Matthew 5-7 (cont.) (again)

In his commentary on Matthew, Dale Bruner writes about how Dispensationalists have blunted the sharply radical call of the Sermon on the Mount by claiming that the ethic described there is only applicable to a future Dispensation (or a future time) in which Christ returns and establishes his Kingdom. In other words, the Sermon on the Mount is not practical for living in this current Dispensation, so we are not expected to behave according to the impractical demands to love our enemies, do good to those who persecute us, turn the other cheek, forgive as we are forgiven, etc.

There is, however, another way of approaching the Sermon. Here's Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from The Cost of Discipleship:

"Humanly speaking, it is possible to understand the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways. But Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience—not intrepreting or applying it, but doing and obeying it. That is the only way to hear his words. He does not mean for us to discuss it as an ideal. He really means for us to get on with it."

 And here's Soren Kierkegaard, from I don't know where:

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.

What then are we to do? Spend some dreadful time alone with the New Testament this Lenten Season. Then get on with it.