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D. The Messiah’s Authority Revealed In His Teaching: the Discourse On
Discipleship (5:1–7:29)
As I have already published an overview of some of the issues raised by this
memorable discourse,¹ I trust that I may be allowed here to introduce it quite
briefly.
The scene has been well set: Jesus the Messiah has begun to preach in Galilee, as
Scripture foretold (4:12–17), and large crowds are being attracted to his teaching
(4:23–25). Matthew therefore now presents a lengthy collection of that
authoritative teaching. A parallel collection of his authoritative deeds will follow
in chapters 8–9. But the teaching is addressed, initially at least, not to the
crowds, but rather to the narrower circle of his committed disciples, to whom we
have been introduced in 4:18–22, and who are now taken apart from the crowds
to be instructed on what their new commitment involves. The focus of these
chapters is not then the wider proclamation of the “good news of the kingdom,”
(4:23) but the instruction of those who have already responded to that
proclamation, and now need to learn what life in the “kingdom of heaven” is
really about. The teaching will frequently describe them as a special group who
stand over against, and indeed are persecuted by, people in general. They are
those who have entered into a new relationship with “your Father in heaven,”
and who in consequence are called to a radically new life-style, in conscious
distinction from the norms of the rest of society.² They are to be an alternative
society, a “Christian counter-culture.”³
It is because of this distinctive focus of chs. 5–7 that I have preferred to call this
the “Discourse on Discipleship” rather than use the familiar but non-descriptive
title “Sermon on the Mount,” a term which too often conveys to modern hearers
the concept of a general code of ethics rather than the specific demands of the
kingdom of heaven.⁴ As has often been pointed out (and sometimes discovered
in experience, notably by Tolstoy) the demands of this discourse do not easily
translate into a practical day-to-day morality; see especially comments below on
5:39–42. The standard set is nothing less than perfection, being like God (5:48).
Jesus’ typical use of extreme, black-and-white categories lays down a challenge
which cannot be simply converted into a set of rules and regulations for life in
the real world. The essence of life in the kingdom of heaven is in fact the
antithesis of a legalistic code, as 5:20 will state and 5:21–48 will repeatedly
illustrate. The discourse is indeed intended as a guide to life, but only for those
who are committed to the kingdom of heaven, and even they will always find
that its reach exceeds their grasp.⁵
In the Introduction (pp. 8–10) I have outlined the nature of Matthew’s five major
discourses, with their distinctive concluding formula, of which this is the
longest. While the synoptic substructure on which each of the others is based is
found in Mark, in this case there is very little material in common with Mark and
the basic synoptic parallel is Luke 6:20–49.⁷ The two “sermons” share a great
deal of common material (all but eight verses of Luke 6:20–49 are parallelled,
though not always closely, in Matthew 5–7) in roughly the same order (the only
exceptions are the placing of Luke 6:27–28, 31) and each begins with beatitudes
and ends with the parable of the two houses. The opening and closing pericopes
are, however, instructive, in that while the subject-matter is similar, in each case
the wording is conspicuously different, to such an extent that at least in the case
of the beatitudes it is easier to explain the Matthean and Lucan sets as deriving
from two separate traditions (see comments on 5:3–10). So while some of the
common material is verbally very similar, at other times Matthew’s “parallel”
material appears to derive from a separate tradition, and it is the overall structure
of the “sermon” rather than its specific content that links Matthew with Luke.
Roughly 27% of Matthew’s discourse is shared with Luke 6:20–49, and a further
33% has parallels elsewhere in Luke and 5% in Mark, while the remaining 35%
has no parallel in either Mark or Luke. These data together with the preceding
observations are consistent with, and indeed provide the clearest illustration of,
Matthew’s method in compiling his five major discourses. A traditional unit of
Jesus’ teaching is adapted and massively expanded by the inclusion of other
traditional sayings on related themes, some of which Matthew shares with Luke,
but many of which he has derived from sources otherwise unknown to us. This
discourse is thus properly described as an anthology of the teaching of Jesus
relating to discipleship, compiled by Matthew into his own distinctive structure
(though using as a basis the sermon outline of Luke 6:20–49), but aiming to
provide an overview of the authoritative teaching of the Messiah himself. We
shall see in chapters 10, 13, 18 and 24–25 similar anthologies based on
traditional units found also in Mark, each of which, like this one, will conclude
with the formula “And it happened, when Jesus had finished these [words] …”
The subject-matter of chapters 5–6 covers four main themes:
5:3–16
The distinctiveness of disciples
5:17–48
Fulfilling the law
6:1–18
Piety, true and false
6:19–34
The priority of trust in God over material security.
In 7:1–12 the structure of the discourse is less clearly coherent, with a collection
of sayings on a number of loosely related themes, though reaching in 7:12 a
summary which brings to a head much of the content of the discourse so far.
Then a series of four challenging contrasts (7:13–27) brings the whole to a
rhetorically powerful conclusion.⁸
The concluding verses (7:28–29) not only reintroduce the crowd as a secondary
audience but also sum up the overall impact which Matthew intends this
discourse to produce, that of the unparalleled authority of the teacher. From time
to time throughout the discourse Jesus has spoken in the first person, indicating
that he himself is to be the focus of the disciples’ allegiance (5:11) and the one
who determines their lifestyle (5:17–18, 20, and the “I say to you” formula of
5:22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44; cf. 6:25, 29) and their destiny (7:21–23, 24, 26). Thus,
far from being a philosophical discourse on ethics, this is a messianic manifesto,
setting out the unique demands and revolutionary insights of one who claims an
absolute authority over other people and whose word, like the word of God, will
determine their destiny. No wonder the crowds were astonished, not only by the
teaching but even more by the teacher.
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