Better than Better
The Hard Sayings of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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· 21 viewsGod doesn't let us be better than others. He demands we live up to a higher standard
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
When I was in elementary school, they had a day called field day. On that day, we engaged in all kinds of physical events, but most revolved around foot races like the 100-yard dash.
Teachesr would hand out ribbons. Blue ones for first, red ones for second place, and white ones for third. (We were still of the generation that participation awards were silly!)
The object of the day was to have fun, at least that’s what the teachers told us. But everyone knew that wasn’t the reason.
The real reason was to prove we were as good, if not better than others.
We have adopted that standard throughout life. We compete to prove where we stand in relation to other people. We build standards such as “good, better, and best.” And we all way to be best.
It carries over into our spiritual lives as well. How do we respond to God’s will? But our natural question is “compared to who?”
The church critic prides himself that he is at least as good as the hypocrites down in that church. Church members proudly point to the fact that they have not missed a single service in years (with a hint that says, “not like other people”). It affords us a self-imposed status as one of God’s special people.
If that’s you, you are in for a shock in today’s lesson. Jesus takes a sledgehammer to that kind of thinking. In fact, he raises the bar so high we think we cannot match it.
He says, “Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
Is that reasonable? Let’s explore that this morning.
Discussion
Discussion
The Standard
The Standard
Listen carefully to what Jesus says:
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Perfect? Are you kidding?
Is Jesus out of his mind? We can’t be perfect? But that seems to be the standard.
Some students of Christian ethics see in this phrase a chasm of performance. There are general standards for “the rank and file” of Christianity. And then there’s this. Its “counsel of perfection” is reserved only for real saints.
Or, as has been expressed, people who take their spirituality seriously.
Does he mean “sinless perfection?” That’s how many take it. And we dismiss it easily with, “I’m sure Jesus did not mean that!”
Soren Kirkegaard, the strange Danish philosopher, commented:
“Most people really believe that the Christian commandments (for example, to love one’s neighbor as oneself) are intentionally a little too severe—like putting the clock ahead half an hour to make sure of not being late in the morning.”
If we take this commandment this way, why not take everything Jesus says with a generous pinch of salt?
What exactly is the standard Jesus speaks of?
Is it moral perfection and ideal behavior and thinking? Are we to never have a stain on our record, commit no errors, have no sins to repent of? Does that mark Christian living in God’s kingdom?
If it is, Jesus creates his own internal inconsistency. That is especially true about the very sermon he is preaching. How would you like to hear a sermon where point three negates point one? Would you believe anything that preacher says?
If Jesus means “sinless perfection” then he would have no reason to mention forgiveness. But listen to what he says within a dozen verses.
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
If you have no debts, you need no forgiveness. The prayer Jesus teaches to the people who heard the first part says, “you need to ask for forgiveness.” And the word “debit” is a word of deficit, something owed.
Yet, the word Jesus uses for “perfect” has many meanings. It is more expansive than moral perfection. It indicates maturity full-grown. It is the last mark to complete a circle or bring the sick to “wholeness.” This describes a wholly integrated life into God’s will in a way that reflects his character.
It is imperative that to understand what Jesus says, we not rip it from its context. The context is the bank that channels the saying.
This is a section that begins in verse 43. Jesus instructs us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, which is counterintuitive to human thought. He focuses on how we interact with a world full of people, even those who despise us and all we stand for. It is within that context that Jesus says, “be perfect.”
To do that, he has exposes the prevalent thinking of his day and today as well.
The Practice
The Practice
He starts with what is common, what all people, religious and irreligious accept.
Listen to verse 43:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
The tradition (and common sense) tells us that we love those who love us and we shun those who don’t. After all, who seeks to have a lunch appointment with someone they cannot stand!
This is the average standard, what everybody does.
Jesus states this practical standard clearly.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
You love those who love you. Simple. Listen to our language:
• one good turn deserves another;
• you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.
We live by the law of reciprocity. I will give back what you give me.
Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?
But Jesus doesn’t let them lie in a comfortable bed. Instead, he sows it with the thorns of reality.
For the good Jews who believed they were living up to the Lord’s high standards (especially the Pharisees), he wants to make an uncomfortable point. You are not any better than anyone else in dealing with the difficult people in this world.
Case study 1—the tax collector:
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
You have the same ethics as a tax collector, that hated thieving Benedict Arnold that you curse under your breath. Wait, you mean, I am like that? Indeed, you miss the point about I am better than that?
Really, Jesus says. He acts just like you do. He loves those who love him and despises the other. How are you better?
Then he moves to cast study 2—the Gentiles.
And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
You are no better than the Gentiles, those stray dogs of humanity that you avoid because you might get their fleas. They greet their friends and sneer at their enemies—just like you do.
How are you better?
Jesus says, in practice, you are no better than the people you despise for who they are and how they live.
Jesus observed them and told all of us the truth.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
We get the reward we seek. We get the admiration and love of the people we give it back to. We don’t want to do what does not reward us. And, if some won’t love us first, why love them back?
It reminds me of the Old Testament story of Jonah, an early prophet of the 8th century. God sends him to the Assyrian capital of Ninevah to prophesy to them. His message is “three days and Ninevah will be destroyed.”
But to Jonah’s mind, these evil Gentiles, enemies of God’s people and God’s truth, deserve no chance to hear a message. Unleash a heavenly conflagration against them and burn them to the ground. Good riddance.
Jonah wants no part of this venture because he, like any righteous Israelite, hates them. They deserve nothing. So Jonah runs in the opposite direction.
God prevails by miracle and plucks a dripping Jonah covered in gastric juices from the beach and says, “now, go, as I told you.”
Like a child going to visit an aunt who he cannot stand, he goes and delivers his message of doom—no invitation song for these sinners.
But they came forward to repent anyway. They grieved for their sin, and God turned away from them.
And Jonah was peeved at God. He wanted God to “sic ‘em,” and all he did was love on them. He sat under a broom tree, sulking like a child.
Look in the mirror, and we might see Jonah hiding behind our eyes. For we see evil and want retribution. We want evil punished. And, we want to love the lovely and hate the sinner, never mind our public pronouncements on Sunday mornings.
So what does Jesus want us to do? Does he want something radical out of us?
The Perfection
The Perfection
Jonah had the same problem we do. He knew God too well. He complains.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.
There is God, full of compassion, grace, and mercy. He treats his enemies like his friends and his friends like his enemies…no different. Why can’t God be more like us?
And that’s the problem. God wants us to be like him.
God treats everyone the same. He doesn’t go through heaven telling his angels, “now, when you get to Main Street, the only houses that get their grass watered are numbers 104, 115, and 124. They are good people.”
And he doesn’t look at the farmer who only uses God’s name with vulgarity and say, “sorry, I won’t give you the sun to make your cotton grow. Change, and we can talk about it.”
No, God waters whole neighborhoods, sinner and saint alike. The sun shines on the parks bordering churches and those frequented by atheists.
God cares about all of them. He disagrees with them all, but he cares for all of them.
Listen to what God is looking for in his children:
And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
The word “more” is rendered “remarkable by some. It is the Greek word perisson, a word that means “over the top” or “superfluous” and “more than is required. God is looking for something that is more than is required or expected.
The German churchman who died at the hands of Adolph Hitler, Detrich Bonhoeffer said of this verse:
‘What makes the Christian different from other men is the “peculiar”, the perisson, the “extraordinary”, the “unusual”, that which is not “a matter of course” … It is “the more”, the “beyond-all-that”. The natural is to auto (one and the same) for heathen and Christian, the distinctive quality of the Christian life begins with the perisson … For him (sc. Jesus) the hallmark of the Christian is the “extraordinary” saints are found among the common believers who by grace have become pure in heart.”
It is the mark of the son of a loving Father.
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
People need to see the resemblance. They are the family values. Concern and care for all, including those who are so opposed to truth they make us choke.
It is this standard that Jesus holds us to, not the standard of “better than most” but “as good as the Father.”
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Like father, son. No less.
So, are you a son, as perfect as the father? Do you love the same way to:
• An immigrant that you don’t know if they got here legally or not?
• To someone who is a vocal proponent of an opposing political party?
• To someone who doesn’t speak your language?
• To someone whose skin color is not the same as yours?
• To someone who is not a Christian and perhaps even hates Christians?
• To someone whose dark-circled eyes betray a life sunken in drug use?
We better have the answers because Jesus is going to ask you—are you perfect even as the Father is perfect?
Conclusion
Conclusion
We betray who we are and who we serve by whether we reflect the Father who gave us birth. Some are spiritual runaways who don’t want to live with that Father. Would you be perfect as your Father when it comes to those who need both his love and yours?
If not, are we really any better? And besides, God doesn’t want us better than others but perfect as God. Which are you?
Daniel was strong and well-muscled. He could lift heavy weight and not someone you might meet in a dark alley. His brother swindled him out of a vast amount of money, leaving Daniel scratching out an existence.
Daniel swore if he ever saw him again, he would break his neck. Forgiveness and reconciliation were out of the question.
One day, Daniel heard a message the drew him to Jesus. He learned more and became a Christian.
One day, on the street, something caught his eye in the distance. The figure was familiar. It was his brother. Daniel saw his brother, who did not see him.
Listen to Daniel tell his own story:
“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.”
He rushed to his brother and wrapped him in a hug that lasted for minutes. Tears flowed freely.
And it’s worth listening to Daniel’s words again: “When I saw the image of my father in his face, my enemy became my brother.”
Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
One day, on the street something caught his eye in the distance. The figure was familiar. It was his brother. Daniel saw his brother who did not see him.
Listen to Daniel tell his own story:
“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.”
He rushed to his brother and wrapped him in a hug that lasted for minutes. Tears flowed freely.
And it’s worth listening to Daniel’s words again: "When I saw the image of my father in his face, my enemy became my brother."
Be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect.