The local press recently featured a review of a play about the Apostle Paul. The review asked whether Jesus’ celebrated Sermon On The Mount would make any less sense if Jesus Christ had not risen from the dead on Easter Sunday.
Of course the author has a point. Jesus’ extolling poverty of spirit, meekness, purity of heart and the patient endurance of suffering would always remain noble aspirations regardless of the outcome of Jesus’ earthly life. Jesus’ admonition to love one’s enemies and to do good to those who persecute others would remain high-minded advice no matter what further eventualities befell Jesus. And the “Our Father” would remain the paradigm prayer whether Jesus tragically died and triumphantly rose or whether he died peacefully in old age. So yes, the Sermon On The Mount and the other insightful sayings of Jesus – “Render to Caesar...; What God has joined together... Who was the neighbor...” and others – remain perennially valid counsels for every generation.
However, Jesus Christ did not come into this world simply to offer guidance and instruction. Probably the vast majority of Jesus’ moral teachings and ethical direction can be readily found in the Old Testament. The two great commandments – “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God…” and “Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself” – are lifted wholly from the Hebrew Scriptures. The Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” – is a universally quoted aphorism promoted just as much by Buddha and Marcus Aurelius as by Christ.
The true legacy of Jesus Christ is not his wisdom but his person. Jesus did not enter this world primarily to teach mankind how to live but rather to offer mankind life itself. The foundation of Christianity is not moral integrity; the foundation of Christianity is a personal, internal relationship with God the Father through his Son Jesus Christ and through the believing community that Christ initiated. Christianity is first and foremost an encounter with God through Christ. From this encounter, genuinely embraced and enduringly appreciated, will issue forth all the good works suggested by the Sermon On The Mount, revealed in Christ’s insightful parables, and demonstrated by his own unfailing example. For the Christian, faith always predominates over works. Belief always underlies activity. The prayer, the fasting, the almsgiving exalted in the Sermon On The Mount, the compassion celebrated in the example of the Good Samaritan, the reconciliation revealed through the Prodigal Son and his forgiving father – these righteous responses would prove hollow and shallow were they not founded on a personal, interior appreciation of the divine presence made available though Christ and his church.
The calling forth of Lazarus from the grave which forms this coming Sunday’s lengthy Gospel passage is a celebration of the wonderful gift of resurrected life which Jesus himself will experience on Easter and which he will share with believers on Pentecost and thereafter. Jesus informs the bereaved Martha, “I am the Resurrection and the life … whoever is alive and believes in me shall never die at all.” Then he questions the mournful sister, “Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she professes, “I have learned to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, he who is to come into the world.” Martha’s spoken profession of faith in Christ is uttered in the context of her brother’s corporeal return from the grave through Christ. Martha’s interior renewal, her faith, is graphically illustrated by her brother’s bodily renewal, his resurrection.
The resurrection of Lazarus was Jesus’ greatest miracle. Lazarus’ return to life was not only a great cosmic event but it was also great in that it led to the conversion of many Jewish town folk and also the frustration of many religious leaders. Everyone, favorable and unfavorable, sensed that life, a true regeneration, was the very heart of Jesus’ message. The awesome ascent of Lazarus from the tomb to the amazement of the assembled neighbors reveals that the Gospel is first and foremost about renewed life, about interior revitalization, about personal rebirth. The resurrection of Lazarus and the resurrection of Christ himself both testify to the primacy of Christ’s person even over Christian principles. Christianity is first about the Christian life and only then about a Christian lifestyle. The risen Christ must be personally embraced if the teachings of Christ are to be individually effective.
