Actions should be demonstrations of attitudes

August 20, 2001

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September 9 Lesson

Actions should be demonstrations of attitudes
___Matthew 4:23-5:16
___^4:23Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. ²⁴News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. ²⁵Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
___^5:1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ²and he began to teach them, saying:
___³"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
___⁴"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
___⁵"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
___⁶"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
___⁷"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
___⁸"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
___⁹"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
___¹⁰"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
___11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
___¹³"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
___¹⁴"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

___By Karen and Tim Gilbert
___Has anyone ever said to you, "Wow, this is really living!"?
___What kind of life did they have in mind when they said this? Were they thinking of days filled with pleasure, luxury, power, money in the bank--all coming without work or worry? Is it the life of a monastic--fasting, prayer, study and silence? What really is living? What kind of life is it?
___Jesus says the kind of life God requires in the kingdom of heaven is not one of subjects who obey a king but of children who love a parent. God is a relational God, not a ruler God.
___The Gospel of Matthew was written by Matthew, the tax collector, also known as Levi, one of the 12 apostles. It appears to have been written for a community of Jewish Christians.
___Matthew tells the good news that Jesus is the promised Savior. In Jesus, God fulfills the promise God made to the people in the Old Testament. But this Good News is not just for Jewish people but for all people who will accept him as Savior and Lord.
___The view that this Gospel has been written for the Jewish people can be seen in that Old Testament passages are constantly being reinterpreted in light of Jesus' ministry. Examples of this can be found in Matthew 2:5-6 and Matthew 2:17-18, to name only a couple.
___Matthew presents Jesus as the great teacher who has the authority to interpret the law of God and who teaches about the kingdom of God. Much of the teaching is gathered by subject matter into five collections in the gospel of Matthew:
___ The Sermon on the Mount concerned with the character, duties, privileges and destiny of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven (chapters 5-7).
___ Instructions to the 12 disciples for their mission (chapter 10).
___ Parables about the kingdom of heaven using the listeners' earthly experiences (chapter 13).
___ Teaching on the true meaning of discipleship (chapter 18).
___ Teaching about the end of the present age and the coming kingdom of God (chapters 24-25).
___The passage we are looking at this week, Matthew 4:23-5:16, reflects the authority of Jesus as an interpreter of the law. This passage is found at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus challenges the interpretation of the law by the scribes and Pharisees and is reinterpreting God's law for citizens of the kingdom of God.
___Matthew uses the term "kingdom of Heaven" instead of "kingdom of God." The two terms mean essentially the same thing and refer to the rule and reign of God. Matthew's use of the term "heaven" probably reflects a Jewish respect for the name of God and an unwillingness to use it in vain.
___For example, in the Old Testament the Hebrew name for God, Yahweh is never used in the Hebrew Scriptures or spoken by the Jewish people. Instead, the title Adonai which means "Lord" is used. The reluctance to use God's name stems from a deep abiding reverence for the third commandment, which says, "Do not use my name in vain, for I, the Lord your God, will punish anyone who misuses my name."
___In the time Jesus lived, much of the Jewish leadership, particularly the scribes and Pharisees, interpreted God's law as if it were a way to obtain salvation from God. By following their own interpretations of God's law, they saw themselves as having fulfilled the requirements of that law, thus making them righteous in God's eyes. This led them to see themselves as better than those around them, who they felt did not keep the requirements of the law. This belief that they were "right with God" blinded them to their own need for God's grace.
___In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes the attitudes of those who come to God and desire to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven. For Jesus this is an internal matter, not simply an external matter of keeping the law. Real living begins in the heart of humanity, not in the mind where the Pharisees developed their own brand of righteousness.
___Jesus says that those who are truly blessed, those who desire to find true happiness, those who really want to live must come to God with the following characteristics.
___Jesus tells us in the first beattitude that those who know they are spiritually poor are truly happy. Those who desire to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven must know their spiritual need. This is why the scribes and Pharisees have been declared outsiders by Jesus'ministry. Because they believe themselves to be right with God, they do not see themselves in need of God's grace.
___Understanding our own inability to please God and our need for God's grace is the first step to entering the kingdom of God.
___Our spiritual poverty should lead us to a sadness about our spiritual condition. We are those who mourn. We come to God with broken hearts, and it is God who gives us comfort, not our own solutions.
___This sorrowful awareness of our spiritual poverty creates a humility in us. This humility is not a doormat mentality. Humility toward God allows us to bring all the strength and abilities we have to be used by God.
___This verse in the King James translation uses the word "meekness," which seems to present Christians as people who are weak. It sounds as if we are not to respond to injustice or speak out against evil in the world. But humility here is humility towards God, the removing of our prideful selves and yielding all that we are to be used by God. The promise to those who humble themselves before God is that they will receive abundant life in the kingdom of heaven.
___Once we have come to understand these previous attitudes, the greatest desire of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven will be to do what God requires. Instead of trying to obey God to please him, our joy is to do what God requires. We want to be obedient to God not to obtain our salvation but out of love for what God has done for us. We "trust and obey" as the familiar hymn reminds us. If this becomes our greatest desire, we will find that God will fully satisfy this great longing of our hearts.
___This recognition of our need for God should make us merciful to other people as God has been merciful to us. If God has shown us mercy, how can we do any less than show the same to others? If we desire to have God treat us mercifully, we must treat others with that mercy.
___This is a recurring theme of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 6:12; 7:1-5; 18:21-35). This may again reflect Jesus' disapproval of the attitude of some of the Jewish leadership who looked down on those less righteous than themselves and showed them no mercy.
___If we have these attitudes Jesus requires of kingdom people, then we will be people who seek to be pure inside.
___In another place, Jesus refers to scribes and Pharisees as "whitewashed tombs" that look good on the outside but on the inside are full of dead and rotting things. Jesus is describing a new covenant that is written on the heart, one that changes the person from the inside out. Real living is not simply tied to outward accomplishments or possessions.
___The promise to those who are pure in heart is that they will see God. This is a remarkable promise in the Jewish view of things because their view was that no one could see the holy God and live. Yet Jesus promises we shall see God face to face.
___Our task as citizens of the kingdom is always to be peacemakers. But peacemaking is more than just trying to prevent war. At the center of our peacemaking is the message of the Prince of Peace and the kingdom he brings. This peace is not simply the absence of war but a transformation of human lives, and that transformation begins by believing in the one who brings the kingdom. Jesus says that God will call these people his children.
___Once we decide to follow Christ as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, we should expect to be treated as Christ was treated, and Jesus says we are blessed when we are. It is not for persecution that we are blessed, but persecution as a follower of Christ. Jesus was rejected by his own people, accused of having a demon and suffered death on a cross. Those who would follow him must take up their cross and expect the same. We should, however, be happy and glad because the great reward of the kingdom belongs to us.
___The last verses in this passage remind us that these attitudes will make us salt and light to the world.
___We are salt because our lives work to preserve a rotting world around us. Without the preserving power of the kingdom of heaven, the fallen world will pass away. If we lose our saltiness, that preserving power, then we are worthless to a world in need.
___We also are light for the whole world. There are no private citizens in the kingdom of God. Our lives are to be light that reflect God's love for the world. We shine our lights not in praise of ourselves as some of the prideful scribes and Pharisees but because we want others to see God.
___What is real living? It is following Christ by taking up the cross. In this task, one discovers that one does not lose life but instead finds the abundant life of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.

For thought and discussion
___ How do you view your relationship to God? What kind of language do you use to describe it? Do you see God as a king, a parent, a friend or in some other way?
___ Are the beattitudes a new set of laws for Christians to follow? How do they relate to the Old Testament law and Jewish understanding of it?
___ Why would Matthew's gospel be of particular interest to Jewish Christians? Compare Matthew's frequent reinterpretation of the Old Testament in light of Jesus' ministry to Mark's lack of use of the Old Testament.
___ What does it mean to be salt in the world in which you live? What does it mean for you to be a light to that world

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