According to Richard Horsley and others, the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain are both a renewal of the Mosaic Covenant. The Sermons in Luke 6 and Matthew 5-8 are framed like an ancient covenant which is broken down into three sections.
1. This covenant begins with a recounting of something God has done or is doing for his people - In the beatitudes, God has broken into the world with a kingdom for the poor, the powerless, the merciful, the persecuted and those who mourn. Excluded from the kingdom are the rich, the well fed, the popular, and the powerful (Luke 6:24-26). In Jesus' day the vast majority of the population was included in that definition.
2. The second part of this covenant establishes the guidlelines - Jesus gives his listeners the laws of the kingdom, IE: the responsibilities of God's Covenant partners are stated, encouraging and challenging his kingdom people to go beyond the expected in loving God and neighbor, beyond what they have learned and beyond what they see in the pious ones of their day.
3. Finally, this covenant ends with consequences of following or not following the agreement. The blessings and the curses in Matthew and Luke are illustrated in parables of 2 houses; one built on sand and one built on a rock. The one built on sand is easy prey to the elements of life, but the one built on a rock is firm.
No comments:
Post a Comment