Has Anybody Seen Grace?

Has Anybody Seen Grace?

If we are to understand and obey Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, we must see grace in it, in ourselves, and in others.

1. Pray, Read, Ask

Father God, feed our hunger with your Word. Quench our thirst with your Spirit. Satisfy us with your Presence. Here. At this very moment. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A sampling of one of Jesus’ hard sayings in the Sermon on the Mount. We spend one last sermon surveying the forest before we walk into the thick the forest and see the trees. Open your Bibles to . Please follow along in your own Bible as I read. (Read)

How can one obey what one does not understand? Isn’t it true that understanding is the basis of action?If we are to obey Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount doesn’t it make sense to know just how we are to approach Jesus’ teachings, even before we set out to understand and apply those very teachings?

Matthew 5:38–39 NIV

“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 anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.

Anecdote: A boy wants to help his dad cook. “Get the pan out. And don’t forget the oil. We’ll need it to start cooking the gluten.” The boy follows his dad’s commands. He has his eyes set on that portable stove in the garage, though. He wants to light the stove, pour the oil in the pan, and fry the gluten himself. But he hasn’t done it before. And his dad is cautious. “I don’t want you burnt with boiling oil, son.” “Oh I won’t dad. I know what I’m doing.” The dad seizes the moment: “Son, until you decide to see things through my own set of eyes and piggy back on my experience, you are not going to do the cooking. Are you ready to learn?” “Yes, dad.”

Just what is Jesus’ approach to cooking? In other words, what is his approach to understanding his own Sermon on the Mount? His basic lens for seeing?

I can tell you in one word: GRACE.

(Read then Pray)

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What is Grace?

Pray

Grace is undeserved and unearned gift .

(Quote ).

Grace is also beautiful action rising up from a beautifully formed character .

(Quote ).

Young lawyer, Mohandas Gandhi leaves his home in South Africa. He’d just been beaten, arrested, and released. For starting a peaceful protest against injustice. At a very different time in the British Empire. Charlie Andrews, a young, idealistic Anglican priest surprises him. Charlie had read about Gandhi’s cause in the newspaper. He wants to join Gandhi. Listen as their conversation turns theological.

Grace is our lens for understanding the Sermon itself, our place in it, and others’s place in it.

Without grace, the fifty commands found in the Sermon devolves into some form of legalism—well meant and even well-executed efforts, but purely self-initiated and self-sustained. Having gotten into the kingdom by grace, we behave as though we are kept in it by works—even as we claim grace.

2. Grace in the Sermon

Where is grace in the Sermon on the Mount?

Some say that Matthew cobbled up Jesus’ disparate sayings and slapped them together into what looks like a sermon. That Matthew has a vague understanding of grace, and does not even mention it. That Matthew, pre-dating Paul, lacks Paul profound insights on grace.

True, Paul’s eloquence defines grace for us. But this does not mean that Matthew does not understand grace.

Paul knew grace. Matthew knew Grace.

In Matthew’s eyes, the very presence of Jesus is grace. To Matthew, Jesus IS grace personified. He spent three-and-a-half years of his life with Jesus!

Is it not Matthew who records the event describing the arrival of heaven’s gift, the gracious gift of Jesus Christ?

(Read )

Matthew 1:20–23 NIV

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Is it not Matthew who remembers for whom the sermon is meant—for those who have already entered the kingdom by grace?

(Read then Pray)

(Read )

Matthew 5:1–2 NIV

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said:

Is it not Matthew who reminds us that behavior modification, or outward obedience alone, is not enough to satisfy the words of Jesus? That graceful action begins with a heart formed into the image of Jesus Christ? (Read ; )

Before we jump in and study the Sermon on the Mount section by section, verse by verse, we step back one last Sabbath to look at the Forest for the Trees. Before we walk into the forest.

(Show Gandhi video clip rom 16:59 to 19:43)

(Show Gandhi video clip)

Grace is everywhere in the Sermon!

3. Grace in you

But is it in you? What I mean is, is grace part of your DNA? Your mindset? Your mode of doing? Your modus operandi?

We like to bash the poor old Pharisees. Legalists! Not really. No Pharisee ever admitted that they are saved by works. What they do say is, “We’re saved by the grace of God. We obey his commands precisely because we are grateful.” Sounds familiar? It’s the same argument you and I make. Scholars today do not call this “legalism.” They call it “covenant nomism”—relationship sustained through obedience. Which isn’t a problem in and of itself. It is the spirituality of the Psalms. Of OT believers at its best expression. Of Adventists.

But here is where the Pharisees take a legalistic turn. They left grace at the front door of the kingdom, and decided to overemphasize laws and commands at the expense of crucial attitudes of the heart. They left grace at the door and soon forgot that grace not only got them in, it also sustains them inside the kingdom.

Two different ways of seeing the Sermon on the Mount. Which leads to two different courses of action. One blunts the force of Jesus’ teaching by calling it a “metaphor.” The other calls for a principle of forceful but peaceful action.

This is precisely what Matthew remembers Jesus saying when he quotes him...

(Read ).

Matthew 23:23 NIV

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

These are all inner attitudes that affect the very quality of our spirit, our character.

There is such a thing as legalism inside the kingdom. Legalism has three forms:

(1) Attempting to secure and retain salvation by works,

(2) Fabricating new laws based on tradition and misrepresentation of God’s word,

(3) Overemphasis on law and obedience at the expense of other facets of the faith life.

Jesus warns us if this brand of righteousness. It is deadly.

What does it mean to see grace inside you? That you take good care never to leave grace at the door, or anywhere else but in your heart. That you learn to take it easy on yourself when you don’t measure up. That there is forgiveness for you even after you’ve been forgiven and let inside.

4. Grace in others

Charlie Andrews & Gandhi

But if we are to understand the Sermon, we must be willing to see grace in others. To learn to interpret the Sermon through others’ examples—however imperfect. And decide to learn from it

(View Gandhi clip 16:59 to 19:43, between Mohandas Gandhi and Charlie Andrews)

To see grace in others means more than learning from others. It also means taking it easy on others who, in your mind’s eye, fall short of its teachings.

Grace does not originate from you. You are as much a recipient of it as are others.

5. Has Anybody Seen Grace?

Grace is everywhere. It’s in the Sermon. It’s in you. It’s in others around you.

Don’t lose sight of grace.

You will need on through our journey through the Sermon...and beyond.

Don’t leave grace at the front door. Keep it always in your heart.

Question for Reflection/Discussion

Do an internal audit of your own self. Is grace part of your DNA? Your mindset? Your mode of operation? What needs to happen so that you increasingly become graceful as you are grace-filled?