Week 5: The Sermon on the Mount

Christian commentator J.I. Packer said, "The Sermon on the Mount is precisely the kind of moral instruction that parents are constantly trying to give their children — concrete, imaginative, teaching general principles from particular instances, and seeking all the time to bring the children to appreciate and share the parent's own attitudes and view of life… The all-embracing principles of conduct.” 

The Sermon begins with the Beatitudes, which Harold B. Lee described as "the constitution for a perfect life." Continuing on with the Lord's Prayer and a collection of timeless metaphors (the city on the hill, the salt of the earth, etc.)  Jesus paints a vision of the Christian life. His audience was expecting a political Messiah, but instead Jesus calls for a complete revolution of the human heart. Our manual (Lesson 8) challenges us to view our marriages through the lens of these principles, a very revealing exercise! Check the Digging Deeper section for an excellent article on this subject.

As we examine each of the pericopes in this masterful sermon, we are asked to abandon a defensive position and open ourselves to a new level of forgiveness and charity toward others. Christ even asks us to sacrifice our anxiety, as He says, "Take no thought for the morrow..." which can be translated, "do not be unduly anxious about the morrow." When He encourages us to "be perfect," we must rely on His grace to fill in the gaps between our intention (which can be perfect) and our actual behavior (which never will be) as we follow Him.

For our question of the week we accept the challenge to rise to this higher law in our most intimate relationships, and ask ourselves,  "In this relationship, what would Jesus do?"