23. "If therefore you are presenting your offering at the
altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,
24. leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way;
first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.
25. "Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you
are with him on the way, in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and
the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.
26. "Truly I say to you, you shall not come out of there, until
you have paid up the last cent.
Yesterday we looked at heaven’s court system and we saw that we
were in trouble if we were going to attempt to defend ourselves.
Today, having acknowledged this, we see men returning to the
sacrifice system as a way of escape from guilt. This was a system of atonement establish
by God where an animal was sacrificed on an alter. It was to help man see that his sins
cost lives. Many people think that pornography is okay because it doesn’t
"hurt" anybody. But it does and we know this – we have just become used to
it in the same way that killing animals back then to cover man’s guilt became routine
and its significance lost.
But in the process of confessing our sins to God, we remember how
our actions have harmed another brother or sister, will the sacrifice to God be enough? In
other words, is it okay to slip out of repairing broken relationships because we are now
"right" with God? Jesus is saying through this passage, "No."
The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 4:20-21, "If some one says,
‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love
his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment
we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also."
Jesus describes two men going to court over a disputed matter. One
of the men knows he is guilty (Jesus wants us to see ourselves as this person). What
should we do? Make friends quickly. Here is the point. You and I are guilty and
heaven’s court room looms on our horizon. We don’t know exactly when we will be
called, but with every moment we are one step closer. There is only one man who can
present a case against us who is not also as guilty as we are and that is Jesus. Make
friends with Him quickly. Do it now.