At Life Church Lancaster, we’ll spend February with the Sermon on the Mount, the classic source for hearing the voice of Jesus. The Sermon holds Jesus’ followers to the absolute highest standards. At the same time, it shows us a loving God who shines divine favor on everyone.
No wonder some Christians receive the Sermon as a set of moral demands, while others hear words of divine assurance. We risk hearing the Sermon as a set of rules to follow, and we risk failing to take it seriously enough.
We find the Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5-7 of Matthew. It’s a big, big chunk. What’s more, it’s the first time in the New Testament that we really get to hear what Jesus has to say. Matthew is the first book in our New Testament, even though it wasn’t the first Gospel to be written. (Mark was.) And the author of Matthew uses the Sermon on the Mount to introduce readers to Jesus’ teaching voice. As the Sermon ends, the crowds are amazed by Jesus’ teaching, especially his authority (7:28-29). The Sermon on the Mount is written to make an impression.
And the Sermon covers a lot of territory. It begins with Jesus going up a mountain to get some space from the crowds, so he can teach his disciples (5:1-2). But we learn that the crowds overhear anyway (7:28). Jesus tells the disciples whom God blesses (5:3-12), and how they should live out their blessing (5:13-16). Then, Jesus begins to interpret Israel’s law, the Torah (5:17-48). Like Moses, he interprets the law from a mountain: “You have heard it said, but I’m telling you….” He goes on to talk about how his followers can relate to God—simply and with a great deal of trust (6:1-34). The last section of the Sermon is difficult to summarize, but it includes a good deal of warning: Hearers had to take Jesus seriously—or else (7:1-29). Don’t judge other people. Enter the narrow gate. Do what Jesus says.
Some Christians hold the Sermon on the Mount as the standard for Christian living. Be perfect, Jesus says, like your Father in heaven is perfect (5:48). You can call me Lord all you want, but I only care that you do what I say (7:21-22).
Be perfect? I might as well give up right now.
Other Christians take Jesus’ words seriously, but they tend to read them as spiritual principles. Obviously, they reason, Jesus wouldn’t want lustful men plucking their eyes out (5:29). Jesus knows we can’t be perfect, so, surely, he doesn’t want us trapped in our compulsive behavior.
I would suggest that we’re missing a key piece, the God Jesus describes. We spend so much time parsing Jesus’s instructions, essential as they are, that we forget the God behind all those instructions. But the Sermon on the Mount is filled with Jesus’ vision of God.
Jesus’ God is the one who blesses the people we usually overlook: The poor in spirit, the grieving, the lowly, those deprived of justice in the courts. Jesus’ God sees us and cares for us (5:3-10). Jesus’ God sees us when we pray, so much so that we can pray simply and straightforwardly (6:9-15). We don’t need fancy prayers or long prayers (6:5-8). We don’t need to make a show of praying. Because our God sees our lives as they are. God loves us, and God cares for us. We can trust God (6:25-34; 7:7-11). This God wants us to flourish.
No one said Jesus’ standard was easy. But that doesn’t mean Jesus’ God is harsh. It’s a lot easier to follow Jesus’ path when we know a God who takes our side, waits to hear from us, and tends to our needs.
Written by Pastor Greg Carey