Sermon on the Mount: A Theological Interpretation

Bernardo Estrada presents a global reading of the Sermon on the Mount by making the ethical vision of Jesus' teaching understandable for men and women of the third millennium. Estrada show how the commandments of love and the character of authentic righteousness are the twin themes that unite the Sermon. Despite the challenges inherent to Jesus' teaching, Estrada understands Jesus' commands as accessible and obedience feasible. Estrada' reading is important because it highlights how the teaching of Jesus can directly address the questions of faithfulness which are often obscured by institutional elements of Christianity. The attractiveness of Jesus' words does only reside in the beauty of rhetoric but also to the work his words perform: believers are empowered by grace, especially through prayer (of which the Lord's Prayer is a model) to works of love which open the door to the Kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount shows how fulfilling Jesus' demands leads to living out the Kingdom in its fullness and practicing its justice.