The Life of Jesus Christ, Term Paper Example

The Life of Jesus Christ: The Sermon on the Mount

As one of the most pivotal events in the life of Jesus Christ, the Sermon on the Mount symbolizes the true beginnings of Jesus’ teaching cycle. According to Mark Wood, prior to the Sermon on the Mount, the words and thoughts of Jesus as described in the New Testament are limited in their scope; the same can be said of Jesus’ general teachings to His disciples and the people of Galilee. However, the Sermon on the Mount can best be defined as “one powerfully comprehensive yet compact message” that Jesus set forth as the “foundational truths of the Gospels of the Kingdom” for which He was sent by God Himself (“Background on the Sermon on the Mount”). Wood adds that the words spoken by Jesus during this monumental event “were revolutionary truths to the minds of the Jewish religionists who heard them.” In fact, Jesus’ message was so powerful that it has “continued to impact the minds of readers for nearly two thousand years” (“Background on the Sermon on the Mount”).

These observations by Wood are fully supported by Robert Szunjic, Adjunct Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Rhode Island, who suggests that the Sermon on the Mount “reflects the very beginnings of Jesus’ thoughts” on the foundations of Christian morality. The Sermon on the Mount also remains to this day as the “the lasting source of inspiration for all who profess to be the followers of Jesus” (“Jesus of Nazareth: The Sermon on the Mount”).

Historically, the Sermon on the Mount can be viewed as part of Jesus’ biography via what Robert H. Stein refers to as “Greco-Roman biography” and an “historical narrative” or prose narrative that concerns a person’s life while “presenting supposedly historical facts which were selected to reveal the character or essence of the individual” (“Mark”). In this case, we have two versions of the Sermon on the Mount–the Gospel of Matthew (5:1 thru 7:29) and the Gospel of Luke (6:17 thru 49).

According to Szunjic, the title of the Sermon on the Mount apparently originated with St. Augustine who referred to it as the “Lord’s Sermon in the Mountain” circa 394 C.E. Although the exact date of the sermon is not known, many biblical scholars believe that it was “composed” (meaning that it is very unlikely that Jesus wrote it down beforehand) sometime around 30 C.E. during the 1st century and that both versions were written down between 65 C.E. and 95 C.E. by Matthew and Luke respectively. Geographically, it seems that the sermon was delivered somewhere within the hills of Capernaum or as alluded to by Luke, occurred in a “level place,” such as one of the huge open plains in the area of Capernaum (“Jesus of Nazareth: The Sermon on the Mount”), thus making it more accurate to call it the “Sermon on the Plains.”

Exactly who was present at the Sermon on the Mount is not clear, but we do know that Jesus’ disciples were present along with an unknown number of people from the village of Capernaum which during Jesus’ time was located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Many biblical scholars have deduced that there were four distinct religious groups of people at the sermon–the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Zealots.

The first group firmly believed in divine laws and religious tradition and adhered to Mosaic law or the laws handed down by Moses in the Old Testament. The second group was mostly interested in the present and could be described as “religious liberals who discounted most things supernatural” and tended to interpret holy scripture to suit their own religious beliefs. The third group were ascetics that “believed that right religion meant separation from the rest of society,” thus explaining why most of them lived as hermits or in small groups in remote and barren areas near the Dead Sea. The fourth group could be described as “fanatical nationalists who thought that right religion centered in radical political activism,” such as making plans as revolutionaries to attack the Roman Empire and everything it stood for (Wood, “Background on the Sermon on the Mount”).

Philosophically, the Sermon on the Mount focused primarily on internal thoughts and feelings, rather than external conditions. As Wood explains it, the Sermon on the Mount was “spiritual and moral rather than physical and political” and illuminates Jesus’ personal concerns related to the present condition of man. “His concern,” observes Wood, “was about what men are because what they are determines what they do” (“Background on the Sermon on the Mount”).

Some of the most important aspects of the Sermon on the Mount relate to the Kingdom of God as being entirely separate from the society of man and his various governmental and political systems during the 1st century C.E. Jesus also emphasized that the common man and woman were far more important than kings and queens and those living the exalted life in secular courts and kingdoms. For example, John the Baptist “had no possessions and no home, lived in the wilderness, dressed in a hair garment, and ate locusts and wild honey” and was considered by the Jewish leaders as a misfit and madman. However, in Jesus’ message, John the Baptist and those like him were far superior to those in political power which explains why John “received the Lord’s highest praise” (Wood, “Background on the Sermon on the Mount”).

Thus, from a biblical standpoint, the Sermon on the Mount represents a pivotal moment in the life of Jesus Christ. This is particularly relevant to part of His message found in the Sermon–“When the Pharisees with whom Jesus was having lunch were bothered that He did not ceremonially wash His hands before eating, Jesus said, “Now you Pharisees have the habit of cleaning the outside of your cups and dishes, but inside (of) yourselves are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the One who made the outside make the inside too? But dedicate once for all your inner self, and at once you will have everything clean” (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Luke 11:39-41, p. 245).

Works Cited

Stein, Robert H. “Mark.” Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. 2008. Web. Accessed 27 August 2015. <https://www.wtsbooks.com/common/pdf_links/Excerpt_9780801026829.pdf>.

Szunjic, Robert. “Jesus of Nazareth: The Sermon on the Mount.” 2015. Web. Accessed 27 August 2015. < http://www.uri.edu/personal/szunjic/philos/sermon.htm>.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Publishing, 2001.

Wood, Mark. “Background on the Sermon on the Mount.” 2007. Web. Accessed 27 August

2015 < https://sermons.logos.com/submissions/32540-Background-on-Sermon-on-the-Mount#content=/submissions/32540>.