The University of Life

Right after Jesus told everyone what a blessed life looked like, He continued with His radical teachings (Matthew chapters 5 to 7). I wonder what the people thought when He told them things like, they were the salt of the earth and if they lost their saltiness they were not good for anything but to be trodden underfoot? Or that they were the light of the world and shouldn’t hide their light because it gives praise and glory to God? Or that He had not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it? I imagine their heads were spinning. But Jesus didn’t stop there but continued with His University of Life, as it were. Their righteousness had to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. Was that even possible? And they shouldn’t bother offering a gift to God if they were angry at their brother.

And then came the really radical stuff. Just lusting after someone other than their husband or wife was adultery. And divorce was out except for the case of adultery. Forget it if their wife burned their dinner every night. They could no longer issue a bill of divorcement. They had to live with it. Next came the swearing of oaths. No more swearing. Just let “yes” be “yes.” And then the hair curler: Love your enemies! Do good to them who hate and persecute you! I imagine they were really squirming in their seats by then. After all, hadn’t life taught them that might made right and one should give as good as he got? You know, the “eye for an eye” thing. Now this Nazarene was not only telling them to love their enemies, but if they didn’t forgive everyone who had ever hurt them or done them wrong then God can’t forgive them either! What? Surely the only reason Jesus could say this was because He didn’t know their Aunt Mable or have Mr. Scrooge as a boss. If Jesus only knew what they had to put up, surely He wouldn’t be asking this of them!

But wait, it gets worse. Jesus goes on to say they and, by extension, we can’t serve two masters. It’s got to be either possessions, riches and whatever else we trust in or Him. Just Him. And He says stop finding fault with others. Stop looking at that little speck in their eye while we have a great big beam hanging out of ours. Stop judging or we’ll be judged.

Jesus goes on to talk about so many things. All hard, all radical. And then the clincher. If we want to follow Him we have to enter through the narrow gate. For only the narrow gate leads to life while the wide gate leads to destruction. Oh wait! That sounds so restricting. Does that mean we can’t do our own thing?

Finally, He wraps up these life lessons by saying that we will know each other by the fruit we bear. Good trees will bear good fruit and every tree that does not will be “cut down and cast into the fire,” and only those who do the will of the Father will enter into the kingdom of heaven. That’s heavy. That gives one pause. That takes a lot of guesswork out of the equation and removes all wiggle room. But then Jesus ends with a wonderful promise. Everyone who learns His life lessons and applies them are building a house on solid rock that neither the adverse rains nor winds of life will be able to destroy. But not so the others. Those who do not follow His admonitions are building their house on sand, subject to the elements and “great and complete was the fall of it.”

There’s so much here in these lessons of Jesus. And without Him, they are all completely impossible to apply with any real measure of success. But the Bible tells us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, and that He who began a good work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. We are His workmanship and He’ll never give up on us. Aren’t you glad we don’t have to do this on our own?

Until next time,

Sylvia