As Jesus continued the Sermon on the Mount, it got even scarier…harder and harder to live up to. Touching on a broad reach of subjects he delivered one-liners like:
“If you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
“I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”
“But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment…and if you curse someone you are in danger of the fires of hell.”
“But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away.”
“But I say that a man who divorces his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery. And anyone who marries a divorced woman also commits adultery.”
“But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone claps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also.”
“But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!”
“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven…give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”
“Don’t store up treasures here on earth…wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be…No one can serve two masters…you cannot serve both God and money…Seek the Kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need…Do not judge others, and you will not be judged…Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for…Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you…Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter…Just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions”
“When Jesus finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law.”
And with that he ended the Sermon on the Mount and traveled back to Capernaum. But when I reread the above list of sayings, and then compare them to my past behavior and thoughts, there is absolutely no way I can measure up. But perhaps that is entirely the point…without Jesus, and without his good life in place of mine, I am lost. And I readily admit that. When I reflect back on my life, there were large tracts of time when I was determined to do everything my way and I became so lost that I had to give up entirely and confess my failure to live rightly before I could begin moving again in the right direction. I am nothing if not hard-headed. So I developed this rule of life based on those reflections: The less I listen to the voice of Christ, the more I pursue my own way, and the more I listen to my own counsel…the more my life is filled with drama and difficulty. BUT, the more I follow him in all my ways, do what is right in his eyes and live by his teaching…the more satisfying my life is, along with being much less complicated and easier on the people around me. And it only took me 54 years to realize that.
Prayer: “Why, O Lord, is it so hard for me to do the right thing!? There is a part of me that looks at a decision that needs to be made, knows what the right thing is, and then does something entirely the opposite! And invariably, that decision leads to disappointment. I do not want to live from difficulty to difficulty, or from crisis to crisis. Please take my crazy way of thinking and deciding and straighten me out! Impress the ethics of your Kingdom deeply in my heart. Calm my self-centered heart, and put me back on the path of trust. Again, today, I give you my life. In Jesus name, Amen.”