Taking Jesus at His Word: What Jesus Really Said in the Sermon on the Mount

by Addison Hodges Hart

If ever there were a saying of Jesus long disused and neglected, this is certainly it. All we need to do is consider how so much that is sacred in Christianity has become openly known, ridiculed, and only partially understood at best by those most likely to dismiss it out of hand. It is true that Christians are most to blame for this situation. Because they were unable to restrict their teachings to those most ready to receive them earnestly, these teachings have been bandied about publicly for centuries. What were words of wisdom to be pondered and translated into contemplation and action were turned into theological formulas and anathemas. What had been mysteries that worked deeply and transformatively in the hearers were reduced to dry systems, with ever more technical and philosophical language heaped on for good measure. From systems came arguments, confusion, greater fine-tuning, condemnations of those who didn’t subscribe to the “correct” interpretations of these dry concepts, and eventually persecution of those individuals. And, as the power of the institutions that wielded these systems eventually waned, the ridicule of such abuse of intellect and the spirit grew stronger, and those wanting to escape from it multiplied. What was rejected was not Jesus himself; but those doing the rejecting didn’t always know that. They were fleeing something massive, oppressive, repressive, and largely unrecognizable as reflective of Jesus himself. They left behind what had become...