Watch the teaching related to the post below on our YouTube channel (YouTube.com/CrossWalkNapa). Or listen via your preferred podcast provider ( search CrossWalkNapa). This post is informed by, and references noted are sourced from (unless otherwise noted) Following the Call: Living the Sermon on the Mount Together, which will inform CrossWalkNapa teachings throughout 2025.
Who are the most celebrated people in the United States? Who gets the most attention and accolades? How do we assess such a thing? Perhaps based on who gets the most headlines or endorsements? Or who carries the most sway with public opinion?
I think it is safe to say that the way our culture defines success is evidenced in who and what we celebrate the most. In the business world, that means high profile leaders who led their companies and themselves to great financial success: Elon Musk (Tesla, etc.), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook/Meta), Bill Gates and Paul Allen (Microsoft), Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Tim Cook (Apple), Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway), etc.
We also celebrate athletes at the top of their game, like Stephen Curry, Lebron James, Coco Gauf, Kaitlyn Clark, Jayden Daniels, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Travis Kelce. Kelce and Mahomes have dominated the endorsement realm in recent years – Kelce’s agents said his multi-million-dollar football contract only represents of a fraction of his annual income.
Since we’re talking about Kelce, we must talk about pop stars, which has to include Taylor Swift. She has written songs about every moment of her life which has made her billions of dollars. All these folks are successful in terms of personal performance and income.
In terms of leadership style, from the big screen to politics to media commentators, our culture has elevated “strong and tough” as a key character trait desired. Even though he was twice impeached and convicted of a felony for covering up a story that would have potentially hurt his electability, Donald Trump was re-elected. Why? For a range of reasons, of course, but certainly it had to include that for many people, he is the epitome of success: wealth, power, and fame. In the U.S. cultural framework, Donald Trump is a blessed man. His victory is completely congruent with our culture’s lived and celebrated values. Whatever your political disposition, consider what it means that legal, ethical, and moral issues were trumped by just under 50% of voters to give him the victory.
The above doesn’t tell the whole story, but it cannot be discounted. Because all the above are so prevalent in our culture, it must also be stated that we are kidding ourselves if we don’t admit it’s influence upon us individually. We are in denial if we think otherwise. The broader culture we live within exacts incredible formative pressure on us all. We don’t usually know how much until we are faced with something entirely different, providing contrast. We sometimes need a reference point to know where we stand.
Author and English professor Virginia Stem Owens gave her Freshman students an assignment – write an essay in response to their reading Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. The responses surprised her:
· In my opinion, religion is one big hoax.
· There is an old saying that ‘you shouldn’t believe everything you read’ and it applies in this case.
· It is hard to believe something that was written down thousands of years ago. IN the Bible Adam and Eve were the first two people and if they were then where did black people come from? Also, the Bible says nothing about dinosaurs and I think God would of mentioned them.
· The stuff churches preach is extremely strict and allows for almost no fun without thinking it is a sin or not.
· I did not like the essay ‘Sermon on the Mount.’ It was hard to read and made me feel like I had to be perfect and no one is.
· The things asked in this sermon are absurd. To look at a woman is adultery? That is the most extreme, stupid, un-human statement that I have ever heard.
· Many believe that this sermon should be taken literally. I believe, on the other hand, that, because the scriptures have been interpreted from so many different languages, we should use them as a guide – not law. Another fallback is that certain Beatitudes are irrelevant to current life-styles. Loving your enemies, for instance, is obviously no observed by the majority today.
· In this essay the author explains the doctrines of an era in the past which cannot be brought into the future in the same context. This essay now cannot be taken the same way it was written. It can be used as a guideline for good manners.
Owens didn’t just find it surprising, however. She was also oddly encouraged:
I find it strangely heartening that, except for the young man who found the Sermon on the Mount a guide to good manners, the Bible remains offensive to honest, ignorant ears, just as it was in the first century. For me, that somehow validates its significance. Whereas the scriptures almost lost their characteristically astringent flavor during the past century, the current widespread biblical illiteracy should catapult us into a situation more nearly approximating that of their original, first-century audience. The Bible will no longer be choked by cloying (syrupy-sweet) cultural associations (17).
At the bipartisan 2020 National Prayer Breakfast, Harvard professor Arthur Brooks delivered the keynote address. As reported by the Associated Press on February 6, 2020, in his address he decried a “crisis of contempt and polarization” and urged his listeners to ”love your enemies.” Trump responded directly to Brooks’ remarks, which were based in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, simply saying “I don’t know if I agree with you”, before taking a shot at Mitt Romney for voting against his impeachment acquittal.
This should not be a surprise to anybody, given that Trump has never in his life – until he ran for president – shown any interest in the Christian faith with his attitude or behavior. He represents a very strong sentiment in the United States – one that is at odds with Jesus’ teaching and modeling, yet one that was endorsed by many self-proclaimed Christians.
Author and retreat leader John Dear has written what he calls the anti-Beatitudes that he suggests are quite popular and prevalent in our culture today. He writes:
These anti-Beatitudes undergird the spirituality of violence and war that fueled our culture. If we imagine the opposite of what Jesus teaches, it may help us gain a little more clarity and insight into his teachings. As we ponder the culture’s ‘anti-Beatitudes,’ we realize how profoundly we have bought into the culture of violence, how deeply its false teachings have penetrated our minds and hearts, and how strongly we resist what Jesus has to say (20).
If you are frustrated with me, thinking that I am using my platform to talk about politics, let me reassure you that that is not my goal. I am talking about you and me, because to varying degrees we reflect the culture that has formed us. You may love or hate Donald Trump. He reflects a strong force in our culture. So do you. There is a little Donald Trump in all of us because we have been raised by the same cultural parents. The question is, are we aware of how much we have been influenced, and do we care?
For the most part, I believe that the Beatitudes are not mandates to become poor or mourn. Rather, his words are a healing balm for those who have been told that their suffering is a sign of God’s distance, uncaring, or condemnation. Similarly, our wealth and lack of cause for mourning is not inherently a sign that we are receiving a nod from God. Throughout his ministry, Jesus affirmed God’s love for everyone, especially highlighting the fact for those who have been clearly told otherwise. The vision is that when we discover that everyone is equally loved we might be impelled to live like it, and work for a world where such dignity is afforded all equally and equitably.
Martin Luther King, Jr., growing up in the church his father pastored, was fully aware of this vision and sought to realize it in his time. His understanding of equality for all ran much deeper than our nation’s founding documents that promised it. His was tied to Jesus’ theology which was born from his Jewish tradition. He was so impelled by love that he became compelled to do something about it. Recognizing that while the African American community technically had equal rights, they were not treated equally or equitably, were excluded instead of included, and were a very long way from truly belonging.
King was so impelled and compelled by Love that he put himself at great risk in pursuit of this Jewish, Christian, and American dream. He was roughed up, arrested, jailed, and eventually assassinated because of it. We are a better nation because he shone a light on what was really happening in our country. When he did, a deeper dream was awakened in the United States by a growing number of people. That dream was not rooted in success as wealth, fame, and power, but love for one another. Loving our neighbors as ourselves. Being salt and light. Loving not just our loved ones but even our enemies (which means we treat people we don’t like humanely). These themes are all found in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and are as unsettling today as ever.
Jesus ended his sermon with a cautionary parable for everyone but directed particularly toward the especially religious folk. The story was saying that simply nodding our heads in agreement with Jesus misses the point. We are called to a different way of being in the world that does help us weather the storms of life and does help the world become more filled with shalom. Being is more than thinking. Being gives birth to doing. Our question today is, do we choose to be advised by the foolish wisdom of Jesus and follow him?
I end with a few passages from the Bible. A story about one of Jesus’ followers struggling to shift his paradigm, another passage from Paul reminding us that the Way of Jesus seems ridiculous to us (not just Donald Trump), and finally, words attributed to Jesus’ bother, James, about what following Jesus – living Shalom – looks like.
Jesus warned them to keep it quiet, not to breathe a word of it to anyone. He then began explaining things to them: “It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the elders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and after three days rise up alive.” He said this simply and clearly so they couldn’t miss it.
But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works.”
Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?
“If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I’m leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you’ll be an even greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all the splendor of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels.” – Mark 8:31-38 MSG
The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It’s written, ‘I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I’ll expose so-called experts as shams.’ – 1 Corinthians 1:18-19 MSG
Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish plotting. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.
Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. – James 3:13-18 MSG
How are these passages serving as a reference point for you, helping you see whether you are aligned with the foolish wisdom of Jesus?