Perfect Change
Matthew 5:43-48
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."
Jesus is about change. A woman reached out and simply touched the cloak of Jesus, and she was changed. Five thousand men had their hunger satiated from five loaves of bread and two fish, and they were changed. Peter stepped out of the boat to walk on the water, and he was changed. Paul, on the Road to Damascus, left to kill followers of Christ, met Jesus along the way, and he was changed. A boy possesed by a demon received healing and freedom, and he was changed. A Samaritan woman, shamed and scorned by society and sin, met Jesus, and she was changed.
Everywhere Jesus went and in everything he did, he brought change. The above excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount is no different. The Jews of the day knew the law--forward and backward, up and down, left, right, and every which way. It was nothing new for them to hear a rabbi, a teacher such as Jesus, quote the law they had memorized and obeyed for so long. But what astounds them is when Jesus says, "But I tell you..." No normal man could take the divine law that stood firmly in Jewish culture and alter it without blaspheming. But, this man, this carpenter, this new rabbi was different. He changed the law, not to abolish it (Matthew 5:17-18), but to fulfill it.
The change in the law of the time, that Jesus lays out in this sermon on a mountainside, is meant to bring about a "righteousness [that] surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law" so that the kingdom of heaven is accesible (Matthew 5:20). Thus, he raises the standard and ups the ante in truly living for God.
It is easy to treat well those who favor us. If someone is nice to you, then, naturally, you can reciprocate that kindness. Jesus says that simply loving your neighbor is no longer enough. He says, "How about loving your enemies? You know, those people who rub you the wrong way--The ones who cut you off in traffic and laugh on their way by, that person at work who brown noses the boss and takes the credit you deserve, the one who went behind your back and dated the person you liked, the person who lied to you, who hates you, who kicked your dog, who..." You get the idea. Jesus says that true righteousness, that which is worthy of the kingdom of heaven, shows love--real love from the heart--even to the ones who are difficult to love. If we love only those who love us, then we are no different from tax collecters, who were the most hated of all people for their extortion and usury, and pagans, who were irreligious and hedonistic.
But Jesus sums up this argument of loving one's enemies by saying, "Be perfect." This word, perfect, comes from a Greek word that means mature, complete, or finished. Paul uses it in Colossians 1:28 to talk about the destination of the Christ follower, the form that a believer is to take on when growth in Christ culminates. This perfection, however, that Christ calls us to, is for today. We find this perfection in obeying Christ's commands and applying the change he calls us to. Perfection is not found through our works, but rather through our desire to obey. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, would say that such perfection is meant to be defined as the journey to perfection--that as we strive to be like Christ and follow his commands with faith in him, we attain perfection because of his presence working in and through us.
Regardless, perfection is not an option for followers of Christ. Perfection is expected. And herein lies the truth that astounds me--as believers in Jesus, we are perfect.
Everywhere Jesus went and in everything he did, he brought change. The above excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount is no different. The Jews of the day knew the law--forward and backward, up and down, left, right, and every which way. It was nothing new for them to hear a rabbi, a teacher such as Jesus, quote the law they had memorized and obeyed for so long. But what astounds them is when Jesus says, "But I tell you..." No normal man could take the divine law that stood firmly in Jewish culture and alter it without blaspheming. But, this man, this carpenter, this new rabbi was different. He changed the law, not to abolish it (Matthew 5:17-18), but to fulfill it.
The change in the law of the time, that Jesus lays out in this sermon on a mountainside, is meant to bring about a "righteousness [that] surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law" so that the kingdom of heaven is accesible (Matthew 5:20). Thus, he raises the standard and ups the ante in truly living for God.
It is easy to treat well those who favor us. If someone is nice to you, then, naturally, you can reciprocate that kindness. Jesus says that simply loving your neighbor is no longer enough. He says, "How about loving your enemies? You know, those people who rub you the wrong way--The ones who cut you off in traffic and laugh on their way by, that person at work who brown noses the boss and takes the credit you deserve, the one who went behind your back and dated the person you liked, the person who lied to you, who hates you, who kicked your dog, who..." You get the idea. Jesus says that true righteousness, that which is worthy of the kingdom of heaven, shows love--real love from the heart--even to the ones who are difficult to love. If we love only those who love us, then we are no different from tax collecters, who were the most hated of all people for their extortion and usury, and pagans, who were irreligious and hedonistic.
But Jesus sums up this argument of loving one's enemies by saying, "Be perfect." This word, perfect, comes from a Greek word that means mature, complete, or finished. Paul uses it in Colossians 1:28 to talk about the destination of the Christ follower, the form that a believer is to take on when growth in Christ culminates. This perfection, however, that Christ calls us to, is for today. We find this perfection in obeying Christ's commands and applying the change he calls us to. Perfection is not found through our works, but rather through our desire to obey. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, would say that such perfection is meant to be defined as the journey to perfection--that as we strive to be like Christ and follow his commands with faith in him, we attain perfection because of his presence working in and through us.
Regardless, perfection is not an option for followers of Christ. Perfection is expected. And herein lies the truth that astounds me--as believers in Jesus, we are perfect.
Colossians 1:21-22 "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation..."
posted by mcm at 22:23
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