In the Old Testament there is a scene where the young king Josiah is handed a book that one of the priests found during a refurbishment of the Jerusalem temple. It's contents horrify the king as he realises that what he reads does not match how his people have lived. He gives these orders to the priests and his attendants, “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”
When you read through the Sermon on the Mount you can't help but get the same feeling as Josiah. That, "Hang on a minute, when did we get it all the wrong way round?" feeling when you realise that the most judgemental people that you will meet can be found in the buildings of churches. We seem to get the old cliché of "hate the sin and love the sinner" completely the wrong way round, loving the details of people's sin and hating them at the same time.
Listen out for how much of the preaching that you hear, especially the famous-TV/Radio-preacher variety, that is "attack preaching." By that I mean preaching that points out the danger of someone else's thinking, writing, music or behaviour. Then compare that to that famous tirade of Jesus against the tax collectors and sinners, the idol worshippers and prostitutes of his day. What do you mean you can't find it? It must be in the Gospels somewhere...
Instead of lashing out at sinners Jesus tells his disciples to have a healthy sense that they too are men and women who fall short of God's glory. There is a wonderful sense of slapstick in his imagery of a person with a plank trying to get dust out of a friend's eye. I'm sure the crowds were laughing at this. Did he act it out do you think?
There is also a delicious irony in his use of language in verse six. Don't go doling out your pearls of wisdom here there and everywhere. You might be incredibly wise and able to advise even the dimmest sinner or the wisest saint but, you know, they might not always appreciate your wisdom when you have that plank sticking out of your eye. They might trample it underfoot and knock you down in the process!
The need to knock
I think this need to knock others, the need to talk down like someone giving out pearls of wisdom comes from a real sense of insecurity. This is why Jesus emphasises again the goodness of Our Father in Heaven in verses nine to twelve. Sometimes the church behaves like a political party that has run out of positive things to say and simply puts out attack adverts. But we do have something amazingly positive. We know that God loves us, that he looks favourably upon us and when we ask he responds with generosity beyond what we deserve. Isn't that a good enough message to shout without knocking other people in the process?
This brings Jesus on to a warning about false prophets and false teachers. In true Jesus style he does not give a long and complicated set of ways for knowing who is true and who is false. Instead he simply tells us, "By their fruit you will recognise them."
In other words do they make the world around them look more and more like the Kingdom of Heaven? Do they prize the values of the beatitudes? What do they think of people who are meek? Do they make peace or start fights? Do they increase love or decrease it?
Note that Jesus explicitly warns us not to ask "Do they perform miracles or make great prophecies?" but rather, "What fruit grows out of the tree of their ministry?" Is it bitter or wholesome?
Two final thoughts
1) I should have split chapter 7 into two like I did with chapter 5!
2) Do you notice how Jesus-focussed Jesus own teaching is at the end of this sermon? He does not say, "everyone who hears the words of God and puts them into practice is like a wise man." He says, "Everyone who hears these words of mine." Jesus is strongly conscious of his unique relationship with God the Father. He is aware that he is the king in this Kingdom of Heaven and it is with him and his teaching that we must reckon, not with thoughts and ideas but with this very real, very present person - Jesus the Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment