February 26 2023
Matthew 5:11, 7:21-27
There are times when you can look at something and you just know that there is a story behind what you are seeing. I mean, if you look at the grill of my pickup truck and see that a nice round hole has been carved out of it, you kind of want to know what has caused that. There is a story which explains this weird two foot hole that is missing from my truck’s grill, and that story has to do with the fact that, yes, turkeys can fly and they will do so at the worst possible time. Jennifer and I were driving down 212 in northern Tuscarawas County and as we drove along we saw a turkey standing along side the road. Now if the turkey would have just tried to run across the road I would have merely hit him with the bumper of my truck but no, as God is my witness, I did not think that turkeys would fly, at least not in this situation. So, yes, the turkey tried to take off and fly and he was suddenly met with the oncoming grill of my truck, where he left not only a gaping hole but also many feathers. And thank goodness for the kindness of strangers because when we at last found a place where we could assess the damage the van behind stopped and the passenger rolled down their window and exclaimed, “Hey, I think you hit a turkey back there.”, as if we had no idea.
So, yes, when you see something out of the ordinary, there is usually a good story behind it. Much like there is a good story behind a gaping hole in a truck’s grill, there is also a good story behind this strange phenomenon that we find throughout the New Testament where people have been set free from the urge to hang onto all of the stuff that people so easily cling to. Paul, in the third chapter of the book of Philippians, states that he was one of God’s people, the people of Israel. He could trace his roots back to the tribe of Benjamin, a great family full of tradition. He took pride in the fact that he had studied intently the scriptures and that he had allowed them to shape his life so that if you looked at him you could see what a true Hebrew was supposed to be, but he also went further than what was normally expected and he had become a Pharisee, living in the most holy of lifestyle, one that brought the holiness of the Temple into his every day life. He was on fire for God willing to go and hunt down any who would seek to lead people away from the true teaching of the Law, a Law which he knew had made him blameless before God. It sounds as if Paul really is living a pretty, good, life. Now imagine if you would hear a rumor that this same Paul had walked away from all of this, discarding everything that he had built his life upon, wouldn’t you think that there has to be a story behind just why Paul just up and walked away from what most people want out of life? Well, the story is pretty simple, actually, it just boils down to that Paul has met the Messiah-King whose name is Jesus. That’s it, end of story. Paul goes on to add to this story saying that not only has he met Jesus but he also knows this Jesus, this is what has made all of the difference, this is what has led him to let go of everything else.
Now when we hear this story that Paul tells us, that he now treasures knowing this Jesus above everything else we have to wonder, just what do we make of those who say that they are followers of Jesus, but when you look at their life they still seem to be clinging to all of the earthly treasures, treasures Paul left go of so that he could take hold of a treasure of exceeding worth, this treasure that he called Jesus. So, here is yet again another story that we are looking at and the only possible explanation is that even though these people say that they are followers of Jesus, or are those who have faith in Jesus, they must yet have most likely never met Jesus or have not really made it their life pursuit to know Jesus as Paul had done. You see, there is something that happens when people encounter Jesus, when they come to know him and through knowing him they come to treasure him and find him to be a greater treasurer than any other treasure then they have ever known. The only story that we have to yet figure out is why, why does Jesus have such an effect on those who have truly met him?
Knowing why Jesus transforms what people treasure is a question that we must wrestle with as we, at last, come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. I for one had no idea that I would have been spending so much time going over these core teachings of Jesus yet what is apparent is that there is much more in these three small chapters than meets the eye. Using the prayer that our Lord has taught to us as a lens with which to understand what he has given to us has proved to be an invaluable gift. Yet even so, what Jesus calls us to do is very different from the way all of us believe life is to be about. In these teachings of Jesus, we are called to live a life which goes beyond what is socially and culturally acceptable. As we consider living such a life such as Jesus demands that we live we must also know just what is it that causes those who hear these teachings of Jesus to go to such extremes. What is it about these core teachings that drives those who hear them to live a life which causes others to wonder what they are up to?
I believe that the answer as to what is it about Jesus that drives people to treasure him above all earthly treasures is hinted at in the very last teaching of Jesus in this Sermon on the Mount. It is a well known passage, one that we know a lot about from the song, “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”. Unfortunately, if all you had to go on was this song you would really miss out on the real point of what Jesus is teaching about. We have to listen closely to what Jesus says, and not rush ahead believing that we have it all figured out. So listen to how Jesus ends his time of teaching there on the mountain side, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them…”. Here we pause to consider just what Jesus is saying. It is those who not only listen to Jesus but also those who actually live as Jesus instructs them to, these are who the first part of this parable is addressed to. We do not just have to stand passively upon the solid rock of Jesus and his righteousness as the song suggests. Matthew, who recorded these words of Jesus, would have been appalled at such a thought because his whole gospel is about being actively engaged with what Jesus teaches. No, we have to hear and do what Jesus says. Once we have a firm grasp of this important part of this story Jesus is teaching us, then we continue and we find out that it is those who are living out these teachings, these are the ones Jesus tells us are, “…like a wise man who built his house upon a rock. The rains fell, the floods came, the winds roared against that house, but that house did not fall because it was founded upon the rock.” So, this is the first scenario. The second part of the teaching, not surprisingly, is about a foolish man who built his house upon sand. The ones who build foolishly are, as Jesus tells us, “everyone who hears these words of Jesus and they do not do them…”. These are the ones who must watch as the, “rains fall, and the floods come and the wind roars against their house, and beats against that house, and the house collapses with a loud crash.” This is how Jesus ends this final teaching stating that, “…great was the fall of that house.”. Now there are many interpretations concerning this last teaching and about just what do these houses reference but I believe that it has to be understood in its context of the Sermon on the Mount. You see, it is this teaching that helps us make sense of what Jesus teaches us at the end of the fifth chapter of Matthew, the eleventh and twelfth verses where Jesus tells us, “Blessed are you when others revile you, and hunt you down, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice, leap with exceeding joy, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” This is a hard, almost unthinkable task that Jesus sets before us. This makes us wonder just what kind of joy is this that it is not suppressed when people mock us and spit on us? What joy is able to endure persecution and the loss of everything? What kind of joy overflows our life when we hear the evil speech coming from our enemies? This is a joy that is unable to be defeated, a joy that Peter, writing in his first letter, the first chapter, the eighth verse describes as being, “inexpressible, filled with glory”.This is the same joy that is spoken of in the twelfth chapter of the book of Hebrews, the second verse, where we read, that we are to look to Jesus, “…the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross and despised the shame…”. This is the joy that we are called to believe can and will be ours, yet still we wonder, just how this can be so? The answer is found there at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in the mention of something rock-solid that is available to anchor our life upon. You see, I believe that what Jesus teaches us in this tale of the two builders is not just a one and done situation. No, I believe that Jesus is here describing life apart from Jesus and what he teaches and a life with Jesus, a life lived by what Jesus teaches us. Life in this world is all about the building of sand castles. There is a lot of toil, and worry, and anxiety all over much that will not last and people, deep down in their souls, know all too well this reality. What is also deep down in the souls of people is a longing for something that will last, a place of rest from the constant work of building and rebuilding houses in a sand box. C.S. Lewis, the author best known for the Narnia Chronicles, writes that all of us have, “…a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience.” We all long for something of permanence yet we do so living in a world where nothing lasts, all is constantly being washed away becoming nothing more than memory. The writer of Hebrews, recalling the faith of the ancestors of the people of Israel with in the fourteenth through the sixteenth verses of the eleventh chapter, states that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. It is clear that they were, “… seeking a homeland. If they were thinking of that land from which they had gone out of, they would have had an opportunity to return. But as it is, they were longing for a better country…” And of course when we read this we want to know, just what country were they longing for because this is the same country we are all longing for, and the answer that the writer of Hebrews gives is that what we are all longing for is a heavenly country. You see, what those who encounter Jesus discover is that here is one who speaks from a position of permanence. Here is one who has come from the very place that all of us long for and he shares how we can have a life anchored there in the very permanence of heaven instead of continually laboring and toiling to build lives upon sand that is being constantly washed away.What is very interesting about the language that Matthew uses to describe what is evil is that the word that he chooses for evil is a word which has its roots in toilsome, pain-ridden, laborious, trouble. This sounds much like a life that is building sandcastles over and over again. On the other hand, good is associated with rest and peace, life continually lived in the Sabbath, a life which can only be so because it has a rock solid foundation. This is the life Jesus wishes to give to each one of us.
So, yes, there can be joy in all circumstances, a joy which cannot be fully described because it is a joy which springs from an experience that we have always longed for yet have only now experienced all because we have encountered Jesus. It is Jesus who has come from our Father’s side to tell us about the very country which we have always longed for, to give us something better to hope for not to give us a better life that we can live in the here and now. This is something that is constantly emphasized in the writings of Larry Crabb who has been a great teacher for me. You see, it would make no sense for Jesus to merely teach us how to be nice people in this world where nothing is permanent all so that we might say that once upon a time we were good people. Jesus has come to give us a hope upon which we can anchor our lives so that we can praise God for our eternal home, built upon an unshakeable rock. When we have this knowledge then we can say with Paul, as found in the second letter to the Corinthians, the fourth chapter, the seventeenth verse, that what we experience now is, “a light momentary affliction which is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison”. Paul goes on to say in the very next verse that, “we look not to the things that are seen but to the things which are unseen. For the things that are seen are fleeting, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Are you beginning to see why Paul could say that all of his earthly accomplishments were mere crap compared to knowing Jesus?
So when we realize just how important Jesus is to the satisfaction of our deepest longing then we can understand the sheer terror in what Jesus teaches us before he tells us the story of the two builders, There Jesus warns us, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord,Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven…” I have a brother in Christ who says that this is his least favorite verse in the Bible for obvious reasons. We certainly do not want to miss out on entering and living in that which we long for the most. So, listen to just who it is that will enter the kingdom of heaven only, “…the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Here again the emphasis is on doing what Jesus teaches and not just declaring that Jesus is Lord. Jesus goes on to say, “…on that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do mighty works in your name? And then Jesus will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me , you workers of lawlessness.” So, what Jesus is describing here is people who are doing things in the name of Jesus because to them this is what Jesus was all about. To this Jesus replies that if you think that all I was about was prophesying, casting out demons and doing mighty works, then it is quite apparent that you do not really know me or what I am really all about. What Jesus is and was all about is doing the will of God. This, as we might recall, is at the very center of the prayer that Jesus has taught us to pray, that the will of our Heavenly Father be done on earth as it is in heaven. You see, Jesus most certainly did prophesy, he did cast out demons and he very much did mighty works but what these were supposed to do is to witness to the fact that he was indeed, the Son of God, the one sent from heaven, and he came to give a life united with his Heavenly Father to all of us who live on earth. United with our Heavenly Father we then we all find ourselves bound together in the love of Jesus because this is the very will of our Heavenly Father. So working at maintaining this unity Christ has given to us is the work that we are to be about if we call Jesus our Lord. If we are about anything else we are, as Jesus tells us, “ doers of lawlessness”. This is a strange way for Jesus to put this because it makes us ask just what law is it that he is referring to. I believe, that he is speaking about the law of the new covenant which is found right there in the Lord’s Prayer. If you meditate on the Lord’s Prayer you can see echos of the Ten Commandments within its petitions but instead of being negative statements they are now positive instructions. What we are to now do is to make holy the name of our Heavenly Father instead of not taking the name of God in vain. When we live out the kingdom life, every day is the Lord’s day, a life lived in everlasting Sabbath rest. Instead of being called to not murder, commit adultery or commit false witness we should instead work on building up and restoring our relationships and our own integrity. Instead of being told to not steal we are told to get busy giving to all and as much as we give we will find that God will supply all that we need. This law then is based on the foundation of God’s forgiveness of our debts which causes us to lavishly forgive others. And instead of coveting what others have we are instead to only treasure our Heavenly Father. All of this is what we are to be about if we call Jesus our Lord. All this we must be about if we want to be certain in our hope of receiving that what we long for and ground our hope in, our eternal home built upon the rock who is our Heavenly Father. To his praise and glory! Amen.
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