July 17, Matthew 5
Many leaders throughout history are remembered for one specific speech—a message that defined them and became the keynote of their leadership. Before sound bites in a newscast became the tools by which politicians announced their positions on the issues, lengthy public discourses that appealed to an audience’s powers of reason were common. Dynamic leaders shared their vision and stirred listeners to join or support their cause through impassioned speeches.
Jesus’ longest recorded sermon begins in Matthew 5 and continues through Matthew 7. Matthew tells us at the beginning of the account that Jesus is addressing his disciples. The opening lines we now call “The Beatitudes” are a series of statements that must have come across to the first hearers as jarring incongruities. How can the poor, the hungry, the meek and the mourning be considered blessed? How can persecution possibly be a
blessing? Modern expositors explain these things, but Jesus didn’t.
The prominent themes of the sermon are the kingdom of heaven and righteousness. Jesus talked about the disciples’ influence on the world around them. Israel had mostly failed to exert a positive outward influence on their Gentile neighbors, but Jesus said his kingdom’s citizens would be salt and light to the world.
He said he came to fulfill the law and that unless the disciples’ righteousness exceeded that of the very best law keepers they knew (the scribes and Pharisees), they would not enter the kingdom. Again, we probably can’t feel the shock of these words as the first audience did. Either we know nothing about these scribes and Pharisees, or maybe we know so much about them we’re not surprised to hear that our righteousness must be different from theirs.
Jesus then cited specifics of the law and traditions with which the disciples would have been familiar, and focused attention on the attitudes and not just the actions prescribed or prohibited by the law. He went beyond murder to deal with anger, beyond adultery to condemn lust. Jesus went beyond the technicality of taking an oath to a lifestyle of telling the truth. He described a way of living not based on retaliation for every wrong done, but on love, even for our enemies. He cited God the Father as the greatest example of showing love to the undeserving, and challenged his hearers to be like him.
Is Jesus being cruel by calling his disciples to a standard of righteousness we could never attain or sustain on our own? Or is the one who will die to become our righteousness showing us all how much we need him? I believe Jesus is preparing his disciples to embrace a righteousness he would provide that would stand in stark contrast to legalism and self-righteousness.
From The Abiding Companion: A Friendly Guide
for Your Journey Through the New Testament,
Copyright © 2010 by Michael B. McElroy. Used
by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—July 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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