[AI translation] With God's help, I would like to start a new series: on the last Sunday of every month, I would like to explain a following passage from the Sermon on the Mount. We are all familiar with some of Jesus' sayings and teachings, which we call the Sermon on the Mount. This name itself comes from the fact that at the beginning of this collection of teachings we read: 'And when Jesus saw the multitudes, he went up into the mountain, and as he sat down, his disciples came to him'. It is unlikely that this was a single sermon, but perhaps Jesus went to a certain hilltop somewhere near Capernaum or Nazareth, came back to the same place, and taught the people there. The collection of these teachings is called the Sermon on the Mount.By way of introduction, there are some rather misconceptions about the Sermon on the Mount in people's minds. There are two extremes to these ideas. No less an individual than the great Russian writer Tolstoy was a great apostle of this idea, and he tried to transform his own life and his environment to the extent of the Sermon on the Mount. At the other extreme, the Sermon on the Mount is of no use in the practice of everyday life, because it sets such high moral ideals that man cannot attain or fulfil, nor is it worthwhile, because according to such principles one can only fall short in the hard struggle for existence. So what is the truth? What is the Sermon on the Mount for? Can it be used or not used in everyday life?
Well, my brethren, we see the Sermon on the Mount correctly if we do not see in it first of all a list of all the rules of life and moral virtues, but: Jesus! The Sermon on the Mount is also about the gospel of the God who gives himself in Jesus Christ, and not about a series of commandments and laws. I could almost say that it is not so much the Sermon on the Mount that is important, but the speaker himself. It is not so much what he says, but who says it. Not the sermon, but the preacher himself. The moment I separate the sentences, the advice, the commands of the Sermon on the Mount from Jesus, the moment it becomes a set of meaningless and unfulfillable rules, an overstretched moral programme with which one can do little in everyday life.
The Sermon on the Mount makes sense at all if it is said by Jesus, if it is always in relation to Jesus. With Jesus, in whom a whole new way of life has come to us: the kingdom of God. Through Jesus, the forces of the coming kingdom of God are already at work, and those who receive Jesus into themselves are shaped by these forces into a new and unusual way of life. Here, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes in some detail the life of a person - how he relates to people, friends, enemies, money, temptations, daily problems, etc. - who is in relationship with Him, who belongs to Him. Who He is Lord of. Who is His disciple and follower. If what He says here, such as love your enemies, don't worry, etc., is separated from Him, it immediately becomes a meaningless and unfulfillable commandment. But in His mouth it is not only a command, but a Promise! This is wonderful! When Jesus commands something, that command is full of promise. Not only does He command, but He also trains. He also makes it possible for us. For example: without Jesus, one really cannot do without the advice, "He who strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Mt 5,39), but when Jesus says: all of a sudden my heart is warmed, my tempers are calmed, and I am amazed to see for myself how things are going.
So, the Sermon on the Mount always connects us again to Jesus, because in Him and through Him it becomes possible, it becomes fulfilling. And that is why it is very practical, very relevant to everyday life, because through the being and actions of people who live according to the Sermon on the Mount, something new and creative flows into the world of human relationships. Yes, the new creative power of the kingdom of God, of goodness, of love, of purity, of serenity, is something unearthly. Yes, a truly heavenly power. There is nothing this world needs so much as people like the people who live the Sermon on the Mount. Let me try to illustrate this with an example.
It happened somewhere during the Second World War that a group of prisoners were crowded into the barracks of a German concentration camp. Every night the guard would come in and every night he would pick one person, always the same one, and torture him with great relish. And the other prisoners watched this night after night with helpless rage - for what else could they do, they were prisoners, vulnerable, defenceless. If they had tried to defend their fellow prisoners, they would have caused them, and themselves, even greater harm. They were utterly helpless in the face of unbridled terror. But one prisoner did try something. One evening, when the guard came again, he stood in front of him and said: "If you must torture someone every night, take me out for a change today. The guard was surprised and unexpected by this action. He had expected that all these people would be afraid because man is cowardly, cowardly and selfish. After a little thought, he replied. And if you are so brave as to offer yourself, you can decide how many I will hit you with. The prisoner replied, "I leave that to your conscience. This again greatly disturbed the guard. He saw himself, especially in the eyes of the prisoners, as having no conscience. He said: I have no conscience. Then the prisoner attacked again: Of course not, otherwise he would have tortured me to death long ago! During this strange conversation, the guard was in no mood to fight and left the prisoners. And from that time on, he never came back to torture anyone the rest of the night.
Someone who acted in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, "Do not oppose the wicked, but turn the other cheek to him who strikes you on the right," or "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you." (verse 44b), he broke through the terror, disarmed an enemy, changed an intolerable situation. Put it this way: he broke the power of sin. Unarmed, without violence, with love alone? No! With Jesus. With Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount. Oh, very, very practical thing, the Sermon on the Mount! Very much for this world. I wish we could live much more by it!
It's beginning to make sense, isn't it, why Jesus so often says to his disciples, "happy". Yes, the Sermon on the Mount is first and foremost about what His disciples are like. Before Jesus talks about what they should and should not do, He tells them what they are like: happy. Jesus' disciples are happy people. Do you know what an incredible thing it is when someone dares to say about himself, "I am a happy person"? I think of Goethe, a man who lived a really very lucky life, who always walked on the sunny side of this earthly life. But he once said: 'I have never had twenty-four hours in my life that I could call truly happy.' I, too, as a pastor, get to see into the lives of so many people. It is my experience that very few people in the world are truly happy. We tend to think of happiness as a life that is not disturbed by poverty, deprivation, sadness, the need to give up, the resentment of others, harassment, disturbance, suffering, illness, death.
Well, there is no such way of life. There is no such thing simply because this life on earth is by its very nature such that it is constantly confused, complicated, made difficult either by deprivation, or by some sadness, or by human evil, or by disease, or by some suffering, or by death. In this sense, there can be no undisturbed happiness. It seems, therefore, that to be happy, man needs something else, not these external conditions of undisturbed life, not only success, prosperity, happiness, health, recognition. We have all seen how someone has everything they need for a successful life: a nice apartment, a good job, a loving spouse, healthy children, a good life - and yet they are full of unrest, dissatisfaction, inwardly full of blame and complaints. Such a miserable soul, no matter how well he does, will always be unhappy. And vice versa: there is also a man who is not really spoiled by life, and yet he is happy. There are some people who have a truly terrible fate and yet are happy - enviably happy.
Well, that's what Jesus gives. He lists quite a few situations in which people are not usually happy, in fact... He speaks of the poor, the weeping, the persecuted, the undeserving suffering, and he says: happy. They can be happy too! It is not that one must be poor before one can be happy, and one must weep before one can be happy, but that even if one is poor, even if one is suffering in a deplorable condition, a disciple of Jesus can be happy, even if he is poor, even if he is suffering in a deplorable condition. So the happiness that Jesus speaks of is more than happiness, cheerfulness, cheerfulness. It is more than the romantic happiness that the movies propagate: a non-fictional happy ending. This happiness is not a force from without, but from within. It is a kind of inner equilibrium that is not upset even when you are crying, or destitute, or fleeing as a persecuted person, or standing next to a coffin.
I have said it many times before, but there are truths that need to be said again and again: Jesus wants heaven to be a state of mind in you before it is a place of salvation for you. Heaven must be in you before you are in heaven! Jesus came to this earth not only to bring human lives to heaven, but also to bring heaven into people's lives! Jesus is the only one on this earth who is from heaven, from the world of God's peace, serenity, joy, happiness. Where He is present, there is the heavenly atmosphere of the serenity, peace, joy, happiness of God. Therefore happy is he who belongs to Christ, in whom Jesus is in him. To be happy is the expression of being inwardly ordered. Also the original Greek word makarios, in classical Greek, expresses divine happiness as opposed to human happiness. This is what Jesus is talking about: God drawing us into communion with himself and sharing in his own happiness. To belong to Christ, to walk with Christ, is therefore a good thing. Many times, especially when you are young, you imagine that the life of following Jesus is something soured, joyless, a life of resignation. Young people are afraid of Jesus for their happiness. They think I will turn to Jesus when I am past the happy stage of life. Well, no one should fear Jesus for their happiness, because Jesus is what makes you happy!
Indeed, it is not our circumstances that make us happy or unhappy, but our inner being. It is what you are inside that determines your life. If you are happy inside, your whole life will be happy. Watch out! Wealth, comfort, an undisturbed, peaceful lifestyle, fun, cars, television, washing machines, travel, applause, careers are all good things - but not everything! Behind it all, the heart can ache, the conscience can be troubled, fear can gnaw at you, silence can be harsh, life can be unbearable - you can be unhappy. Either we carry happiness within us, and then the whole life will be happy, even if troubles and sufferings surround us; or if it is not within us, then we seek it in vain in money, in pleasures, in circumstances - we cannot find it. That's why it's so great when Jesus doesn't say: look, this or that will make you happy, but this: you are happy. You who belong to me have happiness within you, and it is this inner happiness that makes real and then sanctifies all the outer happiness of our lives.
In the rest of this sermon, I would like to go on to list the situations in which Jesus tells His followers that they are happy. For now, Jesus points to those around Him and says, "Happy are you. Is it about us? Under the condition of true faith in Christ: yes! So go out and make the people around you happier!
Amen
Date: 24 February 1963.
Lesson
Mt 5,1-12