"Seek and You Will Find" -- What?

There are two ways to approach the Sermon on the Mount. One is proudly, believing that the Sermon is simply a list of exalted, though humanly attainable, moral precepts. Some who hold this view have said that the Sermon on the Mount is the only really necessary part of Scripture, the rest can be discarded, and people just need to give moral adherence to the Sermon. They claim to love it because it is from Christ and thus is not cluttered with Paul's overbearing theology as in his letters. This view holds that, with some moral education and some discipline, the world can be revolutionized. This perspective, dominated by a fleshly, prideful presumption about the goodness of man and an amazingly shallow view of the Sermon on the Mount, always brings failure.

The other, dare I say correct, view, approaches the Sermon on the Mount humbly, with a deep sense of the need for God's grace. Far from finding the Sermon untheological, those who hold this view see that the teachings of the Sermon are amazingly theological and profoundly requiring. In fact, they require perfection, as Jesus Himself states after its first great movement: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" [Matthew 5:48]. Those holding this view understand the first Beatitude though moralists do not. They know it teaches that poverty of spirit, a sense of moral bankruptcy, and the utter realization that one cannot live the Sermon by oneself, is the key to living the Sermon at all. Thus they approach God as beggars and receive grace to do the impossible -- and they succeed!

In Matthew 7:7-11, Jesus describes the way men and women pray who understand just what the Sermon is all about. His instructions in this text cannot be lifted from their context, though we have seen this abused many times. "The Bible says, 'Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.' Therefore, all we have to do is ask for it with faith and persistence, and we will get it. 'You do not have have because you do not ask' [James 4:2]. So go for it! Name it, claim it!" This view sees God as little more than a celestial Coke machine or, worse yet, a celestial slot machine. Pull the handle enough times in prayer and you will get what you want!

Such thinking is so profoundly wrong its hard to see how its proponents can be so misguided. Isolating this text from its setting in the Sermon on the Mount can, in some cases, be deadly to one's actual faith. The broad context of the Sermon sets down the surpassing righteousness, humility, sincerity, purity and love expected of those who are members of the kingdom of God. These virtues are beyond human attainment apart from God's Spirit and His grace. The broad context only serves to underscore our profound need. In the immediately preceding six verses, Jesus related to us the danger of condemning other people as if we were their judges. He also told us to remove the plank from our eye before we attempt to remove a speck from the eye of another. His actual warning, "For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" [v. 2] should be terrifying. Who is adequate for such things? How can we live up to such a high standard? We need help and grace, but from where? Jesus answers, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" [v. 7].

Thus this famous text is not carte blanche for our material desires, but rather, it tells us how to pray for the character of the kingdom in our own lives. It shows us how to pray the Lord's Prayer. It teaches us to pray that our morals and ethics will be like Christ's. In a word, Jesus teaches us how to pray for our spiritual lives. Just think what would happen if we prayed for these things for ourselves and our brothers and sisters as intensely as we pray for our physical needs. The church would virtually explode because a far greater proportion of its people would be living kingdom lives. Our pulpits would be filled with preachers of power. The mission field would shrink as thousands more poured out into the harvest -- with greater power. Is this what we want most? If so, He's told us what to do.