What He Said on the Mountain

The crowds got bigger and bigger, until one day he went up the side of a hill above the lake and sat down — which is what a teacher did when he was about to say something properly — and his followers came and sat around him, and everybody else crowded in behind to hear. And then he talked for a long time, and this is what he said. People have argued about it ever since — not because it is hard to understand, but because it is hard to do.

He began by telling everybody who was blessed, and he had the whole list upside down: “Blessed are the poor in spirit — the kingdom of the heavens belongs to them. Blessed are the ones who are crying — they will be comforted. Blessed are the gentle ones — the whole earth will be given to them. Blessed are the ones who are hungry and thirsty to see things put right — they will be filled full. Blessed are the merciful — mercy will be shown to them. Blessed are the ones with clean hearts — they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers — they will be called sons of God. Blessed are the ones who are treated badly for doing what is right — the kingdom of the heavens belongs to them too. And blessed are you when people insult you and hunt you down and say every sort of evil thing about you, lying, because of me. Be glad — be very glad — because your reward in the heavens is great; that is exactly how they treated the prophets who came before you.” Not the rich, not the strong, not the ones who are winning. Everybody sitting on that hillside had been taught that God blessed you by making things go well. He started somewhere else entirely.

Then he told them what they were for: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its taste, what can you salt it with? It is no good for anything then, except to be thrown out and walked on. You are the light of the world. A town built on top of a hill cannot be hidden. And nobody lights a lamp and then puts a bucket over it — you put it up on the lampstand, and it gives light to everybody in the house. Let your light shine like that in front of people, so that they see the good you do — and give the glory to your Father in the heavens.” And he said something about the old law that surprised them: “Do not think that I came to pull down the law or the prophets. I did not come to pull down, but to fill full.”

And then he did something that made everybody sit up, and he did it six times over. He would say, ‘You have heard that it was said…’ — quoting a law they all knew by heart — and then, ‘But I say to you…’, and go straight past it, down into the heart. “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago: you shall not murder, and whoever murders will have to answer for it. But I say to you that anybody who is angry with his brother will have to answer for it, and anybody who calls his brother a fool will have to answer for it. So if you are bringing your gift to the altar, and standing there you remember that your brother has something against you — leave your gift there, in front of the altar, and go. First go and make it up with your brother, and then come back and bring your gift.” Leave the offering lying on the altar and go and put it right with your brother first. Nobody had ever put it that way round. And he said, “You have heard that it was said: do not break your promises, but keep the ones you have sworn to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all — not by heaven, because it is God’s throne; not by the earth, because it is the footstool under his feet. Let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no. Anything more than that comes from the evil one.” In other words: be the sort of person who never has to swear an oath, because everybody already knows you mean what you say.

And then the hardest ones. “You have heard that it was said: an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not stand up against the one who does you wrong. If somebody hits you on the right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If somebody takes you to court to get your shirt, let him have your coat too. And if a soldier makes you carry his pack one mile, go with him two. Give to the person who asks you, and do not turn away from the person who wants to borrow from you.” The people listening lived in a country full of foreign soldiers who could legally make a man carry their kit for a mile. He knew exactly what he was saying, and exactly who he was saying it to. And then: “You have heard that it was said: love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you — love your enemies, and pray for the people who treat you badly. Then you will be sons of your Father in the heavens: because he makes his sun come up on the bad people and on the good people, and sends the rain on the ones who are right and the ones who are not. If you only love the people who love you, what reward is there in that? Even the tax collectors do that much. And if you only say hello to your own friends, what is special about it? Everybody does that.” Every morning, the sun comes up over the house of somebody who does not deserve it. That is what God is like, he said. Be like that.

Then he talked about the things people do to look good, and he took them one at a time — giving, praying, going without food. “Be careful not to do your good deeds in front of people so that they will watch you. If you do, your Father in the heavens has nothing to give you for it. So when you give something to somebody in need, do not have a trumpet blown ahead of you, the way the play-actors do in the meeting houses and the streets, so that people will think well of them. I tell you the truth: they have had their reward already, and that is the whole of it. When you give to somebody in need, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing — so that your giving is a secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will repay you. And when you pray, do not be like the play-actors either. They love to stand and pray where everybody can see them, on the street corners and in the meeting houses. I tell you the truth: they have had their reward. But you — when you pray, go into your own room and shut the door, and pray to your Father who is there in secret; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will repay you. And when you pray, do not go rattling on and on the way people do who think they will be listened to because they used a lot of words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. So pray like this: Our Father in the heavens, let your name be kept holy. Let your kingdom come. Let what you want be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today the bread we need for today. And forgive us what we owe, as we have forgiven the people who owe us. And do not bring us into the testing, but rescue us from the evil one. Every word of it is short, and the whole thing takes about twenty seconds, and children have learned it first in every century since. And the moment he had finished it he went back to one line of it and pressed on it: “For if you forgive other people the wrong they do, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you do not forgive other people, your Father will not forgive what you have done either.” And about going without food he said the same thing again, a third time: do not make a miserable face about it so that people notice. Wash your face and comb your hair and let it be between you and your Father, who sees what is hidden.

Then he talked about money, which he did more often than almost anything else. “Do not store up treasure for yourselves here on the earth, where the moth and the rust eat it away, and where thieves dig through the wall and steal it. Store up treasure for yourselves in heaven, where no moth and no rust eat it away, and where no thief digs through and steals. For wherever your treasure is — that is where your heart will be as well. Nobody can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold on to one and think nothing of the other. You cannot serve God and money.” And then, because he had just told a hillside full of poor people not to chase after money, he told them not to lie awake worrying about it either — and he did it by pointing at things they could see from where they were sitting: “So I tell you: do not be anxious about your life, about what you will eat; or about your body, and what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the sky. They do not plant and they do not harvest and they do not gather anything into barns — and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? And which of you, by worrying about it, can add a single hour to his life? And why be anxious about clothes? Learn from the wild lilies in the field, how they grow. They do not work and they do not spin — and I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. And if God dresses the grass of the field like that, when it is here today and thrown in the oven tomorrow, will he not do much more for you? You of little faith! So do not be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ The nations run after all those things, and your heavenly Father knows quite well that you need them. Look for the kingdom first, and for the right way of living — and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not be anxious about tomorrow; tomorrow will be anxious about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.”

Then he said something about the way we look at each other, and he made it funny on purpose so that nobody would forget it: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. For you will be judged by the same judgment you judge with, and measured out with the same measure you use. And why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, and never notice the great plank in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Hold still, let me get that splinter out of your eye,’ when there is a plank sticking out of your own? You play-actor. Take the plank out of your own eye first — and then you will see clearly enough to get the splinter out of your brother’s.” He was a carpenter. He had spent his whole life around planks of wood and splinters in fingers. He knew exactly how big the joke was.

And then he told them to ask God for things, plainly, the way a child asks: “Ask, and it will be given to you. Look, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everybody who asks receives, and the one who looks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks him for bread, is going to hand him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, hand him a snake? Well then — if you, who are not much good, know how to give good things to your own children, how much more will your Father in the heavens give good things to the people who ask him!” And then one sentence that holds nearly the whole of it together: “So whatever you would like people to do for you, do exactly that for them. This is the law and the prophets.” Not: do not do to others what you would hate. That one can be obeyed sitting still. His was the other way round, and nobody can obey it sitting down.

And he finished with three warnings and a house-building story. “Go in through the narrow gate. The gate is wide and the road is easy that leads away to ruin, and there are a great many people going in that way. But the gate is narrow and the road is a squeeze that leads away to life, and there are not many who find it. Watch out for false prophets. They come to you dressed as sheep, and underneath they are hungry wolves. You will know them by what grows on them. Do people pick grapes off thorn bushes, or figs off thistles? A good tree grows good fruit, and a rotten tree grows bad fruit. You will know them by what grows on them. Not everybody who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will go into the kingdom of the heavens — only the one who does what my Father in the heavens wants.” And then the last thing, and everybody on that hillside had watched a winter storm come down a dry valley and knew exactly what he meant: “So everybody who hears these words of mine and does them is like a sensible man who built his house on rock. And the rain came down, and the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house — and it did not fall, because it was founded on rock. And everybody who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. And the rain came down, and the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house — and it fell. And the crash of it was terrible.” And when he had finished, the crowds sat there astonished — because he taught them like somebody who had the right to, and not like their teachers of the law.