Lesson from Sunday March 28th, 2010
The bulk of the book of Matthew is organized around five discourses or teachings of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount is the first of these. The others are his instructions to his disciples in 10, the parables in 13, teachings on the church in 18, and the Olivet Discourse in 24-25. There is a shorter version of the SOTM in Luke 6:20-49 typically referred to as the Sermon on the Plain because that is the setting given by Luke. Most take the two to be drawn from different teaching situations when Jesus spoke the same message. This contrast is a good place to see how each of the gospel writers, drawing from their experiences and the experiences of others, compiled very similar, but not identical accounts. Still, reading both these accounts one is struck by the consistency of the sermons as recorded by the two writers.
The manner in which the SOTM has been interpreted throughout history is interesting. At the heart of the difficulty in interpretation is that Jesus’ words are quite absolute, some would say, legalistic for example “if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away,” (5:29) and “be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (5:48). We cannot cover all the interpretations here, but a few may serve to give us a sense of this. The first is that taken by dispensationalists who would see in the SOTM not a teaching to be applied today, but rather the kingdom ethic that will be applied when Christ returns and inaugurates his kingdom on this earth (Rev. 20:1ff). It is, in this way an eschatological teaching, given to Christians to help them understand where this world and era (the church age) is headed. While there are moral principles such as loving others and seeking true spirituality (instead of an external law) that believers should follow today, the full implementation is not for this time period. A second interpretive frame is that taken by the Catholic Church, which originated with St. Augustine, and divides the teachings in the SOTM to general principles and specific counsels. All believers must adhere to the first, but only priests must adhere to the specific councils. For example, based on the SOTM priests must not serve in the military but parishioners may do so. Lutherans see the SOTM as “law,” words of Jesus designed to show us our need for grace. Martin Luther famously developed a two realms view (sacred and secular) teaching that the SOTM applies in the spiritual realm but not the physical, secular realm where a person has responsibility to their country and family. Anabaptists see in Jesus’ words an ethic for both believers and non-believers and a call to renounce all violence, namely pacisfism.