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Feb
20
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It should come as no surprise that we tend to “tame” Jesus to fit our expectations, to meet our standards. All one needs to do is look at a bit of the artwork in which Jesus finds Himself. Pale, thin, often effeminate. This is is anything except the Jesus of the Bible.
In fact, it goes beyond our imagery. We seek to rob His Words of anything offensive. We want Jesus to be only meek and mild. We want Him to be politically correct, but it shouldn’t take long actually reading the Gospels to see that Jesus was anything but politically correct.
With all of that in mind, I want to start an irregular series of looking at some of the statements of Jesus as they stand on their own. This has been prompted in my own thinking, on one hand, by our Care Groups studying a harmony of the Gospels in 2008. On the other hand, I came across a comment recently by Shaine Claiborne. Detailing his own move to working with the poor, he said that one of the deciding factors for him was wondering, “What if Jesus really meant what He said?”
Claiborne’s thought is so powerful, because so few of us actually entertain this thought. We read Jesus’ statements as mere platitudes or fine saying to burn on plagues. But we view them as anything but direct statements that were meant as they were said. Of course Jesus didn’t really mean what He said, we can explain that away, and that’s exactly what we do. But Jesus’ statements refuse to be explained away. They carry the force of a Kingdom that is not of this world, from the King who has entered our world.
Rather than offer commentary, explanation or even application, I simply want to leave you today to ponder one of Jesus’ statements, and what it might mean if he actually meant what He said. Today’s statement come from the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:11).
- Read Jesus and the Gospels by Craig Blomberg
- Read Jesus The Messiah by Robert Stein
- Read Studies In The Sermon on the Mount by D. Martin Lloyd-Jones
- Read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation With the World by D.A. Carson
Really looking forward to this!
Great idea … i’ll definitely be checking in. This week I’m preaching on The Good Samaritan. Even the simple command, “love your neighbor” is radical if we really live it the way Jesus intended us to do so.
Brent,
I don’t have the exact words in front of me, but you are seeming to capture much of what Bonhoeffer was getting at in the Cost of Discipleship. Basically…did Jesus literally mean what he said in the Sermon on the Mount. Bonhoeffer ultimately seemed to think so….
This is why theology is so good sometimes…we can use it to actually avoid what Jesus commands. I know I’m guilty.
rhett
Pastor, I am constantly striving to forget the “nice” Jesus that our pop culture (Christian and Secular) presents, and to contemplate our real Lord, the Jesus of scripture. I look forward to reading more of your thoughts on this matter.
What if Jesus really meant it? Great question.
Reminds me of these quotes:
One of these days some simple soul will pick up the Book of God, read it, and believe it. Then the rest of us will be embarrassed.
~Leonard Ravenhill
We read the gospel as if we had no money, and we spend our money as if we know nothing of the gospel.
~Jesuit theologian John Haughey
What if Jesus really meant it to show us just how much we DON’T do the good things he describes in the Sermon on the Mount and to show us our moral bankruptcy and need for righteousness…?
Matt, most commentators take the Sermon on the Mount to be a treatise on Kingdom Living rather than, like the Law, demonstrating our sin and shortcomings. In other words, the Sermon on the Mount is how radically different “kingdom living” ought to actually be from the rest of the world.
Right. But it IS still law. And it’s NOT an EASIER law than Moses’. In fact, it’s much harder. I guess what I’m getting at is How ought we Christians USE the SOTM? How do we understand it in the course of redemptive history? (i.e. Biblical Theology) How do we use the Law? (Hint: Third Use)
I don’t want to OVER-realize my eschatology and say that this–the SOTM–is how we finally live coram deo here and now, this is how we please God. YES, it is a description of Kingdom living, but do we find any hope in our ability to be like Jesus, or do we find our hope solely in Jesus’ living that perfect Kingdom life on our behalf. If it is the latter, then we can go out joyfully as Kingdom people, seeking to live the SOTM out of gratitude because we know that our failure to live it perfectly won’t condemn us–because we are in Jesus and are covered with his righteousness –>> GOSPEL!!
Brent, I reread your comment, and I wanted to clarify–the SOTM is Law because (well, not simply because–there is more) it is NOT Gospel. It’s NOT good news. How could it be? All fall short of its standards. It describes Kingdom living, and Kingdom living is perfect living in obedience to the Law of the King. I do realize that in the eschaton we won’t be under a covenantal probation, because we’ll have received the Lord’s approbation in Christ ad we’ll be perfect and glorified… yet still, in describing that condition, Jesus holds out something we can only failingly strive to attain here and now. Jesus points out that the keepers of the Law of Moses were really law breakers by pointing to their hearts.
