Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount to the people of Israel, not to a Christian community. Our eternal teacher entered into a very particular context within the history of Judaism. For years the people of Israel had been passion-ately debating, and all sides wielded their holy texts as though they were swords made uniquely for their cause. Several variables heightened this conflict to a fever pitch.
First, the people of Israel were being occupied by the Romans. “God’s Chosen People” had in fact been banished or occupied by Gentile rule since the Babylonian exile—that’s a long time! Yes, the Israelites were back in their home-land, but they had no control of the larger government. There were Roman soldiers trampling through their towns. The Temple was controlled by someone else, and all the prophecies of a divine king coming to reign had never came to fruition. From this occupied context questions arose about how to interpret the Law and the Prophets.
Three main strands of understanding emerged. One group was the Sadducees. We know from elsewhere that they did not believe in the Resurrection, but they did believe in working with the occupying powers. They sought to practically collaborate with the Romans, which often led to other Israelites claiming that they were traitors to God and His people.
A second group were the radical Zealots. As far as the Sadducees were on one side, the Zealots were on the other. Instead of working with their rulers, they wanted nothing more than to overthrow the Roman Empire. Being zealous has its roots in the Zealots’ behavior. This group even took up arms to attempt coups against local rulers.
The Pharisees, a third group, walked down a middle path. They were the most divided group of the three. Some Pharisees wanted to fight the powers, while others sought to found isolated communities that would protect the ways of being part of the tribe of Israel. This latter group would practice their piety privately (try saying that three times fast). And, if they could not stop the Roman Empire from controlling their land, they would at least preserve their covenant with God until God came back to earth. Into this divided context Jesus came to preach his Sermon on the Mount.
As the people of Israel felt strained, divided, and conflicted, Jesus spoke some-thing that did not abolish what had been written, but fulfilled the hopes, dreams, and themes of the Law and the Prophets. As one great Biblical scholar, put it, this sermon was “a challenge to Israel to be Israel” (N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (London: SPCK, 1996), 288). Jesus did not side with throwing over the government for we are to love our enemies as our-selves, nor did he befriend oppression or its perpetrators, nor did he go the way of the Pharisees. In fact, these Pharisees were the ones with whom Jesus most often quarreled.
I have heard it said by some priests that they could never preach something from the Old Testament as it was a series of books only focused on law, rules, and an oppressive God. What stands out about Jesus’ ministry is his extensive use of the Law and the Prophets to show us the way of God. This way is hid-den in plain sight right in the midst of the first two-thirds of our Holy Scripture. Jesus did not come to abolish what had been written, not one stroke of a letter of it in fact. Instead, Emmanual, that is God with us, came to fulfill all that had been hoped, dreamed, and otherwise written.
In this way we can approach this passage about salt, light, and righteousness, which Jesus spoke in today’s Gospel lesson in a richer way. The Sadducees’ ways had led them to losing their flavor, like salt without its saltiness. The Zealots’ ways had put them out of right relationship with God and neighbor. The Pharisees’ ways of following the Torah had driven many of them into hid-ing their light, like a lamp under a bushel. Jesus warned that they could not lose their particularity, nor place their passionate hope on God only acting in the future. God’s reign was already started, and it is still happening right now. Jesus came to inaugurate the reign of Christ, which holds onto that which is good and at the same time makes all things new!
We today may be caught up in ways that are not unlike the traditions of the people of Israel in Jesus’ day. We place our allegiance in something or some-one else over our love of God and neighbor. We become violent and aggressive toward those with whom we disagree. We seek to preserve our Traditions in secret, but deny living justly, kindly, and lovingly in public. We all too easily slip into unhealthy spirituality, losing our flavor, hiding our light, and falling out of relationship with God and other.
The way that Jesus came to walk, exemplify, and show to all was not different from the Law and the Prophets. Jesus’ way was and is the same way that God always intended, merely amplified to its loudest level. We need this way now more than ever.
In a world more divisive than I have seen in my lifetime I yearn to see the way of God. Not blind allegiance, not deaf protesting, nor stunted piety, but another way! Jesus came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it. He came to unite all those divisive groups, but many were not willing or able to listen. We are challenged to hear Jesus calling us and to respond to that call. We are called to take up our part in fulfilling God’s law. We are called to be salt and we are called to be light, and as Jesus showed us it is through Christ that we are called to be one with God. Let us preserve our flavor. Let us shine our light. Through Christ let us unite for we are more flavorful and all the brighter, as we all shine in God’s constellation together!
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