Matthew 5:38 - 48
“Do not resist an evil person. If
anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek
also… Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Be
perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Nice sentiments, but
could you ever find human beings who actually tried to carry out
these commands of Jesus? As it turns out, you can.
At the time Jesus died on the Cross,
the number of Christians in the world would probably be less than 50.
Historians estimate that by 150 AD, there were about 40,000. By 200
AD, there were 218,000, and by 250 AD, 1.17 million. And all this
was going on before Constantine, despite persecution, despite other
economic and social pressures. There were competing religions as
well; Roman and Greek paganism was given lip service, but Mithraism
from Persia was attractive especially to members of the Roman army.
Manicheism, a relative of Zoroastrianism, was popular among
intellectuals, and for a time St.Augustine practiced this religion.
And Judaism was growing as well; there was an active missionary
effort in those days and Jesus even referred to it when he talked
about the Pharisees crossing the ocean to make a single convert.
But the massive growth of Christianity
was unique. And perhaps the major reason was that you could see how
Christian communities behaved. They followed Jesus’ teachings.
They took care of each other, and even their enemies. If you were a
starving pagan, you knew you could get a meal from the Christians.
If you were sick or in prison, Christians would be there doing what
they could. This is all well documented in the writings of people of
that time who weren’t Christian. Sometimes they looked down on
Christians as weak, lacking in the virtues you would expect of good
Romans. Other writers spoke favorably, but the fact remains that
those early Christians were not like we are.
And of course there is the testimony
of martyrdom. Christians embraced it, because they saw themselves
following in the footsteps of Jesus. But they were martyred in other
ways as well. If you were a Christian, you might spend a lot of time
in jail. There were numerous jobs you couldn’t have. And yet
people converted; more and more were added to the ranks of
Christianity.
There really isn’t anything
comparable in history. Islam was spread by the sword, and still is,
in a way. Buddhist missionaries were welcomed by rulers who saw this
faith as a way to unify their subjects. And we’ve seen nothing
like the growth of Christianity.
And it’s interesting to note that
when Christianity became the official faith of the Roman empire, the
monastic movement attracted large numbers of men and women; and when
the Europe of Saint Francis time was corrupt, the Franciscan movement
grew very rapidly. And we see that over and over again; there is
something wonderfully attractive about people who genuinely live the
values that Jesus taught, and it is the only way real Christianity
spreads.
But can we be perfect as our heavenly
Father is perfect? Jesus seems to think so, and he points to a
characteristic of the Father that bears thinking about: “He makes
the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and the rain to fall on the
just and unjust alike.” So why does the Father do that? He
doesn’t condition his gifts on whether we are good or bad; he gives
freely to all his creation out of sheer love. He expects nothing in
return. He is pleased, if we can think of God as having moods, by
whatever small token of love we can offer. He wants all his
children, who he created in his own image and likeness, to live in
perpetual joy with him. And if this is the way the Father is, it
should be the way we are as well. Jesus is not expecting the
impossible; when he calls us to repentance, he isn’t asking us to
be sorry for our sins, precisely. He wants us to get rid of those
attitudes that ask how far we can go without committing serious sin,
those attitudes that are content as long as we can convince ourselves
that we are better than someone else. Lovers never ask what the
minimum requirement is to show the beloved that they are loved. In a
way JEsus is asking us to put aside the ten commandments which put a
floor under us, and turning our attention to the possibilities of how
high we can go.
And I think Jesus knows that there
will be a vast number of his followers who are trying to get by, who
don’t give religion a lot of thought, who really aren’t changing
much over the years. And they will be saved, we hope, because Jesus
wants that. But every now and then a Benedict or a Francis or a
Theresa will come along and live the Sermon on the Mount, and we will
all be astounded and make a resolution to try a little harder. And
the world will move a little closer to becoming the Kingdom of
Heaven.
