Suppose, for a moment, that a political leader, say, the President of the United States, is ready to stand before Congress and the people to declare war. Everyone expects this of him, and have long predicted this would be the content of his speech. Suppose also, that, in this hypothetical situation, everyone feels he will be justified in declaring war and opposing an unjust and evil enemy.
But instead of declaring war, he stands and speaks of peace.
And morality. And LOVING the very enemies that everyone believes war should be
made upon.
Imagine the surprise, the shock, even the anger, of many of
those who heard this speech.
This is, in fact, exactly what happened when Jesus of
Nazareth ascended a small hill to preach his Sermon on the Mount to thousands
who had gathered there to hear him – a sermon in which he laid out his system
of morality and the doctrines by which we are to live according to God’s
Righteousness, and by which God’s peaceable Kingdom would come.
Many of his time, we are told, expected him to use his word
to rally an army to his side and lead a violent rebellion against the Roman Imperial
occupiers. This, they said, was the role of the Jewish “Messiah” many saw hidden
in the Hebrew Scriptures. No doubt, the party called the Zealots were angered
and disappointed that Jesus wouldn’t lead this violent revolt.
They believed this Messiah would then established his
kingdom in imitation of the Kingdom of David, and believed that this Jesus
would be the One who would establish his Kingdom and subdue all of the enemies
of the Jews by force.
Instead, Jesus spoke in this sermon and in his ensuing
ministry, of establishing a Kingdom “not of this earth,” a Kingdom of God in
which all who suffered, all who thirsted and hungered for Righteousness, all who
were meek and poor of spirit, all who were ill-clothed, ill-fed and in need of
comfort would be served and comforted by God’s people.
Instead of hating one’s enemies, he said we must love them,
pray for them, bless them, and go an extra mile if ordered by them to march
one.
And to top it all off, this spiritual kingdom was come ON
THIS EARTH by the Good Works of God’s people, those who had repented of their
sins and who now served God as New People – God’s People – imitating the
perfect example of Jesus, who was sent by God to not only proclaim God’s
Kingdom but to live out the Kingdom in every way, and by so doing, prove for
all time that we can, indeed, obey God.
There are some today who are still disappointed by Jesus,
and say he must have meant something else, that he STILL will come and declare
war on the wicked, and rule as an Imperial Dictator from Jerusalem. Or, they
say, his words really have no meaning because he, being God in disguise (as
they assert) clearly didn’t REALLY mean it when he said “follow me,” and “Obey
these teachings of mine.”
But to view Jesus as having somehow failed, as some kind of
imposter and not as a man who was Adopted, Chosen, Anointed and Sent by God to “go
about doing good” and preaching that we must “go, and do likewise,” is to
reject Jesus as the Christ, and to ignore the Good and Beneficial Gospel
message he preached so clearly.
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