Growing up, I sometimes heard the Christian “playbook,” the script for what Christianity is all about, described in the following way: be good, go to church, don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t cuss, say your prayers, give to the church, and one day (we hope) you will get into “heaven,” where there will be so much gold and pearls you won’t be able to see straight. You’d better be good, or God’s gonna send you to hell.
Is that really the Christian playbook? If it is, then I can see where people might reject it. But as Mark Twain said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” And this just ain’t so. Thank God, this isn’t the Christian playbook! And my proof is none other than the founder of Christianity, Jesus himself.
The Christian playbook is most clearly stated in the first recorded talk Jesus gave, the Sermon on the Mount (read it in Matthew 5-7 and Luke 6). The Sermon is right up front at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, so we can’t miss its importance. Huge crowds from all over the Middle East are flocking to hear him. His audience is not the religious, political, academic, or cultural elite of his day. His audience is everyone, the mass of folks whom Jesus called the “salt” of the earth and the “light of the world.” Many of his followers even had bad reputations, ex-convicts, prostitutes, outcasts.
People were attracted to Jesus for many reasons, primarily because of his miraculous powers. He was healing the blind, raising the dead, exorcising demons. His opponents couldn’t refute this. Jesus said the miracles were a sign that the reign of God was breaking into the world in a new way. This triumph of God, this “kingdom,” was Jesus himself. He was the very “finger of God” that had written the Torah on Mount Sinai, now appearing in the flesh. As Jesus claimed, something greater than even the Temple was here.
People were also attracted to Jesus because of his message, which brings us back to the Sermon. His teaching was revolutionary because what he said about God was revolutionary, so hopeful, so “good news.” In Jesus, God was immediate, near, present, living, and involved for everyone, not just for the “religious.”
JESUS STEPS TO THE PODIUM
So here is Jesus at the beginning of his ministry, about to deliver news from God to a large, expectant crowd. What is he going to say? Will he provide a social and political blueprint for ensuring maximum employment, food for everyone, and the overthrow of evil regimes? If Jesus is claiming to be speaking the very words of God (which he is), what will God say?
Jesus steps up to the podium.
The crowd applauds, then becomes quiet, all eyes fixed on him.
CNN commentator Matthew Levi: “Jesus, the miracle worker, is about to unveil the plans for a new world order. Let’s listen.”
Silence, a few coughs throughout the audience. Finally, Jesus tells us what God wants to say to us:
“If you are a failure, if you have let down your family and friends, if you have lost out on the sparkle of success and the glimmer of good times, you don’t need to despair. You are finally at the place where God can break through. It’s on the shoulders of people like you that God can start changing things.
If you are grieving, hurting, or suffering, you are in luck! You can begin to know where true comfort comes from.
If you are gentle, humbly trusting in God to provide for you what you need instead of grasping to get what’s yours, you are in luck! God will give you the earth itself and the desires of your heart.
If you have realized that something is not right about this life, that the food they give you down here is not filling, then you have reached the spot where you can begin to taste and enjoy real food.
If you have understood that giving people a break is what it’s all about, then you will be given breaks again and again.
If you have understood that people are worth fighting for and that things are not, then you will be given a peace and security that only the richest of children know.
If people begin to think you’re weird because you don’t fight tooth and claw like the rest of the world but instead follow Me, then you are beginning to acquire the taste for that which really lasts.“
In so many words, this is how Jesus begins this important Sermon. It is indeed a blueprint for a new world order. Jesus gives us the secret to living life to the full, the secret that is open for all to know. It is centered around four main themes, four themes that could be summarized in four statements God is saying to you and me:
WHAT WOULD GOD SAY TO YOU?
“I love you; learn to live in My Love.”
God communicates to every last human soul, and his word and actions to us are, “I love you.” While the world gives up on you or passes you by, He doesn’t. God stoops to identify with the losers and failures. When you are at the bottom, God is there to pull you up. Jesus cuts through any abstract concept of God and tells us that God is “Father” (or Abba in Aramaic, meaning “Daddy”). God, the Father, attends to us as the most loving, sacrificial parent would. God, the Father, provides grace every day to every one of us, and his reconciling love makes friends out of enemies. He tells us to quit the frantic worrying; instead, turn to Him and ask, seek, knock. Trusting in his care, we learn the secret that as we give, we receive so much more in return. We learn to imitate God and live a life of love in the assurance of His love.
“Let’s spend some time together.”
Because God loves you, he invites you to a relationship, to begin trusting Him and learning his ways of love and grace. He is there to meet you. It’s not about rules; it’s about a Father, an audience of One. It’s about pleasing the Father who sees in secret. Jesus presses us to go beyond rules to the heart of the matter. He challenges us to start examining our hearts and turn our anger, lust, anxiety, and fears over to Him. We live from the inside, so Jesus tells us to sow in our hearts the love and truth of God. As we become absorbed in the give and take of the love of God, the grip of things is loosened, and for once, we are free to walk through the fields of flowers and listen to the birds and realize that all of life is a beautiful gift. We can trust His care and provision in every area of life. Because of such trust, we can focus our energies on allowing Him to reshape and mold our hearts and desires. We can seek first His kingdom, with the assurance that all these things we need He will give to us as well (Matt. 6:33).
“Follow me. I know where I’m going.”
But as we start, we realize we need someone to walk with us and not give up on us. Our spirit is willing, but our hurts, habits, and hang-ups make us weak. Our lives are littered with what Augustine called “disordered loves,” treasures we’ve chosen that come up empty. We’ve given our “pearls to pigs,” and those pigs have turned and trampled on us. It’s hard to get rid of the clutter. We need more than just principles, guidelines, and wisdom. We need someone to stay with us, to walk the road with us, to say, “Follow me, and I will lead you home.” We need a patient God, a “with us” God, and that is precisely what we have. God came in Jesus, and He says to you, “I will never leave you or forsake you. Follow me, learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:29). As Elisabeth Elliot said, “The Lord is to whom and with whom we travel. While He is the end of our journey, and he is also at every stopping place.” In Jesus’ community of love, we learn together with other followers how to become apprentices in the art of fulfilling and joyful living.
“I’ve got great plans for you.”
Finally, we need to know there is a point to all this. We need to know that life is not meaningless, death is not final. Jesus often spoke about “heaven” and the “age to come,” a future creation as God intended. We pray that His will be done on this earth as it is in heaven because we know deep down this earth isn’t right. The God who created life in the first place will surely bring a new future where there is no death, evil, and suffering. God has in fact guaranteed this future by the coming of Jesus. Jesus not only teaches us how to live, He displays fully what love is. The cross is where God fully identifies with us, completely accepting us. Death is no match for this powerful love of God, and the resurrection of Jesus is a preview of what is sure to come. To those who didn’t believe in life after death, Jesus said, “You are badly mistaken because you know neither Scripture nor the power of God. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Mark 12). In Jesus, the end has happened “ahead of time,” and the power of what is to come has begun to invade and change the present. As Jesus said, “The time has come. The Kingdom of God is breaking in. Turn around and believe this Good News” (Mark 1:15).