Marguerite Higgins, Pulitzer Prize winner for international reporting, stood by a
marine during the Korean War. It was 42 below zero, and the soldier was weary and
covered with frozen mud. She asked him, " If I were God and could grant you anything
you wished, what would you most like?" He stood motionless for a moment and then
raised his head and replied, "Give me tomorrow." In a fear-filled world of uncertainty
where there is a big question mark about whether or not man has the sanity to prevent a
nuclear holocaust, this is a common choice-give me tomorrow.
On the other hand, Peter Bagdanovich, the well-known director of The Last Picture
Show and Paper Moon, was asked why he makes all his movies of the past. He replied,
"I like any time better than now. I just don't like what is happening today. The music
bores me, the cars are ugly, the people are dull. So I retreat to the past." In a decaying
world where so much of what was once good is being lost by the modern mania for the
new at any cost, this is the choice of millions-give me yesterday.
Each of us can identify with both choices, for they are the only two directions anybody
can go to escape today. Retreat to the past, or march forward into the future. Each
choice has its values that can be defended, but Jesus in the Sermon On The Mount
rejects them both. Instead, Jesus chooses to third alternative, the one the other two are
trying avoid. He says, don't escape to yesterday or tomorrow, but stand fast, and live for
today. Now is where its at.
The Lord's Prayer in chapter 6 is a now prayer. Give us this day our daily bread. All
of its petitions are for now. Hallowed be your name-now. Thy kingdom come now. Thy
will be done on earth-now. Forgive us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us
from evil, not eventually, but now, today. The Christian life is a now life. Jesus began
this sermon with the beatitudes, and you will notice they are not past or future, they are
present. Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are the meek; blessed are the merciful,
etc. All of them deal with the now and not the some day. Not, blessed will be, but blessed
are. The Christian life is to be a blessed life now.
The whole emphasis in this sermon on prevention is based on the now principle. You
do not wait until your anger becomes murderous hatred to deal with it. You control it
when it is developing right now. You don't wait until lust is boiling passion to deal with it.
It is not, get them while they are hot when it comes to emotions, but get them while there
warm, or even cool. You don't give the germs of evil a chance to develop and create
infection, but you go after them now. Catch the disease in its early stages, and stop it
before it progresses. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country,
and their souls as well. Now is always the best time when it comes to prevention. The
best time to do anything is between yesterday and tomorrow.
In this passage Jesus gives some specific examples of how the now principle is applied.
The gist of them is this: Little problems don't tend to fade away, but tend to grow and
become bigger, and so deal with them now when they are small, and not later. If you
have a bad relationship developing with someone, you don't wait until resentment has
time to fester and make healing hard. You don't say after I worship God on Sunday, I'll
try to patch it up on Monday. That is the give me tomorrow choice, and Jesus says don't
make that choice. Drop what you were doing, and settle the matter today. Now is always
the best time to do what prevents evil from building a stronger wall. "Don't let the sun
go down upon your wrath." Why not? Because you are choosing procrastination as a
method of dealing with sin, and it is not a wise choice. Deal with your anger today, and
prevent all of the sorrow it can produce when you let it go another day.
In verse 25 Jesus says, don't wait until you get to court to settle a conflict. This is
obviously a case where the accused knows he is guilty. Do the right thing now says Jesus.
Quickly agree with your accuser, and settle the issue out of court. If you procrastinate
and let the thing drag on into tomorrow, you will suffer the consequences tomorrow. Get
your punishment over today by settling the issue today. This is the only wise choice.
There are endless court cases that waste years and millions of dollars, and magnify the
miseries of everybody involved, that could have been settled in an hour if people were
wise enough to choose the now way.
The whole point of Jesus in the radical statements of verses 29 and 30 about gouging
out your eye, and cutting off your hand, is not to promote mutilation of the body, but to
give emphasis to the importance of the now and prevention. Don't wait for the future
day of judgment to let God deal with your rebellious body. Deal with it yourself, and do
it now. Bring it under your control, and choose to regulate its activities now. It is folly to
wait. The wise are into the discipline of today. In chapter 6 Jesus deals with all of the
anxieties of life, and He says in verse 34, summing it all up, "Don't worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough troubles of its
own." Just seek God's kingdom and His righteousness today, and life will be okay.
One last illustration of this theme is in 7:12. Jesus gives us the Golden Rule that sums
up the Law and the Prophets. "Do unto others what you would have them do to you."
That is the essence of the victorious life. You live in the here and now, and you do today
in your relationships with others what you want them to do to you. The Golden Rule is
golden because it is a rule as relevant as the golden sun that shines today, and each day. It
is a rule for living, not in the past, or in the future, but today.
The priest and the Levite, who walked by the wounded man on the road said, give me
tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow I will not be so busy, and I can get involved in such an
inconvenience, but not today. The Good Samaritan was good, and what Jesus expects the
Christian to be, because he was a now man. He responded in love now, because the need
was now, and tomorrow would too late. Jesus is not saying we can do everything at once,
but He is saying we can do something at once, and it is this strategy of living in the now
that will fulfill the past and enrich the future.
If the new year is to be a year of growth and progress, and a year of pleasing God by
doing His will on earth as it is done in heaven, then it will have to be a year in which we
grasp the importance of the now life. When does a decaying world most need salt? Now!
When does a dark world most need light? Now! The popular song of the 70's said,
"What the world needs now is love sweet love." If now is when I have lost my keys in the
dark, now is when I need the light. Tomorrow's light is of no value. If now is when the
road is icy, now is when we need the salt. The point is, the need is always now, therefore,
the solution, to be relevant, must also be always now, and so the Christian life must be a
now life.
Christians fall into the same traps everybody else does. The trap of the good old days,
or of the glorious days of the future. Both can rob us of the real, which is the now. We
tend to think of teaching and learning as preparation for the future. It is that, to be sure,
but we miss the best of what education is unless we see its value for the now. All we can
know of God and His will is for today. It is like our daily bread. It is not for the future
only, it is for living today. It is now food so we can live for God today, and enjoy our
relationship to Him, and the more abundant life.
Yes, it is all good for the future, but it is also good for today, and it is only by
redeeming the now that we can prepare for the future. The great French General,
Marshall Lyoutey, asked his gardener to plant a tree in Algeria. The gardener objected
that it was a slow growing tree and would not mature for a 100 years. In that case the
General said, there is no time to lose-plant it now. Waiting is not the solution, for now it
the time to get moving. Robert Browning was right when he wrote, "Put in the plow and
plant the great hereafter in the now." Not all of us get into the mating game, but rare as
the dodo bird are those who escape the waiting game, the putting off of life until
tomorrow.
A New York psychologist sent out letters to 3,000 men and women picked by random
from the phone book. The letter asked only one brief question, "What have you to live
for?" The answer was to be very brief. He was shocked that 2,000 of them responded
with an answer. More shocking was the nature of the answers. Over 90% of them were
just enduring the present while they waited for the future.
They were waiting for their marriage to improve.
They were waiting for their children to grow up.
They were waiting to become grandparents.
They were waiting to retire.
They were waiting to take their dream trip.
They were waiting always for something good and exciting to happen.
Practically everyone was giving up today, waiting for the golden tomorrow, and never
stopping to recognize that today is the tomorrow they waited for yesterday.
It is not wrong and foolish to hope and dream, but when this becomes the dominate
focus of life, it is a foolish choice that robs people of God's best. We all have many things
we must wait for, and it is legitimate to do so, and necessary, but to neglect the now in our
hand for the tomorrow in our heart is to have a short in our head. Jesus is saying, get
wired right and recognize that today is the day of salvation, and today is the day of
sanctification and service, and today is the day to enter into all the blessings that God
wants us to experience. Must we wait for everything? Is life all in the future? Not so,
says Jesus. He came that we might have abundant life; not just hope for it in the future,
but have it now, in this life, today.
The future is bright with God's promises, but the present can be made bright with the
fulfillment of His promises. The poet asks a good question-why not now?
There's a song that faith can sing,
Why not now?
There's a hope a friend may bring,
Why not now?
Hoarding the sunshine does not pay,
Joy was meant to give away,
Why not share your gifts today?
Why not now?
There are burdens love may lift,
Why not now?
Kindness bears a golden gift,
Why not now?
Earth has never known a creed
Like a pure unselfish deed,
Hearts are aching, give a heed,
Why not now?
Alfred Grant Walton
The list could go on and on. Each of us could add specifics for the coming year. If I
am ever going to read the Bible through-Why not now? If I am ever going to share my
faith with my friends or neighbors-Why not now? If I am ever going to obey Christ in
some area of my life-Why not now? Now is always the best time to do what is good and
right and pleasing to Christ. There is no better time than now.
Reality therapy is a new concept which says, so what if you had a rotten past that
conditioned you to all kinds of negative behavior and thinking. Right now you are a free
and responsible person able to choose what you want to be. You do not have to be bound
by the past. That is what the message of the Bible is about too. God has given us the
ability to choose an alternate path. Our grandfather and father may have walked in a
certain path, but we are free to choose a different path. That is what Jesus is saying over
and over in this sermon. You have heard that it was said by men of old, but now I say to
you. Jesus says, there is a new and a now way to go that fulfills the old, and is superior to
it.
Christians are to be realistic and recognize that now has the greatest potential for life.
I can't change the past, and I can't claim the future, but I can choose the now, and in the
now reap the harvest of the past, and sow the seeds for the future. God wants us, not
wishing for the past, nor waiting for the future, but working in the now.
In the name of God advancing,
Plow, and sow, and labor now;
Let there be when evening cometh,
Honest sweat upon the brow.
And the master shall come smiling
When work stops at set of sun,
Saying as He pays the wages,
Good and faithful man-well done.
Author unknown
Victories do not come to those who will someday conquer, but to those who conquer
now. The alcoholic who wins the battle is not the one who says, "I will stop someday,"
but the one who says, "I will stop now-not forever, but today, and thus, day by day,
victory in the now will be the way to go into the future." Someone said, "If you want to
know what you were in the past, look at yourself now. If you want to know what you will
be in the future, look at yourself now." Now is the only time you can deal with
realistically, for now is all you really have. Wise is the man who recognizes this, and
Jesus expects His followers to be wise now people.
When is the best time to do what is right? Jesus says, the answer is now. The
Pharisees said, not so, for there is a time for everything, and they legalistically ruled out
doing what is right and good if the now was not convenient. Wait till tomorrow was their
advice to Jesus when He healed people on the Sabbath. Don't do it now, for now is to be
devoted to keeping other rules and regulations. They wanted to keep life all
compartmentalized, but life will not cooperate. Just as children today won't always get
sick between 9 and 5, so problems in life never confine themselves to the convenient time
for solution. Jesus said, you deal with the now problems with now solutions, and He
healed people on the Sabbath, because they needed healing on the Sabbath. He was a
now healer, and not a later healer.
One of the reasons grandfathers are often more loving than fathers is because
grandfathers are more often now people, and fathers are more often later people.
Loving people are now people. I have been in both roles, and I know that now is better
than later. Parents just do not realize how fast their children grow up. Grandparents do,
for they have been there, and that is why they tend to be now people, for they know it is
so true, its now or never.
Jesus is trying to help us learn this lesson before we waste a good chunk of our life. If
we will just believe Him, and become people who focus on the now, we will be more
effective Christians. The way you live with eternity's values in view is by recognizing that
anything that is a good goal to achieve in life, is a goal you must strive for now. And
unknown author wrote,
If you have hard work to do, do it now.
Today the skies are clear and blue,
Tomorrow clouds may come into view,
Yesterday is not for you; do it now.
If you have a song to sing, sing it now.
Let the notes of gladness ring
Clear as song of bird in Spring,
Let every day some music bring; sing it now.
If you have kind words to say, say them now.
Tomorrow may not come your way.
Do a kindness while you may,
Loved ones will not always stay; say them now.
If you have a smile to show, show it now,
Make hearts happy, roses grow,
Let friends around you know
The love you have before they go; show it now.
Jesus practiced what He preached, and refused to even wait a day to meet needs that
were now needs. Many whom Jesus healed could have waited another day. Some of them
had already suffered for years, but Jesus said, when it is in your power to meet a need
now and do good, love demands that you do it now. To wait for the sake of a law, a
tradition, a ceremony, or custom, is to say that all of these things are of more value than
a person. Jesus rejects that value system. Nothing is Christlike that treats persons as
secondary to anything, or to anyone, but God Himself. With this kind of value system,
where you put people first, you become a now person living the now life.
This being the case, Satan's most successful strategy is to get the Christian to miss
God's best by procrastination. It is not only the thief of time, it is the thief of every good
value God has for your life. If you wait until it is convenient to do the will of God, you
will seldom get it done. The most persistent temptation of life is to wait for a more
convenient time. Satan well knows that time may never come.
William Wilberforce played a major role in destroying the slave trade in England.
Many of his closest friends came to him suggesting that he shelve the matter until the
Napoleonic wars were over. He was wise enough to see the folly of waiting. If it's God's
will to fight this evil, then it has to be fought now, was his attitude, and he tackled it, and
got the job done. He may not have done so had he waited.
It is faith in the ultimate victory that enables the Christian to be an optimist in the
now, even when the now is negative. Ralph Waldo Emerson had this kind of faith. When
fire was destroying his priceless library of rare books, many of them autographed by
world-famous authors, he stood and calmly watched it perish. His friend, Luisa May
Alcott, came to his side to console him, but he responded, "Never mind Luisa, what a
beautiful blaze it makes! We'll enjoy that now."
The now life makes the past and the future relevant and practical, for it takes the
values of these two zones we cannot touch, and applies them in the only zone we can
touch-the now. The now life reaches back into the past, and takes all that God has done,
and reaches out into the future, and takes all that God promises to do, and with all of this
faith and hope, builds a foundation on which one can stand with a sense of security and
optimism knowing that nothing can change what God has done, and nothing can alter
what God will do. Charles Elliot spoke with the mind of Christ when he said, "The best
way to secure future happiness is to be as happy as is rightfully possible today. Today is a
precious gift. Use it well."
The question is often asked, "Why are there so many unfinished saints?" Why is it
nearly 2000 years after grace has been merited to sanctify tens of thousand of worlds like
ours, so few have become mature in Christ, able to live the victorious Christian life? The
answer is, because we do not listen to Christ in this Sermon On The Mount. Nor do we
listen to Paul who makes it clear in II Cor. 6:2, "Now is the time of God's favor, now is
the day of salvation." People tend to live too much in the past, which can never return,
or in the future which may not even be, and so they miss the only place they can live for
Christ-the now.
C. S. Lewis in Christian Behavior points out that good and evil both increase at
compound interest. That is why the things you do in the now, and everyday little things,
are of great importance. He writes, "The smallest good act today is the capture of a
strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you
never dreamed up. And apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of
a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack
otherwise impossible." This is what Jesus is saying in our text. The victorious life is the
now life. It is the life where you don't just drift, but take decisive action to prevent evil in
all of its forms from gaining power in your life. The only way you can promote a good
harvest is to prevent the weeds and bugs that will hinder the harvest. The only way you
can promote your own happy future is to prevent now those evils that can rob you of
that future.
It is of interest that modern psychiatry is catching up with Jesus, and recognizing that
the solution to the messed up mind is not in the past, but in the now. Carl Jung, the
famous psychiatrist, said, there is a difference between the psychology of Freud and
myself. He finds the basis for neurosis in the past, in childhood. I find it in the present. I
ask, what is the responsibility from which this patient is retreating? Why is he dodging
out of life into illness?" Modern psychiatry is leading people right back to the Sermon
On The Mount. Live the now life that Jesus describes. Act now to deal with your inner
sins, and prevent external acts of evil, and you will not get your life messed up. It is
simply a matter of recognizing what even the pagan poet that Paul quotes recognized,
which is, "In Him we live and move and have our being." The Eternal Now-The Triune
God is our ever present context of living. In God all is now, for there is no past or future
in eternity. It is always now, and if we could only be aware of this, and deal with all of our
problems and weaknesses now, we could prevent so much of life's sin and sorrow.
Jesus ends the Sermon On The Mount with a story about a wise and foolish man. The
future held the same thing in store for both of them. It was rain, wind, and the flood.
The difference between them was what they did in the present. The wise man built on the
rock, and the foolish man on the sand. It is the choices you make now that determines
how you will fare in the future. The only way to prepare for the future is to choose to do
what is wise in the now. Jesus practiced this, and if you read Matt. 8 you will see He was
no arm chair philosopher. He left the mountain on which He preached this sermon, and
that very day he lived the now life. He healed a leper, and a paralyzed servant of a
Centurion. He raised up Peter's mother-in-law, and then that evening he ministered to a
host of sick and demon possessed people.
Joseph Wood Krutch wrote, "All postponements are potentially dangerous, and to
postpone life itself is the most stupendous of follies. One can no more live in the future
than one can live in some good old days of the past. One must live now or not at all, and
not to live at all is the greatest of mistakes." Deitrich Bonhoeffer, the famous pastor
imprisoned by Hitler, did not know he would be executed by the Nazi's in 1945, but he
knew it was a real possibility. Yet, shortly before he died he wrote this poem to God-
"With every power for good to stay and guide me.
Comforted and inspired beyond all fear,
I'll live these days with you in thought beside me,
And pass with you, into the coming year.
That is the way Christ wants us all to move into the coming year. It is with the attitude
that whatever the future holds, be it good or ill, I choose not to escape into the past or the
future, but to live the now life.
