Gospel of Matthew: Preaching the Sermon on the Mount
By Bob Young
Introduction
The Sermon on the Mount is the first of five discourses in the gospel of Matthew. It serves as
foundational, both in Matthew and in Jesus’ ministry, in that it introduces the conflict between Jesus
and the Jewish leaders of his day. The Sermon on the Mount must be read and understood against the
background of Jesus’ time. One must be careful not to read it through Christian lenses. The application
to Christianity should be secondary, only after the text is understood contextually. The Sermon on the
Mount is not Jesus’ effort to summarize Christianity. It is rather Jesus’ effort to correct the
misunderstandings and mistaken emphases of Judaism. As such it must be understood against the
background of Jewish attitudes and practices in the first century.
The sermon is often placed within the genre of wisdom literature. In many ways, it functions as wisdom
literature typically functions. Blenkinsopp (Wisdom and Law in the Old Testament) suggests that wisdom
and law are two great rivers which eventually flow together and find their outlet in rabbinic writings and
early Christian theology. He notes the formal similarities between case law and proverbial sayings,
between apodictic sentences of law and the instruction of wisdom literature. He also suggests that
Matthew in his gospel intended to place the teaching of Jesus within the ongoing tradition of Israelite
and Jewish wisdom. In fact, of canonical gospels, Matthew seems most interested in presenting Jesus as
a wise teacher. This may explain why Matthew organizes Jesus' teachings into five discourses, perhaps
modeled on the Pentateuch. The first of these, the Sermon on the Mount, concludes with the familiar
contrast between the wise person and the fool.
Is the Sermon on the Mount wisdom literature? Harry Hunt, professor of Old Testament at
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, notes that the role of the sage and the priest became more
prominent (Eccls. 38:24-39:11) as the role of the prophet became less visible during the
intertestamental period. This he sees as a fitting bridge to the New Testament where the magi (sages or
wise men) announce the birth of Christ, the one who is to become greatest of all wisdom teachers (cf.
Mt. 12:42; 13:54).
Wisdom literature is a broad genre. The wisdom literature of the OT (the Writings) is echoed in the
wisdom literature of the Ancient Near East. Proverbial, instructional wisdom literature was known in
Egypt from the third millennium B.C. There is no doubt that the Old Testament wisdom tradition
continues in the New Testament, as wisdom is used in the New Testament with a variety of nuances. I
have in my files a quotation from Huber Drumwright, Dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary. Unfortunately, the original source is not noted.
"There is in the Sermon on the Mount the clearest and fullest approach to the wisdom method
to be found in the teachings of Jesus. The love of life and learning of large lessons with spiritual
import from nature, both of which characterize the sages of the OT, are evidenced in Jesus'
longest sermon of record. Even the short, pithy, sometimes antithetical method of the wisdom
writers seems to have been employed by Jesus."
Treating the Sermon on the Mount as wisdom literature suggests fresh approaches to preaching the
text. One may follow a tried (and tired?) approach to textual preaching and allow each individual
periscope to stand alone. One may also seek points of commonality, themes and threads that run
through the Sermon like a fine tapestry, not only holding the Sermon together but also giving it beauty.
