"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:38-48)

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     We were left in last week's Scripture reading with a pretty tall order. Jesus said to His disciples “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of heaven.” That's tough. As Christians, we have a tendency to look down our noses at the Pharisees and the teachers of the law because of their legalism and their harsh interpretation and application of God's law, but let's not go too far with that idea. Legalistic they may have been, but the problem with the Pharisees was not any lack of righteousness. They were, indeed, righteous people. They followed the law to the letter, and to make sure that they followed it they even added a few letters of their own just for safety's sake. No, the Pharisees were righteous people. The problem with them was not their righteousness; it was their self-righteousness. They were good and they knew it and they made sure that everybody else knew it as well. Their legalism, while it was undoubtedly authentic and in response to what they believed God wanted from them, was also a show of sorts put on for the sake of the people who would look at them and comment on how good they were. And even Jesus did that. Jesus knew that they were righteous people. That's what made His words so difficult to hear. “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of heaven.” How was it even possible? Well, the whole Sermon on the Mount, from which most of our recent readings have come, actually leads up to this point. The people on their own were not going to be able to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. They were as good as anybody was going to get. The point of the Sermon on the Mount was to make sure that the people understood that they couldn't have a righteousness that exceeded that of the Pharisees, and then – having understood it – the hope was that they would begin to look at their options. According to Jesus Himself, on their own they were doomed; without hope. If so, how could they acquire this righteousness that they needed? Well, the point of the Sermon on the Mount is really quite clear. To paraphrase in a few words what Jesus said in an entire sermon: “You can't do it, so you better let Me do it for you.” In other words, “I'll give My righteousness to you.” Only then could the people have a righteousness that exceeded the righteousness of the Pharisees, because the Pharisees understood only the letter of the law, while Jesus understood the spirit of the law. The Pharisees thought this was all about strict obedience; Jesus taught the people that it was about living in and with love. By living this life of love that Jesus called them to, the people could know a degree of righteousness that the Pharisees could only dream about. Then – all of a sudden – with that message given (and hopefully received) Jesus – rather than letting the people rest secure in this new concept of righteousness He offered them – suddenly upped the ante. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

     “Wow! That one really is a tall order!  In a way it's an idea that I'm not even able to get my head around. How can I possibly be as perfect as God? It's impossible to imagine such a thing, and yet there it is before us. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus – Who teaches His followers to live by grace rather than by law – now seems to demand a legalistic requirement that's isn't just harsh; it seems impossible. What can He possibly mean? And how can we possibly achieve the perfection that He seems to demand of us?

     In a later part of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus says these words: “... Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it.” This seems to me to tie in to what Jesus means when He tells us to “be perfect ...” Many have interpreted those words of Jesus as referring to martyrdom – so that Jesus is saying “if you die for Me, you'll live.” But that's not the point. Jesus was speaking here about the way we live and the characteristics that mark our lives. If we try to save ourselves by doing our own thing and living as we think right and proper then we've really given up the life that God wants us to have. Jesus is telling us to let go of the controls – to lose our lives for Him, because as long as our focus is on ourselves and our own needs and our own wants and our own desires, we won't have true life; we'll have a life made up of little more but desperate yearning for the next thing we want to accomplish or the next thing we want to possess, but with no real sense of accomplishment or satisfaction because we'll always be waiting for the next “thing.” We find true life by letting go of ourselves. The is the first step on the road to perfection – to live not for ourselves but to actively seek to conform ourselves to the character of God.

     When we've reached the point of doing that, then we've reached Step 2 on the road to perfection. If we want to achieve perfection then we have to live in God and for God. Living for God is pretty easy to understand. It means being available to God 24/7 and being willing to accept God's leading and the tasks to which God has called us. But what does it mean to live in  God. That perhaps has a more mysterious and quasi-mystical sound to it, but it really isn't a complicated thing. In a way living in God is a lot like everyday life. Every day we live, we live surrounded by air – which to us is life-giving, and without which there would be no life. It should be no surprise that while we speak of the Holy Spirit, if we actually translated the Bible literally, we'd speak not of the Holy Spirit but of the Holy Wind or the Holy Breath. God is like the air around us. God is everywhere, and God is necessary if we're to truly be alive rather than merely exist. To live in God means to recognize that we are – every moment of every day – immersed in the reality of the divine presence that's all around us. Recognizing that, living in God then compels us to be greater reflections of God and of the character of God by moving us to display the qualities that God wants displayed in our lives. “The fruit of the Spirit” Paul writes in Galatians, “is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Paul then goes on to write, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” The constant awareness of God's presence is Step 2 on the road to perfection.

     The successful accomplishment of Step 2 leads us to Step 3. If we want to achieve perfection, we must let Christ live in and through us. We have to live in God, but Christ has to live in us. Again in Galatians, Paul writes “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” This is the goal of the Christian life: that by surrendering ourselves to God and by choosing to live in God, we might allow our lives to become the living display of Christ to the world, so that those who encounter us – even if they've never read the Bible in their lives – will have had an experience of the gospel through their experience of us. When Christ becomes the source of our lives then our lives become the source of Christ to the world. In a 1966 hymn (that's #27 in our Hymn Book) Fred Kaan penned this line: “Our God becomes incarnate in every human birth.” I struggle with that line. I'm not the incarnation of God and neither are any of you. But I also recognize the truth that's contained within the words. If Christ is to be truly and meaningfully and concretely present in the world today then it has to be through us. We – with both how we live and how we love – become the presence of Jesus in the world. Christ indeed lives in and through us. Christ must live both in and through us, because if He doesn't – if we don't allow Him to – then His work will have ended.

     Here then is the road to perfection. It's a short road in one sense, made up of only 3 steps: surrendering to God, living in God and letting Christ live in us. It's not an easy road to follow, but it's also not a complicated road to follow. I pray that we're all walking that road even now, and that if you're not, you'll take that first step right away!