[AI translation] Two and a half years ago, we started and continued to study the Sermon on the Mount on the last Sunday of every month, and in fact we finished it at the end of last month. However, we still have these two verses to go, which describe the impact of the whole teaching on the multitude. This is also worth dealing with separately.First of all, I would like to shed a little more light on the meaning of two words. The first is "dreaming". The original word means more than dreaming. It denotes the astonishment, the shock, the awe, the horror that the believer feels when the divine, the numinosum [the intangible, the unearthly] comes face to face with him. So Moses stood before the burning bush and on Mount Sinai when God spoke to him. So was the soul of Isaiah shuddering when he stood before the throne of God in vision. So the multitudes dreamed when they heard Jesus, that is, they felt something of the poignancy of the fact that in this man called Jesus God Himself had spoken to them.
This is what is expressed by this other word: "having power". Here again, the original Greek word gives a good sense of the fact that he was not simply speaking powerfully, as a great orator, a wise teacher. In Jesus' day, there were orators of great influence among the scribes, and one of them, Hillel, is still remembered today. But the report notes that he did not speak like the scribes, but as no man can speak: the wisest, the greatest, the most powerful orator cannot speak. There was a sense of divine power in Jesus' speech. Jesus spoke with irrefutable authority, as one who gives the law, as one who judges, as one who forgives sins, as one whose word opens or closes the kingdom of God to men. His word brings a new order, a new age. He is not one of the many great teachers, nor is he the greatest teacher. He is : the Saviour. He is the incarnation of God's redeeming love on earth.
That is why the multitudes who heard Him at that time were astonished and dismayed. Such was the impact of human words on men. That is what this short report means.
Yes, it was so long ago. But the question immediately arises, has this powerful influence of the person and teaching of Jesus increased or diminished in the world since then? As someone once put it, is Jesus in the future with us or in the past away from us? After all, when he was on this earth, things were very different from today. Perhaps in his time, in the primitive social and cultural conditions of the time, he could indeed act with full authority, but is it still valid today, in this world of general progress, full of so many complex problems, to teach 'as one who has authority'? Is it not rather the case that, in the ranks of an alarmingly multiplying humanity, fewer and fewer are listening to Him?
To see better on this point, we must again first clarify the meaning of a word. And that word is 'Christianity'. It is a rather unfortunate term, because today it does not so much refer to the gospel itself, but rather to a large complex of historical phenomena which have been manifested over time in some connection with the gospel (often, indeed, in a very loose connection with the gospel). This word, 'Christianity', is the umbrella term for everything that people have done with the gospel of Christ over the last 2,000 years. How the gospel of Christ has been abused by men and churches for their own power interests, for their own business profits, simply to justify their stubborn anti-progressive thinking, is something that is talked about enough in the world today. One only has to read in the pages of history such words as the Crusades, the Inquisition, the galley raids, the Galilean ordeal, the American monkey business, etc. All this is contained in the formation which the public consciousness calls Christianity. So-called Christianity is also the sum total of all the misunderstandings that have arisen around Jesus Christ. No wonder many have taken a stand against the complex they have encountered in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. But this is not exactly taking a stand against Jesus, for it is not Him Him they have encountered, but only such and such a feeble representative of Him!
There is a testimony that illustrates this in a striking way. Someone who was passionately seeking the truth once said this: "I was in great loneliness and misery, and in the meantime I turned to the Christ who died on the cross for all. But when I later came into closer contact with Christianity, I was shocked. Christianity was nothing like Christ. So I decided to separate Christ from Christianity, and to hold myself to Him alone. This serious testimony is both painful and joyful. The sad part is that Christianity is so little like Christ. But it is joyful that Jesus, despite all the failings and weaknesses of the organisations and people bearing His name, has such an impact on people. A missionary in India told me of a Hindu university professor who was a member of one of the most fanatical Hindu sects and as such had begun to study the person of Jesus. He said: I cannot say that I want to be a Christian, but I can say that I want to be like Christ.
Yes, Christianity may have compromised the cause it stood for many times over the centuries, and that is our shame, but Jesus himself teaches today 'as one who has authority'. He has far more power than we think. And that is His glory. I think that if we keep this unfortunate distinction between Christianity and Christ in mind in this way, we see that there is actually much more "Christ" in the world than we Christians live into, realize, of Him. The most progressive spiritual reforms - whether social, economic or political - lead almost in a straight line to Christ. They are Christlike in spirit. They have the force of Christ's teachings. The world is increasingly turning to the ideas that Jesus embodied, that Jesus taught, in its search for solutions to big, pressing problems.
It is not that the world is slowly becoming Christianised in an outward and dogmatic sense, it is not that everyone is slowly going to church and being baptised, but that the teachings and ideas of Christ are increasingly permeating people's public thinking. What we read here in the Word is: Christ teaches "as one who has authority" is still valid today. So valid that it can almost be seen and felt in the truly progressive aspirations of the world. The teachings of Jesus - if we look at the Sermon on the Mount: on reconciliation with the enemy; on absolute purity of family life; on honest, truthful speech; on selfless help to the needy without expectation of reward; on inner spiritual purity; on the perils of serving Mammon; on wrong, unwise judgments; on true piety in action, and all his other teachings - not a set of religious rules, but eternal human laws, the basis of true, liberated, perfected humanity.
"Lord, to whom may we go?" the disciples ask. "You have the word of eternal life" (Jn 6,68) These are the words of life, of true human life, of living together. They are the words of eternal life, of yesterday's life, of today's life and of the life to come. There is nothing in Jesus' teachings, in his discourses, that later advances in human science can brush aside as obsolete. There is no problem that cannot be solved in the spirit of Jesus' teachings. Here, for example, is one of the most threatening problems of the world: the question of war. How wonderful that today it is becoming more and more common to believe that the solution to conflict is not war but goodwill. And even if this is not preached and urged by Christian men, it is preached in the spirit of the most human man, the man of God, who taught 2,000 years ago that "Be kind to your enemies quickly..." (Mt 5:25)
Or here is another big problem of the world: 2/3 of the people on earth are starving. I heard this sentence in a lecture the other day: We don't know what the hungry people will do, but we do know that they will not give in to hunger. What will happen to the world if Christ's command is not soon enforced, "If your enemy hungers, give him something to eat; if he thirsts, give him something to drink" (Rom 12:20), and "If anyone asks you, give him something" (Mt 5:42) These are not religious laws, these are the laws of the possibilities of eternal human life. Yes, Jesus teaches today "as one who has authority". As much as the world has changed since He walked this earth, man himself remains the same. Human nature itself is fundamentally the same in every age. Selfishness is just as much a problem today as it was in the past, as is the devaluation of others, the neglect of the poor and the weak, the domination of money, the lack of the healing power of love. And what people need today is the same as it was in the past: spiritual strength, moral purification, relief from daily worries, selfless love for one another.
If we are ashamed of our Christianity, which has often been a certain failure, let us never be ashamed of Christ! Christ himself is not in the past, but in the future. His reign is in its fullness. What He has said about love, forgiveness, merciful, gentle conduct, seeking peace, purity of heart, living as a candle, are not obsolete! And if we already see in the world that His teachings have power, that His teachings are taking power over us, even involuntarily, even unconsciously, then we willfully and consciously allow this power to prevail over us!
Jesus teaches "as one who has authority". He has the full authority, the divine sovereignty of His word. His teaching, his speech, is not only good advice, a beautiful thought, a poignant truth, profound wisdom, but literally: power, healing power. It is the gushing spring water of divine eternal life here on earth. Let us try to truly live it! If it is true that Jesus teaches "as one who has power", then it is also true what a man of very deep faith once said: "From one look at Jesus flows power and life." Try it, for example, in the midst of various temptations, when the tempter strikes at the weakest point in your life. Jesus' death on Calvary is victory over all temptation! Hold that victory over temptation! His defeat at Calvary is not a memory the tempter likes to remember. He backs away. Life is going on around us, our nerves are getting raw, we want to get out of our skin, bitterness is building up, venom is building up, nervousness is building up: let us think of Jesus and experience the wonderful power he still has today. It is as the writer of Proverbs once said, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower, to which the righteous will come and be strong" (Pro 18:10). And then all will be still. As He has rebuked the sea and the wind, so He will quiet the troubled feelings of our hearts when the winds of unpleasant circumstances want to stir them. When you are discouraged at your own weakness, and say to yourself with a sigh, "I'll never amount to anything," think of Jesus! He has paid a great price for you. Do you think it was in vain? Surely not. You can trust Him with courage. He'll do in you what He started. Just don't stop him. Let him cut and carve on you. Don't hold on to what he wants to take away from you.
Yes, we have already seen that, "From one look at Jesus flows power and life." For He teaches "as one who has power". He not only gives us a program for our lives, but also the power and grace to carry out that program. So let us let the healing, cleansing, overcoming, all-serving power of His fullness work in our daily lives. Then our Christianity will begin to look more like Christ again. And then people will "dream" again, as they did then, and wonder how you can endure, how you can have such peace, how you can forgive, how you never get upset, how you can always remain serene, how you have so much love? Yes, they are dreaming, because they sense in you and they desire from you the presence of the One who has the power to do all this even now.
Jesus, my consolation!
I'm waiting with entreaty
Your blessed word!
Your presence
You cheer me, life,
Gives you a brave heart.
Be with me, O all I have!
Without you I cannot live:
You are life eternal!
Canto 294, verse 1
Amen
Date: 26 September 1965.