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The Envelope Structure of the Sermon on the Mount (Luz:212, revised):

1. Situation, 5:1-2

2. Introduction, Leading in, 5:3-16

3. Prologue of Main Section, 5:17-20

4. Main Section, Antitheses, 5:21-48

5. Main Section, Righteousness before God, 6:1-6

6. Center: The Lord’s Prayer, 6:7-15

5’. Main Section, Righteousness before God, 6:16-18

4’. Main Section, Possessions, Judging, Prayer, 6:19-7:11

3’. Epilogue of Main Section, 7:12

2’. Conclusion, Leading out, 7:13-27

1’. Reaction of Hearers, 7:28-8:1

The meaning of such a literary structure must be decided in each individual case.

But the Lord’s Prayer at the center of the “envelope” likely indicates that the entire

Sermon is to be interpreted in terms of this prayer (Luz:213). Although one would not

expect to find a prayer as a part of the statutory law codes of the ancient NE or of modern

times, in this respect covenant law is different. The Sermon is like the Decalogue and

Sinai covenant code in that it unites worship and ethics: I am Yahweh your God, who

brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other

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gods before me (i.e., in my worship) (Exod. 20:2, 3; cf. 22:20; also, 20:22-26;23:14-

19). The principle, decisive for covenant law, is that one may worship only the God who

gives freedom, a principle by which the remaining commandments are to be interpreted,

including the technique laws of the Covenant Code. A command on how one should pray

in the midst of other imperatives about acts of piety, while quite different from anything

in the Sinai covenant code, nevertheless shares that code’s concern for the unity of

worship and ethics.

Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: Fundamental Principles of the Sermon (Matt. 6:9-13)

The Lord’s Prayer consists of an address (Matt. 6:9b) and two series of three

petitions. The first series of three petitions is dominated by the pronoun your—the larger

concerns of God(6:9c-10); the second series of three, by the pronoun our—the needs of

the faith community(6:11-13). The address is made by a faith community to its Ruler:

Our Father. This family term for God punctuates the entire Sermon, occurring

throughout, 17 times. This relationship with the Father is the context for each imperative

of the Sermon. Covenant law is both given and enforced within the structure of this

personal divine-human relationship. Some interpreters would see the Aramaic term Abba

as underlying the term in the Greek text, pater, Father (Luz:375; contra, Betz:374-375).

If so, this may be a special term of endearment. The community itself consists of those

who call upon their Father; it is not an ethnic community, but a community of faith.

Covenant law, unlike state law, is not limited by territorial boundaries, but may be

practiced by a faith community in any territorial state or empire—with persecutions. In

the story of Israel’s becoming a people, covenant law is first given not within the

conventional boundaries of the promised land, but outside the land in the wilderness of

Sinai. Toward the other end of the biblical story, Ezekiel proclaims covenant law to the

Israelites exiled in Babylon, a foreign land (Ezek. 18; cf. Psalm 137, esp. v. 4). In the

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Servant Songs of the book of Isaiah, the Servant establishes covenant law and justice

among the nations (Isa. 42:1-4). And in the book of Matthew, the risen Lord commands

that the Sermon be proclaimed to all nations (Matt. 28:20). Of the six petitions we will

discuss the three which are most relevant to the issue of the death penalty.

Unlimited by territorial boundaries, the “home” of covenant law is indicated by

thesecond and third petitions: the Father’s kingdomand will. This kingdom or Rule

stands at the very heart of the message of Jesus; the term occurs 56 times in the book of

Matthew, ten times in theSermon on the Mount. A future, anticipated Rule as in this

prayer, in Jesus it “draws near” in the present. In the first and eighth beatitudes (Matt.

5:3, 10) the kingdom is present now: for theirs isthe kingdom. These two beatitudes

encompass the six others which are future oriented: ...for they will be comforted, ....

This kingdom is closely related to the work of the disciples who petition both for

its coming, and that the will of God might be done here and now on the earthly

scene—by direct divine action, and by divine action especially through the disciples (cf.

Luz:380). This will, its detailed features stated concretely by covenant imperatives in

this Sermon, supercedes state law. Fundamentally, it opposes the state’s self-serving

character;although it may sometimes partially support its detailed precept (cf. Matt.

5:11). A city built on a hill, the exemplary community of disciples as blessed by God, is

built there to indicate to the entire international social order its proper direction. This

universal kingdom, rather than the state, provides the basic perspective for Christian

ethics, including one’s perspective on capital punishment.

Although it has become popular for some, following 20thcentury interpreters such

asSchweitzer and Chafer (Bauman:111-127), to so emphasize the future, apocalyptic

character of the Sermon that the present relevance of the Father’s kingdom is denied, the

purpose of the apocalyptic in the Bible is the opposite. For example, preceding the