Here.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This is the message from yesterday's worship. A few seconds got cut off from the beginning of the message.]
Showing posts with label Matthew 5:38-48. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matthew 5:38-48. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Monday, February 20, 2017
Perfect Though Imperfect?
Matthew 5:38-48
Jesus concludes His words for us in today’s Gospel lesson with these words: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Should my message for this morning then, be, “Just like God, go and be perfect. Amen”? Is that what Jesus is telling us?
As good Lutherans and students of God’s Word, the answers to those questions should be obvious! We know that we’re not perfect and while it’s true that God’s Holy Spirit is at work daily to perfect those who repent for sin and trust in the crucified and risen Jesus as their God, even the most mature disciples of Jesus must confess with the apostle Paul that for now “...we see only a reflection as in a mirror...” [1 Corinthians 13:12] That’s why, when we gather in God’s presence each week, we confess our sins, acknowledging that “we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”
So, what do we make of Jesus’ words?
First of all, when Jesus says, in verse 48 of our gospel lesson that we are to be perfect as God the Father is perfect, the word translated as perfect is, in the Greek in which Matthew wrote his gospel, τέλειοι. This is an adjective that can mean perfect, but which also can mean full-grown, complete, consummated.
Jesus uses a related verb, Τετέλεσται, “It is finished,” when He draws His last breath from the cross in John 19:30.
And Paul uses this same related verb when, in speaking of his ministry about to be ended by his own death, he says in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have finished the race.”
Jesus may then be saying, "Reflect the wholeness of God in how you live." God's grace has accomplished or finished its saving work by making you and me part of God's kingdom through Jesus and our faith in Jesus.
Many scholars believe that when Jesus tells us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, He’s echoing words that appear repeatedly in the Old Testament: “...be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44-45).
To be holy is to be set apart, different from the rest of the world, weird even. The holy, those saved by God's grace, are to reflect the goodness of God in the way that we live.
Why is that?
Remember that earlier in the Sermon on the Mount from which today’s Gospel lesson is taken, Jesus tells us to be salt and light for the world.
This is what you and I as believers in Jesus Christ, people set free from sin and death by His cross and resurrection, are called to do each day: To let others see what God is like, to shine the light of the nations, Jesus, in all of our relationships.
Sounds great, does it? But there's a huge problem.
The fact is that if you set out to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” in your own power at noon today, you’ll fail before the clock hits 12:01.
Instead, if you and I are going to be God’s salt and light in the world, we must rely on the power and life that God unleashes in the lives of those who daily turn from sin and daily surrender to Christ.
Perfection, completeness, in Christ, is a byproduct of surrendered faith in Christ, not the result of our efforts.
Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 3. The way it’s rendered in The Message paraphrase of the Bible is particularly helpful: “Nothing between us and God [through faith in Christ], our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” [2 Corinthians 3:18]
To be perfect in the eyes of God then, is to be surrendered to Jesus and so allow God’s perfection to be seen in us and experienced through us by others.
We become prisms through which Jesus, the light of the world, is poured onto the world.
In our gospel lesson today, through the use of exaggerated imagery, Jesus draws a picture of what those who are perfect as our Father is perfect look like. This is a picture of who we should aspire to be. This is who, through our faith relationship with Christ, the Holy Spirit is making us. So, let’s take a look at Jesus’ words for us this morning and learn better where Jesus is taking us.
Verse 38: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.”
The Old Testament law and other ancient ethical systems said that when someone does wrong to us, the gravity of our response shouldn’t exceed what the other person has done to us. So, if someone insults us, our response shouldn’t be to shoot them. But Jesus goes even further: Don’t seek revenge at all, ever, under any circumstance. In these words, we begin to see just how weird holiness is, just how weird the perfection of God looks in a disciple.
Jesus goes on: “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” In the first century world in which Jesus first spoke these words, a backhanded slap across the right cheek of another person was less an act of violence than a way of saying, “You’re a nobody. You're a loser. You're beneath contempt.” Jesus says that if someone does anything that labels us as a nobody or a loser, we prove our assailants wrong by refusing to react to their dehumanizing words or actions.
Verse 40: “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” In ancient Judea, most people only had two garments, a shirt and a tunic. Jesus says to be willing to give both of them up. And in Roman-occupied Judea, a Roman could force a bystander to carry, say a cross, for a mile. It was a hated practice. But Jesus says that His followers should offer to go the extra mile.
Verse 43: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” The only enemies you and I have as disciples of Jesus are those who hate us, since we’re to hate no one. Jesus says that when we love those who hate us and pray for them, we are God’s children. Jesus goes on to say that it’s no great accomplishment for us to love those who love us; even unbelievers and notorious sinners do that.
After reading these words of Jesus, I can think of lots of things for which I need to repent.
I sometimes fantasize about getting at people who have hurt me...or who I think have hurt me.
Sometimes, I say cutting things to get back at people who have said or done unkind things toward me.
And I’m less than keen on loving people who have mistreated me; I want to strike out at them in some way, rather than absorbing their indignities so that they can see the dignity, love, confidence, and hope that resides within me through Jesus Christ.
I can be wary of being generous for fear of having less for myself.
Deep down, I don’t want to offer help to those who treat me like a nobody.
I find it hard to love people who are hateful toward me.
If you can identify with any of these feelings, be glad.
It means that God’s Law is doing its work. It’s convicting you and driving you to Jesus, Who can bring us God’s forgiveness and fill us again with the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives that reflect God’s perfect holiness and love.
But in these words of Jesus today, you will also find the Gospel: the good news of new and everlasting life for all who repent and believe in Jesus.
You see, in the whole history of the world, only Jesus has lived a life of perfection like this. He lived that kind of life for us so that, in its sacrifice on the cross, He could save us from our imperfection, unholiness, and death!
Jesus isn’t telling us to travel a pathway that He hasn’t already blazed for us. Instead, He says, “Take up your cross and follow Me.” [Matthew 16:24] In essence, Jesus says, Own your need and trustingly follow the path I've blazed for you!
When Jesus was confronted by people who mocked Him, spat on Him, whipped Him, slapped Him, and crucified Him, He didn’t return evil for evil.
In the garden of Gethsemane, after one of His companions had pulled out a sword and struck a servant of the high priest, lopping off the servant’s ear, Jesus told the disciple: “Put your sword back in its place...for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” [Matthew 26:52]
In His life, Jesus did fight. He fought for the salvation of others; that’s what He did on the cross. But He never fought for Himself.
When you know that nothing can separate you from the love of God given in Christ, you’re freed to live for God and neighbors, you're freed to fight for the good of others, because you know that you’re taken care of for all eternity. [Romans 8:38-39] You can be a voice for the voiceless, strength for the weak. You can stand up for the despised, the ignored, the nobodies of the world.
We belong to the Savior Who always gave of Himself and always loved others. From the cross, He prayed improbably, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” [Luke 23:34]
Jesus isn’t just God in the flesh, you know. Jesus is also the human being like which every one of us should aspire to be. He is, in Paul’s phrasing, “the last Adam,” [1 Corinthians 15:45], the first man in God’s new, eternal creation of which you and I are a part when we are baptized and follow Christ.
We can’t resolve to be perfect like God.
But we can let the perfection of God enter our lives each day through Christ.
As we live with Christ more each day, our resistance to the law in Jesus’ words to us today gives way to surrender the gospel, the promise, in Jesus’ words and something amazing happens.
In Jesus’ famous judgment scene, Matthew 25:31-46, the “sheep,” Jesus’ disciples, ask the King: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" [Matthew 25:37-39]
This is a perfect picture of what happens to disciples as they spend their lives in fellowship with Christ and His Church. Disciples are saved by grace, then God uses disciples as instruments of that grace to bring His salvation to others. As they live with God in daily quiet time, in corporate worship, in small groups that study God's Word together, in mission for Christ, they are transformed.
They have so surrendered to Jesus that Jesus reigns over their lives. They can’t even perceive their own faithfulness because their minds are no longer on themselves, but only on the God they love completely and the neighbor they love as they love themselves.
Folks, don’t worry that you don’t measure up to God’s perfect law. You don’t. And neither do I.
Christ has measured up for you!
Surrender to the Jesus Who has kept God’s law perfectly and is more than willing to cover you in His grace.
Watch out when you do though: You might find as you surrender to Him, Jesus will call you to do things and give of yourself in ways the world thinks crazy. You might end up going on a mission trip to Haiti or India or Cherokee country. You might devote some of your hard-earned money or use some of your leisure time to serve neighbors in places like Chevy Chase or the Saint Vincent's ministry to the homeless. You might commit yourself to the members of your small group, living together in mutual faith and accountability as you grow together as disciples.
Jesus’ love will so fill you though that you’ll hardly give crazy sacrifices like these a second thought.
When you follow the Lord Who has given His life for you, giving your life in return to Him doesn’t seem outrageous.
In gratitude for grace, you’ll willingly live and die for the Savior Who has already lived, and died, and risen for you.
It’s then that our Lord will look at your life and improbably, miraculously, and truthfully call it what it could never be if you were your own lord: perfect! Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was prepared for worship that happened yesterday.]
Jesus concludes His words for us in today’s Gospel lesson with these words: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Should my message for this morning then, be, “Just like God, go and be perfect. Amen”? Is that what Jesus is telling us?
As good Lutherans and students of God’s Word, the answers to those questions should be obvious! We know that we’re not perfect and while it’s true that God’s Holy Spirit is at work daily to perfect those who repent for sin and trust in the crucified and risen Jesus as their God, even the most mature disciples of Jesus must confess with the apostle Paul that for now “...we see only a reflection as in a mirror...” [1 Corinthians 13:12] That’s why, when we gather in God’s presence each week, we confess our sins, acknowledging that “we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”
So, what do we make of Jesus’ words?
First of all, when Jesus says, in verse 48 of our gospel lesson that we are to be perfect as God the Father is perfect, the word translated as perfect is, in the Greek in which Matthew wrote his gospel, τέλειοι. This is an adjective that can mean perfect, but which also can mean full-grown, complete, consummated.
Jesus uses a related verb, Τετέλεσται, “It is finished,” when He draws His last breath from the cross in John 19:30.
And Paul uses this same related verb when, in speaking of his ministry about to be ended by his own death, he says in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have finished the race.”
Jesus may then be saying, "Reflect the wholeness of God in how you live." God's grace has accomplished or finished its saving work by making you and me part of God's kingdom through Jesus and our faith in Jesus.
Many scholars believe that when Jesus tells us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, He’s echoing words that appear repeatedly in the Old Testament: “...be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44-45).
To be holy is to be set apart, different from the rest of the world, weird even. The holy, those saved by God's grace, are to reflect the goodness of God in the way that we live.
Why is that?
Remember that earlier in the Sermon on the Mount from which today’s Gospel lesson is taken, Jesus tells us to be salt and light for the world.
This is what you and I as believers in Jesus Christ, people set free from sin and death by His cross and resurrection, are called to do each day: To let others see what God is like, to shine the light of the nations, Jesus, in all of our relationships.
Sounds great, does it? But there's a huge problem.
The fact is that if you set out to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” in your own power at noon today, you’ll fail before the clock hits 12:01.
Instead, if you and I are going to be God’s salt and light in the world, we must rely on the power and life that God unleashes in the lives of those who daily turn from sin and daily surrender to Christ.
Perfection, completeness, in Christ, is a byproduct of surrendered faith in Christ, not the result of our efforts.
Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 3. The way it’s rendered in The Message paraphrase of the Bible is particularly helpful: “Nothing between us and God [through faith in Christ], our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” [2 Corinthians 3:18]
To be perfect in the eyes of God then, is to be surrendered to Jesus and so allow God’s perfection to be seen in us and experienced through us by others.
We become prisms through which Jesus, the light of the world, is poured onto the world.
In our gospel lesson today, through the use of exaggerated imagery, Jesus draws a picture of what those who are perfect as our Father is perfect look like. This is a picture of who we should aspire to be. This is who, through our faith relationship with Christ, the Holy Spirit is making us. So, let’s take a look at Jesus’ words for us this morning and learn better where Jesus is taking us.
Verse 38: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.”
The Old Testament law and other ancient ethical systems said that when someone does wrong to us, the gravity of our response shouldn’t exceed what the other person has done to us. So, if someone insults us, our response shouldn’t be to shoot them. But Jesus goes even further: Don’t seek revenge at all, ever, under any circumstance. In these words, we begin to see just how weird holiness is, just how weird the perfection of God looks in a disciple.
Jesus goes on: “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” In the first century world in which Jesus first spoke these words, a backhanded slap across the right cheek of another person was less an act of violence than a way of saying, “You’re a nobody. You're a loser. You're beneath contempt.” Jesus says that if someone does anything that labels us as a nobody or a loser, we prove our assailants wrong by refusing to react to their dehumanizing words or actions.
Verse 40: “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” In ancient Judea, most people only had two garments, a shirt and a tunic. Jesus says to be willing to give both of them up. And in Roman-occupied Judea, a Roman could force a bystander to carry, say a cross, for a mile. It was a hated practice. But Jesus says that His followers should offer to go the extra mile.
Verse 43: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” The only enemies you and I have as disciples of Jesus are those who hate us, since we’re to hate no one. Jesus says that when we love those who hate us and pray for them, we are God’s children. Jesus goes on to say that it’s no great accomplishment for us to love those who love us; even unbelievers and notorious sinners do that.
After reading these words of Jesus, I can think of lots of things for which I need to repent.
I sometimes fantasize about getting at people who have hurt me...or who I think have hurt me.
Sometimes, I say cutting things to get back at people who have said or done unkind things toward me.
And I’m less than keen on loving people who have mistreated me; I want to strike out at them in some way, rather than absorbing their indignities so that they can see the dignity, love, confidence, and hope that resides within me through Jesus Christ.
I can be wary of being generous for fear of having less for myself.
Deep down, I don’t want to offer help to those who treat me like a nobody.
I find it hard to love people who are hateful toward me.
If you can identify with any of these feelings, be glad.
It means that God’s Law is doing its work. It’s convicting you and driving you to Jesus, Who can bring us God’s forgiveness and fill us again with the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives that reflect God’s perfect holiness and love.
But in these words of Jesus today, you will also find the Gospel: the good news of new and everlasting life for all who repent and believe in Jesus.
You see, in the whole history of the world, only Jesus has lived a life of perfection like this. He lived that kind of life for us so that, in its sacrifice on the cross, He could save us from our imperfection, unholiness, and death!
Jesus isn’t telling us to travel a pathway that He hasn’t already blazed for us. Instead, He says, “Take up your cross and follow Me.” [Matthew 16:24] In essence, Jesus says, Own your need and trustingly follow the path I've blazed for you!
When Jesus was confronted by people who mocked Him, spat on Him, whipped Him, slapped Him, and crucified Him, He didn’t return evil for evil.
In the garden of Gethsemane, after one of His companions had pulled out a sword and struck a servant of the high priest, lopping off the servant’s ear, Jesus told the disciple: “Put your sword back in its place...for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” [Matthew 26:52]
In His life, Jesus did fight. He fought for the salvation of others; that’s what He did on the cross. But He never fought for Himself.
When you know that nothing can separate you from the love of God given in Christ, you’re freed to live for God and neighbors, you're freed to fight for the good of others, because you know that you’re taken care of for all eternity. [Romans 8:38-39] You can be a voice for the voiceless, strength for the weak. You can stand up for the despised, the ignored, the nobodies of the world.
We belong to the Savior Who always gave of Himself and always loved others. From the cross, He prayed improbably, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” [Luke 23:34]
Jesus isn’t just God in the flesh, you know. Jesus is also the human being like which every one of us should aspire to be. He is, in Paul’s phrasing, “the last Adam,” [1 Corinthians 15:45], the first man in God’s new, eternal creation of which you and I are a part when we are baptized and follow Christ.
We can’t resolve to be perfect like God.
But we can let the perfection of God enter our lives each day through Christ.
As we live with Christ more each day, our resistance to the law in Jesus’ words to us today gives way to surrender the gospel, the promise, in Jesus’ words and something amazing happens.
In Jesus’ famous judgment scene, Matthew 25:31-46, the “sheep,” Jesus’ disciples, ask the King: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" [Matthew 25:37-39]
This is a perfect picture of what happens to disciples as they spend their lives in fellowship with Christ and His Church. Disciples are saved by grace, then God uses disciples as instruments of that grace to bring His salvation to others. As they live with God in daily quiet time, in corporate worship, in small groups that study God's Word together, in mission for Christ, they are transformed.
They have so surrendered to Jesus that Jesus reigns over their lives. They can’t even perceive their own faithfulness because their minds are no longer on themselves, but only on the God they love completely and the neighbor they love as they love themselves.
Folks, don’t worry that you don’t measure up to God’s perfect law. You don’t. And neither do I.
Christ has measured up for you!
Surrender to the Jesus Who has kept God’s law perfectly and is more than willing to cover you in His grace.
Watch out when you do though: You might find as you surrender to Him, Jesus will call you to do things and give of yourself in ways the world thinks crazy. You might end up going on a mission trip to Haiti or India or Cherokee country. You might devote some of your hard-earned money or use some of your leisure time to serve neighbors in places like Chevy Chase or the Saint Vincent's ministry to the homeless. You might commit yourself to the members of your small group, living together in mutual faith and accountability as you grow together as disciples.
Jesus’ love will so fill you though that you’ll hardly give crazy sacrifices like these a second thought.
When you follow the Lord Who has given His life for you, giving your life in return to Him doesn’t seem outrageous.
In gratitude for grace, you’ll willingly live and die for the Savior Who has already lived, and died, and risen for you.
It’s then that our Lord will look at your life and improbably, miraculously, and truthfully call it what it could never be if you were your own lord: perfect! Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was prepared for worship that happened yesterday.]
Sunday, February 23, 2014
How to Be Strange
[This was prepared to be shared with the people and guests of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, this morning.]
Mark 5:38-48
I was meeting with a few pastors when one of them brought up the subject of committed Christians they had known. “Being around people like that,” this pastor said, “always inspires me.” We all agreed.
Then, one of our number made a different observation. “You know,” he said, “every committed Christian I’ve ever known has been…sort of strange.”
He didn’t mean it as an insult.
He meant that the committed Christians he’d known weren’t afraid of being different, weren’t afraid to march to the beat of a different drum, weren’t afraid, as Jesus Himself put it, to let their “light so shine before [the world]…that [others]…see [their] good works and give glory to [God] in heaven.” Nor were they afraid to face the prospect of some people shaking their heads in disbelief at their behavior.
I think that pastor was right: People committed to following Jesus Christ are, at least from the standpoint of the world, strange.
And that can be hard.
Australian Graham Stains and his wife, Gladys, became missionaries in India in 1984. There, among other things, they oversaw a leprosy hospital. In January, 1999, Graham and his sons, Philip and Timothy, 10 and 8, traveled to a village called Manoharpur. As Graham had done for 14 straight years, the three went to provide Bible teaching along with training in health and hygiene. Graham knew that some of the tribal Hindus in the area opposed any Christian teaching. There had been at least sixty attacks on churches in the territory between 1986 and 1998. But Graham felt called to share with them the Gospel of new, everlasting life with God for all who repent for sin and believe in Jesus. He also wanted to serve the people there in Christ's Name.
It was cold when Graham and the boys arrived. They slept in their station wagon. One night, about 50 people approached the vehicle, “screaming and swinging axes and other weapons.” They beat the missionary and his sons, put straw under their station wagon, and torched it.
If I had been in the position of Gladys Stains, Graham’s widow, I fear that I would have dissolved into a fierce hatred for the people in that region of India.
I would, I fear, have become angry with God.
Were I in her position, I think I might have looked for revenge.
Or likeliest of all, I would have gotten the next plane out of India.
But Gladys responded strangely, like a committed follower of Jesus. She and a daughter, Esther, remained in India, continuing to share the Good News of Jesus and to minister to lepers in the same region in which her husband and sons were killed, until 2004, when Esther went to medical school and Gladys left to be near her.
In 2005, Gladys’ strange way of life was recognized when she was given “the Padma Shri award for distinguished service,” India’s equivalent to an English knighthood.
Gladys said that though she loved and missed her husband and sons, she saw it as an honor to them that God had counted them worthy to give their lives in the cause of sharing the Gospel with those who, as evidenced by their cold-blooded murder of three innocent believers, so clearly needed that Gospel, that can transform the hate-filled heart of any human being from God's enemy to God's friend.
For a world that values self-preservation and self-promotion, Gladys’ faith is strange. But in our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus tells us that it’s strange people like these who populate his kingdom and, even as He liberates us to be unique people who march to our own drums, He wants us all to be strange in our stubborn love for those who hate us.
Please look at this morning’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 5:38-48. Here, Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount:
Let’s be clear about two things at this point. First, God in the Old Testament is not commanding the rough justice of revenge. That’s not what “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” means. Second, God in the New Testament—Jesus—is not overturning Old Testament law.
In Old Testament times, someone might steal a loaf of bread, for example, and be sentenced to having their hand removed. Or they might perjure themselves and be executed for it. In other words, punishments exceeded the crimes.
God gave the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" command to prevent such vengeful excesses from happening. He wanted to ensure that the punishments meted out to people for crimes in ancient Israel's system of criminal justice never exceeded the gravity of their wrongs.
And even today, it's important to remember that revenge is never something human beings are to administer. “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” the Lord insists in His Word. We may, in daily living, have to be part of administering justice, but God has always said we should never be part of seeking revenge...especially for ourselves or the hurts we thing we’ve endured. It's instructive to note that whenever Jesus was angry--as happened in the temple in Jerusalem, it was never about seeking revenge for some offense against Himself, but about seeking justice for others who had been harmed or oppressed or of whom advantage has been taken.
Jesus amplifies God’s Old Testament intentions with the commandment He gives to anyone who would follow Him in today's Gospel lesson. Never resist people who do evil to you, Jesus says. Keep doing good even when the world does its worst to you.
In first century Judea, where Jesus lived, being backhanded across the cheek was the act of an arrogant person who thought himself superior to another. The natural reaction for the victim is to slap back. But Jesus says, “Don’t stoop to seeking revenge. Maintain your dignity, rely on Me, and offer your other cheek as well.”
In first century Judea, people were even more likely to take others to court than people are today. And in those times, most people owned only two articles of clothing: a cloak and a coat. One served as an outer garment, the other was like underwear. If someone sues the shirt off your back, Jesus says, don’t fight back. Let them take both your garments. Even then, you’ll remain clothed in the grace, love, and dignity of God.
Also in first century Judea, Roman soldiers who had something to be carried could, at will, pick an ordinary person from off of the streets and force them to act as a pack mule for one mile. (You remember that is exactly what happened when Jesus carried the cross beam of His cross to His crucifixion and a Roman soldier made a man from the crowd take the cross in Jesus' stead.) Jesus says that if you’re forced to carry something for a mile, confound those who treat you as a slave and volunteer to serve them for an extra mile.
In our lesson, Jesus goes on to command us to give to those who beg and to loan to those who wish to borrow.
Folks, this is a strange way to live. And Jesus makes this way of life sound even stranger in the latter part of our lesson. Look at what He commands in verses 43 and 44: "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...”
One question that Jesus' words may bring to our minds is this: Why exactly would anyone want to live the strange lifestyle that Jesus describes here?
Well, it isn’t because, if you hang in there, the world will recognize what a wonderful person you are. For every Gladys Stains, who received a major award from the country where she rendered her service to Jesus Christ, there are millions of believers who are put down, despised, shunned, and forever ignored for being faithful.
One good reason though for pursuing the strange life style of loving God with our whole beings and of loving our neighbors as ourselves is that, in fact, those who live any other way aren’t really living.
Author Lois Cheney tells a parable about a man who saw that love was hard and so kept to himself; saw that the striving for high ideals was strenuous and so put his head down and focused on surviving from day to day; saw that serving and giving to others got one embroiled in challenges they wouldn’t otherwise have and so just took care of himself.
When the man died, he approached God and said, “Here I am, Lord: undiminished, unmarred, and unsoiled, no worse for the wear. Here’s my life” “Life?” God asked. “What life?”
The strange life of love in which we keep on loving even when others—even others in Christ’s own church—may hate us, is, truly the only real way to live. Every other way of living is a living death: no risks, no challenges, no fulfillment, no faith, no Holy Spirit, no Jesus, no God.
But how do we live such a life?
As some of you have heard me tell, Martin Luther sometimes spoke of what happened when the devil tempted him to sin. “When [the devil] comes knocking upon the door of my heart and asks, ‘Who lives here?’ the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, ‘Martin Luther used to live here but he has moved out. Now I live here.’ The devil, seeing the nail prints in His hands, and the pierced side, takes flight immediately.”
The strange and beautiful way of life Jesus commands in today’s lesson—the way of love that refuses to take revenge and stands strong in the power of God—is possible when we let Jesus Christ, the One Who died and rose to give us life—into the center of our lives.
Jesus lived the perfect life of love He describes throughout the Sermon on the Mount and if we will let Him into our every decision, our every moment of temptation, our every relationship, He will come to live inside of us and change our lives today and for all eternity.
There’s a prayer I offer up to God whenever someone vexes me, or is unkind to me, or just annoys me. First of all, I tell God how I’m feeling. Then I make a request.
“Lord," I pray, "I can’t love this person right now. But I know that You love him or her, just as You love me in spite of how annoying or wrong I can be. You sent Your Son to die and rise for them, just like You sent Him for me. So, please God, love this person through me. Grant that they’ll only experience Your love for them when they’re with me.”
You know the strange thing? God has answered that prayer every time I’ve offered it. He seems to love others through me, in spite of my feelings.
And, here’s something else: As I’ve let Jesus into those relationships in this way, God sometimes has transformed those relationships and helped me to love as I love myself the people I once found so impossible to love.
If you’re serious about living the life style of the Sermon on the Mount, there’s only one way for that to happen and that’s to let the Preacher of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, be the God and Lord and Master of your whole life.
Jesus will take up residence in your life.
He will give you a way of life marked as strange by the world.
But, as Jesus invades your thoughts and priorities, truly, you will come to believe this life of service and love is, in the end, the only way to live...now and most certainly, in eternity! Amen
Mark 5:38-48
I was meeting with a few pastors when one of them brought up the subject of committed Christians they had known. “Being around people like that,” this pastor said, “always inspires me.” We all agreed.
Then, one of our number made a different observation. “You know,” he said, “every committed Christian I’ve ever known has been…sort of strange.”
He didn’t mean it as an insult.
He meant that the committed Christians he’d known weren’t afraid of being different, weren’t afraid to march to the beat of a different drum, weren’t afraid, as Jesus Himself put it, to let their “light so shine before [the world]…that [others]…see [their] good works and give glory to [God] in heaven.” Nor were they afraid to face the prospect of some people shaking their heads in disbelief at their behavior.
I think that pastor was right: People committed to following Jesus Christ are, at least from the standpoint of the world, strange.
And that can be hard.
Australian Graham Stains and his wife, Gladys, became missionaries in India in 1984. There, among other things, they oversaw a leprosy hospital. In January, 1999, Graham and his sons, Philip and Timothy, 10 and 8, traveled to a village called Manoharpur. As Graham had done for 14 straight years, the three went to provide Bible teaching along with training in health and hygiene. Graham knew that some of the tribal Hindus in the area opposed any Christian teaching. There had been at least sixty attacks on churches in the territory between 1986 and 1998. But Graham felt called to share with them the Gospel of new, everlasting life with God for all who repent for sin and believe in Jesus. He also wanted to serve the people there in Christ's Name.
It was cold when Graham and the boys arrived. They slept in their station wagon. One night, about 50 people approached the vehicle, “screaming and swinging axes and other weapons.” They beat the missionary and his sons, put straw under their station wagon, and torched it.
If I had been in the position of Gladys Stains, Graham’s widow, I fear that I would have dissolved into a fierce hatred for the people in that region of India.
I would, I fear, have become angry with God.
Were I in her position, I think I might have looked for revenge.
Or likeliest of all, I would have gotten the next plane out of India.
But Gladys responded strangely, like a committed follower of Jesus. She and a daughter, Esther, remained in India, continuing to share the Good News of Jesus and to minister to lepers in the same region in which her husband and sons were killed, until 2004, when Esther went to medical school and Gladys left to be near her.
In 2005, Gladys’ strange way of life was recognized when she was given “the Padma Shri award for distinguished service,” India’s equivalent to an English knighthood.
Gladys said that though she loved and missed her husband and sons, she saw it as an honor to them that God had counted them worthy to give their lives in the cause of sharing the Gospel with those who, as evidenced by their cold-blooded murder of three innocent believers, so clearly needed that Gospel, that can transform the hate-filled heart of any human being from God's enemy to God's friend.
For a world that values self-preservation and self-promotion, Gladys’ faith is strange. But in our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus tells us that it’s strange people like these who populate his kingdom and, even as He liberates us to be unique people who march to our own drums, He wants us all to be strange in our stubborn love for those who hate us.
Please look at this morning’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 5:38-48. Here, Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount:
[Jesus says:] "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."Jesus begins here by citing Leviticus, chapter 24. It says, “Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return; fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered.”
Let’s be clear about two things at this point. First, God in the Old Testament is not commanding the rough justice of revenge. That’s not what “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” means. Second, God in the New Testament—Jesus—is not overturning Old Testament law.
In Old Testament times, someone might steal a loaf of bread, for example, and be sentenced to having their hand removed. Or they might perjure themselves and be executed for it. In other words, punishments exceeded the crimes.
God gave the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" command to prevent such vengeful excesses from happening. He wanted to ensure that the punishments meted out to people for crimes in ancient Israel's system of criminal justice never exceeded the gravity of their wrongs.
And even today, it's important to remember that revenge is never something human beings are to administer. “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” the Lord insists in His Word. We may, in daily living, have to be part of administering justice, but God has always said we should never be part of seeking revenge...especially for ourselves or the hurts we thing we’ve endured. It's instructive to note that whenever Jesus was angry--as happened in the temple in Jerusalem, it was never about seeking revenge for some offense against Himself, but about seeking justice for others who had been harmed or oppressed or of whom advantage has been taken.
Jesus amplifies God’s Old Testament intentions with the commandment He gives to anyone who would follow Him in today's Gospel lesson. Never resist people who do evil to you, Jesus says. Keep doing good even when the world does its worst to you.
In first century Judea, where Jesus lived, being backhanded across the cheek was the act of an arrogant person who thought himself superior to another. The natural reaction for the victim is to slap back. But Jesus says, “Don’t stoop to seeking revenge. Maintain your dignity, rely on Me, and offer your other cheek as well.”
In first century Judea, people were even more likely to take others to court than people are today. And in those times, most people owned only two articles of clothing: a cloak and a coat. One served as an outer garment, the other was like underwear. If someone sues the shirt off your back, Jesus says, don’t fight back. Let them take both your garments. Even then, you’ll remain clothed in the grace, love, and dignity of God.
Also in first century Judea, Roman soldiers who had something to be carried could, at will, pick an ordinary person from off of the streets and force them to act as a pack mule for one mile. (You remember that is exactly what happened when Jesus carried the cross beam of His cross to His crucifixion and a Roman soldier made a man from the crowd take the cross in Jesus' stead.) Jesus says that if you’re forced to carry something for a mile, confound those who treat you as a slave and volunteer to serve them for an extra mile.
In our lesson, Jesus goes on to command us to give to those who beg and to loan to those who wish to borrow.
Folks, this is a strange way to live. And Jesus makes this way of life sound even stranger in the latter part of our lesson. Look at what He commands in verses 43 and 44: "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...”
One question that Jesus' words may bring to our minds is this: Why exactly would anyone want to live the strange lifestyle that Jesus describes here?
Well, it isn’t because, if you hang in there, the world will recognize what a wonderful person you are. For every Gladys Stains, who received a major award from the country where she rendered her service to Jesus Christ, there are millions of believers who are put down, despised, shunned, and forever ignored for being faithful.
One good reason though for pursuing the strange life style of loving God with our whole beings and of loving our neighbors as ourselves is that, in fact, those who live any other way aren’t really living.
Author Lois Cheney tells a parable about a man who saw that love was hard and so kept to himself; saw that the striving for high ideals was strenuous and so put his head down and focused on surviving from day to day; saw that serving and giving to others got one embroiled in challenges they wouldn’t otherwise have and so just took care of himself.
When the man died, he approached God and said, “Here I am, Lord: undiminished, unmarred, and unsoiled, no worse for the wear. Here’s my life” “Life?” God asked. “What life?”
The strange life of love in which we keep on loving even when others—even others in Christ’s own church—may hate us, is, truly the only real way to live. Every other way of living is a living death: no risks, no challenges, no fulfillment, no faith, no Holy Spirit, no Jesus, no God.
But how do we live such a life?
As some of you have heard me tell, Martin Luther sometimes spoke of what happened when the devil tempted him to sin. “When [the devil] comes knocking upon the door of my heart and asks, ‘Who lives here?’ the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, ‘Martin Luther used to live here but he has moved out. Now I live here.’ The devil, seeing the nail prints in His hands, and the pierced side, takes flight immediately.”
The strange and beautiful way of life Jesus commands in today’s lesson—the way of love that refuses to take revenge and stands strong in the power of God—is possible when we let Jesus Christ, the One Who died and rose to give us life—into the center of our lives.
Jesus lived the perfect life of love He describes throughout the Sermon on the Mount and if we will let Him into our every decision, our every moment of temptation, our every relationship, He will come to live inside of us and change our lives today and for all eternity.
There’s a prayer I offer up to God whenever someone vexes me, or is unkind to me, or just annoys me. First of all, I tell God how I’m feeling. Then I make a request.
“Lord," I pray, "I can’t love this person right now. But I know that You love him or her, just as You love me in spite of how annoying or wrong I can be. You sent Your Son to die and rise for them, just like You sent Him for me. So, please God, love this person through me. Grant that they’ll only experience Your love for them when they’re with me.”
You know the strange thing? God has answered that prayer every time I’ve offered it. He seems to love others through me, in spite of my feelings.
And, here’s something else: As I’ve let Jesus into those relationships in this way, God sometimes has transformed those relationships and helped me to love as I love myself the people I once found so impossible to love.
If you’re serious about living the life style of the Sermon on the Mount, there’s only one way for that to happen and that’s to let the Preacher of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, be the God and Lord and Master of your whole life.
Jesus will take up residence in your life.
He will give you a way of life marked as strange by the world.
But, as Jesus invades your thoughts and priorities, truly, you will come to believe this life of service and love is, in the end, the only way to live...now and most certainly, in eternity! Amen
Sunday, February 20, 2011
A Strange Way to Live
[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]
Matthew 5:38-48
I was meeting with a group of fellow pastors when one of them brought up the subject of committed Christians they had known. “Being around people like that,” this pastor said, “always inspires me.” We all agreed. Then, one of our number said something I’ll never forget. “You know,” he said, “every committed Christian I’ve ever known is…sort of strange.” He didn’t mean it as an insult. He meant that the committed Christians he’d known weren’t afraid of being different, weren’t afraid, as Jesus Himself put it, to let their “light so shine before [the world]…that [others]…see [their] good works and give glory to [God] in heaven.” I think my colleague was right: People committed to following Jesus Christ are strange.
And that can be hard.
Australian Graham Stains and his wife, Gladys, became missionaries in India in 1984. There, among other things, they oversaw a leprosy hospital. In January, 1999, Graham and his sons, Philip and Timothy, 10 and 8, traveled to a village called Manoharpur. As Graham had done for 14 straight years, the three went there to provide Bible teaching along with training in health and hygiene. Graham knew that some of the tribal Hindus in the area opposed any Christian teaching. There had been at least sixty attacks on churches in the territory between 1986 and 1998. But felt called to share with them the Gospel of new, everlasting life with God for all who repent for sin and believe in Jesus. He also wanted to serve the people there. It was cold when Graham and the boys arrived. They slept in a station wagon. One night, about 50 people approached the vehicle, “screaming and swinging axes and other weapons.” They beat the missionary and his sons, put straw under their station wagon, and torched it.
If I had been in the position of Gladys Stains, Graham’s widow, I fear that I would have dissolved into a fierce hatred for the people in that region of India. I would, I fear, have become angry with God. Were I in her position, I think I might have looked for revenge. And I likely would have gotten the next plan out of India.
But Gladys responded strangely. She and a daughter, Esther, remained in India, continuing to share the Good News of Jesus and to minister to lepers until 2004, when Esther went to medical school and Gladys left to be near her.
In 2005, Gladys’ strange way of life was recognized when she was given “the Padma Shri award for distinguished service,” India’s equivalent to a knighthood in England. Gladys even said that though she loved and missed her husband and sons, she saw it as an honor to them that God had counted them worthy to give their lives in the cause of sharing the Gospel with those who, as evidenced by their cold-blooded murder of three innocent believers, so clearly needed that Gospel.
For a world that values self-preservation and self-promotion, Gladys’ faith is strange. But in our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus tells us that it’s strange people like these who populate his kingdom and He wants us all to be like them.
Please pull out the Celebrate inserts from today’s bulletin and turn to this morning’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 5:38-48. Here, Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount. Read the first verses of the passage along with me silently, please:
Let’s be clear about two things at this point.
God gave the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" command to prevent that from happening. He wanted to ensure that the punishments meted out to people never exceeded the gravity of their wrongs. Revenge is never something human beings are to administer.
Jesus amplifies God’s Old Testament intentions with the commandment He gives to anyone who would follow Him in today's Gospel lesson. Never resist people who do evil to you, Jesus says. Keep doing good even when the world does its worst to you.
Folks, this is a strange way to live.
And Jesus makes this way of life sound even stranger in the latter part of our lesson. Look at what He commands in verses 43 and 44:
Well, it isn’t because, if you hang in there, the world will recognize what a wonderful person you are. For every Gladys Stains, who received a major award from the country where she rendered her service to Jesus Christ, there are millions of believers who are put down, despised, shunned, and forever ignored for being faithful.
One good reason for pursuing the strange life style of loving God with our whole beings and of loving our neighbors as ourselves is that, in fact, those who live any other way aren’t really living.
Author Lois Cheney tells a parable about a man who saw that love was hard and so kept to himself; saw that the striving for high ideals was strenuous and so put his head down and focused on surviving from day to day; saw that serving and giving to others got one embroiled in challenges they wouldn’t otherwise have and so just took care of himself. When the man died, he approached God and said, “Here I am, Lord: undiminished, unmarred, and unsoiled, no worse for the wear. Here’s my life” “Life?” God asked. “What life?”
The strange life of love in which we keep on loving even when others—even others in Christ’s own church—may hate us, is, truly the only real way to live. Every other way of living is a living death: no risks, no challenges, no fulfillment, no God.
But how do we live such a life? Just this past week in an email many of you received, I shared a story of Martin Luther’s. It’s worth repeating. Luther spoke of what happened when the devil tempted him to sin. “When [the devil] comes knocking upon the door of my heart and asks, ‘Who lives here?’ the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, ‘Martin Luther used to live here but he has moved out. Now I live here.’ The devil, seeing the nail prints in His hands, and the pierced side, takes flight immediately.”
The strange and beautiful way of life Jesus commands in today’s lesson—the way of love that refuses to take revenge and stands strong in the power of God—is possible when we let Jesus Christ, the One Who died and rose to give us life—into the center of our lives. You see, Jesus lived the perfect life of love He describes throughout the Sermon on the Mount and if we will let Him into our every decision, our every moment of temptation, our every relationship, He will come to live inside of us and change our lives today and for all eternity.
Some of you have heard me say that there’s a prayer I offer up to God whenever someone vexes me, or is unkind to me, or just annoys me. First of all, I tell God how I’m feeling. Then I make a request. “Lord,” I say, “I find myself incapable of loving this person right now. But I know that you love him or her, just as you love me in spite of how annoying or wrong I can be. You sent your Son to die and rise for them, just like You sent Him for me. So, please God, love this person through me. Grant that they’ll only experience Your love from me.”
You know the strange thing? God has answered that prayer every time I’ve offered it. And, here’s something else: As I’ve let Jesus into those relationships in this way, God often has transformed those relationships and made a way for me to truly come to love as I love myself the very people I once found so impossible to love.
If you’re serious about living the life style of the Sermon on the Mount, there’s only one way for that to happen and that’s to let the Preacher of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, be the Master of your whole life.
Jesus will take up residence in your life.
He will give you a strange way to live.
But truly, it’s the only way to live!
Matthew 5:38-48
I was meeting with a group of fellow pastors when one of them brought up the subject of committed Christians they had known. “Being around people like that,” this pastor said, “always inspires me.” We all agreed. Then, one of our number said something I’ll never forget. “You know,” he said, “every committed Christian I’ve ever known is…sort of strange.” He didn’t mean it as an insult. He meant that the committed Christians he’d known weren’t afraid of being different, weren’t afraid, as Jesus Himself put it, to let their “light so shine before [the world]…that [others]…see [their] good works and give glory to [God] in heaven.” I think my colleague was right: People committed to following Jesus Christ are strange.
And that can be hard.
Australian Graham Stains and his wife, Gladys, became missionaries in India in 1984. There, among other things, they oversaw a leprosy hospital. In January, 1999, Graham and his sons, Philip and Timothy, 10 and 8, traveled to a village called Manoharpur. As Graham had done for 14 straight years, the three went there to provide Bible teaching along with training in health and hygiene. Graham knew that some of the tribal Hindus in the area opposed any Christian teaching. There had been at least sixty attacks on churches in the territory between 1986 and 1998. But felt called to share with them the Gospel of new, everlasting life with God for all who repent for sin and believe in Jesus. He also wanted to serve the people there. It was cold when Graham and the boys arrived. They slept in a station wagon. One night, about 50 people approached the vehicle, “screaming and swinging axes and other weapons.” They beat the missionary and his sons, put straw under their station wagon, and torched it.
If I had been in the position of Gladys Stains, Graham’s widow, I fear that I would have dissolved into a fierce hatred for the people in that region of India. I would, I fear, have become angry with God. Were I in her position, I think I might have looked for revenge. And I likely would have gotten the next plan out of India.
But Gladys responded strangely. She and a daughter, Esther, remained in India, continuing to share the Good News of Jesus and to minister to lepers until 2004, when Esther went to medical school and Gladys left to be near her.
In 2005, Gladys’ strange way of life was recognized when she was given “the Padma Shri award for distinguished service,” India’s equivalent to a knighthood in England. Gladys even said that though she loved and missed her husband and sons, she saw it as an honor to them that God had counted them worthy to give their lives in the cause of sharing the Gospel with those who, as evidenced by their cold-blooded murder of three innocent believers, so clearly needed that Gospel.
For a world that values self-preservation and self-promotion, Gladys’ faith is strange. But in our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus tells us that it’s strange people like these who populate his kingdom and He wants us all to be like them.
Please pull out the Celebrate inserts from today’s bulletin and turn to this morning’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 5:38-48. Here, Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount. Read the first verses of the passage along with me silently, please:
[Jesus says:] You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.Jesus begins here by citing Leviticus, chapter 24. It says, “Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return; fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered.”
Let’s be clear about two things at this point.
- First, God in the Old Testament is not commanding the rough justice of revenge. That’s not what “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” means.
- Second, God in the New Testament—Jesus—is not overturning Old Testament law.
God gave the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" command to prevent that from happening. He wanted to ensure that the punishments meted out to people never exceeded the gravity of their wrongs. Revenge is never something human beings are to administer.
Jesus amplifies God’s Old Testament intentions with the commandment He gives to anyone who would follow Him in today's Gospel lesson. Never resist people who do evil to you, Jesus says. Keep doing good even when the world does its worst to you.
- In Jesus’ day, being backhanded across the cheek was the act of an arrogant person who thought himself superior to another. The natural reaction for the victim is to slap back. But Jesus says, “Don’t stoop to seeking revenge. Maintain your dignity, rely on Me, and offer your other cheek as well.”
- In Jesus’ day, people were even more likely to take others to court than people are today. And in his day, most people owned only two articles of clothing: a cloak and a coat. One served as an outer garment, the other was like underwear. If someone sues you, Jesus says, don’t fight back. Let them take both your garments. Even then, you’ll remain clothed in the grace, love, and dignity of God.
- In Jesus’ day, Roman soldiers who had something to be carried could, at will, pick an ordinary person from off of the streets and force them to act as a pack mule for one mile. Jesus says that if you’re forced to carry something for a mile, confound those who treat you as a slave and volunteer to serve them for an extra mile.
Folks, this is a strange way to live.
And Jesus makes this way of life sound even stranger in the latter part of our lesson. Look at what He commands in verses 43 and 44:
You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven…One question that Jesus' words may bring to our minds is this: Why exactly would anyone want to live the strange lifestyle that Jesus describes here?
Well, it isn’t because, if you hang in there, the world will recognize what a wonderful person you are. For every Gladys Stains, who received a major award from the country where she rendered her service to Jesus Christ, there are millions of believers who are put down, despised, shunned, and forever ignored for being faithful.
One good reason for pursuing the strange life style of loving God with our whole beings and of loving our neighbors as ourselves is that, in fact, those who live any other way aren’t really living.
Author Lois Cheney tells a parable about a man who saw that love was hard and so kept to himself; saw that the striving for high ideals was strenuous and so put his head down and focused on surviving from day to day; saw that serving and giving to others got one embroiled in challenges they wouldn’t otherwise have and so just took care of himself. When the man died, he approached God and said, “Here I am, Lord: undiminished, unmarred, and unsoiled, no worse for the wear. Here’s my life” “Life?” God asked. “What life?”
The strange life of love in which we keep on loving even when others—even others in Christ’s own church—may hate us, is, truly the only real way to live. Every other way of living is a living death: no risks, no challenges, no fulfillment, no God.
But how do we live such a life? Just this past week in an email many of you received, I shared a story of Martin Luther’s. It’s worth repeating. Luther spoke of what happened when the devil tempted him to sin. “When [the devil] comes knocking upon the door of my heart and asks, ‘Who lives here?’ the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, ‘Martin Luther used to live here but he has moved out. Now I live here.’ The devil, seeing the nail prints in His hands, and the pierced side, takes flight immediately.”
The strange and beautiful way of life Jesus commands in today’s lesson—the way of love that refuses to take revenge and stands strong in the power of God—is possible when we let Jesus Christ, the One Who died and rose to give us life—into the center of our lives. You see, Jesus lived the perfect life of love He describes throughout the Sermon on the Mount and if we will let Him into our every decision, our every moment of temptation, our every relationship, He will come to live inside of us and change our lives today and for all eternity.
Some of you have heard me say that there’s a prayer I offer up to God whenever someone vexes me, or is unkind to me, or just annoys me. First of all, I tell God how I’m feeling. Then I make a request. “Lord,” I say, “I find myself incapable of loving this person right now. But I know that you love him or her, just as you love me in spite of how annoying or wrong I can be. You sent your Son to die and rise for them, just like You sent Him for me. So, please God, love this person through me. Grant that they’ll only experience Your love from me.”
You know the strange thing? God has answered that prayer every time I’ve offered it. And, here’s something else: As I’ve let Jesus into those relationships in this way, God often has transformed those relationships and made a way for me to truly come to love as I love myself the very people I once found so impossible to love.
If you’re serious about living the life style of the Sermon on the Mount, there’s only one way for that to happen and that’s to let the Preacher of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, be the Master of your whole life.
Jesus will take up residence in your life.
He will give you a strange way to live.
But truly, it’s the only way to live!
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