Biblical Wisdom
Leave Your Gift There
Jesus sends a worshiper away from the altar, and the grievance that sends him is someone else's.
Scripture Matthew 5:23–24 · Matthew 5:21–22
This saying is easy to misremember. Jesus does not say, if you have something against your brother. He says the reverse: “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you.”
The grievance belongs to the other person. You may think it is unfair. You may not agree that you did anything at all. It becomes your errand anyway.
And the moment He picks is the least convenient one there is. The worshiper is already at the altar with the gift in his hands. Leave it there, Jesus says. Go first and be reconciled. Then come back and offer it.
The gift is not refused. It waits by the altar until the road has been walked.
Just before this, Jesus had been talking about anger and contempt between brothers. Here He closes a way around them that religious people know well: praying about it instead of going to the person.
Scripture in English is from the Berean Standard Bible, placed in the public domain by its publisher on 30 April 2023.