DAY FIFTY-SIX:
Sermon on the Mount- Part 1
The traditional site of the Sermon on the Mount
At the end of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar Judas asks Jesus,
| Why'd you choose such a backward time and such a strange land? If you'd come today you would have reached a whole nation Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication |
Why indeed? Our communications have improved even more since 1971, when the musical came out. Today Jesus could use the internet, Ge could do His own TED Talks and reach people all over the world. Instead, He came to a time with no printing presses or newspapers, no TV or radio stations, no internet, no 24 hour news cycle. Yet Jesus managed to get His message across and His disciples managed to propagate it around the world.
The crowds thronged to see and hear Jesus. The hillsides along the Sea of Galilee are a perfect place to address large crowds. They form a natural amphitheater, where a speaker near the bottom of the hill could be heard plainly at the top. Jesus could speak to thousand of people at once. It was on a hillside like the one pictured above that Jesus gave what John Ortberg, the pastor of the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, called "The World's Greatest Talk."
Surrounded by His disciples, Jesus started to teach the people. The first word out of His mouth is "blessed." The Greek word is makarios, and usually means happy or blessed. Jesus uses the word, though, to urge His listeners to look past their present circumstances to the realities of the Kingdom of God. Let's look at this list of what we call The Beatitudes.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Mourning and sorrow were facts of everyday life for Jesus' listeners. This particular Greek word refers to mourning for those who have died. Jesus said that mourners are blessed, for they shall be comforted. The Greek word is parakaleo which means to come alongside and help. This is the same word that Jesus used when He told His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to be their Comforter. Revelation 21:4 tells of the day when the full implications of Jesus' death and resurrection will be realized: "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Meek here does not mean letting people use you as a doormat. It means having a gentle disposition, not prone to hurt others, peaceable. These people are blessed because they will inherit the earth. The poor in spirit get heaven, but the meek get the earth. Aren't the meek being shortchanged. No, because the day will come when heaven and earth are one. The meek will not inherit a devastated world but one that is a new Eden. (Revelation 21:2-3)
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." These are people who know that "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." They know that there is more to life than just this life, and they earnestly seek after God. They will find what they seek. God will feed their souls with the richest of food, and they will grow spiritually.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. God Himself is merciful, and He loves to see mercy in His people. The Greek word could also be translated empathetic, for it involves feeling for others and sympathizing with them. It also has a sense of action rather than word. The priest and the Levite who passed by the robbery and assault victim on the road to Jericho might have felt sorry for the man. The Good Samaritan, however, showed mercy. He comforted the man and bandaged his wounds. Then he provided for the man to stay at an inn until he had recovered. Jesus said that those who show this kind of mercy will receive it themselves.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." The word pure is the source of our word catharsis. It refers to a cleansing or purging of sinful thoughts and deeds to please God. This is really significant, because when Moses desired to see God, The Lord replied "You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live." (Exodus 33:20) Only a work of God in our hearts can make us pure. Jesus died for our sins, and His blood washes us clean. Because of this we will one day see God face to face!
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Just about anybody can create drama and stir up strife. It takes a special person, though, to be a peacemaker. In several places in the Book of Proverbs we read warnings about being a talebearer (a gossip), for their words are like wounds. They separate friends and family from one another and cause deep hurt. Peacemakers try to help people reconcile with one another. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:2-3, "I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life." Paul is talking about two Christian women who have broken fellowship with one another for some reason we're not told. The reason for their strained relationship aren't important. What matters is that these two faithful servants of God reconcile. Paul urged the pastor at Philippi to be a peacemaker for these women,
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." The word persecuted has a sense of being chased or hunted down. Jesus warned that there would come a time that His enemies would declare open season on Christians. They would face torture of the most hideous sort and often long and painful deaths. Such are blessed, because heaven awaits them. I think of the last scene in The Robe, where Marcellus (Richard Burton) and Diana (Jean Simmons) are heading to execution while a deranged Emperor Caligula is cackling "They're going to their kingdom!" They were indeed! We must always remember to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. And we must never presume that we won't face persecution.
Before we leave the Beatitudes, I'd like to note that while some of us may exhibit a particular beatitude well, every one of them is a grown point for us. We must seek God's grace as we face situations that call for each.
"You are the salt of the earth." Salt is no big deal for us today. We buy it in round blue boxes with a little girl carrying an umbrella on it. And we throw it on our roads to melt snow and ice. In Christ's time, however, salt was a matter of life and death. We worry about too much sodium in our diets but they faced the dire effects of too little. Salt was a valuable commodity, so valuable that Roman soldiers often received their pay in salt (our word salary comes from the Latin word for salt). Salt also was an important preservative in those days before refrigeration. Salt allowed them to store fish, meat and vegetables for the winter. We have no sense of what Jesus meant when He talked of the salt losing its taste. That's because we protect our salt from moisture. In Jesus' day, though, a town's supply of salt was often piled in a heap out in the open. The rain wold leach away the salt, leaving just the other minerals that were present. This salt is worthless. We are the salt of the earth, Jesus said. We bring seasoning and flavor to our world. If the world gets into us, however, if we love the pleasures of this life more than we love God, we're like salt that's lost it's saltiness. We're useless both to God and to our neighbors.
"You are the light of the world." In yesterday's sermon we looked at John chapter 1 which describes Jesus as light coming into a dark world. Now Jesus is telling His listeners that THEY are the light of the world. Our light shines when we live openly as believers, serving others in His name. Jesus told them not to hide their lights but to let them shine!
At this point Jesus answers at length the accusation that He is setting aside the Law of Moses. The Pharisees pointed to the people He associated with (tax collectors, prostitutes and other assorted "sinners") and His habit of breaking their rules on observing the Sabbath. Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Heaven and earth will pass away, but not God's Law. Indeed, anyone who is lax will be held accountable. Jesus not only upheld the Law, He strengthened it by showing how it went far deeper than the surface. Let's look at the subjects Jesus addressed:
- Murder. He affirmed the commandment "Thou shalt not kill," but also said that anger and hateful words are just as bad. Don't let resentments fester- resolve conflicts in a godly way;
- Adultery. The commandment refers not just to our actions but also to our thoughts. Lustful thoughts are just as bad in God's eyes. Jesus went so far as to say that if it would save you from hell it's better to gouge out your eye or cut off your hand (don't get the hatchet out just yet- it won't really work to deal with the problem of sin- Jesus was telling us how important it is to deal with sin in our lives);
- Divorce. There was a debate among the Rabbis in the generation before Jesus about the grounds for divorce. One prominent Rabbi, Shammai, argued that only adultery or other improper sexual conduct were proper grounds. Rabbi Hillel argues that a man could divorce his wife for any reason. Hillel won the day, and many men dumped the wives of their youth in favor of younger trophy wives. Jesus said that this was wrong, that only adultery justified divorce;
- Oaths. The Pharisees had all kinds of ruled about oaths and vows (and how to get out of them if they prove inconvenient). Jesus said don't swear at all. Let your yes be yes and your no be know. If you have to invoke God's name to prove you're telling the truth, there's something wrong. Your character should be evidence enough that you're truthful;
- Revenge. Moses instituted a form of the Lex Talionis, or eye for eye. It seems barbaric to us today. We just sue people. But an eye for an eye was a way to keep retaliation in proportion to the crime. You can't kill someone for gouging out your eye- you can only gouge out one of his. Jesus says don't take revenge at all. Turn the other cheek. Carry that soldier's heavy backpack a second mile. Give freely to those in need;
- Enemies. It's easy to hate those who hate us and do us harm. Jesus, however, commands us to love them, pray for them and do good to them. If you love only your friends and neighbors but hate your enemies, you're no better than the tax collectors and the gentiles, who do the same.
Jesus concluded this section with these words: "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." The word perfect means complete or full of integrity. This doesn't mean that we must be sinless, because that's impossible for us while we're in the flesh. But we receive the very righteousness of Christ when we trust in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "For our sake he[the Father] made him [Jesus the Son] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Through faith in Christ, then, Jesus' listeners could have a righteousness that "exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees." (5:20)
In chapter 6 Jesus moved from ethics to piety. He warned His hearers to be careful not to show off their religion. Those who want to be seen of men and receive their acclaim will not receive any reward or blessing from God. Jesus then goes through some examples of personal religious practices and how to observe them properly.
Jesus spoke first about giving. He started out "When (not if) you give to the needy." Giving to help those in need is something God asks of all of us as we are able. Jesus warns against giving those gifts in a way that attracts attention to us. Jesus said that the hypocrites sound a trumpet. I found this very strange until I learned that the trumpet here is not a musical instrument but rather a cone shaped like the horn on an old record player that funneled the peoples' offerings into the collection box. If someone were to empty a bag of coins into it the clatter would fill the synagogue or the Temple and cause everyone to look and see the person who made this generous contribution. That recognition from others is all the reward they will receive. Jesus said for us to give secretly, confidentially, so that even your left hand doesn't know what your right hand is doing. God sees your gift, and God also knows your heart. He will reward you in His way and in His time for His glory and our good. Sometimes you hear TV preachers claim that God always gives back to us far more than we give, that giving is more like investing. God doesn't promise to make us rich because of our giving. He does promise us that He will make sure that we have all that we need, along with spiritual blessings.
Tomorrow we'll take up the second half of the Sermon on the Mount, "The World's Greatest Talk."
Here's a short skit on The Beatitudes that you'll enjoy:
There's just so much here. One interesting thing I've heard over the years is "I don't pay attention to the Old Testament. I focus on the New Testament." It is clear from the Gospels that Jesus often quoted or alluded to the law and the prophets. If Jesus knew them and lived by them, how do we justify ignoring them? Jesus was clearly a practicing Jew, who knew the law and came to fulfill the law. In the beatitudes, I've come to associate the adjectives as qualities of the kingdom, of the new creation, and that the happiest of our brothers and sisters will be those who did without these precious gifts during their time in this fallen creation. I don't appreciate what I have...or the world blinds me from appreciating the simplest of gifts.
ReplyDeleteDealing with the Sermon on the Mount has been by far the hardest part of doing this blog. There is just so much content that's worthy of further consideration! I saw that one preacher devoted 27 sermons to it. I think I could justify double that! Jesus draws so many things together and lays out the structure of the Kingdom.
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