GOSPEL, FIRST READING & PSALM TRANSCRIPT (Subscribe or Login for Full Transcript):
End of the Sermon on the Mount. I include that just because it's powerful. It shows you that it's not only we who are astonished as we work through the words of the Sermon on the Mount over the course of these last several weeks, but the very first Jewish audience—right? The first listeners, the first people to hear the words of the Sermon on the Mount, according to the Gospel of Matthew, were also astounded. They were astonished at the manner, the mode, and the content of Jesus's teaching, especially at the authority with which He presented His words to them.
OK, so with that said, what's going on in the reading for today? Well, the first passage, the first part of this conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount, involves Jesus emphasizing the necessity of acting on everything that He's just said in the Sermon on the Mount, right? The Sermon on the Mount is a very practical body of teaching. It's filled with some of the most practical, explicit, and concrete moral directives of Jesus anywhere in the Gospels. He's telling you how to pray, how to fast, how to give alms, what to do when someone strikes you on one cheek, how to handle being abused or spoken evil against by others, how to handle betrayal, what to do with impulses toward lustful looks—all kinds of things. Questions of adultery, divorce, remarriage—it's a very, very practical body of teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.
And so Jesus brings it to an end by saying: Don't be fooled into thinking it's enough to simply be astonished by my words, to admire my sermon, to be astounded by it, or, in the wake of it, to confess me to be Lord but not to act on it. He says:
“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Which I've just been giving to you in this Sermon on the Mount. And in order to emphasize this, to drive the point home, He points forward to the Day of Judgment.:
On that day…
Which He always means as the final day, the last day, the Day of Judgment.
many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’
OK, this is a crucial, crucial passage because what it shows is that it's not enough to just confess Jesus as Lord. We also have to act on that confession by following His teachings and obeying His commandments, especially the teachings, commandments, and directives that He gives in the Sermon on the Mount itself.
Now, this is a stark way of emphasizing the necessity of obedience because Jesus points out that there are going to be people on the last day who prophesy in the name of Jesus, who are able to cast out demons in His name, and who can even perform miracles in His name but will not enter the Kingdom of God because they didn't follow His teachings. They didn't do what He told them to do, and instead, they did evil. I don't know about you, but this is a very powerful and sobering passage for me. Because if you're like me—if you're somebody who has never prophesied or cast out demons or performed any miracles—you’re thinking, "Oh, what chance do I have if people who have done these great works won’t make it into the Kingdom of Heaven? What chance do I have to make it in?” And the comforting part of this is that Jesus is telling us: You do have a chance if you just obey me.
In other words, it's not necessary to perform extraordinary wonders like miracles. It's not necessary to be a prophet who's able to foretell the future. It's not necessary to have the power to cast out demons. None of those extraordinary signs and wonders are necessary for anything in the Kingdom. But according to Jesus, what is necessary is obedience. What is necessary is not being an evildoer, not engaging in evil acts, but following Jesus' teaching by doing the will of the Father who is in Heaven, which He's revealing in this Sermon on the Mount. In following the Beatitudes, following His directives about prayer and fasting and almsgiving, about not serving mammon instead of God, about giving to whoever begs from you—through charity toward the poor—all those directives. If you want to follow those directives, then He will not say to you those terrible words that none of us ever wants to hear: "Depart from me, you evildoers.”
Now, in order to illustrate the necessity of doing good works, which is what Jesus is saying here. Or, even more properly, in order to illustrate the necessity of obedience to Jesus’ ethical, moral and spiritual directives, his commandments. He ends the sermon by drawing a contrast between two types of people. A wise man and a foolish man. Now, what is the illustration...
