The Sermon on the Mount - Part One

The Sermon on the Mount focuses on the proper interpretation of the Law and some of the dynamics of the Kingdom of God. As mentioned before, Jesus' audience was in expectation of a kingdom breaking into human history at any moment overthrowing the the powerful and subduing the foreigners. For the people and for John the Baptist, the kingdom was political, economic and social. Furthermore, there was no division between polictics, economy and sociology. For Jesus however, there is no indication that he thought the kingdom was anything politiical. In this context Jesus gave a message of the kingdom emphasizing the proper understanding of the Law of Moses.

DIGNITY

The first words of the Sermon on the Mount were, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God." These words sunk deep down into the hearts of people who had very little dignity in life, people who suffered from constant poverty and oppression. In this promise they were given hope of a future they could not find in their present lives.

Jesus gave the masses dignity, comfort and hope in the Sermon on the Mount. He offered to common people a new life in a new kingdom with a new way of living under the Law. The common people were considered by Caiaphas and his friends to be ignorant and unable to understand the Law. Jesus not only challenged that way of thinking, he gave the common people the dignity and respect of knowing that they could live under the Law, and live under the Law in such a way that exceeded the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees.

It is typical for a group to think of itself as better than all other groups. A group of people who are oppressed or who face obvious inequities are no exception to the rule. They find things to be proud of, areas of life in which they tell themselves that they are better than those who have and those who oppress.

Jesus gave a new dignity to the masses in the Sermon on the Mount. Their righteousness could be better than the religious leaders and the Kingdom of God belonged to them, not to the religiously powerful and rich.


THE LAW

Jesus did not seek to replace the Law with Grace and Faith, in fact, he sought to bring renewal to Israel in its understanding of and following after the Law. Jesus taught a different way of reading the Law and a more intense following of the Law than was being established from the religious authorities of his day.

First Century religious leaders debated small details of the Law struggling to unearth what the Law said about things clean and unclean, how to best keep the Sabbath holy, and how to tithe. In contrast, Jesus spoke boldly of the Kingdom of God and of a new way of following the Law. Interestingly, his take on the Law was on the one hand far more intense than the established leaders taught, but on the other hand Jesus' teachings focused on different matters of the Law than his contemporaries.

Jesus taught that not all Law was equal. In other words there were some laws that were more important than the others and there were certain matters of the Law that outweighed everything else in the Law (justice, mercy and faithfulness, for example).

The religious leaders of Jesus day helped to set the tone for the Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus set up his expectations for the kingdom, a lot of it was set in the context of... "Don't be like them," or "Be better than them."

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL LIVING IN THE KINGDOM

The rest of the Sermon on the Mount can be summed up under this title. To an audience that lived in poverty and little or no hope for the future, Jesus told them to trust God and ask Him for what they needed. Jesus told them that in the kingdom, God would take care of their needs.

As his followers began to discover and learn the Law through Jesus' teachings, Jesus told them not to judge each other, but to be merciful to each other. Becoming a learner or an expert in the Law carried with it the temptation of objectifying people and holding them in contempt for not living up to the standards of the Law. At the same time the new learner could see how much others broke the Law while excusing or overlooking his/her own faults. Jesus warned his followers that if they judged, they would be judged by the same measure. He also warned people against judging others for the same sins they committed.

WHAT YOU GIVE WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU

If you judge, you will be judged.
If you forgive, you will be forgiven.
If you show mercy, you will receive mercy.
If you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven.
If you give, you will receive (not in the Sermon on the Mount, but follows the same rule).

POLITICS AND THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

What can I say about politics in the Sermon on the Mount? His listeners no doubt assumed there would be politics involved for the establishment of a new kingdom. When they heard the Sermon on the Mount, they believed wholeheartedly that there would be some sort of political overthrow of the present system and establishment of God's Kingdom.

Did Jesus believe there would be a political overthrow of the present system? There is nothing in the Sermon on the Mount that suggests it. The Sermon on the Mount focuses on life in the kingdom, that is, how one is to live and act once the kingdom has been established.

To the modern reader, we understand that the kingdom was established not by political or by military resistance, but by living out the Sermon on the Mount, becoming peacemakers, humble people, merciful toward others rather than judgmental, letting go of debts, letting go of sins done against you, trusting God for sustenance, and going beyond the letter of the Law. This is how we build God's kingdom. And we build it slowly like a mustard seed growing.

But to Jesus' audience, even to his own disciples, they understood the kingdom to be established by an overthrow of the present kingdom, not slowly, but quickly in their lifetime.