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The Sermon on the Mount
Oct 21, 01:22 PM
We find the compelling and powerful verses which we have called the Sermon on the Mount near the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew. The book itself is the first in the New Testament and is one of three gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) commonly referred to as synoptic. They are called synoptic because they generally give a similar, though not identical pattern of the Lord’s life and roughly follow the same narrative framework. John’s Gospel is distinct in tat it does not follow these patterns. None of the Gospels were written primarily as history or biography. Each was written for a particular community and for a particular purpose. As we begin to understand the communities and purposes for which they were written, we gain a deeper level of understanding as to their meaning. It is generally agreed that Matthew was written for a Jewish-Christian community and as such maintains heavy Jewish influences. It was ostensibly designed to do two things: to establish Jesus as the fulfillment of Messianic prophesy in a sort of evangelistic appeal, and to strengthen the faith of those already persuaded to His Lordship. The Sermon on the Mount, however, has a particularly gripping purpose which is the announcement of the way of life which will characterize the Kingdom of Heaven under His reign.
That the Sermon on the Mount appears early in the Gospel is both startling in its introduction and obviously important for the evangelist as he organizes the material. It is obvious that Matthew is in a hurry to get to it. It comes early in the Gospel, as soon as the identity of Jesus is established. The Sermon is startling in that it is a significant departure from the narrative which precedes it. Matthew appears to establish Jesus’ identity and pattern of ministry in the first four chapters. Then, in chapter five, the Sermon confronts us and lays out a radical reorientation of human character and relationships. The stark and stringent nature of the instruction is shocking to every reader, but had to be particularly startling to its original audience. Perhaps there were those in the original audience that maintained Messianic hope in the political resurgence of the nation of Israel. There were also those who were loath to persevere any longer in the position of political and social oppressionand were ready to take up any means to gain their temporal freedom. To those with such ambition or impatience, the Sermon stands in direct confrontation. The Sermon on the Mount can be seen as counter-intuitive and counter-cultural. It diametrically opposes the natural reactions and assumptions of most human beings and cuts against the grain of common human cultural patterns. Imagine the first words of Jesus in the Sermon, “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn.” How radically opposed to natural human inclination are these words!
The overarching principle in this Sermon is Jesus’ proclamation of the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven and Himself being the prototype of a new human being. The coming of Jesus and His resurrection signal the beginning of the process by which God will re-create, regenerate, or “Re-Genesis” the human species. In other words, the coming of Jesus Christ is not simply designed toward a new relationship between God and humanity, but in fact is the regeneration of humanity itself. Later the in New Testament, Paul captures this theme in describing Jesus as the “Second Adam” and the “firstborn among many brethren.” Whereas the first Adam failed in that he sinned, the Second Adam, Jesus, raises people to become a new creation, designed after the perfect Prototype.
Jesus goes on in the Sermon to describe the personal character and social way of life of this new human being. It is a Kingdom without malice. He then throughout the rest of the Gospel goes on to demonstrate that way of life and invite men and women to participate in it. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, is laying out for all time, and beyond time, the Constitution of the Kingdom of God.