The Sermon on the Mount: A New Standard
For 130 years, a tiny piece of metal (platinum and iridium, to be exact) locked inside a vault in Sevres, France, held the world standard for weighted measurements. Everything from your bathroom scale to measuring instruments in hospitals and NASA could be traced back to this little hunk of metal. The International Prototype Kilogram, or IPK, was used to calibrate nearly every measurement of weight you have ever made. Even though the United States uses pounds and ounces instead of kilograms, we nevertheless calibrated our instruments using the IPK, just like the metric system. It was the standard.
That is, until May 2019, when a new definition of the kilogram was adopted. The kilogram is now based on the Planck constant, a tiny, unvarying number that plays a crucial role in quantum physics. Please do not ask me to explain the Planck constant because I can’t. My feeble mind can wrap itself around a hunk of metal, but I barely passed physics!
I share this story with you because when Jesus sat down on a hill just off the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he was introducing a new standard. For 1,500 years, the Law Moses gave to the people when they were camped at Mt. Sinai was the standard. On the Mt. of Beatitudes, Jesus changed all that. However, unlike Planck’s constant, Jesus did not do away with the old standard. Instead, he says, “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. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matt. 5.17-18, emphasis mine). While the Law that Moses gave provided specific rules and guidelines for the Israelites to follow, Jesus’ sermon emphasizes the importance of starting with a transformed and righteous heart as means of living out the Law rather than just outward obedience to the law.
The “Sermon on the Mount” is an excellent example of Jesus’ expository teaching. He took what Moses gave to the people and then expounded upon its meaning, implication, and practical application. The sermon is divided into four symmetrical sections: 1) the “Beatitudes,” a memorable and impactful introduction (5.2-16); 2) six propositions that exceed the law (5.17-48); 3) six concrete actions to fulfill the law (6.1-7.6); and 4) a compelling “call to action” (7.7-29). I will devote this Compass article to the “Beatitudes,” also known as the opening section of the “Sermon on the Mount.”
Constructed between the years 1936 to 1938, the Church of the Beatitudes in Galilee stands as a modern marvel atop the remnants of a 4th-century Byzantine church on a site believed to be where Jesus delivered his teachings. The church is just a short 20-30 minute walk from Capernaum, a location that Jesus frequently visited to preach. The floor plan is designed in an octagonal shape, with each of its 8 sides representing 1 of the Beatitudes, while the dome symbolizes the concluding statement.
The Beatitudes are a rather clever and memorable teaching technique that compacts much information into nine pithy, provocative statements. The first eight are the beatitudes proper, while the ninth serves as a summary. Each starts with the same word in Greek (μακάριοϛ | mak-ar’-ee-os), Hebrew (אֶשֶׁר | eh’-sher), Jesus’ native Aramaic language (בריך | ber-ak’), and Latin (beatus – from which the term “beatitudes” comes), creating repetition through a rhetorical device called anaphora. Each statement uses parallelism, making them easy to remember. That is, “Blessed is A, for they shall be B; blessed is C, for they shall be D,” and so on. Add Jesus’s sound repetition to that, and you get a very memorable introduction.
There is also a provocative aspect to the Beatitudes, as they are each seemingly counterintuitive statements. For example, He begins by stating, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” What exactly is blessed about being poor in spirit? Well, there is a great blessing if, in our spiritual poverty, we realize our inability to measure up to God’s standard of holiness. That kind of poverty of spirit can lead us to mourn (vs. 4). Recognizing our interior poverty is one thing, but mourning over it is quite another. Mourning can then lead to humility or “meekness” (vs. 5), as most Bibles translate the word. He is not encouraging us to take on some Milquetoast personality. Instead, he is urging us towards humility.
What do these three counterintuitive statements describe? Repentance. Those who recognize the vast emptiness of their heart, mourn over it and then acknowledge that the proper posture before God is flat on one’s face in utter humility and submission before God have begun the first step in transforming the heart – repentance.
What follows the first three Beatitudes are the results of repentance: hunger and thirst for righteousness, purity of heart, the desire for peace (even with our “enemies”), and the ability to withstand persecution. We see here that repentance leads to the transformation of our hearts and the amendment of our values, actions, and worldviews.
The original audience listening to Jesus would have been astonished to hear His teaching. The Pharisees were deeply committed to adherence to the Law. In fact, they exceeded Moses’ Law by adding more rules on top of the ones commanded to them. For example, God said to honor the sabbath and avoid work (Exodus 20.8-11). The Pharisees added a law about how many steps a person could take on the sabbath before they considered it to be working on the Sabbath. In other words, if the Law is like a fence, the Pharisees built another fence to keep people from getting close to the original one. The problem is that it is human nature to see a fence and immediately want to jump over it. The added laws did not keep people from sin; they just oppressed them. However, Jesus did not begin like the Pharisees. He did not start with more rules and regulations. Instead, he began with the transformation of the heart through repentance. This is where all transformations must begin – in the heart.
May God grant us His grace to recognize our spiritual poverty, which breaks our hearts and leads us to humility. May His grace lead us to repentance and true transformation. May His grace empower us to live into this new standard of living that leads to love, charity, hope, and redemption.
Fr. Chase