Read Matthew 5:31-32 and Matthew 19:1-12 and do the exercises below:
Read through today’s recap and practice the exercise at the end:
Before we move into the next portion of the sermon on the mount let’s stop and consider what we’ve discovered:
As we move into a part of Jesus’ sermon that describes the greatest set of ethics ever taught we will be tempted to think that Jesus is calling us to do our very best to live that way. But that, of course, is impossible and would require us to forget everything we’ve learned up to this point; namely, that the real gospel – the real “blessing” – is God Himself (Gen 15:1). The only way, then, to be the “salt and light” that Jesus describes is to be with God, living under his good rulership as our King.
So then, how are we to be with God?
Now that we’ve read the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety, let’s go back and focus this week on the first part, the Beatitudes. Read Matthew 5:1-12 and do the following exercise:
Clarence Jordan was an American New Testament scholar who lived in the first half of the 20th century. Among other accomplishments, he wrote a series of translations of several NT books called “The Cotton Patch translations.” Being from the south, Jordan felt the words of the New Testament we’re especially applicable to the turmoil that was occurring there at that time (1940′s through 1960′s), and so, should be written and read in the vernacular of the south. And so, Jordan wrote several translations of NT books in the slang of the south, even substituting place names for familiar areas on the Southern United States. In the Cotton Patch version of Luke Jordan renders Luke’s version of the beatitudes in a mid-century southern accent:
Yesterday our 50 day journey together through the Sermon on the Mount began with a worship gathering that focused on the context of the Sermon on the Mount (the audio was recorded, but was unfortunately unusable because of a technical issue). We discovered that the backdrop, or context, of the Sermon was the kingdom of God that Jesus had inaugurated, the community that Jesus had gathered around himself, and Jesus himself as a brilliant teacher.
The three chapters in Matthew that contain the Sermon are by far Jesus’ most well known teachings, and have been heralded for centuries as the greatest ethical teaching in history. As followers of Jesus we cannot possibly hope to understand the gospel or our role in the Kingdom of God unless we are deeply immersed in the Sermon on the Mount.
As we embark on this journey together, keep in mind that you don’t go alone. None of us is an expert, but we’re all committed to each other as apprentices of Christ. The daily exercises are meant to resemble the rhythm of a daily workout; we’ll mix it up, give you some regular rest days so you can process what you’re learning, and it will get somewhat more intense as the 50 days progresses. Also like a daily workout, it will go better if you find a partner to process it with. Read on for today’s exercise: