Jesus Raised The Bar To Impossible

The Sermon on the Mount almost blew the audience out of the... well, off the mount. It was profound and engaging, but probably the worst news some of the people had ever heard.

Sure, all the verses with “blessed” in them sounded pretty good. But when Jesus said (Matthew 5:20) “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” That's when the jaws dropped.

Modern translation: “Unless you become more holy than your favorite priest or pastor, there is no chance of you getting to heaven.”

And then Jesus decided to rub it in a little more (vs. 48) when he says, “Be perfect therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus keeps raising the bar throughout the sermon: First, he tells us that we can be blessed by living a Kingdom-centered life (Our response: I can try hard to do that). Then, he tells us that we can be blessed if we become more holy than the holiest pastors in our lives (Our response: That seems impossible). Finally, he tells us we can be blessed if we are absolutely perfect like God Himself (Our response: That is impossible).

I know its good for us to raise the bar every now and then, but it seems like Jesus is taking the bar and beating us with it! What's going on?

Well, like all good mystery novels, Jesus inserts a clue earlier on the sermon. He says (vs. 17), “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” In other words, Jesus is saying that He didn't come to bring a new teaching or start something new – but to perfectly obey all the laws and to fulfill all the prophesies that had been around since the beginning.

Simply, Jesus was telling them: “I'm here to live the life that you should be living, but can't.” And we know that Jesus also went on to fulfill the prophesies by dying the death we should have died.

Jesus raised the bar to impossible, but instead of condemning us for not being able to jump over it, he was condemned (even though he was perfect) for our sake on the cross and therefore transfers his victory to us. In addition, he has given us the ability now to work towards the bar of perfection through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hiding Behind Religion

Many of us are deceived into thinking that we are saved by either a) our religious knowledge, b) our religious acts, or c) our religious tradition.

RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE

“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” - John 5:39-40

Jesus drops a bomb on the seminary students of his day. These young shooting stars, who had memorized large chunks of the Hebrew bible, had no idea that the bible was all about the Father's plan of saving the world through Jesus, not a self-help morality book that gives us strategic plan for saving ourselves.

RELIGIOUS ACTS

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'” - Matthew 7:21-23

This one will make your head hurt a little. So, ummm... some people doing religious things will enter the Kingdom of God (vs. 21) but other people doing religious things (vs. 23) are called evildoers? How do we clear up that fog?

Jesus is always about the heart. He makes the case that two people can do the same act but for different reasons because they have different heart motivations. So, how can you change your heart and its motivations? Well, you can't.

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Ezekiel 36:26-27

There are two kinds of people:

• those who trust in their own heart and try to impress God with the religious acts that flow out of it
  
• those who ask Jesus for a heart transplant
  

Because of Jesus and the work on the cross, we can have a new heart with new desires. In the end, it is Jesus' religious act that justifies us.

RELIGIOUS TRADITION

“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them... do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” - Matthew 3:7-9

These religious nut jobs bragged about finding their identity in father Abraham. It would be the equivalent of a Catholic today bragging about Jesus giving the keys to Peter (him being the first Pope of the Catholic church). Catholics, even non-practicing ones, find a strong sense of worth by belonging to “The Church”. But Protestants do the same thing in different ways. They will hide behind the banner of “evangelical” or “bible-believing”. Or, I've heard some college students say that they were raised in a Christian home. They hide behind their parents' faith.

No matter who we are, we can't take refuge in religious labels. Putting on a name tag (I'm Catholic, I'm a Seminary student, I was raised in a Christian Family, I go to a Bible-believing Church, etc.) may fool the people around you but it won't fool God.

One day everyones' heart will be scanned and the bar code will not lie. The litmus test: Were we finding our identity, security, and hope in Jesus or in our religious knowledge, acts, or tradition?