The Hard Truth
TCF Sermon
September 4, 2005
I could very easily title this morning’s sermon, Lessons from LouAnn. That’s because several weeks ago, the inspiration for this morning’s message came from Lou Ann Goodbary. Do you all know LouAnn? LouAnn has been here at TCF longer than most of us, I figure about 30 years, and when most of us compare our commitment to being at church with hers, we’d probably come out on the short end.
LouAnn loves to be here at church, and LouAnn has a genuine love for the Lord, as well as a desire to see the people she lives with come to Christ. LouAnn lives in a very difficult place, Woodland Park Home. She lives there because her epileptic seizures have taken a toll on her through the years, and she needs the help she can get in this home. But it’s a difficult place to live, because there are some people there who are hard to live with.
A few months ago, when we were sharing prayer requests in the house church, LouAnn spoke up and asked us to pray for her. Apparently, sometimes people harass her, and poke and prod her. She asked us for prayer so that, as she put it, “she wouldn’t slug people.”
We thought that was a worthy prayer, so we prayed that God would help LouAnn not to slug people. When LouAnn asks for prayer, we take her seriously, so after we prayed for her, I felt the Lord directing me to a passage of scripture to read her after our prayer time was over.
I thought of Matthew 5:
Matthew 5:38-42 (NIV) "You have heard that it was said, ’Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Now, I wasn’t wanting to encourage LouAnn to be a punching bag, to stand there and take it, but to encourage her not to retaliate, not to take vengeance into her own hands. That’s the gist of these words of Jesus.
Well, LouAnn listened to the passage of scripture, and then said to me, “I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t like it.” Don’t you love LouAnn’s honesty?
At that moment, after the laughter died down, I said, “I sure understand that, LouAnn, because there are hard truths in scripture we sometimes don’t like very much.”
And I knew I would, eventually, preach this sermon at TCF. And though, I could call it Lessons from LouAnn, I’m calling this morning’s sermon, The Hard Truth.
That’s because this is a reality…there is truth. It is knowable, if not always fully understandable. But often, the truth is hard. I think it’s hard for three primary reasons. Now, this may not be an exhaustive list of why the truth can be hard. You might be able to think of others, but it’ll do for this morning, and it will help us address some things that are important about the truth.
First, truths are hard because they’re hard to grasp, or understand fully.
Second, a truth can be hard because it’s hard to accept.
Finally, and perhaps the one that presents us the most difficulty in life, truth can be hard because it’s hard to practice, or hard to live by.
You’ll note the acronym GAP. There is a truth gap. This is how I helped myself remember why truths are hard. Hard to Grasp. Hard to Accept. Hard to Practice.
There’s often something, some sort of gap, between the truth and us, that relates to one of these three things. If you think about it, at least one of these things often comes between us and the truth. Sometimes it’s more than one. Some truths are hard to grasp and hard to accept. Other truths are hard to accept and hard to practice. I suppose there are also some that are all three.
We can think of some truths we see around us in the everyday world that are hard to grasp, or fully understand. Now, just because there’s someone who can grasp how we can take moving pictures with a video camera, have that camera send those pictures to a video console, have that video console put those pictures together with a graphic or two, have those moving pictures sent to a transmitter, sent 22,300 miles into space to a geosynchronous orbiting satellite, and then back down to a receiver, which then takes that video and sends it through wires, or perhaps through the air, to a receiver in my television set, where I can press a button – that would be the “on” button – and see what’s happening at this moment in New Orleans, or New York, or China for that matter, doesn’t mean that I can fully grasp it all.
Even when I can understand the nuts and bolts of how something happens, as I understand much of this particular process, I might not understand why it happens…Why can we take pictures, turn them into analog or digital signals, and transmit them from one place to another? What processes allow us to do that? Why does it work that way? So, I might understand elements of it. But my education in radio and TV didn’t fully explain to me how or why that video is translated into a stream of data that can be sent hundreds of thousands of miles at the speed of light and reproduce on my television screen a fraction of a second after it actually happens. I do understand some of the mechanics of it, but not in its entirety.
It’s not unlike some of the truths we read of in the Word of God. Just because I don’t fully understand it, doesn’t mean it’s not the truth. We might be able to accept it, even without understanding it, because we see sufficient evidence that this is true. But there is someone who does understand the things presented as truth in the Word of God. In the case of Biblical truth, the one who understands is the only one who counts. God understands.
My full understanding of something is not a factor in whether or not something is true or untrue. It’s not even really a factor in deciding whether or not I believe something is true or untrue. You might not fully understand gravity, but you can’t deny it’s true as you stumble on ice and don’t fly upward but hit the ground hard.
But our inability to grasp something is a reason some truths are hard truths. We may not fully understand how oxygen, made up of molecules, is something we can breathe, in fact, must breathe….But rocks, also made up of molecules, are something we cannot breathe, in fact, must not breathe.
Now, clearly, we all accept fully the truth that you can’t breathe rocks and must breathe oxygen. But do we all understand the significant difference between the molecules, how rock molecules become rocks, and oxygen molecules become oxygen? I’m sure some of our scientists here can explain this more fully than I can. But the point is, just because we don’t grasp something, or understand it fully, doesn’t make it any less the truth.
In the Word of God, certain truths are taught that we’ll never fully grasp. Try this one on for size:
Is there anyone here who can explain, to my way of understanding, how God has always existed? He has no beginning…no end…He just always was?
I can’t fully grasp that truth. But the Bible says, “In the beginning, God….” So, that means that at the beginning of time as we know it, God was already there.
So, no – we cannot fully understand that. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t the truth. That’s a hard truth we cannot grasp. But we’re not just accepting it in blind faith. There’s a preponderance of evidence… throwing in a little legal jargon here… there’s a preponderance of evidence for every article of faith in scripture…
We can still choose to believe or not, but we have to ignore certain evidence to disbelieve. We could go on…
The trinity…. Jesus being fully God and fully man…The virgin birth. How can we grasp these things? But they’re key truths of our faith…they’re a part of our creeds that describe our beliefs as followers of Christ. Again, we can choose to believe them or not, but if we are to call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ, we must decide what to do with these truths.
Then there are those truths that are hard to accept. Death is one of those. We can’t deny death. We see it all around us…and when it hits us up close and personally, it’s an especially hard truth.
But it’s there, and it’s a hard truth – a hard truth of life is the reality of death.
Decay…. That’s another hard truth of our existence on earth. Things wear down. So do we. I can’t play basketball every Saturday morning with my buddies like I did for 15 years, because my knees have worn out. If I kept playing, not only would I hurt constantly, I probably wouldn’t be able to walk anymore. Now, I appreciate being able to walk, so I have to accept the hard truth that I can’t play my beloved hoops like I used to, even though I miss it.
LouAnn hit the nail on the head when I read the passage from Matthew to her. “I hear what you’re saying but I don’t like it.”
That’s another way of saying, I may or may not believe this truth, but even if I do believe it, it may be a hard one to accept, and it may be even harder to practice in my daily life. I don’t like it, because it requires something of me.
In fact, that whole discourse of Jesus, from the sermon on the Mount, is full of truths that are hard to grasp, hard to accept, and even harder to practice, or live by.
Let me read the five verses after the verses I read earlier, from Matthew 5:43-48.
And remember, these are the words of Jesus.
43"You have heard that it was said, ’Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Now, here are some hard truths, huh? Love your enemies!!! Pray for those who persecute you?!? Be perfect, even as God is perfect?! Wow! What an incredible standard.
Bible Background commentary:
The language is partly hyperbole— But hyperbole was meant to provoke hearers to consider the radical nature of what they were being told:
It’s also worth noting something here about the word “perfect.” The Aramaic word for perfect can mean complete, or whole. The original language in this passage means: complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.);
So, considering that context and interpretation, we can see that this is something we are to attain to – something now incomplete, but that we move toward completion in. It doesn’t lessen the force of this admonition at all.
The words Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth (Matt 5:38) come from several Old Testament passages (Ex. 21:24; Lev. 24:20; Deut. 19:21); they are called the lex talionis, the law of retaliation. This law was given to protect the innocent and to make sure retaliation did not occur beyond the offense. Jesus pointed out, however, that while the rights of the innocent were protected by the Law, the righteous need not necessarily claim their rights. Instead of retaliating he would do the opposite, and would also commit his case to the Lord who will one day set all things in order (cf. Rom. 12:17-21). This was seen to its greatest extent in the life of the Lord Jesus Himself, as Peter explained (1 Peter 2:23). Bible Knowledge Commentary
God’s purpose here is clear. It wasn’t to set an impossible standard. It wasn’t so Dave could come up here, smack me on the face, and keep doing it as I offered the other cheek again and again. God’s purpose here in this passage is mercy, and the original command was given to judges, not individuals… it was to make the punishment fit the crime. It wasn’t a guide for personal revenge, but it did reveal God’s high standards of behavior for His followers. Originally, it was a law originally intended to limit the vengeance, and help courts of law administer punishment that was neither too strict, nor too lenient. Don’t you still hear people say sometime: “I was just doing what he did to me first?”
Jesus was telling us that our first reaction when somebody does us wrong, should not be to get even. In fact, it should be the opposite. Our heart should be love and forgiveness.
Now, clearly, this doesn’t come naturally. It can only come by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. We could probably say that about living up to most of the hard truths of scripture. Of course, even with this explanation, even with a fuller, more accurate understanding, made possible by investigating the context of these commands, -- turn the other cheek, Love your enemies, Pray for those who persecute you, and be perfect, are still hard truths, aren’t they?
We may, with this kind of a closer look at a passage of scripture, do better with the difficult aspect of hard to grasp, but the truth might still be hard to accept or hard to practice.These truths would still fall into the hard to accept category, for certain…especially as compared to our world’s standards.
And that’s what much of the sermon on the mount is doing…turning the world’s standards upside down…. showing us that God’s standards, His standards for those who follow Him, are so much higher, so much different from the world’s standards. Though the original intent was to address authorities, now Jesus is talking to you and to me.
And though the world tells us – “don’t get mad get even,” though the world says our personal enemies should be targets of our hatred…though the world’s standard of perfection is so much below God’s standards…“Nobody’s perfect,” after all…
Yet, these are still truths that demand a response from us. We can dismiss them as not applying to us, or we can wrestle with them, recognize that they are hard to accept, and even harder to practice, or live out, in our daily lives. But even in that recognition, we can pray, “God, help me to be more like Jesus,” who embodied these standards.
FF Bruce wrote in “The Hard Sayings of Jesus” of this admonition from Jesus:
“be perfect” - some students of Christian ethics make a distinction between the general standards of Christian conduct and what are called “counsels of perfection,” as though the former were presented for the rank and file of Christians, while the latter could be attained by real saints.
Such a distinction was not made by Jesus himself. He did make a distinction between the ordinary standards of morality observed in the world and the standard at which his disciples should aim; but the latter was something which should characterize all his disciples and not just a select few. (Jesus said) “if you confine your good deeds to your own kith and kin, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” It’s immediately after that the words “be perfect” come.
Who can attain perfection like this? Is it worth it even to try? If someone does something bad to me, why shouldn’t I pay him back similarly? Because, Jesus reminds us, God sets the example for us. (Matt 5:45) “Your father makes the sun rise on the evil and the good… sends the rain on the just and the unjust.”
(God) bestows blessings without discrimination. The followers of Jesus are children of God, and they should manifest the family likeness by doing good to all, even to those who deserve the opposite. So, said Jesus, go the whole way in doing good, just as God does.
Bruce also points out a similar passage in Luke 6:36 where Jesus says we are to be merciful, as God is merciful. So, if we are to take that idea and apply it here in the Matthew passage, we might assume at least one thing Jesus meant here is that we must be perfect in our acts of mercy and kindness, for that is what God is like.
These truths fall into both the “hard to accept” and the “hard to practice” categories. That last one – “hard to practice,” is really where most of us live, isn’t it?
Mark Twain reportedly once remarked, it wasn’t the parts of the Bible that he didn’t understand that bothered him, but those parts that were perfectly clear.
And there are passages of scripture that are perfectly clear. Even though we might explain them more to our fuller understanding, we cannot, and would never want to, blunt the force of these hard truths, where God, in His Word, challenges us to change, and seeks to mold and shape us into the image and likeness of Christ. That’s where truths are really hard. And that’s where most of us live, isn’t it?
Yes, there are those truths that are hard to grasp. Yes, there are more still that are hard to accept. But it’s in the practice of those truths we do understand, and we do accept, that most of us struggle…. living up to these truths.
So when we hear turn the other cheek, when we hear love your enemies, when we hear pray for those who persecute you…or when we hear something that’s not really hard to grasp, or not even really hard to accept, like 1 cor 13, where it says:
1 Cor. 13:4-7 (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
When we read or hear that passage of scripture, and then compare our practice of this truth about real, genuine love, we see how poorly we measure up.
Patient. Kind. Not boasting, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking…Not easily angered, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Now this is a “true” description, of genuine, biblical, agape love.
But it’s a hard truth, because it’s hard to consistently put into practice. We could go on and on…
As I studied for this message, I came across so many truths that are hard truths. How about the parable of the workers in the vineyard that Jesus told, where the workers who worked all day got the same pay as the workers who came late and worked only an hour? That’s a hard truth – hard to accept, isn’t it? It’s hard to accept because of our human concept of fairness.
How about Jesus’s words in Matt 16:24 - “Take up your cross.” That’s hard to accept, and if we can accept it, it’s certainly hard to practice. How about Jesus’ words about riches in Matthew 19:
Matthew 19:16-26 (NIV) Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" 17"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." 18"Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, " ’Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19honor your father and mother,’ and ’love your neighbor as yourself.’" 20"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?" 21Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 22When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Now, I believe Jesus was in fact making a truth statement about riches. Riches can be consumptive, they can lead us astray from the things of God. Jesus also said in Matthew 6:24 we cannot serve both God and money. But here’s where I want to begin to wrap things up this morning. And I want to do that by recognizing that though many truths are hard to grasp, hard to accept, or hard to practice, that doesn’t mean they are not good.
On the one hand, Jesus is warning us about the danger of loving money more than Him. That’s revealed in many other passages of scripture we could cite, and it’s a principle we even looked at in the sermon a few weeks ago about twinkies or broccoli – we have to choose between the things of God, or the things of the world, and there’s no real in-between.
But despite the very real warning, and I don’t want to in any way blunt the hardness of this truth about the deceitfulness of riches, there’s also a good hard truth here.
The end of this passage in Matthew 19 reads: 25When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?" 26Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
This brings us to that good “hard” truth I referred to a moment ago. That truth is reflected in:
Ephes. 2:8-9 (NIV) For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
If we are to combine this hard truth with the hard truth Jesus told the rich man, it might go something like this:
It is hard for a rich man to get into heaven, but the good news is, he gets to heaven by accepting God’s gift of grace, not by keeping the commandments. Now, if the rich man does accept God’s gift of grace, and thus does receive eternal life, he will obey God’s commandments – the next verse in Ephesians makes that clear:
Ephes. 2:10 (NIV) For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
But this is a hard truth for us to accept – we cannot earn our way to heaven.
But it’s also a wonderful truth, because if that’s what it took, if keeping God’s commandments perfectly is what it took, we’d all walk away dismayed and disappointed, like the rich man, because we are, by nature, unable to do it, without the empowering of the Holy Spirit, which, as Jim noted last week, we receive at the moment of our salvation.
But thanks be to God,
Romans 5:8 (NIV) But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephes. 2:4-5 (NIV) But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.
So, we’re left with a choice. These are all hard truths. Even the “good” ones – even the ones about His grace, which means, His unmerited, unearned favor towards us. Hard to grasp. Hard to accept, and hard to practice, or live by.
But they all, in some way, require a response. We can believe what Jesus claimed about Himself:
John 14:6 (NIV) Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
There’s a hard truth that most of our pluralistic culture really struggles with…and we can believe it or not…but we must make a choice.
If we believe it, or any of the sampling of Biblical truths we really just glanced at this morning, each one worthy of a sermon of its own…if we grasp these truths enough to believe them, we eventually have to accept them, but it cannot end there. If we accept these truths, we must put them into practice. We must do something with these truths…. They all require something of us, and that’s why they’re hard.
Jesus doesn’t give us the option of cafeteria Christianity…pick and choose the truths we want to live by…He said in
1 John 1:6-7 (NIV) If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Here’s the BSP, Bill Sullivan paraphrase, of this passage: “If we claim to be Christians, yet don’t live like Christians, and don’t put into practice the truth of His Word, we’re lying, because we’re not really Christians.”
Now, that’s a hard truth… but I believe it’s a real truth. Jesus said of Himself, “I am the truth.” He also said in John 17 that the Word of God is truth. Let’s walk in, or practice, or live by, the truth, as revealed in the One who said He is the truth, and also claimed He was the one and only Way to the Father. Let’s not be afraid of the hard truths, but let’s embrace them, and embrace the One who is the truth.
