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| The Gorge at Watkins Glen Park, New York |
“No one, by swearing, makes themselves an ounce more honest; any
more than a man makes himself wealthy by counting his gold. Oaths may make a
liar a liar yet again, having lied about the oath as well. But it cannot alter
the worth of an honest man's word.”
Jake Yaniak
The Punishment of the Gods
“I swear on my mother’s grave!”
Perhaps it was the earnestness with which it was said; or the
desperation; or the gravity of the object or the oath. Yet, if we were thinking clearly, we would
recognize the futility of relying on external objects in their attempt to shore
up the veracity of their honesty.
Listen to what Jesus has to say regarding using oaths to bolster
individual believability.
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You
shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, do not
swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is
His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you swear by your
head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’
and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
Jesus tells us here that oath taking is not something to be
taken lightly and warns of the dangers of taking oaths:
1. There was a time
when oaths were sworn and carried out.
This had been the way it was done.
If someone vowed to the Lord to carry out some action, it was expected
that they would do so. There came a time
however when swearing an oath in and of itself was not enough.
2. There came a
time when domains (heaven, earth, Jerusalem) were used as a way of backing up
oaths and leveraging power to ensure that a favorable response would be
received.
3. It was then that
self was an acceptable object to use, as if the one who swore would make surer
the validity of the vow by vouching for his own self.
The historical background for this teaching is one where
conversations were full of vows and oaths to the point that they meant little
or nothing. Because of this, those who
wanted to make their vow more believable would then begin to call others to
witness for him, in this case things that couldn’t say much to prevent him from
abusing them in this way. Thus heaven,
earth and Jerusalem became unwilling parties to foolish, false and imprudent
oaths.
This oath taking was at the heart of the dishonesty, subterfuge,
and misleading promises made every day in 1st century Israel. It was for this reason that Jesus provides in
vs 37 a simple guideline for avoiding the pitfalls of oath
taking/making/breaking:
"Let your no BE no and your yes BE yes."
Herein is advice that would serve us well in so many other of
life’s scenarios. To make it work
requires:
1. We be willing to
tell the truth without relying on externals to serve as ethical collateral for
our dealings: When we make it clear
where we stand and what we will do, others can feel confident that they can
trust our decisions without fear of chicanery or subterfuge.
2. We be willing to
let stand our decisions: So often those
who are looking for ways to make themselves look more honest than they believe
themselves to be are simply looking for a way of getting their yes to be no and
their no to be yes if things don’t work out.
3. We be willing to
NOT enter into an agreement with the devil so that we can use that escape hatch
when we think things are going south.
Trusting our decisions to God will help us to listen to him when he
speaks and avoid making bad follow up decisions
So even though the life situation that Jesus was addressing in
this passage was 1st century, the advice about plain speaking can be
used in the 21st as well.
Since this is an election year, I believe my point is made!
NEXT POST – Olympic Training
for Going the Second Mile
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