Proving Jesus Wrong

How Not to Read the Sermon on the Mount

Following the Call, August 4

Giving Jesus the Lie. Duck and Cover Hermeneutics. Wisdom from the East. Your Turn. 

Giving Jesus the Lie

To deal with the word of Jesus otherwise than by doing it is to give him the lie. It is to deny the Sermon on the Mount and to say no to his word. If we start asking questions, posing problems, and offering interpretations, we are not doing his word. Once again the shades of the rich young man and the lawyer of Luke 10 are raising their heads. However vehemently we assert our faith, and our fundamental recognition of his word, Jesus still calls it “not-doing.” But the word which we fail to do is no rock to build a house on. There can then be no union with Jesus. He has never known us.

—     Dietrich Bonhoeffer (from Following the Call)

I recently attended a men’s Bible study on the Gospel of Luke. We read how Jesus blessed children and how we were to become like them if we wanted to enter the kingdom. We then read about Jesus’ encounter with the rich ruler, and how he was to sell everything he had, give it to the poor, and then follow Jesus (Luke 18:15-30).

Most of the morning discussion was spent on our need to become like children—children express themselves and their emotions freely, they forgive quickly, they play hard, etc.— and why physical touch (“blessing”) was so important in a post-Covid world. When we got to the story of the rich ruler, a different note sounded. Jesus’ word was treated in the past tense, applicable to the rich ruler only. So what was Jesus saying? It was our willingness to give God our possessions, not actually letting go of them, that God wanted. Not even Zacchaeus, dishonest as he was, emptied his pockets!

Being new to the group, I threw out a couple of questions: If Jesus was simply asking for our willingness, why is it so hard – all but impossible, Jesus says – for those with wealth to enter the kingdom? Most Christians with wealth say they are willing. And why did his disciples react so strongly, saying “We have left all to follow you!” They, as did the first Christians (Acts 2 & 4), certainly went beyond just being willing to give their possessions away. And what about Jesus’ promise that in return they would receive new homes and fields and new families (along with persecutions) in this life? The early Christians didn’t just suffer spiritual trials, they also enjoyed the blessings of sharing their possessions.  

It is here that Bonhoeffer’s reference to the lawyer in Luke 10 is starkly pertinent. What was Jesus trying to communicate in his answer to the lawyer – the parable of the Good Samaritan? Was it that we are to simply be willing to help those along the side of the road, without actually having to cross over? Is that what Jesus was getting at?

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that only those who put his words into practice and do the will of his Father are his disciples (Matt. 7:21, 24). “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John. 14:15). In God’s economy, willingness doesn’t cut it. Only obedience does.

Hence, Bonhoeffer’s terse challenge. When our questions, our problems, our interpretations, our viewpoints neutralize Jesus’ words, when they remove or skirt around our need to obey, then we show that we are not really serious about following his teachings. “Understanding” becomes disingenuous when obedience is lacking.

Jesus’ teaching about children comes right before his encounter with the rich ruler. Children possess nothing. They depend on others for everything. They must learn to obey in all things, even if they don’t understand. And us? We may know how to assert our faith, proclaim it, and even explain it. We may be rich in many ways. But what about becoming like children, surrendering everything to Jesus, and doing what he says? Indeed, what if we really left all to follow him? Imagine. We might just experience how true Jesus’ promises really are.

Duck and Cover Hermeneutics

Now, I can just hear my detractor: “Come on! We’re always interpreting the Bible. You can’t get away from it!” Yes and no.  No one likes to be misinterpreted or misquoted. Jesus was no exception. The danger lies not in interpreting Jesus’ words but in reinterpreting them to suit ourselves.

A typical maneuver that helps us avoid doing what Jesus says is to split his teaching in two. Thomas Aquinas, for instance, distinguished general moral precepts (like the Ten Commandments), applicable to all Christians, from evangelical counsels of perfection (Jesus’ more radical commandments in the Sermon on the Mount), which applied to only those heroic saints devoted to a life of poverty, singleness, and holy obedience (the “religious.”).  Rejecting Aquinas’s two-tiered ethic, Martin Luther believed that the Sermon on the Mount was relevant for all Christians, but that it mustn’t be naively applied. We must differentiate the person from his or her official role. In one’s personal life, turn the other cheek! Do good to your enemy! But a Christian judge or the Christian soldier is still obligated to punish the wrongdoer.

Sound fishy? Such dualistic approaches, though reasonable, attempt to avoid the import and impact of Jesus’ words. It’s like doing duck and cover nuclear fallout drills during the Cold War, but with the Bible. When the siren of God’s Word sounds, we immediately get under our desks, cluttered with this or that commentary, so as to protect ourselves from the fallout of God’s command. Hopefully, we’re thinking, it is just a false alarm.

If we are honest, who among us hasn’t at some point tried to avoid or explain away the hard sayings of Jesus? Granted, faith seeks understanding. How to apply Jesus’ commands is not always readily obvious. What are we to do? Here I take Kierkegaard’s advice. First, comply with those commands that are perfectly clear and easy to understand. “It is not the obscure passages in Scripture that bind you but the ones you understand.” Second, don’t defend yourself. Realize that God’s word is always dangerous. In other words, don’t get out the dictionaries and commentaries and then get lost in all their “valid interpretations.” Be alone with God’s word, listen, and then obey. Understanding will follow.

Can’t we be honest for once! We have become such experts at cunningly shoving one layer after another, one interpretation after another, between the Word and our lives, (much in the way a boy puts a napkin or more under his pants when he is going to get a licking), and we then allow this preoccupation to swell to such profundity that we never come to look at ourselves in the mirror. Yes, it seems as if all this research and pondering and scrutinizing would draw God’s Word very close to us. Yet this interpreting and re-interpreting and scholarly research and new scholarly research is but a defense against it.

It is only all too easy to understand the requirements contained in God’s Word (“Give all your goods to the poor.” “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the left.” “If anyone takes your coat, let him have your cloak also.” “Rejoice always.” “Count it sheer joy when you meet various temptations” etc.). The most ignorant, poor creature cannot honestly deny being able to understand God’s requirements. But it is tough on the flesh to will to understand it and to then act accordingly. Herein lies the problem. It is not a question of interpretation, but action.

—     Soren Kierkegaard (from Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard)

Wisdom from the East

Once when I was in the Himalayas, I was sitting upon the bank of a river; I drew out of the water a beautiful, hard, round stone and smashed it. The inside was quite dry. The stone had been lying a long time in the water, but the water had not penetrated the stone. It is just like that with the “Christian” people of the West. They have for centuries been surrounded by Christianity, entirely steeped in its blessings, but the Master’s truth has not penetrated them…Materialism and intellectualism have made their hearts hard….

A scientist had a bird in his hand. He wanted to find out in what part of the bird’s body its life was and what the life itself was. So he began dissecting the bird. The result was that the very life of which he was in search mysteriously vanished. Those who try to understand the inner life merely intellectually will meet with a similar failure. The life they are looking for will only vanish.

—     Sadhu Sundar Singh (from Wisdom of the Sadhu)

Your Turn

Are Jesus commands really so hard to understand, or do we deem them “obscure” because we’d rather not obey them? Do you find that Bible commentaries clarify Jesus’ teachings, or do they soften or obfuscate his meaning?  I welcome your comments, opinions, questions, and personal experiences, and will interact with them each week.