One Little Pronoun, One Big Calling

Matthew 5:1-2

“Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down.  His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying . . .”

These words serve as the preface to the Sermon on Mount, probably the most popular speech given by Jesus during his time on earth.  I think we miss a little (or, perhaps, quite large) detail most often when reading through Matthew.  After all, it seems like these couple of sentences are no more than an introduction to the red letters that follow.  Perhaps this is so, but I think there’s an important and nifty connection here.

The pronoun “them,” in this case, points back to “his disciples.”  Matthew isn’t talking about the crowd here.  “He began to teach the disciples.”  Now, I’m sure Jesus wasn’t ignoring the multitude that had come all this way just to hear him speak.  After all, “he went up on a mountainside” to give this sermon.

But the point is, his teaching was geared not to the huge gathering of folks, but to the smaller group he called his disciples.  He was talking to people who had left behind everything to follow him—people who were sold out and fully committed.

Now Jesus was surely aware of the crowd.  I’d bet he quite well that there was a sizable percentage of them who would hear what he was about to say and dismiss him as yet another looney with a messianic complex, sounding off on Jewish doctrine.  Yet, he still said what he had come to say, and the Sermon on the Mount is nothing to scoff at.  There are some harsh realizations here.  It includes a call to live counter-culture, some new definitions of sin that even the Pharisees weren’t requiring, and a commandment to be perfect, like God Himself.

This is the first public speech that we know of in Jesus’ ministry.  Matthew records it right after he emerges from fasting and fighting temptation in the wilderness.  Jesus calls a few disciples, and then sits them down to tell them what he’s all about.  This is a mission statement.  It’s an explanation of the life he’s asking them to live.

He spoke to those who were committed, whose loyalty wasn’t going to fade away any time soon.  And he didn’t water down his message for those who would be offended or disappointed.  He wasn’t concerned with being “seeker-sensitive.”  Jesus just spoke.  And guess what?  People followed.