak of the abundant life promised in Jesus Christ: In John’s Gospel (1:3-4), we read, “What has come into being in him was life, …” The Resurrection itself can be understood as God’s promise of life overcoming the inexorability of death from sin.

Paul, in his letter to the Romans (3:8-14), reminds us of the command to “Love your neighbor as yourself”, by which we learn that the life in Christ is not simply something we seek for ourselves but should want equally for our neighbor; and Jesus reminds us elsewhere that our neighbor includes our enemy as well. Ezekiel, Paul, and Jesus all point us away from ourselves to genuine love for others.

Jesus repeats to the disciples what he had said earlier to Peter: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Many read this alongside the bestowal on Peter of the power of the keys (“I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven”) as a power to decide who receives forgiveness, a power often abused by the church. I believe that instead we must read these words in light of God’s preference for life.

Here the Lutheran understanding of Law and Gospel should help us in our interpretation. Law exposes the captivity of our will to sin, that of our own strength we cannot escape death. By doing so it drives us to despair of our ability to save ourselves. As stated in Ezekiel, God does not wish this condition on anyone, “but that the wicked turn from their evil ways and live.”

The Gospel being that which frees us from bondage to sin and death simultaneously binds us to God in Christ Jesus. What we cannot accomplish for ourselves is accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Thus, both binding and loosing, when carried out according to the will of the Father, restore dead souls to life.

“If the member refuses to listen eve to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” As some have noted, we do well to remember that Jesus was known for eating and drinking with Gentiles and tax collectors, even calling Matthew as one of the twelve. We might infer from this that, when faced with an unrepentant sinner, rather than turn away, we must go to that one and “eat with them.”