Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 5-6.

When we think of the Sermon on the Mount we usually imagine Jesus standing on the side of a mountain speaking to a crowd gathered below Him, perhaps in a natural amphitheater of sorts.  We have this perception despite the way in which Matthew describes it.  Matthew tells us that when Jesus saw the crowds He went up on a mountainside and sat down.  Then His disciples came to Him and He began to teach them.  It makes me wonder if our perception of how Jesus taught during His ministry on this earth is flawed.  We imagine Jesus preaching to large crowds.  Perhaps instead Jesus normally taught to just the much smaller group of His disciples (which numbered about 120 by the time of His death, including women).   If this was indeed how Jesus taught it would explain some of the questions which Pharisees and other teachers of the Law asked Him later in His ministry.   For example, if Jesus regularly spoke to crowds with teachings like this where He spoke on divorce, why did the Pharisees ask Him about His position on divorce later?  Which leads me to think that we should focus more on that sort of teaching today.  Jesus had large crowds follow Him but He chose to sit down with just a small number to teach them His word.  He then sent those close followers out to teach others what it meant to be part of the Kingdom of God.  Having said that I want to note that He did not teach His disciples in private.  Anyone could show up and listen in to what He was teaching them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 5-6.

These two chapters have long been central to my understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.  I would like to start by commenting on what Jesus had to say at the end of this passage.  In some ways I think it sums up much of Jesus’ message: Seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness, and all of the other things you will need will be given to you.  I think that what Jesus says before this tell us how we seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness.  Immediately before saying that, Jesus told us that we should not worry because God knows what we need better than we do.  Then as we continue backwards through the passage, we discover that before telling us not to worry, Jesus told us not to store treasures upon this earth, but rather to store treasure in heaven.  He told us that any treasure we gather on earth will be ephemeral, that is temporary and easily lost, but any treasure which we store in heaven will never be lost.  Further, He tells us that we will expend our effort towards where our treasure is.  If we seek treasure which we can store on earth, we will work towards earthly goals.  However, if we seek treasure which can only be redeemed in heaven, we will work towards heavenly goals.  The same theme applies to what Jesus has to say about fasting, praying, and giving to the needy.  If we do those things for praise from people here on earth, we will not gain rewards in heaven.  So, let us fast, pray, and help the needy without seeking the attention of people, instead let us do such things in order to please God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 5-6.

Jesus starts the Sermon on the Mount with a series of sayings which would seem counterintuitive if we had not heard them so often.  Some of them make sense: Blessed are the pure in heart, Blessed are the merciful.  But others do not: Blessed are those who are persecuted, Blessed are you when people insult you.  Jesus goes on from saying that we are blessed when people insult and persecute us to talking about being salt without losing that which makes us salt.  Jesus gives us two more metaphors which clarify what He meant by that.  You can’t hide a town built on top of a hill and you don’t light a lamp in order to cover up the light it gives off.  In the same way, Jesus does not call secret followers.  That is, the actions of Jesus’ followers will always reveal that they serve Him.  Having laid the groundwork, Jesus goes on to tell us that it is not enough to not take sinful actions, we need to learn to not desire to commit sinful actions.  It is not enough to not commit murder, we must not desire to murder someone.  It is not enough to not commit adultery, we must not desire to commit adultery.  The Pharisees built a fence around the Law of Moses to keep from violating it.  Jesus teaches us to teach ourselves to not want to do the things which violate the Law.  And He teaches that the way to do that is to love others, even our enemies, as much as we love ourselves.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 5-6.

Today’s passage contains the centerpiece of Jesus’ teaching.  It contains enough material to blog on for days.  However, I am going to write about something which I have never thought about the way it struck me today.  That is not quite true, it crossed my mind several times, but I just went on and dismissed the thought as unimportant.  Today I realized that it is important, and that I cannot recall anyone taking note of it.  So, Jesus talks about being angry at people as being as great of a sin as murder, and then says “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled t them; then come and offer your gift.”  Or, if you realize that someone is angry with you, drop everything, no matter how important, and go make it right with them.  And why does He say you should do that, because being angry with someone is just as bad as murdering them!  But wait, He doesn’t say, “Because being angry is so bad, go and resolve things with those YOU are angry at.”  No, He says, “Because being angry is so bad, if you know that someone is angry at YOU, go and resolve things with them.”  He doesn’t say to make it right if it is your fault. He says, make it right, no matter whose fault it is.  Now, we could easily make the mistake of thinking that if we are angry at someone, it is their job to come to us and make it right and that it is OK for us to stay angry with them until they do so.  But that doesn’t work because Jesus has just gotten done saying that being angry with someone is the same as having murdered them.  So, it comes down to this: if you are angry at someone and hold on to that anger, you are sinning.  On the other hand, if you know someone is angry with you, or think they might be, and you do not go and try to make peace with them, you are sinning.  Or, to put it more generally, if you realize that someone sins because of you, you should strive to change either your behavior, or how they view you.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 5-6.

In the Sermon on the Mount recounted here, Jesus touches on the theme I mentioned yesterday: those who seek to use the appearance of righteousness to further their agenda are hypocrites.  He sets that comment up by comparing His followers to salt and doing God’s will to being a lamp.  A little bit of salt changes the taste of a meal, a little bit of light allows people to see in an otherwise dark room.  In the same way, we should live our lives so as to change society around us.  I can illustrate this by something my parents both spoke of (and which I observed for myself).  Both of my parents worked in environments where their co-workers used foul language somewhat routinely.  Yet, when their co-workers were aware that they were present, they did not use such language, or did so only sparingly.  As I said, I observed this for myself, people who otherwise routinely used foul language did so less when they knew one of my parents was present.  This did not result from either of my parents expressing judgement of those who used such language (although in the appropriate circumstances they would ask people to refrain from doing so).

However, the above is qualified by something else Jesus says here: we should never do acts of righteousness in front of others.  When we give to charity, we should do so in a manner which makes it unlikely anyone else will notice.  When we pray or fast, the same should be the case.  In no case should we do things in order for others to notice that we have done good.  So, how do we reconcile these two things: living so righteously that it changes the behaviors of those around us and hiding our acts of righteousness from others?  I think what Jesus says in between those two things gives us the answer.  It is not enough not to murder anyone.  We should not even want to murder someone.  It is not enough to not commit sexual sins.  We need to not even think about doing so.  It is not enough not to break our oaths.  We should be so honest that we do not need to take an oath.  It is not enough to love our friends, we need to love those who hate us and wish us harm.  I want to be clear that I fail to meet this criteria, but I will continue to ask God’s Spirit to transform me into someone who does.

I think the final portion of this passage tells us the path which reconciles all of the above.  We should not worry: about meeting our material needs, or about what others will think of us, or about what others will do to us.  Instead, we should do God’s will and to do that which will further His kingdom.  He will take care of the rest.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 5-6

I have always loved this passage, there is so much in it for us to learn from.  For me what Jesus has to say about salt losing its flavor strikes me as the central take away from this passage today.  I recently saw someone say that Christians being pro-life makes people not want to get to know Christ.  That is the sort of thinking that Jesus was talking about when He said that if we lose our flavor we become good for nothing.  I almost did not use that example because I am not a champion of making abortion illegal…I am not a champion of making anything illegal.  As a Christian, I want to convince people not to do things which will cause them, or others, harm.  I want them to not do those things because they love God, not because those things are illegal.  Nevertheless, we should not be afraid to express unpopular opinions that reflect Jesus’ teachings.

However, just a few verses further on Jesus warns us against allowing ourselves to be controlled by anger, a temptation which can be hard to resist when talking about some of today’s issues.  I want to go on to another aspect of Jesus’ teaching about being salt.  Well, actually, it is the other metaphor He uses for the same lesson, being light.  He tells us to let our good deeds shine out for all to see, but, again just a few verses down, He tells us to not do our good deeds for others to see them.  He says that we should give to the needy in private, that we should pray and fast in ways that others do not see.  As part of His teaching about giving to the needy, Jesus tells us not to worry about our physical needs.  Let’s pay careful attention here.  He tells us to not worry about OUR physical needs while telling us to care for the physical needs of others.  Seek first God’s Kingdom and His will and everything we need will be provided.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 5-6

Today’s passage forms the centerpiece of my understanding of what it means to follow Christ.  I want to start with, in my opinion, the central point that Jesus makes about what it means to worship, obey, and seek God: if you look for loopholes in God’s commands, you have missed the point of those commands.  What He says about anger and lust show us this.  If you allow yourself to get angry enough at someone that you want to kill them, you have allowed anger to override love and broken God’s commands just as badly as if you had actually murdered them.  If you look at someone and think about how much you would like to have sex with them you are guilty of sexual immorality.  Part and parcel with not seeking to take advantage of perceived loopholes in God’s commands is Jesus instruction to love others, even those we perceive as our enemies.  If we truly love others we will seek what is best for them.

I had a Bible professor in college who liked to talk about the paradoxes of Christianity.  Things where we answer a question by saying “yes, but no.”  We actually have an example of what he was talking about in this passage.  Jesus says that we should be like a lamp and put out righteousness up on a stand so that our light can shine for all to see.  Then, a little further down, He tells us not to perform our acts of righteousness for others to see.  This sounds like a contradiction, and it is a sort of paradox.  Jesus tells us that we should not try to hide our faith in Him, nor the fact that we seek to live righteous lives.  He also tells us that we should not do good things to get praise from others.  In a way, He says that we should be publicly righteous when it will cost us and keep others from seeing our acts of righteousness when it would benefit us to be seen doing good. I am slightly exaggerating.  It really comes down to the idea that you should do good things because they are good things and not because it may benefit you.