Thinking Upside Down
Matthew 5:1-12
Sermon on the Mount Series ・1・Part 2
Imagine the scene with me. You sit down on the gently sloping hillside with a panoramic view of the Sea of Galilee before you. It’s warm. You squint as the sun beats down on your tanned forehead. There are hundreds of people milling around, maybe even thousands. All of you have come to see this new Rabbi everyone is talking about, the one who has been announcing a new kingdom. You’re not sure where all of this will go. He seems to be talking of revolution. You feel a little concerned things could get violent. After all, Caesar holds the power and his minions are never far away. But you are desperate for hope and so you are here. Wondering. Waiting. Weary.
You don’t know what is happening as the crowd begins to stir and someone makes shushing noises. But as everyone settles down, you see him. Jesus. And he sits down. The Rabbi is about to teach.
Here is where we find ourselves at the beginning of Matthew 5 as Jesus prepares to deliver his famous Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon is Jesus’ teaching about what life in the kingdom of God looks like.
And I think it blew people’s minds.
Jesus steps into a world that is rife with division. He is operating in Jewish territories that were under the oppressive hand of the Roman government. There are ethnic tensions between Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles. Even among the Jewish people there were different factions. There were some who thought it best to assimilate with their Roman rulers. Others who withdrew and passively resisted. Still others who wanted to take up arms and fight for power.
And here comes Jesus with his own political vision. And yes, Jesus’ vision was political. We often misunderstand the word “politics” thinking it is equivalent to “political parties.” Jesus never belonged to a political party, but he spoke with political language. “Kingdom” is a political word. Politics has to do with how a society is organized, primarily about how human beings will live together, interact, and relate to one another. The kingdoms of this world are ordered by the lust for power, wealth, success, comfort, and control. The kingdoms of this world are obsessed with winning.
Jesus’ political vision is different. Later he will say, “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36). But here on the hillside as he begins his Sermon on the Mount, he paints a picture of what life looks like in his kingdom. And he starts with a series of blessings we know as the Beatitudes.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus begins to train his followers to think upside down.
Maybe you remember the episode of Seinfeld where George Costanza decides to do the opposite of his every natural instinct. He normally orders tuna on toast, so instead he orders chicken salad on rye. He normally is intimidated by women, but he decides to approach a woman in the diner and blurts out, “My name is George. I'm unemployed and I live with my parents,” and she agrees to go out with him. He normally would exaggerate his resume in job interviews, so he shares horrible details about himself and gets a job with the Yankees.
I’m not sure if Jesus is a Seinfeld fan, but as he begins his Sermon on the Mount, he knows that much of his kingdom vision will be the opposite of how people have been culturally conditioned to think. They need to start thinking upside down.
New Testament scholar Warren Carter writes:
“In the beatitudes, Jesus has the disciples imagine a different world, a different identity for themselves, a different set of practices, a different relationship to the status quo. Why imagine? Not because it is impossible. Not because it is escapist. Not because it is fantasy. But because it begins to counter patterns imbibed from the culture of the imperial world.” What Are They Saying
As I imagine this scene, I see a whole collection of ordinary people sitting on that hillside anxious to hear what Jesus has to say. He begins by looking into the eyes of a man sitting just to his left. The man is disheveled. He is a day laborer struggling to get by who hasn’t had a bath in weeks. No one in the synagogue ever rises to greet him. It’s not that anyone treats him badly; it’s more like they don’t even notice he’s there. He’s a nobody. But Jesus looks at him, and with a sparkle in his eye, he says:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)
A noise to his right draws Jesus’ gaze. A toddler tugs on his mother’s head covering trying to get her attention. The youngster settles into her lap, and she looks up to see Jesus staring in her direction. Tears immediately begin to well up in her eyes. Somehow she knows, he knows. There is something in his expression that tells her he is aware of her grief, of what she has lost. And then with the most tender tone in his voice he says:
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)
Eventually, he turns his gaze to a woman sitting farther back. Her earnestness is obvious in the way she leans forward, the way she is paying attention. Her whole life she’s only wanted one thing: to please Yahweh. For reasons she can’t explain, she feels most herself when she is in the synagogue listening to the Rabbis read passages from the Scriptures. Loving God with all her heart, mind, and soul has always been her greatest ambition. Jesus smiles, he nods, and he says the words she will treasure for the rest of her life:
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8)
Through the Beatitudes, Jesus calls people “blessed” who no one else would have called “blessed.” And why are they blessed? Because the source of all true blessing is sitting right in front of them, inviting them to follow him into a kingdom that doesn’t operate like the familiar kingdoms of the world.
We often misread the Beatitudes as a list of virtues that we should try to cultivate in our lives. We think they are telling us we need to figure out how to hunger and thirst for righteousness or how to be a peacemaker in the middle of conflicts (although we’re never quite sure how to become poor or persecuted). But the Beatitudes aren’t statements telling us what to do, rather they are observations of what is.
Jesus is saying to this group of wobbly and weary people sitting on a hillside, “Wherever you find yourself, whatever you are going through, you are blessed because the kingdom is now open to you!”
The Beatitudes are good news!
However, to truly experience this good news, we have to let Jesus turn our thinking upside down. And this most certainly will involve choosing the opposite path from our culturally-formed instincts.
We have been conditioned to want control, but the kingdom way is surrender.
We have been programmed to accumulate, but the kingdom way is generosity.
We have been taught to fight for power, but the kingdom way is sacrifice.
After all, the kingdom way of Jesus led to the cross.
Not to Easy Street.
Not to the cover of People Magazine.
Not to the White House.
Don’t underestimate how hard it is to break free from the kingdoms of this world. It is the challenging journey of discipleship, the transformation of the mind (Romans 12:2). It involves the humility to admit, “I’ve been wrong.” And to accept that I’ll be wrong again. It requires letting go of so many things that seem justified. It often feels more like losing than winning.
But when you imagine yourself sitting on that hillside, you know that you are staring into the face of life itself. And he is inviting you to follow him into a different way, a different kingdom. Your heart begins to race as you hear him say:
“Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” (Matthew 5:12)
And you find yourself laughing uncontrollably as you dance with the disheveled man, the grieving mother, and the earnest woman.
For in Jesus’ kingdom, everything is upside down.
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Recommended Resources on The Sermon on the Mount
What If Jesus Was Serious? - Skye Jethani
Short reflections on the Sermon complete with Skye’s own doodles and drawings. This isn’t a deep dive into the Sermon, but it is an insightful and enjoyable read.
The Story of God Bible Commentary - Sermon on the Mount - Scot McKnight
A readable commentary by one of the most respected contemporary New Testament scholars. This commentary series not only explains the text, but provides insights on how to live out the Sermon in day-to-day life.
The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God - Dallas Willard
A theological work that is about more than the Sermon, but uses the Sermon as the key text to helping us live the life Jesus intends for us to live. This is not an easy read, but is a classic in Christian spiritual formation literature.
The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing - Jonathan T. Pennington
A theological commentary that contains 130+ pages on overall themes of the Sermon before going into verse-by-verse commentary. I like how this author ties the Sermon into a vision for human flourishing.
