“To my sense,” Mary Baker Eddy once wrote, “the Sermon on the Mount, read each Sunday without comment and obeyed throughout the week, would be enough for Christian practice. The Word of God is a powerful preacher, and it is not too spiritual to be practical, nor too transcendental to be heard and understood” (Message to The Mother Church for 1901, p. 11).
The Word of God—the Christ, Truth, which Christ Jesus lived and taught—is indeed a powerful preacher! When Jesus delivered the lessons embodied in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew, chaps. 5—7), what drew the crowds and captured their attention was the extraordinary spirit of heavenly compassion and spiritual love that was so tangible in Jesus’ humanity. Those lessons came alive as livable and practical. Yes, the Christ shone through Jesus’ countenance, and the people felt its reforming and healing power. And Christ continues to give those lessons their healing and saving power today.
With Christ’s healing power in mind, the Church of Christ, Scientist, has taken for its Annual Meeting theme this June: “Church: ‘Healing and saving the world.’ ” So, it seems fitting to consider deeply how Christ Jesus fulfilled his mission to humanity—and how we can fulfill our mission to humanity today. We can start by understanding how and why Christ Jesus came into the world.
