Heather Holdsworth writes…
How much notice do we take of the teachings of Jesus? No – it’s not a question to rouse guilt and shame, but an honest enquiry. We seem to give him a bit of air time at Christmas and perhaps a little more around the cross, but there was a life lived between those two dates. He could’ve come one day and died the next. The task would’ve been done and the debt of sin paid, but for some reason, that’s not how it happened.
What was it for? Why go through the bother of humanity? Was his life lived for children to have stories to colour in Sunday School while the grown-ups hear stronger theology?
But as I read Jesus, it seems that everything is done with purpose. He lived with intention. The theory of human need didn’t satisfy his desire to connect. He took three decades to feel what it’s like to be us. He discovered what matters to people. He felt it. Understood. And then he spoke.
Christ’s best known sermon is our topic for the year. On Wednesday we looked at the notes Matthew took from the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (chapter 5-7 of his writings).
Here Jesus communicated crucial truths on two distinct ways to live. One way ends in a strong house on a rock and the other with twisted driftwood on a sandy beach (7v24-27).
Many of the points in Jesus’ sermon seem a little bewildering. He picks things that we run from and say they hold joy. He chooses what we value and calls it worthless. “It’s as if Jesus crept into the large display window of life and changed all the price tags; it’s all backwards!” (John MacArthur)
As we listen, we find that Jesus is communicating something bigger.
This is the inauguration of a brand new kingdom; a constitution with uncommon values, other goals. It looks the same on the outside, but it’s truly different. This is an invitation into something remarkable: the kingdom of those who truly follow Jesus.
How did Jesus start his epic talk? Jesus began with happiness (Matt 5:3-12). He understood! We all want it, make choices based on it and frame society and government around it. America’s ‘Declaration of Independence’ states that the pursuit of happiness is our right and aim.
So Jesus takes on the big topic. He tells us how to find happiness – but it’s in a startling place. He says that there is an entry point to joy. And that the key to it is in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall see God.” (Jesus of Nazareth)
Exercise – if you’d like to see the beatitudes more clearly, try writing out the opposites for each statement. Grapple with the meanings and see the contrast between sadness and joy.
The foundation to happiness is not our societal mantra of, ‘Happy are the proud and rich for they will own the earth’, but rather, ‘Happy are the humble’. “Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.” (Augustine) Humility is the way in to the Christian life as we, in need, bow before the Saviour. It is also the way on.
If it’s the answer, how then do we become humble?
Humility is an issue of focus.
One way of living is to focus on our actions, on the rules, on the activities associated with our faith. We thus live before people – under the law. It is an exhausting life filled with comparisons and marked by chains.
The other way is to live with the basin-carrying King in view. As he fills our sight, action and activity are incidental to our relationship. We thus live before God – lifted by grace. It is a light-emitting life with nothing to prove. It is marked by freedom.
In our efforts to be humble, we dare not focus on humility, for that is focussing on ourselves! Our attention needs to be on Jesus, who, through his poverty has brought us joy. It seems backwards, but these are the rules of the kingdom of heaven.
G Campbell Morgan, an outstanding UK biblical scholar and evangelist who lived until 1945 read nothing but Matthew, Mark, Luke and John for 2 years. He said that he could never get over Jesus. The impact of meeting the living Christ in the pages of the gospels were said to have had a profound impact on his ministry.
Jesus has called us to follow HIM. Not right doctrine, great church, polished praising, impressive programmes. He has asked us to discover the unfettered joy of having him as the leader in our lives, no matter the direction or obstacles on the path.
Ironically, a declaration of independence is the pursuit of emptiness. A declaration of dependence is the pursuit of joy.
Exercise – Write your own declaration of dependence thinking through who leads the life you live under these headings: Personal, Spiritual, Relational, Environmental, Professional, Financial, Creative/Recreational.
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