Jesus' teaching is so radical, we may find ourselves asking: "Is he serious?" or "Does Jesus really mean that?" Moses reminds the people that God's way is really different while Jesus' Sermon on the Mount considers strategies for resisting the oppressor and demands love for one's enemies.
Overcoming our confirmation bias - finding our biases confirmed by everything we encounter - is necessary to hear God's word and change ourselves into what God desires from the faithful.
Knowing from long experience how poorly God's people make choices when it comes to being faithful to God, Moses has some parting words as their leader just before they set out to conquer the Promised Land. Choosing God is choosing life; not choosing God or God's way has bitter consequences.
Jesus' vision of the Kingdom of God requires some significant changes in the way people engage with life. His teachings begin, "You have heard it said ..." referring to the customary, common way of thinking. Then he re-orders things as the Kingdom way. Some of his most difficult teachings are here.
First, the trio of examples about not resisting the evildoer. As we consider the three examples, we find that Jesus is talking about non-violent resistance and a renunciation of violence, not passive acceptance.
Second, love for one's enemies and prayer for those who persecute you are plenty challenging, but underscore the values of the Kingdom, and for us, the difficult choices to be made in pursuing the Kingdom life.
Get the whole picture in the sermon video below.
Overcoming our confirmation bias - finding our biases confirmed by everything we encounter - is necessary to hear God's word and change ourselves into what God desires from the faithful.
Knowing from long experience how poorly God's people make choices when it comes to being faithful to God, Moses has some parting words as their leader just before they set out to conquer the Promised Land. Choosing God is choosing life; not choosing God or God's way has bitter consequences.
Jesus' vision of the Kingdom of God requires some significant changes in the way people engage with life. His teachings begin, "You have heard it said ..." referring to the customary, common way of thinking. Then he re-orders things as the Kingdom way. Some of his most difficult teachings are here.
First, the trio of examples about not resisting the evildoer. As we consider the three examples, we find that Jesus is talking about non-violent resistance and a renunciation of violence, not passive acceptance.
Second, love for one's enemies and prayer for those who persecute you are plenty challenging, but underscore the values of the Kingdom, and for us, the difficult choices to be made in pursuing the Kingdom life.
Get the whole picture in the sermon video below.
| 02-16-20-sermon.mp3 |
| 02-16-20-ff-answers.pdf |
| 02-16-20-does_jesus_really_mean_that.pdf |