A Bed of Roses???
A reality in human life that is not, at least on the surface, complicated. It is at the heart of what Jesus is teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, especially in that part of the sermon that we read in today's gospel. What is the reality? Most of us hear what we want to hear and hear it the way we want it to be heard. To this human practice let's add the underlying force that Jesus sees in all that we should do, namely the power of love which is fitting on this Valentine Day weekend.
One of the topics that Jesus included in the Sermon on the Mount is the relationship between married couples. Hopefully most spouses maintain the wedding day promise to remain faithful to each other "until death do us part." Yet, those marriage vows aside, how many spouses make the serious and at times difficult work to strengthen the deep, passionate love that makes a marriage successful and rewarding? You and I, we know of so many marriages that are simply spouses living under the same roof and that's about the extent of the relationship. Long gone is the reality of "a happy marriage" because one or both spouses pay no attention to the desires of the other for the love that is necessary for a marriage to be what it was meant to be.
A second topic that Jesus puts before the people is the matter of murder, that commandment that so much more depth than most people realize even today. Murder is the worst possible expression of a relationship between two people. It makes people shudder. But what Jesus is teaching is this: taking another person's life is the ultimate human disrespect. Dr. Martin Luther King once remarked that "You can kill a person without killing that person." He was speaking about anger that develops between two people. He was speaking about what we say about other behind their backs. That is the sharpest sword or the most cutting sword we possess. Anger left unchecked can ultimately result in the read death of another person.
Likewise one of the current woes of our society, abortion, is a manifestation of anger, of lacking respect for the unborn life that is usually kicking his or her way to freedom from its birth place in his or her mother's womb, the way God planned for his or her arrival into this world. The tragedies of abortion in our world today are examples of a deeply seated lack of respect for human life.
A third topic that Jesus puts before the listening crowd and even us today is a sin that is so prevalent that few people think it to be a sin. As one spiritual writer declared in his writing: lust is everywhere in our modern culture ... the tv, the movies, the Internet ... and in so many direct and indirect ways. Jesus condemns more than adultery. He directly attacks the power of Satan that lures human beings to the experiences of lust. He does what he can to convince people that adultery is wrong sexual activity between two people. He reminds his hearers that lust is as dehumanizing and unholy as adultery because while it is so secret, so much a personal, internal activity, it demonstrates a complete lack of respect for another person.
Lastly, Jesus speaks about the importance of the value of a person's word. He uses the matter of swearing to treat this topic. We don't need to swear he said. He is teaching what used to be the way people said what was in their hearts: a handshake was a signal to another person that what was being said was coming from the person's heart. A person's word was an expression of his or her intention to do exactly what was being said or promised. In essence Jesus was saying your promise have to be more than the wind that comes from the throat when speaking to another person. And just think how lying and deceitfulness are so abundant in our culture.
So, the Sermon on the Mount is some of Jesus' most direct and difficult teaching. It is in this particular teaching session that Jesus genuinely makes us confront the reality of Original Sin that exists in human nature. It is a reminder to us today that all of us have struggles if we truly want to follow the will of God for us. Being a genuine Christian, a genuine follower of Jesus Christ is not easy. It is a true challenge that we have to hear not just what we want to hear but that we have to hear what Jesus is teaching us because it is the Father's will for us. Life is not always a bed of roses!
