The Beatitudes

Matthew 5:3 - "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Notably, Matthew uses the term 'kingdom of heaven', not 'kingdom of God'. Perhaps this is to avoid offending the sensibilities of Jewish readers - his audience was probably heavily Jewish (perhaps Jewish Christians living in 'exile' in Syria) - they might not have liked Matthew using God's name...

'Blessed', of course, is more than 'happy'; perhaps it's more like in a position of God's special favour? Does this mean the poor in spirit are in the kingdom, or that they are the kingdom, or that it belongs to them in a unique (or exclusive?) way?

'Poor in spirit' - 'those who know they're a mess'; the 'anti-Pharisees', with a humble opinion of themselves, perhaps. Just as God apparently has a special interest in the physically/materially poor, it seems He also has a special interest in the spiritually poor. Is this like coming as children (Mt 18:1-5, et al.)? Is this the tax collectors? The prostitutes?

Is the poor in spirit like a spiritual bank account thing? Like the Pharisees, who keep a close eye on their spiritual account. The poor in spirit don't have much in there, they haven't been working at earning points. Is Jesus using the Pharisaic language against them?

Is Jesus talking about in-grouping and out-grouping? Are the poor in spirit 'in'?
I suspect Jesus isn't in/out-grouping here. I think this is about the Revolution of God. Who's 'in', who's 'blessed', according to the Pharisees? They are - the 'righteous', the good Jews, the strict and particulars. In fact, some say that the Pharisees believed that their own Torah observance would precipitate the Messianic kingdom, so the poor in spirit were really messing things up as far as these guys were concerned.
But Jesus says, 'Not on my watch'. You're not cutting these guys out. This is for them too. The poor in spirit are in, they have a part in the kingdom, it's theirs. Revolutionary stuff.

Every day's a school day...

I often say that every day's a school day because, if we look and listen, then every day we learn something.
I believe that Jesus is my teacher, that's what being a disciple of Jesus means. It means one who learns, from Jesus. And, based on Richard Burridge's idea in 'Four Gospels, One Jesus?', I want to explore some of the teachings of the 'human face of Jesus', the Teacher, as presented in Matthew.
This comes in five blocks - very Jewish, as we might expect from Matthew - look at Torah (the Pentateuch, or 5 scrolls: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) or the Psalms, presented in 5 books. The first, and perhaps most famous, of these blocks is the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7. Whether or not it actually happened as a solid, one-off sermon is not make or break; what's important is what it says and that Jesus said these things at some point or another.
So, in instalments, let's look and listen and learn from Jesus the Teacher...

different

Do you ever think to yourself, 'I wish things were a bit different... I wish there was another way of living...'?

It's easy to look around the world and get really depressed. When we hear about teenagers stabbing each other to death. Or about domestic abuse. Or Robert Mugabe's reign of terror in Zimbabwe.

But I believe that there is another way.

In the New Testament, in the book of Matthew, 4:17, Jesus goes public, he starts out his life in the public eye, by saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near". This is big. OK, maybe the language is a bit out of date, doesn't mean so much now, but put it this way: "Change - change the way you think, turn around, live differently. There's another way of doing things, and it's God way of doing things - and it's here and now, it's close. So close, you can reach out and touch it. Look for it and you'll see it. It's heaven on earth."

What Jesus was about was God's way of doing things - the Revolution of God, as Brian McLaren would say. It's about turning the way the world is, and does things, on its head. It's about God working into reality his big dream for his world.

With those opening words, Jesus was telling the world about God's dream, and at the same time, inviting anyone with whom it resonated to join in - to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

That's what Jesus wants. He doesn't want to just make my life or your life better. He wants the world to change. The individual has to change, to be changed. And the community. And the system which allows, which perpetuates evil. That has to change too. If we're up for that, then it means following Jesus, learning from him, becoming like him.

That's what I live for.

A new blog

I thought I'd start a new blog, and this is it. I might put things on it from time to time.