Setting the Scene for the Greatest Sermon Ever Told

Matt 5:1: 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:

Imagine the setting, even better pretend you are there in Galilee in the first century A.D. You were there when Jesus of Nazareth was baptized by John the Baptist and a voice from heaven declared "This is my Son, in whom I am well-pleased."

And now, after disappearing for 40 days (you heard from one of his new disciples that Jesus fasted the whole time), Jesus is walking the byways of Galilee, healing the sick, casting out demons, and proclaiming that the kingdom of God has come at last. You are amazed and filled with hope -- thousands are following Jesus, there is a buzz among the people, an electricity in the air, a sure confidence that God is about to do something great -- and Jesus turns away from the crowds and heads for an isolated hilltop where he begins to teach a few of his faithful followers, and you consider yourself blessed to be among them.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, or to put it another way, happy are you when you are poor in spirit, says Jesus, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are you, says Jesus, when you mourn for you will be comforted. Happy are you when you are meek, he says, for you will inherit the earth. Happy are you when you hunger and thirst for righteousness, for you will be filled. Happy are you when you are merciful, for you will be shown mercy. Happy are you when you are pure in heart, for you will see God. Happy are you when you are a peacemaker, you will be called a child of God. Happy are you when you are persecuted because of righteousness, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.

With these eight points -- often called the Beatitudes -- Jesus lays out some basic principles for living in the kingdom of God. The Sermon on the Mount that follows fleshes out the skeletal outline of the Beatitudes, and describes how a follower of Jesus can have the true happiness, the abiding joy, that can be had by followers of Jesus who allow Him to reign in their lives and fashion their lives according to the precepts in the Sermon on the Mount.



Pray with me today: Lord, I want to live in that place of blessing, that place of prolonged happiness. Teach me what it means to be a peacemaker, to be poor in Spirit, to be merciful, to be all those things you list in the Beatitudes…continue praying as you feel led...
 



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