THE CORE TEACHINGS OF JESUS - FROM "THE SERMONS"

Stan Ousley, Jr.

© Symphony of Love Ministries
Santa Fe, NM
Introduction:
This brief study presents the salient teachings of Jesus based on the two
"sermons" of Jesus as presented in the books by Matthew and Luke. The
focus of this essay is on major teachings attributed to Jesus in his sermons,
rather than a detailed analysis of whether Jesus stated them exactly as
recorded. This writer includes some references to the "Lexical Aids To The
New Testament" section of the KJV translation edited by Spiros Zodhiates
and issued as The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible - King James Version
(Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1991 ISBN 0-89957-657-5). Readers
and students are invited to utilize the recently issued New Revised Standard
Version (NRSV) and the New Living Translation (NLT), both contemporary
gender-inclusive translations done by academic Bible scholars. The NRSV
is a more "theologically liberal" version, and the NLT is a more evangelical
Christian scholarly translation. Both the NRSV and NLT translations are
favorably reviewed by Philip W. Comfort, Ph.D., in his book Essential Guide
to Bible Versions (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 2000 ISBN
0-8423-3484-X). In this essay, I use the KJV translation.
In his book The Sermon on the Mount: The Key to Success in Life, the
famous Divine Science minister Emmet Fox wrote: "The first thing we have
to realize is a fact of fundamental importance, because it means breaking
away from all the ordinary prepossessions of orthodoxy. The plain fact is
that Jesus taught no theology whatsoever. His teaching is entirely spiritual
or metaphysical. Historical Christianity, unfortunately, has largely concerned
itself with theological and doctrinal questions which, strange to say, have no
part whatever in the Gospel teaching." He adds that: "It will startle many
good people to learn that all the doctrines and theologies of the churches
are human inventions built up by their authors out of their own mentalities,
and foisted upon the Bible from the outside, but such is the case."
Furthermore, Fox asserts that "Jesus has been sadly misunderstood and
misrepresented in other directions too. For instance, there is no warrant
whatever in his teaching for the setting up of any form of Ecclesiasticism, of
any hierarchy of officials or system or ritual. He did not authorize any such
thing, and, in fact, the whole tone of his mentality is definitely anti-
ecclesiastical. All through his public life he was at war with the ecclesiastics
and other religious officials of his own country."
The Sermon on the Mount According to Matthew with References to Luke:
The de-constructionist scholars question the validity of the sermon accounts
because of different locations (a "mount" in Matthew and a "plain" in Luke)
and different presentations of what Jesus said. Perhaps Jesus had a "core
message" he presented to different audiences in different places. It is quite
possible that Matthew's version is an "expanded" sermon intended to
present a more detailed rendition of what Jesus actually taught over time. It
is therefore very useful as a "summary" of his core teachings. It is more
profitable to focus on the essence of the teachings than to quibble over the
liberal theologians' academic trivia that de-focuses us from the teachings.
The teaching begins in the fifth chapter of Matthew's account with The
Beatitudes. The word "blessed" in the anglicized Greek makarios can mean
"to be fully satisfied." Zodhiates (NT lexicon, p. 1735) observes that
"Aristotle contrasts makarios to endees, the needy one. Makarios is the one
who is in the world yet independent of the world; his satisfaction comes from
God and not from favorable circumstances." Zodhiates' point is well taken,
since Jesus is juxtaposing how certain conditions are valued. The poor,
those who mourn, the meek and the hungry, are not usually considered to
be "blessed." We would consider them to be "needy" and worthy of pity.
Just what did Jesus mean in his use of the word poor (or ptochos in the
Greek)? Zodhiates (NT lexicon, p. 4434) contrasts two Greek words for poor
people: ptochos and penes. "The penes may be poor but he earns his bread
by daily labor. The ptochos is so poor that he can only obtain his living by
begging. The penes has nothing superfluous, while the ptochos has nothing
at all." So Jesus is again presenting a deeper meaning: not just "the poor"
are blessed, but those who might be described as "destitute beggars" who
are "empty" (in ego), or with no self-worth. Likewise, Jesus taught that the
one who has nothing will (be in a position to) gain everything. In Matthew's
version, it is "the poor in spirit" who are blessed. Writing from an evangelical
Christian perspective, Zodhiates states that "The first step toward
blessedness is a realization of one's own spiritual helplessness"
(Commentary in Zodhiates' KJV edition, op. cit., p. 1181). Yet Jesus also
said "but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works" (John 14: 10).
From a New Thought and Divine Metaphysics perspective, we could
interpret this to mean that when we empty our ego of its preconceived ideas
of Spirit-God, we then become "poor in spirit" and we can receive the
"Kingdom of Heaven." Indeed, Luke's version simply states that "Blessed be
ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." In his classic New Thought book
The Sermon on the Mount: The Key to Success in Life, the famous Divine
Science minister Emmet Fox writes: "To be poor in spirit means to have
emptied yourself of all desire to exercise personal self-will, and, what is just
as important, to have renounced all preconceived opinions in the
wholehearted search for God."
Jesus is establishing a base attitude or attitudinal state that is foundational
to understanding all the rest of his teachings. It is a core attitude of emptying
the ego and divesting intellect of worldly knowledge and values, giving up
attempts to inflate our ego-level self-worth or assuming that we, ourselves,
can "do the work," and then becoming receptive to receiving our spiritual
good. In education theory, this attitude is a prerequisite for our "readiness to
learn." In a practical sense, if we do not first see a need, we do not seek to
satisfy the need. The need is not material, as Jesus makes clear in Matthew
6: 32-33. The "need" is spiritual. One must be "poor in spirit," not necessarily
poor in things of the world. But one must also know that one is "poor in
spirit" and then be willing to seek the spiritual blessing that ensues from the
"empty" state of owning nothing in the way of dogma or worldly beliefs, and
willingly being poor, in ego. Jesus said "But seek ye first the kingdom of
God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you"
(Matthew 6: 33).
So we might also see that an extension in a contemporary context can be:
Blessed are those who are poor in the spirit of dogmatic religion or outer
Christian religiosity, for they are in a better position to receive the fullness of
Christ! Blessed are those deemed poor by the value system of the
institutional church, the poor in churchly status, for they can receive the
riches of Jesus' teachings free from theological dogma. Nona Brooks and
her sister Fannie James were likewise "poor in spirit" and religious status
but ready to become blessed in realization of Truth when they felt they had
to leave the Presbyterian Church in Pueblo, Colorado! Many "seekers" are
thirsting after righteousness in religion, as they were in Jesus' day.
Also "blessed" are they that mourn, the meek, and those who hunger and
thirst after righteousness. The Greek word pentheo refers to inner sadness
(NT lexicon, p. 1748). The reference is to those seekers who want
"something more" and "something more spiritually satisfying" in life. They
want righteousness. (Jesus' teaching also had social and political and
economic implications, of course.) Dikaiosune can mean "conformity with
the claims of higher authority" as well as "justice" (NT lexicon, p. 1706). In
Divine Science, the "claims" are the Divine attributes or qualities of wisdom,
love, knowledge, understanding, power, life and joy - such express the
righteousness (right state of reality) of God.
In Matthew's account, Jesus next states the karmic law of cause and effect.
The merciful will obtain mercy in return; the "pure in heart" shall "see God."
In the Greek, "pure in heart" can mean pure in our thoughts,
understandings, and feelings (NT lexicon, p. 1726). Peacemakers are the
"children of God" --or offspring of the Divine Idea of Harmony in expression.
To be "persecuted for righteousness' sake" is to confront the values and
thinking that constitute the "ways of the world" that often contradict Jesus'
teachings. Those ways elevate materialist values, selfishness, greed, and
"eye for eye and tooth for tooth" thinking. Of the latter concept, Jesus taught
"You have heard it said - but I say." To have a "reward in heaven" is to dwell
in the spiritual consciousness.
Jesus advises followers to be the "salt of the earth" and the "light of the
world." That is, disciples can "season the world" with spiritual enlightenment,
wisdom, and peace. The "light of the world" that Jesus claimed to express is
the Holy Wisdom of Spirit omnipresent in the world. Jesus states that his
teachings "fulfill the law." Biblically, in the Old Testament, God or Spirit-
Elohim is not the same Hebrew word that is translated as "the Lord" or
Yahweh. The Lord is a symbolic term for the karmic law of cause and effect.
It is not "God-Spirit" as "Elohim" but "the Lord" that expels Adam and Eve
from the Edenic garden, and later sends plagues upon those who practiced
idolatry (giving power to a falsehood, elevating the non-spiritual above the
spiritual). Basically, Jesus teaches how to have a "user-friendly" relationship
with the Law, which is "neutral" in its nature and definite in its outcome. In
Matthew 5: 20, the implication is that the external religious practices of the
Pharisees are of little effect; the Pharisees do not enter the kingdom of
heaven or state of spiritual consciousness. In Divine Metaphysics, we know
"the Pharisee consciousness" can be an inner state of mind, not just an
external practice.
Jesus continues the idea of internal locus of control when he states that
"sin" or separation from the Divine Harmony "begins in the heart" or within.
Metaphysically, "adultery" means "to water down" and contaminate the
Divine Standard. In the Old Testament commandment against adultery, the
(anglicized) Hebrew word na'aph literally means "to apostatize" (from the
Strong's Hebrew and Chaldee dictionary appendix section included in the
Zodhiates Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible, KJV edition, p. 75). Thus, we
may apostatize or adulterate Jesus' teachings by settling upon war or hatred
or dissonance and then attempting to rationalize or justify our spiritual
adultery. The religious wars and conflicts of the ages are perhaps the
ultimate adultery. The apostle Paul wrote that "Love never fails" in First
Corinthians 13: 8; those in John's mystery school declared that "God is love"
as stated in First John 4: 8. This is "the sword" that Jesus' teachings bring to
non-loving practices and thinking. Our "family of ideas" inside us finds the
"sword of truth" brings inner conflict and separation of truth from untruth.
There might be internal as well as outer dissonance and anger. This is why
Jesus said we must establish peace (inner and outer) before approaching
the "altar" within us. But Jesus also said it was a state of anger "without a
cause" that brings judgement. Anti-Jesus pundits claim Jesus taught us
never to be angry, yet he expressed seeming anger towards the Pharisees.
Jesus is not teaching total pacifism, but rather is advocating righteousness.
Yet at the same time, Jesus taught followers to "make friends" with the
adversary. In a metaphysical context, the "adversary" that keeps us from the
altar of inner harmony and wholeness must not be given our attention or
focus. We don't "struggle against" disease, but affirm health. We don't "fight
to overcome poverty" but redirect our attention to Perfect Provision
(providence) given (through Grace) in Divine Right Order. To "turn the other
cheek" is to turn away from the reports of the world: wars and rumors of
wars, poverty, political and religious conflicts, and in our times, even the
"reports of the fundamentalist Christians," and instead, re-perceive
wholeness. Emmet Fox wrote "Do not try to divorce or amputate the
inharmony, but let it dissolve away of itself under [prayer] treatment." Fox
also stated that "to take a vow" is "to try to seek to fix your belief for
tomorrow while it is yet today." In Religious Science, this can be the
"malpractice" prayer method of "outlining" or dictating or visualizing what
must happen, how it must happen, when it must happen, and the only way it
is to happen.
Jesus stressed that we are to love our enemies. "But I say unto you which
hear, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, Bless them that
curse you and pray for them that despitefully use you." (Luke 6: 27-28, KJV)
In keeping with his overall teachings on love, the Greek word agape is used,
which indicates a "benevolent" and "unselfish" love (NT lexicon, p. 1680). In
the omnipresence of Spirit, there is no enemy. If all is an expression of the
One Spirit, there cannot be a separation of Cause, but only differences in
Effect. To judge the effect is to judge the Cause behind all effects, creating
division. Spirit, being One Omnipresence, cannot compare or contrast itself
with itself. Hence, Jesus taught people to "judge not," and noted that "a
house [mind] divided against itself cannot stand." At a practical level, A
Course in Miracles teaching is that there is only love and fear. To react to
another's fear in any way other than a loving way is to empower the fear and
respond fearfully to it. Franklin Roosevelt's truism "there is nothing to fear
but fear itself" has practical applications. The KJV translation of Paul's
assertion that "love never fails" is charity, as compassion, never fails. This
provides a nuance of understanding regarding Jesus' teaching on the
primacy of agape love. We are to be a charitable and compassionate
people.
Jesus' teachings on almsgiving, prayer, and fasting are in direct contrast to
the practices of the Pharisees and the "Christian" religionists through the
ages, who practice "religiosity" more than spirituality. "They have their
reward." Jesus says "do not sound a trumpet before thee." The Lord's
Prayer in Matthew 6: 9-13, perhaps modified by later "church fathers," can
be interpreted metaphysically. The term "Father in heaven" is closer to the
Greek word theos than to the literal pater, and can mean "disposers
(theteres, placers) and formers of all things" (NT lexicon, p. 1722). The use
of the term "Father" as contrasted to terms for "God" in the first chapter of
the Gospel of John, emphasizes Jesus' teaching that "God" was as a father
rather than a judge or one who punishes. Heaven is the abode of the Divine
Ideas. We "hallow" or honor its "name" or essence and characteristics.
"Thy kingdom come" refers to the unfolding in expression of the Divine
Consciousness, through its creation. "Thy will be done" indicates "God" is
First Cause. In Religious Science teaching, humankind has "volition" but can
only Spirit can express will. "On earth as it is in heaven" is interpreted to
mean that the out-picturing in form of The Formless (to use Taoist images,
or "the uncarved block" that becomes "the ten thousand things") emanates
through Spirit as expression in form or substance. "Give us this day" refers
to the perfect provision. Forgiveness, a central attitude in all of Jesus'
teachings, and one of his most valued attitudes of compassion along with
non-judgement, is the "flip side" of provision - Providence requires Grace
and Grace is predicated upon Love. We are "led into temptation" when we
uphold what older New Thought termed the "race consciousness" or the
"collective belief system" of the world with its "eye for eye, tooth for tooth"
thinking. In New Thought, "evil" is not a reality but a condition, just as illness
is the absence of the reality of health, or hate a fear response in the
absence of love.
Our treasures are not "upon earth" but "in Heaven." True satisfaction and
joyful fulfillment do not depend on outer phenomena or possessions. Again,
Jesus teaches an "internal locus of control." In Matthew 6: 22-23, Jesus
teaches the importance of perceiving in an enlightened way. Is the glass half
full or half empty? Our "whole body" of thoughts responds to our
perceptions. "The single eye" is what can be termed focusing on the IN-
visible dimensions: love and peace and charity and patience or inner
invisible realities of an eternal nature that supercede the conditions of life
around us.
Since we "cannot serve two masters," we are to treasure the eternal spiritual
values and inherent qualities, defined in Divine Science as love, wisdom,
knowledge, understanding, power, life, and joy. What follows in the "sermon"
as reported in Matthew are what might be called "keys to kingdom living"
and inner peace. In Matthew 6: 24-34, we are informed that there is nothing
to worry about or seek from without. Thoughts and affirmations are
important, but to think that a "spiritual mind treatment" is an end and not a
means to an end is idolatry. Jesus said "Which of you by taking thought can
add one cubit unto his stature?" Instead, the Kingdom "formula" is "take no
thought" and "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness
[justice, love and harmony], and all these things shall be added unto you."
"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
The "key" is to "Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Matthew 7:1). We can get
distracted, especially at the ego level, in judgements and comparison
thoughts that lead to jealousy or envy or greed or selfishness. But, Jesus
stresses, "it is the Father's good pleasure" to give us the kingdom, which is
found "within" us. The "law and the prophets" can be summed up in "The
Golden Rule" found in many of the world religions. "Therefore all things
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for
this is the law and the prophets" (Matthew 7: 12, KJV).
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and the door
shall be opened unto you." In Matthew 7: 15-20, we learn that "behavior and
belief" are interrelated, or in New Thought interpretation, the "thoughts and
actions" determine our situations and opportunities. "Wherefore by their
fruits ye shall know them." Jesus did not seek adulation or worship, and
stated that "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven." But if our priority is right - not worship but practice; not outer
profession but inner conviction - we then can establish a basis for "success
in life" on a rock, a firm foundation. "Whosoever heareth these sayings of
mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house
upon a rock."
Jesus was a universal spiritual teacher, not a religionist. That is why, wrote
Matthew, "And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the
people were astonished at his doctrine. For he taught them as one having
authority, and not as their scribes [religious professionals]." Of course, there
have been centuries in history when a strong external social-political entity
such as the institutional church was necessary to preserve the teachings,
while in many ways not observing them or obscuring them in rituals and
dogmas. We would say it was "Divine Right Order." But the time has come
in our evolution in consciousness, as a New World Order is upon us, to
"redeem" Jesus from theology. This can take three forms of expression. One
form is that articulated by the Catholic theologian Karl Rahner: it is permitted
in our age to be "the anonymous Christian" who does not profess a religion,
even Christianity, but practices and applies the teachings. A second aspect
is to try to establish another institutional "Reformation," as some liberal
Christians such as Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong are doing. The
theological content of "church as usual" must be modified to proclaim a
universal Jesus and not a mythical interpretation of Jesus as the "founder"
of a specific religion or church. Third, the teaching and healing ministry of
Jesus can be applied in practical non-religious but openly spiritual ways.
New Thought pioneers began a process of "redeeming Jesus" apart from
the church. Thus, Fannie James wrote in Truth And Health: "Some object to
this [Divine] Science teaching because it has not come through the church.
Our bishops and great religious teachers should be the first to receive the
light of a new truth" they say. Has it ever been so? Has not every reform
come from outside of the church? Has not the church feared to entertain the
idea of progress in religious thought? When, occasionally, a minister does
see and express some new discovery he is usually ejected from the church."
(p. 16)
The "new discovery" is simply that Jesus is for everyone, not just for
"Christians" or those "religious" in the ways of the world. His healing ministry
was "scientific" and not religion-specific. (See our E-booklet "An Analysis of
the Healing Ministry of Jesus.") Likewise, his teachings are universal and
can be practiced by all of humankind, regardless of whether or not one calls
Jesus "Lord, Lord!"
REDEEMING JOHN 3: 16 and JOHN 14: 6:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Using the "Lexical Aids to the New Testament" by Spiros Zodhiates found in
The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible, we can reinterpret and "redeem" this
statement attributed to Jesus and used by evangelicals to "convert" people.
"God" or theos in the Greek, came from a verb theo, meaning "to place" and
was adopted in the NT "as the name of the true God" (NT lexicon, p. 1722).
Zodhiates writes that "The heathen thought the gods were disposers
(theateres, placers) and formers of all things." In New Thought, "God" is a
Principle, and as Spirit, it expresses itself (disposes or distributes itself)
through creation as the Omnipresence. The Holy Spirit, or what Ernest
Holmes in Religious Science called "The Thing Itself," a principle and not a
person, must "love" creation because it IS creation. "The only begotten Son"
is its Divine Idea, the archetypal human, the Christ Consciousness, in
expression. In the Greek, only begotten or monogenes, refers to "only" and
"to make" and can be interpreted to mean "the only one of the family" and
designated as "the only One of the same stock in the relationship of the Son
to the Father" (NT lexicon, p. 3439). Since "God is a Spirit" (John 4: 24), the
relationship is spiritual - "only begotten" in the Spirit. Son in the Greek is
hulos, which is "distinguished from child" and indicates "those who show
maturity acting as sons" in a context that "gives evidence of the dignity of
one's relationship and likeness to God's character" (NT lexicon, p. 1764).
The word for believe, pisteuo, can be used in the sense of indicating "a
mental persuasion" (NT lexicon, p. 1749). And while orthodoxy focuses
belief on the persona of Jesus, belief can also be in the efficacy and spiritual
validity of Jesus' teachings and the validity of the universal healing practices
he used, described in the booklet "An Analysis of the Healing Ministry of
Jesus." Following the "only begotten" of Spirit teachings presented by Jesus
keeps us from perishing. The Greek apollumi can refer to either temporal or
eternal destruction (NT lexicon, p. 1692). Everlasting life refers to aionios or
"constant, abiding, eternal" and zoe, the "principle of life" rather than bios,
physical life. The "promise" has always been spiritual life, not physical life
(NT lexicon: pages 1684 and 1720). (See I. Corinthians 15: 42 & 44.)
Another "evangelization verse" is John 14: 6. "The way, the truth, and the
life" in Greek can be translated as "path" or "a method or manner of
obtaining" for the way; "the unveiled reality" and "the veritable essence of
matter" for the truth; and life again is zoe -- "the principle of life in the spirit
and soul" (NT lexicon, pages 1741, 1685, and 1720). When Jesus said no
one could "come to the Father" except through him, we interpret that to
mean through his teachings, example, and methods. "In his name" and "by
[or through] me" means in the characteristics or consciousness of Jesus.
In her text Truth And Health, Fannie James defines "salvation" as "A return
to true consciousness that destroys all false conceptions of life. Being saved
from erroneous opinions and beliefs. Understanding is the only salvation
and Jesus' whole life was spent in opening man's thought to understanding.
He said the truth shall make you free." (p. 174) Mrs. James also writes that
"Christ is the Universal Man [Human]." "Jesus never drew the least
distinction between his power and possibility and that of others; the Christ
[consciousness] was his power. He taught that there was but one good; he
spoke always of the one power and declared that it was no more his than
another's; he revealed one father, one source; My Father and your Father,
he said."