A Hard Word

The Sermon on the Mount which begins in chapter five of the gospel according to Matthew is such a hard word that it is largely dismissed.  Today's would be followers declare it to be impractical, or too idealistic for real people to use in their day to day living.  It is easy to understand why some folks come to such a conclusion.  From the perspective of the world, it makes no sense to turn your cheek when slapped, it makes no sense to say that holding anger in the heart is the same as murdering someone, and it only seems careless to love our enemies and end up looking like a wimp.  A doormat.   

Even if these kind of concerns are laid aside, the Sermon which Jesus preached that day makes for a world that is too simple to be real.  In the world of the Sermon people are to be guided by trust and faith in God instead of worry about things, they are to live embracing a one thing mentality, and they are to treat others as they would choose to be treated instead of according to what is deserved.  It is a simple world of hearing truth and then doing the right thing.  The Word Jesus preached that day may be a hard Word, but it is also a simple one.   It does not take a college degree to understand it.  A child can figure it out.  

There is a right way to live and a wrong way.  There is a way that is according to the divine plan and another that bears no resemblance to it.  Even as it seems strange and out of step with cultural practices and even as it slaps in the face many of the pathways that lead to the top of the ladder, it is the only way which points us in the direction we were created to live.  We were not created to live with disregard for others, or to see others as stepping stones, or servants, but as brothers and sisters who bear the same holy image we had imprinted on us in the moment of our conception.