The Kingdom of God: Sermon on the Mount

The Kingdom Inhabitants

We have now come to what is famously known as the sermon on the mount. The message about the kingdom is a major theme of this collection of teachings. The beatitudes start with this theme at its core. The participants of the kingdom are not like participants of earthly kingdoms. God’s kingdom seems to be made up of the lowly, the rejected, the outcasts. The kingdom of heaven, Jesus says, belongs to these kinds of people. Blessed are the persecuted…blessed are the poor in spirit– theirs is the kingdom of God. (Matthew 5:3-10). The kingdom of God is made up of those who would not be accepted in earthly kingdoms and yet they are the highly esteemed ones. 

Entering the Kingdom

This leads us to Matthew 5:20 where Jesus points out exactly what one must do to be able to “enter” into God’s kingdom and be a part of it. Jesus says “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” So there it is, if one wants to enter the kingdom of God, they must be more righteous than scribes and Pharisees. Jesus’ audience would certainly ask, how is this possible? They are the most religious people in the community, how are ordinary people supposed to be more righteous than they? Jesus answers this question in a long monologue called the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus gets to the heart of Torah and exposes religious leaders for who they are, selfish leaders who care only about praise from men and social status. Jesus says this is not righteousness and so to be more righteous than them, we must go deeper and look into the heart of the law which is loving God and loving others through our words and actions not our dedicated religious functions. It means not lusting after someone, controlling our anger, being generous without bragging about it. This takes transformation of the heart and it must take place to be a part of the kingdom of God. 

Kingdom of God on Earth

When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he taught them to pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth and for God’s will to be done on earth (Matthew 6:10). What does it mean for God’s kingdom to come? Well for an ancient Jew it meant that a descendant from the line of David would rise up, expel Rome from the Holy Land and restore Israel back to order. The disciples especially were hoping Jesus would be this king. He was a King, but not in the sense they were expecting. For God’s kingdom to come on earth it means that God’s will is done on earth. Wherever the will of God is done that is a little part of the kingdom being present on earth. Jesus walked the earth and announced the kingdom being inaugurated through Him. Now through the Spirit, the kingdom of God is present where his will is done through his disciples. 

The Kingdom as Priority

Matthew 6:33 is one of those verses many children memorize in Sunday school. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. This passage comes in the context of anxiousness and worry. Jesus concludes this topic by saying that we must seek God’s kingdom above everything else and the blessings of the kingdom will follow. Notice the order Jesus places this in. We should not try to gain peace about a situation without first seeking God’s kingdom and his righteousness. Meaning we should always be trying to live by God’s standards which are matters of the heart as he has been teaching about in the sermon. Seeking God’s kingdom, praying for God’s kingdom, and living by the way of the kingdom all brings heaven on earth and allows God’s kingdom to be present on earth.