Christianity Without Effort

Our time poses a question with special keenness: what price must Christians pay for their faith?

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching, Vol.2 - The Sermon on the Mount, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

This post is taken from the conclusion of Metropolitan Hilarion’s book on the Sermon on the Mount.  Every quote is from Metropolitan Hilarion.

His question raises another, for which I must reference the aforementioned Sermon:

Matthew 5: 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

This is the last in the list of Beatitudes.  Beatitudo: happiness.  Does this sound like happiness?  It is, according to Jesus.

If we aren’t being persecuted for righteousness’ sake, are we actually living as Christians?  I know that this doesn’t necessarily flow logically from Jesus’ statement; just wondering.

Metropolitan Hilarion looks at nineteenth-century German theologians who distanced historical Christianity from the “historical Jesus.” 

In this context, even the absolute value of what Jesus said and taught was called into question.

By casting aside what Jesus taught, dismantling his moral teaching was pretty easy.  This led to a Christianity without effort or labor.  In the prosperity of the West, the idea of a Christianity through the narrow gate, a difficult Christianity, was forgotten.  The persecutions and struggles from centuries before were a distant memory.

The twentieth century introduced serious correctives to the idea that the history of persecutions could not repeat itself.

In Turkey, against the Armenians, Assyrians, and other Christian communities; executions, massacres, mass deportations.  In Russia, the October Revolution; repression of monks, clergy, and lay people – the church driven to almost total ruin, with bishops and priests shot.

In Hitler’s Germany and the Spanish Republic of the 1930s, varying degrees of persecution.  The Catholic Church in Mexico in the 1920s – this persecution might have gone almost unnoticed if not for the novel The Power and the Glory (and, much later, the movie For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada). 

The century presented many cases of persecution of Christians for being Christian.  Millions died in obscurity.  In the twenty-first century, this continues, in the Middle East (greatly driven by actions and destabilizations of the supposedly Christian United States): Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Nigeria, etc.  The list is extensive, as are the deaths and displacements. 

It is sufficient to say that because of the destabilizations, Christian minorities that were once reasonably protected by the local government no longer enjoyed such protections.  Of course, in many of these places, the Muslim population suffered equally.  One can say that any group that holds to traditional values is a target.

Yes, one can say this everywhere.  There are the purposeful and well-thought-out policies for weakening Christian Churches and Christian values in North America and Western Europe.  One can only describe this as deliberate – persecution in a different form, perhaps, but persecution nonetheless.  Although, in this case, much of the church has joined in the parade on the side of the persecutors.

The end result of religion being deemed a strictly private matter is that an absolute system of ethical values by which we are all bound does not exist.  The notion of sin, therefore, is outdated, because everything is permissible. 

It is possible, very conditionally, to divide all existing versions of Christianity into two large groups: traditional and liberal.  The chasm that exists does not so much divide Orthodox and Catholics, or Catholics and Protestants, as much as “traditionalists” and “liberals.”

I have felt this for some time.  No need to go through the examples that illustrate this.  Much of the church has chosen to be “inclusive” enough to recognize and even bless every deviation from God’s moral standard – call it deviations from a natural law ethic.

But not a single church community has the right to lower the high standard that Jesus set in the Sermon on the Mount, in his parables, and in his discourses on moral topics. … The task of a church community is to be the guardian and interpreter of Jesus’ teaching, to be the space in which it is brought to life.

Interesting idea: the church should be a safe space for Jesus.  This is really a powerful statement by Metropolitan Hilarion, yet one that should be so obvious.

To be a Christian means to follow Jesus’ teaching everywhere and always…

Especially in and by the church.

Conclusion

Rejection of being in this world presupposes a readiness to swim against the current.  This always requires spiritual valor, and in a situation of direct persecution, it requires martyrdom.

Jesus walked this path, as did His disciples and countless millions of martyrs.  He has not shown us another way.  Which brings me back to my earlier question: If we aren’t being persecuted for righteousness’ sake, are we actually living as Christians? 

Epilogue

This concludes my work on the Sermon on the Mount through the work of these authors.  It has been one of the most fruitful endeavors I have taken on.  I thank those of you who encouraged me to do this publicly, as it drove me to be more deliberate in my understanding. 

At some point, I may come back to it with further reflections.