We had ward conference last Sunday, so we’re a week behind most of you.

Lesson 8: The Sermon on the Mount: “A More Excellent Way”

Matthew 5

Purpose: To encourage class members to come unto Christ by applying the principles he taught in the Sermon on the Mount.

LESSON DEVELOPMENT

1. Jesus teaches the Beatitudes to his disciples.
2. Jesus declares that his disciples are “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”
3. Jesus teaches a higher law than the law of Moses.

Scripture Discussion and Application

The book of Matthew speaks of three kinds of Jesus’s followers. [Draw concentric rings on the board during this discussion.]

First are what Matthew calls crowds.

What are some of the occasions when we see large groups of people gathering around Jesus?

Why, generally, did these crowds follow Jesus? [Be sure that among any other answers, the concept of curiosity or hoping to see miracles or other indications of idle interest without commitment is included.]

Do you suppose that the crowds were always made up of the same people? That is, if you were a member of the crowd, how likely would it be that you would have heard all the teachings Jesus gave to the crowds? So how complete would your knowledge of his teachings have been?

Another special class of Jesus’s followers is his twelve apostles.

What are some of the occasions when we see Jesus alone with his apostles?

What kinds of instructions did he give to the Twelve that were not shared with the large crowds?

Between his innermost circle of apostles, and the crowds that go to hear him preach out of idle curiosity, lies another group of followers, the ones the New Testament writers call disciples.

How does a disciple differ from someone who merely comes to hear what the new preacher has to say?

How did the disciples of John the Baptist differ from those who merely went to see him out of curiosity?

How would you expect the disciples of Jesus to distinguish themselves from the crowds? Can you identify any of Jesus’s disciples by name?

I think we can easily understand why Jesus might have given private teachings and special instructions to his apostles – they had devoted their lives to him, generally abandoning other occupations, and they needed to be taught how to carry out God’s intentions among the people after Jesus was crucified and resurrected. But what purpose would there have been to teach the disciples anything more than was taught to the crowds?

Transferring this discussion from 30 A.D. to 2015, who are the crowds, the disciples, the apostles of the present? Where do you see yourself in this diagram? Why?

Okay, let’s turn to the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew, and talk about one of the greatest sermons of all time, the Sermon on the Mount, a discussion that will be continued next week. Let’s start with the last few verses of Chapter 4.

Matthew 4:23-25

23 ¶And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judæa, and from beyond Jordan.

Which of our groups – crowds, disciples, apostles – is most prominent in this account? Why are the crowds following him?

Matthew 5:1

1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

There is a transition here, isn’t there? While Jesus could still be speaking to a large number of people, they are disciples, not merely seekers of miracles. When we as the modern church gather as disciples in, say, General Conference, what are we looking for? What might these ancient disciples be looking for? [Among all other answers, bring out the idea that disciples are expecting to be taught – what should I know? what should I do? – and are not just looking for entertainment or spectacle.]

Jesus then gives them something more than he had given the crowds. He teaches them.

Matthew 5:2

And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

What follows are nine very familiar statements that we call the Beatitudes, from the Latin word for blessed. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, though, and one of the sources I’ve read this week tells me that the Greek word was used in classical writing to indicate the difference between the state of the gods and the state of mortal men. If that is its proper meaning, what does that suggest to you about these nine familiar statements – when and where and for whom are they applicable?

Matthew 5:3-11

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

There are echoes of the Old Testament in many of the Beatitudes – the disciples who heard Jesus make these short, pithy statements were probably reminded of longer, more detailed teachings from the scriptures and the synagogues. Verse 5, for example, quoted from Psalm 37:11

11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Because that entire Psalm was read as speaking of the future state of the righteous, then inheriting an earth free from wickedness was equivalent to entering the Kingdom of God.

Why is this teaching more suitable to disciples than to the general multitudes who followed Jesus around?

Or verse 6: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Today is Fast Sunday; we have a bodily reminder of what it means to hunger and thirst. Can you think of a time when you have felt the same craving for righteousness or justice in the world? When will the time come that those yearnings will be filled?

Or verse 8: “Blessed are the pure in heart.” So much of the Mosaic Law had to do with being ritually pure – physically, outwardly pure in what they ate and wore and touched. What religious benefits did they earn by being ritually pure?

Some of our requirements for temple attendance might also be seen as outward, ritual purity – do you keep the Word of Wisdom? are you a full tithepayer? – because you can gain a temple recommend regardless of why you keep those commandments.

But Jesus speaks here of purity of heart – how is that a higher standard than outward, ritual purity? What is the promise for that purity of heart, and how is it a higher reward even than access to the temple?

Are there others of the Beatitudes that you would like to talk about, or share your experiences with?

Again, why are these teachings reserved for Jesus’s disciples rather than for the crowds? What should they mean to us, as members of the modern church, beyond what they might mean to any casual reader of the Bible?

After the Beatitudes, Matthew presents us with two short sermons about the role he expects his disciples – including us – to play in the world. These are expectations that he does not make of the crowds, but of those relatively few disciples who will live in the world among the crowds.

13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

“Ye are the salt of the earth.” Let’s start by talking what salt meant in the ancient world familiar to Jesus’s listeners. [List key words on board.]

First, of course, is salt’s value in flavoring food.

Job 6:6

6 Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

What other meanings or symbolic uses of salt can you suggest?

* Element of sacrifice

Leviticus 2:13: And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

*Symbol of covenant

Numbers 18:19: All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of irael offer unto the Lord, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee.

2 Chronicles 13:5: Ought ye not to know that the Lord god of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?

*Purifier

2 Kings 2:19-23

19 And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren.

20 and he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him.

21 And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.

22 So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.

The Lord even continued this comparison of his disciples to salt in the latter days.

Doctrine and Covenants 101:39

39 When men are called unto mine everlasting gospel, and covenant wit an everlasting covenant, they are accounted as the salt of the earth and the savor of men.

So, with all that in mind, what do you think the Lord meant when he taught “Ye are the salt of the earth?” How can disciples “season” the world – flavor it, preserve it, sustain the covenant with God, and so on?

But Jesus doesn’t just say “ye are the salt of the earth”; he goes on to talk about what happens when salt loses its salty properties:

Matthew 5:13

…but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

How can salt lose its savour? Salt does not rot or degrade; its taste doesn’t fade with time, and it doesn’t lose its potency as a preservative or purifier no matter how long it sits on the shelf. It just doesn’t go stale. So how can salt “lose its savour”?

The only understanding I have reached, after consulting numerous commentaries and chemistry websites, is that while salt does not itself get stale, it loses its powers when it is diluted or corrupted by other materials. Salt can be spread so thinly that even though it’s present, there isn’t enough of it to taste, or to have the power to, say, preserve food. Or, in a related manner, it can become mixed with so many impurities the salt’s properties are overwhelmed by those corrupt additives.

How can disciples of Jesus Christ lose their power to be the “salt of the earth”? Why are we counseled not to become too diluted – to meet together often, to gather to temples, and so on? How can we avoid losing our savior through corruption? How do you feel about casting out the salt that loses its savor – is that unacceptably harsh? Why or why not?

Jesus gives still another analogy of the role his disciples are to play in the world.

Matthew 5:14-16

14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

In each of these verses, there is a word or phrase that is equivalent to the crowds who followed Jesus but who did not become his disciples: the world, those that are in the house, men. How are the disciples to stand apart from the rest of humanity?

A moment ago I said the disciples should “stand apart from the rest of humanity.” But in a very important sense, disciples, and light, are not supposed to cut themselves off from the world. How does the light affect the world? How should disciples interact with the rest of mankind? How does the light of discipleship “glorify [our] Father which is in heaven”?

Time does not allow us to go at all into detail about the rest of Matthew, Chapter 5, although in many ways I think it may be the most important part of the Sermon on the Mount. This is the part of his sermon where Jesus first teaches many of the ways in which his gospel will turn the old Mosaic Law on its head. Over and over, Jesus teaches “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time …” followed by an element of the Mosaic Law; followed by “But I say unto you …” some new, higher, more celestial variant on the same commandment.

For example, Jesus teaches that the old law taught men not to kill; but his higher law tells us not even to be angry. The old law said it was fair to claim an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; but his higher law teaches not to exact vengeance, but to turn the other cheek. The old law allowed us to hate our enemies; his higher law teaches us to “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

Why would Jesus reserve these teachings for his disciples, instead of preaching them to the crowds?

How does living these higher laws qualify a disciple to status as the salt of the earth, or the light of the world? [If necessary, prompt with Matthew 5:46-47:

46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?]

Next week’s lesson continues a discussion of the Sermon on the Mount. Your assignment is to read the last half of Chapter 5 which we didn’t really cover today, and Chapters 6 and 7, so that you’ll have these passages fresh in your mind for discussion.

[Closing]