Following in the Footsteps of Jesus: Keep Your Word
Speaker: Andrew Brown
Key Passage: Matthew 5:33-38
Date: 28 June 2009
Victor Lustig is known as the Man who Sold the Eiffel Tower. He was born in Hungary, but later moved to Paris where he would try and rip people off on his frequent trips to the USA. His first trick was to invent a device that appeared to print $100 bills. The only problem, he would tell people, is that it could only print one bill every six hours. People would pay him enormous amounts of money, often over $30,000 for the machine, when in fact the device only contained two genuine, but hidden $100 bills. Once these came out, the machine would only produce blank paper, but by this time Lustig would be a long, long way away with their money.
In 1925 he came up with one of his most brilliant plans. France was recovering from World War I and the upkeep of the Eiffel tower was becoming an almost intolerable financial burden on the city of Paris. When Lustig read about this in a paper, it gave him a great idea. He forged some documents to make it look like he worked for the government and then invited six scrap metal dealers to a secret meeting in a famous hotel. He explained to them that when the tower was built it was only meant to be temporary (which was true) and that it was well past its original date for removal. The City could not afford to keep the tower in place and so it had decided to sell it for scrap. He asked that the meeting and all subsequent discussions be kept secret in case the public got wind of the idea and were upset at the idea of pulling down the tower. Lustig then took the dealers in a limousine to tour the tower, and asked them to make their offers.
One of the dealers, Andre Poisson was convinced that the offer was genuine and he paid Lustiq for the privilege of scrapping the Eiffel Tower. When he finally realised that he had been conned, he was too embarrassed to tell the police in case it got into the newspapers. Lustiq escaped with the money and it might well have remained a secret, except that Lustiq was greedy. A month later he returned to Paris to try the whole scam all over again. But this time it was reported to the police, and again Lustig had to escape.
Some of you might be interested to know that at one point Lustig convinced Al Capone to invest $50,000 with him. He put the money in the bank and two months later returned the money to Capone saying that the deal had fallen through. Capone was so impressed with Lustiq that he gave him $5,000 reward for his honesty! In 1934 Lustig was found guilty of counterfeiting and sentenced to 20 years in Alcatraz jail.
Now Lustiq was a prince of liars, the man who sold the Eiffel Tower, but if we are honest we all lie a little. We are all guilty of deception at times. See how well you fit these definitions. A lie is “something said, or unsaid with the intention to deceive.” Truthfulness means “consistency, authenticity and dependability in everything you say.”
1. In Jesus day honesty certainly was a big issue, and the people had developed various ways of trying to deal with this problem. One way of trying to show that you were honest and dependable was to make an oath. For those of you who don’t know what an oath is, it is a promise that you make to someone else with God as your witness that you are telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing, but the truth. You might have seen it when people go up into the stand to give evidence in court.
The Jews had a strong tradition of making oaths. In the Old Testament God often guaranteed the fulfilment of His promises with an oath (Gen. 9:9-17). People were permitted to make oaths in God’s name to show that they would carry out the promises they had made and the Bible supported this. Leviticus 19:12 says, “Don’t swear falsely using my name, violating the name of your God. I am God.” Numbers 30:2 says, “When a man makes a vow to God or binds himself by an oath to do something, he must not break his word; he must do exactly what he has said.” In the New Testament the apostle Paul, for example, used an oath on at least two different occasions (2 Cor. 1:18, Gal. 1:20) in order to convince people that he was an honest and trustworthy character.
By Jesus time, however, the rabbis had developed a highly sophisticated pecking order of oaths. Oaths could be made in the name of God’s House, God’s name, God’s Life, the city of Jerusalem, the Earth, the Sky, or the Sea depending upon how truthful and how strong you wanted your promise to be. “I promise to deliver you the goods upon the city of Jerusalem.” “I promise to marry your daughter. I swear it by the gifts sitting on the Temple’s altar.” “I am telling you the truth in God’s name.”
In the end there was an enormously complicated system of oaths where the Rabbis and other leaders created a whole maze of rules and regulations in order to explain which promises you had to keep and which it was okay to break. It was said that a Temple scribe’s full time job was just trying to help people find new ways of getting around their oaths. And the general opinion of the public was that the system was becoming more effective at deceiving people than of promoting trust and honesty between them.
2. Now I’ve been trying to find an equivalent in our modern times, but the best I can do is probably this. Do you remember when you were a kid and there were all those rules about the promises you made and whether they were still valid depending upon whether you were standing on a crack or had your legs crossed? Your friend would make a promise to you and then they would check to make sure you had nothing crossed! Maybe you crossed your fingers, but when they caught you out, you quickly crossed your legs. If they caught you at that, then you claimed that your toes were crossed instead. Eventually your friend was cross -and your eyes were crossed, but those were the kind of games you played as kids. Remember this one? [Little finger up] -The “pinkie swear!” “I pinkie swear to keep my pinkie promise.” Maybe you still play those kinds of games today.
Anyway it’s probably easier to say that there are times when we are all a bit ‘economical with the truth.’ Let’s take a little test to see how truthful you are. I’ll ask you a few questions. 1. Your best friend asks you if she looks good in her new dress. You: A. Tell her she looks good, even though the dress makes her look washed out. B. Advise her to get some sun. That will help with the colouring, but you don’t tell her why because it will just hurt her feelings, or C. you tell her to return the awful dress. She can look better than that and you’ll help her. 2. A friend tells you that he’s taking drugs and asks you to promise not to tell anyone. Do you: A. Promise, then tell someone, B. Promise and don’t tell anyone, or C. Don’t promise. You know he’s in trouble and he really needs help. 3. You leave the supermarket and discover the cashier gave you an extra $5 back by mistake. Do you: A. Go home. Hurray -an extra $5! It’s the shops fault, after all, B. You put the $5 in the offering at church, or C. you give the money back. Two more questions… 4. Someone asks you for help. Do you A. promise to pray, but never plan to do it, B. promise to pray. Then forget, C. Pray with them there and then so they get an answer sooner? 5. People are talking about a real problem that your friend has. He asks you if there’s a problem. Do you A. tell him you’ve heard nothing? Why hurt his feelings? B. Tell him you heard something, but tell him not to worry, or C. tell them what you heard and help to solve his problem? Well, how did you do? How many A’s did you have and how many C’s? The A’s were always the wrong answer. The C’s were always right. Did anyone get all A’s? Did anyone get 5 C’s? Who’s telling me the truth? Let’s face it that there are times when we are all a bit economical about the truth, and we try and to excuse ourselves.
3. Anyway, it’s into this kind of moral situation that Jesus steps and tells the crowd,“(34) But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; (35) or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.” In effect Jesus tells them that it doesn’t actually matter what kind of oath that you make. Do not swear by any of them because they are all in effect the same!
You see the argument that Jesus is making is that whether you ‘import’ God into your personal promises and business dealings or not, He is already present. He is already there. As the old saying goes, “Bidden or unbidden, God is still with us.”
There were some religious leaders for instance who said that oaths were binding depending upon whether you involved God in them or not. It all depended upon how serious they were. But Jesus says “Rubbish! Rubbish!” God is always in them no matter what you say or whatever you intend. It’s not like you can beam God into your affairs just by saying some magical words or taking an oath, while on other occasions He’s deaf, and blind, and not really there. God sees all. God knows all. He is already involved. You can’t hide anything from Him.
The case of Ananias and Sapphira is a classic example of this. How many of you remember them? The followers of Jesus in Jerusalem got so excited about helping the poor that they sold some of their properties and houses. Barnabas was one of them. He sold some expensive real estate in Cyprus and donated all the money to the apostles. The idea caught on. A bit later in the Bible, Acts 5, a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge Ananias, however, kept back a part of the money for himself, but brought the rest of it to the apostles claiming that it was the whole. Peter said to him, “How could you do this? It was your property to get rid of as you pleased. It was up to you what you did with the money afterwards. You didn’t have to give any of it the church, but you kept some back, saying that you gave God the lot. You have not lied to men, but to the Holy Spirit -to God!” Then Ananias fell down and died. Three hours later the same thing happened to his wife when she came looking for him. Peter says to her, “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? The men who buried your husband are here, and they will carry you out as well,“ and at that moment she fell down at his feet and died.
In short there are no lies that God doesn’t see. Jesus says you can hide exactly –‘nothing’ from God.
4. So this kind of raises the question of why, oh why do we continue to twist our words? Why is it that we still use “words” to impress, or to flatter, or to hide? Why do we bother? Jesus Himself said that its pointless posturing –“(v36) And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.”
Maybe it appeals to us? I heard the story of a famous preacher of yesteryear who noticed that many in his congregation were going to sleep on a hot summer morning. Suddenly he paused and continued in a loud voice talking about an incident that had no connection whatsoever to his sermon. He said, “I was once riding along a country road when I saw one of the most amazing sights that I have ever seen. There was a sow with a litter of ten piglets and each of them had a big, curved horn growing right out of the centre of their forehead.” He paused again, looked around the congregation and remarked, “How strange! A few minutes ago I was telling the truth and most of you went to sleep. Now that I’m lying to you, you are all suddenly wide-awake!“
But maybe we simply imagine that we can fool others or ourselves? The experts tell us that there are usually two main reasons why people deceive or lie. It is either because of fear or pride. For example, you might be afraid of the consequences if you tell the truth so you lie. This is a sign of lack of faith in God. You are afraid to do things His way because you think that He can’t handle your situation. Or else it might be that you are very proud and you are more concerned with what others think of you then what God does. You want man’s approval more than God’s so again you lie. Lying, they say, often boils down to how you feel about yourself inside, and trying to look good both to yourself and to others.
For instance Norm MacDonald, a comedian asks, “Do you ever lie for no reason at all? Just all of sudden, a big lie spills out of your evil head. Like a guy will come up to you, ‘Hey, did you ever see that movie with Meryl Streep and a horse?’ And you go, ‘Yes.’ In the back of your head, you’re like, ‘what in the heck am I lying about over here? I stand to gain nothing by this lie.’ But we do it, all because we want to look good in the other person’s eyes.
Perhaps you can think of a certain French Rugby player who lied in Wellington recently. Why did he lie? Why do you lie? I sometimes over promise people because I don’t want to be embarrassed about not being good enough in front of others. How about you?
To be honest though lying often achieves very little, other than revealing the inner state of your heart. Lying reveals the true nature of your heart to others. It can indicate a serious lack of faith in God or a lack of respect for others, and in the end the biggest victim of it all will be you. People will judge you and they probably won’t trust you very much further. As the Book of James says fresh water and salt water cannot flow out of the same spring. In the same way bad words and good words are unlikely to flow out of the same heart and the same mouth. So what do people see when you speak? They will eventually judge whatever you say and they might decide to keep their distance in the future.
5. Therefore Jesus insists that the simplest way of dealing with people is always to tell the truth. “(v37) Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” He says. “Honesty is the best policy,” because it leads to deeper, and more genuine relationships, and this is what He wants of His followers. After all Jesus always kept His Word. God the Father still keeps His Word and He is faithful to every promise that He has made in the Bible. That is why He is so reliable and why we can trust Him. He is truthful and you are called to be like Him.
Remember that in this world your word is everything. Once you lose your reputation for honesty, you’ve lost just about everything! As 1 Peter 3:10 says, “For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.” And as James 1:26 warns, “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.”
A true disciples life will back up their words. They won’t need to make oaths. People will just believe them.
C. So this week I want to encourage you to think about what you are saying when you are saying it. Monitor your speech. Ask ‘is it right,’ ‘is it just,’ and ‘is it true?’ Always keep your word. This might be something you have never thought about before. It might be something that you have never tried before, but give it a go and see how it changes your life. When I first became a follower of Christ at the age of 13 the first thing I had to do was to clean up my mouth. I had the foulest mouth in the schoolyard. Trying to change what I said meant that I had to clean up my heart, and I have never regretted the changes I made as a result. This week monitor what you say, and keep it real. May you join with the Psalmist in praying, “Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips (Psalm 141:3).”
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