Week 21—Sunday John 7:14-17
Week 21—SUNDAY
SERMON ON THE MOUNT UNREALISTIC?
We saw how deeply God in Christ “visited and redeemed his people.” We turn now to a portion of the biblical account which many regard as idealistic teaching and not meant for actual practice. They thereby suggest that Jesus is teaching by the method of the Word become word and not the Word become flesh. The Sermon on the Mount is looked on as impractical idealism—the Word become word and not practical realism—the Word become flesh.
The Sermon on the Mount is beyond most of us, but it is not thereby idealism. What we are trying to live is an inverted realism—a realism that is a bad idealism that won’t work—it lands us in a mess. Nothing sustains it except our own unrealistic wills. The universe doesn’t sustain it, hence to live some way other than the Sermon on the Mount turns out badly—turns out to be the kind of mess we are now in, individually and collectively.
But the Sermon on the Mount is realism. First of all, it is a portrait of Jesus himself. He put into words the principles and attitudes he himself was acting upon. This Sermon is not preaching but revelation—a revelation of the inner life and character of Jesus. It is the Word become flesh in relationships. Jesus is here not imposing an impossible code on human nature, a code for which humanity is badly made. He is lifting up principles underlying the universe. When he finished speaking, “the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt. 7:29). The phrase as “one who had authority” could be translated “according to the nature of things.” He lifted up out of reality the principles that were according to “the nature of things.” The people who heard Jesus felt the “authority” of what he was saying. It hit them with an inner thud. Impossible idealism doesn’t do that. It arouses you emotionally, but it doesn’t come with authority.
O Jesus Lord and Master, this is your new crucifixion, that we take this portraiture of yourself and say it is unrealistic, when these principles produced you. And you are One whose “authority” does not lessen, but grows from age to age. Forgive us our stupidity. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The Sermon on the Mount is my Code, for Jesus is my Character.