Sermon on the Mount

 One of the most influential teachings of Jesus is found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7; Luke 6:20-49). It has been called the “constitution of Christianity,” and it's here, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, that He outlines the “code of conduct '' for His followers. 

At first glance, it may be tempting to surmise that Jesus is establishing a practical lifestyle guide that was actually harder than Moses’ instructions. “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago…but I say to you…” (Matthew 5:21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43) all referring to some of the ancient laws of Moses given on Mount Sinai. However, what Jesus was about to show those living on the Judean hillside was that fulfilling God’s laws just required the right heart.

Moses delivered a similar speech. In fact, the entire book of Deuteronomy is a sermon on the mount. And, like Jesus, he was giving the “code of conduct” the people of God should live by in order to be what God had called them to be earlier on the mountain. God said, “Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6).

In Moses’ instructions, he ended his sermon with “blessings” (Deuteronomy 28:1-14) and “cursings” (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). Jesus on the other hand begins His sermon with “blessings” in what we call the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-11; Luke 6:20-22). Luke, however, follows Moses’ pattern of pairing the blessings with the cursings, or “woes” in Luke. Much like the section in Moses’ sermon about the cursings, which were significantly lengthier than the blessings, Jesus will spend much of His earthly ministry dealing with the curses that were rooted in the hearts of the religious leaders.

The hope is that we as readers will recognize that Moses was giving his final instructions to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land and that Jesus is giving similar instructions before entering the Kingdom of God. As Jesus’ ministry unfolds, we begin to have a paradigm shift in what the Kingdom of God is really about.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20, “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” 

Shepherds and Christ

Resurrection Sunday, commonly known as Easter, is a day of celebration. Ultimately, the understanding of what Jesus has made possible for us is a cause for celebration. But, as in the Bible, God often set days aside for the Israelites especially, to remind them to listen to His gracious voice, to follow His loving guidance throughout life. 

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Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” 

That promise is probably best illustrated in His sacrifice of Himself on the cross where He modeled what a great leader and savior He is. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34). His sacrifice set the example of how we are to live (1 Peter 2:21); but it also set an example of the kind of people you should look up to for spiritual guidance on earth — 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ” 

Jesus told a story of a good shepherd in John 10, where He describes the character of a shepherd who cares about the sheep. He says, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (10:11). He leads the sheep to good pasture, he protects them, and the sheep knew his voice. 

Ezekiel 34 contrasts the bad shepherds of Israel to the good shepherd that would be discovered in Jesus. In that contrast, we realize a shepherd was always intended to feed the sheep, to care for the injured, to strengthen the weak. Later, after Jesus’ resurrection, He gave the apostles a job that would be carried on (in some ways) from generation to generation. He said to Peter in John 21:15-17, “Feed My sheep.” What a significant responsibility! 

The story of the shepherd (John 10) was an obvious reflection of Jesus’ sacrifice. It is a high standard that we all should be grateful for and one that causes us to see the beautiful power of genuine love for the sheep in God’s fold. 

Who's the Greatest?

Who’s the greatest NBA basketball player of all time? One problem with that question is what criteria would be being used to determine that. We could gauge that title on their ability to shoot, dribble, pass, defend or rebound, the number of national titles won, etc. But there are plenty of professional basketball players who do those fairly well most of the time (or they wouldn’t be in the NBA). Maybe we determine that title based on popularity, off-court behavior, or the amount of money they’ve earned in their career. 

The Jews had an idea of who the greatest king in Israel would be, using David as the criteria, or Solomon, or what they built, or who submitted to them, but Jesus claimed to be greater than all those:
Matthew 12:42, “The Queen of the South… came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.” 
Matthew 12:6-8, “I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 

Jesus’ claim to be greater than wisdom, the temple, even the Sabbath was a big claim for someone to make, especially to a group like the Jews who regarded their ancestors as being the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time). 

Perhaps similar to the contest that Elijah had with King Ahab in 1 Kings 18, the “god” that showed up was the greater god. Ba’al was on vacation, or sleeping, or…didn’t exist! But God showed up in a big way. Jesus, or Immanuel (God with us), showed up on earth challenging those peoples and ideals that had been propped up as the greatest. 

The contest between the religious leaders and Jesus began early in Jesus’ ministry and would last until they killed Him. Yet as Jesus tells Nicodemus of God’s standard of greatness in their private meeting (John 3), He shares with him the real measure of what makes up “greatness” in God’s eyes. 

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This simple statement has become one of the most recognizable and most popular verses in the Bible. In this statement is a divine declaration of what is great! The greatest God gave the world the greatest opportunity to share in the greatest promise by avoiding the greatest tragedy. Jesus set a new standard of what determines The Greatest!

Nicodemus and Pharaoh

Imagine being a Hebrew slave, crying out to God for help, and Moses shows up as your deliverer. What he says just makes Pharaoh angrier and more of a tyrant than before. A lot of bitterness could stem from his “deliverance.” In the end, however, you would be able to celebrate your freedom from slavery on the banks of the Red Sea with your fellow Hebrews. We read of their song of praise in Exodus 15, but it wasn’t until the complete process of deliverance that the people recognized God’s hand in it.

In a similar way, Jesus showed up as a kind of new and improved Moses to deliver God’s people from the bondage of sin. The Gospel story is the good news of deliverance, but the story helps us see how that wonderful message met with resistance. Some Jews, especially the religious Jewish leaders, refused to see Jesus as the Messiah.

Yet, there was at least one Jewish leader that did recognize Jesus as a messenger of God - Nicodemus. We read of that famous meeting in John 3 where Nicodemus says to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with Him.” (John 3:2) He saw what Pharaoh had been too stubborn to see in Moses.

However, simply acknowledging Jesus as God’s messenger, or even the Messiah didn’t equate to acceptance of His kingship. Jesus said to him, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” (3:3) And in the dialogue we realize Jesus is inviting him to see what has been revealed in the Bible the whole time, and to trust what God is doing.

“No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” (3:13-17).

Why couldn’t other religious leaders follow Nicodemus’ example by humbly coming to Jesus and trying to find out what it all meant? Like Pharaoh, this is stubborn pride; they simply refused to see. To that, Jesus said in John 3:18, “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” Or as He would conclude their conversation with, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil…”

Our goal is to see how Jesus the Christ is leading us out of bondage like Moses led the Israelites out of bondage. As Peter would later say in 1 Peter 5:5, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”