“Don’t even begin to think that I have come to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I haven’t come to do away with them but to fulfill them. I say to you very seriously that as long as heaven and earth exist, neither the smallest letter nor even the smallest stroke of a pen will be erased from the Law until everything there becomes a reality." Matthew 5:17-18 CEB
As we journey through this season of Lent, we are challenged to look at our lives.
Yet if we were to truly look at our lives in the light of Jesus, it should be more like a glaring light that makes us squirm. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Chapters 5-7 of the Gospel of Matthew, a section known as the Sermon on the Mount, that we studied last week in my “Mondays at Two” group. They are challenging words. If you truly sit down and absorb these words, you are going to be mad, or you feel shamed, or you may just think that Jesus didn’t really mean what he is saying.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus goes against the grain of our prevailing way of life. It shakes us up. And that is the whole aim of the sermon. Much of what Jesus is referring to are the laws that were handed down from the Old Testament. Jesus didn’t change the laws of the Old Testament. In fact, he put them on a higher level. They are more stringent than we first thought. The true test is not whether we commit acts outwardly, the true test is if we commit the crime inwardly, in our thoughts and our hearts. There is no difference in doing the crime and thinking about doing the crime. Are you squirming yet?
If you are looking for a nice, comfortable religion that doesn't call for too many demands on your life and makes you feel better when you're down then you probably shouldn't try to be one of Jesus' disciples. He is demanding. He has the crazy notion that his followers should serve others rather than themselves. He expects them to show integrity when no one is looking.
And he expects them to love. Even those people that stir our anger. Jesus expects us to love our enemies. With discomfort brings change. For Jesus is challenging us not so that we can feel bad about ourselves. The intent of these teachings is to spur us on for transformation. Don't follow Jesus unless you're ready to experience some discomfort. And change.
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