The Gift Nobody Wants

How the Sermon on the Mount Is Good for Us

Following the Call, September 8

Strange Gifts. To Whom Shall We Go? Glass or Diamonds? Your Turn.

Jesus’ message was more than a prophetic indictment of the existing order. It was ultimately good news. Matthew places accounts of Jesus’ miracles right before and right after the Sermon. Jesus’ words regarding God’s reign are spoken against the backdrop of his works of healing. His commands belong to his gifts. The one who preached repentance is also the one through whom the power of evil and sin is broken.

—      from my introduction to Following the Call (which published yesterday, the culmination of several years of work – I hope you’re half as excited as I am and can get your hand on a copy soon! My first in-person book event will be tonight in Portland, Oregon.)

Strange Gifts

My father, a physician, told me straight out at the end of football season: “Last year you sprained your ankle so severely you almost broke it. This year you got your ribs crushed. You’re finished. You’re not cut out for the game. You’re cut out for something else.”

Hard news, but Dad was right. There was something else I was meant to do. I found out in college.

Jesus’ message in the Sermon on the Mount tells us that we are meant for something else, something other than the way the world operates. “Good news!” Jesus exclaims. “Life is more than acquiring wealth, more than good fortune, good food, more than getting even and getting your way.” “Good news!” Jesus proclaims, “there is more to life than satisfying your lust, your greed, your anger, your right to lash back, more than maintaining your image and impressing others. There is much, much more to life.”

Too often we read the Sermon on the Mount as if it were a moral choke collar around our necks. The harder we strain the tighter the stranglehold. Why did Jesus make things so difficult? Why isn’t being a decent person good enough? Why do we have to go to such extremes? What’s wrong with a bit of mammon, or an occasional lustful glance or two, or just saying our prayers?  What’s wrong with fitting in, as long as no one gets hurt?  

The problem with this is that Jesus wasn’t interested in helping us to become well-adjusted, nice people. His agenda is much more radical than this. That many things in our world are not right is glaringly evident; I won’t rehearse the social ills that plague us. Jesus’ aim was to liberate us from the forces that invariably lead us astray, that destroy the kind of life and relationships we yearn for, that hinder us from being at peace with ourselves and our world.

Jesus is known as the great physician. He is a healer, not a lecturer. But as the great physician he not only heals but removes what ails us. “If your eye is good, if it is single, generous,” Jesus says, “your whole self will be full of light.” Nothing is worse than eyes that are clouded or cross-eyed. Jesus came to show us what it means to set our sights on the One who alone brings life. His way is narrow, even hard, but it leads to real human flourishing.

Within each of Jesus’ sayings lies a promise. We can live differently, so differently that we are blessed. When the storms of life come, there is a way to remain standing. All we have to do is act on what Jesus says. His commands might feel hard, but Jesus came to show us how to live in accordance with the way God has actually wired us. The easy way is actually not so easy. It consists of a life in which we, like the apostle Paul before his conversion, “kick against the goads” (those are, apparently, spikes for prodding a stubborn ox). Instead of joy propelling us forward, we are pricked from behind—or chasing after the carrot-on-a-stick of “success” that always leaves us frustrated. I think this is what my father was trying to get at. We are cut out for something different, a life that is truly good for us.  

To Whom Shall We Go?

It is no accident that the crowds who followed Jesus eventually left him. They wanted a better life—secure with loaves and fishes—but not the life Jesus came to bring. We’re like that. We want to hear from Jesus but only insofar as we don’t have to do things like sell everything we have or walk on water or let the dead bury the dead. And yet Jesus came to give life and give it abundantly (John 10:10). His commands are the keys to the kingdom.

Sadly, we seem intent on building our own kingdoms. And yet, for those of us who have encountered Jesus and his word, it is all but impossible to go back to normal. We know that in following the script everybody else says we’re supposed to follow we come up empty. The following passage from John’s Gospel reminds us that as strange, as difficult, as puzzling, and as hard as Jesus’ teachings appear to be, they are actually the words of life.

As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 

—John 8:57-63

Glass or Diamonds?

If we find we can’t quite see how Jesus’ teachings are good, then let me suggest that the solution is to immerse ourselves in what he says even more. The following parable, by one of my favorite sages, makes this point rather well.

God allows each person to recognize spiritual error or truth by degrees. The story is told of a poor grass cutter who found a beautiful stone in the jungle. He had often heard of the people find valuable diamonds and thought this must be one.  He took it to a jeweler and showed it to him with delight. Being a kind and sympathetic man, the jeweler knew that if he told the grass cutter that his stone was worthless glass, the man would either refuse to believe it or else fall into a state of depression. So instead, the jeweler offered the grass cutter some work in his shop so that he might become better acquainted with precious stones and their value.

Meanwhile, the man kept his stone safely locked away in a strongbox. Several weeks later, the jeweler encouraged the man to bring out his own stone and examine it. As soon as he took it out of the chest and looked at it more closely, he immediately saw that it was worthless. His disappointment was great, but he went to the jeweler and said: “I thank you that you did not destroy my hope but aided me instead to see my mistake on my own. If you will have me, I will stay with you and faithfully serve you, as you are a good and kind master.” In the same way, God leads back to truth those who have wandered into error.

— Sadhu Sundar Singh (from Wisdom of the Sadhu)

Your Turn

Are Jesus’ commands also his gifts? Have you experienced the blessing of following a hard teaching? I welcome your comments, opinions, questions, and personal experiences. Please check out the “comments” section at the bottom of each newsletter to read what others are saying or if you’d like to leave a comment of your own.