Even more offensive

Back a few verses, in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, we heard Jesus say “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Isn't that nice?

We're such nice people; we're proud of everything, including how humble we are; and thus we can claim the kingdom of heaven for ourselves because of our very humility.

And then we bump up against this lesson today, and the whole house of cards tumbles.

God's law is supposed to be a gift to us, but it is so inconvenient when we come with our insatiable wants and desires.

And so we make all sorts of accommodations and compromises.

We have heard it said that it is important to be compassionate and caring toward those in need, but we say that sometimes we have to be realistic and simply go along to get along.

But Jesus, judging from his comments in this lesson today, appears to have little interest in “realism” or “just getting along.”

“Don't return evil for evil” is not very realistic advice.

We have heard it said that religion is fine, as long as we don't take it to extremes.

But the way of life that Jesus advocates in this lesson seems quite extreme.

How many folks do we know that are willing to obey Jesus in all that he demands in this passage?

None, I'd say.

We've heard it said that people respond best to positive messages and sermons that are affirming and supportive of them.

But Jesus in this sermon appears to attack some of our most widely affirmed practices.

His intent seems to be to make us downright uncomfortable, and indeed, angry!

We've heard it said that the main thing about coming to the church's liturgy is that our deepest needs and desires are fulfilled here.

But Jesus doesn't seem to care a bit about our needs.

In fact, when we take seriously what Jesus says in this sermon, we leave the church's worship with more needs than when we entered!

The burden has been increased!

We've heard it said that the purpose of a sermon is to help make religion rational to thinking people, to present Jesus in such a way that people will see that he is the answer to their questions and the solution to their problems.

But what Jesus does is to provoke even more questions and stir up even more problems.

And our confusion increases when Jesus at other times seems to be flouting the law.

For example, when he eats with tax collectors and sinners, and then tells the Pharisees who question his actions, “I came not for you good people, but to seek and save the bad ones.” [9:9-13]

Another time he rattled their conventional thinking when he responded to the Pharisee's protest about Jesus not fasting at the approved time.

“Doesn't the party begin when the bridegroom arrives?

The bridegroom is here, so it is time for a feast, now,” Jesus says. [9:15-17]

Jesus won't put up with an unreflected legalism.

This seems to give comfort to the opposite problem, our present-day attitude called antinomianism.

Perhaps that term isn't used in everyday speech, but the attitude it names is everywhere.

Antinomianism says that no rules are right, no rules apply to me; I don't care what the Bible says, or what Jesus says, and I also don't care what the civil law says.

I do what feels good right now, and that may change by tomorrow, and I don't care what effect it has on you or anyone else.

In recent years in the civil realm we have added thousands of pages of laws and rules which are apparently encouraging people to lie in order to cynically beat the system.

But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus doesn't ignore the law, but intensifies it.

“Don't murder” now becomes “don't even be angry.”... and similarly with all the other cases.

No wonder that at the end of the sermon “the crowds were astonished at his teaching.” [7:28]

Neither the arrogance of the rule-stressing legalist nor the arrogance of the rule-ignoring antinomian win any favor with God.

Jesus is not going to say to us “There, there now, I know that you are doing the best that you can, and whatever that is will be fine with me.”

Mid-October next year we'll get around to the story of Jesus meeting with the rich young ruler, the yuppie who wanted to possess whatever it was that Jesus was selling. [Mark 10:17-31]

Jesus only asked one thing of him, that he give away all those accumulated possessions, the stuff he thought was his own.

“He went away sorrowful,” the evangelist reports, because the law became unbearably heavy for that rich young man.

We're not going to be good by ourselves; our own efforts land us in trouble every time.

Goodness is given to us when the law drives us to the mercy of Christ.

That is what Luther calls the Second Use of the law, its proper use.

When either rule-keeping or rule-ignoring lead us only to despair, then the mercy of Christ Jesus truly is Good News.

God demands excessive things of us, and then he responds to our failures with excessive forgiveness, and bids us live within that same pattern.

It is reason for embarrassment, it is reason for humility, it is also reason for joy for us all.

Remember Jesus' final words at the end of Matthew's gospel, the culmination of the gospel promise: “Lo I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

And in the final analysis, that is Good News. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.