Who Jesus is Teaching in the Sermon on the Mount

At the end of Matthew 4, we learned that Jesus had gathered a huge following as he preached, taught, and performed signs and wonders. Jesus’ residence in Capernaum, in Galilee of the Gentiles, signaled the dawning of the light of salvation on a land dwelling in deep darkness. His words brought light to his disciples as well as the great crowds and his works brought life to the masses as the domain of darkness was pushed back by the kingdom of light. By Jesus’ words and works, it was evident that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, challenging every kind of darkness in the land.

What follows in Matthew 5-7, which we call the Sermon on the Mount, is a powerful example of the way in which Jesus’ words challenged the mind- and will-darkening effects of sin. With the crowds gathered around him, it was high time for Jesus to teach. But notice that the primary audience to whom Jesus addresses the Sermon on the Mount is “his disciples.” Now, our default assumption might be that “his disciples” means the Twelve, but that’s no good for at least three reasons. Literarily, Matthew has not told us about the call of the Twelve. We only have four called disciples at this point. Jesus most certainly did not call only Simon, Andrew, James, and John to him at this time. Moreover, “disciples” is not a technical term; it applies broadly to those who were following Jesus, which is a much wider net than Jesus’ inner circle. Finally, we need to remember our place in the history of redemption. The church as the visible gathering of those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and God does not exist when Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Mount. That is to say, these words are not the exclusive domain of the church but rather a public declaration to all about the truth and goodness of living in light of the kingdom of heaven which is at hand.

Establishing the audience is important because it has a bearing on how we read these words. Is the Sermon on the Mount for born again believers or more generally for those who have turned with less conviction and commitment to follow the words and works of Jesus of Nazareth? The answer is yes, though the relationship to the Sermon is different for each group. As one person has said it, the Sermon on the Mount points unbelievers to Jesus for justification, but Jesus points believers to the Sermon on the Mount for sanctification. Jesus’ teaching is, therefore, a mirror that exposes the darkness, the ugly truth that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, while at the same time it is also an expression of the will of God for the lives of those who have been born again. Of course, Jesus does not address in the Sermon on the Mount how one is born again. To Nicodemus (John 3), he explains that one is born again/from above by the power of the Holy Spirit, who moves when and where he wills. That is to say, the distinction between the convicting and controlling emphases in the Sermon have far more to do with the Spirit’s work of regeneration than the reader’s thoughts and feelings about Jesus’ teaching.

Importantly, then, the whole Sermon on the Mount is not just our truth, the code or constitution of moral life in the church. Rather, it is the truth, the constitution of life in the kingdom of heaven, which is neither parochial nor partitioned. The kingdom of heaven is not a parochial kingdom, powerful in its domain but limited in its extent. So, also, the kingdom of heaven is not partitioned between the spiritual and the material, the earthly and the heavenly. What follows—all the way through chapter 7—is truth for life, for every life, for any life. When Christ comes again, he just might ask anyone who heard the Sermon on the Mount and rejected it why he or she failed to follow the constitution of the kingdom. And he will be entirely just in doing so, because Jesus teaches generally and inclusively. So, then, my takeaway is quite simple: let everyone give ear to hear what Jesus teaches us because his words are universally applicable.