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A Great Sermon
Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” as we call it is perhaps the greatest sermon ever preached. It is recorded in Matthew 5-7. For 2,000 years, people have been listening to it, studying it, debating it, and quoting it (7:1 is an oft-quoted verse by critics of Christianity!).
This article is not about its specifics. Instead, I just want to make a few broad observations about it.
The sermon isn’t long. Reading it aloud takes only about fifteen or twenty minutes. I and most other preachers have an entire series on the sermon in which we spend hours discussing what Jesus said in a few minutes. Perhaps we could all use a caution not to become too detailed in our preaching.
The sermon’s language is simple. It doesn’t have any theological jargon in it. You won’t need a dictionary standing by as you read it. The original crowd readily understood it (7:28), and so can we.
The tone is serious, though by no means somber. Jesus did not tell jokes. His purpose was not to entertain. (There is, perhaps, an element of humor in 7:3-5). The sermon contains a number of parallels to daily life to help the hearers grasp the point, but they are all succinctly stated. There are no long, drawn-out illustrations.
The sermon is both negative and positive. It points out wrong in people’s thinking and lives, and then shows right attitudes and conduct. Jesus was not afraid to offend a hearer. Don’t you suspect the Pharisees bristled when the Lord said, “For I say to you unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (5:20)?
The sermon contrasts popular teaching with truth. A major section of it is the “you have heard . . . but I say” contrasts (5:21-48). Jesus did not subscribe to the notion that it does not matter what we believe or that one’s truth is as valid as another’s.
The sermon goes to the heart of our problems. It exposes the hatred behind murder, the lust behind adultery and divorce, the deceitfulness behind not keeping one’s word, the pride behind public displays of righteousness, and so on. It unmasks worry as lack of faith, and greed as a rival to God as our master. It therefore calls for changes of heart as well as conduct.
The sermon contrasts the world’s measures of blessedness with God’s measures, and earthly values with heavenly values. It unmistakably says most people are on the wrong road and warns us not to follow.
The sermon closes with an emphasis on living it, not just listening to it. I’ll close there too.
