Matthew sets the Sermon on the
Mount early in Jesus’ ministry. In the preceding narrative, Jesus has fasted in
the desert, faced temptation, and called his first disciples. Having witnessed
Him preach in the synagogues, cure the sick, and drive out evil spirits, crowds
have begun to follow Jesus. The crowds are not just from the local towns and
villages of Galilee, but from the surrounding regions as well, as far as Syria and the Decapolis.
This narrative presents an enthusiastic beginning to Jesus’ ministry. The
narrative that follows the Sermon relates Jesus’ healing of a leper and of the
centurion’s servant. In the leper we find an unclean social outcast while the centurion
is not only an unclean gentile but is an authority for the occupation forces in
Judea: one is a completely powerless outcast,
one a symbol of brutality and strength. Juxtaposed between these images of a
growing messianic movement and the ironic opposites of leper and centurion, the
Sermon on the Mount unites the themes of a reinvigorated understanding of
ancient traditions, radical conversion to God, and the universal call to
holiness.
In the preceding narrative to the
Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contends with the devil, quoting scripture to reject
the devil’s temptations. Jesus again quotes scripture in the Sermon, but this
time He rejects the traditional understanding of these passages to draw his
listeners to a new understanding. Six times Jesus reminds the crowd, “you have
heard it said,” but then challenges the “political-religious structure of his
time” (Hill 2004) to rethink what these
passages mean. In doing so he challenges his listeners to “return to the best
of their traditions” (Hill 2004). Not
satisfied with the status quo, Jesus asks us to reconsider the things we say
and do that are too often done by rote. Jesus takes to task the conventional
wisdom of the day regarding adultery, retaliation, enemies, and more, and
confronts, upsets, revises and extends this understanding. It is not enough to
exact justice; rather, the mercy that God shares with us we must share with
others. It is not enough to love one’s neighbor; rather, one’s enemy is as much
a child of God as we are and is therefore our neighbor. It is not enough to
apply the cold dictates of law to marriage; rather the law of love must rule
hearts and relationships. It is not enough to be loving with the “righteous;”
rather, the outcast and the sinner are just as deserving of our friendship. Even
with prayer, our intimate discourse with God, Jesus asks of us to reconsider
our habits and assumptions. Furthermore, in the narrative that follows, Jesus
puts his words into action, healing the leper (the very definition of the outcast)
and the centurion’s servant, showing healing love to the enemy himself. Jesus
shows by word and deed how to put this new understanding into practice.
Jesus preaches a radical conversion
to God. In the narrative preceding the Sermon, Jesus calls his disciples and
they leave everything to follow him, abandoning boats and nets, family and
friends. In the Sermon, the Beatitudes call to us to get on with our own
conversion. By inverting our understanding of what holiness is, the Beatitudes
demand of us just as radical a conversion as the one experienced by the first
disciples.
We don’t think of the poor and the
powerless as being particularly happy. Those who have actually witnessed
poverty - true poverty - would argue that the destitute, in their wretched
condition, are rarely happy people. Jesus himself would have both witnessed and
experienced the poverty of 1st century Palestine. Yet he knows the poor, the meek,
and the persecuted are, by virtue of their destitution, in the position of
being closer to where we ourselves need to be with God: they have no choice but
to place themselves at God’s feet, to cast their lot on God’s mercy and
providence, to become totally dependent on God. And it is this, this total dependency,
which grants us happiness, for it is in dependence on God that we find that it
has been God’s grace all along that has worked to uphold and sustain us. Therefore,
to convert ourselves to God means to value what God values, not the things the
world values. Instead of power, riches, fame, and glory, Jesus proposes we look
to “the impoverished, the downtrodden” (Hill
2004). By converting our vision to God’s vision, we begin to see how to
be perfect as God is perfect. Continuing this theme, the narrative following
the Sermon casts a leper, obviously one of the poor and destitute, as being blessed,
but also the centurion, in his humble admission of unworthiness, shows his own blessed
poverty in spirit.
Jesus preaches a universal call to
holiness. In the narrative preceding the Sermon, the multitudes that follow
Jesus are not only from the immediate region of Galilee, but also from gentile
regions of Syria and the Decapolis. The Decapolis is especially remarkable as
centers of a Hellenistic culture often clashed with the Semitic cultures of the
Levant. In the Sermon, Jesus preached
“holiness of life to each and every one of His disciples of every condition.” (Second Vatican Council 1964). All people of
every social and religious background are included, even those outside of the
Hebrew faith. Continuing this theme, the
narrative that follows shows both the Roman centurion and the leper as
recipients of Jesus’ healing, and these two extremes, in their being made
whole, continue the theme of the universal call.
The outcast is transformed, made
whole, healed and renewed. The outsider’s faith is a marvel. Jesus accepts them
both. All are called to be radically transformed to faith and to love. In
living this call, all are made holy.
Bibliography
Hill, Brennan R. Jesus
the Christ: Contemporary Perspectives. New London: Twenty-Third Publications, 2004.
Second Vatican Council. "Dogmatic Constitution On The
Church." Vatican Web Site.
November 21, 1964.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html .
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