Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. Matthew 5:1-2 [NIV]
Sometimes we need the benefit of time, or of solitude to think properly and mountains are good places for this. Even Jesus needed to get away from the pressure of his work, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the good news and healing the diseased, the sick, the demon possessed and the paralysed who sought him out and followed him around.
But it wasn’t a total escape for Jesus as he took his disciples up the mountain with him. Weary as he was, he gave them some profound teaching. Moses had been given the Law on a mountain, and now Jesus was reinterpreting that same law on a mountain. When I read the Sermon on the Mount, I am struck that some of the things I strive for most and that govern the way I approach my working life, things like being in control, like being liked, like having my efforts noted and appreciated and praised… are not qualities that are at the top of God’s list.
It is not the qualities that gain the respect and admiration of men that are the values of the Kingdom of God, rather the poor, the innocent, the victims, the self-effacing that capture God’s heart. Blessed, he says, are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and the persecuted.
For Prayer:
What are you preoccupied with? Are your values the same as God’s or have they parted company somewhere along the way?
Mairi Mowbray
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