As Christians present the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection to those to whom they are witnessing, we often wonder why people can’t see how strong this evidence is. Many other explanations have been offered by skeptics for the empty tomb, starting with the first excuse paid for by the elders: the disciples stole the body. Books have been written covering many of the others, but none of them stand as a plausible explanation for an empty tomb in a known location near the city where Jesus had been executed. The tomb was empty, and many witnesses saw Jesus and knew He was truly alive.

Oddly, the first people who had doubts about Jesus’ resurrection were not enemies or unbelievers, but His own disciples. Some of these doubts are found in accounts in the other gospels, but here in Matthew 28 we have one curious line about the skepticism of Jesus’ followers. Jesus instructs the women at the tomb to tell His disciples He is going to Galilee to meet them there. The eleven proceed to return to Galilee, and it is likely that there were other disciples of Jesus outside this core group who went along with them, since Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 28:10 was not restricted to the Eleven.

The disciples met Jesus on an unspecified mountain in Galilee, likely a place that was familiar to them from their previous travels in the region. The reaction of the group is, to our minds, strangely divided, with some worshiping Him while others remained doubtful. If this was just the Eleven this would indeed be odd, since they had seen Jesus twice in Jerusalem before coming to Galilee, and by now they would have been certain that He was alive. This is another indication that this was a larger group of followers, some of whom had heard that Jesus had risen but had not yet witnessed a post-resurrection appearance.

If that is true, some doubt is not unexpected. Even the Eleven had their doubts (with Thomas being particularly tough to convince). Despite some of the modern attempts to explain the Resurrection by assuming Jesus’ followers was eagerly anticipating it, the Gospel record shows that even His closest disciple didn’t understand His teaching about the Resurrection, not did they expect Him to come back from the dead. It took some convincing, even for those who knew Jesus in His earthly life and who saw Him after He rose from the dead.

Eventually, those who met Jesus after He rose came to believe that He was truly alive, and they understood this meant He was also God. As we see in our passage, worship became a legitimate response to Jesus, which meant that these Jewish disciples of Jesus saw Him as equal with God. This new understanding of who Jesus is becomes the basis for their ongoing teaching, as they baptize new believers in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit- a clear statement by Jesus of the triune nature of God.

This faith has been passed down to us over the centuries through the testimony of those witnesses as recorded in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. We have not seen Jesus face to face yet, but we read the testimony of some who have. The commission He gave to that first generation of disciples has become ours, to proclaim the good news throughout the world. Some may choose not to see this truth and deny that Jesus is alive, but the power of His resurrections sustains us a moves us as we continue the mission He gave His followers today.

One of the hardest situations to handle in life is when you are falsely accused of doing something. You know the accusation isn’t true, but there is no way for you to prove it to your accusers. They have it set in their minds that you are guilty, so no amount of evidence is going to convince them that they are wrong. Like people who are attracted to conspiracy theories in our current society, false accusers create a scenario in their imaginations then assume it is real. Your innocence is denied, no matter what happens in your interactions.

Jesus experienced this kind of false accusations many times during His earthly life. The culmination of these accusations came when He was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin for trial. The Jewish leaders wanted to find a way to eliminate Jesus, seeing Him as a threat to their position and their lucrative business in the Temple. They also saw Jesus’ following as a high-risk problem with the Roman government, who might see them as a threat to public peace and safety. They had discussed this on a number of previous occasions, but now, thanks to Judas, they had Jesus in their custody.

Despite their efforts to find testimony against Jesus, they were unable to find any witnesses whose testimony agreed, as required by the Law. Even though they were willing to accept false accusations, the leaders ended up with nothing they could use to undermine Jesus. Finally, two witnesses did provide a common accusation, citing Jesus’ words that if the Temple were destroyed He could rebuild it in three days. This was meant as a reference to His own death and resurrection, but the Sanhedrin preferred to take it as a threat against the Temple. Ironically, they themselves would take part in bringing about the fulfillment of these words.

The high priests used this perceived threat to pressure Jesus into a response, calling on the name of the living God to place Him under oath. Jesus finally responded to the hostile questioning, and His answer was entirely true. He was indeed the Son of Man, the Messiah, and He would indeed come in judgment on those who rejected Him. The high priest heard this as blasphemy, since he could not or would not see Jesus as the One He said He was. Jesus’ true statement was used against Him to satisfy the conspiracy of the Temple leaders against Him, and to pronounce Him worthy of death.

If Jesus, the Son of God who is God Himself, could be falsely accused and pronounced guilty even though He spoke only the truth, how much more are we likely to find ourselves in the same situation. Our own statements of truth, especially those about Christ, may be twisted to become some kind of admission of guilt against society, the political order, or even the religious establishment. We must be prepared to face false accusations and to accept that we may not be able to defend ourselves in the minds of our accusers. Our comfort comes from knowing that we are saying only what is true, and that in bearing up under these falsehoods we are only sharing in a small portion of what Jesus went through for us. One day we will stand before Him and receive His commendation for remaining faithful in our trial, and those who oppose Jesus and therefore hate us will suffer their own appropriate fate as they stand before His judgment.

Given what is going on all around the world today, it’s understandable that many Christians are caught up in speculation about the return of Christ. Many are pointing to this event or that person and linking them with specific Biblical prophecies. There are certainly many things happening today that seem like they might be fulfillments of predictions made by the writers of Scripture. Some teachers, however, run ahead of the Word and confidently state that Jesus will return at some set point that they puzzle out from the general statements of prophecy. While perhaps not going so far as to set an exact time, I have read many who place the return of the Lord in a “season” or connect it to the Jewish calendar, and proclaim that this is definitely the time for Him to come back.

I think it is wise and prudent to see what is happening in the world and prepare ourselves for Christ to come. At the same time, we may misread the signs and overstep what the Lord has revealed to us, becoming more definite than we should. The history of prophetic interpretation provides us with many examples of people who “knew” when the return of Christ was going to happen, and we are still here waiting for it. The Christian has always been called to be both watchful and working, prepared for Jesus at any time but laboring for Him as if it would be a long time before He appears.

At the end of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, Jesus gives us this dual perspective on His return. This discourse was given shortly before He went to the cross, so it served as preparation for His disciples as they would need to continue their work without His physical presence, while simultaneously bringing comfort for them by assuring them He was not leaving permanently but would indeed return. Having just provided a number of signs to watch for that would indicate He was about to return Jesus turns to the practical application of His giving these signs.

He reminds His disciples that no one knows the day and the hour of His coming. Some teachers try to get around this by saying while we can’t know the day or hour, we can know the month or year. That isn’t the point to what Jesus is saying. He wants His disciples, and those who would come after them, to know that the timing is entirely in God’s hands. His coming will be sudden, separating people who are together on earth, with one being taken to be with Him while the other is left behind. This warning reminds us to be alert and watchful, and when we see signs that look like the ones Jesus indicated to be prepared, expecting His return at any moment.

Jesus’ teaching continues with a balance for this, however. While we watch and wait, we must continue to serve/ Jesus likens our position to servants waiting for their master to return. Some continue to carry out their duties faithfully, while others become lazy or even abusive. When the master returns, each will be evaluated for what they have done. Those who fail to watch and work will find themselves judged, while the faithful servants will be blessed.

The Lord will return. No one knows when, but we have plenty of signs that will indicate He may be coming soon. Until He appears, our task is to continue to serve Him faithfully, so they we may be found working for Him at that time. To honor our Lord and to labor for His “well done,” we must watch and work faithfully, anticipating the moment He comes for us while at the same time working to see His kingdom grow until that day.

As Jesus approached the end of His earthly life, events began to unfold rapidly. Following His Triumphal Entry, the lines were clearly drawn between Jesus and His followers and those who opposed Him, particularly the religious leaders of Israel. They saw the threat posed by Jesus becoming more and more ominous, and feared for the loss of their position in society and their status under the Romans. They were also losing out to this new rabbi as authorities on matters of faith and practice in Judaism. Jesus had been gaining a popular following, and the people saw in His teaching a better way to approach God than in the minutely detailed rules of the scribes and Pharisees.

With Messianic fervor starting to boil in Jerusalem, the chief priests and elders decided they must confront this upstart publicly. When Jesus arrived at the Temple the day after He had thrown out the merchants and moneychangers, they approached Him as He taught. This guaranteed an audience for their questioning, and assured them of witnesses to whatever Jesus would say. Their question in Matthew 21:23 went right to the point: “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

Jesus, as He often did, turned the situation around and questioned His questioners. He agreed to answer their query, but before He would do this He wanted to know one thing from them. His question indirectly addressed authority as well, as He asked about the source of John’s baptism. Many in Jerusalem knew about John and his ministry, as well as his execution by Herod. Jesus’ question for the religious authorities gave them the opportunity to express their own opinion of John’s authority as a prophet and the effect of his baptism.

The chief priests and elders were floored by Jesus’ question. They had opposed John the Baptist during his ministry, and they saw him as a threat to their authority just as they now saw Jesus. They would like to have simply said that John’s baptism was just a human idea, not something that came from God. Yet they knew many had been baptized by John and that he was seen as a teacher of truth, prophesying of the coming of the Messiah. They were caught, and responded with a noncommittal “we do not know” to Jesus.

I’m sure Jesus expected this answer, or something like it. Effectively, the leaders showed that they had no idea from where spiritual authority came. Since that was the case, Jesus saw no reason to give them an answer as to His own authority and its source. By their failure to understand John, they showed that they would not understand Jesus either. In His parable following this exchange Jesus told them that the message of the kingdom of God would now be more gladly owned by “sinners” than by the religious.

It isn’t enough to have a head knowledge of Biblical truth if we do not apply it to our lives. The chief priests and elders knew a lot about their religion, but they did not see it reality. Jesus’ challenge to his opponents serves as a challenge to our world as well. Do we know Jesus as the One who came from heaven to save us, or do we see Him as merely a good human teacher? The answer to this question has a profound and eternal impact not only on our lives now but on our lives in eternity.

There may be no lesson harder for Christians to learn than forgiveness. We live in an unforgiving world, where people continue to blame others for any perceived slight. The rise of “cancel culture” comes from an unwillingness to forgive others when they insult you. Should actual damage occurs, physically, mentally, or emotionally the harshness of unforgiveness may continue for an extended period of time, with some even taking their bitterness to the grave. Even after we come to Christ, we may find it hard to forgive others for what they have done to us.

The disciples of Jesus lived in a society that was every bit as hard and prejudiced as ours is today. The Israelites hated the Romans, who occupied their historic land. The Jews of Judea were prejudiced against the Samaritans of the northern provinces. The people of ancient nations held generational grudges against those who were their historic enemies. Even factions of Jewish belief and practice hated those who were of another faction. There was no love lost between people of the first century, any more than there is among groups and people today.

Thus, when Peter offered to forgive someone who had wronged him seven times, he thought he was being exceptionally generous. The fact that he would forgive at all was a positive sign, and to do it several times may well have marked him out as a forgiving man in his culture. The idea of forgiving seven times may indicate that Peter was thinking about forgiveness required when the same offense was made repeatedly against him, rather than a cumulative total of all offenses. Even if his brother kept offending him with the same insult or action, Peter was willing to forgive, up to a limit.

Imagine his surprise when Jesus not only said that seven times was not enough, but that he was to forgive seventy-seven times! (Some translations make this even stronger by translating the phrase as seventy times seven.) Jesus wasn’t merely setting the counter to a higher number with this admonition; He was calling for forgiveness without limit. His illustration of the unforgiving servant makes this clear. The debt of the first servant was impossibly huge, the equivalent of about 1600 years (yes, years) of wages for a common laborer. After he was forgiven that debt he could never repay, he turned around and refused to forgive the debt of a fellow servant who owed him about 100 days’ wages. The lesson of forgiveness had been lost on him, and he lost the grace that he had received from his master.

This is why Jesus calls us to be a forgiving people, even when we are confronted with repeated sins against ourselves. Whatever damages we suffer, whatever pain we have inflicted on us, whatever insult we have hurled at us, we do not suffer a loss that remotely equals the cost Jesus had to pay for our forgiveness. The death of the Son of God was the price needed to pay the infinite debt we owed to God for our offenses against His infinite holiness and majesty. Whatever forgiveness costs us in this life- and make no mistake, forgiveness is costly- it is a small fraction of the cost borne by God Himself on the cross.

If we want to experience forgiveness from God, we need to be forgiving people. This isn’t so we can earn forgiveness, for the Lord does freely forgive us, but because we have been forgiven and have experienced the freedom it brings we should desire to share that with others. Our infinite debt has been erased, so we can turn around and forgive the limited debts of others.

Many Christians follow teachings that say that Christians should not suffer, and that all of our problems, diseases, and struggles should be given to God for complete, positive resolutions. Illnesses will disappear if we only have faith they will be healed, finances will be granted if we make our need known to the Lord, and all the struggles of life will be left behind as we ride on to a self-defined victory in Jesus. This kind of “health and wealth” teaching feels good to our modern desires for success, but can leave us frustrated when we don’t see the results we are expecting happen.

Jesus did not promote this kind of teaching. His own ministry was not an example of a teacher who experienced worldly success through what He taught. Jesus had no wealth, no home of His own, no relief from the struggles of life, and ultimately a painful, early, and tortuous death. By the standards of the people of His time, Jesus was a failure. His teaching gained Him some fame for a while, but it eventually led to Him losing every material possession He had, right down to the clothing He wore.

In Matthew 16, we see Jesus addressing His disciples’ concern over what He was teaching them. As Jesus explained the necessity of His death, Peter rebuked Him. Peter could not fathom the events Jesus predicted happening to Him, the One Peter himself had named as the Messiah. Jesus turned the rebuke around, and in strong terms He stated that Peter’s version of what would happen was from Satan. Peter thought that the Messiah would come to triumph over the enemies of Israel, while Jesus came to take on the sins of the world and suffer our judgment so we could be set free from the power of sin.

The problem Peter had, and the problem modern proponents of this kind of teaching have, is that they think in worldly terms rather than seeking the mind of God. He then goes on to tell His disciples that anyone who follows Him must be ready to deny themselves and take up a cross. The cross was the ultimate form of degrading death, one no one would want to experience. Taking up your cross does not mean tolerating inconvenience or stoically enduring a setback. It means going out to face a humbling death and doing so willingly.

We are never guaranteed a life free from suffering and pain in this world. That doesn’t mean we can’t have success and blessing, but we need to face the reality of living in a sin-filled world. Few will experience a life of even relative ease, and none of us escape some suffering, whether physical, financial, emotional, or spiritual. What we are promised is the ultimate victory over sin and death, which comes through the cross of Christ. One day we will have unbroken triumph, but it will not come until we reach eternity. It is precisely because Jesus took on the pain and humiliation of the cross that we will stand before Him delivered from the results of sin on our world and in our lives. Though we struggle now, we are headed for glory where we will spend eternity with the Savior who made our triumph possible.

Sometimes when we listen to someone tell a story, we struggle to get the point of what they are saying. We may understand the language they are speaking and the words they are using, but we cannot figure out the context from which they are coming. The story seems simple enough, and there is obviously a point to it, but try as we might we don’t see what that point is. We may even conclude that there really isn’t anything more to the story, and that we’re just trying to read more into it than necessary.

Here in Matthew 13 we have series of parables taught by Jesus during His public ministry. These stories were meant to convey truth to those to whom He was speaking using common elements from daily life to illustrate spiritual truths. Each one of His parables had a point, one which His listeners could grasp if they had spiritual understanding and thought about what He said. Despite the plain language of the parables, free from theological jargon or difficult vocabulary, many still missed the point of His teaching.

Even the disciples could fail to realize the essential truth Jesus wanted to convey. In this passage, they seem to question how others would hear this parable, but in His answer Jesus explains it to them. He does not expect that they understood the meaning of what He said, and provides an interpretation for them. It took the disciples much exposure to the teaching of the Lord before they truly understood the lessons He laid out.

In answer to their questioning, Jesus emphasizes that the reason He used parables to teach was not to make comprehension of His teaching easier by using everyday experiences as a touchpoint. Rather, the simplicity of the setting of His stories caused many to be merely entertained by His words, rather than grasping the spiritual truth and turning from their own sinful ways to follow Him. Jesus was doing more than conveying knowledge; He was asking for a commitment that was demonstrated in the way His hearers lived their lives.

Jesus’ words show that He laid out spiritual truth and an understanding of God’s plan for people, but that they would not understand on their own. After hearing Jesus, many probably went away superficially feeling that they had heard and understood the truth, but they did not really know what Jesus meant in His parables. They heard the stories, but they did not open their spiritual eyes and ears to the truth Jesus gave them. In their willful spiritual blindness and deafness, they gained a superficial knowledge while missing the depth of what Jesus was teaching.

As we read the Word in our own time, we can become convinced that we have gained a deep spiritual understanding when we have only scratched the surface of what the Bible teaches. We have the advantage of the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide us into truth, but we must be willing to seek it. Our spiritual eyes and ears need to be open to what the Spirit had to teach us, or we will miss the point of the teaching we read and hear. When we humbly submit to the Spirit with a heart willing to change to match what we learn, we will find the Word of God and the teaching of Jesus to be a powerful source to prepare us for the challenges of our daily lives.

Many times we become discouraged as we go through life. We experience trials and challenges that leave us not only wondering what we should do but where God is as we struggle on through. We have a solid theological belief in the existence of God, and we understand intellectually what kind of a God He is. That doesn’t always make it easy for us to make the jump from our head knowledge to a heart understanding that He is with us and that all we experience has a purpose in God’s plan for our lives. Our doubts trouble us, and maybe even make us feel guilty for not trusting Him more.

In Matthew 11 we see an example of someone who struggled with his understanding of who Jesus was. This was no ordinary “man in the pew” but the one chosen to announce the coming of the Messiah, John the Baptist. John had been put in prison for daring to rebuke King Herod’s illicit taking of his brother’s wife as his own. (This Herod was the son of the one who attempted to kill Jesus.) With his ministry at a halt, his freedom gone, and no great messianic deliverance visible, John became discouraged and started to doubt. He wondered if he had been correct, or if perhaps Jesus was not the promised deliverer.

Instead of just sitting in prison in his depression, John decided to seek an answer to his concerns. He sent messengers to Jesus with a blunt question: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” John had staked his reputation on Jesus as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” and now he wasn’t sure if he had been right or if he had wasted his ministry.

Jesus’ answer to John is interesting He could simply have told John that yes, He was the Chosen One, so just trust in Him and everything will work out. That may not have satisfied John, not because he would think Jesus was lying but because John’s problem wasn’t about the theology of the Messiah but about his own struggle with his current condition and his inability to see the coming Kingdom in Jesus. John needed a different kind of affirmation.

Jesus never says that He is the One John was looking for in words. Instead, He tells John’s messengers to report on what they see: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them. He points John to signs given in the book of Isaiah that indicate the Messiah, passages John would have known well. He appeals to John’s knowledge, but couples it with the actions Jesus had taken in His own ministry that fulfilled these prophecies. He encourages John by showing his messengers His work, thus reminding Jon of what he already knew and letting John know that it was true and his ministry had not been in vain.

When discouraged, it is always helpful go to the Word to remember what the Bible tells us about Jesus and His care for us. It is also helpful to look back and see what He has done for us in the past, as a reminder of who He is and His ability to bring us through trouble. We may not escape every difficulty; John never got out of prison, and was executed through the jealousy of Herod’s wife. What we do know is that we serve the Savior, the Messianic King, and that for all our struggles on earth we have a hope in an eternal place with our King. Our faith may be shaken at times by events, circumstances, or people, but we have a great assurance not just in words but in the presence of Jesus with us in our lives, no matter what we must endure.

The gospel of Matthew is often characterized as one that tells the story of Jesus from a decidedly Jewish perspective. Matthew often mentions distinctive Jewish practices, and in his portrayal of Jesus shows Him as the King of Israel. We saw this in the genealogy, which highlighted His royal lineage from David. Matthew often cites Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus, showing Him to be the promised Messiah. Even Jesus’ teaching in te Sermon on the Mount is rooted in the Law, even as He goes beyond the requirements of the Law to make obedience to God that much stricter.

Even as he emphasizes the Jewishness of Jesus, Matthew also makes it a point to show how Gentiles also responded to Him. He included Gentile women in his genealogy, and shows Jesus traveling outside the borders of Israel. This would not be remarkable if all Jesus did was go remind the Gentiles that they were not God’s chosen people, or preached to them tat they had to become Jews if they wanted to come to the Lord. What is shocking is that there are times when Jesus praises Gentiles more than those who were considered the real followers of God.

Here in Matthew 8 we have an unusual example of Jesus interacting with a Gentile. A Roman centurion was an officer in charge of a group of about 100 soldiers, and had authority from the Roman emperor to do what was necessary to maintain order. In a country like Israel, he would have been seen as the representative of an enemy state, one which held Israel in check by force. The Romans were not popular with the Jews, to put it mildly.

Yet a Roman officer thought what he heard about Jesus was so true that he sent messengers to ask Him to heal a sick servant. This man had no claim on the Jewish Messiah, or even an itinerant rabbi, but what he heard about Him led the centurion to seek his help. In His mercy, Jesus was willing to go and heal the servant, even though entering a Roman home would be considered an unclean act. The centurion sent word that he was not worthy to have Jesus come to his home, but he understood authority and knew Jesus had authority over disease. All he wanted was for Jesus to say his servant was healed, and he knew it would happen.

Jesus marveled at the centurion’s faith, and He contrasted it with so many who had seen His miracles and heard His teaching. Even though He ministered among people who knew the Scriptures and anticipated the coming of the Messiah, Jesus had found many who did not believe in Him. Here was a Roman, a pagan foreigner, who genuinely believed in the power of Christ.  As a result, he healed the servant, and used the Roman’s faith as an illustration for His Jewish listeners of true faith. In performing this miracle, Jesus showed that while He was Israel’s Messiah, He came to earth for everyone. Even the hated enemies of Israel were not beyond the love and grace of the Lord.

Jesus healed a Gentile’s servant here, but He came to bring a greater salvation to all people. His message began among the Jews, and His first Jewish followers later spread the Word to all people. Even today, Jesus is not concerned with our religious background, but with our faith in Him as our Lord and Savior. The good news of Jesus is presented to all, and salvation through Him is available to each one who hears and responds on faith to His call.

One of the most well-known sermons in history, as well as one of the most beloved passages in the Bible, is the Sermon on the Mount. Many Christians, and even non-Christians, will quote the teaching of Jesus in this discourse and apply it to many life situations. The sections of the Sermon are analyzed, discussed, and taught in depth. The number of sermons preached over the centuries  using these passages as their texts would be impossible to count. If there is any teaching in the Bible that is widely known, taught, and quoted, it would be these three chapters of Matthew.

The Sermon on the Mount is only a summary of what Jesus taught on that occasion, however. Reading through these chapters, even at a leisurely pace, would span a matter of a few minutes. This may be an outline of Jesus’ teaching on this occasion, or it may be Matthew selecting highlights of the sermon to write in his book. Some of this teaching is repeated elsewhere in the Gospels (especially in Luke’s Sermon on the Plain), with similarities and differences that can be seen. Jesus may well have preached this sermon on multiple occasions, and added much other material we don’t have here in Scripture.

The most striking thing about Jesus’ teaching here can be seen in the passages where He contrasts what the Jewish people have been taught by their various religious teachers and what He teaches on those same subjects. The formula “You have heard…But I say to you…” is used a number of times here in Matthew. By using this to introduce His teaching, Jesus is effectively saying that the teachers of the Law often missed the point, and that He had the authority to set the record straight. When we look at some of the teachings He corrected, we see a claim to an authority above that of any other teacher they have ever known.

Jesus’ teaching and His claim to authority that went beyond that of the scribes and the priests was not lost on the people who heard them. At the end of the Sermon (Matthew 7:28-29), they marvel at His teaching. Jesus did not use the common method of the scribes, who would quote the Law, the Scriptures, and the opinions of other rabbis to teach and engage in debate. He simply spoke on His own, not citing anything other than the Word of God to support His teaching. Jesus laid out moral standards, ethical guidelines, the way to perform religious actions, and the proper way to speak to God as statements of fact established by His word. This was more than any other teacher could claim, and the people understood that Jesus had an authority no other teacher had.

The Sermon on the Mount continues to fascinate people today. While some only read it to find platitudes they can quote (often out of context), the discerning reader sees a way of life laid down by the greatest Teacher who ever lived. It is no easier to keep the principles of the Sermon on the Mount than it was to keep the statutes of the Law, but in studying this sermon we are motivated to live a life that is set apart for the Lord. Some scholars have identified the Sermon on the Mount as a description of the ethics of the Kingdom, and there is certainly an element of truth in that. For Christians, living in accordance with Jesus’ teaching here would do much to witness to the grace and goodness of God, and to help those around us grow in faith as we minister in Jesus’ name using these principles. While living this way will not save us, it will enable us to show what the power of Christ can do to change our lives and the lives of those around us.