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More than fourteen hundred years before Jesus was born, the people of Israel gathered in the valley of Shechem. From the mountains on either side, priests proclaimed blessings and curses: “a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God: ... and a curse, if ye will not obey.” (Deuteronomy 11:27, 28).
The mountain where the blessings were spoken became known as the mount of blessing. But the words that have become a blessing to a world of sin and sorrow were not spoken from Mount Gerizim. Israel failed to live up to the high standard set for it, and someone other than Joshua had to guide God’s people to the true rest of faith. Today, the mount of the Beatitudes is not Gerizim, but the unnamed mountain by the Lake of Gennesaret, where Jesus spoke his words of blessing to his disciples and the crowd.
To understand the Sermon on the Mount, we must return to that scene. By sitting with the disciples on the mountainside and grasping the thoughts and feelings that filled their hearts, we can see Jesus’s words with new clarity and beauty and learn their deeper lessons for ourselves.
When Jesus began his ministry, the popular idea of the Messiah and his work made the people unable to receive him. The spirit of true devotion had been replaced by tradition and ritual, and the prophecies were interpreted according to the desires of proud, worldly hearts. The Jewish people were not looking for a savior from sin, but for a great prince who would establish the supremacy of Israel over all nations. John the Baptist had called them to repentance with the soul-searching power of the ancient prophets, but his call was in vain. By the Jordan River, he had pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but it was to no avail. God was trying to turn their attention to Isaiah’s prophecy of a suffering Savior, but they refused to listen.
If the teachers and leaders in Israel had yielded to his call for transformation, Jesus would have made them his ambassadors. The coming of the kingdom and the call to repentance were first proclaimed in Judea. By driving the money-changers from the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus announced himself as the Messiah—the one who would cleanse the soul from the stain of sin and make his people a holy temple for the Lord. But the Jewish leaders refused to humble themselves and receive the humble teacher from Nazareth. When he visited Jerusalem a second time, he was brought before the Sanhedrin, and only their fear of the people kept these leaders from trying to kill him. It was then that Jesus left Judea and began his public ministry in Galilee.
His work in Galilee continued for several months before he delivered the Sermon on the Mount. The message he proclaimed across the land, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17), had captured the attention of all classes and fueled their ambitious hopes. The new teacher’s fame had spread beyond Palestine. Despite opposition from the religious leaders, there was a widespread feeling that he might be the long-awaited Deliverer. Huge crowds followed Jesus, and popular enthusiasm was high.
The time had arrived for the disciples closest to Christ to become more directly involved in his work, so the vast crowds would not be left like sheep without a shepherd. While some of these disciples had followed him from the beginning, and nearly all twelve had lived together as his chosen family, they too were misled by rabbinical teaching and shared the popular hope for an earthly kingdom. They could not understand Jesus’s actions. They were already confused and troubled that he made no effort to gain the support of the priests and rabbis or to establish his authority as an earthly king.
Much work was still needed for these disciples before they would be ready for the sacred responsibility that would be theirs after his ascension. Still, they had responded to the love of Christ. Though they were slow to believe, Jesus saw in them the potential to be trained and disciplined for his great mission. Now that they had been with him long enough to establish some faith in his divine mission, and the people had seen undeniable evidence of his power, the way was clear for a declaration of the principles of his kingdom that would help them understand its true nature.
Alone on a mountain near the Sea of Galilee, Jesus spent the entire night in prayer for these chosen men. At dawn, he called them to him. With words of prayer and instruction, he laid his hands on their heads in blessing, setting them apart for the work of the gospel. He then went with them down to the shore, where a large crowd had already started to gather in the early morning.
Besides the usual crowds from the Galilean towns, many people came from Judea and Jerusalem itself; from Perea; from the largely pagan population of the Decapolis; from Idumea, far south of Judea; and from Tyre and Sidon, the Phoenician coastal cities. “Hearing what great things He did,” they “came to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases; and ... power came forth from Him, and healed them all.” (Mark 3:8, R.V.; Luke 6:17-19, R.V.)
The narrow beach was not large enough to provide standing room for everyone who wanted to hear him, so Jesus led the way back up the mountainside. When he reached a level area that provided a good place for the large assembly, he sat on the grass, and his disciples and the crowd did the same.
Sensing that something unusual was about to happen, the disciples gathered closely around their Master. The morning’s events made them feel certain that he was about to make an announcement about the kingdom they so desperately hoped he would soon establish. The crowd was also filled with anticipation, and their eager faces showed their deep interest.
As they sat on the green hillside waiting for the divine Teacher to speak, their hearts were filled with thoughts of future glory. Scribes and Pharisees looked forward to the day they would rule over the hated Romans and possess the wealth and power of the empire. Poor peasants and fishermen hoped for an assurance that their miserable homes, meager food, and lives of toil and want would be exchanged for homes of abundance and lives of comfort. They hoped Christ would replace the coarse garment that served as their coat by day and blanket by night with the rich, expensive robes of their conquerors.
Everyone’s heart was filled with the proud hope that Israel would soon be honored among the nations as the Lord’s chosen people, and that Jerusalem would be exalted as the capital of a universal kingdom.
More than fourteen hundred years before Jesus was born, the people of Israel gathered in the valley of Shechem. From the mountains on either side, priests proclaimed blessings and curses: “a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God: ... and a curse, if ye will not obey.” (Deuteronomy 11:27, 28).
The mountain where the blessings were spoken became known as the mount of blessing. But the words that have become a blessing to a world of sin and sorrow were not spoken from Mount Gerizim. Israel failed to live up to the high standard set for it, and someone other than Joshua had to guide God’s people to the true rest of faith. Today, the mount of the Beatitudes is not Gerizim, but the unnamed mountain by the Lake of Gennesaret, where Jesus spoke his words of blessing to his disciples and the crowd.
To understand the Sermon on the Mount, we must return to that scene. By sitting with the disciples on the mountainside and grasping the thoughts and feelings that filled their hearts, we can see Jesus’s words with new clarity and beauty and learn their deeper lessons for ourselves.
When Jesus began his ministry, the popular idea of the Messiah and his work made the people unable to receive him. The spirit of true devotion had been replaced by tradition and ritual, and the prophecies were interpreted according to the desires of proud, worldly hearts. The Jewish people were not looking for a savior from sin, but for a great prince who would establish the supremacy of Israel over all nations. John the Baptist had called them to repentance with the soul-searching power of the ancient prophets, but his call was in vain. By the Jordan River, he had pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but it was to no avail. God was trying to turn their attention to Isaiah’s prophecy of a suffering Savior, but they refused to listen.
If the teachers and leaders in Israel had yielded to his call for transformation, Jesus would have made them his ambassadors. The coming of the kingdom and the call to repentance were first proclaimed in Judea. By driving the money-changers from the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus announced himself as the Messiah—the one who would cleanse the soul from the stain of sin and make his people a holy temple for the Lord. But the Jewish leaders refused to humble themselves and receive the humble teacher from Nazareth. When he visited Jerusalem a second time, he was brought before the Sanhedrin, and only their fear of the people kept these leaders from trying to kill him. It was then that Jesus left Judea and began his public ministry in Galilee.
His work in Galilee continued for several months before he delivered the Sermon on the Mount. The message he proclaimed across the land, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17), had captured the attention of all classes and fueled their ambitious hopes. The new teacher’s fame had spread beyond Palestine. Despite opposition from the religious leaders, there was a widespread feeling that he might be the long-awaited Deliverer. Huge crowds followed Jesus, and popular enthusiasm was high.
The time had arrived for the disciples closest to Christ to become more directly involved in his work, so the vast crowds would not be left like sheep without a shepherd. While some of these disciples had followed him from the beginning, and nearly all twelve had lived together as his chosen family, they too were misled by rabbinical teaching and shared the popular hope for an earthly kingdom. They could not understand Jesus’s actions. They were already confused and troubled that he made no effort to gain the support of the priests and rabbis or to establish his authority as an earthly king.
Much work was still needed for these disciples before they would be ready for the sacred responsibility that would be theirs after his ascension. Still, they had responded to the love of Christ. Though they were slow to believe, Jesus saw in them the potential to be trained and disciplined for his great mission. Now that they had been with him long enough to establish some faith in his divine mission, and the people had seen undeniable evidence of his power, the way was clear for a declaration of the principles of his kingdom that would help them understand its true nature.
Alone on a mountain near the Sea of Galilee, Jesus spent the entire night in prayer for these chosen men. At dawn, he called them to him. With words of prayer and instruction, he laid his hands on their heads in blessing, setting them apart for the work of the gospel. He then went with them down to the shore, where a large crowd had already started to gather in the early morning.
Besides the usual crowds from the Galilean towns, many people came from Judea and Jerusalem itself; from Perea; from the largely pagan population of the Decapolis; from Idumea, far south of Judea; and from Tyre and Sidon, the Phoenician coastal cities. “Hearing what great things He did,” they “came to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases; and ... power came forth from Him, and healed them all.” (Mark 3:8, R.V.; Luke 6:17-19, R.V.)
The narrow beach was not large enough to provide standing room for everyone who wanted to hear him, so Jesus led the way back up the mountainside. When he reached a level area that provided a good place for the large assembly, he sat on the grass, and his disciples and the crowd did the same.
Sensing that something unusual was about to happen, the disciples gathered closely around their Master. The morning’s events made them feel certain that he was about to make an announcement about the kingdom they so desperately hoped he would soon establish. The crowd was also filled with anticipation, and their eager faces showed their deep interest.
As they sat on the green hillside waiting for the divine Teacher to speak, their hearts were filled with thoughts of future glory. Scribes and Pharisees looked forward to the day they would rule over the hated Romans and possess the wealth and power of the empire. Poor peasants and fishermen hoped for an assurance that their miserable homes, meager food, and lives of toil and want would be exchanged for homes of abundance and lives of comfort. They hoped Christ would replace the coarse garment that served as their coat by day and blanket by night with the rich, expensive robes of their conquerors.
Everyone’s heart was filled with the proud hope that Israel would soon be honored among the nations as the Lord’s chosen people, and that Jerusalem would be exalted as the capital of a universal kingdom.
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