Jesus’ sermon on the level: The Upside Down Kingdom.
Boris Becker said: ‘I had won Wimbledon twice before, once as the youngest player. I was rich. I had all the material possessions I needed but I had no inner peace.’
Jesus’ sermon on the level/plain is delivered to the people when he comes down to the level from praying all night on mountain. Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit and chooses the 12 apostles and they leave everything to follow him. He speaks plainly to them, telling them what they have signed up to! To be poor in spirit means to be humble and teachable.
Jesus contrasts the things of earth with the things of heaven. He compares our life on earth with our eternal life yet to come. Material accumulation is superficial because we die and leave it all behind. However, what we learn and how we grow spiritually goes with us into eternity. Jesus tells us not to store up treasure on earth but treasure in heaven. We are in eternity here and now but our journey continues into that yet to come after death.
God’s kingdom turns the world’s values upside down. 🙃 Are we humble enough to see the kingdom of God in our lives? Seeing not from our ego’s perspective but trusting in God? Blessed are the humble in spirit for they seek God’s way rather than their own. They may experience poverty, hunger, weeping, being hated, excluded, insulted, and rejected but find satisfaction and even joy in the midst of troubles! They have cultivated the gift of generosity of heart and an attitude of gratitude. Generosity of heart is at the centre of our faith. C.S. Lewis defined Christianity as ‘a kind of giving’. Generosity is a way of living by the practice of mutual generosity: giving and receiving and sharing and reciprocating.
Jeremiah tells us that God searches the heart and examines the mind. He says the heart is deceitful and beyond cure! He asks who can understand it? He goes on to say that by living for ourselves we dwell in the parched places of the desert. We turn inwards but cannot provide what we need for ourselves, the living water of life, bubbling up like a spring. Jesus gives us that living water so that we will never be thirsty again.
Paul’s message to the Corinthians about eternal life is simple, ‘that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures’. The penalty for sin has been paid and power of sin is removed because of the resurrection. This is the certainty of our hope for the future. Our faith is not irrational but grounded on the event of the resurrection. He gives some of the evidence:
1. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection were written about before he was born.
2. Christ’s appearance to Peter, to the twelve, to 500 others, to James, to all the apostles, and finally, to Paul himself.
3. Without the resurrection our faith would be without hope.
In relationship with our Father God we have access to heavenly things. It is a different way of living on the level, based on eternal values. Jeremiah says: ‘Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit’.
As disciples of Jesus we are called to seek first the kingdom of God by hungering and thirsting for spiritual things, for weeping with compassion, and all else will be given to us.
Angela Stewart (lay minister)