It has been a great joy for me to devote much mental energy to studying, teaching, and writing about the Sermon on the Mount. Although I have finished writing my new book on the sermon, this famous Bible text continues to teach me new things every day.
Here are three things I’ve learned about the sermon that most people probably don’t know.
1. Jesus’ sermon is radical but not completely new
Out of respect for Jesus, we often assume that his message was a bolt of newness and wonder never before heard by mankind.
The Sermon on the Mount is lightning. It is a direct revelation from God, which comes from the mouth of the incarnate Word himself. But this does not mean that Jesus’ teachings were entirely new.
When we understand the sermon in the cultural context of the first century Mediterranean world, we can discern that there is both continuity and difference. This is a good thing. Jesus was not speaking in some otherworldly language, but revealing the kingdom of God to real people in real cultures.
There are two parts of the cultural context of Jesus that illuminate what Jesus is saying, and also show that the sermon is not entirely new. In the Jewish context, Jesus is presented as a prophet, just like those in the Old Testament. Jesus is calling people to reconsider who God is and what he wants for his creatures. Jesus’ message in the sermon is that God is our Father who sees and cares about the heart, not just outward works of justice and religion.
This teaching is rooted in and resonates with the prophetic tradition, particularly Isaiah and Jeremiah, with a healthy dose of Daniel and the minor prophets. There is a deep continuity between the words of Jesus and the rest of the Bible.
There is a deep continuity between the words of Jesus and the rest of the Bible.
The other operational context in the sermon is the world of Greek and Roman philosophy. Jesus is not only a prophet, but also a sage, a wise philosopher who calls people to reorient their lives according to a virtuous vision of the world.
As a philosopher, Jesus invites people to ways of being and living in the world that promise a truly good life (human flourishing). He is a teacher who gathers and instructs his disciples. His teachings come together in memorable epitomes that offer a series of beatitudes, which promise true life. And he stresses virtuous integrity (see especially 5:48). Certainly there are differences between the content of what Jesus said and what other philosophers taught, but the form and feel of the sermon were familiar to first-century listeners.
At the end of the sermon, the crowds are surprised, but this is not so much because the content is new, but because of the clarity, force, and authority with which Jesus teaches. His teachings are radical, but they don’t come out of nowhere.
2. Jesus’ sermon is not an impossible ideal to show you your need for grace
A common reading of the sermon, especially within Protestantism, is that its high ethical demands are meant to show us the impossibility of being good, thus creating a crisis that causes us to flee to Christ, to receive his grace and imputed righteousness. Jesus’ call to never lust or hate, to turn the other cheek when attacked, to do godly acts with perfect God-centered motives, not to worry about the future, and never to judge others…all of these are impossible to do to anyone. The perfection. This shows us our desperate need for Christ’s saving work in our lives, and it is so time and time again.
While the impossibility of earning salvation, and the need for radical grace, are true from a full Bible perspective, this misses the genre, point, and goal of the sermon. The sermon is not, to use Luther’s overly reductive categories, about the “law” that makes us see our need for the “gospel.” Rather, it is God’s wisdom, which invites us through faith to reorient our values, vision, and habits, from the paths of external justice, to total sincerity toward God. This is not “law” but “gospel.” Jesus invites us to live in the kingdom of God both now and in the future age. This is grace.
No one can perfectly live out the vision of the sermon (except Jesus), but this does not mean that it is irrelevant to our lives. By faith and through grace, Jesus invites us into a practical life of discipleship. We participate in it, and imitate (imperfectly) the way in which Jesus trusted the Father and waited for the Kingdom.
The sermon is not all we need to know or all that is true of the gospel. The main point of the gospel story is the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. Through his faithfulness and righteousness, he produces a new covenant between God and humanity. On this basis alone, with the power of the Spirit, we are given life. All of this is by grace. This is essential. In this Luther, and Christians in general, are right.
The main point of the gospel story is the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.
Now standing in this grace, believers respond to Jesus’ invitation in the sermon. Our habits and ways of being are deconstructed and reformed through his model and teachings. Being a disciple is the appropriate and necessary response to God’s amazing grace, and the sermon plays a crucial role in that.
3. The sermon of Jesus must be memorized, and serve as a source of constant meditation
In the modern western world we are full of Bibles. Literacy rates are remarkably high. As a result, most Americans and Europeans interested in Jesus and the sermon can easily find a copy and read it. Google “the sermon on the mount” and you can find countless translations and explanations. This is good.
However, this is not how the sermon was originally received, nor is it the kind of pedagogical context in which it was intentionally given. Rather, the sermon comes from a time and a culture that focused on the ear rather than the eye. The sermon (for both Jesus’ original speech and Matthew’s writing) is designed as an easy-to-memorize listening meditation device.
It is one of five teaching blocks from Matthew that bring together the teachings of Jesus on various topics, presenting them in a memorable thematic structure (usually in groups of three), with vivid imagery and poetic language, so that would-be disciples can listen. , memorize, and thus meditate on what the teacher has said. To be a disciple is to memorize the master’s sayings and model one’s life on his.
To be a disciple is to memorize the master’s sayings and model one’s life on his.
I haven’t memorized the entire sermon yet (much to my chagrin), but I regularly take long walks and recall and recite the portions I have memorized. I am always amazed at the new power, new insights, and canonical connections that flood my mind, things I have never noticed despite multiple readings and exhaustive literary study. This is the reason the sermon was written. Give it a taste.
Editor’s note: This article has been published in association with Baker Academic.
Originally posted on Translated by Michelle Lago. Image: .