Preaching Paths 6 September 2026

Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary

Today’s Gospel reading, Mt 18:15-20, is brief; yet its implications for the inter-relational life of Christians, assembling down the centuries for divine worship and public witness, has been profound. Jesus is not naïve; he anticipates that rifts and instances of personal failure among his disciples are inevitable. Here, Jesus lays out the attitudes and practices that will facilitate greater harmony and reconciliation.

Conflict related to ethnic and class differences, as well as rival understandings of Christian faith and ethics, already plagued Christian assemblies in Matthew’s time. Little wonder that the gospel named for him devotes an entire chapter (ch 18) to community-sustaining practices, especially foundational attitudes and processes to mend rifts with truth and fairness. Bringing today’s text to bear in one’s particular congregation requires pastoral tact. A first step will be to absorb ch 18 as a whole. Notably, in its opening verses, Jesus establishes basic terms of engagement: humility and vulnerability like that of a child, are the foundation of Christian self-understanding and therefore govern interpersonal relations.

A problem to be confronted at the outset is that two distinct variants of this text are well attested. Several early mss (see grammatical commentary) omit the words, “against you” (v 15), while the vast majority of later mss include this phrase. If “sin against you” is our reading, then what is in view is a situation where a member of the Christian assembly has been wounded by another’s action or words. Jesus is prompting the one “sinned against” to neither complain nor gossip, but to initiate a process that mends the relationship. By contrast, if the text is, “If anyone sins,” then Jesus is outlining an official procedure whereby (designated?) members of the community would identify, confront, expose, sanction, and potentially excommunicate sinners. Where this reading has dominated interpretation, its application has all too often been vindictive and merciless and its goal, punitive, not restorative.

Yet, the tenor of vv 1-14, which stress childlike openness and humility, suggests that Jesus’ concern is indeed to restore, not punish. The three-step process Jesus lays out is humble in spirit, dialogical in method, and restorative in its intent and effect. As some commentators point out, additional members join the dialogue not to “gang up” on the “sinner,” but to broaden perspective on the dispute—perhaps even finding, as they listen and discuss, that the complainant, too, bears responsibility for the rift. Restoration is multi-dimensional. Mutual compassion grows. Wisdom deepens for all who are involved.

The “binding and loosing” statement of v 18 has prompted endless debate. If we relate it to the restorative conflict-resolution process Jesus commends (which, incidentally, brilliantly avoids “triangulation” in relationships, the enemy of healthy community!), “binding and loosing” seems to allude to the results of the process: repair and restoration (“binding”), or a “loosing” of the bond of membership for the unreconciled. In later rabbinic texts, these terms referred to determining what was prohibited, what was permitted, in the community; these were decisions only an expert few were authorized to make. But Jesus has already called into question hierarchy itself! What governs among the childlike siblings of the reign of heaven is a vision of restorative justice, pursued in dialogue that is humble and vulnerable. This earthy, care-filled work is God’s will done on earth, as in heaven (v 20).