Live the revolution: introduction to the sermon on the mount.
Many of Jesus’ most familiar teachings come from the Sermon on the Mount, the aim here is not to treat it as a list of moral instructions, but to understand the new day Jesus was announcing. Set against a deeply divided and oppressed Israel, Jesus’ announcement that “the kingdom of heaven has come near” was not a threat of judgment, but a declaration that the long wait for God’s action was over. The Sermon re-centers the Law, not as a path to salvation, but as a vision of life under God’s reign—and Jesus’ rhetoric shows it was never meant to be achievable through human effort.
From the opening line of the Beatitudes onward, He makes clear that the kingdom is available to all who can admit they can’t do this on their own (spoiler - that’s all of us - that’s the whole point!) Rather than driving us to despair over our shortcomings, the Sermon on the Mount trains us to live within a reality Jesus opened up to every one of us, through God’s presence and the power of His Spirit.
By Hannah Flint
Books referenced:
The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God by Dallas Willard
The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls by Rich Villodas