Lenten Stories 2: Hear Me (Matthew 7:24-29)

  For full message, see link at bottom

Lent is the season in which we walk towards Easter—towards Palm Sunday when Jesus was acclaimed by people of Jerusalem, towards Good Friday when He was crucified and died for us, towards Resurrection Sunday when He came out from the tomb, to bring us into new life with Him. 

As we walk that road, we're putting ourselves in the shoes of the apostles, in an exercise of empathy. Asking ourselves what this experience was for those twelve men. Asking ourselves what they lost and what they found. What they had to learn and unlearn as they followed and learned to imitate their Rabbi, Jesus.  

Today’s passage is from the end of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ near the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. He's been baptized by John the Baptizer, then come through 40 days of testing in the wilderness. He's begun to travel, to preach, to heal, and to deliver people from evil spirits. And He has at this point chosen His disciples and named 12 of them ‘apostles.’  

______

The power of a great Rabbi lay in his ability to memorize, to understand, to defend, and to explain to the people around him—using logic, precedent, imagination—what Torah (God's Law) said, what it meant and how it was to be lived. 

The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ first big public recorded sermon.  

Word about Him has gotten around. Large crowds have begun to follow Him. So Matthew begins his description of this event by saying:  

“When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain and sat down. His disciples came to Him, and He began to teach them, saying:...” (Matthew 5:1) 

He says, if you want to be My disciple, if you want to be a citizen of My kingdom, this is what it looks like...  

First, Jesus says, here is the good news: when you suffer, when you are hungry, when you are grieving, when you are poor because of Me (and the disciples go, “Wait, what? That's the good news?”), when life is hard because of Me—you are blessed. Because what Yahweh God promises you in return is wonderful beyond your imagination, and your faithfulness to Me will be rewarded by My eternal faithfulness to you.  

Here is your opportunity: in the meantime, here on earth, you have power to bring good to the world. Power to slow down the decay. Power to show the way. Don't hide from that opportunity. Live out loud and in plain view as My disciples, because God's Torah was given for a reason: to reflect God's nature, to express God's will. You obey God's law for your own good, and for the good of the whole world.  

But here's the twist: you have heard it said in the Law, “Don't murder.” You've heard it said, “Don't commit adultery.” You've heard it said, “Don't be untruthful.”  

But. I. Say.  

I say murder happens in the heart. I say unfaithfulness happens in the heart. I say cheating happens in the heart. You've heard it said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is acceptable payback.” But I say, forgive. You've heard it said, “Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say, love your enemy whether you want to or not. Love them the way God loves you.  

I say live a righteous life, do the righteous things, but do them from the heart.  

Then Jesus says, here's the challenge: when you do the things that arise naturally from a life of righteousness—giving, praying, fasting—don't make it about you. No virtue signaling. It's not about pats on the back.  

• When you engage in the spiritual practice of generosity, give quietly and with gratitude that you can give.  
• When you engage in the spiritual practice of conversation with God, it's between you and Him.  
• When you engage in the spiritual practice of denying your body to focus your spirit, don't brag about it on Facebook, so everybody will know how spiritual you are. Why? Because we do these things not for the affirmation of being seen to be good, but we do them looking forward to an eternal reward of having invested our lives well. You can't take with you into eternity your tax receipts, your brass plaques, your paycheques, and your ‘likes.’ You carry into eternity only what is in, and what flowed out of, your heart.  

And yes, Jesus says, we are human. We need money. We need affirmation. But grasping and hanging on to what we can get on earth—that is unbelief, not righteousness. That is a failure to recognize who God is.  

So here's the recap, Jesus says. Don't compare yourself (for better or for worse) to the people around you. Instead, focus on what God has for you to receive and to do. Your heavenly Father knows what you need. He knows who you are. He knows what you cannot do. He knows what you can. And what He demands of you is to “Do to others what you would have them do to you.” That, Jesus says, is God's Law.  

He says, being my disciple, being a citizen in my kingdom, is not complicated. But it's not easy. The easy road goes nowhere you want to go. Take instead the road that leads to Me. Counterfeits look good, but ultimately they’re worth face value and no more.  

Jesus says, here's the homework: hear Me. Do what I say. Do what I do. Dig down to the bedrock. Do the hard work of becoming like Me and you will stand.  

“When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished (spellbound) because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matthew 7:28). 

______

What did the apostles have to unlearn, and what did they have to learn?  

I would suggest that first they had to unlearn where authority lay. For Jewish Priests, their authority came through their family tree, a hereditary position established by God so they could serve in His Temple, and engage His people with the Law of Moses. The Rabbis and Scribes had an authority that they earned. Hard. They worked, memorizing Torah, living it and teaching it. They invested their lives in gaining the authority to teach. They also took their authority from their place in the generations of Rabbis, one learning from another who had learned from another, and each claiming the reflected authority of his predecessors. 

But for Jesus? Jesus’ authority lay in Himself. “You have heard it said... But. I. Say.” He wasn’t born into the Priestly tribe. He didn’t claim connection with any other Rabbi. He stood on His own.  

Having unlearned that, the apostles had to learn where Jesus’ authority did come from. It lay within Himself. But where did He get it?  

Jesus was an authority on Torah. He taught Torah, interpreting it the way the Rabbis did, with stories and imaginative examples that said, “This is what it looks like when you live how God wants you to live.” Jesus was an authority on Torah because... He wrote it. Jesus could interpret Torah because He was the author of Torah. 

In one of His many clashes with the religious authorities, Jesus said to them:

"You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life...” (John 5:39-40)  

‘You guys are trying so hard. But...’ Jesus was the author of Torah because Jesus is God. He is the one who gave us these words—to help us to learn about him, and to recognize him when He came. The apostles had to learn that Jesus was the source of Torah, and He was the destination that Torah points us towards. That He was the author of our faith and He was the finisher of our faith. He was the truest interpreter of His own Law.  

So for us today. What might we need to unlearn? What might we need to re-learn?  

Many of us need to unlearn our colouring book and flannelgraph image of Jesus. We need to unlearn the poseable, 2-dimensional Jesus who votes like me, shares my taste in music, and approves of me because I believe all the right things. We need to unlearn a Jesus who always does what I want just because I want it.  

And we need to learn the Jesus who knows me better than I’d like, with no illusions of what I'm capable of, for better or for worse. Who knows my internet history and does not approve, but loves me anyway. Who knows how much I spent on that thing and does not approve, but loves me anyway. Who knows all my little tricks for earning pats on the back and does not approve, but loves me anyway. And who loves me enough to start shaking me up and making me listen to what He says I should do. 

That's not easy.  

It's not complicated. But it's not easy. And if it's not easy for us, imagine what it was like for those 12 guys who did not have our luxury of hindsight, and of the rest of the New Testament writings to learn from. Did not have the benefit of centuries of church history, all those brothers and sisters to learn from.

Imagine how much hard work they had to do before they could get to the point where Peter could say:

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God” (Matt 16:16).

Where Thomas could say to Jesus:

“You are my Lord and my God” (John 20:28)

And where John, in his beautiful prose, could write:

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we have seen His glory—the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and full of truth” (John 1:14)

Rabbi Jesus, growing up as a boy and a young man in Israel, memorized Torah, He lived Torah, modelling for us what it looks like to walk in obedience to God's Law. And He taught us through beautiful, powerful words like the Sermon on the Mount... if we are willing to hear what He says to us.

He is speaking to us individually. He is speaking to us as a church. He is speaking to us as His people around the world saying, “Hear me. And do what I say.”  

 To hear the full message: