Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus

by Jim Wallis

Ethics professor Glen Stassen has a good contrast to the more traditional interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount that he describes as “God’s transforming initiatives.” More than any other commentator, Glen expresses my own view of that sermon: The Sermon on the Mount is not about human striving toward high ideals but about God’s transforming initiative to deliver us from the vicious cycles in which we get stuck. It has a realistic view of our world, characterized by murder, anger, divorce, adultery, lust, deceit, enmity, hypocrisy, false prophets, and houses destined for destruction. It announces that in the midst of such bondage, there is also another force operating: God is also beginning to rule with justice and peace, like mustard seeds beginning to grow or leaven beginning to spread, as Jesus said in Matthew 13:31–33. . . . The Sermon on the Mount describes specific ways we can participate in the new initiatives that God is taking. . . . [T]he sermon does not offer a way of cheap grace, a way of vague passivity. God is taking transforming initiatives, and we are asked to participate in what God is doing, imitating God’s initiatives.3