Commentary Excerpt by Tom Boomershine
This is a story about the
tension between the way of forgiveness and the need for justice. Elements of
this tension are dealing with conflicts, church discipline, and managing the
community in ways that maintain peace. The tension is around how to deal with
problem people. Every community has them; sin happens in every community. In
this discourse Jesus makes clear recommendations about how to deal with
wrong-doing.
The structure of the discourse
outlines a process for dealing with an individual who has “done you wrong”: talking
with that person one-on-one; talking with that person with one or two others; talking
with that person with the congregation. Each stage of the process is described
with the same phrases. These verbal threads are: “listens” and “not listened”; “if the member refuses to listen” and
“if the offender refuses to listen”; “the evidence of two or three witnesses”
and “where two or three are gathered in my name.” These are all helpful in
learning the story.
The recommendation of this discourse is to go
to the limit in order to be reconciled. Jesus describes a process of conflict
resolution that pushes the limits of what most communities will do. It stands
in contrast to the way that problems are usually dealt with in communities: rumor
and the building up of resentment—people talking to each other about something
that has been done and never talking to the offender.
To read the rest of this commentary, please visit
http://gotell.org/stories/by-text/matthew/mt18_15-20/
Other resources available on GoTell.org
Audio telling of the story, Soundmap, Audio commentary, Original Image -
http://gotell.org/stories/by-text/matthew/mt18_15-20/