From Vicar Linneman

April Newsletter
Vicar Tyler Linneman

The
Sermon on the Mount
Before the era of microphones, if you wanted to be
heard by a crowd, you had to know how to make
use of terrain. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that
great crowds had begun following Jesus from all
around the area, Galilee and the Decapolis, even
from Judea and Jerusalem. This great crowd had
accumulated around Jesus somewhere around his
new home of Capernaum, and li ke any good
preacher, Jesus isn’t going to pass up this
opportunity to preach.

We know from other accounts that crowds
following Jesus could number into the hundreds,
even thousands (five thousand men in one
instance), and we have no reason to suspect th at
this crowd was any smaller. So how is just one man
supposed to teach all of these people? You have to
get higher than the people, so Jesus takes his place
up on this hill and begins to teach.

But there is more to this mountaintop teaching
than just vocals, because if you know who Jesus is,
this event should remind of another event where
God descends upon a mountaintop and teaches his
people. In Exodus 19 20, we read about another
time the Son of God descended upon Mount Sinai
to teach the people, an d in that day, he came in
fire and thunder, with a voice that echoed across
the wilderness and terrified the people gathered
there. On that mountain, he gave the 10
Commandments to the people of God with his own
voice.

The parallels then are striking, f rom a theological
standpoint, because you have the same Son of God
speaking with his own voice again on a mountain
teaching the people in a very similar way. But
instead of frightening commands, this time, he
pronounces blessings. Instead of fire and thu nder
to terrify, we find a gentle and lowly teacher, Jesus
Christ, sitting and teaching.

How can a situation so similar look and sound so
different? Because these two sermons reveal two
different things about God himself. On Sinai, we
find God the judge who is righteous and punishes
sin. But in the Sermon on the Mount, we see our
God for who he truly wants to be. He does not
want to be the enforcer of the Law, that is what
Martin Luther calls his “alien work.” Jesus wants to
be the Good Shepherd, who gently leads his flock.
This is what Luther calls his “proper work.” He
wants only to bless, not curse.

But God the righteous judge must execute
judgement on sin; his righteousness will not be
questioned. In order that Christ the Good
Shepherd might g ive us these blessings, he takes
upon himself all of our sin, and he puts it to death
on the cross. Are you poor in spirit? Do you
hunger and thirst for righteousness? Are you
merciful? In Christ, you are these things, and so in
Christ, you receive his blessing, and your reward
will be great in heaven.

On this mountain top, we find the Christ who
fulfills the covenant of Sinai. By so doing, he
pronounces these blessings to you, his beloved
children, because he has set you free from the Law
so that yo u might live in his peace forever.