The Fourteen Triads of the Sermon on the Mount

Lighting used for the Serm0on on the Mount unearthed

   

The Problem

Jesus’ SoM is a perfect example of G. K. Chesterton’s dictum that “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”[1] And it has been found difficult because it has been misread.  And because it has been found difficult numerous ways of interpreting the SoM have emerged to deal with that difficulty. The salient feature of all these tactics is that they turn Jesus’ sermon into something other than what it clearly appears to be – a piece of practical instruction for his followers as they are preparing to face a epoch-changing crucible.  

-Some have claimed the SoM is intended for another time, the so-called Millennium, when Jesus rules on the earth for a thousand years.

-Some have argued that the SoM is an “interim” ethic designed for the brief time Jesus claimed would pass between his resurrection and return to fully establish the reign of God. Since Jesus did not return quickly this “interim” ethic must be abandoned in favor of a more “reasonable” way of living for the long haul.

-Others, depending on a dualism between the spiritual and the material, suggest that Jesus intended the SoM to guide our spiritual lives while in the world we had to live by its ways and practices.

-Still others read Jesus’ sermon as a setting of the bar so high, as an “impossible ideal,” that we can never meet so that in contemplating it we are eve reminded of how far short we fall of God’s standard and how in need we are of his grace.

The problem these various ways of reading the sermon are responding to is, as Chesterton noted, that the SoM (as a key part of the “Christian Ideal”) seems too hard to be tried. A bar set too high. An “impossible ideal.” Something only heroic Christians would even consider taking seriously as practical guidance. As long as we continue to (mis)read the sermon that way Jesus’ teaching in it will remain of no value to us.

A Misreading?

If all of these kinds of ways of reading the SoM that makes it too hard or impractical to be considered realistic are based on a misreading of it, what is that misreading? And more importantly, what is the proper way to read it?

Glenn Stassen has helped us immeasurably in this regard.[2] The way we have usually read the sermon is as each statement containing two elements: traditional righteousness (“You have heard that it was said”) and Jesus’ teaching (“But I say to you”). Let’s look at the first teaching:

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. ²³ So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵ Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. ²⁶ Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.”

The traditional righteousness is in v.21. Jesus’ teaching begins in v.22. Killing is prohibited and leads to judgment according to the law. Jesus then intensifies the law’s prohibition by outlawing anger, insults, or calling another a fool. Since everyone gets angry, hurls insults, and speaks in dehumanizing ways to others, his teaching can’t be kept. We must apply one of the methods of dealing with this hard, unreachable, “impossible ideal” discussed earlier.

But what if, as Stassen argues, instead of two elements each of these statements has three: the traditional righteousness, a vicious cycle, and Jesus’ transforming initiative.[3] In this understanding the traditional righteousness is in v.21. But v.22 is not Jesus’ command but a description of a vicious cycle. It is not an imperative but a participle of continuous action: “don’t keep on being angry, insulting, calling someone a fool, that only leads to judgment.” Anger undealt with leads to worse and worse action and finally to condemnation. Then beginning in v.23 we meet Jesus’ transforming initiative. It is here we find the imperatives Jesus brings to bear on the situation. There are five of them in thus case: “leave” your gift, “go,” “be reconciled,” “come,” and “offer.” These, according to Stassen are the climax and point of the teaching.[4] It’s not about avoiding anger. Scripture itself does not prohibit all anger (Eph.4:26; see also Mk.1:41; 3:5; Mt.21:12-17; where Jesus is angry; and Mt.23:17 where Jesus calls his opponents “fools”). It is how we deal with anger, not the fact that we are angry, that is at issue in the Bible. The climax of these teachings, these third members of the triad, are “transforming initiatives in three senses: it transforms the person who was angry into an active peacemaker who comes to be present to the enemy and to make peace. It transforms the relationship as merely being angry into a peacemaking process. And it hopes to transform the enemy into a friend.”[5] Such is the “wisdom”[6] of Jesus’ teaching in this sermon. And as a wisdom writing it is intended to provide on-the-ground instruction for daily faithfulness.

Stassen extends this triadic analysis to all but 5:3-20 (Beatitudes/Salt and Light) and the conclusion 7:13-   covering 5:21-7:   . Here in chart form are his findings. We cover them in more depth as we go through them.

The Fourteen Triads of the Sermon on the Mount[7]

Traditional Piety	Vicious Cycle	Transforming Initiative
1. You shall not kill	Being angry, or saying, You fool!	Go, be reconciled
2. You shall not commit adultery	Looking with lust	Remove the cause of temptation (cf. Mark 9.43ff.)
3. Whoever divorces, give a certifi- cate	Divorcing involves you in adultery              (Be reconciled: 1 Cor 7.11)
4. You shall not swear falsely	Swearing by anything involves you in a false claim	Let your yes be yes, and your no be no Turn the cheek Give your tunic and cloak Go the second mile Give to beggar and borrower
5. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth	Violently/vengefully resisting by evil means
6. Love neighbor and hate enemy	If you love those who love you, what more is that than the Gentiles do?	Love enemies, pray for your perse- cutors; be all-inclusive as your Father in heaven is
7. When you give alms	blowing a trumpet like hypocrites	but give in secret, and your Father will reward you
8. When you pray,	making a show like the hypocrites	but pray in secret, and your        Father will reward you
9. When you pray,	babbling like Gentiles, thinking the wordiness will be heard appearing gloomy to others, like the hypocrites	Therefore pray like this: Our          Father... but dress with joy, and your           Father will reward you But pile up treasures in heaven But seek first God’s reign and God’s justice/righteousness
10. When you fast,
11. Do not pile up treasures on earth (Luke 12.16-31)	Where moth and rust destroy, and thieves enter and steal
12. No one can serve two masters	You are not able to serve God and wealth, being anxious about food and clothes
13. Do not judge, lest you be judged	By the measure with which you judge, you will be judged	First take the log out of your own eye
14. Do not give holy things to dogs, nor pearls to pigs	They will trample them and tear you to pieces	Give your trust in prayer to your Father in heaven

Grace and the Sermon on the Mount

As in any piece of biblical wisdom literature the source and power to carry out the instructions are God’s grace. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” we read in Proverbs (1:7). At the outset of the SoM we read of God’s blessing on those who know they have nothing within them by which to carry out what God wants (Mt.5:3). They have found the needed resources in God’s love and grace toward them in Christ.

Another word for grace within the biblical story is covenant, a unilateral relationship initiated by God and requiring a proper response by its recipients.  And covenant, as we have seen, is one of three central realities that ground and  guide the biblical story toward its proper conclusion.

What Does It Mean to be “Blessed”?

I want to introduce the Beatitudes of Jesus by considering the word from which this part of the sermon takes its name: “blessed.” That at least is how the word is traditionally translated. But a consideration of the sermon as a wisdom teaching gives us a different slant on these teachings in 5:3-12. By serving as a preface to this first great block of Jesus’ teaching Matthew presents them as a lens, as it were, through which we are to interpret the rest Jesus’ message and ministry.

If we pull together some of what we have learned thus far about this gospel an interesting picture begins to develop.

-Jesus’ ministry is focused on regathering and reconstituting Israel as the Abrahamic people God would use to bless the world they were meant to be.

-He is Israel’s last chance to be that faithful people. Israelites must choose the model for being that people among those on offer from various factions within the people with which Jesus is in competition. Destruction at the hands of Rome will be the consequence for not choosing and committing to Jesus’ way of being Israel.

-The sermon, Jesus first major block of teaching in Matthew, is a specimen of wisdom teaching designed to instruct its readers in the nuts and bolts of daily living in light of the crisis that has come upon the people in Jesus.

-As the preface and lens for this teaching the Beatitudes reveal at the outset the kind of life that will survive and even thrive in such a time as this.

-As each of these sayings is introduced by makarios, traditionally “blessed,” a careful look at this term is essential.

 Many languages (including the biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek), but not English, have different words to connote divine favor, on the one hand, and a life of flourishing, on the other. “Blessed” does service for both for us. So we must look at which nuance, divine favor or a life of flourishing, makarios, points us to. And clearly, as Jonathan Pennington has recently shown, makarios points us to the latter (against the way we usually take it). In an interview about his book The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing Pennington comments on this distinction between divine favor and human flourishing: “This distinction is absolutely essential to read the Beatitudes well. It frees us from reading them as either blessings, curses, or entrance requirements. Instead, we recognize they’re pointing to Jesus the sage, the philosopher showing what true happiness is.”[8]

Happiness is a bit too sentimentalized in our culture to be helpful, so Pennington goes with the term “flourishing” for makarios. What is the shape of life faithfulness in this crisis situation will require from Jesus’ followers? The Beatitudes tells us. And it’s not what we would expect. Pennington again:

“. . . what (Jesus) defines (as) true happiness . . . is shocking. It’s totally unexpected. He doesn’t say, ‘Flourishing is when you have lots of kids,’ ‘Flourishing are those who have tons of money,’ ‘Flourishing are the prestigious ones in society,’ ‘Flourishing are the virtuous ones in society.’ Instead, it’s flourishing when you have a poverty of spirit, a hungering or thirsting — not positive things. When you are humble, that means not getting your rights. When you’re merciful, you are giving up your rights and forgiving someone who has wronged you. All these things he describes as flourishing are totally unexpected.
That’s why the second part of each macarism (statement of blessing or flourishing) is essential. Why in the world is that craziness true? Why is it flourishing to have poverty of spirit? Because you’ll be comforted. Yours is the kingdom of heaven. You are actually the sons of the kingdom.”[9]

Here then is how Pennington renders the Beatitudes. I’ll use his translation in discussing them.

3 Flourishing are the poor in spirit because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.                                           4 Flourishing are the mourners because they will be comforted.                                                       5 Flourishing are the humble because they will inherit the world.                                                              6 Flourishing are the ones hungering and thirsting for righteousness because they will be satisfied.                                                                                                                                                           7 Flourishing are the merciful because they will be given mercy.                                                         8 Flourishing are the pure in heart because they will see God.                                                            9 Flourishing are the peacemakers because they will be called the children of God.                                                                                                                                    10 Flourishing are the ones persecuted on account of righteousness because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.                                                                                                                                                         

---

[1] What’s Wrong with the World, Part I, Chapter 5, “The Unfinished Temple.”

[2] “Recovering the Way of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount,” at https://doi.org/10.1179/jep.2002.22.1.007.

[3] Stassen notes: “In fact, the Gospel of Matthew has about seventy-five teachings with a threefold or triadic pattern, and almost no teachings with a twofold or dyadic pattern. It would be odd if Matthew’s pattern in the Sermon on the Mount were only dyads, when everywhere else he presents triads.”

[4] Stassen notes, “We can see that the third member is the climax in three ways: It is where the commands, the imperatives, come. It is longer than the other parts of the teaching. And in biblical teaching, the third member of a teaching is regularly where the climax comes.”

[5] Stassen, “Recovering the Way of Jesus.”

[6] More recently the affinities of the SoM with Israel’s wisdom tradition have been highlighted. See Gary A. Tuttle, “The Sermon on the Mount: Its Wisdom Affinities and Their Relation to its Structure,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 20 (1977), 213-230.

[7] “The Fourteen Triads of the Sermon on the Mount” Journal of Biblical Literature 122 (2003), 296.

[8] Cited in Andrew J. W. Smith, ‘Blessed are the flourishing’: how the wise teachings of Jesus in the sermon on the mount lead to true happiness” at https://equip.sbts.edu/publications/magazine/magazine-issue/fall-2017-vol-85-no-2/blessed-are-the-flourishing/. Andrew Perriman concurs, “The beatitude functions, in effect, as an informal linguistic boundary marker. It defines within the larger corpus of Israel a group of people who, on account of their behaviour or spiritual condition, experience to an extraordinary degree the goodness of God,” https://www.postost.net/commentary/beatitudes

[9] Ibid.