Come to the Mountain | Matt 4:23, 5:1-3

Matthew is about to move into the Sermon on the Mount—the most famous sermon Jesus ever preached—and the sermon frames it like this: Jesus has been calling people to repent, and now He’s going to start showing them what repentance actually looks like in lived obedience. The Sermon on the Mount is packed with practical instruction, but it’s not random moral teaching. It sits inside a bigger story Matthew has been building from the beginning. The big idea here is “Come to the Mountain.” In Matthew’s telling, Jesus is being portrayed as the mediator of the covenant—a greater Moses. Just like Moses delivered the old covenant through the first five books, Matthew intentionally echoes that structure and order, showing that Jesus is not just another teacher in Israel—He is the One who brings the true and final covenant reality those books were always pointing toward. As the Sermon on the Mount begins, it mirrors the moment of the law being given—especially the Deuteronomy theme of a “second giving” and explanation of God’s commands—only now the One on the mountain is not merely repeating Moses. He is speaking with divine authority as the mediator Himself. And that leads to the other half of the sermon’s point: the law exposes the need for grace. The law is good. Its ethics are beautiful. Its wisdom is real. But it is not a ladder to salvation. The law functions like a mirror—it shows what is true about the heart. And what it reveals is not self-righteousness but failure. Even with sincere effort, even with strong resolutions, God’s commands keep exposing how far short human obedience falls. The law does not become a refuge; it becomes an accusation that drives the soul to cry out for mercy. That’s why Matthew is preparing the reader for grace before the Sermon on the Mount even fully unfolds. Israel broke covenant again and again. Prophets were sent, and the people repeatedly failed. Even David—the man after God’s own heart—ends up clinging to mercy with a broken spirit. So when Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount with “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” it isn’t sentimental. It’s covenant reality: the kingdom belongs to the broken, the needy, the ones who know they cannot stand on their own righteousness. So this introduction sets the frame: the mountain is a covenant scene, Jesus is the covenant mediator, and the law—when truly heard—doesn’t produce pride. It produces poverty of spirit, and poverty of spirit is the doorway to grace. Do you want to support Church of The Word? https://cotwstl.org/give/ Check out our church here! https://cotwstl.org/ #biblestudy #faith