I have been enjoying preaching through Matthew’s gospel for several months this year. The Sermon on the Mount beginning in chapter 5 has been especially enjoyable.

If you are interested in the elements of grace in what is often known as more of a law-kind of text, here are some things I have experienced.

First, because of my recent Ph.D. dissertation on Psalm 119, I had a hyper-awareness to the similarity between the “blessed” in the Psalm and the Beatitudes. It is important that Jesus’s sermon begins with the announcement of blessing. No requirements or rules. Not yet.

Second, Jesus’s first recorded sermon contains the command to “repent” (4:17). So, as Jesus continues to preach about the necessary righteousness, each element of righteousness is a form of repentance, which we know is granted as a gift (cf. Acts 11:18).

Third, and probably the most subtle, is found after the Sermon ends. Matthew 8 begins with two characters displaying tremendous faith in Jesus to heal, first the leper and then the centurion. Matthew positions these narratives in such a way to help readers realize that success in reaching the ultra-righteousness called for in the Sermon is found only through faith in Jesus.

Watch your parishioners while your preaching the Sermon. The bar is raised so high, over and over again. Watch the smiles emerge as you remind them that Jesus commands what He creates. There is no longer the thought of, “I can’t do that!” He has done it and now provides a new desire and capacity for the ultra-righteousness He demands.

Those smiles, sourced in God’s grace, will continue to contribute to His glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal