Chapter 1—On the Mountainside
More than fourteen centuries before Jesus was born in Bethlehem,
the children of Israel gathered in the fair vale of Shechem, and from
the mountains on either side the voices of the priests were heard
proclaiming the blessings and the curses—“a blessing, if ye obey the
commandments of the Lord your God: ... and a curse, if ye will not
obey.”
Deuteronomy 11:27, 28
. And thus the mountain from which
the words of benediction were spoken came to be known as the mount
of blessing. But it was not upon Gerizim that the words were spoken
which have come as a benediction to a sinning and sorrowing world.
Israel fell short of the high ideal which had been set before her. Another
than Joshua must guide His people to the true rest of faith. No longer
is Gerizim known as the mount of the Beatitudes, but that unnamed
mountain beside the Lake of Gennesaret, where Jesus spoke the words
of blessing to His disciples and the multitude.
Let us in imagination go back to that scene, and, as we sit with the
disciples on the mountainside, enter into the thoughts and feelings that
filled their hearts. Understanding what the words of Jesus meant to
those who heard them, we may discern in them a new vividness and
beauty, and may also gather for ourselves their deeper lessons.
When the Saviour began His ministry, the popular conception of
the Messiah and His work was such as wholly unfitted the people to
receive Him. The spirit of true devotion had been lost in tradition
[2]
and ceremonialism, and the prophecies were interpreted at the dictate
of proud, world-loving hearts. The Jews looked for the coming One,
not as a Saviour from sin, but as a great prince who should bring all
nations under the supremacy of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. In vain
had John the Baptist, with the heart-searching power of the ancient
prophets, called them to repentance. In vain had he, beside the Jordan,
pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the
world. God was seeking to direct their minds to Isaiah’s prophecy of
the suffering Saviour, but they would not hear.
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