Oaths in the Mafia, the Playground, the Public Square, and the Kingdom of God – Matthew 5:33-37
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the LORD what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. Matt 5:33–37.
Swearing oaths has been a part of culture and community life for millennia. There is a classic scene in The Godfather (1972), in which Don Vito Corleone meets with the heads of the other New York mafia families to work out a peace deal in the aftermath of a gang war that had been underway since he was targeted in a failed assassination power play by another family. At the end of the meeting, Don Corleone rises and says, “But, that aside, let me say that I swear, on the souls of my grandchildren, that I will not be the one to break the peace we have made here today.”
In a far less cinematic setting, many a child has sworn an oath intended to convey their unwavering commitment to follow through on their promise with the formula, “Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.” Despite their obvious differences, both oaths aim at the same thing: a convincing public display of intent that merits the trust of the witnesses.
On a surface reading, it appears that Jesus is now giving a technical or legal teaching on swearing oaths. But that is far from his intended purpose. As he has been doing throughout the Sermon, Jesus is forming spiritual, emotional, relational, vocational, intellectual, cultural, and evangelical disciples. Their formation was essential to their developing a trustworthiness seen by others.
Oaths and Covenants in the Old Testament
Genesis 15 depicts a covenant between the LORD God and Abram, sealed with a common Ancient Near East treaty ritual.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.” Gen 15:12–21.
The “pieces” in verse 17 are explained in verses 1–11: an assortment of animals that had been split in two in sacrificial preparation for the covenant ceremony. In ancient covenant rituals, those binding themselves to the covenant walked between the divided animals while reciting its terms (cf. Jer 34:18). Visually, this communicated to the witnesses that whoever violates the terms of the covenant should meet the same fate as the animals – sacrificed to fulfill the terms. In this scene, the flaming torch is a stand-in for the LORD. The fact that Abram was put to sleep and did not walk through would have conveyed that while Abram was a part of the covenant, the only guarantor for both sides of the covenant is the LORD. Failure of either party to keep the terms would require that the LORD provide a covenant-fulfilling sacrifice.
After their rescue out of slavery in Egypt, the people of God are presented with the terms of the covenant in the form of the Law given to Moses by the LORD on Mount Sinai. The former slaves are only too happy to accept them with a simple statement: 3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.” Exod 24:3.
Their “Yes” was clear and simple. Yet, despite their zeal, we read in chapter 32 that the people used the gold they received as a parting gift from the Egyptians to make a golden calf to worship, thereby violating the terms of the covenant they had just agreed to.
The Problem With Swearing an Oath
There are three key verses in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) that pertain to oath-taking:
You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. Lev 19:12
If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Num 30:2
If you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God what you have promised with your mouth. Deut 23:21–23
These verses make two things clear. First, integrity and honesty are a critical mark of righteousness for those identified as the LORD’s people. Second, the LORD considers his name to ultimately be on the line in any pledge made by one of his children.
By Jesus’ day, oath-taking had developed a deeper problem. Oaths were graded, some binding and some not (Matt 23:16–22), which allowed the one swearing to decide which of his own words God would hold him to. That is role confusion, even usurpation of the Creator-creature distinction. Ranking oaths this way asserts an authority as guarantor that a creature does not possess. It is, in effect, acting as if you are in the position of God. This is a problem that goes all the way back to the Garden, and one the serpent used to initiate the Fall.
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Gen 3:1–5.
Humans are God’s creation. He is the Creator; we are creatures. He is the covenant guarantor; we are vassals. Even Abraham, Moses, and David were only mediators—not guarantors of the covenant. The comments of Jesus regarding not taking any oath, “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 take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black, …” are all intended to remind his audience of their place in the economy of the kingdom of God. As Jesus says, stepping into the role of God as guarantor is “from evil” (v. 37). Jesus’ command to let their yes mean yes and their no mean no is a call for them to see themselves as the people (vassals) of Exodus 24 not as the LORD (guarantor).
Aside: Oath-Taking in Public Office
Several religious groups take this passage so seriously that the language of the swearing-in ceremony for federal officials had to make room for their views:
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.
Note – The oath of office must be administered by a person specified in 5 U.S.C. 2903. The words “So help me God” in the oath and the word “swear” wherever it appears above should be stricken out when the appointee elects to affirm rather than swear to the affidavits; only these words may be stricken and only when the appointee elects to affirm the affidavits.
The goal of this language was to avoid violating the conscience of Christians who were unwilling to swear an oath because they saw swearing as a violation of biblical instruction. But that technical concern is not the heart of the issue Jesus is aiming at in forming disciples.
The Intensifying Impact of Simplicity
As the public square often makes meme-ably clear, making your yes mean yes and your no mean no creates a stark reality for violations. During his acceptance speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention, George H. W. Bush famously addressed the tax issue with the following pledge:
“And my opponent won’t rule out raising taxes. But I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again. And I’ll say to them: Read my lips. No new taxes.”
That public pledge helped Bush win the election. He was sworn in on January 20, 1989. In June 1990, following bipartisan negotiations on the 1990 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, President Bush agreed to the congressional push to raise the top marginal rate from 28 to 31 percent.
That pledge-breaking played a major role in Democrat Bill Clinton winning the 1992 election. In 1998, President Clinton was under oath and answering questions in the Monica Lewinsky investigation. His testimony included this famous exchange:
Wisenberg: Your – that statement is a completely false statement. Whether or not Mr. Bennett knew of your relationship with Ms. Lewinsky, the statement that there was no sex of any kind in any manner, shape or form with President Clinton was an utterly false statement. Is that correct?
CLINTON: It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If ‘is’ means is and never has been, that’s one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement.
Not surprisingly, pledge-breaking and pledge-nuancing incidents like this have led the overwhelming majority of the public to have little faith in any pledges, oaths, or promises made by their elected officials. Bringing the LORD into the equation seems utterly inappropriate. Nonetheless, telling the truth and having integrity are critical elements of righteousness for the people of God in the Old Testament, and, of course, Christians in the New Testament.
For those leading and serving in the public square, trust and integrity go hand in hand. When Christians do not offer their word seriously, or walk away from their promise for political gain, they diminish the public’s understanding of promise-keeping, including the promise that Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) and that he is “making all things new” (Rev 21:5). Even without bringing the name of the LORD into our promises, let alone swearing upon the souls of our grandchildren, or promising to poke a needle in your eye, integrity is a mirror of the steadfast love and faithfulness of the LORD who provides his Son as a sin offering for his children who violated the terms of the covenant they agreed to. Paul emphasizes this well when he says:
18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 2 Cor 1:18–20.
As Hebrews boldly states:
20 And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, 21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:
“The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’”
22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. Heb 7:20–22.
Application Questions:
Where are you tempted to qualify, hedge, or leave yourself an “out” when you give your word, especially in your work in the public square? What would it look like to say a plain yes or no instead?
How does understanding your answer as reflecting upon steadfast love and faithfulness of the LORD alter the way in which you say yes or no?
Does a deep consideration of biblical doctrine and principles figure into your yes or no? What steps can you take to improve your biblical evaluation before answering?
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