They teach preachers to present their congregations with a choice in each sermon and to make that choice so powerful that no one can ignore it. An effective sermon is one out of which the congregation makes a decision to change; i.e. they've been confronted with a decision that would be too painful to avoid. And they teach preachers to keep those choices simple - either/or if at all possible (the application then comes out of that decision). Make such that the congregation cannot help but see the truth and what they need to do about it. Most people recognize that Jesus has done just that in what we call the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). But they go to the very end of the Sermon for validation - "choose between the narrow gate and the wide gate" - as if that's where Jesus presents us with His "invitation." What I'm going to suggest is that we look at the entire Sermon on the Mount as one long presentation of a choice (the same choice). This approach will help us understand some of the harder teachings in the Sermon, and it will keep us from missing Jesus' point. But first, a little context. Matthew organized his Gospel in masterful form. Matthew begins his story of Jesus' ministry with a Sermon that would establish His entire teaching ministry (we know from Mark and Luke that Jesus repeated elements from this Sermon in many different settings; yes, this means I believe that this is a real sermon that really happened). Matthew then follows the Sermon with a tour de force of proof of Jesus' authority so say such monumental things (Matthew 8-9, power over diseases, power over nature, power over demons, power over sin, power over the law, power over death itself). Matthew was a sharp man. With help from the Spirit, he saw the grand patterns in what Jesus was doing and so made certain to put all of that into his Gospel. Likewise, he realized that Jesus' words were organized equally carefully, so he made certain to keep them all together as Jesus delivered them (it's possible, but not necessary, that Matthew heard Jesus give this Sermon). As a result, we cannot take the organization and wording of this Sermon too seriously. Let's start with a very simplified outline of the Sermon (I'm grouping the teachings by form and wording): Kingdom Perspective I. “Blessed are you” 5:2-12 – The right kingdom perspective . . . II. “You are the” 5:13-16 – . . . leads to the right kingdom purpose . . . III. “Do not think” 5:17-20 – . . . which fulfills everything God expects of us. Kingdom Ethic (a “for example”) IV. “You have heard / but I say” 5:21-48 – Our social “goodness” is about what’s inside . . . V. “Whenever you” 6:1-18 – . . . our spiritual “goodness” is about what’s inside . . . VI. “Do not” 6:19-7:6 – . . . and it demands the right perspective on what’s important. Kingdom Challenge VII. “Ask / seek / knock” 7:7-12 – Does my teaching sound hard? VIII. “Enter through” 7:13-27 – It’s harder than you will ever know. [You need My help.] At no point has Jesus implied that this Sermon is comprehensive; it would be impossible to cover every scenario in life in a few minutes. Rather, Jesus is teaching us how to make a choice. I'll walk through these choices, and then we can see if that helps us understand the Sermon on the Mount at all better than perhaps we did before. This will not be an in-depth commentary; I have no delusions of being a scholar on the level of D. A. Carson or Leon Morris. Rather, I just want to make sure that we see the choices Jesus presents us and how they fit together. Kingdom Perspective Matthew said that Jesus has been travelling around Galilee preaching and teaching, so these are not the first words Jesus has said, but it's possible that this is His first large-group/open-air setting. For His later, and harder, choices to make sense, He starts by confronting the people with their false perspective. The purpose of what we call "The Beatitudes" is pretty clear: until a person considers that meekness might be a more blessed condition than powerfulness, he would never consider turning the other cheek. And these Beatitudes cannot be ignored - blessed are those who mourn! blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness! Even though it's not worded this way, I think Jesus is very directly confronting the people with a choice: "You have believed that being blessed looks like ____, but I tell you that being blessed looks like ____. Which perspective are you going to choose?" The key to understanding this is the last phrase, "because your reward is great in heaven." Keep that in mind. And that leads into the salt and light section, which pretty easily follows from the Beatitudes. When you realize that being persecuted is actually a kind of blessing, you will not shy away from those activities that bring persecution: being salt and light. Salt has a negative function; it prevents decay. Light has a positive function; it reveals. Both can be painful. This choice is rather obvious: "Are you going to be salt or not? Are you going to shine your light or not?" This segment ends with the difficult law and prophets saying. The purpose is actually pretty straightforward. When people thought they were hearing a new teaching, they immediately wanted to know how it related to what they already knew; for the Jews, how does it relate to the Law? Jesus' answer would have been completely unexpected. Not only is He not giving a new Law, He is actually ramping up the reach of the old. (I'll come back to this - Jesus is leaving this as an intentional loose end.) And the choice is scary: "Can your righteousness surpass that of the Pharisees, the uber law-keepers?" Kingdom Ethic That question leads directly into a series of examples built around the basic formula, "You have heard / but I say." You know how this works - it's not enough to say that you haven't murdered someone. Have you been angry with someone? Not just adultery; have you lusted after someone? Not just divorce; divorce for any reason but immorality. Not just your word combined with an oath; your word period. And then the hardest one of them all: do not resist your enemy, love your enemy. This first batch of examples covers social behavior, and the point is clear: social laws were never meant to give the easy way out; it's not just about what you do, it's also about what's in your heart, what's your motive. Immediately, this will push the previous question, "Can your righteousness surpass that of the Pharisees?" to ridiculous conclusions. But the choice itself, the choice Jesus presents to the people, is a little different: "Are you going to choose morality based on what people can see or based on what God can see?" Another way we could look at it would be "Are you looking for an easy righteousness or true righteousness?" (as in the example of the rich young ruler). The next set of examples makes that choice a little clearer. Jesus switches from a social morality to a spirituality (kind of the opposite direction of the Ten Commandments, but we shouldn't get too caught up in potential parallels with the Commandments; Jesus isn't giving new Commandments, He's revealing the purpose of the old). In all three of these examples, Jesus mentions the Father "who sees in secret" that He has implied in the previous references to what goes on in one's heart. It is the very same choice: "Are you going to choose spirituality based on what people can see or based on what God can see?" Again, "easy" spirituality vs. "true" spirituality (and I mean spirituality in the best possible sense of our spiritual relationship with God). He ends this segment with a series of "do nots." The choices here are not subtle. "You can choose to pursue treasures on earth or treasures in heaven." "You can choose to serve God or money." "You can choose to worry about your needs or trust God with them." "You can spend your time applying these 'rules' to everyone else or applying them to yourself." Based on the content, I would want to place the "pearls before pigs" teaching in the final part of the Sermon (along the lines of "are you starting to see just how difficult true righteousness really is?"), but it follows the same oratorical pattern as what lies before, so I need to keep it here. The purpose is to clarify perspective - as in some people are just not ready for this teaching - but it doesn't cleanly fit my long series of choices. (Which is just as well; I never want to be so foolish as to think I've mastered Jesus' teachings.) Kingdom Challenge Then we finally get to the part of the sermon many people think of as the "invitation/application." There's no question that Jesus continues His pattern of offering choices. "You can choose to trust God and persist, or give up easily." Note that Jesus slips in an earthshattering comment here, one that we often call the Golden Rule. Contrary to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law (who explained the Law by creating a whole bunch of new ones), Jesus explains the Law by simplifying it. The "ask, seek, knock" is spoken to those who have heard everything Jesus has said and realized they aren't up to the challenge. Their righteousness will never surpass that of the Pharisees (so they think). The will never know when to worry about their own eye, when to worry about their neighbor's eye, and when not to throw pearls before pigs. They also know that they'll worry so much about that that they'll violate Jesus' teachings on worry. They've decided it's all impossible. [Brief aside: this, I believe, is why so many Bible teachers try to explain away the Sermon on the Mount as hyperbole, some future ethic that can only be achieved in heaven. Those teachers aren't living it out, and rather than confront themselves, they downplay the Sermon. I would say that they aren't asking, seeking, and knocking.] Instead, Jesus calls on everyone to ask for the wisdom, care, support, and guidance in living a life in tune with His teachings. God sends rain on the just and unjust; do you not think that He will give the help His children need to live life His way? In that way, the Golden Rule is a kind of a carrot - something people can understand and have no excuse to violate. But what is this? A choice! "You can choose to ask for help, or you can choose to give up." And it is immediately followed up by a complementary choice: "You can choose to walk through the wide gate (which leads to eternal destruction) or through the narrow gate (which leads to eternal life)." Now Jesus is in good homiletic fashion pulling His threads together. But He injects one last warning, all of which are related to the idea of foundation. We know how it ends, "Will you choose to build your life on a lasting foundation (My words) or on a crumbling foundation (anyone else's)?" And that's where the wolves in sheep's clothing teaching comes in. The truth is that there are many people out there who will teach us ways of living that are not right. Those false teachers will look and sound good, and the only way you will ever know (before it's too late, at least - that's what the "not everyone who says to Me" teaching clarifies) is by looking deeply into their own lives. It's a choice. "Are you going to choose to listen to Me, or to listen to others?" Putting It All Together
Let's line up all of these choices Jesus has presented to us:
Here's the point. Following Jesus isn't about what we know. It isn't even about what we do. It's about who we are. Lots of people think they know God. Lots of people think they do the right things. But only those who "do the will of God" will enter the kingdom of heaven. And the will of God, as Jesus has explained, is about our hearts. Easy righteousness (have you ever murdered someone?) doesn't cut it. True righteousness (have you been angry with someone?) is all Jesus will accept. In the background of all of this is an eternal perspective. That's why Jesus begins and ends (and includes) with statements about our reward in heaven. It's extremely evident that Jesus' teachings are extreme. Daunting, even. So much so that we might be tempted to back out. Again, that's why He starts with the Beatitudes. If we don't believe that ultimate blessing remains for us in heaven, we will stay too focused on material and emotional blessings here and now, and we will be easily dissuaded by opposition and failure. As long as we realize that there is more to life than the years we spend on earth, we should be motivated to listen to Jesus. And this leads us to the one loose end that Jesus has left us. This Sermon is daunting. I'm really not sure that my righteousness will surpass that of the Pharisees, especially considering what we've learned about the difference between their "easy" righteousness and God's "true" righteousness. I don't trust my ability to make right choices in the first place, even when they're pretty easy! And now we have some very hard choices to makes, choices that we'll obviously have to make over and over again as we continue to walk on this narrow path. What if I get it wrong? Jesus' audience doesn't know how the story ends because Jesus hasn't fulfilled His mission yet - this is for Him just another step to the cross. For His audience, this is the beginning of their mission. And the more they stumble on their path, the more they will [should] "ask" for help. And ultimately, Jesus will give them eternal help: atonement, forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit. And then things will start to make sense. These hearers have three years to soak on what Jesus has said, to acknowledge that they cannot perfectly keep the precepts of this Sermon. Then they will come back to the caveat "but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven." And they will learn God's will for them:
Here's the thing about a choice: it demands a response. How have we responded to this Sermon? Do we really care? Do we even try? All of these choices are tied together; we cannot ignore one and think that it won't affect the others. Are we going to follow Jesus or not?
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