(Text and Audio)
Title: The Rabbi’s Gospel
Last week one of the ideas that I asked you to keep as a feather under your cap was this concept of just how Jewish Jesus was. I explained that Jesus, as a Jew himself, reaching out to other Jews, was teaching in places and using methods that would be familiar to the Jews he was speaking to.
In that manner, what we looked at last week had to do with the “where.” We saw that Jesus was “teaching in their synagogues”, that is to say, he was meeting them on their familiar ground.
Today we are going to look at the method, the fact that Jesus, in trying to reach the Jews, taught to the Jews like a Jewish Rabbi (a teacher) would. We see that here today as we begin our study on what have become known as “The Beatitudes.”
You may really like today’s sermon: It only has two points.
- Why “Beatitudes”?
Has anyone ever wondered why we call these sayings the beatitudes? It’s not a word that we find anywhere in scripture, yet I’d be every one of your english translations has a title above Matthew chapter 5 that says, “Beatitudes”. It’s become common accepted lingo in church culture.
“Beatitude” is a from the latin word “beatus” which simply means “blessed” or “happy”.
This series of sayings by Jesus that begins the sermon on the mount all begin with the word “blessed” (makarios in the Greek).
“Makarios” is a word we have to be careful with because the temptation is to simply understand it as “happy” but it means much more than that.
“Makarios” in these passages means “under the approval of God.”
II. Laying the Groundwork for Salvation
To some of you, what I am about to say may not be new. But I’m going to forego the common understanding and teaching of the Beatitudes that we have all heard 100 times in order to suggest that Jesus, in the very first words that Matthew actually records him preaching, is not just telling Christians how to live, he’s cleverly sharing the Gospel message with this crowd.
But Jesus isn’t sharing the gospel in the manner that we are accustomed to. He’s not using the Romans road (Romans wasn’t written yet, and it would be a few years yet before Paul was going to be fond of Christianity), He’s not using an evangi-cube, or a tract, or a testimony, or even my favorite “method” Share Jesus Without Fear. Jesus is teaching Jews using a very common technique for his day: Parallelism.
Why parallelism? First of all, very few people were literate and parallel sayings were easier to remember and share with others. Secondly, parallel sayings were a common teaching form of Jewish Rabbis in the first century, so this wouldn’t have seemed unfamiliar to Jesus’ audience.
What is parallelism? It’s when you make two statements that support and explain each other. This will be a lot easier to show you than to explain to you:
(illustration one)
Now, you may notice in my example here that verses 4 and 5 have been flip-flopped. In many of the Greek and Latin translations, verses 4 and 5 have been switched, and most believe it’s because the parallel makes more sense this way.
So here we see the columns, now the genius of Jesus’ teaching begins to take shape: Watch this:
Some pretty fancy exegesis, right? So what? What does all this parallel teaching mean? What is Jesus getting at?
If I may be so bold, let me propose something here: look at the order of these four main points:
- If you are meek and humble in spirit, you will be part of the Kingdom of Heaven, and inherit the earth.
- If you mourn (your sin), and therefore hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will be comforted, filled, and satisfied by God.
- If you are merciful to others, it means your heart is pure, that you have obtained mercy yourself, and therefore, you will see God.
- If you strive to make peace, even when others are persecuting you, it means you are a child of God, and the Kingdom is yours.
Folks, what is that? It’s the Gospel! Be humble, recognize and hate your sin, realize the mercy you’ve been shown, and show it to others, make peace with the world that hates you, for you are a child of God, and the kingdom is yours!
I’m not trying to be funny when I say this, but Jesus was a brilliant teacher! He lays all these concepts out, and then about three years later he dies, and those that heard this message either first hand, or through someone else who memorized it, see all the pieces come together.
Furthermore, think of Matthew original audience, reading this after the temple destruction, wayward Jews who are utterly confused about God, when they connect these teachings of Jesus with what they know happened historically, the only conclusion they could come to would be that Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law, by living and teaching these very things without sin. And if he died, and said, “In my name only can you come to God!”
Listen, I’m not a first century Jew, and Matthew is making a pretty compelling argument to me right now!
Close: Are you?
So now the hard part, the mirror upon our lives. The Beatitudes explain what a Child of the Kingdom looks like, and, therefore, I must ask you, as proclaiming children of God, are you:
- Humble in spirit?
- Mourning your own sin?
- Hungering and thirsting for what is righteous?
- Merciful with others who have wronged you?
- Making peace with those who persecute you?
- Truly a child of God?