From Old to New
The Sermon on the Mount, Carl Bloch, 1877
“And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying…”
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Many of the problems that exist in our modern world are first born from the problem that exists within each of us.
The soul is noisy.
Because it’s noisy, the question for us within Matthew 5:2 is do I approach Christ as one who is ready to be addressed? Or do I prefer ideas about God rather than His living voice?
We must become silent enough to hear Him.
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-”He opened His mouth”-
What’s happening here is that the eternal Logos becomes personally communicative.
Fundamentally, truth is not abstract.
It’s personal and relational.
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-”He taught them”-
The verb taught (ἐδίδασκεν) implies formation, not suggestion.
Christ is not offering spiritual inspiration; He is authoritatively shaping souls.
-Am I willing to be taught, or only affirmed?
-Do I submit my judgments, preferences, and instincts to Christ?
This is the beginning of docility, a central virtue in the spiritual life.
To be taught by Christ is to accept that I do not already know how to live, that my instincts require purification, and that truth must reorder me.
We must submit our will to His divine authority.
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Although Matthew 5:2 is brief, it is inseparable from verse 1: Christ teaches from the mountain.
In the spiritual life, this signals that submission and ascent precede instruction.
One must leave the lowlands (distraction, vice, spiritual laziness) to hear and receive clearly the law of the Lord.
Personally, have we climbed at all? Or do we expect to hear Christ while we’re still immersed in noise and comfort?
The soul must choose elevation - prayer, meditation, discipline - if it is to receive the things that God desires to share with His friends.
This is precisely the trajectory of Moses when he received the Law on Mt. Sinai. Matthew is signaling that Jesus is the “New Moses” with a “New Law” to be written on the heart.
And so this verse marks the threshold of transformation and the beginning of man’s re-creation from old to new:
From simply external compliance → to internal beatitude and becoming a certain kind of man (Gal 3:24-29).
So are we allowing Christ’s words to recreate our desires, or merely regulate our behavior?
Are we giving Jesus the space in our hearts and lives to make all things new?
Onward and Upward,
Ted
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