Jesus the Teacher Dorney and Eton Wick May 8th 2011
Oliver James is a psychologist who spent nine months travelling some of the most prosperous cities of the world to establish what makes people happy. He discovered that our modern lifestyle has made many people really unhappy and he described their condition as ‘affluenza’. People today are preoccupied with four things: money, possessions, their physical appearance and celebrity. For them their lives were about ‘having’: they wanted to be rich, they want to own smart cars or houses, to look special and to enjoy status. But they also discovered that however much they gained of what they wanted they were no closer to happiness. James said the key to happiness is not about ‘having’ but about ‘being’ – of how we understand ourselves, about how we relate to and care about others.
This week’s readings in our E100 series are on Jesus’ teaching. The marvellous opening passage which we had read to us in the second lesson gives Jesus’ own answer to the question, How Can I be happy? His answers are so different to modern society’s. Some translations say ‘Happy are those who are poor...happy are those who mourn...But even better is the translation ‘Blessed’. To be blessed is to enjoy God’s favour; to be blessed is to be fulfilled; to be blessed is to be the person God made me uniquely to be. There is no greater happiness than that.
Martin Lloyd-Jones suggests that the qualities Jesus refers to in the Beatitudes are the qualities which mark out the life of every Christian. In that sense they are a litmus test to prove the work of God within us. They are acquired qualities which flow from the transformation God is undertaking in us. Jesus is speaking of a dissatisfaction at the core of our being about how hopeless we are spiritually; of a deep yearning to confront the ways in which we fall short; He is saying we should enjoy a way of living which does not seek our own way but respects the needs of others ahead of our own; a spirit of forgiveness which is always merciful and which goes on and on being merciful; a deep-seated yearning to be the very best God wants me to be; to be someone who transforms difficult situations to bring peace when all around there is conflict; he speaks of a deep inner battle to live out our best for Him. We may be frustrated by our failure to achieve all this but we know in the depth of our being that it is what we are made for. The Beatitudes are both a challenge and a promise.
When we study the teaching of Jesus we discover
1. That Jesus had a radical message.
In Africa my missionary friends and I would spend hours debating whether to give to beggars in the street. But what does v 41 say? ‘Give to the one who asks you’. Our Tanzanian friends often asked to borrow from us and we would refuse on the grounds that they would be unable to repay. But what does Jesus say in v 41 again: ‘Do not turn away the one who wants to borrow from you’. We were offended when someone stole the second coat that Jesus said we should have given away; we were quick to see the errors in others and miss our own complacency. And I am sure that we were not alone.
I read a biography of St Francis while in Mvumi. He sought to live precisely the kind of life which Jesus speaks of in the Sermon on the Mount. I was embarrassed because I knew I was not prepared to trust God like St Francis by giving away my possessions, or to trust him to clothe me like the flowers and or feed me like the birds of the air. Too often as Christians we can dabble with what Jesus has to say, cherry-picking the bits which we can live with but explaining away the more difficult and demanding passages. I warn you all as we read the Sermon on the Mount you will be excited by his challenge and thrilled by his words, but too often be unmoved by the radical demands He makes of us.... Do we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? Do we store up treasures in heaven or like me in the attic or on the shelves: do we take pleasure in feeling superior to others as we judge them?
2. Jesus also had a radical method
He was a master story teller who made everyday experiences come to life unearthing great spiritual truths using a method which a parent uses with his children. I have an eight year old niece and occasionally she asks me to read to her to go to sleep. It never ceases to amaze me that she seems to fall asleep so quickly or is it she feigns sleep to escape the tedium of my stories! Jesus was not like that: his stories pulse with humanity and humour and compassion – I am sure we all have our favourites. Who cannot be moved by the remarkable kindness of the Father when his son has squandered his fortune; or by the willingness of the Good Samaritan to take such personal risks to help a stranger; or the perseverance of the Shepherd when he searches and searches for that single sheep that went astray; that poor widow with no possessions who sweeps her house to find the coin she has lost. I don’t know if you know Van Gogh’s marvellous picture of the sower throwing seed under a massive gold sun, but Jesus‘ words clearly resonated with him too. His stories require us to see ourselves in the picture and to make the appropriate response. They keep coming back into our minds to challenge or inspire or unsettle.
3. But most importantly Jesus lived out the teaching which He gave.
He lived a blameless life in an inspiring and attractive way.
He attracted a group of fishermen to leave their nets to follow Him. Wherever he went He drew people to Himself - outcasts and sinners, the sick, the disabled, the mentally ill, children. He attracted scholars like Nicodemas, the self-satisfied like the rich young ruler, foreigners like the centurion. He was a charismatic leader because he lived the life of poverty and dependence on God he himself taught; he turned the other cheek when he was mocked and scourged; he offered love and friendship and not judgement and criticism.
But our Faith does not see Jesus as an example that we should follow, but rather a friend to change us. I am a hopeless romantic and I loved the Royal Wedding. There was a clear sense that both were in love and their union together would enhance each other so that each was better for having given themselves to the other. In Colossians, Paul speaks of ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’. Jesus may make radical demands; he may challenge and inspire, but there is nothing worse than to demand of us the unattainable. The promise of Jesus the Teacher is that He will live His risen life in us so that the qualities which we see in the Beatitudes and in the Sermon on the Mount become the characteristics which mark out our lives as we spend time with him. It may take at least a lifetime to make the changes but how blessed shall we be.
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