When I was a student at bible college, we had an assignment where we had to memorize Matthew chapter 5. It was an assignment that every student who went through the school eventually had to do. It wasn’t particularly hard. The chapter isn’t very long. But the reason we had to memorize it is because it comes from a very famous section of scripture called The Sermon on the Mount. It’s a sermon that Jesus gave during his ministry.
What makes it so important is that it was a time when Jesus made a declaration of what the faith looks like, and it kind of turned everything that people had traditionally heard on its head. He used this phrasing,
“You have heard it said… but I tell you… “
And what would happen is, he’d say, like, “You have heard it said, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.”
and,
“You have heard it said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
It was this thing he was doing. He was saying that the faith isn’t just about actions, (what you do, behaving a certain way), it’s about the heart. It’s about what is happening inside you. Jesus would later go on to teach that someone’s sin doesn’t come from the doing of an action, but from their heart that desired it long before the action ever happened. It was in their heart that it lay in waiting for the opportunity to escape.
Jesus talked about these things because he knew that getting people to behave a certain way didn’t make their life any better. They still had the struggle in trying to resist the darkness inside of them, and then they also had the guilt that followed when they succumbed to this darkness.
None of that is good.
But if you can change people’s hearts, if you can remove the darkness and replace it with light, then you’re really making something better.
And I bring all this up, because there is a section of Matthew 5 that I was reminded of today.
You see, Ted Kennedy died. And since his death there have been some people “dancing on his grave.” The outpouring of celebratory comments about his going to hell and now paying for his crimes has made me sick to my stomach.
But today was just the breaking point.
For a while now Christians have been acting increasingly crazy. We’ve got people showing up with guns to places. We’ve got people wanting to kill politicians. We’ve got people celebrating that someone might have gone to hell.
Did you read that correctly. Let me type it again.
We’ve got people celebrating that someone might have gone to hell.
Things
have gone
nuts.
What happened to us? When did it get like this? When did we mortgage our faith for political gain? When did we trade our King for a convention?
“You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! … In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. … If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.”
Those were the words of Jesus that one day on the mountain. He said it wasn’t enough to just love the people who love you back. He said that to really make a change, your love had to be for everyone, even the people that it makes sense to hate. Even those people. It’s not enough to just love the ones and not the others. You love them both. Just like God loves them both.
This stuff is coming straight from the mouth of that Jesus guy. You know, our main guy. We can’t ignore this.
Dear Christians,
Enough is enough.
I’m going to say this once, and I hope that once is enough.
Christianity is not a political party, and Republican is not a religious faith.
Let’s not lose track of who we are and what we are doing here.
Seriously.
Love, Tim.
