Keeping Our Word

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."  -- Matthew 5:36-37

At the conclusion of the fifth chapter of Matthew, we read Jesus' challenging reinterpretations of some of the "tried and true" commandments in the Torah -- commandments that seemed so straightforward anyone should know what to do (or not do) in order to keep them. Some version of the formulary, "You have heard it said...But I say to you..." occurs four times between versess 21-37. In the two instances, Jesus expands the prohibitions against murder and adultery. He challenges his hearers to consider anger and name-calling to be akin to murder and the thinking of illicit thoughts in and of themselves to be on a par with actual adulterous behavior. In the final twist (see the verses above), Jesus takes on the practices of oath-making and of keeping one's word.

In the complicated parlance of human barter and negotiation, words and trust are of utmost importance. As it is in our society, so it was in Jesus' time. But how could one secure one's word? And perhaps more importantly, how could one be influenced to trust the other party in the negotiations, even when the other party was essentially a stranger? How could one offer assurance to the other party in the contract that the deal being consummated would be kept to the letter? And, how could enough wiggle room be left in a seemingly airtight deal to afford each party the right to declare the contract null and void and thereby be released from any liability for failing to follow through on the terms of the original agreement?

In the absence of a legal superstructure and legions of contract lawyers, how did one prove one's trustworthiness? Well, by oath-making of course! To our ears this offering of an oath (no matter how intricately worded) seems a tenuous exercise at best. By Jesus' time, entire systems of oath-making had evolved such that, to leave one word unsaid in the complicated oath-making process could have significant ramifications for the future of the contract. The "double dog dare you" of the first century oath-making formula was to swear "by Jerusalem"; the "triple dog dare you" was an oath offered on the surety of "heaven above".

Jesus cuts to the heart of such superfluous speech. "Yes" and "No" are sufficient. Indeed, if one's "Yes" and "No" cannot be trusted, no amount of extraneous oath-making (regardless of its poetic, well-parsed, serpentine language) makes the contract any more secure. Beyond the practicalities of plain speech, though, Jesus is naming a far more difficult reality -- human beings are simply not in control of the Divine. To invoke God to underwrite a contract is to overstep human authority. God cannot (and will not) be used to buttress the inconsistency, selfishness and intrinsic human tendency to want the position of power over another human being.

Last fall, as this country went through the stresses and strains of the "election season", we witnessed the candidates vying for office engage in the point/counterpoint of comparing each other's policy statements with previous statements made through the years (in writing or the media), which seemed to irrefutably point to contradictions in a candidate's thinking. This practice of camparing/contrasting each other's previous statements with the election season rhetoric about various issues had a singular aim -- to cast doubt on a candidate's trustworthiness. Interestingly enough, since all candidates seem to be unable to resist such a strategy, the public is left with the distinct impression that every candidate is, at some level, suspect.

The battle of sound bites raged over the radio and television for weeks. In the end the elections happened and the pundits began their own process of interpreting the results. The newly elected basked in the glory of victory. Those ousted from office did their best to remain dignified in the face of defeat.

And then, this past January, in the Capitol Building of the United States, those who had been elected raised their right hands, and said the following:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

Of course, as a Christian, I wonder what sort of "God" is being invoked to assist the Representatives and Senators in their duties (presumably the same God who is invoked to "bless" America). In light of Jesus' words, though, the intent in this oath is still the same -- to enlist the heavens to do what we humans seem so often to be incapable of doing -- keeping our word.