If therefore you shall offer your sacrifice at the altar, and there you should remember that your brother has something against you, leave your sacrifice there before the altar, and go away. First be reconciled to your brother, and then having come offer your sacrifice.
– Matthew 5:23–24
The word “therefore” at the beginning of Matthew 5:23 is important because it connects this passage directly back to the previous statement about murderous anger and slander. Unrighteous anger, contempt, and bitterness are not small matters before God- they are heart-level violations of Torah.
In Torah, offerings and sacrifices were never meant to function independently from humility, repentance and reconciliation. An offering brought with a defiled heart was considered polluted before God. We see this idea in Leviticus 6, where reparation is made before offering a sacrifice to atone for sin:
And spoke YHVH to Mosheh, saying, “If a person sins and commits a trespass against YHVH, and deceives his neighbor about what was delivered for safekeeping, or about a pledge, or a robbery; or if he has extorted his neighbor, finds a lost thing and lies and swears falsely; in any of all these that a man does, he sins in them.
Then it shall be because he has sinned and is guilty, that he shall restore what was taken, or the thing which he has deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found, or all that he has sworn falsely, he shall restore its full value and a fifth added to it, and bring it to who i belongs on the day of his sin offering. And his sin offering he shall bring to YHVH a ram without blemish, with an estimate as a sin offering to the priest.
– Leviticus 6:1-6
The Offering Brought to the Altar
In Torah there are a few different types of sacrifices, each with a specific purpose before YHVH-
The burnt offering olah was fully consumed on the altar, representing total surrender and dedication. The Hebrew word olah comes from a root meaning “to ascend” or “go up,” because the offering ascended in smoke before YHVH.
Exodus 29 describes the continual burnt offering:
It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tent of meeting before YHVH, where I will meet you, to speak there unto you.
– Exodus 29:42
Leviticus 3:1-17 introduces the peace offerings, called shelamim. The root shalam carries the understanding of being made whole; completion, and recompense, often expressed as a voluntary offering of thanksgiving, reconciliation, or restitution.
Unlike the burnt offering, portions of the peace offering were shared in fellowship between the offeror and the priests. It represented restored relationship and covenant peace-
- YHVH: given the fat and certain internal portions were burned on the altar (Leviticus 3:3–5, 3:16)
- Priests: received specific portions (Leviticus 7)
- Offerer and his household: ate the remaining meat in a communal meal (Leviticus 7:15–18)
So we can see that approaching God was never only ritual- it always required both atonement and right relationship.
Worthless Offerings
What Yeshua is teaching reflects what Scripture says: The issue was never Torah itself- the problem was hypocritical worship disconnected from righteousness.
God already rebuked this through the prophet Isaiah:
Hear the word of YHVH you rulers of Sedom! Give ear to the Torah of our Elohim you people of Gomorrah!
What to Me [are] the multitude of your sacrifices? Say YHVH, I have had enough of burnt offerings. Rams and fat of cattle, and blood of bulls or lambs or goats not do it delight in. When you come to appear before Me, who seeks this from your hand, to trample My courts?
Bring no more worthless offerings; incense is an abomination to Me; new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies- I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred assembly.
– Isaiah 1:11–13
The southern kingdom of Judah continued bringing sacrifices while practicing injustice, oppression and evil. Their offerings, though done in obedience to the commands, became worthless because the heart behind them was corrupt.
“If Your Brother Has Something Against You”
One of the most striking parts of this passage is that Yeshua does not say ‘If you have something against your brother’
He says, “If your brother has something against you“
The responsibility to pursue reconciliation falls upon the worshipper. Even if the offense is not presently being argued, even if the person offering believes they are spiritually devoted to God-
Yeshua says to stop the offering and make peace first.
This would have been a striking statement in 2nd Temple-centered context, where bringing an offering was considered the proper act of devotion- yet Yeshua places relational restoration ahead of the ritual act, reflecting the heart of Torah.
Greater Purification
Speaking in a Temple-related context would have immediately brought to mind the shared reality of purification before approaching YHVH:
- The altar was sanctified with blood
- The priests washed and purified themselves before service
- The offerings had to be without blemish
Purification was non-negotiable before access to sacred space. The altar required cleansing before anything could be placed upon it, and the one bringing the offering also had to be clean before approaching the altar.
Yeshua applies that same logic inwardly: A cleansed altar and outward obedience mean little if the heart approaching it remains defiled. The worshipper’s heart also must not remain polluted with division, bitterness, or unresolved offense.
He is not lowering the standard of worship. He is intensifying it, moving it from external preparation to internal condition.
The deeper message is If the altar and the sacrifice must be purified, how much more should the heart be purified?
Because the inward conditions of hate and anger defile a person, Yeshua Messiah places reconciliation before the act of offering itself. Worship before God is never isolated from the condition of the heart that brings it. Even a sanctified altar does not override unresolved hatred, division, or offense within the worshipper. In this, He ties approach to God directly to reconciliation with others, showing that peace with God cannot be separated from the pursuit of peace with one’s community members.
Significantly, He also frames this responsibility in a way that places initiative on the one coming to worship.
Even when the worshipper may not see themselves as the offender, they are still called to act. The instruction is not to wait until the situation escalates, nor to justify distance because the conflict feels one-sided. Instead, the one approaching God is responsible to pursue reconciliation wherever offense exists.
This shifts worship from a purely vertical expression into something that also carries horizontal accountability. Before presenting an offering, the worshipper is required to actively seek peace, even if it means initiating humility, clarification or restoration with someone who is still angry. In this way, Yeshua teaches that approaching the Father rightly includes taking responsibility for relational rupture, whether caused or perceived, so that worship is not hindered by unresolved division.
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