Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-october-5-2023
Matthew 7:21-27
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 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 in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
This passage from the end of the Sermon on the Mount challenges us to examine our own understanding of our salvation. It’s commonly understood that accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior is the way to be saved and go to heaven. But in this reading, Jesus makes it plain that there’s more to it than just saying, “Jesus is my Lord and Savior.”
One of the central ideas of Protestant theology is that we are saved ‘by grace through faith and not by works.’ In other words, we can’t do enough “good works” – good deeds or religious activities – to make up for all our sins. Fortunately, God reaches out to us through his grace – which means his “un-earned favor” – and touches our hearts to make us want to know and follow Jesus.
But Protestant belief has evolved over its 500-year history, and now lots of believers think that publicly accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior is all it takes to get your ticket punched for heaven. After you’ve done that, the Christian life is just a matter of trying to get other people to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, too – usually by explaining to them that they’ll go to hell if they don’t.
Far be it from me to belittle the idea of committing your life to Jesus. But there are a couple of other things that need to be said on the subject – and Jesus says some of them in this passage.
The first thing we should say is that some of the very best New Testament scholars say there’s a translation issue that confuses readers of the New Testament. These scholars say that the parts of Romans that are usually read as saying we are saved by faith in Jesus would be more accurately translated as saying that we are saved by the faithfulness of Jesus. So the point is that actual salvation comes about because of something Jesus did, not because of something we do, even if that something might be saying that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.
And in this part of Matthew we’re thinking about today, Jesus seems to be making the point that if he really is your Lord, then your life is going to show it. You’ll be living in a way that shows that he has authority over your life. You’ll be obeying his commandments. You’ll be shaped by his teachings. You’ll be living in imitation of him and serving as he served. You’ll be befriending those polite society – religious society – rejects. That, it seems to me, is what Jesus means when he talks about ‘doing the will of his Father who is in heaven.’
You can publicly say, “Jesus is my Lord and Savior,” you can perform healings, you can preach in his name – these are all fine things. But the truth is that you can do all of those things without really living a life that’s been transformed by his teachings. You can do those things just to attract attention to yourself, or to make money, or to get other people to think well of you.
And here’s where it gets tricky: You can even do those things for the sole purpose of going to heaven when you die. But if that’s the only reason you’re following Jesus, you’re serving yourself, not him. You’re trying to do things earn a reward – eternal life.
But once you really wrap your head around the fact that Jesus has already done everything that’s necessary to reconcile you to God and bring you into his family as a beloved child, then you can live a different kind of life – one motivated by love and thankfulness, not by pursuit of a reward. Out of that love and thankfulness, you start to live sacrificially for others, to be an agent of God’s blessing in their lives, too. You can help and care for those who are in need. You can forgive those who sin against you and pray for those who abuse you. You can share generously of your worldly blessings. And you can hold yourself to a high standard of moral living without judging and condemning others.
It seems to me that those are the marks of a life that’s really based on the teachings and example of Jesus. That’s the kind of life that ‘does the will of the Father who is in heaven.’ And a person who lives that kind of life, a person whose life is truly rooted in the teachings of Jesus, that person lives on a sort of spiritual solid ground – on solid rock and not on shifting sands.
It’s not that uncommon to meet people who claim Jesus as their Savior but don’t show much of the love, joy, peace, forgiveness and sacrificial service to others that are supposed to go along with serving him as their Lord. And it’s probably true that the two can’t be separated – that Jesus isn’t your Savior unless he’s your Lord, too – unless you’re actually living according to his authority.
This passage is the end of the part of Matthew we call the Sermon on the Mount – and this idea of living by his teachings and the will of God seems like a perfect wrap-up for the picture Jesus has been sketching of the counter-culture movement his true disciples are meant to represent.
Let’s pray. Lord, by the power of your Spirit, move us to live according to your will and the teachings of Jesus, witnessing to the love you showed in him and demonstrating sacrificial love for you and our neighbor as he taught us to. Amen.
Every Blessing,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 25 and 26; II Kings 18:28-37; and I Corinthians 9:1-15. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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