Sermon Overview
There are many tidbits of interest we may note concerning the Sermon on the Mount. Consisting of two thousand five hundred words in the original Greek, this sermon represents the longest continuous discourse of Jesus ever recorded. Spanning three chapters of Matthew, this sermon contains some of Christ’s most famous sayings. While taking only fifteen minutes to read, the wisdom of our Lord here has captivated almost twenty centuries of Christian thought. These factoids, however, cannot give a coherent sense of the weightiness and brilliance of Christ’s teaching. The glory is best presented in a vista of the full landscape and the beauty best enjoyed by a tour of each feature. While the latter expositional “tour” will occupy the majority of our study, it is fitting to begin with an overview of the Sermon in three parts: a thematic survey of its context, a look at the thought structure of its composition and the theological significance of its contents.
Thematic Survey
Having introduced the Book of Matthew, we need to introduce its first discourse and the first two verses of our study. After we look at the mountain in Matthew 5:1-2, we will consider the Man revealed by the “fulfillment” passages in Matthew 1-4. Without a survey of the rich biblical theological themes of the Sermon’s preceding context, our interpretive aim may prove wide of the mark. This collection of seven passages sets the Sermon on the Mount firmly upon the bow string and, as with the other four discourses, aims at the exaltation of Jesus of Nazareth as the King of kings.
The Mountain
I still remember these first two verses from my childhood efforts to memorize the Beatitudes. Mathew 5:1-2 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: These six phrases stick in my mind and they still hit me like a bit of odd poetry, a nursery rhyme that does not have to make sense. But there’s no Jack and Jill fetching water and failing here. These two verses carry a great deal of theological freight. Much of it has already been loaded in the “fulfillment” depot of Matthew 1-4. Before we examine that cargo manifest we should meditate on the significance of the Sermon’s introduction and setting.
The “multitudes” appear over two dozen times in Matthew and the crowd currently in front of Jesus has gathered due to His rapidly increasing fame catalyzed by His preaching and healing ministry. The three preceding verses to our passage explain the cause and origins of this multitude. Matthew 4:23-25 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. 24 Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. 25 Great multitudes followed Him–from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan. We are compelled to imagine a large throng of people who had relatively little in common with one another other than their attention on Jesus, their growing hope and confidence in His message and power.
The “mountain” Jesus ascended has been hard to verify. Traditionally, Mt. Eremos has been identified as the mountain and is actually now just called “The Mount of Beatitudes.” Although we cannot be sure, there are several features that make this site viable. The broad slope would afford both the space and acoustic advantage needed from a large crowd. Jesus’ posture of sitting signaled His readiness to teach, a tradition easily understood by His audience (Matthew 23:2). The “disciples” came to Him as the multitudes settled in for the lesson. These two groups are related but different in both devotion and number. We learn later that there are twelve disciples in all (Matthew 10:1). More curious than Matthew’s attention to Jesus’ posture is his emphasis on Jesus’ open “mouth.” In one sense it would be as expected for a Jewish rabbi to sit and teach as it would be to use his mouth to do so. However, Matthew is not wasting space with frivolous words. He actually transports heavy amounts of truth in his economy of words. We should meditate on these loaded terms and be blessed by the glories of Jesus Christ.
There are three related ideas being forwarded here in these two verses via key words and ideas. Matthew alludes to two particular passages dealing with the Creation and Covenant while displaying Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of Moses. Let’s think about Christ as the typological fulfillment of Moses first, since this is the most obvious connection. The phrase “he went up on a mountain” after Jesus also spent “forty days and forty nights in the wilderness” (Matthew 4:1-2), fires off all manner of biblical-theological connections with Moses. Moses also went up a mountain and returned after forty days and nights to teach the multitude organized into twelve tribes (Exodus 24:4, 12, 18). Complaints about the order and results not being the same only make Matthew’s point. Jesus is a better mediator and lawgiver. He brings multitudes up the mountain with Him. They are not scattered in fear as at Sinai (Exodus 20:18-21; Deuteronomy 5:4). He endures the wilderness alone as a faithful Servant. Unlike old Israel, Christ as the True Israel did not succumb to murmuring against God due to hunger and thirst (Exodus 16:2-3; 17:1-7; Psalm 78:17-20).
Jesus’s supremacy to Moses (Deuteronomy 18:17-18; Matthew 17:1-8) made clear in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17-20; 7:28-29), is built upon the intentional comparison made by several thematic points of contact. Matthew displays more than a nifty connection that shows a beautiful symmetry in Scripture. This correlation is actually consummation. Moses has handed off the baton to his successor, Yeshua, Who will lead the people into His rest (Numbers 13:16; Deuteronomy 3:27-28; Hebrews 4:1-16). Matthew has already alluded to this dynamic (Matthew 1:21). John the Baptist, the preeminent prophet of the Old Covenant honors Christ as the Amen of Heaven’s pleasure, fulfilling all righteousness (Matthew 3:11-17). We should, therefore, not expect Jesus to pitch His tent next to Moses’s, but as the better and more glorious house in place of Moses—even as the Temple satisfyingly fulfilled the Tabernacle in a superior fashion.
This theme of satisfying fulfillment through supremacy is alluded to in the Sermon’s introduction. Two passages concerning Creation and Covenant come to the Biblically saturated mind upon reading Matthew 5:2. Here we return to this curious detail that Jesus “opened His mouth” in order to teach. This is such an obvious assumption it begs the question, “What would be the point of using precious ink and papyrus to state it explicitly?” More importantly, why would the Holy Spirit bear Matthew along in this phrase? Surely, it is not in vain. Consider the echo found in the following two verses, the merits of their contextual correlation and the meanings of their creational and covenantal themes.
First, we have Proverbs 8:6-8 Listen, for I will speak of excellent things, And from the opening of my lips will come right things; 7 For my mouth will speak truth; Wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 8 All the words of my mouth are with righteousness; Nothing crooked or perverse is in them. This is Wisdom, personified as “Lady Wisdom” in contrast to “Miss Folly” in Solomon’s instructions to his son. Note how Wisdom opens her mouth from the high hill in the first two verses, Proverbs 8:1-2 Does not wisdom cry out, And understanding lift up her voice? 2 She takes her stand on the top of the high hill, Beside the way, where the paths meet. Wisdom is the prerequisite for kings (Proverbs 8:15-16), and as King of God’s kingdom, Jesus Christ has the fullness of wisdom in Him (Colossians 2:3). Therefore the blessings of Wisdom (Proverbs 8:17-21), are the beatitudes of Christ’s kingdom (Matthew 5:3-10). He does all things well! Indeed the Father’s pleasure in the Son at His baptism—the signal of the New Creation (Genesis 1:2b; Matthew 3:16-17), is an “amen” of the pleasure of the LORD in Wisdom from the beginning of Creation (Proverbs 8:22-31). Wisdom’s conclusion establishes her word as blessing and life, essential for escaping destruction (Proverbs 8:32-36). Jesus says much the same with similar expressions in His conclusion of His Sermon (Matthew 7:24-27). As Wisdom, fulfilled and incarnate, as the Creator, Jesus Christ fashions His kingdom. He opens His mouth to craft His New Creation with words—words of blessing, wisdom and righteousness.
Second, we have Psalm 78:1-4 A Contemplation of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, 3 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. This passage is directly quoted as part of a fulfillment formula in Matthew 13:34-35, and is also alluded to here in Matthew 5:2. Asaph’s use of “law” here speaks of “instruction” or “teaching,” rather than specifying the Ten Commandments. The content of this instruction is listed in verse 4 and reads more like the stories of Creation and the Patriarchs than the stipulations of Sinai. Nonetheless, faithfulness to this Old Covenant is Asaph’s primary concern throughout his lengthy composition (Psalm 78:1-72). The plagues of God upon Egypt are echoed by His judgments upon Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom, due to their covenant transgressions. How will God keep His covenant promises and blessings for His people? He chose Judah and Judah’s favorite son, David. God’s blessings will come through David (Psalm 78:67-72). Significantly, the connection of David and Jesus is made several times in the first chapter of Matthew (Matthew 1:1, 6, 17). The “generation to come” (Psalm 78:4) reminds us of the wilderness judgment. The younger generation entered into God’s promises (just like Seth, Shem, Isaac and Jacob). So also Israel, the northern kingdom is judged, but Judah is given the blessings. The message of Psalm 78 puts the attention of the worshipper upon the Kingdom blessings arriving through the line of Judah and David. This focus is enhanced by stressing the need for these blessings given so much deserved judgment upon Old Covenant transgressors. This theme proves quite appropriate for the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus lays out His New Covenant Kingdom and calls for the superior righteousness and relationships which attends the renewed image of God.
All of these connections showing Christ as the sum of God’s Wisdom in Creation, the fulfilment of God’s Promises in the Covenants and God’s new Lawgiver in the New Covenant are not fanciful but substantial for two reasons. First, the following material of the Sermon continues with several more similar, thematic connections. Second, the previous four chapters are full of clear fulfillment themes which prepare the reader to see Christ’s glories in otherwise mundane details. Studying such material may seem to unnecessarily delay our study of the Sermon on the Mount. However, it is difficult to appreciate the force of this Sermon when we have not measured the Biblical-theological momentum which Matthew builds up. As an example, I envision the Beatitudes as a “sonic boom” which sounds “out of nowhere” to the incautious reader. Yet if we ride in the cockpit, hear the engine roar and feel the gravitational forces, it all makes sense. We have considered the Mountain (Matthew 5:1-2), now let us meditate more on the Man (Matthew 1:1-4:25).
Introduction to the Man (Part 1—Immanuel)
