The Sermon on the Mount -- The shining of Light
by
Chi-Keung Ng
I. A Matthean introduction to "the teaching of Jesus to His disciples"
Let us first examine what this "sermon" is all about. No one will missed the fact that the whole passage in Chapters 5-7 looks like a collection of sayings. Maybe as the source critics (e.g. Marriott, Knox and Soiron) said, this is a combination of materials from different sources. However, why Matthew put these teachings of Jesus together? Was it for an editorial reason (putting something together for easy handling)? Was this "sermon" a pre-Matthean work being used by Matthew in his gospel? Or did he have a point to make by doing so? Let us first look at what other people have said about this.
Many people have already studied this "sermon" in different angles and with different assumptions. There were the form critic (like Bultmann) who see this as the teaching of the early Church instead of that of Jesus. There were people who regarded this "sermon" as forming a base for calendrical teaching or reading at certain times in a year.
On the other hand, as W. D. Davies mentioned in his book, there were attempts by M. Smith and A. Farrer to give more coherence pictures for the whole "sermon". Smith looked at it through the structure of the "Tannaitic sermon" while Farrer used the Beatitudes as a clue for the organisation of the "sermon". However, Davies did not regard these attempts to be very sucessful. According to G. N. Stanton, Davies himself saw the "sermon" as a "Christian answer to Jamnia" (in fact, as Stanton said, this can be regarded as the theme of the whole gospel instead of just for this "sermon"). Stanton also mentioned that Betz regarded the sermon as a pre-Matthean work of a Jewish Christian community "which was still very much part of the diverse Judaism of the period" and was used by Matthew in his gospel. Stanton himself consider the whole gospel as addressing to "a cluster of Jewish communities which have recently parted company painfully with Judaism". Perhaps, the most popular view is that this "sermon" was there to present Jesus as "the new Moses" (and the mount was there to remind the people of Mount Sinai).
In the following, we would like to give our view for this "sermon" initiated by an insight of Farrer. More precisely, we agree with his point that the Beattitudes are the basis for the actualisation of the teachings in the whole "sermon". However, our focus is not on the Beatitudes themselves but a few verses after them: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Note that there is a similar mission statement at the end of the gospel: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations... Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you...". It seems to us that this command of bearing witnesses to Jesus is in Matthew's eye one of the most important teaching of Jesus to His disciple: "Since you have the light inside you, you have to show it to other people." Yet by saying so, we do not imply that the "sermon" was written solely for Christians -- see the last part of section 2 below).
We outline the sermon as follows:
1. [5:3-12] The Beatitudes: the light that is inside Jesus' followers
2. [5:17-7:12] The shining out of the light => the fulfillment of the law and the prophets (compare 5:17 and 7:12):
(a). (5:21-6:18) Righteousness that exceed those of the scribes and Pharisees:
i. in term of the understanding and observing of the Torah (5:21-48)
ii. in term of religious practise (6:1-18)
(b). (6:19-7:1) Mentality toward materials and other human being
3. [7:13-27] The four-fold warning
Before we go into the details of the above outline, let us do some imaginative works here. It is likely that Jesus actually taught 5:16 in one occasion. This teaching particularly captured the heart of Matthew who saw it as a key to Jesus' teaching concerning His disciples. Therefore, when he wrote his gospel, he collected some sermons of Jesus and put their abbreviated form in as illustrations to the theme of the "shining light".
This could explain why he presented the whole passage in such a patchwork style: so that people could recognise immediately what particular teachings/sermons of Jesus Matthew was talking about. In doing so, this "sermon" became as a sort of introduction to "Jesus' teachings to His disciples".
Notice that this idea can also explain why some seemingly unrelated materials were put together as one teaching of Jesus. Soiron thought that those materials were arranged according to certain key words (Stichwortdisposition). However, these "key words" could be the original themes or link words of long sermons which were abbreviated. For examples, we can easily see how a lengthy sermon can be developed from 6:19-24. We can also see how a sermon can be given with the outline in 7:7-12.
Now, we turn to the details of the outline of the sermon above (a fuller explanation can be found in Section III). As noted before, the Beatitudes are the basis for the sermon on the mount. In a sense, this can be regarded as the characters which Jesus demands and which the Holy Spirit gives to His followers. What they need to do is to "materialise" or "show out" those characters that have been implanted in them (through salvation). In doing so, they become "functioning salt" and "shining light". Moreover, they show to other people that Jesus is the fulfillment of "the law and the prophets" (which is a major theme of Matthew).
"However, talking about the law and the prophets, something needed to be clarified. It is not in the same way as the understandings and practices of the Phariees and the teachers of the law."
Jesus taught that the righteousness of those in the kingdom of God should exceed the righteousness of the above two groups. In term of the understanding of the Torah, sometimes, they may need to go deeper into the spiritual meaning of it while in other occasion, they may even need to challenge a particular teaching or understanding of the Torah. In terms of religious practices, Jesus' disciples should also differ from the Pharisees in the sense that they should do it for the praise for God (inwardly) rather than for the praise of man (outwardly). Matthew gathered quite a number of Jesus' teachings to illustrate these.
Then Matthew collected some other teachings of Jesus concerning how a believer should live his life in term of relation with God and with others. Interestingly, 7:12 echoes 5:17 (in that they are both talking about the law and the prophets). As we noted above, 7:7-12 could be an abbreviation of a sermon. Matthew skillfully arranged his materials so that 7:12 signifies the end of a major section.
As Smith said, we can see that the "sermon" follows a certain style of sermons in Matthew's days. Typically, they end with a warning. Here we see that Matthew collected four different warnings of Jesus (probably uttered in four different occasions) which share a common themes of responding to the word of Jesus.
The first warning (7:13-14) seems difficult to understand if we do not know the corresponding passage in Luke 13:24-27. This agrees with our claim in the above that the materials in the "sermon" were probably well known to the early church. The second warning (7:15-20) is from a slightly different angle which said that if one cannot shine out the light, it is likely that there wasn't any light inside him in the first place. The third one (7:21-23) is similar to the first one but was addressing to those who held office in the church or did some seemingly great thing for God (i.e. those who thought their position before God is secure). The final warning (7:24-27) is a general one but is the most clear one amongst the four. It is of course desirable to use it as the last warning as well as the conclusion of the whole "sermon".
II. The moral aspects
In this section, we will address the question of how to interpret the moral teachings in this "sermon". According to France, McArthur summarized 12 different ways to interpret the moral teachings of the "sermon". At one end of this spectrum, there lay the literal interpretation (e.g. the Anabaptists) which says that Christians should "never use violence" and "never swear oaths"... At the other end, there is the claim that these are only moral rules for the perfect Kingdom that is to come (and hence do not apply to real life at present). During the reformation period, there were people (like Luther) who interpreted these moral teachings as "spiritual laws" that apply only to the spiritual sphere, i.e. the church (yet a Christian participating in the kingdom of the world is regarded as a "secular person"). On the other hand, Luther also thought that these moral teachings "make people aware of the gospel of God's grace through Christ" (since no one can really act these moral rules out completely). In the 19th century, Weiss suggested that these teachings only apply for the short period before the end and were not intended for later generations (as the assumption of "shortness" was incorrect, the moral teachings do not stand). All these interpretations are good but have their own strong and weak points. In the following, we would like to look at this through our discussion in the previous section.
First of all, as we said in the above, the prime concern of Matthew was not to record the moral teachings of Jesus but to use them as illustrations. In fact, he assumed that his readers have some understanding of these teachings.
Secondly, as we have seen, the "sermon" (and the moral teachings contained in it) was probably intended for all believers of Jesus in all generation. However, more important than the moral teachings is the moral standard behind them (and the realisation of this standard is what the shining out of the light all about). In fact, this standard is for all people (Christians or non-Christians) as there is only one moral standard in God -- the way that He wants His creatures to behave. Nevertheless, this standard cannot be reached by fallen human beings. Only the redeemed people have the "ability / possibility" to achieve this standard (because of the light inside them). Of course, it doesn't mean that those who have the light inside them can effectively bring it out (it is a struggle between the old and the new life). Yet, on the one hand, it is their responsibility to live their lives in agreement with the moral standard of God and on the other hand, they have the forgiveness from God if they tried but failed. In other words, Jesus' disciples should try their very best to show the goodness (5:21-7:12 are some examples) to other people in witnesses to Jesus. In doing so, they also challenge the outsiders with God's moral standard.
In the following, we would like to address the five questions raised by Stanton in his book through the light of our understanding from part I. According to Stanton, these are the questions (concerning this "sermon") which people are interested in.
(i) The first question is whether Jesus's teachings are clarifications of the old laws or radically new ones. According to our understanding of this "sermon", these teachings shed some lights on how God wants His creatures to behave. They are certainly a "progressions" from the law of Moses. Hence, these teachings are "clarifications" of the eternal moral standard that was represented in the old days (and in an incomplete way) by the law of Moses. On the other hand, it is in a sense a radically new teachings.
(ii) The second question ask if these teachings pointing toward the grace of God or they assume the forgiveness from Him. To the people without the light, the moral teachings in this "sermon" serves to make them aware of the need of grace. To Christians, these teachings assume God's forgiveness (and also assume that they have the light inside them).
(iii) The third one is whether these teachings were for Christians or non-Christians. Although we believe that these teaching were primarily for Christians, Matthew might also realise that non-Christians also read his gospel. We can see that this "sermon" can mean two different by related things for the two groups. To the believers, it is a call for bearing witnesses for Jesus. To the outsiders, it is an explanation of what they saw in Christians' lives as well as a condemnation of how far they are from God's standard (and hence point to salvation).
(iv) The fourth one ask whether these moral teachings are to be interpreted literally or contain hyperbole. If this "sermon" is a collection of sermons, it is likely that some of them should be interpreted literally while other contain hyperbole. However, since the teachings were taken out of contexts, it is difficult to distinguish which is which. One way to do this is by considering the appropriateness of the teachings when interpreted literally and by comparison with other teachings of Jesus or other parts of the Scripture.
(v) The final one is about understanding this "sermon" in a eschatological way. In our understanding, this "sermon" have little to do with eschatology (it concerns with the followers of Jesus at this moment although one could say that it looks forward to the future when the believers were completely transformed by the light).
III. The intrepretation of the teachings
As we said in the first section, the Beatitudes are the characters that the people of the Kingdom (i.e. Jesus' believers) should process. The people of the Kingdom are the people who constantly realise their poorness before God. They are the people who feel sad for the sin of the world. They are meek. They hunger for God and His righteousness. They have mercy on other people (because they have been shown mercy by God). They are honest and sincerely seeking God. They would like to bring people to peace (to God). They are willing to suffer for God's Kingdom. These are the characters that are required if one want to fulfill the moral standard of God (Jesus).
We have already explain the salt and light as well the fulfillment of the laws and the prophets in Section I.
The first two examples of Jesus' teachings that Matthew used were murder and adultery. We see that Jesus asked His followers to dig from the surface meaning of these laws: His disciples should abstain from anger and hatred as well as keep their mind pure from sexually immoral thoughts. These are what God wants His creatures to become.
In the next four examples, Jesus taught His disciples to reject incorrect understanding/intrepretation of the law. In God's will, a man can only divorce his wife (by giving her a writing of divorcement) if she committed adultery. In God's expectation, a man should take his word seriously at all time as if he took an oath on it (in this case, no need for a formal oath in normal circumstances). In God's way, a man should not take violence against another even being oppressed. In God's mind, a man should love everybody he comes across -- including his enemy (those who hated them). These are the perfectness (5:48) that God wish His creature to have.
Then Matthew list Jesus' teachings on the three most common religious practises of the Jews in those days: almsgiving, praying and fasting. The most important common messages in these three teachings is that these are not done for other people to see (in order to obtain praises or glory or good impression from them) but are done for God. A very strong comparsion of the outward deeds and the inward motive was made. In the teaching on prayer, some more messages were added (in particular, the Lord's prayer).
Then Matthew collected some teachings teaching to show how God want His followers to deal with wealth and other people. There are two discussions on the materials part. The first one (6:19-24) basically said that God want His people to pay less attention on materialistic gain but more attention on Heaven and God. 6:22-23 can be understood as the love of earthly wealth can dim the eyes of (as well as the Light inside) a Christian. The second one goes a step further: God wish that His follower not to pay too much attention on the earthly things even if they are in physical need. In fact, these two could be a sermon that Jesus taught in one occassion (not to turn your eyes on the earthly thing -- even if you are lecking them -- trust in God that He will provide enough for you).
There are also two teachings on dealing with others. Jesus taught that God do not want His creature to be too critical toward his fellow man (as they themselves do not wanted to be criticized) and to supply the need of his fellow man if he asked (as God also provide his need when he asked -- see v.12). The overarching message is that do to the other as what you want other do to you and do to the other as what you want God do to you. The development of good relation between man and God and between man and man is what the law and the prophets all about.
IV. Conclusion
France said that the Sermon on the Mount "presents the radical demand of Jesus the Messiah on all who respond to his preaching of God's Kingdom".
As we have seen in Section I, the "sermon" present only one demand (namely, 5:16) of Jesus (who is not only the Messiah but also the Light of the world) to His disciples (who do not just responding to Jesus' teaching but have also been transformed by Him and have His Light inside them). In a sense, this demand is radical as His disciples were asked to let the New Lives inside of them to become visible (this is completely different from any other laws or commandments).
In fact, when studying this "sermon", most scholars (consciously or unconsciously) started with the perspective that Jesus is the Messiah -- the New Moses and His teachings are to to be seen as a sort of "New Ten Commandments". In our opinion, this perspective creates unnecessary tension for the interpretation of the "sermon". What we are trying to say in this article is that the tension can be eased if one look at the "sermon" from another direction, namely, through the theme of "shining of the Light". This shift the attention from the moral teachings to the moral principles / moral standard behind those teachings. We hope that we are successful in this. Nevertheless, the reader may tried looking at this "sermon" from another angle (than the "Messiah" theme and the "shining of the Light" theme).
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