Jesus Don't Preach

Conflict

(Recite & 7:17-19)

So begins, and so ends the Sermon on the Mount. It begins with pulsating promises and ends with a loud crash.

Most sermons have a shelf life of three to five days. Then it is forgotten. This one is still around two thousand years later. It won’t go away. Still scintillating, bedazzling, confounding us.

Confounds. Yes, yes.

When Virginia Stem Owen, an English Literature teacher at Texas A&M, assigned her students The Sermon on the Mount as part of her class reading, she was surprised at the response. Despite her students coming from conservative, middle-class families, inside Bible Belt, she discovered nothing but hatred for Jesus’ words:

“I did not like the essay ‘Sermon the Mount.’ It was hard to read and made me feel like I had to be perfect and no one is.”

“The things asked in this sermon are absurd. To look at a woman is adultery? That is the most extreme, stupid, un-human statement that I have ever heard.”

“Many believe that this sermon should be taken literally. I believe, on the other hand, that, because the scriptures have been interpreted from so many different languages, we should use them as a guide—not law. Another fallback is that certain beatitudes are irrelevant to current life-styles. Loving your enemies, for instance, is obviously not observed by the majority today.”

“In this essay the author explains the doctrines of an era in the past which cannot be brought into the future in the same context. This essay now cannot be taken the same way it was written. It can be used as a guideline for good manners.”

Guideline for good manners

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What do you make of the rigors of Jesus’ sermon?

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Sooner or later, you come face to face with Jesus’ sermon, and then you will find it gripping you nudging you to respond.

Makes some feel uncomfortable. Like someone giving moral advice to a person who has done wrong. Unsolicited advice. Ever have someone do this to you? Not knowing your entire situation, they feel free to direct your hands and feet. “This is what you should do…” Like someone standing over you in the most annoying and condescending way.

Preaching at you.

Reminds me of the words of Madonna’s song: “Papa don’t preach, I’m in trouble deep. Papa don’t preach, I’ve been losing sleep.”

And you plead, “Jesus don’t preach, I’m in trouble here. I need you to soothe me. I can’t live up to your ideals. They’re too high for me. I can’t reach them. Jesus, don’t dog me with your words. They’re killing me. Don’t preach at me. Love me.”

And so we try to mitigate Jesus’ words. Make it less severe, less painful.

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Thomas Aquinas, a medieval theologian, says the harder points of the sermon are reserved for those with high calling.

You sit in the pew, listening to your pastor preach. And he waxes eloquent, and says something so way up there. Lofty. And you shrug it off. In your mind, you pick the ones you can reach. What’s doable. Practical. And ignore the rest.

Aquinas says “the counsels of perfection”—i.e., the hardest points of the sermon—are not mandatory for everyday believers. The most stringent laws are optional, given to those who have a higher calling.

To someone like me. Poor me.

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Some early Protestants favored a more simple, literal reading.

Yes, Jesus’ words are lofty. But we are being commanded, so we must obey, whatever the cost may be. Every command has equal force. And the high cost was to take a step back from mainstream society.

Whatever happened to salt and light? And whatever happened to the gospel of grace?

“You may have noticed that the best law-keepers are not necessarily the best people. Obeying laws alone does not lead us to be the kind of people God wants us to be. If we keep the law by force of will, we fail. And if we see obeying the law as the ultimate faithfulness, we will become law keepers instead of people in relationship with God and each other.” (Elane O’Rourke, A Dallas Willard Dictionary, 35)

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Lutherans say that the sermon is meant to drive us to despair, preparing us to receive the gospel somewhere else.

But where? From Paul’s writings. Yes, I have found myself going to Paul to soften the harder points on this sermon. But I have never despaired from reading the sermon either. In fact, the opposite. You may have noticed the mist in my eyes when I recited the beatitudes.

Liberals say that Jesus’ sermon presents the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

Existentialists say that the sermon is Jesus’ guide to authentic living.

All these approaches see Jesus’ sermon as law which tells us what to do.

And then they tell us how to cope when we fail.

But it is a mistake to see the Sermon on the Mount as essentially law. And it is a greater mistake to think that these are requirements for entering-, or remaining in- the kingdom of God.

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What are they then?

The Sermon on the Mount is law, but much so more than law, commands that can be satisfied with sheer obedience.

Well then, what is it?

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The Sermon on the Mount is an invitation to look at the world through a different kind of lens.

It is your invitation not to despair, but to see the world through Jesus’ eyes. To align your head, heart, and hands with the mind of Jesus. And finally to apply His principles to new situations.

The Sermon on the Mount is an invitation to see a world where character is king! Where His character is taken seriously. And where his disciples aspire to His character, there in His kingdom where grace is all-sufficient to sustain and to transform.

In E.G. White’s best book (at any rate my favorite), she makes a case for you and me to take character formation seriously. She says,

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“Character building is the most important work ever entrusted to human beings; and never before was its diligent study so important as now” (Ed 225).

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What is thing called character?

E.G. White’s helps us here with a short definition.

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“Mental ability and genius are not character, for these are often possessed by those who have the very opposite of a good character. Reputation is not character. True character is a quality of the soul, revealing itself in the conduct” (Maranatha, Aug 3).

Look at the picture in today’s sermon handout.

You’ve seen this before. Let’s look at it again. A second or third look may reveal things you haven’t seen before.

(Go through the different parts, then…)

Character is who you are from the heart as seen through the relatively constant use of your will. Your character is your inner spirit, your inner quality, as seen in your action.

Your inner spirit, your inner quality—the real you when you’re not thinking about you, or the consequences of what you’re doing

I was in Smart & Final the other day

Grabbed everything on my list. Gotta hurry. Have to pick up kids from school. Oh no, I’m running late. Paid for my items and walked out the door. Then I remember, what about these soda under the cart? Did I pay for these? Gotta hurry. I’ll look at my receipt later after I’ve picked up the kids. Driving to the school, a tempting thought enters my mind. “Never mind. It was an honest mistake. Nobody will ever know.” Got to school. Lining up, I grabbed my wallet. Looked at the receipt. Soda? Ran my index finger down the receipt. Soda? No soda. The thought repeated itself in my head. “Don’t go back. No harm done. They won’t miss it. Nobody will ever know.” Stopped in the corner of Bell Rd and Old Airport Rd. Should I turn right, or left? Right would take me home. Left would take me back to S&F. I turned left. But it felt better to turn right. And my kids watched me re-enter S&F soda pack in hand. Nobody notices. I walk straight to the cashier. No explanation. Paid for the soda. And turned to my kids and explained, “Yes, it’s inconvenient. But it is the only right thing to do.”

But I struggled to turn right. Even worse. I struggled to remain anonymous. I so wanted to trumpet my righteousness to the cashier. And be praised for it. It took every thing out of me to remain silent. That my children were present was incidental. I couldn’t leave them in the car.

Perhaps one could say, “You’re commanded to go back and pay for it.” Fine.

But a better outlook is to ask, “What would it do to me if I didn’t?” Not thinking about punishment. Thinking about the character of my Lord, and my desire to be like Him. Do you see the difference?

I want to grow old bearing the dignity and character of my Lord. The Sermon on the Mount is my invitation to start trying inside the safe environment of His kingdom.

Jesus don’t preach, I’m in trouble deep.

In the words of J. Ellsworth Kalas in Beatitudes from the Back Side, 32.

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“Is there anything more beautiful than that a person who has grown old with such dignity and character that we see in them an unconscious holiness?” (J. Ellsworth Kalas in Beatitudes from the Back Side, 32)

Well, is there?

He’s not preaching at you. He’s inviting you to become a beautiful person because you bear His character.

Question for Reflection/Discussion

Read and reflect on . In what ways does one’s character lead to hope? Explain.