The Kingdom of God

The Sermon on the Mount

On a hillside Jesus gave the Kingdom’s great charter, the Sermon on the Mount. He began with blessings that turn the world upside down: the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, these are the blessed, these are the citizens of God’s Kingdom. Then he taught his people to seek God’s reign first, and to shine like a city on a hill.

What Jesus said

A reflection

Every kingdom of this world honours the strong, the rich, the loud. Jesus stood the whole order on its head. In his Kingdom the blessed are the ones the world overlooks: the poor in spirit who know their need of God, the meek who do not grasp, the merciful, the peacemakers. This is not a lowering of the bar but a changing of the currency. What counts here is a heart made gentle and true.

And so he said, ‘seek ye first the kingdom of God.’ Not our anxious getting and keeping, but God’s reign and righteousness, and everything else, he promised, will be added. To live this way is to become light: ‘a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid’ (Matthew 5:14).

Frequently asked questions

What is the Sermon on the Mount about?

It is Jesus' great teaching on life in the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5-7). It opens with the Beatitudes, blessing the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, and the peacemakers, then calls his followers to seek God's Kingdom first and to love even their enemies.

What are the Beatitudes?

The Beatitudes are Jesus' opening blessings in Matthew 5:3-12. They pronounce God's favour on the humble and overlooked, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven', revealing the upside-down values of God's Kingdom.

What does 'seek ye first the kingdom of God' mean?

In Matthew 6:33 Jesus taught that God's reign and righteousness should come before our anxious pursuit of security, and that our Father, who knows our needs, will provide the rest. It reorders a whole life around God.