God's Transforming Initiative

There is a turning these days toward the Sermon on the Mount not merely as a high ideal, but as authoritative and practical. That is fundamentally important, because the Sermon on the Mount is the central Christian text for peacemaking and justicemaking. It is not the only text; peacemaking and justicemaking are major themes throughout the biblical story. They are essential to the gospel.

But as long as we tiptoe around the Sermon on the Mount, our stance is fundamentally weak.

Christians in the first few centuries saw the Sermon on the Mount as the central statement of Christian faith and life; no scripture was more quoted and referenced by Christian theologians in the period before the Nicene Council in the fourth century. It is the locus classicus for Christian peacemaking--the place where Jesus taught most extensively about peacemaking. When Anabaptists and Quakers in the 16th and 17th centuries recovered and developed the peace-church tradition, they based it most clearly on the Sermon on the Mount.

Similarly, much of the centuries-long debate between pacifism and just war theory is based on disagreement about the meaning and authority of Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. Going back to the Sermon on the Mount is going back to the root of the discussion.

Not Human Striving But God's Transforming Initiative

Interpreting the Sermon on the Mount as a declaration of high ideals toward which we should strive causes resistance. The ideals seem so high that people feel guilty just thinking about them, and they seem impractical in a realistic world. Nevertheless, the language of high ideals, heavy demands, or harsh sayings still sometimes creeps into the interpretation of even the best New Testament scholars, in spite of their emphasis elsewhere on the context of grace. Such language is not faithful to the New Testament context.

The Sermon on the Mount is not about human striving toward high ideals but about God's transforming initiative to deliver us from the vicious cycles in which we get stuck. It has a realistic view of our world, characterized by murder, anger, divorce, adultery, lust, deceit, enmity, hypocrisy, false prophets, and houses destined for destruction. It announces that in the midst of such bondage, there is also another force operating: God is also beginning to rule with justice and peace, like mustard seeds beginning to grow or leaven beginning to spread, as Jesus said in Matthew 13:31-33.

The Sermon on the Mount describes specific ways we can participate in the new initiatives that God is taking. They are not harsh demands, but methods of practical participation in God's gracious deliverance. "Take my yoke upon you,...and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29-30). But the sermon does not offer a way of cheap grace, a way of vague passivity. God is taking transforming initiatives, and we are asked to participate in what God is doing, imitating God's initiatives.

Just as the Ten Commandments begin with God's gracious delivering action, summed up in the sentence, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage," so the Sermon on the Mount begins with the announcement that those who are poor, who are mourning, and who hunger for justice are blessed because God is bringing deliverance.

The reign of God (or kingdom of God) is not a place, it is a process--a process of turning and deliverance. In our language, a better translation is "God's reigning" or "God's delivering" than "kingdom of God."

Jesus announces that the reign of God is already beginning, and he also promises a future grand fulfillment. The key is not to know when; nobody knows. The key is to be ready, which means to be doing the commands Jesus teaches.

Righteousness is central in the promise of deliverance when God's reign comes, and righteousness is a major theme in the Sermon on the Mount. Righteousness means the restoring of just relations among us personally and societally, and with God. It points to God's gracious initiative in delivering us from sin, guilt, and oppression into a new community of justice, peace, and freedom, into our obedient participation in God's way of deliverance.

Jesus is announcing that God is acting graciously to deliver, and that action is beginning now. He is inviting us to take part in the deliverance. He is also coaching us, explaining how God is delivering so we can see how to participate rather than putting ourselves athwart the flow and coming under judgment and destruction. That is grace.

This means the Sermon on the Mount is not a heavy guilt trip but the happy empowerment of delivering grace. It also means that peacemaking and justicemaking based on the Sermon on the Mount are not merely a protest against something but grace-filled deliverance. Nor are its teachings merely permission to engage in just war but guidance for participating in peacemaking initiatives. They call not only for non-violence or non-resistance but also for positive participation in peacemaking initiatives.

The Threefold Pattern of the Sermon on the Mount

The emphasis on the grace-filled deliverance of transforming initiatives is seen even more clearly if we notice the threefold structure of each of Jesus' teachings in the body of the Sermon on the Mount. Many people treat the pattern of Jesus' teachings as twofold, or dyadic: 1) You have heard of old, don't kill. 2) But I say don't even be angry.

But Jesus teaches with a triadic or threefold structure, not a twofold one. The third element is where the emphasis falls: If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember your brother or sister has something against you, go quickly and try to make peace. If you are on your way to court with your adversary, try to make peace quickly while there is still time.

This is not a rigoristic, hard saying. It is the way of deliverance from the vicious cycle of anger, resentment, and enmity. It is the way of participating in God's delivering reign, who comes to us when there is alienation between us, talks with us in Christ, and seeks to make peace, while there is still time.

We can't not be angry. But we can try to talk it out and make peace rather than nursing our anger and feeling powerless to do anything.

When we read the Sermon on the Mount carefully with this threefold pattern in mind, we notice that the body of the sermon consists of 14 triads (see accompanying chart). Noticing the threefold pattern transforms our interpretation: Now we pay attention to the third portion, where biblical triads put their emphasis.

We see that the third element is always an initiative, not merely a prohibition. It is always a practical participation in deliverance from a vicious cycle of bondage, hostility, idolatry, and judgment. Each implies living a whole, integrated life in relation to God and points to a way God is fulfilling redemptive expectations promised in the Old Testament.

Each moves us away from the "hard saying" or "high ideal" kind of interpretation that has caused resistance, evasion, and a dualistic split between inner intentions in the heart and outer deeds in society. Each moves us instead into participation in God's grace, God's deliverance, God's reign.

None is an impossible action. We can follow Christ in talking to one who is angry at us, letting our yes be yes, going the second mile, praying with our enemies, praying in secret, and investing our treasures in God's justice. It takes a serious decision to follow, but it is not impossible and harsh. It is the way of deliverance.

Glen H. Stassen was professor of Christian ethics at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, when this article appeared. This article is excerpted from Just Peacemaking: Transforming Initiatives for Justice and Peace, by Glen H. Stassen. ©1992 Glen H. Stassen. Used by permission of Westminster/John Knox Press. To be released spring 1992.