Matthew 5, Part Two

At the risk of being too brief, I will now survey the Sermon on the Mount, in accord with my plan for this blog. I do encourage the reader into deeper study of this marvelous section of Scripture.

But before I get directly to the text, I do want to follow up on one point that I made in Part One. While the Sermon on the Mount deals mostly with motives and attitudes and, as I mentioned, there are no external “rituals” emphasized, I do not want to leave the impression that the “externals” are unimportant. God commands baptism (Acts 2:38), worship (John 4:24), good works (Epthesians 2:10). We must do these things. But as Paul makes clear in I Corinthians 13:1-3, if we don’t do our works with the proper motives, then those works are vain. That’s the theme of the Sermon on the Mount.

The text:

The Beatitudes (5:3-13)—This is an opening salvo that absolutely blows the Jews out of the water. “Blessed”—not “happy,” but “here are those who are truly well off in God’s sight"—are the poor in spirit, they that mourn, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the pure in heart, etc. This is not the Jewish way of looking at things in the first century. “What? What about ‘blessed are the rich, the powerful, the famous…?” No, those who are truly blessed are those who realize their sinful condition before God, can mourn over their sins, who long to be right with Him, who will purify their hearts before Him and strive for peace with others…AND who are willing to be persecuted for doing it (vs. 10-12). From the very beginning of this sermon, Jesus emphasizes the spirit within man, not the actions without—though, again, the latter are not unimportant.

Christian influence (5:13-16)—We are to be the “salt of the earth” and “light of the world.” Salt flavors, preserves, stings. Light shines in the darkness and directs people where to go. And if we aren’t salt and light, then what good are we to God and the world? But the emphasis again is not on self-aggrandizement, but “that [men] may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (v. 16). Our purpose on earth is to serve God, not exalt ourselves.

Jesus and the Law (5:17-20)—Jesus did not come to “destroy” the intent of the Law; no, He came to fulfill its intent. The whole purpose of the Old Testament, from Genesis 3:15 on, is to point us to Christ, the Redeemer. Some versions wrongly translate verse 17 as “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law” (NIV). Yes, He did (Ephesians 2:15). Destroy its meaning and intent? No. Abolish it once He had fulfilled its prophecies and purpose? Of course. Yet, while He was on earth, until the cross, He and the Jews were still bound by the Law of Moses; that’s the religious law Jesus lived under and thus He obeyed it, and taught others to obey it, while laying the groundwork for the new law that would come into effect after His death.

The statement that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (v. 20) is basically what I discussed in Part One. We must have more than an outward religion. Jesus follows this section up with five examples—not so much what the Law of Moses actually says, but the Pharisaic interpretations thereof versus what the Law really meant in Jesus' eyes.

And again, it must have been a bit of a shock to His listeners when Jesus told them that their righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, who were considered the most "righteous" of all men.