"the Heart Of God"

“The Heart of God”

Matthew 5:38-48

This morning’s Gospel Lesson is right-smack in the middle of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

It is Jesus’ first big sermon, and it is aimed—primarily—at Jesus’ disciples, a group of folks who have only recently started following Him.

They are this motley crew of people, most of whom don’t really know one another very well at this point.

They don’t even know Jesus very well.

They are fishermen who have left their businesses in order to follow Christ, tax collectors—those hated villains who had made their living ripping off their own people, some are former followers of John the Baptist…

They are not educated.

They have no power.

They have no money.

They really have no idea what they are doing and they don’t necessarily know much about religion or God.

And yet here Jesus is teaching them and bestowing all kinds of grand titles on them: “You are the salt of the earth,” Jesus says in verse 13.

“You are the light of the world,” Jesus tells them in verse 14.

What do you suppose they were thinking?

And then He tells them they are to not only love their neighbors, but their enemies as well.

They are to pray for those who treat them badly.

If someone slaps them on the right cheek they are to offer them their left cheek as well.

If someone wants the shirt off their back, they are to give them their coat as well.

And they are to be perfect, as their Heavenly Father is perfect.

These are very faulty human beings Jesus is speaking to here.

They don’t live this way; they have never lived this way.

And, you know what?

If we are to be Jesus’ disciples, these words apply to us just as much as they did to Peter, James, John and the rest of Jesus’ first followers.

A pastor tells the story of stumbling into his kitchen after a long day of work.

He put down his groceries and pressed the voice-mail button.

It was one of his church members: “Pastor, I’m doing the Scripture reading for Sunday, and I have that passage where Jesus says, ‘Turn the other cheek.’ You know that passage, right?

Do the other Gospels have that same passage?

Is it different in the other Gospels?

Could you let me know, because…no offense, but I think Jesus is wrong.”

Over the centuries, many people have gone to great lengths to try and explain away Jesus’ words in all kinds of ways.

And when this is done, suddenly His commands seem distant and irrelevant to us.

But the Real Jesus will have none of this.

The Real Jesus looks at you and at me and says: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Is Jesus taunting us?

Is He asking us to do something that is impossible?

Is this some kind of joke?

Is Jesus setting us up to fail?

The Greek word here translated as “perfect” is telios.

It refers to the purpose of a thing or of a person.

Being “perfect” means to be who God created us to be—to be about that purpose.

It means to be completely focused on our role in God’s Kingdom…

…so that we “may be children of” our “Father in heaven.”

Max Lucado writes about a big, muscle-bound man named Daniel who was ripped off by his own brother.

He vowed that if he ever saw him again, he would break his neck.

A few months later, Daniel became a Christian.

Even so, he couldn’t forgive his brother.

One day Daniel was walking down a busy sidewalk and saw his brother.

This is how Daniel described what happened: “I saw him, but he didn’t see me.

I felt my fists clench and my face get hot.

My initial impulse was to grab him around the throat and choke the life out of him.

But as I looked into his face, my anger began to melt.

For as I saw him, I saw the image of my father.

I saw my father’s eyes.

I saw my father’s look.

I saw my father’s expression.

And as I saw my father in his face, my enemy once again became my brother.”

God created every human being in God’s image.

And God saves us in order to be the people God created us to be.

And as Christ’s followers we are called to “love as God loves.”

Now, don’t get me wrong.

We can’t do this on our own.

It’s not like a ten-week muscle building-fat burning work-out.

It’s not a fad diet with guaranteed results.

It’s not some admonition to simply try harder.

If it was, it would certainly be a recipe for despair.

What it is is a plan of action rooted in the promise in verse 45 “that we may be children of our Father in heaven.”