"You are my son, the beloved. In you I delight." - the Father (Mk 1:22, Lk 3:22) This is my son, the beloved, in whom I delight." - the Father (Mt. 3:17) MORAL: God the Father establishes, out loud before a crowd, Jesus' sonship and his delight in him. What follows is delightful to God. (And what opposes the Son is not delightful to God.)
"Go away, Satan, for it is written YHWH your God shall you be worshipping, and to him alone shall you be offering divine service." - Jesus (Mt. 9:10) "Go away behind me, Satan! It is written YHWH your God shall you be worshipping, and to him alone shall you be offering divine service." - Jesus (Lk. 6:8)
MORAL: God alone is to be given divine service. Later, Jesus will return to the same theme when he says "You cannot serve both God and money."
"Take these things away from here and do not be making my Father's house a house for a merchant's store." (Jn 2:16)
MORAL: This is the first of two times that Jesus will reject commerce in the Temple grounds.
"He who is believing in him is not being judged, yes he who is not believing has been judged already, for he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. Now this is the judging: that the light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light, for their acts were wicked. For everyone who is committing bad things is hating the light and is not coming to the light, lest his acts may be exposed. Now he who is doing the truth is coming to the light that his acts may be made manifest, for they have been wrought in God. (Jn 3:18-21)
MORAL: Those who don't do what Jesus says hate the light and the truth and is not coming to the light. Jesus will repeat this theme later when he asks what good it does to say you follow him if you do not do what he says to do.
"Repent! for near is the kingdom of the heavens!" (Mt 4:17) "Fulfilled is the era, and near is the kingdom of God. Repent, and believe in the good news!" (Mk 1:15)
MORAL: If you're resisting what Jesus has to say, stop it now, be quiet, give up your bad ideas, believe in the good news, and follow him.
"Are you not saying that still four months is it and the harvest is coming? Look! I am telling you lift up your eyes and gaze on the countrysides, for they are white for harvest already. And he who is reaping is getting wages and is gathering fruit for life of the eon, that both the sower and the reaper may likewise be rejoicing. For in the case is the saying true, that one is the sower and another is the reaper. I commission you to reap that for which you have not toiled. Others have toiled, and you have entered into their toil." (Jn 4:35-38)
"The spirit of YHWH is on me, on account of which he anoints me to bring the good news to the poor. He has commissioned me to heal the crushed heart, to herald to captives a pardon, and to the blind the receiving of sight; to dispatch the oppressed with a pardon, to herald an acceptable year of YHWH." (Lk.4:18-19)
MORAL: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus to do what? To bring good news to whom? To pardon whom? The poor, the crushed of heart, the captives, the oppressed, the blind - the very people whom men look down upon with contempt. Who is not on that list? The contemnors, the creditors, the captors, the oppressors. This theme will be repeated again and again. Remember it every time you revile the poor. You're not on Jesus' side whenever you do that.
"Follow me!…No need have the strong of a physician, but those having an illness. I did not come to call the just, but sinners." (Mk 2:14,17) "Follow me, ,,, Those who are sound have no need of a physician, but those who have an illness. I have not come to call the just, but sinners, to repentance." (Lk 5:27,31) "Follow me!…"No need have the strong of a physician, but those having an illness. Now go, learn what this is: Mercy am I wanting, and not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the just but sinners." (Mt 9: 12- 13)
MORAL: Follow Jesus. Later, he will say "What good does it do you to follow me if you don't do what I say.
"Truly, truly I am saying to you that an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall be hearing the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall be living. For even as the Father has life in himself, thus to the Son also he gives to have life in himself. And he gives him authority to do judging, seeing that he is a son of mankind. Marvel not at this, for coming is the hour in which all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and those who do good shall go out into a resurrection of life, yet those who commit bad things, into a resurrection of judging." (Jn 525-29)
MORAL: Jesus has the power to judge, and he will judge the dead based on what they DO. He has already said to FOLLOW HIM, and that he is looking for mercy, and is there to bring good news to the poor, the crushed of heart, the sick. And he's said that the harvest will be reaped by those who did not sow it. And he has warned that those who are doing bad things hate the light and won't come to it. We will see it made manifest in the pages to come that serving money is a bad thing, that the lack of care for the poor, downtrodden, prisoner, etc. - the people "the just" love to revile - will bring judgment and a bad end.
"Search the scriptures, for in them you are supposing you have life of eons, and those are they which are testifying concerning me, and you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. Glory from men I am not getting. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. O have come in the name of my Father, and you are not getting me. If another should be coming in his own name, his you will get. How can you believe, getting glory from one another, and are not seeking the glory which is from God alone.? Be not supposing that I shall be accusing you to the Father. He who is accusing you to the Father is Moses, on whom you rely. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he writes concerning me. Now if you are not believing his writings, how shall you be believing my declarations." (Jn 5:39-47)
MORAL: Jesus here refers directly to the Scriptures written by Moses, the Torah, in which are contained all of the many precepts of God regarding everything, including provision for the poor, widow, orphan, and sick. You cannot reject the laws from God written down by Moses and yet believe Jesus. If you reject what God said through Moses in the Torah, you reject Jesus. You cannot believe in Jesus without accepting the writings of Moses. They are inextricably linked. What Moses writes about not killing, Jesus means that when he speaks of harm. What Moses writes about truth, Jesus means that when he speaks of truth. What Moses writes about economics and provision for the poor comes directly from God, and it is what Jesus enacts and means. The two are inseparable.
Regarding picking grain to eat while passing in a farmer's field, and healing on the Sabbath:
"Did you not read what David does when he hungers, and those with him, how he entered into the house of God and they ate the bread on the altar of YHWH, which he was not allowed to eat, neither those with him, except the priests only? Or did you not read in the law that on the sabbaths the priests in the sanctuary are profaning the sabbath and are faultless? Now I am saying to you that a greater than the sanctuary is here. Now if you had known what this is: Mercy am I wanting, and not sacrifice, you would not convict the faultless, for the Son of mankind is lord of the sabbath… What man of you will there be who will have one sheep, and if ever this should be falling into a pit on the sabbaths, will not take hold of it and raise it? Of how much more consequence, then, is a man than a sheep! So that it is allowed to be doing ideally on the sabbaths. …Stretch out your hand." (Mt. 12:3-13; substantially repeated in Mk 2:25-3:5 and Lk 6:1-11)
MORAL: To not work on the sabbath was a religious duty, a law of God, and yet even in the face of a religious duty, Jesus instructs that the duty of mercy to the sick and desperate is higher: "I desire mercy not sacrifice". Notice that his audience already knows and acknowledges that when they have an economic interest involved - one of their sheep in a pit - they may perform work on the sabbath to save their property (and to prevent its suffering). Yet they are hard-hearted when it comes to the plight of another man who is oppressed by illness, that work should be done to heal HIM on the sabbath, in contravention of the law of God. Jesus is saying that it is not contravention of the law of God to break the sabbath to do good, to heal. And note well that it is not theft for the hungry apostles, walking through the field, to pluck off heads of grain to eat either. So, when we read what Jesus further has to say about the poor, the oppressed, etc., we must remember God's view that acts of mercy supersede even the commandments of the law.
What follows is repeated by Jesus in different places - on the plain, on the mount - and slightly varying forms. It is the crux of his moral and economic argument, and his statement demanding that you do as he says to do, and as he does - or else. We will focus on the economic components:
"Happy are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Happy are those hungering now, for you shall be satisfied. Happy are those lamenting now, for you shall be laughing. Happy are you whenever men should be hating you, and whenever they should be severing from you and reproaching you and casting your name out as wicked, on account of the Son of Mankind. You may be rejoicing in that day, and frisk, for look! your wages are vast in heaven, for according to the same manner did their fathers to the prophets. Moreover, woe to you who are rich, for you are collecting your consolation! Woe to you who are filled now, for you shall be hungering! Woe to you who are laughing now, for you shall be mourning and lamenting! Woe to you whenever all men may be saying fine things of you, for according to the same manner did their fathers to the false prophets. But to you who are hearing I am saying: Love your enemies. Be doing ideally to those who are hating you. Bless those who are cursing you. Pray concerning those who are traducing you. To him who is beating you on the cheek, be tendering the other also. And you should not be preventing him who is taking away your cloak from taking your tunic also. Now you, be giving to everyone who is requesting, and from him who is taking away what is yours be not demanding it. And, according as you are wanting that men may be doing to you, you also be doing to them likewise. And if you are loving those loving you, what thanks is it to you? For sinners are also doing the same. And if you should ever be lending to those from whom you are expecting to get back, what thanks is it to you? For sinners are also lending to sinners, that they may get back the equivalent. Moreover, be loving your enemies, and be doing good, and be lending, expecting nothing from them, and your wages will be vast in the heavens, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind [even] to the ungrateful and wicked. Become, then, full of pity, according as your Father is also full of pity. And be not judging, and under no circumstances may you be judged; and be not convicting, and under no circumstances may you be convicted: be releasing, and you shall be released; be giving, and it shall be given to you: a measure ideal, squeezed down and shaken together and running over, shall they be giving into your bosom. For the same measure with which you are measuring will be measured to you again. … For an ideal tree is not producing rotten fruit; again, neither is a rotten tree producing ideal fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For not from thorns are they culling figs, neither from a thorn bush are they picking grapes. The good man out of good treasure of his heart is bringing forth that which is good, and the wicked man out of the wicked treasure of his heart is bringing forth that which is wicked, for out of the superabundance of the heart his mouth is speaking. Now why are you calling me 'Lord! Lord!' and are not doing what I am saying? Everyone coming to me and hearing my words and doing them - I shall be intimating to you whom he is like. Like is he to a man building a house, who digs and deepens, and places the foundation on a rock. Now, at an inundation occurring, the river bursts through to that house, and it is not strong enough to shake it, because it is ideally built. Now he who hears, and does not, is like a man building a house on the earth without a foundation, to which the river bursts through, and straightaway it collapses; and the crash of that house came to be great." (Jesus' Sermon on the Plain; Lk:20-38, 43-49)
MORAL: It speaks for itself. Look to who Jesus speaks first. Look to whom he next gives dire warnings of divine war. Look at the standard of judgment: as you measured, so shall it be measured out to you. Look what he said about lending, about releasing. And look at what he said about the need to actually do what he said. To call him Lord and to do not what he said is useless. He will not bless that.
Read it again and contemplate it in light of what has come before. Jesus is revealed to be the Son of God by God directly. He rebukes Satan for suggesting service to anything but God. He calls upon people to cease sinning, to cease following THEIR ways but to turn back to God, and to do that, he says to follow him. He says flatly that those who follow him will reap what they did not sow. To the mind of the man not following God this may seem wrong, but who made the grain grow and the field? God. And God gives to whom he will, and God gives to his beloved Son, and to those who follow him.
And to whom does Jesus bring his message? The ill, the oppressed, the downtrodden. Whom does he say are blessed and happy? The impoverished. But whom does he warn already have all they will have? The rich. Class warfare! No, there is no warfare: human arms are too short to box with God. Not warfare, judgment. Doom. And a way out: follow him, by doing what he SAID. Now read the Sermon the Plain to see what he SAID, all of those things pertaining to money, to economics, to lending, to pity - and remember what he says about those who claim he is Lord but who don't do what he says.
And remember where he speaks of the law of Moses, for he will uphold that again. Jesus here is speaking to poor Jews on a plain in the countryside. He warns the rich that they will be losers if they do not do the economic things he has said, their ruin will be great, but rulers are not Jesus' audience here. Rulers were Moses' audience, though, and Moses had much to say from God to them.
When we return later to the Torah, then, to see the laws for the officials, we must remember that Jesus has ratified and upheld all of that law, and indeed quoted that very law to rebuke Satan. Therefore, we are fools, defying God, if we simply wave our hand and pretend that all of those laws don't apply to us - so that we don't have to measure out and lend in our private capacity, but also as God directed the people and the King as Israel before. Jesus has already upheld what Moses said before, and he will do it again.
There is no escape from any of this.
If you are one who says he believes in Jesus, why are you resisting him? Is it that your desire to serve money is greater than your trust that God will really provide as he said? Repent of that and follow Jesus, or admit you do not believe, and cannot and will not believe because you do not trust and will serve money instead. Be cold or hot, but not lukewarm. Because if you are lukewarm and cry out "Lord! Lord!" Lord, I believe in you, you already have your answer, right there from Jesus: "Why are you calling me 'Lord, Lord' and not doing what I am saying?"
So repent, and follow, and stop kicking at the goad.
This is a good place to break for today. Tomorrow we will resume on the Mount, and Jesus will extend his remarks and beat us each over the head with these same ideas again. If you are trying to avoid what he says, or divert it into something that you don't HAVE to do, that's true, you DON'T have to repent and follow him. You CAN do as you please. Just realize that he has told you that if you call on him as Lord, it does you no good at all unless you do as he says and bear good fruit, that he judges by good or bad deeds, just as he said, and that while you can evade obedience, you cannot evade judgment at the end of it all.
Repent and follow, Come to the light, don't hide in the darkness. Change your mind so that it matches what Jesus has said in this sermon.
He will say a great deal more on the subject, and if you love God and learning you will bask in the light. If you are resisting and rebelling at what he has said above poor and rich, about lending and serving and loosening debts, you're trying to serve something other than God. Repent and follow Jesus. Bear better fruit.
More tomorrow.
