CFM: Matt 6-7 ~ Sermon on the Mount, cont.

March 4–10. Matthew 8–9; Mark 2–5: ‘Thy Faith Hath Made Thee Whole’

Last week I had a big breakthrough on my understanding of the Sermon on the Mount, with Christ asking us to turn to Him instead of each other for recompense for our injuries, He being the mediator in all of our relationships, and having paid the price to offer both mercy and justice to all.

The verses this week just continued that concept for me and built onto it.

Not only does Christ act as the mediator in all our relationships, but He says He will give to us what we have given to the other party. He will forgive me as I forgive others. He will judge me as I judge others.  What I face at the final judgement bar won't be a surprise, because Christ will treat me how I have treated others.

I'm reminded of the parable of the debts, the man who has his huge debt forgiven, and then turns around and will not forgive a minuscule debt owed to him.  How often do I do the same?

Our lives and our salvation are truly in our own hands (and hearts). If I want no man to condemn me, then I should condemn no man. If I want the benefit of the doubt to be shown to me, then I should give others that same benefit. 

Joseph Smith asked us not to condemn each other - Do Not Accuse the Brethren, "I charged the Saints not to follow the example of the adversary in accusing the brethren, and said, “If you do not accuse each other, God will not accuse you. If you have no accuser you will enter heaven, and if you will follow the revelations and instructions which God gives you through me, I will take you into heaven as my back load. If you will not accuse me, I will not accuse you. If you will throw a cloak of charity over my sins, I will over yours—for charity covereth a multitude of sins." [TPJS, p193]

When we let go of having to receive something from another person to be made whole, we are free to act for ourselves.  We aren't dependent on an apology to forgive, and forgiveness isn't something to hold out on in order to punish someone else - because it just damages us, not them.  Like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

I've never much liked the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, because I'm very particular, with unique tastes, and I know most people don't like the same things I do.  I think it's better to figure out what they like and do that for them.  But in this case I think the golden rule is really more like: do unto others as you would have Christ do unto you.  Because that is exactly what He promises He will do unto you.

What it comes down to is: will you allow Christ's Atoning sacrifice to heal your hurts, pay your debts, both the ones you make towards others, and the ones towards you, and to pay for your sins and disappointments and weaknesses?  Will you partake?  Or will you cling to the mortal perspective that it isn't enough, that His infinite and Eternal sacrifice can never make up for _________ that someone has done to me, or that I have done to them. 

Can we have charity and help each other to Heaven?  Because our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ want us back, they want us ALL back, and the only thing that will prevent us from getting there is ourselves.  We are all works in progress, not perfect yet, that will only come through Jesus Christ, as we strive more and more to be like Him.

CFM: Matt 5 & Luke 6 ~ Sermon on the Mount

February 18–24. Matthew 5; Luke 6: ‘Blessed Are Ye’

Jesus' sermon on the mount.

I'm sure there are many people out there who love these verses. But I think I've mostly seen them as a guilt trip, with maybe a cherry on top. I think Jesus sets an impossible standard for the mortal being. One that I've sought my whole life trying to understand, as a person who has endured much ridicule and abuse, and has always tried to return kindness for hurt.

But always striving to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, and never feeling able to say no when asked... I don't think these things are turning me into a very Christlike person. Always giving, makes me desire refuge in solitude. Never standing up for myself, makes me feel worth less than everyone else. I'm constantly running on empty, while my anxiety continues to grow, and my mental health declines...

I can't imagine that the point of the sermon on the mount is truly for us to be doormats, allowing others to take from us and abuse us endlessly, and we should just be happy about it!

It can't be. I don't believe it.

I've had a huge breakthrough this time around studying this sermon, a giant shift in my perspective.  I don't think the above is what Christ was trying to teach at all.  Maybe it's just news to me, but I see the sermon in a whole new way now, and here goes me trying to explain it:

Prior to Christ's ministry the people were living the law of Moses, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. [Matt 5:38] When you were wronged by someone, the law required recompense from them.

Law of Justice: Lose an Eye = Owed an Eye, Lose a Tooth = Owed a Tooth

Then comes the higher law [Matt 5:39-42] if they smite your right cheek, give them the other, if they sue you for your coat, give them your cloak also, compel a mile, go two... etc., which gives me this image:

Law of Mercy: Lose an Eye = Give other eye, Lose a Tooth = Give other Tooth

And that is where I've sat for decades, trying to understand how that is Christlike.  Jesus wasn't a pushover.  He set boundaries.  He went off into the wilderness alone to recharge.  He cleansed the temple (side note: do you realize this was a premeditated act? I noticed this time that He braided the whip Himself, ahead of time, it was not a spur of the moment, anger driven act), He stood up for Himself and many others marginalized by society, the lowest of the low.  He wasn't always gentle and kind, He offended many by speaking the truth to them.

So what have I been missing?...

He didn't just erase our payback, and expect us to be ok with that.
He didn't consign us to endless giving and suffering.
Instead, drumroll please... He simply wants us to seek recompense from a different direction.

Lose an Eye (or a Tooth) = Receive recompense from Christ

The higher law puts Christ in the middle, the answer for both parties.

Take an Eye (or a Tooth) = come under judgment & accountability to Christ for your actions

His endless giving and suffering makes justice and mercy available to both parties.
After all, if we look back at an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth, what was it actually doing?  In most cases, just spreading the misery.  If you kill my child, then the law demands that I kill yours.  Does it bring back my child?  No.  But now you will suffer as I do.  Another life is lost.  More hurting.  That is a brutal form of justice, but where is the mercy?  Someone (attributed to several) said an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth just makes the whole world blind and toothless...

There are a great many stories written about seeking revenge, two that come immediately to my mind are The Count of Monte Cristo & Sweeney Todd.  I recall neither story ending well, the fruits of vengeance are not peace and healing, but devastation for all involved.

Christ Atoned for our sins.  He is the great Healer.  We often talk about Christ as our advocate with the Father.  That His Atoning Blood pays the price for our sins and makes it possible for us to return to God.  But we don't often talk about how Christ is also our advocate with each other.  He has paid the price for all hurts, for all injustices.  The Sermon on the Mount asks us to change directions, instead of seeking revenge, and retribution from each other, turn to Christ.  Seek healing instead of more hurt.  Allow Him to make it up to us.  Let our amends to come from Him, and leave it in His hands to exact justice from the other party.

Our lives then become only between Christ and us, it doesn't matter what is done to us, or taken from us by another party, as we look to Christ, all will be made right by Him in the end.  Through His sacrifice, He can satisfy both the laws of mercy and justice.  And that should be very comforting to us, as quite often in life we end up (knowingly or not) being the party inflicting the hurt.  Sometimes we will just have to trust Christ to heal those we've hurt.  No matter what we do, we cannot make amends, we cannot go back, we cannot fix it.

Instead of a two dimensional mortal back and forth that brings both down, we have a triangle, with Christ at the head, raising all up. That is the key to the sermon on the mount.  I no longer see a guilt trip, but a message of both justice and mercy, and an invitation to live a higher way.  He asks us to allow Him to carry our burdens.  And to trust Him to make all things right in the end, instead of desiring others to hurt as we do right now.

The law of Moses instructed in all things, I don't think the Sermon on the mount was intended to be that literal.  So going back to His examples of how we should act when... should I stand up to someone or lay down, turn the other cheek or turn in the bully, walk an extra mile or walk away?... I don't think Jesus is giving us an always answer.  I think there are right times for each response in these scenarios.  There are proper boundaries that need to be set and kept, times when we have more to give, and less. 

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, speaking of Christ asking us to forgive, said, "He did not say, “You are not allowed to feel true pain or real sorrow from the shattering experiences you have had at the hand of another.” Nor did He say, “In order to forgive fully, you have to reenter a toxic relationship or return to an abusive, destructive circumstance.” But notwithstanding even the most terrible offenses that might come to us, we can rise above our pain only when we put our feet onto the path of true healing. That path is the forgiving one walked by Jesus of Nazareth, who calls out to each of us, “Come, follow me.” The Ministry of Reconciliation, Oct. 2018

I think we have to continuously learn the language of the Holy Spirit as God speaks to us, and listen to His direction in all of our moments.  We need to seek after the true nature of God, and desire to have love as the base driver in all of our actions.  Then we can become like Him.  Our intent can be pure, even if our actions falter and we make a great deal of mistakes along the way. He already planned for that, and paid for it, so it's up to us to make certain His Atonement doesn't go to waste.

"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." [Matt 5: 44-45]

CFM: Matt 2 & Luke 2 ~ The "Perfect" Child

January 14–20. Luke 2; Matthew 2: We Have Come to Worship Him

This week's study covered the story of the child Jesus teaching in the temple.  I've often felt a bit unsettled by this story, I've never really understood what we were supposed to learn from it.  That Jesus was fulfilling His mission from a very young age?  That He as a child was more learned than doctors and teachers in the temple?  That He led a perfect life even in His youth?  That He knew better than His worrisome parents?  Because that just doesn't sit very well with me.

In my opinion, no "perfect" child would have left the caravan and his family, without a word to his parents as to where he was going.  And then, after days of frantic searching the city, when his parents had finally located him in the temple, would he have looked into their tear-filled, anguished eyes and answered his mother's sorrowing plea with, "How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"  Ouch.

The scriptures say they didn't understand his response (Luke 2:50).  Neither do I.  

No, no - a "perfect" child should have communicated his whereabouts to his parents before running off, and would have acknowledge the pain caused them by his not doing so.  But there was no apology given, and His response seems almost a censure - a slap in the face to the people tasked with the unfathomable task of raising the Son of God on earth.

But I noticed this time something I had not previously, it comes in the very next verse: "and he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them..." Luke 2:51

Wait. What?

From that point on - He went with them, and was subject to them?  Implying that in this instance Jesus had not been subject to His earthly parents??  And He perhaps changed His future behavior based on this experience??

We so often say that Christ led a perfect life, that He was the only perfect man who lived.  But is that true?  Did He always do everything in the most correct way possible?  Did He never make a mistake?  Did He never feel regret or remorse?  Did He never need to improve?  I'm not so sure about that kind of "perfect" thinking.  The next verse states "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." Luke 2:52 

Hmm, did He learn from His own experience, as we do, line upon line?

I have no doubt that Christ led a sin-free life, in that respect He was perfect.  But what is sin?  Are our innocent mistakes sin?

Joseph Smith said, "What many people call sin is not sin" TPJS, p.193

I would say that boiling it down to the essentials, sin = going against the will of God.  Christ never did that.  But the idea that He too might have had to learn through His own experience a better way to act, brings me a great deal of comfort.  

He learned that He had earthly parents who were also concerned with His well-being, and to stay with them, and be subject to them - perhaps until the time of His ministry, which had not yet come.

In our attempt to become like Christ, it helps to know He understands what it is to be like us.  

I'm reminded of this quote from Sheri L. Dew: "I fear that some people know just enough about the gospel to feel guilty that they are not measuring up to some undefinable standard but not enough about the Atonement to feel the peace and strength it affords us... It's quite the irony—that the gospel of Jesus Christ, which contains the power to save every human being and to strengthen every soul, is sometimes interpreted in such a way that feelings of inadequacy result." 

This is a Test. It is Only a Test 

I have pondered those words, and I agree with Sheri.  

I've seen the crippling effects of guilt in my own life, and in so many others.  Being down in the dumps, when we should be up in the peaks!  

I don't want to be held back by incorrect understandings and impossible standards.  So here's to letting go of paralyzing perfectionism, the falsity of never feeling good enough, and on to finding peace, strength, and power through the Atonement and gospel of Jesus Christ!  To recognizing that my perfection can only come through Him and His grace, and that my life (flaws and all), truly can be an acceptable offering unto Him - as I continuously seek to learn from my experiences a better way to be, and to follow in His footsteps.

CFM: Matt 1 & Luke 1 ~ Leaving the "How" to God

January 7–13. Matthew 1; Luke 1: ‘Be It unto Me according to Thy Word’

My great and wise friend Beckee, in multiple deep discussions about our lives, would say to me that we just need to leave the "how" up to God.  I've pondered that concept for years.  Can I have enough faith and confidence to trust God with the "how" in my life?  Frankly, not really.

When I see a magic trick, I immediately want to know how it was done, I try to figure it out.  And when I am promised a miracle in my own life, I start mentally running through the scenarios of how it might happen and where each road could lead, and then often will turn to despair when I can't picture a single possibility.

{Side note to self: definition of miracle = a seemingly impossible task, so give God some credit already}

Spending time this week thinking about the "how" in life wasn't anything new to me - but what was new was realizing that the virgin Mary and the priest Zacharais when presented with an angel and a promised miracle in their own lives, both asked the exact same question: HOW will this be done?

And the real shocker to me was, they each got a DIFFERENT ANSWER.

(Note: Some people have the opinion, or perhaps rationalization, that this is a matter of semantics - how can this be? & whereby shall I know this? - really weren't the same question, but for the purpose of my post I'm assuming they are.)

WHY?  Why would God give one how? the answer - the method by which the miracle would take place, and yet answer the other how? with a seeming punishment - struck dumb for disbelief.

I am a very logical, analytical thinker, and this does not make sense. God is no respecter of persons.

So what is the difference?

Which was the greater miracle? to conceive a child as a young virgin? or an old married post-menopausal woman?  The former, impossible, the latter, improbable.  Was is the degree of miraculous-ness that prompted the difference in response?

Or was it due to age and experience?  An optimistic, innocent, pure youth?  Or an old man with a long life of unfulfilled blessings, a man who had seen the ways of the world, yet was righteous and serving in the temple?

Was it the condition of the heart?  Did she have an open heart of wonder and awe?  Did he have a heart hardened with the hesitation to hope?

Or did it simply serve the Lord's purpose for Zacharias to be dumb - that all around him would also recognize the miracle, that otherwise the birth of John the Baptist may have been seen as simply improbable and forgettable?

I don't know the answers.  Perhaps it's simply a testament that we have a Heavenly Father who gives unique and personal responses to all His children, even when they ask Him the same question.

But I appreciate that I can relate to both scenarios, being young and full faith, believing immediately that the Lord would fulfill His promises, and then decades later when life and experience have worn me down, to be wary of believing, to react in anxiety, to not want to hurt again when the promise was postponed. 

And what I LOVE about this, is that Zacharias' skepticism did not prevent the miracle.  The angel didn't say, you didn't believe without proof, so it's not going to happen.  I love that God will keep his promises, even if I don't have the full capacity to believe Him in the moment, when I just have the desire: "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

I think perhaps then that our doubts, and skepticism, and slow to believe moments, don't ever prevent the Lord's miracles in our lives - they perhaps just make things harder for us in the meantime.  And there is beauty in that, where God has shown He can turn even our hesitation and struggle into a witness and a blessing for others to recognize the miracles in our lives.

So by holding on to my human understanding, but desiring to believe, I don't forfeit the miracle or the promised blessing, sometimes I simply make things harder for myself in the short term.  I'm ok with that, sometimes doubting in faith is all I can muster.

And God somehow makes even that work together for my good.

I'll close with a quote I love, from President Uchtdorf, "Heavenly Father is constantly raining blessings upon us. It is our fear, doubt, and sin that, like an umbrella, block these blessings from reaching us."

So instead of constantly trying to figure out how God is going to fulfill His miracles and promises in my life, I'm trying to shift my focus to figuring out HOW to close my umbrella.  :)

Come Follow Me - New Testament Study 2019

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a new scripture study curriculum for 2019, Come Follow Me.

Leaders have encouraged that we share the insights we receive from our study with others, so I plan on using my (rather underused) blog as a place to record for myself and for others the highlights of my studies: thoughts, ponderings, and new ways of understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ, that I find particularly insightful and personally applicable.  I hope you enjoy, and are blessed in your own personal journey to follow the Savior.

I'll label these future posts with CMF - and the weekly scripture references that plant the seeds.