MANIFESTO Interpretations

There are no less than a dozen distinctly different interpretations of Matthew 5-7, commonly referred to as "the sermon on the mount."
What we are calling our "MANIFESTO" series.

Let me just briefly tell you the extremes, and then where I land.

First extreme, as one might suspect- the sermon is bunk.
Jesus didn’t teach this.
You pretty much do anything you can to undermine the source, and you've undermined the material. Once you’ve done that, you are not longer accountable to what it says. Then you are simply examining this as an academic adventure.
Not that there's anything wrong with academic inquiry.
But this subverts the true intention of the teaching, as we learn in the last section, Matthew 7:24-27, which urges us to put this stuff into PRACTICE.

At the other end are those who, in a backlash to an academic engagement of the sermon in its religious and cultural context, say that we just need to do everything the sermon says. It's the Nike approach- just do it! The reason Jesus gave us the sermon was to create and ethic that we have to fulfill. When we fail, we're bad people; when we do, hooray for us, we're awesome!
Unfortunately, this approach is impossible and inadvisable.

Where do I stand? Let me give and example.
Do I really think Jesus wants people who struggle with the objectification of women to blind themselves? Is that consistent at all with the other teachings of Jesus? NO.
Do I think that Jesus is making an actual statement on how serious an issue lust and objectification of women really is? Yes.
Do I think that Jesus actually wants to to go to an extreme to do something about it? Yes.
He is actually saying, if you objectify women this is a real issue that has real implications for you relationship with women, your relationships in community and your relationship with me. And yes, it would appear that gone unchecked and not dealt with, a man could actual follow the path of lust all the way to hell-
all the way to place of separation from God,
estranged from all relationships, all love, all sense of peace.

Why would I believe something so crazy? Because we’ve all probably now know someone’s life that was completely destroyed by this issue. So yeah, it’s serious. So, figuratively speaking- cut your eyes out. Get a porn filter. Get an accountability partner. Get counseling. Stop driving by the porn shop. End a relationship that is dragging your deeper into sin- do something!

OK, back to the point. This is not a mere study of ideas. Nor is this a ethical paradigm we just do without thought, process, reflection, and understanding.

Because it comes down to this: We can't live up to the ideal spelled out for us in this passage, and that’s partially the point. Only Jesus lives the ideal. Only Jesus lives the perfect sinless life.

So we pursue Jesus. We put our faith in Jesus, and then we emulate Jesus. We strive for what he achieved. We achieve in part what Jesus lived in full.
Thus, we experience in part what we will later know in full- the life in perfect union with Christ.