Title: A Teacher with a Twist
Text: Matthew 5:1-12
Thesis: Jesus makes himself known through the power of his teaching.
Epiphany Series: Encountering Christ in Epiphany
• The First Sunday after Epiphany: Christ’s Identity. The First Sunday after Epiphany we encountered Christ at his baptism where God reveals to Jesus and to us who He (Jesus) is. “This is my Son, whom I love, and with whom I am very pleased.” Matthew 3:17
• The Second Sunday after Epiphany: Christ’s Power. The Second Sunday after Epiphany we encounter Christ at a wedding where he performed the first of many miracles that would follow. “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory and his disciples put their faith in him.” John 2:13
• The Third Sunday after Epiphany: Christ’s Leadership. On the Third Sunday after Epiphany we encountered Christ walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee where he saw fishermen going about their business of fishing. So, he called out to them. Jesus said, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:12-23
• The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany: Christ’s Authority. On the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany we encounter Christ seated on a mountainside with his teaching disciples. “Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying…”
Introduction
One of the more catchy commercials on television is the Snapple commercial in which they discover new and better stuff. Watch it with me.
Project Clip: Snapple’s New and Better Stuff Commercial
In our story today, Jesus is announcing that he has new and better stuff. It is not that the old stuff was not good stuff because it was good stuff. But he has new stuff. He has better stuff. And what we call the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 through 7 is the new and better stuff he has come to teach.
As we look at our text today we see that Jesus was prompted to begin teaching this new and better stuff when he saw the crowds of people who were following him.
I. Jesus saw
Now when he saw the crowds… Matthew 5:1
(And from a parallel passage in Luke…)
He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over… had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Luke 6:17-18
One of Colorado’s most popular attractions is the Glenwood Hot Springs Pool. The pool is kept at around 93 degrees F and the therapy pool is around 104 degrees F. They say that for thousands of years this mineral rich water has created legends of healing and relaxation. Folks with achy joints can find relief by simply soaking in the healing waters of Glenwood Hot Springs.
In my devotional reading this week, one of the stories I read was of an occasion when Jesus visited the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. The Pool of Bethesda was one of those healing places. Apparently on occasion an angel would come down and stir the waters and when the waters were stirred those in need of healing would get into the pool and be healed. So the place was a popular hangout for the sick in Jesus’ day.
When Jesus visited the pool he would have seen a large number of sick people lying around waiting for the water to stir. But the story says Jesus saw a man who was an invalid lying by the pool and he approached the man and asked him if he would like to get well.
So, while there were evidently a large number of sick people lying around, Jesus could still see the individual.
The question is not only, what did Jesus see? It is also, how did Jesus see?
One of the more recognizable statements in the Gospels is, “When he saw the crowds he had compassion on them because they were helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36
So if this morning we ask the question: What is God doing in the text? We would answer, “God sees both the crowds and the individuals within the crowds. God sees.” And then if we were to ask the question: Is there any good news in the text? We would answer, “Yes, there is good news. When God sees people he is compassionate and kindly disposed toward them.” In other words, God sees and God cares.
In December Bonnie and I attended a wedding. Afterward, the reception dinner was held at the Broker in downtown Denver. Coincidently, the reception was on the same night as the Parade of Lights and The Broker was on the parade route. The onlookers were literally packed curb and sidewalk deep. I was not moved with compassion when I saw the crowd. When we began to force our way through the crowd we found that if we hugged the building we could muscle our way inch by inch through the parade watchers…. that is until we discovered that there were people inching their way from the opposite direction. Still no compassion!
Certainly one of the things we discover about Jesus as we encounter him in the story today is that when he sees people and he cares about them, even when their number is described as “crowds” (plural) of people.
As we encounter Jesus on this hillside we see him take a seat.
II. Jesus sat
Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down… Matthew 5:1
The tragedy in which a deranged young man shot Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others has unfolded as something of a teachable moment on several fronts. One headline from the LA County Liberal Examiner read: “Tucson: a teachable moment with no learning.” (Kevin Kelton, LA County Liberal Examiner, January 15, 2011) Whenever something like this happens we always want to ask ourselves what we might learn so the tragedy does not fade from our memory without making some kind of difference. So the debate has been heated in regard to what we can learn about civility, reasonable gun laws and the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. But one voice stands out from all the others as a teachable moment that ought not be quickly forgotten.
In an interview with Diana Sawyer, Giffords’ husband, Mark Kelly shared from his heart about his feelings toward the shooter’s parents. He said, “I don’t think it’s their fault. It is not the parents’ fault.” He went on to say, “You know, I’d like to think I’m a person that’s you know, somewhat forgiving. I mean, they’ve got to be hurting in this situation as much as anybody.” (Husband willing to meet Giffords suspect’s parents, Amanda Lee Meyers, Associated Press, valleynews.com, January 17, 2011)
In the midst of all this heartbreaking tragedy that has sparked considerable debate and bantering about and assigning of blame, is voice that speaks a word of understanding and grace. That was and remains a teachable moment for the world and particularly for the Christian community. We need to be a voice of understanding and grace in every debate.
When Jesus sat down the people knew what he was about to do. Unlike our culture where anyone who is going to speak to an audience stands at podium to address the audience, Jesus sat and his listeners gathered around him.
Teachers taught from a seated position. Today colleges, universities and seminaries have endowed department chairs that are sponsored by individuals, families or funds in honor of a distinguished educator. That chair is typically awarded to an outstanding professor or department head. At North Park University we have the Karl A. Olsson Professor of Religious Studies Chair at the seminary. Scot McKnight, an outstanding New Testament scholar, in his own right, has been awarded that chair.
When Jesus sat down it was a signal to everyone there that Jesus was about to assume the role of a teacher or instructor. Everyone knew that he had something important to say. For Jesus and his followers, this was a teachable moment.
So Jesus saw the crowd of people and seized the opportunity as a teachable moment.
So Jesus opened his mouth and began to teach.
III. Jesus opened his mouth and taught
His disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and began to teach… Matthew 5:1-2
There are a number of ways we might understand what is meant by the phrase, “Jesus opened his mouth…”
Is it like when you open your mouth when there is a break in conversation? We all know what it is like to be caught in a one-sided conversation in which someone yammers on and on and you cannot get a word in edge-wise, so the moment the yakker takes a breath, you open your mouth and jump in.
Is it like the opening of a gate or a door? When I lived in western Kansas I attended a livestock auction every week in McCook, NE. Listening to the auctioneer is always a blast. On one side of the ring a big gate would swing open into the sale ring. And in would charge a lot of cattle or hogs. The auctioneer would go into his spiel and wring every last dime possible from the bidders and when the bidding was over, he would bang his gavel on the counter and say something like, “Sold to buyer # 56.” Then he would say, “Open the gate and let’em out!” And the gate would swing open into the alley and pigs would go scooting out of the ring. Was it like Jesus was opening a gate to let all of his pent up wisdom come scooting out to his listeners?
Jesus was not just jumping in on a conversation or seizing an opportunity to let his thoughts loose. When the bible says, “He opened his mouth,” it is a way of saying, “what Jesus is about to say is important.
When Jesus opened his mouth it was also the opening of his heart and mind. When Matthew said Jesus opened his mouth he was saying, what is about to come out of Jesus’ mouth is of great significance
I’m not particularly fond of scraping my car windshield on frosty mornings and I am even less eager to tackle it when it is coated with a thick coating of ice. I am grateful for a good defroster and for an electric defroster on the rear glass. But I seldom have time to sit there and let the car warm up sufficiently to melt all the ice so I scrape.
My great temptation is to scrape a peep-hole and hit the road. But I’ve found that peep-hole driving tends to be dangerous and hazardous to one’s health and the health of those we involve in our accidents because we are too lazy to completely clear the front, side and rear glass.
When Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount, he was not scraping a peep hole. He was clearing all the glass so his listeners could see and hear all of what was on his heart and mind.
Conclusion:
In the distillation process something is evaporated and condensed down to its purest form. That is what we have in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. We have in the Sermon on the Mount is the essence of what Jesus taught over and over and over.
When Matthew wrote that Jesus opened his mouth and began to teach or that Jesus opened his mouth and taught, he did not use the aorist tense in which he described a completed action. It was not the opening of the gate and the subsequent closing of the gate.
Rather, the usage is the imperfect tense which implies a continuous action or an often repeated action. The idea is that the teachings that follow are what Jesus talked about all the time. The Sermon on the Mount is not a one time teaching but what he taught as a matter of course.
What we will be looking at in the next four weeks is the distillation of the official teaching of Jesus.
And what Matthew is trying to say is, “Hey! We’ve found new and better stuff. The old stuff is good but this stuff is better. The best stuff on earth just got better.”
And this is why we can say that Jesus taught with a twist. Jesus brought something new and better and he did it with power and authority. The crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. Matthew 7:28-29
