Who Taught the Sermon on the Mount?

Aug 24

Who taught the Sermon on the Mount?

Easy, it’s Jesus!

But maybe that’s too easy. Or too familiar.

For instance, do you read the Bible devotionally?

I mean, do you feel you are reading God's word when you read the Bible?

Here's an example: When I come to an ethical statement in the Bible, my default instinct is to say, "Ok, God says this is right; I need to put it into practice."

Of course, it's appropriate to read the Bible devotionally.

We don't have to work through a few hundred pages of arguments for the existence of God, the resurrection of Jesus, the reliability of the Bible, and the authorship of the particular book we're studying before we crack open our Bibles each morning.

But there are some problems when we say, "God said it, I believe it, and that settles it."

For instance, consider the Sermon on the Mount.

Every commentary acknowledges, "Hey, these are challenging ethical standards, and that means we must work through some questions about what Jesus means."

But the most critical question about the Sermon on the Mount is to ask, who is giving this sermon?

Yes, we know the answer is Jesus. And Jesus is God.

So, what else is there to say? Let's see what he wants and do it!

There's just one small problem with this approach: it's not how Matthew arranged the Gospel.

For instance, imagine we could rewrite the Gospel of Matthew. It would go like this.

Listen up, people, Jesus is God. Here's what he wants you to do. He says it's good for you:
1. Be poor in spirit!
2. Mourn!
3. Be humble!
4. Hunger and thirst for righteousness!

And on and on it would go until we extracted all the moral commands of the gospel into a numbered list.

But as I've studied The Sermon on the Mount, I made a very tiny observation: it starts in Chapter 5 of Matthew's Gospel.

Sure, the chapter numbers are arbitrary and came later. So, to be pedantic, in the Greek text, we find about 1,657 words before we get to Matthew 5:1.

And those first five chapters tell us important information about Jesus.

We get the story of his ancestry, going back to Abraham and David. Matthew tells us that his mother, Mary, was "pregnant from the Holy Spirit." An angel of the Lord tells Joseph to name his son "Jesus because he will save his people from their sins."

In Matthew's view, God orchestrated these details to fulfill prophecy. In particular, Matthew says that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us.

Again, let’s take our time.

The commentaries debate whether Matthew merely meant that, by sending a human Messiah, God was again helping his people.

In this scenario, Matthew only intends to say that God was "with" his people in the sense that God sent and empowered a Messiah.

Or did Matthew mean to say more? Is he stating that Jesus is not only the Messiah but God? Perhaps it is only a hint at this point in Matthew’s story. If so, Matthew knows how to tell a good story, filled with anticipation and allusions that become clearer after multiple readings.

Still, by the end of the Gospel, Jesus makes his divine identity as the Son of God unambiguous (see Matthew 28:19).

Next, Matthew tells us that wise men saw a star and journeyed from another country to worship Jesus. Their message disturbs Jerusalem's political and religious leaders, who cunningly tell the wise men that Israel's ruler should be born in Bethlehem.

To put it mildly, neither Herod nor the chief priests are excited about the arrival of a new king.

Then, God orchestrates one dream to send the wise men safely home to their own country and sends an angel in another dream to get Joseph and his family to Egypt. They respond in faith, thwarting Herod's plans to murder Jesus - though he still gives orders to murder all the boys two years old and under. While it's a scene omitted from most Christmas pageants, Matthew tells us Jeremiah anticipated this evil.

I’ll pause here: You can read all the twists and turns of the story for yourself.

Here's the point: Matthew provides a much richer, broader, and more nuanced 'argument' than "God said it, and I believe it."

And because Matthew gives us these details, we get a much richer understanding of the Sermon on the Mount.

When we arrive at Matthew 5, we understand that God sent Jesus, the promised Messiah, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to save God's people from evil, suffering, and Satan.

In these opening chapters, Jesus identifies with and faithfully represents God's people. He is God's appointed King for God's people. And there are more than a few hints that Jesus not only represents God but is God.

So when you read The Sermon on the Mount, you are listening to Jesus, God's Messiah, the true King of Israel, explaining who he blesses and what it looks like to thrive in God's kingdom.

Instead of reading this story as it relates to me, we see God is inviting us to participate in his kingdom. Instead of fitting the text into my life, I must ask: How does my life fit into what God is doing?

Instead of reading the Bible as an individual, we recognize that we need to read this text in the community of God's disciples.

Instead of looking for something to inspire us, we evaluate the fundamental loyalty of our hearts. Who is my King? Whose kingdom do I belong to?

So let me pass the baton onto you:

How does Matthew explain Jesus' identity and mission?

And how does that change how you read the Sermon on the Mount?

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Giving credit: Photo by Olevy.