A 2024 REFLECTION — free as the sky

The last verse in Matthew 5 (verse 48) troubled me for a long time. It was troublesome because I knew I could never measure up to what Jesus seemingly commanded. After a moving and upsetting (at least to some) message covering the Beatitudes to being salt and light to Jesus reinterpreting (Jesus said “but to fulfill” or bring to realization) the Law to loving our enemies, Jesus ends the otherwise brilliant section of the “sermon” with the puzzling sentence below, at least how most of the English translations rendered it.

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (NRSV)

What do I do with this verse? Jesus knew that “we” were not perfect according to earlier verses. Did he mean, to try harder, nonetheless? The surmising rhetorical point of the longest section which details the Law and some of the commandments concerns the pivotal truth that we cannot keep the Law by trying to keep the Law. While masterfully not downgrading the importance of the Law, Jesus alludes that the focus must be somewhere else, away from obeying the Law perfectly. Of course, the sermon continues for two more chapters in the Book of Matthew. I would like to think that verse 48 was there for the listeners and for us to mull over what Jesus may have intended to communicate.

The word, perfect, is unattainable by our effort especially if Jesus meant perfection by moral and ethical perfection. The root word, perfect, Jesus used in Greek is telos which is translated as goal, end, or purpose. I love Eugene Peterson’s translation. Peterson helpfully paraphrases which to me is closer to what Jesus may have meant.

In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” (The Message)

What is helpful in The Message translation is the living out part that is grounded in everyday life. How then do we live out? By accepting and understanding how God treats (or lives toward) us, we are then to practice generosity and grace toward others. Our purpose or goal is to be known and loved by God (or by being the children of our Father in heaven or the “kingdom subjects” [verse 45]), so we become a conduit of that grace toward others. Summing up, I think Jesus was highlighting the importance of the union with God as the end, goal, and purpose of our existence. Jesus commanded the generous and gracious life of union in the process as opposed to achieving moral perfection. Our perfection comes from union with God rather than by achievement. Along this vein, our focus should shift from merely keeping the Law itself to the pursuit of the union with the Giver of the Law.

To use Matthew’s language, righteousness (dikaiosune) is a keyword in the Sermon on the Mount as it appears 3 times in Chapter 5. What Jesus was trying to drive home was that righteousness could never come from keeping the Law but by adhering and living under the “new” Kingdom of God—by pursuing a union with God. And that Jesus exemplified the union living which would become the compelling basis why we must follow Jesus in our pursuit of union with God. Jesus lived and would eventually die while being united with God. In our pursuit of union with God, this sermon then is about Jesus laying the blueprint for us to follow him. It is not only what Jesus lived for but also how Jesus lived it, thus a creative blueprint of how we ought to live. To circle back to the word, righteousness, righteousness comes from Jesus alone as he was the fulfillment of the Law. To loosely quote Dallas Willard in his magnum opus, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God, the Law is not the source of righteousness, but only the course to righteousness.

In other words, Jesus warns against keeping the Law for the sake of keeping the Law. He eloquently taught and went on a great length that it can never be done. Instead, Jesus as a master teacher laid out a revolutionary shift in perspective that we must become the kind of person (that takes righteousness, “true inner goodness,” seriously) who wants to keep the Law. This inner transformation can only come from pursuing a union with God through Jesus Christ in our everyday life.

The humanity side of Jesus appeals to me so profoundly and deeply that I am compelled to imitate following Jesus’ human journey. This revelation and vision of doing life inspires me to embrace my humanity and how to do life. I tell myself today and this year that I dare not lose sight of that. This incarnated Jesus understands my human journey with all its warp and woof of life. Jesus “stood-under” the unfailing love and grace of God as a human so he understands my human journey. My “humanness” is what I have and thus where I can begin. While firmly rooted in humanity, my humanity will be fully realized as I pursue union with the Divine. The divine spark that is in me comes to life when I am in touch with the Divine, unlocking further my humanity and deepening my spirituality to say, “Christ in me and I in Christ!”