Week 23: The Sermon on the Mount
Week 23: The Sermon on the Mount
Some people make the glib claim that they live by the Sermon on the Mount. One wonders if they have ever read it. More common is the opposite reaction, that the Sermon is a beautiful ideal but hopelessly unpractical, being unattainable. Tolstoy to some extent combined both responses, because on the one hand he longed to see the Sermon acted out, while on the other he acknowledged his personal failures.
The essence of the Sermon (which is likely to have been more a kind of extended summer school than a single homily) was Christ’s call to his followers to be different from everybody else. “Do not be like them,” he said (Matt. 6:8). The kingdom he has proclaimed is to be a counterculture, exhibiting a whole set of distinctive values and standards. So he speaks of righteousness, influence, piety, trust, and ambition and concludes with a radical challenge to choose his way.
Sunday: The Beatitudes
Monday: The Salt and the Light
Tuesday: Christ and the Law
Wednesday: The Six Antitheses
Thursday: Religious Practices
Friday: True and False Ambitions
Saturday: The Radical Choice