A Journey to Easter - Day 35
- Debbra Stephens
- Apr 8
- 2 min read
One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them.
(Matthew 5:1-2 NLT)
Jesus came to fulfill all righteousness handed down in the Torah and Prophets.
He came preaching the kingdom of God.
He came teaching its values and ways.
Matthew’s first discourse in his gospel is one such teaching, commonly referred to as The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). After 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus delivered the best sermon ever preached, in what scholars have tagged His inaugural address. It was delivered by the One given all authority—with the expectation of obedience.
The Sermon on the Mount is not a new Torah. It’s how to rightly live out the Torah, the instructions of God. But He didn’t shy away from issuing imperative commands—from Sovereign King to His citizens. In his commentary, Daniel Akin clarifies, “The sermon does not teach men and women how to live to get into the kingdom but how men and women in the kingdom should live.”
In one of the most revolutionary narratives in the whole of the Bible, Jesus revealed the deeper principles underlying God’s laws. And revealed both the heart of the law… and the hearts of mankind.
Jesus opens by pronouncing the blessedness of those who are truly His. They’re blessed because, beyond status or circumstance, He has graced them with the kingdom of heaven. Citizenship is not reserved for the elite. Or even the religious. In the nine beatitudes, Jesus also affirms the valued traits of those who would faithfully follow after Him. They read much like a biography of the Christ Himself! But for the saints, they are what living like salt and light look like (Matthew 5:13-16).
Jesus then launches into ethical admonishments, contrasting God’s intended principles in the Torah with the traditions of His day. He shines His light on the underlying issues of the heart and provides a higher standard of application—all for the purpose of living in right relationships with God and others.
The teachings of Jesus are challenging, to say the least! But they point to a surpassing righteousness for the ultimate good of humanity.
Journey to that hillside in your mind. Sit at our Master Rabbi’s feet. And lean into this sermon often—for its lessons outspan a lifetime. And its wisdom and perfection are timeless.
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