Desiring the Kingdom (Part 2)

Last week we talked about desire and how we aren't so much rational creatures as desiring creatures.  When Jesus gives his sermon on the mount, he is imitating Moses the Law-Giver, showing women, men, and children what life with God is supposed to look like.  So wild are his expectations that even the disciples later in Matthew's Gospel will respond with doubts and incredulity.  Jesus' response: absolutely, you cannot white-knuckle this radical new life; on your own strength you will fail.  But with God's grace (his amazing grace) there is a new life, a resurrection life, that will satisfy.  And this new life isn't simply what we do with our hands out in the world, or think in our minds, it is a reorientation and reformation of our hearts, the most intimate desires we have.  That is the power of God's grace to change us and make us his new creation.