Jesus Cut the C - - -

What Did Jesus Do?

“You have heard…But I say to you…”
Matthew 5:21-22; 27-28, 32; 33-34; 38-39; 43-44

Manure can be helpful in making crops grow. But the seed of the Word of God does not need a lot of “bs” to bear good fruit. In fact, bs will always have a detrimental effect on the Word. So, when Jesus heard all the bs being preached to Israel he cut the c _ _ _.

You see, the Word of God is perfect. The Word of God doesn’t need anyone to add anything to it. But preachers, going back to ancient Israel, and even beyond, all the way back to the Garden of Eden, have always had to add their bs. Think about it.

The first “preacher” was the serpent. Or didn’t you know that the serpent was the father of hermeneutics? He was the very first to take the Word of God and add a little something to it, to put an interpretation on it that adulterated and corrupted it. Yes, the preaching of the serpent bore fruit, but it was not the fruit of righteousness that comes from the unadorned Word, but rather the fruit of sin and death which always comes when bs is added to the Word. And, ever since that first sermon, there has been a lot more bs preached than the pure Word of God. Why do you think the Father sent the Son? To cut the c _ _ _, and put an end to all the bs.

In fact, Jesus devoted almost the entire first third of the Sermon on the Mount to cleaning the bs out of the ears of Israel. What do you think he was doing with all the “You have heard…but I say…” lessons in Matthew 5? Jesus was getting the bs out of the people’s ears (and minds and hearts), and filling them with the pure Word of God. No spin. No self-justifying, much less any self-serving. Just the bare and complete truth of the Word.

Now, I am not saying my preaching never included any bs. God forgive me, there was probably all too often more bs than truth in what I prepared to preach every Sunday. But, every Sunday before I stepped up to the pulpit to begin my sermon my prayer was that God would keep any bs from coming out of my mouth. And, just in case some c _ _ _ slipped out, I also prayed that God would shield the ears (and minds and hearts) of the congregation, and keep out any bs.

Of course, most of us are already pretty full of bs, which means even when we hear the pure Word of God we starting adding our own c _ _ _ to it. Fortunately, for all of us, Jesus promised to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit, and the Father has been merciful to answer his Son’s request. You see, the Spirit is the Counselor who detects when c _ _ _ is being served up, and he is the Helper who roles up his sleeves and takes a shovel and clears out all the bs that’s in us.

The beautiful Psalm 19 begins by directing our gaze heavenward to behold a bs free declaration of the glory of God, then it goes on to affirm the perfection of God’s Word (vv. 7-11), confess our inability to detect the bs that is in us (v. 12), call upon the Master to not let c _ _ _ rule in his servants (v. 13), and finally asks the Redeemer to make our words and thoughts holy (“acceptable in your sight”, v. 14), which is to say that he cut out all the c _ _ _. We can be sure that Jesus was the very incarnation of this prayer of his ancestor David.

So, here’s the thing, not forgetting what we have heard, we must listen to what Jesus says, and learn what Jesus did. Then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to say and to do what Jesus said and did. And that’s no bs.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4