Lesson #9 The Sermon on the Mount, Part 4

(Matthew 7: 729)

In Lesson #8 we studied Part 3 of the Sermon on the Mount: Six Concrete Actions to Implement the Law. As Jesus probed the inner dynamics of the Six Propositions in Part 2, so does he probe the motives and means of the righteous acts in Part 3, Lesson #8.

Lesson #9 draws the Sermon on the Mount to a dramatic close with a rapid-fire, 3-part Call to Action, lit by vivid imagery. Probably drawn from a collection of Jesus sayingsperhaps from the hypothetical Q document (since none of the sayings appears in Mark)Matthew takes a seemingly random set of sayings and crafts them into a brilliant coda, a glittering conclusion that reinforces the themes introduced and developed in the previous sections.

The Gospel according to Matthews overall mirrored chiastic structure

A Narrative: Jesus as Messiah, Son of God (1-4) Minor discourse: John the Baptist identifies the authority of Jesus (3:7-12) B Great Discourse #1: Demands of true discipleship (5-7) [SERMON ON THE MOUNT] C Narrative: The supernatural authority of Jesus (8-9) D Great Discourse #2: Charge and authority of disciples (10) E Narrative: Jews reject Jesus (11-12) F Great Discourse #3: Parables of the Kingdom of Heaven (13) E Narrative: Disciples accept Jesus (14-17) D Great Discourse #4: Charge and authority of church (18) C Narrative: Authority and invitation (19-22) B Great Discourse #5: Judgment on false discipleship (23-25) Narrative: Jesus as Messiah, suffering and vindicated (26-28) Minor discourse: Jesus identifies the authority of the church (28:18-20)

William Holman Hunt, Light of the World (oil on canvas), 1854.

[Hunts original is in the side chapel at Keble College, Oxford. A 2nd, larger copy painted by Hunt in 1900 is in St. Pauls Cathedral, London.]

Call to Action, Part 1

Ask . . . Seek . . . Knock . . . (7: 7-12)
1.
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
This 1st series of ask . . .seek . . . knock consists of present, imperative, plural verbs in the active voice, and the yous are 2nd person plural pronouns. Grammatically, this sequence addresses Jesus entire audience, forcefully commanding them to engage in a set of on-going, repetitive actions.

2.

For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
The 2nd series consists of masculine, singular, present participles in the active voice, making the on-going commands personal to each individual.

3.

Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you [plural] who are wicked know how to give good gifts to your [plural] children, [then] how much more will your [plural] heavenly Father give good thins to those who ask him. [Therefore], do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the Law and the Prophets (7: 7-12).

Detail from stained-glass window (c. 1175). Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

YIKES!!!!

Photography by Ana Maria Vargas

Charlotte Reihlen. Der Breite und der Schmale Weg *The Broad and Narrow Way+, English version, lithograph, c. 1860.

The Narrow Gate

(Matthew 7: 13-14)
Jesus metaphor of the narrow gate and the wide vs. constricted road recalls the basic dichotomy posed by God for the Hebrew people in Deuteronomy 30: 15-19 and echoed by Jeremiah in 21: 8.

Call to Action, Part 2

The Narrow Gate (7: 13-14)
1.
Enter through the narrow gate; STATEMENT A B C C B *reversed+ for the gate is wide and STATEMENT REVERSED the road broad that leads to destruction, C B *intensified+ and those who enter through it are many. A How narrow the gate and RE-STATEMENT B C B *reversed+ C constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few. CONCLUSION

2.

3.

Call to Action, Part 3

The False Prophets (7: 15-23) The Hebrew Scriptures include three major figures:
1. Priest
The priest stands between the people and God and speaks to God on behalf of the people.

2. Prophet
The prophet stands between God and the people and speaks to the people on behalf of God.

3. King
The king is anointed by God to manage the affairs of God and the people in the world.

In the New Testament Jesus fulfills and completes all three roles:
1. Priest
Jesus is our great high priest, seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf (Hebrews 6: 19).

2. Prophet
Jesus is the great prophet promised by God, the one who will follow Moses and speak to us definitively on behalf of God (Deuteronomy 18: 15).

3. King
Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19: 11-16).

False prophets abound in Scripture!

These prophets utter lies in my name, the Lord said to me: I did not send them; I gave them no command, nor did I speak to them. They prophesy to you lying visions, foolish divination, deceptions from their own imagination (Jeremiah 14: 14).

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word . . .. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths (2 Timothy 4: 14).

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you realize that we will be judged more strictly.
(James 1: 1)

Call to Action, Conclusion

The Two Foundations (7: 24-27)

Call to Action, Conclusion

The Two Foundations (7: 24-27)

Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount

2,000 years have passed since Jesus taught the material we have in Matthew 5-7. Clearly, Jesus teaching raises the bar of the Law, presenting the Gold Standard of Christian ethics and morality. But it is a bar set impossibly high. As a result, brilliant and sincere people have made great efforts to take it seriously, while finding ways of living with it. Historically, readers have approached Jesus teaching in one of three ways. 1. St. Augustine, the giant of 4th-century Christendom and one of the greatest scholars and theologians who ever lived, proposed that to accommodate Jesus teaching to the world we live in, we should understand its eschatological context and add interpretative phrases that clarify its meaning, suggesting, for example, that we should not judge others falsely; we should not be angry without cause; and that we should accept Jesus teaching in spirit, if not in actuality.

Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount, cont.

2. During the Middle Ages some read the Sermon on the Mount as addressing only Jesus disciples, his select inner circle. We read, after all, that when Jesus went up on the mountain . . . his disciples came to him. He began teaching them . . . (5: 1-2). St. Thomas Aquinas, the great angelic doctor of the medieval Church, linked Jesus teaching to a program of discipline addressed to men and women called to religious vocation as cloistered monks and nunsJesus inner circle, as it werestriving to fulfill the Gospel injunction to be perfect (5: 48). That was their job as spiritual warriors. In Aquinas mind, ordinary people struggling with marriage, family, work and day-to-day life could be content with faith in Christ and obeying the Ten Commandments.

Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount, cont.

During the 16th-century Reformation, Martin Luther strongly objected to what he saw in Aquinas thinking as spiritual class distinction, arguing that Jesus teaching applied equally to all who heard him, not just to his inner circle. With Martin Luther religious vocation came out of the cloister and into the home and shop. In countering Aquinas, however, Luther introduced another bifurcation, that between ones private life and the body politic. The Sermon on the Mount may apply to ones personal and family life, but obviously it cannot apply to ones public and political life. A society could not survive if it gave to everyone who asked and turned the other cheek to every thug or barbarian beating down the gates. Ultimately, both Aquinas and Luther totter dangerously on the precipice of moral and ethical schizophrenia, an untenable place to be.

Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount, cont.

3. A third reading of the Sermon on the Mount takes Jesus teaching seriously as the moral and ethical requirements of the eschatological Kingdom of Heaven, the end goal of Gods plan of redemption. As such, all Christians should strive to emulate those standards as we pass through a fallen world as pilgrims on the journey to our eternal home. In this view we are all called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, shining examples of what God intended us to be, recognizing that we will often fail in the effort, but knowing that though our journey may be troubled, our destination is secure.

How did Jesus audience react to the Sermon on the Mount?

When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes (7: 28-29)

1. Although Matthew draws material from Mark and from other written and oral sources, how does he structure the Sermon on the Mount into a carefully planned, unified teaching? 2. What literary devices does Matthew use to make Jesus teaching striking and memorable? 3. The Sermon on the Mount presents an impossibly high bar, the Gold Standard for Christian moral and ethical behavior. How then should we approach its teaching? 4. Did God purposely make the gate narrow and the road constricted to limit the number of people who enter the Kingdom of Heaven? 5. How do you distinguish a false teacher from an authentic one?

Copyright 2014 by William C. Creasy

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