For some of us, keeping our fingers crossed means that we hope something happens. For others, however, it is a way to keep something we say from being a promise. If our fingers are crossed behind our back, for some reason, what we say cannot be held to be a promise.

The Pharisees didn’t know about crossing their fingers.

They did, however, know about making promises in such a way that they didn’t count as promises.

That’s what Jesus was accusing them of in Matthew 23:16-22. If a person promised on the altar (“I swear by the temple that I will finish this project by Tuesday”), it wasn’t as enforceable as “I swear by the gold on the temple that I will finish by Tuesday”.

Jesus explains that whether you are talking about the temple or the gold on it, the altar or the sacrifice on it, the earthly objects or the God they are dedicated to, a promise is a promise.

There are two lessons for those who would be followers of Jesus.

1. Don’t build elaborate technicalities of what counts as obedience and what doesn’t. We work so hard on finding the edges, on distinguishing between what is good enough and what isn’t, on where the line is between good and bad. I think that Jesus says not to get caught up in the distinctions but to be looking at God.

2. Don’t make promises you know you will break. This is the apparent content of this part of the lesson. To make a promise with an escape clause is not to make a promise at all. Make it or don’t. Agree to the deadline or don’t. Agree to the deal or not.

But if you do, don’t blame the object for not following through.  It is your (and my) fault.