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Download File Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount Steve Moyise Throughout the centuries, the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:3-7:27) has been seen as the epitome of what Christianity is all about. Teaching like ‘turn the other cheek’ (5:29), ‘love your enemies’ (5:44), ‘no one can serve two masters’ (6:24) and ‘do to others as you would have them do to you’ (7:12) represent an ethical stance that has been foundational for Western civilisation. As the closing parable puts it: ‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock’ (7:24). The name ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (SoM) comes from Mt 5:1-2, where Jesus ‘went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them’. It calls to mind Israel’s great law-giver, Moses, who also went up a mountain and came down with teaching from God (Ten Commandments) and this is reinforced by the so-called ‘antitheses’ (5:21-48) where six times Jesus begins a discourse with ‘You have heard that it was said … But I say to you’ (5:21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43).1 It is one of five sermons or discourses that punctuate Matthew’s Gospel (chs 5-7, 10, 13, 18, 23-25) and is perhaps intended to mirror the five books of Moses. Graham Stanton, in his fine book, A Gospel for a New People,2 suggest five pertinent questions to ask of the Sermon on the Mount: (1) Is Jesus interpreting the law or offering a radical new teaching? (2) How do the demands of the SoM relate to Paul’s gospel of grace? (3) Is the Sermon aimed at everyone or just committed disciples? (4) Is everything in the Sermon to be taken literally? (5) Are its radical demands to be explained because time is running out? This study has been guided by these questions, though the presentation is different. 1. The Beatitudes (5:3-12) The SoM begins with eight/nine3 beatitudes, traditionally translated, ‘Blessed are …’, from the Greek word makarios. The Latin version used beatus, hence the ‘beatitudes’. Some of them deal with godly characteristics, such as ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness’ (5:6), ‘merciful’ (5:7) and ‘pure in heart’ (5:8) and it is therefore no surprise that God’s blessing rests upon them. Others, however, are about people in distress (poor in spirit, those who mourn, the persecuted, those who are reviled) and it is not clear in what sense they are blessed. This is made even more difficult in the Good News Bible, which thinks that ‘blessed’ is no longer part of ordinary conversation and so renders makarios with ‘happy’. Hence we have the paradoxical, ‘Happy are those who mourn’ and ‘Happy are those who are persecuted’. The problem is that ‘happy’ usually refers to the emotions and it is difficult to 1 Note also the transfiguration, where Moses and Elijah are with Jesus but the disciples are told: ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’ (Mt 17:5). 2 G. Stanton, A Gospel for a New People: Studies in Matthew (Westminster: John Knox, 1993). 3 The word makarios occurs 9 times but the final saying (‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you’) is a continuation of the eighth (‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake’). 1 understand how one can be both happy and mournful at the same time. For religious people familiar with the word ‘blessed’, it speaks of something objective: God’s blessing is upon you, whatever you happen to be feeling. On the other hand, Jesus tells those who are being persecuted to ‘rejoice and be glad’ (5:12), which is not quite the same thing as ‘happy’ but does imply some emotional content as well. The translation issue is connected with the question: When can the distressed expect to receive their blessing? Some of the promises appear to suggest that it will be after death, such as 5:12 (‘for your reward is great in heaven’) and perhaps also 5:5 (’for they will inherit the earth’). Others could refer to this life, as in 5:4 (‘for they will be comforted’), while 5:7 (‘for they will receive mercy’) and 5:9 (‘they will be called children of God’) could refer to either. Protestants have generally thought of ‘heaven’ as the locus of such blessings, with earth continuing to be a place of suffering, even for Christians (perhaps especially for Christians – Rom 8:36). But Tom Wright insists that this is a misunderstanding of what Jesus means by ‘heaven’ or the ‘kingdom of heaven’: Heaven is God’s space, where full reality exists, close by our ordinary (‘earthly’) reality and interlocking with it. One day heaven and earth will be joined together for ever, and the true state of affairs, at present out of sight, will be unveiled. After all, verse 5 says that the meek will inherit the earth, and that can hardly happen in a disembodied heaven after death.4 He translates makarios as, ‘Wonderful news for …’, suggesting that the beatitudes are a ‘summons to live in the present in the way that will make sense in God’s promised future; because that future has arrived in the present in Jesus of Nazareth’.5 This is in part a reaction against a type of missionary preaching that promised the poor a glorious heaven but did nothing to alleviate their poverty (hence opium for the people, as Marx called it). Wright is not denying that these promises will only be fully fulfilled when ‘heaven and earth will be joined together for ever’ but insists that we should be working towards them in the here and now. In his Nazareth sermon, Jesus quotes Isa 61:1 (‘he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor’) as applying to himself (Lk 4:21). But lest that ‘good news’ be confined to ‘heaven’, he adds a series of ‘earthly’ freedoms: release of prisoners; sight for the blind; oppressed go free (Lk 4:18). Ulrich Luz says that ‘the salvation promised to the poor, the hungry, and those who mourn is already a reality in Jesus’ acceptance of the dispossessed, in his common meals with them, and in the joy over God’s love experienced in the present’.6 Some of the beatitudes clearly derive from Scripture. Ps 37:11 says: ‘But the meek shall inherit the land, and delight themselves in abundant prosperity’. Ps 24:4 answers its own question of who is worthy to worship in the temple with, ‘Those who have clean hands and 4 Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone, London: SPCK, 2002 (electronic edition). 5 Ibid. 6 Ulrich Luz, Matthew 1-7 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 189. 2 pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully’. And as mentioned above, Isa 61:1 speaks of preaching good news to the poor, while in 61:3, God promises to ‘comfort all who mourn’. More generally, they show Jesus’ dependence on wisdom traditions. Ps 1 opens with a beatitude (‘Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked’ – NIV) and the Sermon ends with a parable about the wise and foolish builders. Lastly, it has sometimes been a problem for the Church that Jesus does not stipulate that those who mourn or are persecuted need to have faith to receive God’s blessing. All people mourn the loss of a loved one and so God’s blessing would appear to be on everyone at some point in their life. Taking the lead from 5:6 (hunger and thirst for righteousness), 5:8 (pure in heart) and 5:11 (persecuted for Jesus’ sake), some commentators have given each of the beatitudes a ‘Christian’ meaning. Thus, those who mourn are mourning over their sins or perhaps the sins of the world. The ‘poor in spirit’ are those who recognise their ‘poverty before God’ and hence their need for God. Stassen and Gushee try and combine such interpretations with our role in helping the unfortunate. We are ‘humble before God, and identify with the humble, the poor, and the outcasts … (we) mourn with sincere repentance toward God, and comfort others who mourn’.7 Few would doubt that this is ‘good application’ but we should be careful on two fronts (1) The context for understanding Jesus in the first instance is the Judaism to which he belonged, not later forms of Christianity; otherwise we would need to continue obeying the food laws and offering sacrifices (5:17- 19). (2) Jesus elsewhere praises those who demonstrate particular qualities (even a dishonest manager) and so we should not impose restrictions without warrant from the text. 2. Should the SoM be taken literally? Commands like ‘turn the other cheek’ and ‘go the extra mile’ are in common parlance today. During the covid pandemic, medical staff who have worked long hours are said to have ‘gone the extra mile’. And those who have faced verbal abuse from the very people they are trying to help have ‘turned the other cheek’, telling themselves that it is not personal but springs from fear and distress. It has been called a ‘counter-cultural’ response, eschewing the natural desire for revenge or even justice. However, a dark side to this teaching has emerged over the last few decades, where victims of abuse were either ignored or told not to make a fuss.
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