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Matthew 5-7 – Not Upside Down Thinking
The Sermon on the Mount presents a morality that is upside down to the world, but not because the teaching is upside down, but because the world is wrong-side up. “What is the good life?” “Who is a good person?” These questions every culture and individual ask. Jesus’ answers are not the norm. Through promotion of its own enlightenment, mankind is upside down like a giddy kid dangling from its tree of the false knowledge of good and evil. It is the world which sees things not as they are; and as they are not. That is why Jesus’ paradoxical teaching is so enigmatic and other-worldly. Rigor Mortis Religion; Rationalizations; and Riches – these are the world’s solutions as to the good life and being good. Each of these “solves” the problems of mankind. Offering God lifeless obedience sooths our conscience and appeases Deity. Rationalizing sin because didn’t go too far, or because the sinners deserved what they got sooths our consciences toward others, self and God. Riches sooths our minds against present worry and future uncertainties (Mt.5:20-6:34). That is why the world thinks Jesus is nice but not intelligent; idealistic but not practical. To understand the Sermon on the Mount, we must see one simple truth – it’s not God who is upside down.
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