I’m working my way
through the Sermon on the Mount again (Matthew 5-7). It’s a pretty pivotal
piece in Christ’s teaching ministry, and one that seems to invite scrutiny on
multiple levels.
Infogalactic’s entry
on the Sermon lists eight different categories of views about it, the most commonly held of which is that it “contains the
central tenets of Christian discipleship”. Augustine called it “a perfect
standard of the Christian life”.
I struggle with that. See,
the Sermon is fundamentally Jewish; and while Christianity has its roots in Judaism and would not exist without it, the two are not interchangeable.
If we miss that, we’re missing more than we might think.