Category: Religion

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

When Jesus clambered down the hillside after delivering the final words of His sermon, we can feel the silence envelop him. All those eyes and ears that had been challenged to a radically new way of living in the Kingdom of Heaven heard and saw the quiet as well. There was nothing further to be said, His authority had been so complete that the people were amazed. What must have run through their minds? Were they angry at having been deceived by their teachers, who said one thing and did another?

Our meditation today on the Cross, where Jesus gave the greatest sacrifice for all of humankind, points us back through the whole of the Sermon on the Mount. Just as He lived out John 15:12-13, His ministry leading up to the cross gave example to all of the words of His sermon. Are you and I able to say the same thing? Our belief governs our actions and our trust in Jesus and His promises drive how radically we live out our vocation.

This is a somber day, marked by the candle being extinguished and the darkness instantly surrounding us, but it is not a day without hope. Sunday is coming…

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Jesus the Encourager begins the closing thoughts of his incredible sermon. He knows that the radical challenges that he has issued regarding the transformed nature of His followers in the upside-down kingdom of heaven will only be taken up by a few. Surely, some must have wondered why he doesn’t make the road home easier. The answer of course, is that He is going to by sending the Paraclete in His place to guide those who believe down the narrow road.

These meditations grow shorter as the time grows closer for our remembrance of the cross and all that it means. Each brings us nearer to a realization that we are fully dependent on the grace and mercy of our Glorious Lord. None of us has the power to change our hearts on our own, we must submit them to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. The wide road tempts but the Spirit guides us down that rocky narrow way, the only one that leads back home.

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

Radical Jesus gives the first of the summary statements in His sermon by giving the Golden Rule for how we are to treat one another. Its utter simplicity is meant to cut through all of the ‘religion’ that has wrapped itself around the message that God wants His people to hear; love God and love others. When you love the Lord with all your heart, your actions towards others created in His image will fall into place. Radical in its minimalism.

This single verse is so radical that we often struggle to live it out. It is hard to give up our desires for revenge and retribution. We want to live the golden rule but we fear others who refuse to live it out themselves and this lies at the crux of the problem. The fear creeps in that we will lose in some respect when we live the way Jesus teaches and others do not but the Teacher gives us the solution, don’t be concerned with your condition here in this world. Raise your sights to the heavens where sacrifice will not be needed. Follow the Radical in His sacrifice knowing where your true reward lies.

 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks fins; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Jesus, as he begins to conclude His Sermon on the Mount, urges His disciples to a greater communion in prayer with the Father. He radically commends them (us) to committing all of our life, every portion and quadrant of it, to the Father in prayer. He does not proffer this option in order to make more Pharisees; on the contrary. The Radical Jesus pushes us to realize the value and importance of an intimate relationship with the One Who Loves Us.

We find ourselves in the midst of Passion Week this morning, immediately following our recall of the triumphal entry. We discovered the danger in misguided expectations. As the palm leaves waved to cries of “Hosanna”, the people desperately wanted to believe in a restoration of a worldly kingdom with Jesus as their king. He radically wanted people to raise their sights, to see a kingdom of higher principles. He wants the same thing for us today and He wants us to root this higher perspective in a life of dependence and prayer. Read the assurances again…and again.

The readings for this Sunday are found in Isaiah 43:16-21 and Psalm 126. God is indeed doing a new thing! Forget about what is past and look forward to the great things that God is working out. Just like he freed to the captives into Zion, he frees us from our bondage and releases us into a new life.

The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy.

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

The kingdom of heaven is life lived upside down from our day to day expectations. We have no trouble loving those we love and despising those we hate but the Radical Jesus says His disciples will do differently. As Glen Stassen states it well,

“Loving only those who love you is the in-group selfishness of cliquishness, cronyism, nepotism, racism, and nationalism. We recognize it immediately because we see it so often. If we love only those who love us, we see only an in-group perspective, and become closed-minded to how other see things. As a result, we cannot understand our enemies’ perspectives enough to deal with them effectively.”

The followers of Jesus consider things differently. His command of our hearts shapes them to see our enemies in the same way that God sees us. We are compassionate and loving when our human reaction is to lash out and segregate from those who do us wrong.

Lent can be about much more than quiet meditation on that item which we have given up for the period. Ask yourself though, are you any closer to Jesus than you were four weeks ago? Take an additional step and integrate an act of love into your lent observance. Call someone from whom you are estranged. Restrain your frustration with another. Develop a new relationship with someone outside of your circle of friends. The list is endless and the effects profound.