Given how integral this idea of right relationship is to the Bible’s story, it’s not surprising that the theme takes center stage in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:20, 6:1, 6:33, 7:12). When Jesus sits down on the mountainside, surrounded by crowds of people, Jesus details a revolutionary way of life that’s rooted in ancient wisdom from the Hebrew Bible. With his words, Jesus sets a table and invites those listening to experience a nourishing way of life that satisfies our longing for good relationships with all people. This is the kind of relating that defines Jesus’ Kingdom way of life.
“How good is life for the poor in spirit,” Jesus says, “because theirs is the kingdom of the skies.” “How good is life,” he promises, “for the peacemakers” (Matt. 5:3, 9, BPT).
Jesus’ tender words have transformative power, inviting us to abandon our hunger for self-sufficiency and power. Like loving parents gently lifting their child’s gaze to meet their own, Jesus invites us to be transformed by a desire for right relationship with himself and one another. Be like me, he says. Allow your perspective of the world to be turned upside-down, and yearn for a new way of living and relating.
This kind of righteousness is about more than a personal moral code. According to Jesus, it is possible to become consumed with following rules without craving right relationships (Matt. 5:20). Jesus also confronts a group of Bible scholars who expertly adhere to the law while simultaneously oppressing the vulnerable (Matt. 23:1-36)! They’re acting with evil while thinking they’re the most righteous people in town.
Jesus says that real righteousness points back to the first garden and describes the ethic of God’s Kingdom. This way of life is inspired not by an appetite for personal gain but by a hunger for love that compels a person to be fair and just toward others, to seek peace with all, and to generously give without restraint (see Matt. 5:38-42). Jesus lives like this without fail, and he invites everyone to join him in hungering for righteousness in our own lives and in our world.
This is what Jesus means when he says, “Rather, first of all seek for his kingdom and doing-what-is-right by him, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33, BPT).
Before presenting his listeners with this challenging promise, Jesus reassures them that God cares about their physical needs. “So then, don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’” He says, “For the nations, they constantly seek for all these things, and your Father in the skies knows that you need all that” (Matt. 6:31-32, BPT).
The message is at once simple and revolutionary. Jesus invites us to trust God with the substance of our daily existence, while simultaneously becoming consumed with a hunger for the right relationships of his Kingdom.
