Introduction: Read Matt.5:1-10
Those are the first words in Jesus' longest sermon on record. It's the first part of Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). Clarence Bauman called it the most important and most controversial biblical text.
Jesus starts his sermon by describing something we all want. He describes life on a higher spiritual plane - the top of the mountain - a life of true inner goodness - life up there. He describes a life that's above pettiness, above selfishness, above hate, above deception and lies, above revenge and impurity and addiction. He describes a connectedness with God almighty. A life lived in the God-realm and characterized by divine activity and the power and peace that comes with it. It begs the question: "How can we live there?"
I'll refer to this life throughout my talk and should clarify that I'll use a few different phrases to describe it. The God-realm is the rule of God - it's his kingdom where the stuff of God reigns. So when I say God-realm or rule of God, I'm referring to the things of his kingdom.
Jesus preached this sermon while sitting on a hill in front of a huge crowd. And, in the crowd that was listening to Jesus, there were a couple of groups of men who stood taller and taller as Jesus spoke. Their chests stuck out more and more and their heads swelled as Jesus seemed to be describing them in front of an enormous crowd. 15 minutes of fame was coming their way.
These guys not only kept the 10 Commandments, they added an extra 613 for good measure. They had crossed their t's, dotted their i's and handed their homework in with a bucket of apples for the teacher. Reward time, or so they thought. Jesus had different plans for them. His words that follow what I just read are words packed with punch, Jesus methodically curbs the swelling of their heads and pops their inflated chests. He unravels their tidy lives and exposes the reality of their situation - They had a shiny outward impression but were rotting on the inside.
Just when they thought they were on top of the mountain - spiritually mature, living life up there-, Jesus pulls the rug out from under them.
The bad news is, he may need to do the same to some of us today - I need it. The good news is, just like he did then, he'll show us a better way up there.
A few years back I found myself on the top of a mountain. I can remember standing on top, decked out in my winter gear and a snowboard. I looked like a snowboarder. It was my first time snow-boarding and I was with a buddy of mine at Sunshine mountain in the Rockies. It was an incredible day - minus 7, slightly overcast with large flakes of snow falling straight down slowly. At the end of the day we boarded to a place where we could take one more lift up the mountain before boarding down to the parking lot. The only thing about this lift was that it was a T-bar - a notorious lift for first-time snowboarders.
As we stood in a line of around 50-60 people, my friend gave me the low-down about how to make it up without disaster. He explained the rules. Do this, don't do that, etc. And of course, like any good friend he trash-talked me all the way to the front of the line. I'd have done the same for him. With all the trash talk going on, the situation was heightened. There was a strong sense of anticipation from the crowd behind us as well as the lift attendant.
It was finally our turn and the attendant put the bar in place and no sooner than it began to pull us did I lose my balance, causing my friend to lose his balance. the bar wipped out from under us and swung up the hill. The second bar came and the anticipation was higher. Everyone was quiet, watching. The bar was in place and it began pulling us. 5' into the ride I again lost my balance and the gong show began. We struggled together to stay up and around 15' into the ride the bar tossed my friend off and into a bank of snow. That seemed about right to me. But with his weight off, the bar yanked me up, leaving with one hand on the bar, one leg up in the air. it looked like sport goofy. Somehow over the next 50' I struggled and concluded my circus act by managing to get the bar in place and my board in the right rut. No sooner than I became stable did I hear the crowd below break out into a loud cheer. I would have waved if I was using both of my hands to keep myself alive.
Once I got to the top, I stood there, decked out in my winter gear and trying to look competent. No one at the top knew of the gong show I put on in getting up the mountain. For a few moments I looked like I fit in at the top of that mountain with the other snowboarders - but I knew I didn't. My outward appearance wasn't true to my inner experience. I didn't belong. The welts on my back told me so. So did the bruises on my head and my soar ribs. And a couple weeks later, my chiropractor told me so.
For some reason, in our hopes to live our lives on the top of the mountain - a life of true inner goodness in the God-realm - for some reason we gravitate to a way of getting there that leaves us like me after I got off the lift.
From all outward appearances things look in order. But things on the inside don't match up.
We plan out a logical way to get there... a way that fits our strengths, our calendars, our agenda's, our reputation and our drive. And we get at it: we jump through hoops and follow all kinds of rules and climb the mountain only to find that even though things look good on the outside, we're a filthy mess on the inside.
As humans, and especially as Christians, we have a long line of proof toward this tendency.
There's term used to describe this tendency toward rules: Legalism. It means "strict adherence to law or prescription, especially to the letter of the law rather than the spirit."
Directly related to our faith, it means that life in the God-realm is gained through good works - by dotting our i's and crossing our t's. It looks like following an external code of behavior in order to please God and impress others.
As a church, I don't think we're bad off with this. But legalism is always creeping its way into our lives. And history says we have this tendency...
The two groups of men that Jesus unraveled that day were the Scribes and Pharisees. The scribes were religious lawyers who guarded the law. The Pharisees were like Church Elders - our Spiritual Leadership Team would be a current equivalent in position.
In an effort to keep the laws of God, these two groups put up a fence of additional rules around God's law in order to keep from breaking it. They added at least 613 perimeter rules to keep them from coming close to breaking God's law.
For fear of taking his name in vain, they wouldn't allow anyone to address God with all the letters of his name - they took out the vowels thinking, odds are we won't profane his name if we're not given opportunity to use his name.
In order to keep from committing adultery, they wouldn't even look at women. These guys wore this rule like a badge, gaining a reputation as the 'bruised and bleeding Pharisees' as they ran into walls while avoiding glimpses of women.
Those were the actions of Jews two thousand years ago. 300 years later Christian monks outdid the Pharisees in their extremism by putting themselves through all kinds of self-denying lifestyles that mostly missed the point. One spent 10 years in a circular cage. One lived on top of a column and would fall on his face before God over 1200 times a day - he lived this way for 37 years.
Today, in Israel, some hotels have elevators that will stop on every floor on the Sabbath so that their guests will not break the Sabbath by having to push a button.
Also today, many Muslim countries equip their police with clubs to take care of any women who would wander out into public without their veil.
It's in Canada too. My mother-in-law went to a Bible College in Alberta a few decades ago and on that campus the boy students had to keep at least 6" between them and the girl students at all times.
And as you can imagine, throughout history we've turned our attention to trivial rules while ignoring weighty issues of life and faith.
Tony Campolo proved this point again and again as he toured Christian colleges in the United States with a provocative statement: He'd say, "The United Nations reports that over ten thousand people starve to death each day, and most of you don't give a (insert bad word here) sh__. However (he'd say), what is more tragic is that most of you are more concerned about the fact that I just said a bad word than you are about the fact that ten thousand people are going to die today."
He proved his point - he received letter after letter complaining about his bad word without a comment on the starving people.
Rules. I'm sure that most of the rules I've mentioned did not begin with the extremity I described. They likely started out in mild form and with great intent. These are stories of rules gone out of control - and rules usually will.
And before I tell you more about why I think rules can be extremely unhealthy, I have to say that rules can be helpful and have a place in our lives. If you're an alcoholic or even a strong candidate to become one you need the rule that says you'll never drink again. If you've only been dry for a short time you may even need a rule that says you won't go into your old drinking establishments for a while, maybe forever.
If you're addicted to or in danger of becoming addicted to pornography on the Internet you probably need a rule that says you won't go on the computer without someone else in the room. Or maybe you need to place your computer so that people outside the room can see your screen.
Rules aren't always bad. But here's the danger: Rules can clean up the outside without doing a thing to the inside. Rules can give an outward impression of life in the realm of God without doing a thing to our hearts - inside.
In 1934, the United States sent a delegate to Berlin under the Baptist World Alliance Congress and that delegate sent back this report:
"It was a great relief to be in a country where salacious sex literature cannot be sold; where putrid motion pictures and ganster films cannot be shown. The new Germany has burned great masses of corrupting books and magazines along with its bonfires of Jewish and communistic libraries."
This same delegate went on to defend Hitler as a leader who did not smoke or drink, who wanted women to dress modestly, and who opposed pornography.
And of course, we know what unfolded under Hitler in the next 10 years in Germany.
Rules can make the outside shine without touching the inside.
This is why, in a large portion of his sermon, Jesus recites a bunch of rules that the scribes and Pharisees are keeping, only to pull the rug out from under them exposing what's going on inside them.
Jesus quotes a rule - "Do not murder" - but then he goes on to say that anyone who holds another in contempt has already gone there in their heart - holding someone in contempt???... guilty as a murderer.
He quotes another, "Do not commit adultery" - but then he says that anyone who looks at another lustfully has already gone there in their heart... and they're guilty as an adulterer.
Later, when speaking to the Scribes and Pharisees Jesus says this: "Woe to you... you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are filled with greed and self-indulgence."
Bad news for the scribes and pharisees... and maybe bad news for us...
In his book, Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer gives account of the expedition he joined to climb the highest mountain on earth. Getting up Mt. Everest is not simple, I learned. But the payoff looks large for a mountain climber. The summit sits just over 29,000 feet up - roughly the altitude jets cruise at. The payoff is that you get to stand on the top of the world, enjoying, literally, the best view in the world. The view would be stunning - panoramic and awe-inspiring. Every climber dreams of this, but it's a long way up....
When you climb Everest you have to follow a lot of rules if you wanna make it up and down without calamity - you don't just climb Everest. To climb Everest, you have to set aside weeks to climatize, slowly allowing your lungs to get used to the thin air - you never fully climatize. You have to pack wisely - taking the right equipment, shelter, food and oxygen bottles - but not taking too much so as to weigh you down. You have to dress to handle warm, cold, rain and snow. You have to know how to climb as a team. You have to be able to read the weather and a map.
You have to learn and follow all these rules because we weren't made to be able to live in Everest conditions. The air is too thin. We can't breathe properly in those conditions. Oxygen depletion alters and damages the brain and eventually leaves the climber senseless and makes a safe decent impossible. There are plenty of corpses at the top of that mountain to testify to this.
In his book, Krakauer has a telling description of his moment at the top of Mt. Everest. He had made it. He followed the rules and now he was on the top of the world. Climbers dream of this moment.
But, as he describes, the moment was lost on him. All he could think about was that he didn't belong and that he needed to get down. He was a fish out of water. He knew he wasn't thinking straight because of the altitude. He knew the weather could and probably would change into a deadly storm any moment.
He looked like he was dwelling on the top of the world but things didn't look that way on the inside. He knew that the only way he could dwell on the top of Everest and not feel like a mess inside, was if he could breathe differently - but he couldn't.
He followed all the rules he could find to follow. But the rules didn't allow him to breathe up there...
I think the scribes and Pharisees would have felt like Krakauer did on Everest when Jesus was pulling the rug from under them.
They were following all kinds of rules but as Jesus cited one then two and eventually six examples of their insides grossly mismatching their outsides, they must have felt like they couldn't breathe, like they didn't belong up there....
Then, after unraveling these guys, Jesus delivers what at first feels like the deathblow. He says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
After knocking them senseless, Jesus says this to close off this part of his sermon.
This verse has always discouraged me. I read the six examples Jesus gave leading up to this verse and they make it clear that I'm so far from perfect, far from purity. This verse has often felt like one final blow.
At first it does feel like that, but a closer look doesn't reveal one final shot, instead, it reveals the answer to our dilema: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
This verse holds the key - it hints at how we can live in the God-realm - how we can breathe differently.
The context of the verse is important. It is part of the last of the six challenges to the crowd. It's a challenge to love like God does. More specifically, it's a challenge to be about love like God the Father is.
Dallas Willard is helpful here. He understands this passage in a way that helps me - I think he has the essence of Jesus' point. The language of the verse could be expressed like this: "Be permeated with Love, therefore, as your Father in Heaven is permeated with love."
I think he's saying that if we want to live up there, in the God-realm, then it's not gonna be because we follow a bunch of rules.
The scribes and Pharisees were all about doing the right thing... or more accurately, not doing the wrong thing.
"Be perfect" is not a call to do something or not do something, it's a call to being - being permeated with God's love.
We're not gonna live within God's rule because we follow a bunch of rules. It's gonna be because God's love and kingdom has come to us.
So, after bowling over this crowd, Jesus gives them a lifeline. They'd have been feeling like Jon Krakauer on the top of Everest - unable to breathe - Jesus doesn't give them a death-blow, it looks more like him breathing some new life their way - a breath-blow if you will - resuscitation when they needed it most.
Only when we allow God's love to permeate us can we breathe in God's kingdom. Jesus makes it clear that they, and we, are unable to climb into the kingdom of God. We need the kingdom to come to us.
Shortly after this statement in Jesus' sermon, he affirms this with another clue. While teaching the crowd to pray the Lord's Prayer, he uses this prayer:
"Father, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."
Essentially, it's a request that God bring heaven to earth - to bring God's kingdom, or rule to earth: "We can't climb the mountian, Father, bring the mountain-top to us." And he will. That is grace.
Philip Yancey tells a great story about C.S. Lewis - deceased philosopher, theologian and Prof. of Lit. at Oxford. Yancey writes,
"During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into room. 'What's the rumpus about?' he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh that's easy. It's grace."
Grace is not about doing it's about being. God doesn't call us to himself because he wants us to do something. He calls us to himself to receive something - to receive him.
As Dallas Willard said, "He doesn't call us to do what he did, but to be as he was, permeated with love. Then the doing of what he did and said becomes the natural expression of who we are in him."
He calls us to receive grace - grace that will transform us from the inside out, inner goodness giving rise to true outer goodness.
One of the problems with the scribes and Pharisees was that they simply focused on not doing anything wrong. Their focus was on avoiding wrong action. And 9 times out of 10, rules are put in place to support that effort.
But Jesus knew that wrong action is not the problem for us, it's only a symptom. Jesus wants to take us to the source.
It doesn't feel great when God deals with the source of our wrong actions.
It feels like Jesus is pushing us away from the Rule of God when he calls our bluff, showing us how far off we are.
The good news is that the opposite is actually happening. He pulls the rug out so that we don't seek stability and value in the things we accomplish or from avoiding wrong action. He pulls the rug out so that we depend on him to experience true inner goodness - to be lifted up.
I said earlier that Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites. By definition, a hypocrite is someone who puts on a mask. Living by rules encourages hypocrisy as it hides what's really going on inside us.
As Philip Yancey says, "There are only two alternatives to hypocrisy: perfection or honesty." And since Jesus' sermon reminds us that perfection isn't happening, we have to be honest and call it like it is.
We have to confront ourselves here. Not only because hypocrisy is the #1 reason why people don't wanna come to church but because we cut ourselves off from the fullness of God's grace and love until we come clean - until we go to the source of our wrongdoings and make room for him to work.
Leo Tolstoy argued that the life up there - the mountaintop of true inner goodness - isn't measured by how pure we are, but by the awareness of our impurity. Because it's that awareness that opens the door to God's grace.
In his sermon, Jesus is forcing us to face reality. Grace and the ability to breathe in God's kingdom comes on the heals of our coming to grips with this reality. He's our only hope. No more being phony. We have a need. Only he can fill it.
Ernerst Gordon tells his story of how he and some other men came to grips with their reality. Gordon was a Brittish soldier captured at sea by the Japanese in WWII.
Against international law, he and thousands of others were forced to build a railway through the jungle in Japan. Listen to this incredible story... Rumors p. 173-175 by Yancey
Gordon and the other men knew where they stood. Their outer reality mirrored their inner reality. No fooling themselves here. Because they had come grips with this that their inner reality began to change.
As Gordon said, "Faith thrives when there is no hope but God."
And once their inner reality was transformed, it overflowed and changed their outward reality. As time went on they formed a church, and then a jungle university.
The opposite of legalism isn't freedom it's grace. And grace creates freedom.... even in a prison work camp.
Rules give an external impression of the rule of God. Grace is the inward reality of the rule of God... an inward reality that will eventually grow outward.
It's about God's Rule in our lives, not rules.
Rules are about our control... The Rule of God is about trust
Rules are about doing... The Rule of God is about being
Rules focus on the trivial... Rule of God is focused on weighty matters
Rules cause us to judge others... The Rule of God generates thankfulness
Rules lead to hypocrisy... The Rule of God leads to humility
So how is this grace administered to us? How do we live in God's rule without rules?
Be permeated with love, Jesus said. Jesus boiled the entire law down to, "Love God and love each other." St. Augustine boiled that down to "Love God and do as you please."
With rules, we often try to have our lives line up with what love for God is supposed to look like. We can't legislate love - it's only when we receive his love - and are permeated by it - that's when we are compelled to love him and others.
And it's only when we come to grips with our need that God the Holy Spirit enters our hearts, permeates us with his love and gives us what we need to Love God and each other: John 14: 15-17 says: "." Dallas Willard says "additional strengthener"... an additional strengthener living inside us... The Spirit of God. that's what we need to breathe.
Here's an odd statement that, I think, sums up what we're talking about today: Up is down is up.
We often think of spiritual maturity, or life in God's kingdom as up, as higher. That's ok. We go wrong when we use rules as a ladder to get there. It's only when we realize that we're actually down here that by the grace of God the power of the Spirit enters and permeates us with love, creating in us a true inner goodness that characterizes the rule of God - a life up there.
Up is down is up. If we think we're up, we're not. If we know we're down, the grace of God will take us up.... Up is down is up.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God, blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God... Blessed are those permeated with love.
A higher spiritual plane, the top of the mountain - God-connectedness - true inner goodness - It sounds lofty. It looks appealing. How can we live there? How can we live in the Rule of God?
It's not by following rules. Rules don't allow us to breathe there - grace does. Up is down is up. It's not until we see our need - the need that says we're stuck down here - that we get a new way to breathe up there. |
