You don’t deserve anything. Harsh? Perhaps. True? Yes. Frankly, it would be easier to make disciples if we could cater to people’s selfishness. If you follow Christ, you receive $1 million! Everyone would sign up. But that’s not how God works. And it’s not how life works. We can fall prey to two subtle but prevalent lies. The first lie is one of entitlement. You deserve something more than someone else. The second lie is one of reward. If you do something, then you deserve more in return. The bottom line is you don’t deserve anything.
Jesus addresses this false thinking in the Sermon on the Mount. We will cover the introduction to this sermon on Sunday. To get a head start, read Matthew 5:1-16. A major biblical principle is found in the Sermon on the Mount. Don’t live like you need to gain something that’s already been given to you. Life with Jesus is not about proving something through what you do. Life with Jesus is about accepting what He has already done. Did you notice the geographic shift in chapter five compared to chapter four? Jesus moves from the low of being tempted in the wilderness upward on a mountainside, where He teaches the disciples and a crowd of people. Our lives have ups and downs. Jesus had ups and downs, too.
Jesus was a participant in the human experience! He felt the full range of the human journey to sympathize with us. Consider this passage in Hebrews. “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.” Hebrews 4:15 (NLT) The first recorded lesson from Jesus in Matthew involves the “Beatitudes.” The word is Latin for “blessing.” In Matthew 5, there are nine beatitudes, followed by two metaphors of salt and light.
They help us understand the concept of a true blessing from God. We’ll reveal more about this blessing on Sunday. You don’t deserve it, but God gives it anyway!