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The Sermon on the Mount is arguably one of the most known teaching of Jesus. It contains a multitude of teachings that challenge Christians to live a radical, countercultural life.
The Beatitudes, found in Matthew 5:3-12, form the opening of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Each Beatitude reveals a paradox—the kind of person whom the world often overlooks is, in fact, the one whom God blesses.
This week as a community, we celebrated the 76th annual Pancake Day. As someone not native to Liberal, I want to share a few thoughts with you about this Tuesday that celebrates our entering in to this Easter season.
Pancake Day and Shrove Tuesday represent the preparing of our hearts for the Lenten season. Shrove Tuesday provided a wonderful opportunity to reflect on our own spiritual lives and to prepare for the season of Lent. It’s a time to examine our hearts, repent of our sins, and engage in acts of devotion that draw us nearer to God.
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is as shocking now as it was when it first came from the Lord’s mouth. Matthew 5-7 is like an address given by a newly hired college football coach setting the tone for his administration: “If you want to play on my team” (Jesus tells us) “then everything is about to change.”
When readers come to the end of Matthew 5 (specifically, verses 43-47) they realize playing on this team will mean the upturning of the way things have always been. “Here is what you have heard,” Jesus tells the crowd, “love neighbors, hate enemies.” This is a distillation of the old administration, the status quo. Now the first part of the sentiment is quite biblical, coming from a direct quotation of Leviticus 19:18. The second half, however, is not a quote from God’s law, but an addition by Jewish teachers. “If God tells us to love our neighbor, he is giving us a license to hate everyone else,” so the logic went. Not anymore. Enter Jesus.
We are story-telling and story-loving creatures. That is why so many of our messages are visual, and appeal to our imagination - that part of us that is able to create and hold images, and draw meaning from them. This is why we pay good money to watch movies, why we binge TV shows, and why so much of our language depends on visual analogies.
Jesus of course is well aware of this, and during his earthly ministry he often taught through images. Pick up one of the gospels and peruse it, if you are so disposed, and you will discover the greatest Teacher the world has known was the consummate storyteller. The Son of God was not in the business of offering cold propositions: he constantly appealed to his listeners’ imagination.
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:32-34, ESV)
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