That Mountainous Sermon

Just finished reading Matthew 5. You know the chapter, right? The first part of the sermon on the mount. The part of this chapter that gets me starts at verse 21. You know this is where Jesus takes the law that we (people) were unable to keep and then steps it up another level...or 7 (since that's the number of levels God would most likely step something up...that or 40). 

Jesus says "whoever is angry with his brother is liable to judgement". What? Seriously? At this point people are likely to say "but there's grace....God knows we can't live up to that standard. Whew...thank goodness for grace". 

And then I wonder...is that really how God wants us to think about the words of Jesus? Is grace supposed to be a scapegoat for not really trying very hard? Or was he serious about making our standards so high that we'd seem somewhat off kilter to try and achieve them? I tend to think off kilter is where God wants us to be. At least, off of the kilter this messed up world and society is on. I'm pretty sure this is what Paul meant when he called us to be like the aliens and strangers talked about in Hebrews 11. People who, by faith, did the impossible and brought great glory to God. I think sometimes we look on those people and think "but those are the superheros of the faith...I can't be like them". Again I wonder if that's really how God means for us to read those stories or whether they are there to encourage and inspire us to trust that God can do in us the seemingly impossible to bring glory unto himself. 

God's plan for us is to call us to a radically different, off kilter standard and to glorify himself through aliens. It's true, only by grace may we enter into all he has for us, but let's not make grace a scapegoat for living less radically than God means and diminishing the role we can play in bringing glory to his name by taking the easy way out.