The Place, Structure, and Meaning of the

Sermon on the Mount Within Matthew

JACK DEAN KINGSBURY

Professor of Biblical Theology
Union Theological Seminary in Virginia

For disciples who live in the sphere

where God rules through the risen Jesus,
doing the greater righteousness is
the normal order of things.

A PART FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, the Sermon on the

Mount is perhaps familiar to more people than any other part of
Scripture. Prominently situated toward the beginning of Matthew's Gos-
pel, it is an extraordinarily imposing composition. The purpose of this
essay is to examine the Sermon on the Mount precisely as one section of
Matthew. To guide this examination, questions such as the following will
be explored. What is the place of the Sermon on the Mount within the
ground plan of Matthew? In what capacity does Jesus deliver it? To whom
does he deliver it? What is its structure, and what is its central theme and
message? How would Matthew have the reader regard it, as an impossible
ethic, or as an ethic actually to be lived?

I.
What is the place of the Sermon on the Mount within the ground plan of
Matthew's Gospel? Of the several answers given this question in this
century, the one by Benjamin Bacon has been advocated by more scholars
over a longer period of time than any other. In Bacon's view, the Sermon
on the Mount dominates the whole of Matthew's Gospel, for from it one
gains insight into the structure of the Gospel and into its nature and

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purpose.
Briefly put, the thesis Bacon promulgated 1 is that the evangelist Mat-
thew was a converted rabbi, a Christian legalist, who, as a member of a
church threatened by lawlessness, met this heresy by providing a sys-
tematic compend of the commandments ofJesus after the analogy of the
Mosaic Pentateuch. In structure, Matthew's Gospel constitutes a com-
pilation of "five books" that culminate in great discourses ofJesus and are
supplemented by preamble (chaps. 1-2) and epilogue (chaps. 26-28).
Among the great discourses, the Sermon on the Mount is programmatic,
for here Jesus sets forth the "new Law," that is to say, his "teaching
regarding Righteousness."
Despite the enormous influence Bacon's understanding of the structure
of Matthew has enjoyed, it has not been without its critics. Indeed, the
arguments marshaled against it are of such force that there are many who
regard it as having already been overthrown.f Nevertheless, Bacon's
outline of Matthew continues to exert strong appeal. How is this to be
explained?
The principal reason, it would appear, is that the method almost all
scholars have used in their study of Matthew over the last forty years has
been redaction criticism. In redaction-critical perspective, Matthew is
generally looked upon as an amalgamation of traditions and as in some
sense a revision of Mark. When Matthew is held to be founded upon Mark,
the single, most striking, feature distinguishing it proves not to be the story
it tells but the presence in it of the Sermon on the Mount and the other
great discourses. Because Bacon's outline identifies exactly the great
discourses as the climactic feature of Matthew, scholars seem predisposed
to accept it as necessarily being correct.
Recently, however, the near monopoly that redaction criticism has had
on the study of Matthew has begun to show signs of strain owing to the
emergence of a new method, literary criticism. According to one form of
literary criticism, a Gospel such as Matthew is not to be construed as an
amalgamation of traditions but as a unified "narrative" that is made up of a
"story" and its "discourse.':" Part and parcel of a story are the "events"
being told, and these in turn are so arranged as to form a "plot." In the case
of Matthew, the driving force of the plot is the element of conflict, and this
pits Israel and especially the Jewish leaders against Jesus. Analyze Mat-

1. Cf. Benjamin Bacon, Studies in Matthew (London: Constable, 1930), pp. xiv-xvii, 29,
40-41,47,81-82,165-68.
2. For a review of the arguments against Bacon's position, cf. Jack Dean Kingsbury,
Matthew: Structure, Christology, Kingdom (Philadelphia and London: Fortress Press and
SPCK, 1975), pp. 1-7; and especially David R. Bauer, "The Structure of Matthew's Gospel,
Diss. Union Theological Seminary in Virginia 1985, pp. 75-81 (forthcoming from Almond
Press).
3. For a literary-critical treatment of Matthew that also explains the method, cf. Jack
Dean Kingsbury, Matthew as Story (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986).

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 The Place, Structure, and Meaning of the Sermon on the Mount
Interpretation

thew, therefore, in terms of its story-and plot-development; and the

climax of the story occurs, not in the presentation of the Sermon on the
Mount and the other great discourses of Jesus but in the narration of his
passion." It is through the narration of the passion that the reader is told of
the resolution of the conflict Jesus has with the Jewish leaders; Whereas
the leaders bring Jesus to the cross and believe that they have thereby
triumphed over him and the error he has perpetrated in Israel, God
vindicates him through the resurrection so that, at the last, Jesus is seen to
be the one through whom God has accomplished the salvation ofJew and
Gentile alike (chaps. 26-28).
If literary criticism shows that the climactic feature of Matthew is in fact
the narration of Jesus' passion, what importance is one to assign the
Sermon on the Mount and the other great discourses? The importance of
each of the great discourses is commensurate with the role it plays within
the plot of Matthew's story. In the case of the Sermon on the Mount, it has
its place in 4: 17-11: 1, where the narrator tells of Jesus as proffering
salvation to Israel through his ministry of teaching, preaching, and heal-
ing (4:23; 9:35; 11: 1). Since the narrator characterizes the Sermon on the
Mount as "teaching" (5: 1-2; 7:28-29), it becomes the example par excel-
lence of this facet of Jesus' activity. In any event, Jesus' delivery of the
Sermon on the Mount is not the climactic event in Matthew to which all else
is made subordinate. The climax toward which the whole of Matthew
steers is, again, the passion.

II.
Although Matthew's story of Jesus culminates in the passion, It IS
nonetheless testimony to the great store that Matthew sets by Jesus'
teaching that the Sermon on the Mount is the imposing composition it is.
In what capacity does Jesus deliver the Sermon on the Mount, and to
whom does he deliver it?
Bacon's views have been almost as instrumental in determining schol-
arly opinion on the Christology of Matthew in this century as they have
been in determining how scholars have understood the structure of
Matthew. Bacon himself describes Matthew's jesus as a "second Moses" or
"Lawgiver.l'" Topping this, another scholar has referred to him as "Torah
incarnate.?" Still other scholars, while designating Jesus more typically as
"Messiah," nonetheless attest to Bacon's influence on their thinking by

4. To see how this is the case, cf. Jack Dean Kingsbury, "The Developing Conflict
between Jesus and the Jewish Leaders in Matthew's Gospel: A Study in Literary Criticism"
(forthcoming in CBQ).
5. Cf. Benjamin W. Bacon, "Jesus and the Law: A Study of the First 'Book' of Matthew
(Mt. 3-7)," JBL 47 (1928),207-08.
6. J. M. Gibbs, "The Son of God as the Torah Incarnate in Matthew," Studia Evangelica,
IV (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1968), 38-46.

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explaining that what they mean by this is that Jesus is preeminently the
preacher of "sermons" or the one who delivers to the church the "new
verbal revelation."? The point is this: The christological corrollary of the
thesis that, structurally, Matthew's Gospel culminates in the great dis-
courses is that the Matthean Jesus is made out to be, under one guise or
another, the "Teacher."
Yet however highly Matthew esteems Jesus' activity of "teaching,"
"teacher" remains for him no more than a term of human respect. This is
why one never discovers persons of faith or true disciples addressing Jesus
as "teacher" or "rabbi," but only Judas, opponents, and strangers. No, the
Jesus who teaches in Matthew and who delivers the Sermon on the Mount
is not the "Teacher" but the "Son of God." Nor is it idle in Matthew's eyes to
press this distinction. Conceived by the Holy Spirit,Jesus Son of God is also
empowered by the Holy Spirit (1: 18, 20; 3: 16-17). In him God's kingdom,
or end-time rule, is a present though hidden reality (12 :28). He therefore
enjoys a unique filial relationship to God (11 :27), by virtue of which he
speaks and acts on the authority of God (7:28-29). Accordingly, when
Jesus engages in teaching as when he delivers the Sermon on the Mount,
he dares to speak in the stead, and as the mouthpiece, of God.
To whom does Jesus deliver the Sermon on the Mount? According to
the flow of Matthew's story, Jesus has just begun his public ministry by
summoning Israel to repentance (4: 17) and by calling his first disciples
(4: 18-22). Atop the mountain, therefore, it is the "crowds" and these first
"disciples" who receive the teaching Jesus offers (5: 1-2).
Still, to understand the crowds and the disciples as the recipients of
Jesus' teaching from the mount poses a problem. Close scrutiny of the
message Jesus conveys reveals that it is, in certain respects, suitable to
neither group. It is unsuitable as far as the crowds are concerned because
they are not, as some would claim, nascent disciples" but "outsiders."
However well-disposed the crowds may appear to be toward Jesus,9 as
early as chapter 11 Jesus censures them as "this [evil] generation" that has
repudiated bothJohn the Baptist and himself (11:7, 16-19), and at the end
of the gospel story they of course join with their leaders in calling for the
crucifixion of Jesus and in making themselves responsible for his death
(27:20-26,38-44). If one keeps in mind the fact that the crowds are not
nascent disciples, one has only to read the Sermon on the Mount to
recognize how little the contents envisage persons who do not hold to him.

7. Cf. Willi Marxsen, Introduction to the New Testament, trans. G. Buswell (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1968), pp. 151-52; Norman Perrin, The New Testament: An Introduction (New
York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974), pp. 174-77.
8. Cf., e.g., Paul S. Minear, "The Disciples and the Crowds in the Gospel of Matthew,"
Gospel Studies in Honor ofSherman Elbridge Johnson, ed. M. H. Shepherd,Jr. and E. C. Hobbs
(Anglican Theological Review, 1974), pp. 28-44.
9. Cf. Matt. 4:24-25; 7:28-29; 8: 1, 9:8, 33.

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 The Place, Structure, and Meaning of the Sermon on the Mount
Interpretation

Yet even to read the Sermon on the Mount with the idea that the
disciplesjust called by Jesus are the recipients is not wholly unproblematic.
Passages like 5: 11-12 and 7: 15-23, which speak of enduring persecution
on account of Jesus or tell of followers of Jesus who prophesy, cast out
demons, and perform many miracles in his name but are in reality workers
of lawlessness, simply have no place in the picture the narrator paints of
the disciples during the earthly ministry of Jesus.
Consequently, as fitting as it is from the standpoint of the flow of
Matthew's story that the crowds and the first disciples should be named as
the recipients of the Sermon on the Mount, the contents themselves of the
Sermon indicate that they are meant not at all for non-disciples such as the
crowds and only in part for the first disciples, and that they therefore have
in view still other persons. Who are these other persons? Are they those
first-century Christians who comprised the membership of Matthew's
church? Yes, but this is not the most accurate answer one can give, for
these first-century Christians are obviously not to be regarded as living
within the "world of the story" Matthew is narrating but apart from it, in
the real world. The answer to be preferred, therefore, is that the persons
indicated by the contents themselves of the Sermon on the Mount as being
its recipients are the "implied readers" (or the "implied reader") of Mat-
thew's Gospel. Still, to say this is merely to prompt another question: Who
is this "implied reader"? To ascertain this, one must probe the "world" of
Matthew's story. .
In two or perhaps three passages, Matthew, as implied author, provides
indicators of who the implied reader is whom he envisages as the recipient
of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. At 27:8, Matthew remarks through the
voice of the narrator that "to this day" the field bought with Judas' money
is known as the Field of Blood. At 28: 15, Matthew similarly remarks that
"to this day" false rumors are being spread to the effect thatJesus did not
rise from the dead. At 24: 15, Matthew has the narrator abruptly interrupt
the story so as to issue the reader a challenge to comprehend the meaning
of the signs of the times ("Let the reader understand!"). What dis-
tinguishes these three passages is that they all point beyond the immediate
story being told of Jesus, which extends from birth to resurrection, to a
place in time and space following the resurrection from which one can
look back upon the earthly life of Jesus. This place beyond Jesus' earthly
life to which Matthew points and which he includes in the world of his story
is that of the implied reader. The implied reader, then, is to be looked
upon as one who is a disciple of Jesus and who lives in the perilous times
between the resurrection and the Parousia which are so vividly described
in such passages of the Gospel as chapters 24-25.
Looking back upon Jesus' earthly life from a point beyond the resur-
rection, the implied reader can relate without difficulty both to the place of
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the Sermon on the Mount within Matthew's story and to the words Jesus
utters in it. On the one hand, the implied reader can easily follow the
narration of Matthew's story, so that the dramatic necessity of havingJ esus
deliver the Sermon on the Mount at the beginning of his ministry to his
first disciples and the crowds attracted to him poses no problem. By the
same token, the implied reader can also relate both to the character and
the tenor of the Sermon on the Mount, namely, its profoundly "Christian
coloration" as a word of the Messiah Son of God and the fact that in itJesus
speaks of such "future Christian experiences" as suffering severe per-
secution on account of him or encountering Christian prophets who are
workers of lawlessness.
In sum, the intended addressee of the Sermon on the Mount is primarily
the implied reader of Matthew's Gospel. References made hereafter to
"disciples" as recipients of the Sermon on the Mount in reality have this
particular disciple, that is, the implied reader, in view.

III.
We have seen thus far that the Sermon on the Mount is the example par
excellence ofJesus' teaching, that he delivers it in his authority as the Son
of God, and that whereas according to the dramatic setting of the story it is
the crowds and the first disciples he has called who receive it, the tenor of
the Sermon itself indicates that the primary addressees are such "disciples"
as the implied reader. With these matters in mind, two questions arise:
What is the structure of the Sermon on the Mount, and what is its theme
and its message?
The narrative frame of the Sermon on the Mount describes Jesus as
ascending the mountain to teach (5: 1-2) and, after finishing, as descend-
ing again (7:28-8: I). This aside, the Sermon on the Mount divides itself
into five parts: (1) Introduction: On Those who Practice the Greater
Righteousness (5:3-16); (2) On Practicing the Greater Righteousness
Toward the Neighbor (5: 17-45); (3) On Practicing the Greater Right-
eOUSIIess Before God (6: 1-18); (4) On Practicing the Greater Righteous-
ness in Other Areas of Life (6: 19-7: 12); and (5) Conclusion: Injunctions
on Practicing the Greater Righteousness (7: 13-27).
As is apparent from this outline, the theme of the Sermon on the Mount
is the "greater righteousness." Perhaps the passage in which this theme
finds expression most clearly is the pronouncement Jesus makes at 5:20:
"For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." What is one to
understand by the "greater righteousness"?
The "greater righteousness" is that style of life intended to be the mark
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 The Place, Structure, and Meaning of the Sermon on the Mount
1nterpretation

of disciples ofJesus. As was mentioned, Jesus in Matthew is preeminently

the Son of God (1: 18,20; 3: 16-17). As God's Son, he calls persons to follow
him, which is to say that he summons them to enter and to live in the
sphere of God's eschatological kingdom, or end-time rule. Those who
hear Jesus' summons become his disciples (4: 18-22) and "sons of God"
(5:9); they, too, know God as Father (5:45). In fact, they form a new
"family" (12:48-50), described as a "brotherhood" of the sons of God and
of the disciples of Jesus, which is the "church" (16: 18; 23:8; 28: 10). The
"greater righteousness," then, is the quality of life which is indicative of
disciples who make up the church. It is behavior that comports itself with
living in the sphere of God's kingdom (5:20; 6:33).
Yet more can be said of the "greater righteousness," however. At 5:48,
Jesus instructs disciples: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your
heavenly Father is perfect." What "being perfect" means here is not, say,
being flawless, but "being wholehearted," as this is described, for example,
in an injunction like Deuteronomy 18: 13: "You shall be wholehearted in
your service of the Lord your God." Accordingly, to be perfect is to be
wholehearted in one's devotion to God, and disciples are wholehearted in
Matthew when they do God's will as this is taught by Jesus (7:21). InJesus'
teaching, however, to do God's will is, at its core, to exercise love
(22:34-40). Loving as God loves, therefore, is of the essence of the greater
righteousness (5:44-45). When disciples love as God loves, this reflects
itself further in the fact that they also love the neighbor (7: 12). In sum,
therefore, it is love toward God and love toward neighbor that constitute
the heart of the greater righteousness.
If the greater righteousness is the theme of the Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus specifies in the introduction (5:3-16) the types of persons disciples
are who practice the greater righteousness. The introduction falls into two
sections: the Beatitudes (5:3-12) and Jesus' words on salt and light
(5: 13-16).
Whereas Luke has four beatitudes balanced by four woes (6:20-26),
Matthew has nine beatitudes and no woes (5:3-12).10 In pronouncing the
Beatitudes, the Matthean Jesus confers end-time "blessings" upon dis-
ciples who are characterized by what they are (e.g., the poor) or do (e.g.,
the peacemakers). These blessings assure disciples of the vindication and
reward that attend the salvation of God's consummated kingdom and thus
provide encouragement in time of persecution and difficulty.
To take each beatitude in turn, "the poor in spirit" are disciples who are

10. For this and the following paragraph, thanks go to Harper's Bible Dictionary, ed. Paul
J. Achtemeier (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985), p. 100.

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not only economically deprived but who also stand before God with no
illusions of self-righteousness or self-sufficiency (5:3). "Those who
mourn" are disciples who grieve over sin and evil in the world. "The meek"
are disciples who are lowly and powerless, whose only hope is God. "Those
who hunger and thirst for righteousness" are disciples who yearn for the
final salvation that only God can effect. "The merciful" are disciples who
eschew judgment and forgive. "The pure in heart" are disciples who are
undivided in their allegiance to God. "The peacemakers" are disciples who
work for the wholeness and weB-being that God wills for a broken world.
"Those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake" are disciples who
incur tribulation because they serve God. What Jesus promises all these
disciples is fundamentally the same benefit, the eschatological salvation
that attends God's kingdom (5:3, 10).
Jesus pronounces his beatitudes upon disciples who together form the
new community of God's eschatological people, said above to be the
church. In 5: 13-16,Jesus affirms that this community both is, and is called
to be, the "salt of the earth" and the "light of the world." As it pursues the
life of the greater righteousness, this community summons others to
glorify God, that is, to live in the sphere of his eschatological rule by
themselves becoming disciples of Jesus.
Ifin the introduction of the Sermon on the MountJesus focuses on the
types of persons disciples are who practice the greater righteousness, in
the second, third, and fourth parts he explicates what it is to practice this
righteousness. At the head of the second part, which treats of practicing
righteousness toward the neighbor (5: 17-48), Jesus utters a series of
programmatic statements that have to do with his eschatological mission,
the abiding validity of the law, and the necessity of doing God's com-
mandments and of leading the life of the greater righteousness (5: 17-20).
In 5: 17, Jesus roundly declares that it is not the purpose of his mission to
abolish the law or the prophets but-by virtue of who he is, the Son of God
in whom God's end-time kingdom is a present though hidden reality, and
through what he says and does-to fulfill them. In 5: 18, he flatly asserts
that the law will never pass away and that all that it requires will be done. In
5: 19, he utters "sentences" that pledge to disciples higher and lower
degrees of eschatological reward so as to warn in the one instance against
breaking even the most insignificant of the commandments and to urge in
the other the observance of all of them. In 5:20, he similarly enjoins
disciples to practice the greater righteousness "now" ,on pain of otherwise
not entering the consummated Kingdom of Heaven "then." On balance,
Jesus Son of God asserts in 5: 17-20 that in his coming, whereby God's
kingdom has become a present though hidden reality, he accomplishes the
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 The Place, Structure, and Meaning of the Sermon on the Mount
Interpretation

fulfillment of the law, giving it abiding validity, and that to do the law (or
will of God), is to do the greater righteousness, at the heart of which, one
will recall, is love toward God and neighbor.
Jesus continues the second part of the Sermon on the Mount by pro-
claiming the six Antitheses, one of the more famous sections of the
Sermon (5:21-48). Each "antithesis" overrides in some respect a "thesis" of
the Mosaic law. Since the law as Jesus teaches it has abiding validity, the
antithesis intensifies, or radicalizes, the thesis. Introducing each thesis is a
formula that may be longer or shorter in length. Always intended, how-
ever, is the formula in its entirety, which reads: "You have heard that it was
said to the people of old ... " (5:21, 33). As is apparent, this formula
divides itself into three parts. 11 The first part ("You have heard") reminds
disciples of the traditional custom (e.g., in the Jewish synagogue) of
hearing the law read and expounded in services of worship. The second
part ("it was said") features the use of the "divine passive" and is a
periphrasis for "God said." The third part ("to the people of old") envis-
ages the Israelites at Sinai who received the law but includes as well the
generations subsequent to them who have likewise received it. In its
totality, therefore, the formula introducing each thesis reminds disciples
that it has been taught them that God, at Sinai, delivered Israel his law.
In stark contrast to this introductory formula stands the formula with
which Jesus introduces each of his antitheses. It reads: "But I say to you
..." (cf., e.g., 5:22). The force of this formula is unparalleled, for Jesus, in
uttering it, is in effect pitting his word against the word God spoke at Sinai,
that is to say, against the law as known through Moses. In the last analysis,
therefore, the astonishing thing about the Antitheses is that in themJesus
Son of God dares to place his word and his authority above those of Moses.
To turn now to the Antitheses, Jesus commands, variously, that disciples
are not only not to kill, but not even to become enraged (5:21-26); not only
not to commit adultery, but not even to lust (5:27-30); not merely to
comply with the law in obtaining a divorce, but not to divorce at all
(5:31-32); not merely to obey the law and not swear falsely, but not to
swear at all (5:33-37); not merely to adhere to the law in securing
retribution, but to offer no resistance at all to one who would harm or
exploit them (5:38-42); and not merely to love the neighbor while hating
the enemy, but not to hate the enemy at all but instead to love him
(5:43-48).
A special word is in order concerning the third antithesis, about divorce

11. For a discussion of the meaning of these three parts, cf. Robert A. Guelich, The
Sermon on the Mount (Waco: Word Books, 1982), pp. 179-82.

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(5:31-32). It contains the so-called "exceptive clause": "But I say to you
that everyone who divorces his wife, parektos logou porneias, makes her an
adulteress ..." (5:32). The issue is simple: What does this Greek expres-
sion mean? To date, three interpretations have been advanced.
The traditional interpretation is that advocated, for example, by the
translators of the RSV. As they construe it, the Greek expression means
"except on the ground of unchastity." The contention of this interpreta-
tion is that the Matthean Jesus, though he forbids divorce in principle,
nevertheless sanctions it in the event that a spouse commits adultery.
Against this interpretation stand at least two objections: (1) Since Matthew,
in referring to "adultery," uses the Greek word moicheia, it is unlikely that
porneia is to be understood as a mere synonym of moicheia (cf. 15: 19); and
(2) one can also question whether the Matthean Jesus, in sanctioning
divorce by reason of unchastity, can truly be said to radicalize the Mosaic
commandment on divorce (Deut. 24: 1).
A second interpretation of the exceptive clause would read 5:32 along
these lines: "But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife-
notwithstanding the word about immorality [found in Deuteronomy
24: 11]-makes her an adulteress.v'" The idea here is that the Matthean
Jesus most assuredly does radicalize the command of Moses, for he forbids
divorce altogether.
The third interpretation of the exceptive clause would render 5:32 as
follows: "But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except on the
grounds of an incestuous marriage, makes her an adulteress.,,13 This
rendering of 5 :32 portrays the Matthean Jesus as flatly forbidding divorce
in every case except one: Should, for example, a gentile couple join the
church, whose marriage would (on the basis of a passage like Leviticus
18:6-18) have to be adjudged to be incestuous, that couple would be
required to divorce (cf. also Acts 15:20,29). To choose between these three
interpretations, either of the latter two would fit Matthean thought, and
perhaps the third one is most likely to be correct.
As Jesus takes up the third part of the Sermon on the Mount (6: 1-18), 14
he has arrived at its center. This is true both formally and materially.
Formally, the third part constitutes the center because it is preceded by the
introduction and the second part and followed by the fourth part and the

12. Cf., e.g., Bruce Vawter, "The Divorce Clauses in Mt 5,32 and 19,9," CBQ 16 (1956),
165-67; Robert Banks, Jesus and the Law in the Synoptic Tradition (Cambridge: University
Press, 1975), pp. 146-59 (esp. 156).
13. Cf., e.g., John P. Meier, Law and History in Matthew's Gospel (Rome: Biblical Institute
Press, 1976), pp. 140-50; also Guelich, pp. 209-10.
14. For a detailed analysis of Matt. 6: 1-18, cf. Hans Dieter Betz, Essays on the Sermon on
the Mount, trans. L. L. Welborn (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), pp. 56-64.

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 The Place, Structure, and Meaning of the Sermon on the Mount
Interpretation

conclusion. By the same token, the third part itself contains three parts: It
treats of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. What is more, at the center of the
middle part, on prayer, is the Lord's Prayer. Formally, therefore, the
Lord's Prayer can be seen to lie at the very heart of the Sermon on the
Mount.l '
Materially, too, the third part constitutes the center of the Sermon on
the Mount. Thus far, Jesus has delivered the introduction and addressed
the topic of practicing the greater righteousness toward the neighbor.
Upon completion of this third part, he will speak on practicing the greater
righteousness in other areas of life and conclude the Sermon. Here in this
part, he concerns himself with the fundamental issue of practicing the
greater righteousness before God (6: 1-18). In the Lord's Prayer, the
centerpiece of the Sermon, Jesus highlights the essential element on which
all such practice is predicated: that disciples know God as "Father" (6:9).
Through Jesus Son of God, disciples are invited to live in the sphere of
God's eschatological rule, where they, as sons of God, are rightly related to
God and hence know him as Father. Consequently, as Jesus instructs
disciples on how they are to give alms, pray, and fast, he is instructing them
on how to give expression to their right relationship to God.
To give alms is to perform charitable deeds, to pray is to approach God
in petition as Father, and to fast is to show contrition. In contemporary
Judaism as well as for disciples, these were the three cardinal acts of piety.
As Jesus describes the doing of these acts, he contrasts "to be seen by men"
(6: 1) with "in secret" (6:4, 6, 18). This contrast is manifestly not one
between "public" and "private" per se, as though Jesus were denying
legitimacy to all public expression of charitable activity, prayer, and
fasting. 16 No, "to be seen by men" expresses intent, and the contrastJesus
draws is between "ostentation" and "proper motivation." The hypocrites
who practice their acts of piety ostentatiously do so in order to win public
acclaim for themselves. Such acclaim is all the reward they shall receive
(6:2,5, 16). Disciples are to practice their acts of piety "in secret," that is,
out of heartfelt devotion to God. Such practice God acquits with the
promise of eternal reward at the latter day (6:4, 6, 17-18).
The Lord's Prayer (6:7-15) is recited by Jesus to provide disciples with
an example of how they are to pray (6:9a). It divides itself, including the
doxology, into four parts. The "address" (6:9b) shows that the prayer is
directed to God as Father. The "thou petitions" (6:9c-l0) focus on God and

15. For a diagram of this, cf. Ulrich Luz, Das Evangelium nach Mutthdus, EKK
(Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1985), I, 186.
16. On this point, cf. the remarks by Guelich, pp. 300-06.

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the advent of his kingdom as a consummated reality. The "we petitions"
(6: 11-13) focus on the su ppliants and their physical and spiritual needs.
The "doxology," a later addition to verse 13, closes the prayer on a strong
note of praise.
In the fourth part of the Sermon on the Mount (6: 19-7: 12),Jesus deals
with the practice of the greater righteousness in areas of life he has not
already touched on. The prohibitions and imperatives he employs mark
the subunits: "Do not store up" (6: 19-24); "Do not be anxious" (6:25-34);
'Judge not" (7:1-5); "Do not give" (7:6); and "Ask ... seek ... knock"
(7:7-11). The Golden Rule (7:12) serves as both the conclusion and
culmination of this fourth part.
In each of these subunits, a climactic utterance of Jesus occurs which
captures the unit's intention. In 6: 19-24, Jesus enjoins disciples not to
store up for themselves treasures on earth, for "no one can serve two
masters ... ; you cannot serve God and mammon" (6:24). In 6:25-34,
Jesus commands disciples not to be anxious about food, drink, or clothing
but to "seek first the kingdom and his [God's] righteousness, and all these
things shall be yours as well" (6:33). In 7: 1-5, Jesus forbids disciples to
judge others, on pain that "with the judgment you pronounce you will be
judged" (7 :2). In 7:6 (a prohibiton whose meaning is much disputed),
Jesus warns disciples against giving what is sacred and precious to persons
who are undeserving, lest they, like swine, "trample [what is precious]
underfoot and turn to attack you." In 7: 7-11, Jesus suddenly shifts from
the negative to the positive and exhorts disciples to constant and fervent
prayer ("Ask ... seek ... knock"), for they can rest assured that "your
Father who is in heaven will give good things to those who ask him" (7: 11).
And with the Golden Rule, Jesus ends this part of the Sermon on the
Mount by reminding disciples of what he has stressed earlier as well: Doing
the greater righteousness is always, finally, an exercise in love (7: 12).
In the fifth part of the Sermon on the Mount (7: 13-27),Jesus concludes
his teaching. The point he drives home to disciples is unmistakable: It is
not only the hearing of his words but also the doing of them that counts.
Disciples who both hear and do are like the "wise man who built his house
upon the rock" (7:24). They, unlike the false prophets who will prove
themselves to have been workers of lawlessness, will at the latter day "enter
into the kingdom of heaven," for they shall have done "the will of my
Father who is in heaven" (7: 15-16, 20-23).
This survey of the five parts ofJesus' Sermon on the Mount still leaves
one question unanswered: How would Matthew have disciples regard the
Sermon on the Mount, as an impossible ethic, or as an ethic actually to be
lived?

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 The Place, Structure, and Meaning of the Sermon on the Mount
Interpretation

IV.
Matthew holds up Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount as an
ethic disciples are to live. Disciples have been called by Jesus to enter the
sphere of God's eschatological kingdom, the sphere in which God rules as
Father. The ethic of the Sermon on the Mount describes life in this sphere.
Disciples ofJesus are summoned to lead this life, which is to say that they
are summoned to lead the life of the greater righteousness. They are to
love God with heart, soul, and mind and to love the neighbor as the self.
Does this mean, then, that Matthew is, in his understanding of human
nature, impossibly idealistic and completely unrealistic? Not at all. His
Gospel shows that he is fully aware of the reality of sin and of little faith.
After all, disciples pray in the Lord's Prayer: "And forgive us our debts, as
we also have forgiven our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from the Evil One" (6: 12-13). Matthew is aware that disciples
experience failure as they lead the life of the greater righteousness and
that they are continually in need of forgiveness from the side of both God
and the neighbor.
The thing to observe, however, is that Matthew refuses to make the
reality of sin and of little faith the determining factor in his ethic. Instead,
the determining factor for him is the reality of God's eschatological
kingdom, or rule, which is present even now in the earthly and risenJesus
Son of God. For disciples who live in the sphere where God rules through
the risen Jesus, doing the greater righteousness is the normal order of
things. Until the consummation, disciples will, to be sure, have to contend
with the shadows that invade this normal order, with sin and little faith.
But this notwithstanding, they are indeed summoned to be the kind of
person Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount, the kind of person
who loves God perfectly and the neighbor as the self.
Summoned as disciples are to lead the life of the greater righteousness
yet being unable to realize this summons, are they therefore left without
example? Again, not as Matthew sees it. Disciples are also bid to pray: "Our
Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (6:9-10). The human being in
Matthew's Gospel who is whole in his relationship to the Father, in whom
God's kingdom is a present reality, and who does God's will perfectly is of
courseJesus Son of God. He it is who stands before disciples as the one who
realizes in his life the ethic of the greater righteousness. Accordingly,
bound to him in trust and assured of his forgiveness, disciples "follow after
him" as they hear his call and lead the life of the greater righteousness.

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