Hindsight
Last week I wrote my blog about the acrostic complexity of Psalm
119. In my mind it was a simple riddle easily solved so that 25 people
would end up with a free coffee at the GateWay café! Nobody got it.
The answer to the riddle is that my blog was written as an acrostic! The
first letter of the highlighted sentences spells COMPLEX. (How did Xanthic not
give this away?) So if you spent a lot of mental energy on the riddle, I
apologize for being so obtuse, go to the Café and get a free coffee on
me. Just say, “I’d like a xanthic coffee please.”
This week I’d like to
discuss the Gospel of Matthew.
On Sunday the message was about Matthew 25, the story of the King separating
the sheep from the goats. It was not a baa’aa’aa’aaad sermon:(
Someone asked me about the
idea of “echo” that I referred to in the sermon when I mentioned that verse 34,
“…you who are blessed by my father…” was an “echo” back to the “Blessed are…”
statements of the Beatitudes of Matthew 5.
All ideas and words in New
Testament Scripture have antecedents and
predecessors in the Old Testament. Remember, those were the only
scriptures they had then. When we talked about Jesus statement 2 weeks ago, “I
am the vine you are the branches…” you have to go back to the Old Testament to
see what Isaiah 5, and any other Old Testament material, says about vines and
branches. Jesus is teaching in the geographical context of Israel, in the
literary context of the Old Testament, in the political context of the Roman
Empire and in the religious context of Rabbinic Judaism of 1st Century Israel. If we want a clear picture
of what Jesus is saying we have to make an enormous attempt at understanding
the context.
Furthermore, an idea or
word has a context within the particular book
in which it’s used. In this case it’s the idea of being “blessed” by God
and how Matthew develops that idea . He only uses that word 14 times and
9 of those usages are in the Beatitudes. There is a little cluster of that word “blessed” in Matthew 5:3-12. It’s an interesting word
because it doesn’t mean, “please bless me God!” It’s an announcement of a
title that a person has because of the matching condition of their life.
“Blessed” are the “poor
in spirit,”
for their’s "is" the Kingdom of Heaven.
These are not statements
of, “If you do X you will receive Y.” The
second line is not a reward for the first line. It’s to be understood as
a King bestowing a title on a subject. It’s like Jesus is saying to these
people, “I bequeath to you the title, Earl of Nottingham.” Because you
now possess the title Earl you also possess Nottingham. But, because it’s
the 1st century Israel, “I bequeath
to you the title Blessed of God’s Kingdom, and because you possess the
spiritual quality of understanding your need of a King, you also are a
possessor and owner of My Kingdom!”
If we were to move that
idea into 21st century American educational culture Jesus would have said, “I
confer upon you the title Doctor because you possess the knowledge and ability
to care for all subjects in My Kingdom.” Because Matthew has now set the
stage for what it means to be a “Blessed” person he can bring his Gospel back
full circle and use a major idea from Jesus first paragraph (Matthew 5:3-12) of
his first sermon (Matthew 5-7) to complete his biography of Jesus life in the
last paragraph (Matthew 25:31-46) of his last sermon (Matthew 23-25.)
He finishes where he
starts.
He echos in the final sermon, where he started, in the
initial sermon.
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