Horizons Bible Study 2016-2017
Who is Jesus? What a Difference a Lens Makes
Lesson 2: Matthew 5-7, 13
A high school teacher changed my perspective of the world. I grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, which experienced the first mandated school busing to achieve integration. A fight broke out at school on the first day of busing, and the school was closed the next day. Then the seniors came back to school to talk about what happened. Then the juniors came back the second day after the fight and so on, until the freshmen arrived on the fourth day. Each grade level in each class talked about integration and what was appropriate behavior.
My English teacher was a middle-class African-American and had grown up in Charlotte. She abandoned the prescribed conversation and said, “I want you to know what it was like to grow up black in Charlotte.” As she talked, I was stunned by how different my world was from hers. What she said changed my life.
Jesus’ teachings had a dramatic effect on those who flocked to hear him. They began to see the world through God’s eyes. In a time dominated by the power of Rome, Jesus proclaimed that God’s favored attention was upon the poor, the grieving, the merciful and those who hungered and thirsted for righteousness (5:1-12).
Jesus, in the Gospel of Matthew, is the new Moses who teaches the ways of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is not life after death. Rather, the kingdom is here and now, wherever God’s will is done on earth. The kingdom of heaven will be fully enjoyed when Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead.
Jesus’ teachings in chapters 5-7 in the Gospel of Matthew are radical, slamming up against cultural norms across the centuries. Our television shows portray revenge and violent responses to insults and injury. Jesus teaches that we are to take the initiative to restore a relationship when someone has something against us. We are to initiate reconciliation. In addition, we are to pray for those who persecute us and love our enemies — to act in ways that are for the well being of the enemy.
Blame and ridicule are rampant in our culture. But Jesus says, “How can you say to a neighbor, ‘Here let me get the speck out of your eye’ while the log is in your own eye?” Judgmentalism, though common, is not Jesus’ way. Instead, we are to do an inventory of our own wrongdoing, investigate our character and clean up our act before condemning others.
Our culture also dehumanizes people with our emphasis on “having the goods,” whether those goods are money or sexiness. In contrast, Jesus teaches that in the kingdom of heaven we cannot serve God and wealth. Greed blinds us to God and the needs of others. Lust also blinds us to a compassionate valuing of other people. Jesus proclaims lusting in one’s heart is committing adultery because lust sees people as sexual objects instead of as unique persons.
We balk at how Jesus describes Christian living, kingdom living. It doesn’t seem practical or realistic — or we think Jesus sets an impossible standard. Yet, people through the ages have found kingdom living as joyful with amazing growth. In the various parables in Matthew 13, we get pictures of abundance when Jesus’ teachings take root in us (the parable of the sower). A little tiny act of love can grow huge, making a sanctuary for others (the parable of the mustard seed). Walking in the way of Jesus can positively change families and communities (the parable of the yeast).
The kingdom of heaven is better than everything we have known. It is like a treasure that someone finds in a field. The person then joyfully sells all to buy that field. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant of fine pearls, who, finding a priceless one, sells all to obtain it (13:44-46). To live in the kingdom of God is worth everything we have and everything we are. It is joyful, abundant living.
Evil, of course, still remains in the church and within the world. There are Christians who hate people of other faiths, races, nationalities, sexual orientations or political views. Such hatred will continue to be found in the church because all communities of faith have “wheat” and “weeds,” those who love and those who seek to smother love (13:24-30). It is important to speak out against hatred, but we are to do it in a respectful manner because hate can only be overcome with goodness (Romans 12: 19-21).
Jesus’ teachings change the lens through which we see ourselves and the world. Jesus’ words and living presence gives us power to be a light in a dark world to help others to encounter the glory of God (5:14-16).
Rosalind Banbury is associate pastor for adult ministries at First Church in Richmond, Virginia.
