On this basis, the Sermon on the Mount can be interpreted „kairologically”. It presents itself as a set of Jesus’ instructions for a sustainable growth and spread of the seeds of the kingdom of God sown by Jesus Christ. The “new commandments” are therefore not to be understood as antitheses to the Torah that would change or even replace its rules, but as exemplary directives for renewing humanity and the world. This renewal is to be achieved by breaking down structures of evil and opening new spaces in which to live according to the Torah in its form of completion, corresponding to God’s righteousness.

The aim is thus not merely to preservethe Torah in its authoritative formulations, but to fulfil it in its original meaning. The concept of “greater righteousness”, as espoused by Jesus and elucidated in the Sermon on the Mount, is to be understood literally as “overflowing righteousness”. It is God’s righteousness overflowing onto people, enabling them to live an overflowing justice that extends to both the evil and the good. In this way, they are empowered to release peace, reconciliation and love of enemies, as Jesus demands in the Sermon on the Mount.

Keywords: Justice and Righteousness; Overflowing Righteousness; Sermon on the Mount; Event; Kairos; Kairology; Seeds of the Kingdom of God; Kingdom of God; Peace; Healings in the Gospels; Experience of grace

1     Introduction: Just Peace as an Event Beyond Human Control

1.1    Just Peace as Utopia and Gift

Peace and justice are among the greatest challenges for the twenty-first century, which has begun in a deeply crisis-ridden manner. Particularly in the war in Ukraine, but also most recently in the Israel-Palestine conflict, we are witnessing such global escalations of conflicts that the realisation of justice and peace repeatedly fails simply because the two seem to be mutually exclusive. In the attempts to overcome this dilemma, one can hardly escape a progressive polarisation between peace without justice—just peace, which has no future as such—and justice without peace, which is torn between conflicting interests. In the face of such dilemmas, “just peace” appears to be an unattainable utopia. Even if such a utopia were conceivable as a viable reality, the path to achieving it seems politically out of reach.[1]

And yet people from hostile groups repeatedly come surprisingly close to the lost and seemingly unattainable juste milieu of peace and justice. This can be seen, for example, in the peace initiatives of Israeli and Palestinian women—Israeli Women wage Peace (WWP) and Palestinian Women of the Sun (WOS)—who demonstrated side by side for peace out of war-related experiences of suffering and loss that united them.[2] In the face of such polarisations and the exceptional phenomena that interrupt them, it is tempting to say that just peace is impossible, and yet it occurs again and again, at least in traces—as “the impossible”[3]. While such new beginnings may not yet constitute a just peace between hostile societies, they provide an opportunity to move closer to achieving one. This opportunity or kairos moment can be seized or missed politically.

Following in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi, targeted efforts have been made to establish grassroots movements that fight for peace and justice through non-violent resistance.[4] In religious and theological terms, such peace movements can be described as events of grace.[5] Such formulations are also possible in the context of hypercritical post-phenomenological deconstruction.[6] This presupposes that by ‘event’ one does not primarily mean organizable occasions, but rather something that breaks forth in an uncontrollable way, as “a change [or disintegration] of the very frame through which through which we perceive the world and engage in it”[7]. These can be small and even micro-events, e.g. in a fruitful encounter between two people who are actually enemies, so that a potential for sustainable change in the direction of just peace is released.

From a theological perspective, just peace cannot be produced any more than an event in which a sudden spark of empathy and willingness to reconcile arises and leaps across the divide between people from hostile groups. Yet such “micro-events”, where they occur unexpectedly, can be recognised and built upon, enabling movements to develop that reach many people. Such an event of just peace proves to be an extraordinary stroke of luck or a gift of grace, which believers gratefully attribute to God and ask him for.

But when God gives a spark of just peace as an event, this does not exclude human efforts to achieve just peace but rather includes them. God sometimes opens small windows through which the utopian goal of a fully realised just peace can be experienced for a moment as a reality. This is a kairos that must be seized without hesitation in order to realise on a larger scale what one has already been able to experience on a small scale as a given reality and promise—as a “performative promise”.

1.2    On the Way to a Kairological Interpretation

Let me repeat the previous paragraph with a slight modification:

When God gives a spark of the kingdom of God as an event, this does not exclude human commitment to the kingdom of God but rather embraces it. God sometimes opens small windows through which the utopian goal of a fully realised kingdom of God can be experienced for a moment as a reality. This is a kairos that must be seized without hesitation in order to realise on a larger scale what one has already been able to experience on a small scale as a given reality and promise—as a “performative promise”.

I have replaced “just peace” here with “kingdom of God”, the central concept of Jesus’ proclamation, “kingdom of heaven” in the Gospel of Matthew. This substitution corresponds to the biblical understanding: even if the kingdom of God includes more than just peace, this—in the perfect unity of peace and justice—is an essential characteristic that the Old Testament already ascribed to God’s eschatological activity. Ps 85 formulates this context as a “prophetic vision of the future (prolepsis) in the prophetic perfect tense”^[8]: “Lovingkindness and truth[A1]  have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other (Ps 85:10 NASB)”^[9]

However, the Hebrew word for justice in this verse is ṣedeq, which refers more to righteousness than to (social) justice and legal order, which is usually expressed by  mišpāṭ and is central to our theme of “righteous peace”. Yet, the two cannot be separated from one another. Justice is based on righteousness, which is originally God’s justice that overflows onto human beings. In the New Testament, this connection between God and human beings is expressed by the word δικαιοσύνη.

By replacing “just peace” with “kingdom of God”, our paragraph opens up a kairological interpretation of Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God and of the Sermon on the Mount. Such an interpretation may point the way for people today to transform themselves and the world toward peace, justice, and the integrity of creation.[10] In what follows, I will further develop this kairological approach.

2     Seeds of the Coming Kingdom of God in the Gospels

2.1    The Event of the “Flashing Forth of God’s Reign in the Now” (Hans Weder)

2.1.1   The Presence of the Kingdom of God in the Healing Works of Jesus

Jesus’ proclamation was closely linked with the preaching of John the Baptist. According to the testimony of the Gospels, John testified that Jesus was the coming Messiah, and Jesus followed the Baptist’s proclamation. In particular, the Gospel of Matthew emphasises this connection.[11] Matthew condenses Jesus’ message into a similar short formula as John’s, saying: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt. 3:2; 4:17)[12]. This has led some exegetes to assume that according to Matthew, Jesus, like the Baptist, saw the kingdom of God as future and hardly as present. But Jesus’ exorcistic acts of deliverance show us that the kingdom of God has already arrived.[13] Moreover, Matt. 12:28 argues against excluding present eschatology from Jesus’ proclamation in Matthew: “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the ­kingdom of God has come to you.” (Matt. 12:28)[14]

Jesus’ healings play a central role in Matthew, especially immediately before and after the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Matt. 4,23–24; Matt. 8–9; section 3). Jesus referred to his healing miracles in response to John the Baptist’s question[15] In Matthew, the coming of the kingdom of God must be understood as a dynamic reality that is approaching.[16] Moments of its presence through the work of Jesus are an essential part of this dynamic. This is also the case with Jesus’ teaching in his parables of growth.

2.1.2   The Presence of the Kingdom of God as an Event

But how can one theologically capture Jesus' claim of the presence of the kingdom of God breaking through in his acts of liberation, without disregarding the fact that its completion was still pending? Here it makes sense to interpret the presence of the Kingdom of God, attested by Jesus’ healing deeds, as an event, a theme I already emphasized in section 1.2. This interpretation posits that the arrival (ἐφθασενin Matt. 12:28 par Luke 11:20) of the kingdom of God in the present is not impossible as is often assumed by those who adhere to a purely futuristic interpretation of Jesus’ proclamation in the Gospel according to Matthew. Rather, it is “the impossible” (cf. section 1.2), which occurs as an event sometimes to some extent, although it defies rational comprehension and technical accessibility. Swiss biblical theologian Hans Weder comes close to this concept of event in his formulation: “the casting out of demons is to be understood as a flashing forth of God’s reign in the now—as the respective event of its approach to the now”[17]. In accordance with Martin Heidegger’s understanding of the event, it is essential to recognise that such an up-flashing should not be regarded as an objective, ontic fact. Rather, an occurrence becomes an event because it affects certain people[18]—as if struck by lightning or by a fleeting flash, scarcely noticed and quickly suppressed.[19]

2.2    The Kairos of the Kingdom of God Breaking into the Present

2.2.1   From Event to Kairos

The epiphany of the kingdom of God and thus of God himself can hardly be perceived directly. However, it can be mediated through perceptible effects within the world. Examples  include a paralysed man rising to his feet (Matt. 9:8), a blind and mute man is healed and freed (Matt. 12:22), and a storm at sea instantly calmed at Jesus’ command (Matt. 8:27). On the one hand, all this is wholly good—an expression of the wholly good God revealed by Jesus—but on the other hand, it is also unsettling and disturbing (Sandler 2024). The reactions of the crowds and the disciples as recorded in the Gospels demonstrate remarkable variety. These include amazement  (θαυμάζειν), astonishment (ἐκπλήσσεσθαι), perplexity (θάμβος), fear (φοβεῖσθαι)  and being overwhelmed (ἐξίστασθαι). These reactions of irritation arise because the new experience of Jesus’ authoritative words and deeds does not fit with their familiar worldview and way of life. In a sense, it is new wine that would burst the old wineskins, so that one cannot remain the same unless one rejects the new, which is clearly perceived as entirely good. The necessity for conversion is confirmed here, as emphasised by Mark and Matthew in their brief summaries of Jesus’ proclamation in Mk 1:15 and Matt. 4:17. Thus, when people encounter Jesus, they are faced with the need to make a radical decision under the awareness that the Kingdom of God is suddenly breaking in. So they must decide whether to accept or reject a reorientation of their own lives and priorities in accordance with the good gift they have received (cf. Luke 5:8–9).

2.2.2   Kairos in the Gospels

In biblical language, such a decision-making situation, that allows for a beneficial reorientation of one's own life (i.e., conversion), is referred to as “Kairos”[20]. Mark’s Gospel highlights this concept through the succinct summary Jesus’ proclamation: “The kairos is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near” (Mk 1:15).[21] “Kairos” refers here to the Christ event in its entirety and stands above all for the decisive situation into which Jesus brings the people of Israel through his proclamation. The kairos must be seized decisively and quickly (Matt. 7:13); otherwise one will find oneself standing before closed doors (Luke 13:25; Matt. 25:10–12).

The great “kairos of visitation” (Luke 19:44) of the salvific event opened up for Israel with Christ unfolds into many smaller kairoi. This “big kairos” unfolds into many smaller kairoi. According to the Gospels, these kairoi are usually brief moments in which individuals or groups encounter Jesus and experience the manifestation of the Kingdom of God, leading them to accept or reject the offer of salvation.[22] The Gospels record numerous stories and parables about kairoi that were fruitfully embraced (e.g. Zacchaeus the tax collector, Luke 19:1–10), as well as kairoi that were tragically missed (e.g. the rich young man who waLukeed away grieving, Matt. 19:16–22par). Sometimes they contrast the two, as in the parables of the talents and the Good Samaritan.

Luke provides the paradigmatic example of a missed kairos, which summarily anticipates Israel’s failure, at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry (Luke 4:16–30). Whereas Mark and Matthew initially summarise Jesus’ proclamation in a short formula, Luke recounts Jesus’ sermon in the synagogue of Nazareth in order to narratively and dramatically condense his proclamation together with its rejection by Israel and ultimately Jesus’ execution. There is no explicit mention of a “kairos” as in Mark. But Jesus’ good news from the reading from Isaiah leads to the proclamation of a “year of the Lord’s favour“ (Lk 4:19). When Jesus explains to the synagogue visitors in Nazareth in his sermon that Isaiah’s messianic promise has been “fulfilled in your ears today” (Luke 4:21, with “today” as a kairos marker), the great kairos of a “year of the Lord’s favour” dissolves for Nazareth into a few fleeting moments where they reject the offer of grace.[23] Their spontaneous approval (Luke 4:22a) is immediately followed by massive reservations (Luke 4:22b–c), which quickly escalate into a collective attempt to kill him (Luke 4:28–29).[24] “But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way” (Luke 4:30).

2.3    Seeds of the Budding Kingdom of God

In contrast to the Baptist’s apocalyptic expectation of a kingdom of God that would be violently enforced “with the axe” (Matt. 3:10), Jesus began his public ministry in a so-called “minimally invasive” manner, so to speak, with a gradual unfolding of the kingdom of God through events that gave a glimpse of the kingdom to come.[25] In his teachings, Jesus explains this path primarily through parables of growth, with the metaphor of seeds being particularly important. In this way, Jesus expresses both the smallness and vulnerability as well as the growth potential and healing power of these exemplary events of salvation—as well as of their transmitter, Jesus, as the personified seed of the Kingdom of God (cf. Matt. 12:24).

The smallness and vulnerability of seeds is addressed many times in the Parable of the Sower: the seeds are stolen, eaten, scorched, withered and choked (Matt. 13:4–7, 19). The smallness of the seeds and their still pending growth refer to the ‘not yet’ of the full realisation of God's kingdom. Furthermore, the vulnerability of the seeds stands for the possibility of humans rejecting God's gift of salvation. In this way, humans' freedom of choice vis-à-vis the God who works salvation and reveals himself in this way is not only maintained, but also unleashed in an enhanced way.

Secondly, the seeds symbolise the potential of God’s kingdom that is already present today. They articulate God’s saving power, which cannot be broken even by  damage to the seeds. This is illustrated by the story of Jesus’ salvation through death and resurrection, as well as by John's metaphor of the grain of wheat that dies in order to bear fruit (John 12:24).

In the Gospels, Jesus interprets the seed as God’s word (Matt. 13:19; Mark 4:15). This interpretation likely included the idea of a living word, as evidenced by the healings commanded by Jesus. This word reaches people in different ways. Everyone “hears” the word, but it only falls on fertile ground with some people. In this case, the word is not only heard, but also “understood” (Matt. 13:13, 14, 19, 23), which means that the word is received with a committed heart. In Jesus’ interpretation, the salvific power of the seeds is also expressed in how deeply people are affected by them. Firstly, the seeds represent God’s word. However, in the subsequent verses, it is the people themselves who are said to be sown on good or bad ground (Matt. 13:19, 20, 22, 23).

I understand this difficult statement to mean that when people encounter Jesus, they are so profoundly affected by the Word of God in their being that their very first reaction is assent. They themselves are “sown as the Word of God”. Rejection is still possible, but only as a second reaction. The seed of God’s word has already taken root in their hearts as accepted. They can fight it, but they cannot get rid of it. It sticks like a thorn in their flesh, which intensifies their struggle against it. Not even by killing Jesus, who proves to be the personified seed of the kingdom of God, can they get rid of him. This is confirmed after Jesus' death, resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the reaction of the listeners to Peter’s Pentecost sermon: “They were cut to their heart” (Acts 2:37).

In this way, the seeds of God's word of salvation survive in a mode of self-judgement, which ultimately aims not at condemnation but at the fulfilment of God's initial will for salvation, without overriding human freedom. This is shown by Peter’s response to the frightened Jews who ask what they should do: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you [and] your children ...’ (Acts 2:39). Thus is fulfilled the words of Jesus in John’s Gospel about the grain of wheat: “if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).

This “minimally invasive” and dramatically effective seed soteriology, as taught and practised by Jesus, corresponds to the Sermon on the Mount as a path to a non-violent and at the same time effective realisation of just peace.

3     A Kairological Approach to the Sermon on the Mount

3.1    The Meaning of the Sermon on the Mount in the Context of Jesus’ Healings: Guidance for Sustainable Transformation

In order to avoid an overemphasis on moralism when interpreting the Sermon on the Mount, its broader context must be considered. Matthew presents the Sermon on the Mount as the first of five discourses of Jesus, situating it at the beginning of his public ministry within a concentrated narrative of healing miracles.

Immediately before the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew places two summaries of healings, emphasising that Jesus healed all people of every disease and every sickness (Matt. 4:23–24). As a result, large crowds followed him onto the mountain where Jesus delivered his new ethic. And immediately after the Sermon on the Mount, the focus returns to healings—not merely in summary form, but in a narrative of numerous specific miracles (Matt. 8–9). This raises the question: Why did Matthew situate the collection of Jesus’ sayings in the Sermon on the Mount precisely in the midst of his healing activity?[26]

I am not a biblical scholar, but a dogmatic theologian concerned with the relationship between God’s grace and human activity. I would therefore like to pose the question just raised to my biblical colleagues for discussion, together with the following proposed answer: Through his healing miracles—and through other works, of which the healings are exemplary[27]—Jesus repeatedly brings the people of Israel into an epiphanic presence of the kingdom of God. Everything now depends on whether this light of an initial transformation of being (cf. section 2.3) shines through the whole person and radiates outward to others, so that the people of Israel may fulfil their original calling to the salvation of the nations.

In this context—according to my “kairological hypothesis”—the Sermon on the Mount constitutes a programmatic condensation of Jesus’ teaching, showing how individuals and communities, under the impression of the kingdom of God presently breaking in, can and should act anew—and what they must refrain from in order not to culpably squander the momentum of the kairos of grace. If they follow these instructions, the initial transformation brought about by God’s new action in Christ can become enduring, spread to many, and bear abundant fruit.

By first receiving the saving events mediated by Jesus—even at a lower degree of motivation, as experienced by the crowds in contrast to the first apostles—the hearers of the Sermon on the Mount already carry within themselves the light that Jesus himself is (Matt. 4:16). Thus they “are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). Jesus teaches them not to hide this light under a bushel but to place it on a lampstand, so that it “shines before others, so that they may see [their]good works and give glory” not to them but “to [their] Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). How such selfless radiance can be concretely realized, Jesus illustrates through exemplary instructions, beginning with his six “antitheses”, which do not abolish the Law and the Prophets but bring them to fulfilment (Matt. 5:17). In this way Jesus shows his followers how, by cooperating with the divine “greater righteousness” (Matt. 5:20) and with perfection (Matt. 5:48) that God pours into them, they themselves can contribute to bringing the Torah to its eschatological goal of eternal life in accordance with the kingdom of God (cf. Matt. 5:17; cf. section 4.1).

It seems plausible that, decades after the composition of the Gospel of Mark, the zeal of early Christian communities for a resolute discipleship of Christ had already begun to wane, and that the author of the Gospel of Matthew therefore gathered teachings for the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus exemplarily showed people how they could preserve the light they had received in moments of grace and pass it on to others.[28]

3.2    The Permanent Dependence on God’s Grace Beyond Human Control

Gerhard Lohfink explicitly emphasises the importance of Jesus’ healings for understanding the Sermon on the Mount.[29] From this he infers the “priority of salvation” as an indispensable condition for keeping its commandments: “Before radical obedience to Jesus’ teaching was demanded, salvation had already been given”[30]. Lohfink also highlights the role of Jesus’ healings in the context of the emerging kingdom of God: “Jesus heals [...] not only out of compassion for individual sick people, but above all to bring about the messianic age of salvation in Israel”[31]. From the fact that Jesus “lets the deeds of the Messiah precede the demands of the Sermon on the Mount”, Lohfink concludes: “Radicalism in the sense of Matthew’s Gospel presupposes God’s action. It therefore has its historical kairos. It does not occur arbitrarily and at any time”[32].

This puts me close to Lohfink with my kairological approach to the Sermon on the Mount. On the other hand, Lohfink is extremely confident about the lasting effect of this divine action on his people and his communities. He attests to the crowd following Jesus up the mountain that “liberation has already been given to them” and that “the messianic time of salvation has already been fulfilled” in them[33].

This corresponds, on the one hand, to the kairological approach. On the other hand, it is important to see that this liberation and messianic time of salvation is  given to God’s people and to the church not as a permanently available possession, but rather as a sign and a promise of the still outstanding full realization of the kingdom of God. They receive it indeed as a real symbol and an effective promise, so that freedom and salvation are repeatedly experienced in concrete ways and radiate symbolically to others, but not permanently available—only when, where, and for as long as God wills—so that it remains a sign of a realization still to come. Therefore, the experience of salvation and the radiant glory of Christians and the church is repeatedly lost, whether culpably through negligence or refusal, or even without any fault. Thus the church, as God’s chosen people, is again and again dependent on new and renewing acts of God’s grace. In these divine actions the kingdom of God shines forth, indeed in such a way that a lasting ontological transformation can result. But one should not claim that the kingdom of God has permanently dawned,[34] for this would imply the assumption of a continuous salvific status that could be lost only through guilt.

This conceptual distinction is ecclesiologically explosive. Neglecting it—though essential for the kairological approach—can have fatal consequences for church practice. When Lohfink wrote his book Wem gilt die Bergpredigt in 1988, he had already resigned his professorship in order to devote himself full-time to the ministry of the Catholic Integrated Community. He dedicated the book to this movement of church reform, “which shows through its very existence that the Sermon on the Mount is not a utopia, i.e. not placeless, but has its place at the heart of the Church”[35].

Forty years later this apostolic association was canonically dissolved because of serious spiritual abuse of power.[36] Apparently, the failure of this ambitious and in many ways impressive project to realise the Sermon on the Mount within ecclesial communities is due not least to a lack of the awareness of the susceptibility of the “seeds of the kingdom of God” to perversion in human beings and in the churches. This fragility, which has to do not only with human fallibility, but also with the non-availability of God’s gracious realisations of his kingdom, makes it impossible to construct the church as a “contrasting society”, which Lohfink programmatically advocated.[37] Certainly, the Church and ecclesial communities that follow Christ are, can and should be a “city on a hill” (Matt. 5:14), yet this splendour is not at their disposal. It is grounded in unapproachable events of God’s salvific actions as a “flashing forth of God’s reign in the now” (cf. section 2.1). From there, people and communities may indeed develop a certain enduring light if they allow themselves to be ignited by Christ (cf. Luke 12:49). However, when a church leadership obliges its members to function as a city on a hill, the path to spiritual abuse is perilously close.

3.3    The Promises at the Beginning of the Sermon on the Mount

Jesus’ healing ministry, and at times even his sheer charisma, led his listeners—the first disciples as well as the crowds—to hear Jesus’ words under the impression of God’s presence breaking forth. They seized the kairos that arose from this by following Jesus.[38] This is especially true of the disciples who responded to Jesus’ call by following him with radical commitment, leaving their possessions and families behind. With them, the gifts of grace fell upon good soil and at first bore fruit, as Jesus promised them. His promises at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount apply first and foremost to them, but also to the listening crowds:^[39] in the Beatitudes and in the double word of the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

These promises also contain tensions which, however, disappear when we consider the situational context of an effective offer of grace. Thus, the Beatitudes of the poor, the mourners and the meek can easily be perceived as cynical when one considers that the suffering and disadvantages of the ordinary people addressed are largely due to a social injustice that is still awaiting resolution. Spiritualising their poverty, mourning and meekness would not overcome this offensiveness, but at best obscure it.^[40] [A3] However, Jesus does not call the poor, the mourning and the meek blessed in general, but in the context of the event of the kingdom of God flashing forth and the kairos that goes with it. This is not least due to the fact—not a good thing in itself, but helpful in this situation—that they are poor rather than satiated, and sad rather than complacent. They are therefore ready to accept Jesus’ offer of salvation “like a child” (Mk 10:15), whereas it was largely rejected by rich, self-satisfied and respected people because they supposedly had better things to do and because they did not want to let go of the wealth they possessed and therefore did not have an open heart for God's work of salvation.[41] This can be expressed in the growth parables of the kingdom of God by saying that the living word which the divine sower has sown in their hearts through Jesus (Luke 8:11) has fallen on good soil, so that it can now bear much fruit (Matt. 13:8).

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expresses the same reality—namely, the spread of the symbolically envisioned kingdom of heaven—through the metaphor of light: “You are the light of the world” (5:14).[42] This metaphor is less concerned with growth from seed-like smallness. Rather, it makes clearer than the parables of growth that the spread of God’s kingdom is not a process that follows natural laws, but rests on the responsibility of those who receive God’s gifts of grace (Matt. 5:15–16). As with the Beatitudes, it is important to recognise that Jesus’ promise “You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14) does not attribute a general superiority to people, but refers to their initial transformation (section 2.3) as they are moved by Jesus’ acts of grace to follow him.

This helps to defuse another irritation about Jesus’ assurances in the Sermon on the Mount. The promise to the disciples—and indirectly to the people—that they are “the light of the world” seems exaggerated. For Jews, the “light of the world” is probably the Torah,[43] and for Christians it is Jesus Christ (cf. Matt. 4:16). The confusion is resolved when the light that Jesus Christ claims to be (cf. John 8:12; 9:5) is understood not as exclusive, but as radiating outward and spreading to others, so that people to whom Jesus attributes this light are “light in Christ”, in a participatory sense.

3.4    The ‘Antitheses’ as Jesus’ Instructions for Fulfilling the Torah through Renewal

I understand the Sermon on the Mount as a collection of Jesus’ instructions on how people should act and live rightly under the effects of the ever‑emerging reign of God—because they are enabled to do so. In this way, it exemplarily unfolds the ethos of conversion[44] that, for Jesus, results from the event of the coming of God’s reign: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt. 4:17). Or: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; [therefore] repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). Μετανοεῖν here is to be understood as a reorientation of the νοῦς toward the emerging reign of God—from the epiphanic “already” to the “not yet” of its comprehensive realization. This is entirely in keeping with the petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). That is, everywhere in the world and comprehensively within those to whom the reign of God is presently breaking in.[45]

Therefore, the Sermon on the Mount is not a general ethical code and is not intended as such. In the introduction to the new theses of the Sermon on the Mount (which for that very reason are not anti-theses), Jesus makes this unmistakably clear: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil” (Matt. 5:17).

It concerns the eschatological fulfilment of the Torah, which is to be set in motion, at least in part, through active participation in the growth of the seeds of the reign of God—wherever Christ sows his heavenly seeds in the world. In this way, the Torah is confirmed, not abolished, through the enactment of its exemplarily manifest eschatological fulfilment.

Jesus, a committed Jew, did not seek to replace the Torah, but to presuppose it and to bring it into the midst of his people.[46] The fact that “until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass away from the law until all is accomplished” and that “whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5,18–19) does not mean that every single instruction of the Old Testament must be observed to the letter at all times.[47] Rather, Jesus makes it clear that his new instructions do not replace the Torah and are not to be understood as a correction of it. Anyone who misunderstands Jesus’ instructions in this way and teaches people accordingly will be “called least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5,19) because such a person misses Jesus’ message of the coming reign of God from the very beginning.

Jesus’ so-called “antitheses” do not stand in  opposition to the Torah or the prophets, but rather open new possibilities for human action, offering pointed and exemplary instructions that prove appropriate and practicable in light of the dawning reign of God.When Jesus illustrates this new mode of action through sixfold repetition of the formula “But I say to you” (cf. Matt. 5:21–48 NRS), it is misleading to describe these sayings as antitheses. For it is not a matter of opposition to the Torah or to traditional religious practice, but of their renewal from their origin in an eschatological act of divine revelation, which descends like fire (cf. Exod. 24:17; Luke 12:49)[48]. This does not occur as an apocalyptic act of violent judgment, but in the flashing forth of God’s presence as an event brought about through Jesus’ authoritative deeds and words (section 2.1). This “minimally invasive” (chap. 2.3) saving and judging action of God through Jesus Christ, transformed in contrast to apocalyptic conceptions, opens new horizons for human action.

What I have outlined here metaphorically can be made concrete by using the kairological approach. God acts eschatologically throughJesus Christ in the events of his emerging reign,[49] thereby bringing renewal. He sows human beings as seeds of the coming reign of God; that is, he initially transforms them in their very being and makes them ready to radiate toward others, thereby also transforming the community and society. Where people seize this kairos, the inherent laws of a structurally cemented hard-heartedness (Matt. 19:8), in which, for example, peace and justice are insurmountable opposites, are to some extent dissolved. Pathways open up with new kairoi and “signs of the times” for communal human action, through which what was previously impossible comes within reach on the way toward just peace. In this way, God works renewal towards perfection by leading people “from exemplary, radiant perfection toward all-encompassing[50] perfection”[51] through the seeds of the kingdom of God. Those who allow themselves to be led in this way are blessed by Jesus in his seventh beatitude: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt. 5:9).

With his radically[52] renewing commandments, Jesus reaches back behind the hardened hearts to the origin of creation, which bursts forth repeatedly in events of divine presence: “But from the beginning it was not so” (Matt. 19:8). The radical nature of these commandments is not an overwhelming demand, because Jesus speaks them in the context of this eschatological acting of God, which symbolically manifests the reign of God in exemplary events of salvation and simultaneously opens a new beginning in an exemplary new creation for human beings themselves. Only in this way is it possible to remain faithful to one’s spouse in difficult times [A4] (Matt. 5:32), not to look at others with lust (Matt. 5:28), not to be angry with one’s brother or sister, and not to despise anyone or anything (Matt. 5:22).

But these possibilities arise from events of the God who makes himself present, events not at human disposal, and are therefore not available in the same way at all times. It is therefore important to recognise events of grace and their corresponding kairoi or signs of the times[53] in order to break open hopelessly muddled situations through creative action and to find new forms of moral action accordingly.

4     From Justice to Peace in the Sermon on the Mount

4.1    Overflowing justice

“Blessed are the peacemakers…” (Matt. 5:9). This seventh beatitude mentioned in the previous section is the only passage in the Sermon on the Mount in which the word peace is explicitly mentioned. The Sermon on the Mount’s central theme is righteousness, which is, however, inextricably linked to peace, non-violence and reconciliation. It is God’s kingdom and his righteousness that the listeners of the Sermon on the Mount should be concerned with first (Matt. 6:33). And whoever hungers and thirsts for the righteousness that comes from God is called blessed by Jesus (Matt. 5:6). This divine righteousness should not only be gratefully received, but also lived as one’s own: “Your righteousness” should be “far greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees” (Matt. 5:20), and not only towards the righteous, but also towards the unrighteous and enemies. In his concluding sixth instruction, Jesus justifies the commandment to “love your enemies” (a sixth command) with the perfect righteousness of God, which consists in making his sun rise on the evil and the good and sending rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt. 5:45). Jesus’ new commandments culminate in the challenge: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). These demands have often been perceived as impossible to fulfil. In addition, there is another problem: Even if you come close to living perfection with all your effort, how can you escape the danger of hypocrisy—doing all this before others in order to be seen by them (cf. Matt. 6:1, 5:16)?

Both difficulties can be resolved by considering that the “greater righteousness” demanded by Jesus is to be literally translated and understood as “overflowing” righteousness.[54]

For I tell you, unless your righteousness overflows more (περισσεύσῃ ὑμῶν ἡ δικαιοσύνη πλεῖον) than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 5,20)

Accordingly, it is not about realising our own righteousness in accordance with God’s commandments in such a way that it is as great as God’s righteousness and greater than the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Rather, everything begins with seed‑events of the dawning kingdom of God, in which God allows his righteousness to overflow onto us. This overflowing rises from the very ground of our being, where we are rooted in God,[55] and opens us to God, to our fellow human beings, and to his whole creation. This righteousness of God, overflowing within us, becomes our own righteousness as we receive it with gratitude and actively cooperate with it.[56]

4.2    Three “Antitheses” of Jesus That Serve to Realise a Just Peace

In what follows, I shall address three of the six “Antitheses,” or instructions of Jesus for the fulfilment of the Torah that are particularly suited to guide us towards a just peace in situations of conflict. These are the instruction on reconciliation (Thesis 1), on the non‑violent response to suffered violence (Thesis 4), and on the love of enemies (Thesis 6). It must be borne in mind that Jesus is not here issuing universally valid commandments to be implemented exactly as prescribed, but exemplary instructions that, through individual and sometimes pointed examples, open up new ways of acting which human beings can discover and realise through the working of God’s grace. In this way we can and should break through structures and dynamics of injustice and violence, thereby contributing to the fulfilment of God’s righteousness in the world “in its entirety” (see Matt. 5:18; 3:15). Then, through our proactive and reconciling action, even our opponents and enemies may perceive the presence of the kingdom of God in the form of love received without cause, so that they too are enabled to act anew in peace and righteousness. Should they, however, refuse a conversion appropriate to this kairos, it may drive them into intensified acts of injustice, through which they inflict even greater suffering on others. Yet in doing so they expose themselves to a dynamic of self‑judgment—with burning coals upon their head (see Rom. 12:20)—which can ultimately release new possibilities of conversion and reconciliation through the self-inflicted breaking of their resistance.[57]

4.3    Immediate Reconciliation (First “Antithesis”)

“But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement …” (Matt. 5:22). Jesus is not here threatening divine judgement, nor does he forbid feelings of anger.[58] Rather, he warns against surrendering to these dynamics through speech acts of demeaning and judging others, thereby fuelling them. Verse 25 describes the compelling dynamic of an escalating spiral from which one can no longer escape by one’s own strength.[59]

Yet even small and smallest events of grace place us, for a moment, in a new beginning that allows something of the originally good creation or of the redeemed and perfected new creation to shine forth—even quite concretely in our broken relationships and with our opponents and enemies. Such a kairos is already given when, during the offering, one remembers “that your brother or sister has something against you” (Matt. 5:23). Here it is essential to make use of this kairos without delay. This may also occur by firmly resolving to bring to an end, as soon as possible, an unresolved conflict that has proved incompatible with the spirit of the liturgy.[60]

4.4    Radical Nonviolence Instead of Retaliation (Fifth Instruction for Full Justice)

Pacifist interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount are based above all on Matt. 5:39_ “But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer”[61]. [A5] [WS6]  In this context it is important not to read this passage as a general prohibition of resistance or as an option for merely passive resistance. [A7]   According to Glen Stassen, the phrase “resist evil” refers to a vicious circle in which people retaliate in kind for what has been done to them.[62] In the face of violence suffered, it is therefore a matter of violent resistance, which carries with it the danger of escalation and can scarcely be contained, as the Old Testament law of talion actually intended. Jesus warns against this and opens up an alternative way by which peace in justice can be restored.

The subsequent exhortations make clear that the non‑resistance demanded by Jesus entails active engagement. This also applies to the first two examples, which can easily be misunderstood as passive. “Turn the other cheek also” (Matt. 5:39b) is, even in its literal sense, a proactive turning towards the aggressor.[63] It can also be indirect: if one continues to engage with him in the hope of reconciliation, one risks receiving a second blow. This too can be meant by “turn the other cheek.”[64]

And when a defendant offers his cloak as well to the one who, by legal means, demands his cloak—without sarcasm, in sincere respect—this too is to be understood as an active approach to an opponent, which places the relationship with him under a new sign: a free gift at eye level for the one who seeks to enforce something by judicial power.[65] The third exhortation corresponds to this, where a compulsory service of accompaniment, such as Roman soldiers could demand of Jews, is transformed into a free gift by offering more than what was required, opening the possibility of a respectful encounter at eye level.

It is such transformation that is at stake in all four exhortations[66] of this fifth “antithesis”. This shows that Jesus is not concerned with antitheses set against the commandments and practices of the Old Testament, but with a new conduct that opens new horizons for reconciliation, peace, and justice—and which becomes possible because it builds upon that redeeming and reconciling eschatological action of God through Jesus Christ, which had already begun with Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God in word and deed. Under the impression of this action of God in Christ, people can behave as Jesus prescribes exemplarily in the Sermon on the Mount. And where they do so, they transmit the light of a new age of salvation—through the dawning of the kingdom of God in the present—into situations devoid of hope, so that even there a new beginning is opened. Under the impression of events of grace, where heaven breaks through in a fragment of reality, everything is for a moment bathed in heavenly light. This can also apply to an enemy, whom one suddenly sees as God sees him: as wholly good and lovable from his created origin and in his translucent form of fulfilment, which still shows itself in the midst of imperfection and sinfulness—even in the opponent.[67]

Let us remember that such was present to the hearers of the Sermon on the Mount, as Matthew composed it. Under the impression of Jesus’ healings or (for the first apostles) of a life‑changing presence of Jesus, they had followed him up the mountain. And Jesus could call them the light of the world, because they reflected the light of Jesus and of the kingdom of God made present by him. Out of this inner movement, the way of acting that Jesus commended to them towards violent and intrusive people resonated deeply with them.

Thus it is God’s overflowing righteousness (cf. sec. 4.4) that enables us to patterns of behaviour which open new beginnings in broken interpersonal relationships and in unjust social structures. This corresponds to the new beginning that Jesus set through his public ministry—as the personified seed of the kingdom of God. This beginning was for the people whom Jesus encountered, and who were nevertheless sinners, wholly affirmative, without any criticism or confrontation, and without the judgement that John the Baptist, in apocalyptic tradition, had primarily announced and expected. And yet it was precisely these seeds of the Kingdom of God that Jesus planted in their hearts that Jesus planted in their hearts through his proclamation and saving deeds, which drove people into situations of decision, where their initially set-aside dark sides were now brought by themselves into the centre: either by recognising, naming, and distancing themselves from their sins (esp. Zacchaeus in Luke 19:8)[68],  or by turning against the message they had at first accepted[69]—in a dynamic of intensified sin, in which they brought judgement upon themselves (esp. Luke 4:22–30)[70].

4.5    Love of Enemies (Sixth Instruction on Full Justice)

Our interpretation of the fifth “antithesis”, with its four instructions, has already shown that its driving motive is an attitude of overflowing love towards enemies. This principle becomes particularly clear in the final instruction. Here too it is a matter of escaping a vicious circle[71]—specifically, the vicious circle of barrenness. If one loves only those from whom one knows oneself to be loved, then God’s righteousness cannot overflow: “[…] if you greet only your brothers, what do you do that is overflowing (περισσόν)?”[72] What overflows, or is meant to overflow, is God’s righteousness: “Unless your righteousness overflows more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”[73]. We must read this statement, which immediately precedes the so‑called antitheses, together with the statement that concludes them: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). This demand is not an impossible overburdening if we allow God’s righteousness to overflow upon us, so that it flows through us—through our own righteousness, which we work in him—towards others, namely towards our opponents and enemies who act unjustly towards us. For God’s righteousness consists precisely in this: that “he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45). This is not to be understood statically but dynamically: the overflowing light and the overflowing rain stand for a righteousness that consists in making righteous by radiating upon those who do not deserve it. This is exactly how Jesus himself began his proclamation: by letting the signs and seeds of the presence of the kingdom of God come without precondition even to those who did not deserve them, thereby enabling them to repent and, as it were, to make up for their missing preconditions.[74]

4.6    Social Justice Newly Made Possible Through God’s Overflowing Righteousness

These missing and now recoverable preconditions consisted above all in social justice, which John the Baptist demanded of the Jewish authorities so that they would not fall under the coming judgement.[75] Jesus, by contrast, through his proclamation in word and deed, let God’s healing and justifying righteousness overflow upon people, thereby creating a foundation for their inadequate (social) justice. That Christians should build upon this foundation of God’s overflowing righteousness was probably the central concern of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, which also ends with the corresponding parable of the wise and foolish house‑builders (Matt. 7,24–28).

It follows that the extreme demands with which Jesus, especially in his “antitheses”, confronted his followers are therefore not to be understood as a purely attitudinal-ethical alternative to concrete efforts for social justice, but serve rather for the (re‑)establishment of a foundation for it—both in oneself and in one’s opponents. Thus the Sermon on the Mount does not abolish John the Baptist’s demand for social justice, but grounds it in God’s overflowing righteousness. In this way, the Sermon on the Mount proves to be a grace‑centered and kairological fundamental ethic, which enables social justice, demands it, and protects it from perversions such as moralism and hypocrisy, without itself setting forth concrete social‑ethical instructions.

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