Introduction to the Reading

Transcription

1 For Righteousness Sake Matthew 5:1-12, John 15:18-20, 16:1-4 First Presbyterian Church March 11, 2018 Introduction to the Reading Many years ago, there was a film about the first test pilots to break the sound barrier. No plane had ever flown faster than the speed of sound and many thought it impossible. And in the movie, daring pilots would take their planes over the magic figure of 761 miles per hour only to find that once they reached the sound barrier their controls failed, and their planes broke apart in mid-air or crashed to the ground. Finally, a particularly resourceful pilot had an idea. What if when the plane breaks the sound barrier, he asked, the controls begin to work backwards? What if pulling the stick back which normally brought the nose up actually sent it to the ground? And what if pushing the stick forward which normally sent the plane plummeting to the ground turned it toward the sky? So, with great courage, he flew his plane to the appointed speed and at the critical moment, instead of pulling the stick back he pushed it forwards. And sure, enough the nose came up and the plane flew on, faster than anyone had travelled before. The story is pure fiction, of course. It doesn t work that way. But what this story DOES is give us a way to think about the Beatitudes. For the past several weeks, the Lord has taken control of the way we ve always thought the world works and he makes them work backwards. 1 Matthew 5:1-12 5When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. John 15:18-20, 16:1-4 (The Message) 1 Tom Wright in Matthew for Everyone (WJK-2002), p.35

2 If you find the godless world is hating you, remember it got its start hating me. If you lived on the world's terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God's terms and no longer on the world's terms, the world is going to hate you. When that happens, remember this: Servants don't get better treatment than their masters. If they beat on me, they will certainly beat on you. If they did what I told them, they will do what you tell them. I've told you these things to prepare you for rough times ahead. They are going to throw you out of the meeting places. There will even come a time when anyone who kills you will think he's doing God a favor. They will do these things because they never really understood the Father. I've told you these things so that when the time comes, and they start in on you, you'll be well-warned and ready for them. Sermon Well, just as an airplane piercing the sound barrier creates a sonic boom, so each week of this series we have encountered a significant jolt to the way we look at the world. There is blessing in spiritual poverty, he says. Deep happiness comes with mourning. Even we, who enjoy so many things, will be fulfilled by willing only one thing. Even we, whose hungers and thirsts seem endless, will be satisfied by righteousness alone. These jolts to our systems have been piling up week after amazing week so many of them that you might be relieved it s almost over. Yet, I m afraid to say that with this last beatitude the Boom! just may be too loud. For with his words about rejoicing while being reviled and persecuted, we realize that Jesus is not just some eccentric man with odd ideas and quirky values he s not someone you can dismiss with a causal Bless his heart he is downright DANGEROUS! And that anyone who gets very close to him might want to watch their back. Now, I imagine this talk about persecution was confusing for those gathered on the side of the mountain near the Sea of Galilee. You see, at that point the Jesus movement was just in its infancy nothing much had happened yet. And I imagine they re still scratching their heads at the first few beatitudes when suddenly he springs this one on them. Well, what a difference a generation makes? Just one generation later those early Jewish- Christian missionaries knew exactly what he meant. They had taken Jesus at his word they had said and done things that put them at odds with the people around them and as a result they were being reviled and persecuted and slandered. 2 The word Jesus uses here the word we translate persecute literally means intense verbal and physical abuse. It was bad! Now, it s not as if they were totally unprepared for this. Faithful Jews cut their teeth on stories of persecution. Since childhood they had heard how the prophet Zechariah had been killed by King Joash how Isaiah had run for the hills outside Jerusalem, but King Manasseh s henchmen tracked him down and sawed him in two how King Jehoiakim had executed the 2 Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Preaching and Teaching (JKP- 1993), p. 43

3 prophet Uriah how Jeremiah was ridiculed and imprisoned and probably stoned to death in Egypt. Little wonder then, that Jesus found himself standing at the crest of the Mount of Olives, surveying the city of Jerusalem and especially at the three rock hewn monuments to the slain prophets, and lamenting O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! And it wasn t only in the olden days. Just in their time, John the Baptist was beheaded. Jesus was gruesomely crucified and Stephen stoned by a vicious mob. Herod Agrippa had James killed with a sword Paul eventually made it to Rome where he was executed Simon Peter met with the same fate. 3 So clearly what is going on here is more than some minor personality conflict between a prophet and his king. Clearly, the tension between Jesus and his detractors is not going to be solved with better communication techniques. Clearly, there was little chance the apostles and Rome could negotiate a win-win resolution. No, what these stories reflect is a far deeper rift between the ways of God and the ways of this world a far more intractable antagonism between those who submit to God s way and those who reject it. To use a biblical image, it is the difference between light and darkness. 4 Of the four gospels, John most dramatically articulates this gulf. In words we hear at each Christmas the rift is already there: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it (1:1-5) Soon, the rift widens: the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. (1:9-11) Then the rift grows still wider: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. (3:19) Finally, as he prepares to send his disciples out into the mission field: If you find the godless world is hating you, remember it got its start hating me. If you lived on the world's terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God's terms, the world is going to hate you. I've told you these things so that when the time comes, and they start in on you, you'll be well-warned and ready for them. (15:18-20, 16:1-4) 3 Adapted from James C. Howell s The Beatitudes for Today (WJK-2006), p Cameron Lee, Unexpected Blessing: Living the Countercultural Reality of the Beatitudes (IVP-2004) p.175

4 As children, many of us sang: This little light of mine, I m gonna let it shine. We sang it happily we added little hand motions and sometimes clever new verses: Hide it under a bushel? No! I m gonna let it shine. Don t let Satan blow it out! I m gonna let it shine. But the thing we didn t understand as kids is that being little lights in the world means the world that is shrouded in darkness. 5 The fact that no one takes a lamp and hides it under a bushel basket assumes there s a dark house that desperately needs light. The fact that we shouldn t let Satan blow it out means there s an enemy who would like more than anything for there to be only darkness. So, opposition rejection persecution these have always been the reality for Christians who are serious about following Christ. Which is, of course, why our Christian forbears try to tame the more radical teachings of Jesus and it s why we ourselves try to water Jesus words down to an acceptable level. As he often does, G. K. Chesterton has pegged it: The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried. There has always been a cost of discipleship. It cost Jesus his life why should we expect it to be any different for us? YET we also need to keep this beatitude in perspective and particularly we need to remember that those who are persecuted for the faith are not looking for trouble they re not seeking to be martyrs. While Jesus calls us to cultivate poverty of spirit and meekness while he calls us to practice mercy and to be peace-makers he does not call us to invite opposition he does not tell us to go out looking for trouble. Just remember the night before his crucifixion and how he prayed with every ounce of sincerity in him that he might not have to go through with it. So, persecution should never be confused with blessing... suffering should never be a spiritual goal because the goal is righteousness. Though the word persecution is what jumps off the page at us, it is not the most important word in this beatitude. Righteousness is. Righteousness is the persistent theme of all the Beatitudes and this one is no different. This is about or living in the way of God this is about loving God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength it s about loving our neighbor as ourselves. It s about righteousness and while those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be loved by some they will be hated by others sometimes hated even to death. And in this final beatitude, Jesus simply wants his followers to know what can happen he wants us to know were righteousness may lead and then in what may be the loudest Boom! of all he insists that EVEN THEN we can rejoice and be glad. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven Is that really possible? Is it possible for a person to be battered and bruised reviled and slandered yet brimming with joy? According to Jesus it is it just depends on where we look. If our perspective is too narrow our vision is too short-term then any opposition, any threat, any disapproval will loom very large. We ll be afraid we ll tell ourselves God doesn t care we ll convince ourselves our little suffering for Jesus sake won t make any difference. But when we look up to see what God has promised to do in history when we look beyond what is right in front of our face we ll see that we are part of a much grander work a work that spans centuries and that our lives are part of a long line of others who have held fast to God s will and have lived as best they could in God s way. Reinhold Niebuhr wisely said that, Nothing worth doing can be achieved in a single lifetime; 5 Ibid., p.176

5 therefore, we are saved by hope. Hope that comes from seeing a bigger picture hope that saves us from having to get immediate results hope that takes the long view. Perhaps you noticed: Jesus doesn t promise an end to the difficulties he doesn t say that if they just hang on the opposition will ease up and they can so back to their comfortable life. No, the sufferings will continue for them just as they had for the prophets before them prophets like Jeremiah who groaned under the weight of his suffering even as he tried to speak to a people who had lost touch with God. Tormented by his calling, Jeremiah cries out: Why do the wicked prosper? How long, O Lord? To which God answers: Jeremiah, if you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you how will you compete with horses? If in a safe land you fall down, how will you do in the jungle of the Jordan? 6 Well, confident as we are in the promise of God s future, we gallop as best we can with those horses and we keep picking ourselves up no matter how often or how harshly we are thrown down. 7 For we are NOT ALL CALLED to sacrifice our lives witnessing to Christ but we ARE ALL CALLED to live lives of singular righteousness seeking to will that one thing. Jesus knows that his way the way of the Beatitudes will eventually lead to friction and he want to prepare us. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. On the wall of a children s home in Calcutta operated by Mother Teresa s order, the Sisters of Charity, are these words: People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People really need help but may attack you if you help them. Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have, and you ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you ve got anyway. 6 Jeremiah 12:5 7 Howell, p.92-93