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| Sermon on the Mount - Carl Bloch |
And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:2-12).
The beginning of Jesus’s Galilean ministry begins with preaching, teaching, and healing. Great multitudes followed him. Jesus, seeking to withdraw from the multitudes as he often would, went up on a mountain. His disciples went to him, and he taught them. The Sermon on the Mount, as Jesus’s words recorded in Matthew, chapters five through seven have come to be called, is the most famous sermon in all of history. It is also, arguably, the most misunderstood. We must understand to whom Jesus is speaking, and what he intends to teach, if we are to understand what he is saying. Though there are multitudes of people clamoring to get near Jesus, and some certainly heard his words, Jesus directed his teaching to his disciples. This message is for Christians. What Jesus is actually teaching becomes more apparent when this fact remains in mind.
This most famous sermon begins with the equally famous Beatitudes. Throughout the secular world, not to mention American Evangelicalism, the Beatitudes are often understood as a quid pro quo. If you are poor in spirit, the kingdom of heaven is yours, so work really hard to be as poor in spirit as you can. If you do this, then you get that; or this thing will happen to you. Jesus, however, is not declaring here an ethical demand of his followers by laying out a law of behavior or attitude. The Beatitudes are not so much a mountain of law which one is to climb to be a better Christian, or to qualify for blessing and eternal life, but rather it can be seen – particularly by your “old” man – as a mountain of law under which one is to be totally crushed.
Make no mistake, Jesus is certainly also assuring his disciples of God’s goodness, and the future blessings in store for them. In fact, the blessings Jesus describes in the Beatitudes are ours already, in Him. And, as we are sanctified by the working of the Holy Spirit through Word and Sacrament, we will grow in these blessings more and more. The crushing weight of the law, however, must first bring us to see our sin and to repent of it. This repentance and forgiveness comes as the gracious gift of God through the Gospel. The Christian is simul justus et peccator – simultaneously justified and sinner. The new man hears in the Beatitudes assurance of God’s goodness and future blessing; the old man hears law and judgment. When we recognize our own spiritual poverty, when the Lord leads us to hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness, when He makes us pure in heart so that we seek to worship only the true God, then we are blessed, now and forever.[1]
[1] Engelbrecht, Rev. Edward A., ed. The Lutheran Study Bible. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009.
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