10
Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing
Had the teachers and leaders in Israel yielded to His transforming
grace, Jesus would have made them His ambassadors among men. In
Judea first the coming of the kingdom had been proclaimed, and the
call to repentance had been given. In the act of driving out the desecra-
tors from the temple at Jerusalem, Jesus had announced Himself as the
Messiah—the One who should cleanse the soul from the defilement of
sin and make His people a holy temple unto the Lord. But the Jewish
leaders would not humble themselves to receive the lowly Teacher
from Nazareth. At His second visit to Jerusalem He was arraigned
before the Sanhedrin, and fear of the people alone prevented these
dignitaries from trying to take His life. Then it was that, leaving Judea,
He entered upon His ministry in Galilee.
His work there had continued some months before the Sermon on
the Mount was given. The message He had proclaimed throughout
the land, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (
Matthew 4:17
), had
[3]
arrested the attention of all classes, and had still further fanned the
flame of their ambitious hopes. The fame of the new Teacher had
spread beyond the limits of Palestine, and, notwithstanding the attitude
of the hierarchy, the feeling was widespread that this might be the
hoped-for Deliverer. Great multitudes thronged the steps of Jesus, and
the popular enthusiasm ran high.
The time had come for the disciples who had been most closely
associated with Christ to unite more directly in His work, that these
vast throngs might not be left uncared for, as sheep without a shepherd.
Some of these disciples had joined themselves to Him at the beginning
of His ministry, and nearly all the twelve had been associated together
as members of the family of Jesus. Yet they also, misled by the teaching
of the rabbis, shared the popular expectation of an earthly kingdom.
They could not comprehend the movements of Jesus. Already they
had been perplexed and troubled that He made no effort to strengthen
His cause by securing the support of the priests and rabbis, that He
did nothing to establish His authority as an earthly king. A great work
was yet to be accomplished for these disciples before they would be
prepared for the sacred trust that would be theirs when Jesus should
ascend to heaven. Yet they had responded to the love of Christ, and,
though slow of heart to believe, Jesus saw in them those whom He
could train and discipline for His great work. And now that they had
been long enough with Him to establish, in a measure, their faith in