“To seek” God means: total unbridled commitment, blatantly obssessive pursuit, unreserved loyalty, and unashamed devotion. In a seemingly contradictory way, we are to “enslave” ourselves to God - not at our expense, but to our profit. By giving up everything to find God, we gain everything only to find that what we relinquished we could not keep and what we aquired we cannot lose. We sell what is worthless in order to acquire that which cannot be valued. We give up our lives in pursuit of God and in return we not only find Him who we sought, but are given a life worth living and, far better, life eternal. Thus, by whatever means, through His word, through His gifts, through His presence, we are to commit all our energies to restoration with our Father. In short, if we make God our sole desire and seek Him earnestly with all our hearts, then He will give Himself to us and we shall be rewarded with that which we seek.
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How do we apply the Sermon on the Mount today? Especially the antitheses of Matt 5:21-48?11/28/2011 Gustave Dore, Sermon on the Mount Sermon on the Mount: Personal relationships: "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matthew 5:21). Thought life and sexual ethics: “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Speech: But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all...Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil (Matthew 5:34+37). Attitude toward those who mistreat you: “But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39). Jesus’ injunction to radical spiritual surgery to life as a Christian in contemporary America11/25/2011 Life of Christ - James Tissot _ Sermon on the Mount: If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell (Matthew 5:29-30). Jesus is obviously using hyerbole, but His point is abundantly clear: remove anything in your life that is causing you to sin. Said in the words of John Piper, we must “wage war on sin” and these removals are preemptive strikes to neutralize things (potentially even good things) the enemy has commandeered to use as weapons against us. As the “Seven Deadly Sins” play out in America, this surgery could take the form of: Carl Bloch - Sermon on the Mount Sermon on the Mount: Should Christians “protect” themselves in isolated Christian communities? The early monastic reformers went out to the deserts and other isolated retreats to escape the perjuries of the organized church in their day, but contrary to common understanding, they were not removed from the world. People came to them, sometimes traveling great distances to seek their wisdom (origins of mountain guru motif, don't you think?) especially since they weren't finding it in the church at that time. These early monks understood Christ's teachings that: Jesus' healing of man's withered hand on the Sabbath marks the third time that He quarreled with the Pharisees over “breaking the Sabbath.” However, the real issue did not truly have to do with the Sabbath. In reality, this conflict was just a “reason to accuse Jesus” (Matthew 12:10) and grounds for a loaded question in an attempt to “bait Jesus into acting in such a way that they could produce evidence that he was Sabbath breaker” (Howell, 83). In short, “the Pharisees want a 'wrong' answer from Jesus” (Nolland, 487), for if they could prove that Christ violated their human rules, which they misconstrued as God's law, then by extension He was somebody they could write off and not have to listen to. “After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, 'Follow me.' And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.” Luke 5:27-28. Looking back, tax collectors seem more like ambitious entrepreneurs (an amiable quality today), than prostitutes and sinners as so likened in the synoptic gospels. During the Roman Empire, Palestinian officials had the direct responsibility for collecting regular taxes (poll taxes & land taxes), but the taxes on transported goods were outsourced to private contractors. These tax collectors “paid a stipulated sum in advance for the right to collect the tolls in a certain locality, and then tried to make a profit on the transaction” (Buttrick, 522).1 Roman taxes were seen as excessive and embezzlement by these tax collectors as inevitable, so they were repeatedly likened to robbers and thieves (so much so that lying to a tax collector was akin to deceiving bandits to avoid loss). “And Jesus said to [the healed leper], 'See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.'” (Matthew 8:4). Jesus instructions to the newly healed leper of not telling anyone are often misconstrued for secrecy, while overlooking the actual purpose of that secrecy. All three synoptic gospels reveal that Jesus wanted the leper to go to the temple priests and offer the necessary sacrifices to reenter society as proscribed by Moses, which would serve “as a testimony to them.” Thus, the purpose for Christ's command is not secrecy, but seemingly the opposite. He wants the leper “to obey the Levitical prescriptions for restoring his ceremonial purity...” as “evidence to authenticate his authority as Messiah” which the religious authorities in Jerusalem could assess in accordance to Jewish law (Howell, 68). One of the negative aspects of the Enlightenment has been the rejection of the “non-empirical” which would include the spiritual realm and by extension demons (yet ironically the early enlightenment thinkers bowed down to the flame of reason...). However, Jesus the only omniscient man, “never discounted the reality of the demonic world (Elwell, 811)1. Since darkness conceals sinister things, demons (“unclean spirits,” “evil spirits,”) are the fallen angels that have inhabited the world since the creation, but at Christ's arrival, He initiated the advancement of the “kingdom of light” which “roll[ed] back the long unchallenged frontiers of darkness (Howell, 63). The exact location of the biblical city of Capernaum is not certain, but there are two serious sites on the north shores of the Sea of Galilee. Unlike Nazareth, Capernaum was referred to as an important city, which the mile-long archeological ruins support. The city flourished due to its proximity to a major East-West highway which crossed the Jordan river. Jesus spent an incredible amount of time in Capernaum, so much so that Mark refers to it as a place where Jesus was “at home” (Mark 2:1). It was in this city that numerous biblical accounts took place:
Courtesy of holylandphotos.org Luke's Gospel tells us that Nazareth is the town “where [Jesus] had been brought up.” The small town of Nazareth in the time of Christ is generally accepted to still be identified with modern Nazareth (Buttrick, 524). The city is approximately 20 miles from the Mediterranean and 15 miles from the Sea of Galilee which made it enough out of the way that few commercial business passed through. The city's altitude of 1300 feet above sea level made for a moderate climate with favorable rainfall for vegetation, but the overall lack of springs forced the city to rely heavily on cisterns. In Christ's time Nazareth was a small secluded village off the beaten path, insignificant in the fact that it doesn't appear any Hebrew literature (the Old Testament, the Talmud, the Midrash or Josephus). This reputation is furthered by Nathanael's reply in John's gospel: “can anything good come from Nazareth?” as a moderner might discount any backwater town out in the sticks with only one stop light. (1) Theological tenets: (Buttrick, 778)
Jesus knew what His mission was and operated in such a way that nothing would interfere with that God given mission (John 2:4, 7:6-8). Throughout the gospel of John this mission is constantly referred to as the “hour” or “time” of Christ, that is “the determined time to act in an open disclosure of his messianic identity, which is climatically realized in his submission to death on a cross” (Howell, 37). Since Christ is fully aware that His time/mission is His death, resurrection, and ascension (John 13:1), He is fully sovereign, or in control over when (the hour) that death and departure happens (Elwell, 856), even miraculously able to escape angry mobs without harm (John 7:30, 8:20). Paradoxically, the “hour” of Christ's death on the cross is simultaneously His greatest humiliation and glorification (John 12:23, 27). “Jesus recognizes the culmination of all that he has been attempting in Judaism. The cross and death are all that remain” (Elwell, 865). The hour of tragedy becomes victory when all will hear His voice and be able to worship truly (John 4:21-23, 5:25, 28-29). Now the hour has passed, but Christ passed the mission on to His church; however, this “good news” of triumph over sin serves as bad news that will divide many, and true believers will be persecuted (John 16:2, 25, 32). “John would have prevented him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?' But Jesus answered him, 'Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he consented” (Matt 3:14-15). Many have questioned why Jesus was baptized, especially if John's baptism was one of repentance. For what would Jesus have to repent of if He was sinless? Some commentators point to the following verses where “the heavens were opened” for an answer, stating that when God declared “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” Jesus was publicly declared as God's son and marked the start of His ministry. Thus, it was by means of John's Baptism that Jesus was broadcast to the world to be the Son of God (a theme in Matthew's gospel), and hence Christ's words indicate baptism was a right that John and Jesus needed to fulfill (Sailhaimer, 438). While nothing is biblically wrong with this conclusion, it seems to be a veiled attempt to promote the authors theological view on baptism as a symbolic public declaration of faith (which I agree with). Sadly the commentators theological agenda (even for good theology!) overlooks the crucial significance of Christ's words and His baptism, which actually gives the symbolic act of baptism any meaning! “And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matt 3:9-10). The Pharisees and Sadducees were experts in the Law and genealogies (hence the importance of the genealogical introduction of Matthew's gospel). God's chosen people were the Jews and only the Jews who could trace their ancestry to Abraham (the Samaritans were ostracized for being unable to). The Jews understood that they were born into God's favor as part of the nation of Israel, and could only fall from that favor by failing to follow God's commandments in the Law of Moses. Thus, the Pharisees and Sadducees' sense of security was derived from their personal efforts in following the Law of Moses and national security since “We have Abraham as our father.” In a way, the religious leaders believed that for God to make good on His promises to Abraham He needed the nation of Israel and by extension those who kept the law of Moses. “Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey” (Mark 1:6 ). John the Baptist was a living anachronism, a prophet of old like Jeremiah (1:2) and Malachi (1:1) to whom the word of God came “shattering four hundred years of prophetic silence” (Howell, 25). In case the Jewish faithful missed it, John the Baptist's appearance would have matched the stories passed down from their ancestors regarding the appearance of God's prophets. He would have appeared most specifically like the prophet Elijah, who also wore a garment of camel hair and a leather belt (2 Kings 1:8) (interestingly, but irrelevantly some have posited that Elijah did not wear camel hair, but that Elijah himself was a really hairy man (Henry, 26). This additional parallel only reinforced the angel Gabriel's word that John would come “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:16-17) and fulfill the word of Malachi 3:1 and 4:5. Though John the Baptist denied it, all this significant evidence was not lost on the Jewish priests and Levites from Jerusalem who asked him “Who are you?...Are you Elijah?...Are you the Prophet?” (John 1:20-21). “And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, 'Out of Egypt I called my son'” (Matt. 2:14-15). Some commentators have drawn some bizarre applications of the infant Christ's time in Egypt ranging from our personal identification with Christ when our infants are in dire straights to God's justification for leaving the Jews because Egypt entertained Christ when they humiliated him during His infant years (Henry, 11). However, these applications take our focus off Christ and onto ourselves by forcing meanings onto the text that aren't there. “'She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.' All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel' (which means, God with us)” (Matt. 1:21-23). The famous “Sign of Immanuel” when delivered by the prophet Isaiah to King Ahaz of Judah occurred during the Syro-Ephraimite War. Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria was rapidly expanding across the Ancient Near East when the leaders Rezin and Aram of the two small nations Syria and Israel (Ephraim) respectively joined forces to resist Assyrian amalgamation. Since Judah occupied the southern border of these two conspirator nations (and thus a potential 2nd front should Judah side with Assyria), they attempted to force King Ahaz to join their coalition against Tiglath-Pileser III. The first thing John the Baptist's father Zechariah said once mouth was reopened was a Holy Spirit inspired prophesy about his son, calling him the prophet of the Most High. Praising God for promising mankind salvation through the line of David he recalls the promises of God for security (Jeremiah 23:3-8) through the establishment of God's rule (Isaiah 9:6-7). His paternal pride comes along the Spirit's inspiration as he dotes on his son's destiny to fulfill the words of Malachi 3:1 to prepare the way for the Lord, who will “give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 1:77) to fulfill the words of Jeremiah 31:34b. Just like the angel Gabriel predicted, John is to bring the lost people back to their Lord “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Malachi 4:6) “making 'them ready for the Christ” (Luke 1:15-17). When Jesus Christ arrives and begins His ministry He brings these prophesies to pass, so that those “living in darkness” indeed acknowledged Him because they were baptized by John (Luke 7:29-30). Thus, through John the Baptist, Christ appears as Zechariah prophesied and Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 9:1-2), “a rising sun from heaven will shine in the darkness and in the shadow of death” guiding us by His teachings and onto the path of peace through His ultimate work on the cross. Philippe de Champaigne When the chosen mothers, Elizabeth mother of John the Baptist, and Mary mother of Jesus Christ, the ministry of John the Baptist begins, even without being born. Both mothers are filled with the Holy Spirit after John leaps in womb with Elizabeth exclaiming that Mary will be the mother of “my Lord” and pronounces a blessing on Mary. Mary in turn sings a song for joy (Mary's Magnificat) inspired by the prophesied miraculous birth. However, contrary to normal expectations, “for only in verse 48 does Mary dwell on the personal benefits of being the mother of the Lord” (Elwell, 806), a lowly handmaiden from Nazareth, the instrument of unending blessing for the coming generations (Howell, 9). Women in Scripture for whom the Lord removed the reproach of barrenness.
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1) The introduction of Jesus as the son of Abraham, the man God blessed to father His chosen people, and David, the king after God's own heart, immediately draw up prophecies and promises made to Hebrews or followers of Judaism. However, all of this is only pertinent and meaningful information to a Jewish audience who would have been well versed in the Old Testament salvation history, its prophesies of a redeeming Messiah, and its promise of the restoration of David's kingdom. 1. “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:10-11). 2. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). There only two responses to Christ as He walked the earth, are the same two responses to Christ we have today. |
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