THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
The Sermon on the Mount
Exhortations and Warnings: Mt,7,13-29
The Sermon began with the Beatitudes, the blessings which outline just what it means to belong to the kingdom of God. The body of the Sermon is formed by Jesus teaching this in more detail. The warnings at the end are a reminder that it is all demanding to be a disciple of Jesus, and so it is easy to fall by the wayside. The choice is always there, as the Deuteronomy frequently makes clear. Dt 11,26-27 refers to the choice between blessing and curse; Jeremiah 21,8 speaks of life and death.
That takes us straight to the first saying, 7,13-14 where Jesus says "enter by the narrow gate". I referred you here to Psalm 1 with the choice of two ways and the Lord watches over the way of the righteous (Ps 1,6). This is the important choice to make at the beginning of the Psalter. Like the Psalter, the Sermon on the Mount does not disguise the hardships of the way.
The few who find the way in verse 14 has often been read in a judgemental and exclusive way. It is better to take this in its context simply as a warning. Overall, the Gospel of Matthew is good at setting more judgemental sayings alongside sayings of openness.
False Prophets
As portrayed in the Gospels, Jesus is a prophet, doing the will of the Father and teaching the kingdom. Hence his authority as we will see in 7,28-29. At Nazareth he refers to himself as a prophet, 13,57.
True and false prophecy was always a major concern in for the people of Israel. It takes time for fruit to be shown. I gave the two examples of Michiah in 1 Kings 22 and the story of Jeremiah and Hanniah in Jeremiah 28. Amos would be another example (Am 7,12-17).
There is ample evidence in the New Testament about the importance of prophets in the early Christian communities (1 Cor 14,3-4). One of them even wrote a book, the Apocalypse (Apoc 1,3). As the Church developed a strong institutional culture so there was less room for the freedom of prophets and prophecy.
Verses 22 and 23 remind us that the fundamental theme of the sermon is righteousness. Seeking the kingdom and its righteousness means going beyond simply doing things in the name of Jesus.
This is underlined by the word usually translated "evildoers" in verse 23. The word actually means "lawlessness", which recalls Jesus in 5,17 saying that he came to fulfill the law and the prophets.
Hearing and Doing 7,24-27
This simile begins in verse 24 by stressing not only the listening to the words of Jesus but also the importance of doing them. This is the point made strongly in the letter of James. "Doing" is a key word which will not be reflected in translations: the tree in verses 17 and 18 "does" fruit. There is doing the will of God in verse 22 and doing deeds in verse 23. All this comes to a focus in this final parable of the Sermon. The need is to hear and then to do, built on the rock which is the teachings of Jesus.
With this there is the contrast between the wise and the foolish which is classic wisdom as in the Book of Proverbs. I also mentioned the wise and foolish virgins in chapter 25 with the need to be ready and prepared. There is the judgement to come as in verse 23.
Luke ends his Sermon on the Plain with the same parable, Lk 6,48-49. Luke stresses the quality of the foundations. Matthew describes the storm in some detail. In the next chapter, he follows up this parable with the story of Jesus and the disciples caught in a storm on the lake, 8,23-27.
Return to the main page.
CONCLUSION
"When Jesus finished.." in verse 28 is Matthew's way of ending all five discourses.
That the crowds, last mentioned in 5,1, were astonished at his teaching does not mean that they have come to having faith.
Yet the authority of Jesus and his teaching is evident to them, as it is not to the scribes (9,6). At the end of the Gospel, the risen Jesus will stress his authority (28,18).
Return to the main page.