I found this interesting quote from Jordon Cooper, who is a pastor up in Canada. He was explaining how the Sermon on the Mount might be understood from a different perspective.
What if all of this [Christ's teaching in the Sermon] is not new and more stringent rules for us to observe but rather a picture of the way God is? Of course, we are forever getting confused into thinking the scripture is mainly about what we are supposed to dorather than a picture of who God is. If Jesus had put forth behavior like turning the other cheek when someone strikes you as a useful tactic for bringing out the best in other people, then Jesus could be justly accused of ethical naivete. But the basis for the ethics of Sermon on the Mount is not what works but rather the way God is. Cheek-turning, is not advocated as what works (itusually does not), but advocated because this is the way God is--God is kind tothe ungrateful and the selfish. This is not a stratagem for getting what we want but the only manner of life available, now that, in Jesus, we have seen what God wants. We seek reconciliation with the neighbor, not because we will feel so much better afterward, but because reconciliation is what God is doing in the world in the Christ.
Thinking about the impact of God's mercy is astounding to me. It is the mercy of God that continues to affect how God relates to you and I. In God's mercy, we find that God continually forgives, atones, makes right, pour out the Spirit- for each of us. Regardless if we're able to live up to the standard or not, God loves us anyway. And the Sermon on the Mount points us to other ways in which God relates to us- in the way Jesus tells us we ought to live.
Another way in which we can look into the mind and behavior of God is to look at the life of Jesus. Look at how he related to his friends, the strangers surrounding him, or in response to his critics, Jesus' always had a word of compassion or an insight into the mind of his oppressor (sometimes with a funny zinger included). Both Jesus' life and the words he spoke give us direct access into the mind and motivation of God. Is that special or what?
Thursday, August 05, 2004
A Wonderful Way to Look at Jesus
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1 comment:
That's interesting, as I am currently preaching through Matthew and am now in the Sermon on the Mount. I, too, believe that we are not being given a new set of laws to abide by. Jesus wasn't simply letting us know that Moses was a softie - now here's the really hard stuff to do. I believe Jesus was showing us not so much what good people do, but who good people are - inwardly.
If we were the kind of people who did away with anger, contempt and the like, what kind of people would we then be? If we were the kind of people who did away with obsessive desire what kind of people would we then be? If we were to become the kind of people who actually loved our enemies, what kind of people would we then be? If we were to become those kind of people (as you so aptly state - the kind of person Jesus actually was) our actions would follow. We wouldn't have to go around convincing each other not to kill, steal, be unfaithful in relationships, etc. Those things would simply be the natural result.
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