jesus | Matt W Cook

June 25, 2010

How to Get to Heaven According to Jesus

How do you get to heaven? How do you get to God? How do you get mercy and forgiveness? How do you get whatever it is that our hearts are yearning for? Jesus knows. He’s clever about stuff like that.

Be born from above (John 3:3). The classic answer to the age-old question. And it’s still a good one. Be new. Be new from above. Change.

Be spiritually destitute (Matthew 5:3). Not nearly so classic, but it’s still what Jesus said. It’s neat that he doesn’t say the kingdom of heaven is for people who know they are poor in spirit, but for those who simply are. Only the spiritually impoverished are eligible for what Jesus has to offer. Only the broken. Only the screw-ups. Thank God for that.

Be pure in heart (Matthew 5:8). Is that all?

Be more righteous than religious people (Matthew 5:20). At first glance this seems tough. I mean, look at all the stuff religious people do to stay righteous! But, when we take a first and second glance, we see that religious does not mean righteous. Religious does not mean good. In fact, I’m tempted to say that religion and righteousness are mutually exclusive.

Do the will of God (Matthew 7:21). And then Jesus went and lived a life that shone with the will of God. Thanks for the good example! I’ll need a hand with trying it out, though.

Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, invite the homeless into your house (Matthew 25:31-40). This is one of those sayings where I want to say ‘Hold up, Jesus! That doesn’t sound like justification by faith! What do you mean by that?’ But I’m not really going to ask Jesus that. I think he’d rather me assume that he meant what he said. I know I like it when people assume I mean what I say. I figure I ought to extend the same courtesy to Jesus.

Obey the commandments, sell your stuff, follow Jesus (Matthew 19:16-21). Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. What am I supposed to do with this one? I want to say that you were joking with this guy! I want to say that you were trying to be really subtle and, in your subtlety, didn’t actually mean what you said. But how can I say that? I cannot assume that you would be so subtle as to mean something other that what you said, can I?

Go through Jesus (John 14:6). Jesus is the enabler. He’s not the obstacle in the way. He’s the unlocked door. He’s the moving staircase. He’s how you get there. Yay for that.

There’s more, y’know. Jesus talked about how to be spiritually successful a lot. I wonder if all the different way he talked about it are really just the one way looked at from different points of view. In my circles we focus on rebirth and belief. But what is rebirth if there is no re-lifestyle to prove it? Maybe feeding the poor is a part of rebirth. Maybe shedding the superfluous is the arm of faith.

But do you know what he never said? He never said to invite him into your heart. He never suggested to pray a prayer and sign a card. No matter how you slice it or define it, the Jesus way is a lifestyle, not a conversion. It may look like a conversion. It may start with a conversion. But, following the language Jesus used, it’s something that starts and lasts and grows and moves until we die.

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June 11, 2010

Statement of Faith[fulness]

I was a bit of a punk in Bible college. If you knew me well during that time you’d probably agree. I was high on theology, I think. My drug of choice was Calvinism mixed with a bias against anything popular. Not so good, looking back.

Whenever I was introduced to a new ministry or organization I would look it up in order to decide whether I liked it or not. How would I make that choice? Was it by looking at what they did? Was it by finding out how they had made a difference in the world? No, of course not. It was by checking out their statement of faith. The closer it was to what I had already decided was true (I had all of theology figured out back then) the better I liked it.

I look back at all that and I realize I was looking at the wrong things. I wonder, now, how I could have possibly thought that a statement of faith would have been able to tell me anything useful about a group or person. Isn’t a life of faithfulness better than being right about the inner working of the Trinity? So I had an idea. Instead of making a statement of faith for our lives, why don’t we make our lives statements of faithfulness?

A Statement of Faithfulness:

We will be born again from above and strive to be filled with the Spirit, as he was filled with the Spirit (John 3:5-8).

We will live a life of service, as he lived a life of service (Matthew 20:28).

We will lay down our lives to benefit others, as he laid down his life to benefit others (Mark 10:45).

We will love God with every fiber of our being, as he loved God (Matthew 22:37).

We will love our neighbours in the same measure and fervency as we love ourselves, as he loved his neighbours (Matthew 22:39).

We will live out the Sermon on the Mount, as he lived out his own preaching (Matthew 5-7).

We will shun religion, as he shunned religion (Matthew 12:1-8).

We will salt (preserve) the world, as he salted the world (Matthew 5:13).

We will identify with the scum and outcasts of society, as he identified with the scum and outcasts (Luke 7:34).

We will agree that anyone not against us is for us, just as he said (Mark 9:40).

We will forgive all and hold grudges against none, just as he forgave while being murdered (Luke 23:34).

We will assume suffering is normative, just as he assumed it to be normative (John 15:20).

We will live simply, just as he lived simply (Matthew 8:20).

We will rejoice with the rejoicers and weep with the weepers, just as he was also empathetic (John 11:35).

We will make disciples, not converts, just as he made disciples (Matthew 23:15).

We will refuse to commercialize or politicize this lifestyle, as Jesus also refused (John 6:15).

We will turn no one away, as he turned away no one (John 6:37).

We will pray long and hard, as he prayed long and hard (Luke 6:12).

After praying, we will serve long and hard, as he served long and hard.

We will take and make opportunities to attack injustice and hypocrisy and make things better, as he also did (Luke 11:37-38).

We will be Spirit-filled and wild, as he was Spirit-filled and wild (John 3:8).

We will make no apologies and will not conform to what the world or what religion demands of us, just as he refused to conform.

Instead of working hard to find the right words to explain what we believe, I want to work hard to live out what I believe.

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June 9, 2010

When It’s Not a Heart Matter

Okay, so Jesus is giving his sermon and he says some pretty wild stuff. One of the wild things was that you can be guilty of cheating on your spouse without actually doing anything physical with anyone else. How so? If you do it in your heart, he says, you did it. He says all sorts of other things in the same vein. Jesus focused on the intentions of the heart in a way that revolutionized ethics forever. His cry was not just ‘serve God and help your neighbour.’ It was ‘love God and love your neighbour.’ Wild, eh?

But is it possible to focus on the heart too much?

Jesus said, “If someone hits you, let him do it again.” How should we take that? Well, obviously it means that we ought to have an attitude of peace and love even in the face of people who are mean to us. Right? It is, after all, a heart issue. Right? So much of a heart issue, in fact, that I don’t really need to do what Jesus is suggesting here, so long as my heart is in the right place. And the same goes for his idea that we should help thieves rip us off, give to every bum who asks from us and become new people. Right? Right?

So, give to whoever asks = Have a giving spirit (actual giving optional).
Don’t retaliate = Have a non-retaliatory heart (and retaliate if you feel the need).
Be born again = Be willing to become a new kind of person (and it will happen in some intangible, non-real kinda way).
Love your neighbour in the same way you love yourself = Love him internally (little outward action necessary).

Does any of this make any sense?

Can I actually say, when the dude on the street asks me for money, ‘I gave him money in my heart, just like Jesus told me to’? Only if I can say, after being caught cheating on my wife, that I didn’t really do it because I didn’t do it in my heart.

Not a chance – it’s not just about the heart. When Jesus gathered the people together and separated the accepted from the rejected he didn’t say to the accepted:

Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, for I was hungry, and in your heart you gave me food, I was a stranger, and in your heart you welcomed me in…Whatever you did in your heart to the least of these, you did in your heart to me.

And he didn’t say to the rejected:

Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry, and you did not feed me in your heart, I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me in your heart…Whatever you didn’t do in your heart to the least of these, you did not do it to me.

The focus on the heart was meant to spur us on to deeper good works, not give us a cop-out.

May 24, 2010

Revisiting the Wolves

I’m working through a preaching series on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. And so I have read it more than a few times over the past few months. And nearly every time I go through it I am blown away. Pick it up, read it through. Matthew 5-7. It’ll only take a few minutes.

Wild, eh? It’s so clear and simple and sharp. Its scandalous ethic embodies love to such a perfect measure that I have never heard a sermon that referenced it without trying to weaken it.

Yes, Jesus said we shouldn’t go to church if we know we have relationship problems that need fixing, but since our bodies are the gifts we lay at the altar, that doesn’t really apply to us.
Yes, Jesus said that we should turn the other cheek, but since he mentioned being slapped on the right cheek [insert poorly researched and irrelevant cultural info], he didn’t really mean it.
Yes, Jesus said to give to whoever asks of us, but since one of his allegorical parables involved people taking care of money, we don’t actually need to do it.

On and on it goes. I’m no theologian, but it almost seems like an attack on the direct and simple teachings of Jesus, eh?

The neat thing is what he said near the end, and I’ve already alluded to it on this blog. False prophets and fruit.

Picture this: Jesus has just finished unpacking and defining his ethic in the simplest, plainest language possible. The only way to screw this up is to have serious vested interests. He anticipates, I think, that others will hear the sermon and spread / explain it (as if it needed any explaining!). And so he gives us this criteria by which we can tell if someone is really on board with him or not. Fruit. Outworkings. The stuff you see.

Apply that to the sermon and what do we have?

A man claiming to speak for God is a liar if his ethic does not match up with Jesus’.

I’m not suggesting, of course, that if we’re not perfect we’re false prophets. I’m suggesting that when we explain away and neuter the direct, simple and honest ethics of Jesus, we are false prophets. Wolves. Diseased. Blood-thirsty. Very very bad.

Is that scary? I think so. It’s scary because it’s so very subtle.

The wolves are dressed like sheep! You can tell if someone is off-base instantly if his off-based-ness is due to a wild and incorrect philosophy. But when the philosophy and doctrine is right but the ethic is off you can hardly ever tell.

May 12, 2010

C’mon Kids

I can remember parts of an argument I had while in a church (not my own) years ago. I can’t remember the topic, but I remember one guy getting owned. His opponents kept pushing him further and further back, forcing concession after concession. Finally they asked, “So why do you believe this at all?” The guy beamed in response and said with the pride of a triumphant lion, “Because I have the faith of a child!”

The argument fizzled at that point.

Growing up in religious circles I, like that guy, had always thought faith like a child meant unquestioning acceptance. But these days, I gotta say, unquestioning belief doesn’t seem like much of a virtue, does it? Do you think that’s what Jesus really meant when he told us that we needed to be like children (Matt. 18:1-3)?

And then I had kids. And let me tell you, there is nothing unquestioning about them.

What are children like?

Children are relentless. They don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Heck, half the time they won’t even take ‘yes’ for an answer. You can’t dissuade them. You may be able to distract them, but you can’t just turn them off.

Children cannot tell the difference between sacred and secular. The world is one to them. There is no dualism. There is no high vs. low. There is only reality. It seems irreverent, but it’s honest. And, I wonder, maybe honesty is better and safer than reverence. Reverence has stopped us from asking too many important questions. And it’s funny, because I don’t remember God ever zapping someone for asking the wrong questions.

Children don’t know when they are asking inappropriate questions. The other day Joseph saw a large woman in the grocery store. He turned to me and asked, very loudly, ‘Papa, why is she so fat?’ Did she hear? You bet! Her response: ‘It’s true, though, isn’t it?’ Joe didn’t know he did anything wrong. And, when I think about it, I don’t think he did. It gave me a good opportunity to talk about sedentary living and poor diet (in private). And these days, he turns away cookies because he says he wants to grow up strong. Good thing he asked that inappropriate question.

Children change. One day the boy says ‘Girls are yuck!’ The next day…well, watch out! Kids never arrive. They are never static. And growing is not just more of the same with them. The boy doesn’t go from saying ‘girls are yuck’ to ‘girls are yuck for the following exegetical reasons…’ He turns completely around and starts liking girls. He contradicts his previous beliefs altogether. And no one thinks him deceitful for it because he is growing. Heck, if he didn’t change his views on girls we would be concerned.

Children can play with anyone. A Christian kid with a Muslim kid. A Republican kid with a Democrat kid. A kid from a homosexual home with a kid from a straight home. A fox with a hound. It’s only after we grow up that we accept the dark fact that we are only supposed to play with people who are similar to ourselves.

Children do not acknowledge, they exult. A child would never pray that typical prayer: ‘Lord, we acknowledge this, that, and the other truth about you.’ Even as an adult, it seems like a strange prayer. Instead, if the child is thinking about some wild and wonderful truth, he’ll get giddy and won’t shut up about it.

Is that what Jesus meant? I dunno. I’m still a kid in all this.

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November 23, 2009

Eliot’s Magi

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods
I should be glad of another death.

Thus wrote T.S. Eliot. He was taking the point of view of the Magi, after returning from the scene of the Nativity. The comparison of birth and death struck me.

Birth is painful and traumatic.
The same with death.
Birth is full of violence.
The same with death.
Birth is an event that comes against our will.
The same with death.
In birth we leave something familiar behind and go, for better of worse, into a deeper world.
The same with death.
Birth leaves us irrevocably changed.
The same with death.

Is death just another kind of birth? Sometimes.

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