This is the 19th sermon I have preached from Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. Leave it to a preacher to turn Jesus' one sermon over 19 sermons! Actually, this is not unlike what the Twelve Disciples would have done. Jesus preached this Sermon on the Mount as an overview of His core teachings. Then, the Twelve would have gone town to town to share His lessons, explandning upon them much ass I have in this series.
The sermon today is based on just one verse. And I bet it is one most of you have
memorized. Can you guess it?
Matthew 7:12
12 “Do to others whatever you
would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the
law and the prophets.
Can you think of a time when someone treated you kindly and it left a lasting impression upon you? I remember many. One time when I was about 12 years old, my karate instructor started coming to pick me up for classes a few times each week. My mom was a single mom with 4 kids and couldn't always get me to class. So Jeff Carmichael picked me up every week. I felt bad because I knew it was extra time and gas for him to come get me. I offered to pay for his gas and Jeff said, "No. Don't pay me. One day you will have a chance to help someone else. Whenever you do, you'll be paying me back." I've always remembered that and tried to live it out.
Do unto others as
you would have them do unto you. It’s so
simple, many are taught the golden rule in Kindergarten. It’s so simple, almost every world religion
teaches some form of “The Golden Rule”.
Judaism 16th
century BC: “What
is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow-man. This is the entire Law, all
the rest is commentary.” (Talmud, Shabbat 3id)
Hinduism 15th century BC: “This is the sum of
duty. Do not unto others that which would cause you pain if done to you.” (Mahabharata 5, 1517)
Buddhism 6th century BC: “Whatever is
disagreeable to yourself, do not do unto others.” (The Buddha, Udana-Varga 5.18)
Islam 7th Century AD: “None of you will
believe until you love for your brother what you love for yourself.” (Hadith 13, The Forty Hadith of Imam Nawawi)
It would seem
the concept of treating other people with the respect, dignity, and kindness
you would want for yourself is a universal law for all humans everywhere. But if that’s true, it raises some questions.
First of all: Why should we treat people the way we want to be treated? For what reason? There have been many people throughout history who have rejected the Golden Rule in favor of something we could call The Law of the Jungle where only the strong survive and the weak are culled from the heard. Why should we value and treat weak, less talented, less beautiful, less intelligent people with the same dignity and respect we want? And what about people who act like animals and do despicable things? Why shouldn’t we treat them like animals since they act like animals?
There may be
some self-serving reasons to treat others well.
It could earn you a better reputation or open opportunities or encourage
others to treat you well. If you scratch someone else's back they may scratch yours. So, it might
benefit you to do good unto others. The
only problem with these motivations is sometimes it will not benefit you. What then?
Does that give you an excuse to break the Golden Rule? Not according to Jesus and the Holy Scripture.
The Bible gives a reason to follow the Golden Rule that’s outside humanity all together and firmly grounded in the divine nature of God. Genesis 1:27 says “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” We are created in God’s image. Every human being is a sacred, image of God. And therefore, every person should be treated with dignity and respect—the way you would treat a priceless work of art.
When we treat
people poorly, it's a denial of the divine image within them. This kind of behavior doesn't just harm the
person on the receiving end; it also impacts our relationship with God. It's a
form of disrespect to what God has created and valued. It reduces our interactions to something less
than human. We become less than
human. When we treat others like
animals, we become animals ourselves. When we treat any part of creation without respect for the Creator who made it, we degrade ourselves.
Jesus said, “Do to others whatever you
would like them to do to you.” They bear the sacred image of God just like you do. God loves people. He loves
everyone. And if we love God, we should
love what He loves. We can’t see God, but we can see people.
How can we say we love God (when we can’t even see Him) if we don’t love
the people God made (that we can clearly see)?
One of the ways we express our love to God is by loving the people He
made in His image. (And also by take good care of all His creation.)
That’s not just
something Jesus said. It’s something
Jesus did. He treated everyone with
dignity.
He valued and included children in his ministry—welcoming them in his presence
when adults tried to push them away. He
spent time talking with the Samaritan woman at the well and revealed his true
identity as the Messiah to her. He was
even kind to the thief on the cross who was dying in agony next to him at the
crucifixion—welcoming him into Paradise.
The Golden Rule is so simple and universal. It’s been known by cultures all over the world for over 3000 years. And if people would just follow this simple rule, the world would be a much better place. So why doesn’t everyone just do it?
The answer is summed up in one simple, 3 letter word: SIN.
God created us to love Him and to love each other. But our SIN is we love ourselves more. We are selfish. We want to be in control and do things our way. And when we want something, we are willing to go against God's laws and moral principles and His purposes in order to get what we want.
This SIN is captured in the creation story in Genesis when the Serpent tempted
Eve to breaks God’s command and eat the forbidden fruit. The Serpent promised the fruit would make Eve
like God. And that’s often still the
temptation--that if we bend God's rules a little, we will receive some benefit, some reward, that is better than
what what we have when we obey God. God's way is always the best way, but we think we can do better by cheating the system.
Today is the first Sunday in Lent. Lent is a season of 40 days leading up to Easter. It is a time when Christians refocus their spiritual lives. Some may give up something as a form of self-denial to draw them closer to Christ. Others commit to do something positive to live out their faith more authentically.
Perhaps, for
Lent this year, you could simply make an intentional effort to follow Jesus’
Golden Rule to treat others the way you would like them to treat you (in every
circumstance). I challenge you to do it
as a spiritual practice. Maybe you could
even keep a journal every day.
Prayerfully keep track of the different interactions you had and how you
did or didn’t follow the Golden Rule in different situations.
Closing
Invitation
In closing, I must say
you will always struggle with the Golden Rule until you surrender completely to
God and become a Christian. There will
always be a reason to bend or break it until you finally surrender control of
your life to God. Jesus is Lord. Surrender and let Him be your Lord. Perhaps you would like to do that right now.
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