A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 52

Chapter 52 – Our Final Authority

 

Now when Jesus had finished saying these words, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as their scribes. (Matthew 7:28-29)

Jesus was never looking to create a religion or a huge following. His goal wasn’t to build a megachurch and claim all sorts of converts. He wasn’t looking for likes and shares. Jesus was only trying to remind people of what God already asked them to do in the scriptures from which they were already learning. When Jesus asked people to be followers, it’s not because he wanted to command them, or have authority over them. God was already the authority and Jesus wanted people to imitate his teachings on how to have a right and loving relationship with God and with each other.

The hard part is making sure that we are becoming true followers, true imitators of Christ, not just admirers. According to Soren Kierkegaard, “an imitator is or strives to be what he admires, and an admirer keeps himself personally detached.” (p. 328-329) In the quiet, easy life, when everything is favourable to a Christian, it is easy to fall back to being an admirer. (p. 330) Being a follower of Christ means to take action like Christ, not just sitting back and admiring his words and deeds. An example of an admirer would be Nicodemus because, in the end, he never became an imitator of Christ.

So, will you be an admirer or an imitator? Will you sit on your laurels, or will you do as Jesus did – sit with the most marginalized of all and remind them that they, too, are children of God? Will you follow the handbook found with the Sermon on the Mount and take action for justice and peace in the world?

I give our final words to the great Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “but again he does not mean that it is to be discussed as an ideal, he really means us to get on with it…Jesus has spoken: his is the word, ours the obedience.” (p. 332)

If you’ve stuck with me the entire year, thank you so much. This project ended up being more daunting than I expected. Also, due to life circumstances over the summer, I couldn’t truly get posts done weekly as I had planned. However, it was an amazing experience to explore the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew deeper than I had before. I am grateful for the opportunity to have done so, and to have shared my thoughts with you. Thank you all again for walking with me on this journey. May God be with you all.