The Audience

You’ve probably noticed that I’m focused lately on the Sermon on the Mount.

I’ve been studying those three chapters for the last few months. This minor obsession began with a wonderful series of videos from The Bible Project (which I recommend).

In Matthew’s account of the Gospel, Jesus chose this place and time to outline the parameters of his Kingdom. He made some radical and familiar – and uncomfortable – pronouncements about what this new Kingdom would look like.

After all this pondering, I realized I’d missed something – the audience.

Jesus didn’t offer his thoughts in a synagogue or the temple. This audience wasn’t part of the in-crowd.

Instead, they were mostly outcasts. Those who suffered most under Roman occupation and the corrupt taxation system. The poor. The lost. The lonely. The least of these.

From the comfort of my middle-class existence, I can’t possibly imagine what it must have been like to hear “Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are the meek, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… “

Though I can’t personally imagine it, I have heard it through some of the stories of the kids at the Home of Hope. Through their eyes, we get a glimpse of what it’s like to experience that first glimmer of hope in a life filled with nothing but endless pain and sadness. We see something most of us can’t comprehend – deep, authentic gratitude for simple things we take for granted.

I suspect Jesus didn’t choose that audience randomly. They were the folks he spent most of the next three years hanging out with. Eating, laughing, healing, sharing with these uncomfortable people what his Kingdom was all about.

If Jesus wandered into town today, we assume he would show up in our air-conditioned church building. I wonder if it’s more likely he would choose a homeless encampment.

Would you and I be there to hear what he had to say?