A Change of Heart

The greatest sermon of all time

To miss the point of the Sermon on the Mount is to miss the keystone of Jesus’s teachings. This message is considered the magnum opus of Jesus’s teaching ministry; it was the greatest sermon of all time.

It contains the famous Beatitudes, the model prayer, and the Golden Rule. Even secular people can’t ignore is teachings. The Sermon on the Mount is three chapters long!

Why such a long sermon? The answer is found in the context. In Matthew 1, the genealogy demonstrates that Jesus has the legal right to rule Israel. Chapter 2 shows that the Gentiles (the magi) accept his kingship. In chapter 3, John preaches repentance (necessary before the Davidic kingdom could be established). In chapter 4, Jesus is demonstrated to be morally worthy to rule (by resisting the devil’s temptation), and he shows the conditions of the kingdom by several miracles. A messianic fever was building in Israel.

In chapter 5, Jesus then delivers the ethic of the kingdom. Jesus wanted to be sure everyone clearly understood his expectations of what kingdom living looked like. While there are many views and interpretations of what exactly the kingdom is, it is safe to say that the kingdom is wherever Jesus is King. If there is no king, there is no kingdom. If Jesus is King of our lives, there is a certain behavior that follows, and that’s what he is addressing in this great sermon.

While the exact location of the Sermon on the Mount is not certain, traditionally it is set on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, between Capernaum and Gennesaret. The backdrop of Jesus’s message was the beautiful scenery of water and mountains.

Matthew 5:1 ESV

1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

Matthew 5:1 says that he “sat” as a traditional rabbi would have done when he was about to teach. While his message was very unique to his hearers, he made it clear in verse 17 that he wasn’t there to “abolish the Law or the Prophets.”

Matthew 5:17 ESV

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

His purpose in coming was not to do away with with the old covenant, nor was it to give a “new” definition of how to become righteous. He wanted the Jews to understand what God’s standards have been all along. This explains the verses that say, “You have heard it was said … but I tell you ...” Jesus is not giving anything new here, but he is calling them to a more mature understanding of God’s law.

Think of a child being told from the time they were very young not to touch the stove. It makes perfect sense to the adult who is giving the admonition. But from the perspective of the child, it doesn’t make sense. They’re obeying the law of “thou shalt not touch the stove” out of obedience, but not necessarily out of understanding. As the child matures, so does the understanding. From God’s perspective, the law provided for external righteousness necessary for immature compliance until maturity kicked in. The Jews had never matured in their understanding of what God wanted from them. They thought external compliance with the works of the law were sufficient to please God. Don’t we think the same sometimes?

The Pharisees taught and propagated an external-only compliance. They claimed that people could be righteous because of their actions, but this type of preaching completely ignored purity of heart. Their actions could have been right while their hearts were corrupt. Jesus now explains that true righteousness, God’s righteousness, righteousness that is evident of God’s kingdom, would have to go beyond the superficial externals of the Pharisees. God demanded an internal righteousness that would produce external righteousness.

Have you ever set up your own standard to keep you spiritually safe? There is nothing wrong with that. The problem begins when you impose your extrabiblical standard on others and thereby create a new standard; you become offended when people don’t do it just like you.

Consider the standard of married men choosing to not ever be alone with a female, even in business situations – whether that is in a meeting over a meal or a meeting in the office. While the intent behind this commendable it may not always be practical or realistic to uphold that standard, especially when a woman is in a leadership position and needs to hold a meeting with her male employees.

Discretion is certainly wise, but to claim that someone is unspiritual or unfaithful if they don’t follow the same standard is the problem. This kind of scenario happens all too often, and this is the exact culture the Pharisees had created. What may have started out as an innocent standard of righteousness became a new standard that was outside the scope of what the actual law required. Jesus was pointing out that the measuring stick they had been using was the wrong one.

Matthew 5:20 ESV

20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

It wasn’t that they had to have more external righteousness but, rather, a change of heart.

Do you need a change of heart?