A few years ago I was driving to the Adirondack Mountains where I would spend a week in the Whitney Wilderness area. My canoe was on top of the car, my backpack and other equipment was in the back and I was set for the long trip to upper state New York. Driving that far is a little boring so I turned on the radio. It was Sunday, so there was a lot of religious programming which always turns out to be interesting. One program came on which was a preacher answering questions that had been sent in by listeners. The first question had to do with some Old Testament passage where he had been making the point: “Unless the text says otherwise, we should always take the Bible literally.” Fine and well, but the next question was from someone who asked: “What do you think of Jesus’ statement about turning the other cheek and going the second mile?” My jaw dropped as the preacher said, “Well, I hardly think that Jesus meant for us to literally turn the other cheek after someone strikes us. That would be totally impractical.” Then he told a story about an Irishman who was hit by someone, turned the other cheek and was hit again, and then got up and whaled the tar out of the person who had hit him. But my eyes nearly popped out of my head as the preacher went on to say, “Well, you see, that was from the Sermon on the Mount, and the things Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount are not to be taken literally. They do not work in a fallen world. The principles Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount were meant for when he comes and sets up the millennial kingdom. They are certainly not for today.”
I laughed as the thoughts went racing through my head: “Who is it in the millennial kingdom who is going to strike us so that we have to turn the other cheek? Isn’t that the time and place what Isaiah spoke of when he said: “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them” (Isaiah 11:6)? If the millennial kingdom is anything it is a kingdom of peace. If the Sermon on the Mount was only for the millennial kingdom, why would Jesus say something like, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh” (Luke 6:20-21). I thought the millennial kingdom was a place of prosperity. You mean there will be people who are poor, hungry and weeping in Christ’s future kingdom? This is obviously just a way of explaining away something you don’t like in the Bible, and many of us do this one way or another. We often talk about liberals compromising the Bible, but fundamentalists are very good at it as well.
I wanted to play a game and create a list that said: You might be a fundamentalist if... And I could come up with some good ones since I am a recovering fundamentalist myself. You might be a fundamentalist if your religion is a religion of rules and laws, not one of relationships — If it is more important for you to be right than to have right relationships. You might be a fundamentalist if you have a rigid set of beliefs, and you think anyone who disagrees with you cannot possibly be a Christian. A fundamentalist is someone who believes that Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into Welch’s Grape Juice — not wine. I explained in a sermon one Sunday how the pasteurization process which keeps grape juice from fermenting was not invented until very recent history, and Jesus really did turn the water into wine — more wine than the people could possibly drink. After the service a man came up to me who was so angry his face was red and I though he might try to hit me. It did not matter what the Bible clearly said, he had his mind made up that Jesus would never do something like that and nothing was going to change him — not even the Bible.
I had another situation in the same church where there was a man who loved Ken Hamm and his videos and books on creationism. He even took his family to visit the Creation Museum in Kentucky. He firmly believed that the earth was created in six literal 24 hour days — which is fine, except that he thought everyone else should believe it as well if they were true Christians. Never mind that in the creation story the sun and moon were not created until the fourth day. (How are you going to have solar days without the sun?) But the point is that during a Sunday School class one day he boldly stated that Jesus’ teaching of turning the other cheek made absolutely no sense. And I wondered to myself if he was a Christian in the truest sense of the word, that is, a Christ follower. He was an Old Testament follower, but not a Jesus follower, at least in some aspects. We have a lot of people who love the militaristic parts of the Old Testament and despise the teachings of Jesus about loving our enemies and doing good to them. Old Testament followers, but not Jesus followers.
At another time a young man challenged our youth pastor and said that if he really believed in the Bible he would believe that we should stone homosexuals. He was very serious. Somehow he had missed the story of Jesus looking at the woman caught in sexual sin and in danger of being stoned to death, and saying to her, “...neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11). It is much easier to just condemn people than it is to exhibit compassion and grace as Jesus modeled for us. Old Testament followers, and not Jesus followers.
But, someone will say, has God changed? Is there a God of the Old Testament and then a God of the New Testament? Certainly not! God hasn’t changed — WE have changed. The human race has been growing up, or maturing, over centuries of time. We have been developing intellectually and morally. The people of the Old Testament time were not ready for the teaching of Jesus. They could not have handled it. But in the “fullness of time” he came and said, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment... You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart... 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. 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 sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:21-45). Jesus did not do away with the Old Testament law, he expanded it and made it much more difficult. He took it to the next level. He showed where God had been going with it all along.
The Ten Commandments were about all the people of that day could handle — and we have not advanced much — but they had to be given as much as they could understand and obey at the time. Jesus brought the human race along to where it needed to be. He brought us up to speed and showed that the law was intended to include attitudes, motives and desires into the matrix. He was asking us to grow up to a new level. You can teach young children addition, but you cannot teach them calculus. They have to learn the basics first, and then the advanced courses come later. You don’t expect a first grader to do calculus, but you do expect a college student to be able to do it.
I think this is what was happening in the story of Jesus and the man we call The Rich Young Ruler. He came to Jesus and asked what it would take for him to inherit eternal life. Jesus said to him, “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother’” (Mark 10:19). But he claimed that he had kept all the commandments since he was a boy. Then Jesus took him to another level. The Bible says, “Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me’” (Mark 10:21).
I’m not saying that Jesus’ teachings are easy. They certainly go against my self-centered nature, and they are certainly difficult. But you cannot argue that they are not the teachings of Jesus. I don’t think ignoring them is an option. We ought to be studying them and trying to put them into practice whether they are easy or not. They are challenging, but shouldn’t we welcome the challenge of Jesus? Shouldn’t we be trying to follow him?
The pastor of the church where we were attending issued a challenge to us at the end of her sermon one Sunday. She said, “Ask God your toughest question, and then just sit and wait to see what he says to you.” I took the challenge, because I had some questions that were doozies. I asked my question and waited for God to explain himself. There came only two words: “Trust me.” I gave another, “Yes, but what about...” and I heard two more words: “Follow me.” That is not what I wanted to hear, but it is what I needed to hear. God doesn’t ask me to understand everything, he only asks that I trust him through the confusing stuff of life. He doesn’t ask me to have all the answers, only to follow him — step by step by step.
What is it that Jesus is asking of us? What is the real message of Jesus? I believe it is contained in Jesus’ words at the beginning of his ministry as he read from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). He came proclaiming that the Kingdom of God had come and that this was good news. God was being reconciled with the human race. Jesus came talking about God’s favor. He talked about freedom and release of the oppressed. He said that God was King and nothing could interfere with that. Obviously he did not come talking about the wrath of God, moral legalisms and religious rules.
I think the primary thing that Jesus came to say was that God wants us to be reconciled to us and that he had come in person to prove that. Jesus said, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). The apostle Paul said, “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1:22). This is the good news. God is not against you, he is for you. He is more anxious to be reconciled to you than you are to him. He is pursuing you as a lover. He is not holding your sin against you, he has forgotten your sin. You are living under a pile of guilt and shame, and he is standing with his arms open wide waiting for you to let it go so he can embrace you. The Gospel is nothing if it is not good news. The barrier between ourselves and God has been broken down by Christ and the Father is waiting to welcome us into his embrace. There is no need to be afraid anymore.
But secondly, as we read the Sermon on the Mount we realize that the commandments of God are supposed to be internalized. In other words, the new order that Jesus is proposing, and its principles, are not to be external words written on tablets of stone, but internalized desires written on the soft flesh of our hearts. In other words, we now obey God from the heart, not from some external mandate. Loving God and living for him is our heart’s desire. The beatitudes are attitudes — attitudes of trust and hope. We are resurrection people and we do not dread what other people dread. Our hope is not in a political party or even in our nation. Our hope is in the kingdom of God and all that means and will mean. We are temporary citizens here, and as Paul writes: “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21). It is this realization that we are not permanent citizens here and that we are living for another kingdom that helps to make the injustices of this world tolerable. Therefore, we can endure insults, turn the other cheek, love our enemies and forgive the things done to us. We have been transformed by the death and resurrection of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit and given eternal hope, therefore we gladly surrender to Christ and follow him step by step through life — difficult though it may be.
I think the other very big thing I see in the Sermon on the Mount is the fact that Jesus not only wants us to be reconciled with God, he wants us to be reconciled with each other. Getting along with other people is all through the teachings of Jesus. I had two very wonderful things happen to me when I visited one of the churches I formerly pastored. Two different people came up to me and basically said, “You know when you were here I didn’t like you much, and I even gave you a hard time. I regret that, and my attitude toward you has changed.” Now certainly I could not have done anything to cause them to dislike me — with my sweet, gentle and charming disposition (sarcasm here). Actually, I had to do apologizing myself to some people. But anyway, things had not been good between us and they wanted to be reconciled. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. First of all on a personal level, I was deeply moved that they wanted to be reconciled to me. But secondly, it was a sign to me that God is moving in that church. This is Gospel living.
Human relationships are difficult aren’t they? We all have people that we disagree with or who just rub us the wrong way. But I think that is good for us. Before coming here, we were attending a church where many of the people think very differently than us. It was an Episcopal church on the campus of Kenyon College – a very secular and liberal institution. Many of the people in the church are faculty of the college and are really wonderful people, although very different from people we have normally fellowshipped with. We had openly gay people who attended there. One was a retired professor and an amazing scholar. He and his partner regularly attend the worship service. In that church we drank from a common cup — and we used the real stuff. One Sunday I was kneeling at the altar and the professor was next to me. It dawned on me as I knelt there: Here we are two sinners both in need of the grace of God; both holding out our hands seeking the presence of Christ in his body and blood. My sin is no better than his. He explains away the Scripture and excuses a part of behavior, but then so do I and many other Christians I know — like the preacher on the radio.
Now I know that about now some of you are thinking: Okay he’s gone liberal on us. No, but I have gone radical. I am trying to be a radical follower of Jesus and take seriously what he really said. I am trying to follow the One who showed compassion, not condemnation, to sinners. He ate with them and hung out with them. He said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone” (John 8:7). Don’t get me wrong. I don’t agree with the professor’s behavior. But it is good for me to be with people with whom I disagree. Does the gay professor and those like him have spiritual longings and want to have a relationship with God? Obviously he does or he would not be in church every Sunday. I don’t agree with his lifestyle, but neither do I condemn him. I’m learning to leave the judging thing with God. I’m content to let God sort it all out. I don’t want to concentrate on the speck in someone else’s eye when there might be a telephone pole in mine. Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matthew 7:1). My responsibility is to follow Jesus as best I can, and honestly that takes all the energy I have.
Rodney J. Buchanan
Amity United Methodist Church
July 22, 2012
rodbuchanan2000@yahoo.com
