MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron
Continuing a series on Jesus and His ministry, this week we'll look at how He talked to people differently depending on their situation and their needs. To the multitudes, He shared parables about seeking the lost; He had compassion on the crowds, and offered mercy to the needy. Then to His disciples He presented ethical guidelines for their behavior. As we examine the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 through 7), we should keep in mind the different ways that Jesus approached each group, and let those guide our dealings with others.
When I was teaching college courses that included New Testament writings, sometimes I had to remind Christian students not to berate classmates over some passages - Paul's especially - because those other students "weren't there yet". While it's true that Jesus gave specific ethical challenges to His followers, His tone with the multitudes was different. When speaking to nonbelievers, His words were more general, more of a beginning place. Repentance must come first before anyone is ready to hear about changes needed in their lives.
The ethical teachings of the well-known Sermon on the Mount are prefaced with the statement, “When He saw the multitudes, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. ... He began to teach them” (Matthew 5:1-2). There were other listeners within hearing, but the words spoken were primarily to those who had decided to be followers.
The key word in His approach is love. Our entry point is accepting the all-encompassing love of God, made available by the sacrificial love of Jesus. One of the disciples who was with Jesus all during His ministry wrote, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Another disciple recorded Jesus' words to a teacher of the law, quoting from Old Testament scriptures. "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’" (Mark 12:30-31; from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18).
Paul captured this in a summary, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). We're saved, not by our own goodness, but because of faith in His Son. Once we accept God's love, we're motivated and inspired to seek detailed direction in how to express love to others.
Another thing my students in ethics classes discovered was the difference in the Ten Commandments and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. We're to love like the Father, who "'causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous'". The verse before that reads, "'love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you'" (Matthew 5:45, 44). In the Old Testament, laws deal with actions - do not steal, do not kill, etc. - while Jesus taught principles behind behaviors.
The Sermon on the Mount can be summarized by three characteristics: interior motives, perfection, and pacifism. In this message, Jesus evaluated actions in a new way, based on (hidden) interior motives. He prefaced each by starting, "'You have heard...but I say...'" (see Matthew 5:21, 5:27 and 5:43). Bringing our actions to light in terms of motives and attitudes moves the commandments to an entirely different and deeper level of the heart.
The term perfection may scare us - "'Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect'" (Matthew 5:48). Most of the individual commands in chapters 5 and 6 of Matthew imply some application of perfection. The context is that God who calls us is faithful to help us love as He loves - sacrificially and as a servant.
Carrying out God's perfection then is expressed in a kind of pacifism. Part of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:10-12 includes, "'Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.'" We remember and embrace Christ who went to the cross without defending Himself.
Putting into practice Matthew 5:39-42 involves replacing Old Testament concepts of an-eye-for-an-eye with higher principles of non-retaliation. God will balance and make things right, while our charge is to turn the other cheek, give more than asked, and go the second mile. You can see why students in the ethics classes decided that living according to the Sermon on the Mount were far more difficult even than following the Ten Commandments.
Jesus did not set forth legal codes; instead, He urged putting others first. When we give ourselves to Christ, we figuratively die, and His light and love flow through us. Only then do submission and servanthood become possible, with daily help from the Holy Spirit. What would Jesus say to a woman caught in adultery? "'Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more'" (John 8:11).
