by Jacob Ninan
What I hope to do, with the help of God, is to bring out some of the themes that Jesus was trying to convey through what is commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount. It is very likely that this is not just one sermon, but possibly a collection of many truths that Jesus shared during many such sermons. Jesus spoke this to Jewish listeners, most of whom had only heard teachings about God from their leaders, based on their interpretations of the Old Testament. What Jesus has managed to do here is to present the standard of life that God has for people. We can say that this is this standard which God had in His mind for mankind from the beginning, but which He had been unable to announce to people earlier because they were not ready for it. In this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains God's heart by bringing out many aspects of the inner life. If we understand this, we can see the real standard of life God had in mind, even when He gave the people a lowered down standard through the Ten Commandments. Some people wrongly assume that the New Testament is contradictory to the Old Testament. But here Jesus explains what the Old Testament laws really meant, in their spirit. In other words, while the Old Testament laws addressed the external behaviour God wanted from people, Jesus shows us the heart behind those laws, and what it means for us to be pleasing to God from our heart. Now we can see how Jesus brought about the fulfillment of the Old Testament law.
In that sense, this Sermon on the Mount is the manifesto of Jesus. Many people, including some Christians, think that they would be acceptable to God if they kept the Ten Commandments. Their mistake is in thinking that mere external keeping of the commandments will be enough for God. We know how easy it is for us to present a good image externally while our hearts are far from God. In this Sermon, Jesus exposes the huge gap that needs to be bridged between the heart and the external behaviour.
This sermon of Jesus contrasts with the theme of much preaching among Christians these days. What a lot of people hear from preachers is how Jesus will bless them with earthly blessings, make them great, and how Jesus will take care of all their problems. This is the reason why many people come to Jesus these days. Yet that is not what Jesus says in His manifesto. Even when Jesus was here on earth, a majority of people who followed Him had similar ideas. Jesus was not fooled by the large following, but He pointed out what they ought to have looked for (Jn.6:26,27).
Sometimes, people read this Sermon and think that these standards are far too high and unreachable for any human being. So they treat this as an expression of ideals, without making any attempt to experience them. But remember this. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, and then, what was impossible for us earlier in our own human strength becomes increasingly possible for us as the Holy Spirit works in us, guiding us towards the truth and empowering us to be obedient to Him.
Let us get into the sermon on the mount. Matt.5:3-12. The first thing we see here is a set of verses which people call the beatitudes. This word means 'supreme blessedness'. When we look at these verses, one thing we immediately notice is that they are not referring to an abundance of earthly wealth, health and happiness. Jesus is talking about the blessedness we can have in our heart and mind as we become more and more heavenly minded and experience the fruit of the Holy Spirit. This is also the blessedness that will carry over into eternity. It is important to note that what Jesus offers is not a problem-free life here on earth. When His values in us clash with those of the world, He tells us there will be opposition. But the life that He will give us will help us to rise above the opposition and even rejoice in the fact that opposition is bringing us closer to God.
Matt.5:13-16. Jesus tells us that from the midst of the darkness that will cover the earth, the light of the life that He gives us will shine brightly, and show other people who He is and what He can do to transform people. Also, like salt that gives taste and preserves food from decay, it will be the presence of His people in the midst of society that will preserve conscience and a sense of right of wrong when the whole world will be going down in the opposite direction. Our testimony that should serve as light and salt is not our doctrines, but the practical life of Christ that people can notice in us. We cannot even hide behind our church activities.
Matt.5:17-20. Jesus says He came to fulfill the law of the Old Testament. What He means by the law here is the moral law God gave His people through the Ten Commandments which has now taken deeper meaning and application. There were other laws in the Old Testament related to ceremonies and rituals of worship, and civic law for the nation of Israel. When Jesus died as the ultimate sacrifice to bring man to God, that was the fulfillment of all the religious laws of Israel. Then animal sacrifices, priestly mediators between God and man, festivals, etc., became irrelevant. The civic laws of Israel are not any more applicable to others.
God's moral laws are forever (v.18). One big mistake many Christians make is to think that Jesus has kept the law in their place and so they are not under obligation to any law. Jesus Himself kept the moral law so perfectly as a Man and there was no sin found in Him. This was how He could be offered up as the Lamb of God without spot or blemish. His sacrifice paid for our penalty, opened a way back to God for us and has given us an opportunity now to live in obedience to God. God wants us to overcome the pull of sin and stop sinning knowingly (1Jn.2:1). He has also provided for our forgiveness if we fail at times. But now we are not without any law over us, because now we come under the law of the Spirit (Rom.8:2).
We need to specially note Jesus saying that unless we exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. Not a bit of sin or unrighteousness can enter heaven. The so-called righteousness that these religious leaders followed was merely external (Matt.23:28). That our righteousness has to be on the inside is easy to understand. But it is quite a leap to think of a righteousness that is fit for heaven, without spot or blemish. We cannot have that kind of righteousness while we are in these earthly bodies, because we still carry within us the sinful desires of our old nature (Gal.5:17). We must also realise that by trying to keep the law, no one will be able to become good enough to enter heaven (Rom.3:20). It is when we acknowledge our utter failure in righteousness and come to Jesus as our Saviour that God transfers the debt of our sin to Jesus and transfers the righteousness of Jesus to our account (Isa.61:10). To be clothed in His righteousness is our entry pass for heaven (Matt.22:11,12). With this acceptance through grace, we begin our lifelong journey of learning to keep His commandments and becoming more and more like Him.
Matt.5:21-30. Jesus now begins to illustrate what it means to follow the law in spirit and in truth, and not merely externally. For example, it is anger that leads to murder. The Old Testament prohibited murder as an external act, but Jesus says that if we nurture anger in our heart, we will be equally guilty. It is the same way with adultery. Are we following the law of God in spirit and truth if we are careful only to avoid physical murder and adultery, while we nurture anger and lust within our heart? We must understand that if we overcome anger in our heart, we will never be tempted to murder someone, and if we overcome lust in our heart, there will be no chance of physical adultery. That is the life Jesus has made possible, but many Christians are satisfying themselves with mere external purity. Jesus tells us that if want to keep His laws and enjoy His life, we have to be radical in dealing with our temptations.
Matt.5:31-48. In this section, Jesus continues to illustrate the difference between following the law in spirit and truth and merely following external rules. The Old Testament permitted husbands to put away their wives by giving them a certificate of divorce. But Jesus points out that God's idea of marriage is to be lifelong. It is meaningless to argue about how to make one's oaths reliable, because God's goal is to make us trustworthy and reliable even without having to take oaths. Mistakenly taking the laws of the Old Testament giving guidelines about punishment for crimes, such as 'an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth', some people were taking them as permission to take revenge. On the other hand, Jesus brought out the necessity to learn to bear with evil and showing mercy to the others. He went beyond even that to say that we could learn to love our enemies not pretending as if no evil is being done to us by our enemies, but to desire good in our heart for them in return. He wants us to rise above the level of the written laws to the heart of God.
Matt.6:1-5. Isn't this a great warning for us, to make sure that we live before God's face, concerned about what He thinks about us, and to be freed from placing much value on the opinions of men? On another occasion, Jesus said that the Pharisees did everything to be noticed by men (Matt.23:5). If we live before God, all our actions will be true inside and outside of us. But if we live before people, we will only be concerned about what they think, and our inner life can be very different from what we try to impress people with (Matt.23:28).
Matt.6:6-13. This is not a prayer for us to recite, but something for us to learn the right priorities for our prayers. See the top priority in this prayer for God the Father – His name, His kingdom and His will. If we want to have an attitude of 'praying without ceasing', this should be the priority of the whole of our life too! Think of having God's interests uppermost in our mind all the time! Sure, prayer is also a way to request for our practical needs (Php.4:6). Think of this especially as concerned with the daily need to pray for help in our struggles which we face over overcoming temptations, getting rid of the guilt of failures, getting on top of the bondages we have been subject to, etc.
Matt.6:14,15. This is a very clear warning from Jesus about the nature of our forgiveness which God gives us, by grace as something we don't deserve. After that if we refuse to forgive others who have sinned against us, saying they don't deserve it, we must know that God will stop forgiving us. In another place, Jesus warned us through a parable that having received forgiveness, if we will not forgive others who have sinned against us, God might even take back our forgiveness (Matt.18:21-35).
Matt.6:16-18. Fasting is when we deliberately give up something that is important to us in order to focus our attention on seeking God and learning from Him. It is not something with which we try to force God's hands, or as it says here, to impress people about our spirituality.
Matt.6:19-24. Here Jesus gives us a very important secret of spiritual life, and that is to make sure that we always keep our eyes on the end goal. If we want to build up our relationship with God, we have to be single minded about it. It must be the top most priority in our life, because our relationship with God must be what rules over every other part of our life. While we imagine that we are spiritually minded, if we are actually running after money, money will become our real god. Even though Jesus used the example of money here, this could equally apply to other goals like fame, pleasure, greatness, etc. They will overpower our spiritual goals. That is why Jesus states very clearly that we cannot serve two masters. In spite of this clear warning, some imagine that they can manage to keep their spirituality intact while they actually run after their earthly goals.
Matt.6:25-34. Jesus assures us that if the Father takes care of plants and animals without their worrying over them, He will much more take care of us, whom He values far greater than those. He again reiterates the point that our mind must be set on things above and not be occupied by our earthly needs. If we seek God's kingdom, or in other words we serve Him as our king all the time and in every area of our life, and we follow Him by seeking to live every day in righteousness, that is how we set our mind above. And then His promise is that He will take care of everything that we need in our life.
Matt.7:1-5. The word 'judge' here is used in the sense of condemning someone. We give up the right to judge others when we receive our own salvation from God on the basis of grace or unmerited favour. We acknowledge that we deserve judgment, and receive mercy from God as as undeserved gift. Then we must not turn around and judge others on the basis of what they deserve. We have to train ourselves to get out of the habit of jumping to find fault with the others, forgetting that we too have many faults. Many people misunderstand this passage to think that we must not even form any opinion about others. Jesus tells us in another place to form our opinions not based on outward appearances, but righteously (Jn.7:24).
Matt.7:6. This is a warning for us to discern what kind of a person we are dealing with before we open up to them, or even share the wisdom of the Gospel, because otherwise it can even backfire on our face.
Matt.7:7-11. This is not to be understood as saying that we have to only ask for receiving from God whatever we want. That kind of understanding will lead to unnecessary disappointments as people begin to ask whatever they like. On the other hand, what Jesus is saying is that if you really want something you will not sit around complacently, but you will ask and seek and knock. Jesus is especially referring to receiving the power of the Holy Spirit, as we see from Lk.11:13. Of course, we must also remember that like any good father, our Heavenly Father will only give us what is good for us.
Matt.7:12. People refer to this as the Golden Rule. Jesus tells us to treat others just as we would like to be treated by them. What we want from others is to be patient with us, to show mercy for our failures, give us another chance, etc. That is how we must treat others. This is not telling us to do back to others what they do to us!
Matt.7:13,14. This is a much neglected truth among Christians who magnify the love and grace of God and downsize His holiness and righteousness. Jesus talks of a narrow gate through which one has to enter, and a narrow path through which to walk the rest of life. The danger is that there are a wide gate and a broad way that attract a lot of people who imagine that they will also lead them to life. People do not realise that they are actually heading towards destruction. What we have to do at the narrow gate is to decide to forsake our old way of sin and instead to follow Jesus all the way. In order to follow Jesus on the narrow path, we learn to take up our cross daily, deny ourselves and do whatever He tells us (Lk.9:23). What many Christians think is that as long as they 'believe in Jesus', they do not have to give up anything or start running towards something else. They do not realise that without repenting from their sin and giving up their old way of life, merely believing in Jesus is a wide gate. Living in a way of pleasing themselves without forsaking sin is a broad path that finally ends up in destruction. The sole purpose why Jesus came to this earth and sacrificed Himself was to save us from our sins – its punishment and also its power over our life (Matt.1:21). Without seeking to experience that, but only to have a comfortable and enjoyable life on earth, people deceive themselves thinking that Jesus has become their Saviour.
Matt,7:15-23. Jesus warns us not to blindly follow every leader who comes in His name. Some of them are only looking for ways to exploit the gullible people for their own gain, in terms of money, fame or power. The way we need to discern them is to look for fruit in their life – the fruit of the Holy Spirit making them more and more like Jesus, and also fruit in their ministry turning their followers to become more like Jesus. We might get fooled if we merely look at the way some of these leaders teach, prophesy and even do miracles. Even Satan can do miracles, but only the Holy Spirit can produce godly fruit in our life.
Matt.7:24-27. This is another commonly misunderstood passage among Christians. There are two builders here, one building his house on a rock, and the other building his house on the sand. Both houses looked safe till a storm came. The house on the rock stood firm but the house on the sand crumbled. Many Christians have wrongly interpreted this parable and claimed that they were safe because they were building on Christ, the Rock. But that is not what Jesus meant. According to Him, the two builders represented two types of believers. Both of them heard the Gospel, and both of them believed. That was how they became believers. But the critical difference between two groups of Christians was that one paid attention to obeying all that the Lord told them, while for the other group, believing was enough! See vv.24,26. What a tragedy for people who assumed they were Christians till a trial came and exposed their true condition, that their foundation itself was false!
Conclusion
These three chapters show us the kind of life He expects from us, and for which He came and sacrificed Himself. We can see that many so-called Christians are only paying lip service to these words, but they have not turned in their heart from their self-centred, pleasure-seeking ways to receive the life of God to become a practical reality in their life. Which path are we on? If are really on the path that leads to life, have we begun to see godly fruit coming up in our life?Please take the trouble of reading up Matthew chapters 5 to 7 seriously, and checking whether what I have spoken here is true. If they are true, follow it up in your life, and pass this on to your friends. If you think you have a different view, please get back to me. May the Lord bless us.