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This Sunday provides us a with a long section of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, probably his most famous extended set of teachings. This section of Matthew’s Gospel is most well-known for the eight Beatitudes with which the sermon begins, but its other teachings, such as “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” are hardly less familiar.

For those who think of Christ as the great moral philosopher, as the holy man who teaches a religion primarily about acting well, these passages are of the utmost importance and reveal a way of life that is inspiringly exacting in the responsibility it demands. For those who consider the building of virtue to be the heart of Christianity, Christ’s words requiring absolute renunciation of hatred and disdain, lust, infidelity and dishonesty display that beautiful sinlessness required for human society to live worthily and peacefully; “be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.”

And it is true, Christ here does lay out for his followers, and indeed for all humanity, a high and serious calling to moral goodness. He is clear in his teaching and straightforward about the consequences of failure. Anger at or scorn for a brother, physical desire for a person to whom one is not married, divorce and remarriage, and any attempt to prove oneself beyond simple speech, all carry with them the punishment of “fiery Gehenna.” These are not what some might consider the rigid and retrograde strictures of an ancient and ossified institution seeking to control the private lives of the masses. They are the teachings of Jesus, God himself, spoken openly and directly, and affirmed throughout his public ministry.

Yet if this is the only truth behind the Sermon on the Mount, something would seem out of place. Christ is not merely an exacting moral teacher, engineering a perfect society on earth. Christianity is not primarily about moral goodness or societal change and perfection, as much as the Gospel might indeed require each person to reject sin and build virtue.

In fact, the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount only reveal their real beauty and depth when considered in the context of Christ’s whole person and ministry. The Lord Jesus who demands this high standard himself bears the guilt and weight of our failures to meet it. The Lord Jesus who calls us to avoid even the slightest deviations from perfection does not command us to achieve perfection on our own, but dwells and acts in us by grace, and makes possible the sort of life that is otherwise impossible. And these exacting moral teachings are not primarily about Jesus’ desire to create a perfect society on earth — that is impossible here in time anyways — but are rather an expression of his own holiness and perfect goodness. In his teachings, Christ gives us a portrait of himself. He is the one who holds no hatred, disordered anger or disdain for even the most despicable and wicked sinner. He is the one who looks at each person as they are, for their own sake. He is the one who is always faithful. His word is total truth.

Jesus calls us to grow into the measure and shape of his own life, yes. He who is perfectly holy does not allow that we should sin in the slightest, yes. But he himself makes it possible for us poor sinners and lifts us up in mercy if we do fail. Above all we must remember that Christ draws us into this adventure of growing into perfection because he has loved us and is offering us a share in his own supernatural, heavenly, eternal life with the Father in the Holy Spirit.