The Sermon on the Mount

A Personal Encounter with the Wisdom of Jesus

Mayfield

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781630875923
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The goal of this book is for readers to experience a personal encounter with the wisdom of Jesus found in Matthew 5-7. The Sermon on the Mount has grown out of pastor James Mayfield's study and struggles across the years as person, marriage partner, parent, pastor, teacher, and writer. The primary guides for this book have been John Chrysostom, Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Because there are forty chapters, the book is well suited for Lent, but it is not limited to that season.

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Preparing for the Journey

Purpose of This Book

The purpose of this book is to help the reader experience a personal encounter with the wisdom of Jesus found in Matthew 5–7. As I wrote this book, the question I asked was, “What is the wisdom of Jesus in this passage, and what are the implications of that wisdom for daily living?”

The Sermon on the Mount across the Centuries

Across the centuries, as people thoughtfully and prayerfully read the Sermon on the Mount, many found more than intellectual theological wisdom. They found themselves encountered by the grace of God and not only enabled to face what they had to face but also empowered to move on. Through their wrestling with these sayings of Jesus, they were aided in discerning God’s will as they dealt with the challenges they faced.

For example, in the century in which Christianity moved from being an outlawed religion to being the official religion of Rome, the Sermon on the Mount gave guidance to both John Chrysostom (347–407), who served as bishop in Constantinople, and Augustine (354–430), who served as bishop in Hippo, located in North Africa. During Augustine’s lifetime, the western part of the Roman empire was being overrun by barbarians, and civilization as it had been known was thrown in turmoil. In the eastern part of the Mediterranean world, Chrysostom was faced with similar problems and crises. The church in the eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire was also in conflict regarding what gives life meaning (doctrine) and how to live (ethics). As both Chrysostom and Augustine dealt with the challenges they faced, they sought God’s guidance and wisdom in the Sermon on the Mount.

In the social and religious upheaval known as the Reformation, both Martin Luther (1483–1546) and John Calvin (1509–1564) wrestled with problems of living in a situation in which the old order had collapsed and in which both church and state struggled against chaos. There were a variety of voices and powers trying to shape the emerging society. In the midst of the crises each of these men faced, they searched the Scriptures, including the Sermon on the Mount, to discern God’s guidance for themselves and for the people who looked to them for leadership.

When the life and ministry of John Wesley (1703–1791) are discussed, it is not unusual for someone to declare that his work among the poor in eighteenth-century England was a significant factor in saving England from the kind of destructive revolution France experienced. The Sermon on the Mount was so important to Wesley that it was dealt with at length in thirteen of his forty-four sermons that served as a primary guide for Methodist leaders in the last half of the 1700s. These sermons continue to be part of the official “standards of doctrine” for the United Methodist Church, and are influential teachings for approximately seventy-five million Christians1 around the world who are related to churches that trace their heritage through Wesley.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) was a young German theologian and pastor whose ministry began about the time Adolph Hitler came to power, and it ended when Hitler had him hanged a few days before Germany surrendered. As Bonhoeffer struggled with what is required to be a faithful Christian in the midst of Nazi Germany, he wrote The Cost of Discipleship. More than one hundred pages are devoted to Bonhoeffer’s attempt to discern the meaning in these sayings of Jesus for all people but especially for those struggling to live under tyranny.

My Experience with These Sayings of Jesus

Throughout my forty-five years as a pastor, I have returned again and again to this mountain of proclamations, with first one guide and then another. The reason I have continued to return to these sayings of Jesus is that they are timeless, and therefore as relevant for our lives as when they were first spoken, or in the days of Chrysostom, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Wesley or Bonhoeffer.

Today, even though I am familiar with this territory, I continue to discover new insights behind “this phrase” and under “that word”—wisdom I failed to notice on previous visits. Often what causes me to see a familiar passage anew is the way the sunlight and shadows of my experiences play upon these ancient rocks of truth.

More than Insights and Ideas

For persons of faith, the Sermon on the Mount is much more than a classic collection of profoundly wise sayings attributed to Jesus. For those who call themselves Christians, these sayings are part of Holy Scripture, what Christians sometimes call “the living Word of God.”

To be sure, among Christians there are a wide variety of opinions about what it means to call the Bible and passages such as the Sermon on the Mount “the Word of God.” It is also obvious to the most casual observer that Christians disagree with one another regarding how to read and interpret the Bible, including passages such as Matthew 5–7.

Nevertheless, Christians do agree that when people humbly and honestly open themselves with all their fears, hopes, pain, and joy to the Bible, and do this consistently and prayerfully over time, they gain more than knowledge, ideas, and insights. In time, they are encountered by the Holy Reality we call God, the One who is most clearly revealed in and through Jesus.

But for this encounter to happen, one must be open to the possibility of it happening. Reading Scripture is like participating in a significant conversation. If we approach a conversation convinced we already know what the other person is going to say, we will hear only what we were expecting to hear. But when we are open, when we give ourselves to the task of trying to discern what the other person really means (and do not get hung up on the way the message is being delivered), then genuine communication begins to happen.

In open and honest conversation, we do not always hear what we want to hear. So it is in our reading passages such as the Sermon on the Mount. There are times when we encounter soothing, healing, joyous truth that makes us profoundly happy (sometimes so happy we cry), but there are other times when what we discern Jesus saying is not what we want to hear, and our response is discomfort, even defensiveness or anger.

If, however, we hang on and wrestle with the truth, our experience has the potential of being like Jacob’s wrestling through the darkness of the night (Gen 32:22–32). If we do not cut and run, sooner or later we discover that we, like Jacob, really are Israel (those who wrestle with God), and as was true of Jacob, who was given the new identity of Israel, we are no longer able to move through life in the way we did before this encounter. Our lives are changed, and changed for the better. This is a real possibility each time we open the Sermon on the Mount and open ourselves to the truth it reveals.

Across the centuries, faithful women and men have discovered that the Sermon on the Mount is like a classic work of art in that there is more to it than can be consumed in one encounter. Each time it is encountered there is the possibility of new discovery.

Relevant for Today

The wisdom of Jesus contained in the Sermon on the Mount is relevant for today. It is not merely wisdom for the people of Jesus’ day. The issues he addressed are also issues of the twenty-first century. For example, the desire to experience faith and hope so that one can face whatever happens with a sense of purpose, peace, and hope is a desire that belongs to the present as much as to the past. Dealing with anger is a contemporary as well as an ancient challenge. In dealing with injustices, the temptation to give in to resentment, bitterness, and cynicism is as real today as in Jesus’ day. The tendency toward hypocrisy that is rooted in the desire to be seen by others as a person of worth is as much a problem today as in New Testament times. Just as in the past, today it is easy in the midst of good times to drift into self-satisfaction, arrogantly looking down on those who are unable to do what we are doing or have what we have. Living through painful times, tragedies, and failures without giving in to self-pity, bitterness, or despair is as much a struggle today as in any period of history. Longing to live trusting God and God’s love is not merely a longing of long ago.

The teachings of Jesus found in the Sermon on the Mount are not the sales pitch of some TV preacher promising a surefire way to health, wealth, and fun-filled happiness. These sayings do not advocate stoic endurance or optimistic, positive thinking as the means of shaping our daily living.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described through rather tough and realistic sayings what is involved in living what he called a blessed life regardless of whether the times are good or bad. This blessed life is a God-centered, ethical way of living that goes beyond superficial honesty, avoiding killing, stealing or other obvious acts of immorality. In these passages, Jesus speaks of justice beyond revenge and teaches those who will listen how to deal with their enemies. His wisdom points the way to inner peace that is not destroyed by the storms of life. Behind and beneath all these teachings is the generous mercy of God offering forgiveness for failure—forgiveness that Jesus teaches we are to offer to others. The way of living described in his teaching is daily living centered in God and committed to the good that is consistent with God’s will.

For Meditation and Conversation

1. What do I hope to gain from spending forty days with these sayings of Jesus?

2. What issues, questions, or concerns do I bring with me to this experience?

1. This statistic is taken from a 2011 public letter by George H. Freeman, General Secretary of the World Methodist Council.

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The Way Jesus Teaches

Matthew 5:1–...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Preparing for the Journey
• Chapter 2: The Way Jesus Teaches
• Chapter 3: Blessed beyond Happiness
• Chapter 4: The Importance of Need
• Chapter 5: Strength to Love
• Chapter 6: Disciplined Power
• Chapter 7: The Primary Hunger
• Chapter 8: Why Mercy Is Essential
• Chapter 9: The Way to Be Aware of God
• Chapter 10: The Obvious Children of God
• Chapter 11: Who Are Blessed?
• Chapter 12: Who Are the Salt of the Earth?
• Chapter 13: Being the Light of the World
• Chapter 14: Dealing with Religious Teachings
• Chapter 15: About Murder, Anger, and Broken Relationships
• Chapter 16: About Adultery, Lust, and Divorce
• Chapter 17: Swearing and Truth Concerns
• Chapter 18: Ending the Futility of Revenge
• Chapter 19: Loving My Enemies?
• Chapter 20: Misplaced Focus
• Chapter 21: Prayer and Religious Pretension
• Chapter 22: Pray Then Like This: “Our Father . . .”
• Chapter 23: “Thy Kingdom Come; Thy Will Be Done”
• Chapter 24: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
• Chapter 25: “Forgive Us . . . as We Have Forgiven”
• Chapter 26: “Lead Us Not into Temptation, but Deliver Us from Evil”
• Chapter 27: “For Thine Is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever. Amen.”
• Chapter 28: The Forgiven Are to Forgive
• Chapter 29: Phony Faithfulness
• Chapter 30: The Real Treasure
• Chapter 31: The Worst Kind of Blindness
• Chapter 32: Dealing with Anxiety
• Chapter 33: On Being Judgmental
• Chapter 34: Don’t Be Naive
• Chapter 35: You Can Do It
• Chapter 36: The Golden Rule
• Chapter 37: The Narrow Gate
• Chapter 38: Beware of Wolves
• Chapter 39: It Takes More than Merely Being Religious
• Chapter 40: Response to the Sermon
• A Personal Postscript
• Appendix
• Bibliography