Matthew 5:1-2 (NIV) Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying:
Despite popular depictions, this “sermon” was not given to a huge crowd of people. In the midst of being continually mobbed by crowds whose agenda was simply to obtain healing or deliverance for themselves or their family, Jesus took a break and went away from the crowd for a while. He climbed up a nearby mountain, leaving the crowd below – only His disciples followed Him up.
The disciples had watched Jesus at work, healing every disease, and casting out every demon. But all of those miracles were merely the indisputable sign to the people that the kingdom of heaven had arrived in Jesus; they were not the main reason He had come. The people could be excused for focusing on the miracles. They had deep needs that could not be met in any other way. But Jesus’ followers could not be permitted to lose track of the real agenda.
So Jesus took them away from the crowds, away from the miracles, away from the excitement of the moment, to be alone with Him. This was neither the first time nor the last that this recalibration was needed or taken. Even after the disciples came back from their mission journeys full of excitement at all that they had been able to do, Jesus quickly turned them away from the miracles to the spiritual reality that lay behind them (cf. Luke 10:17-20). He knew that if the foundation of the kingdom was solid in their hearts, the ability to do whatever needed to be done would follow. But if the abilities were allowed to become the focus, the goal, they would quickly lose their grasp on both the kingdom and its power.
Father, it is indeed easy for us to lose our focus – to allow our attention to be drawn to the flash and glitz of signs, and wonders, and miracles, and to forget that they are simply the outflow off the kingdom of God in which we are enabled to live through Your grace. Help us to keep our focus clear and strong on them most important thing at all times, so that You can freely work in us and through us at all times. Amen.