The Beatitudes are some of the most loved and familiar teachings of Jesus. They are also some of the most pointed, and as followers of Christ, we must be sure we don’t miss their point! We must consider them in context. The Beatitudes are found in both Matthew and Luke, and we will examine both. Jesus teaches the Beatitudes to people living in Roman-occupied Palestine in the first century AD. The people who heard the Beatitudes experienced great oppression under the Roman Empire, and the Beatitudes reflect their experience of Rome’s cruelty. They also reflect the good news of God’s just and grace-filled response. One of the most exciting aspects of this study is the opportunity to write a group confession— an ancient Christian practice of …show more content…
In Jesus’ time, as in ours, shame and death and grief were common. But the economic, political, and social realities caused by Roman control of the Mediterranean basin often worsened the grief of the people, and increased the likelihood that some of them—particularly the poor and destitute—would experience grief too soon and too often. Rome—the Roman Empire—made matters worse. Those who mourned in public were seen as shameful in the culture of Jesus’ day, but Jesus called the mourners honorable because he knew that public grieving functions as a protest against an unjust world. Jesus declares that God's divine reign will bring consolation and laughter to those who mourn— a bold proclamation of a divine intervention into history that upends the status quo. Jesus also challenges those who live lives of unconcerned joy, lacking awareness of those who mourn. We cannot live lives of laughter when our sisters and brothers are mourning and weeping. We …show more content…
The fifth beatitude of Matthew begins verse two of Jesus’ teachings, and describes a group of people who are less oppressed than those named in the first four beatitudes, but who are just as much the concern of God. The first characteristic of these people is that they show mercy. Mercy, in Jesus’ time, was understood as both covenant loyalty/steadfast love and pity/clemency. Holding both of these understandings together, mercy ultimately consists of three components: emotion, action, and dedication. One who shows mercy feels emotion when faced with the pain of another, takes action on behalf of that person, and demonstrates ongoing dedication to that person beyond the initial crisis. The God of Israel demonstrated such mercy, and so did Jesus, particularly in his explanation of the parable of the Good Samaritan. The promise of the fifth beatitude is that those who show mercy shall be shown mercy. Jesus teaches that those who
living and visible in jesus of Nazareth” stated by Pope Francis. ‘Mercy’ is a concept integral
Most can agree that random evil and suffering, such as accidents, war, illness, crime, and many more, have the power to disrupt human happiness. Most would also agree that it is not the evil and suffering that affects one, as much as it is how one responds to the evil and suffering that occurs in one’s life. It is undeniable that suffering occurs to everyone in some shape or form, and while others may not believe that it is suffering, it all depends on one’s life. There are many examples a reader can draw from in recent and ancient literature that provides examples of other’s suffering and how they responded to those stimuli. This essay explores how the problem of evil is addressed by Greek tragedy and by Western monotheistic tradition.
It is easy to place the blame on fate or God when one is encumbered by suffering. It is much harder to find meaning in that pain, and harvest it into motivation to move forward and grow from the grief. It is imperative for one to understand one’s suffering as a gateway to new wisdom and development; for without suffering, people cannot find true value in happiness nor can they find actual meaning to their lives. In both Antigone and The Holy Bible there are a plethora of instances that give light to the quintessential role suffering plays in defining life across cultures. The Holy Bible and Sophocles’ Antigone both mirror the dichotomous reality in which society is situated, underlining the necessity of both joy and suffering in the world.
Claudius opens with a concession “Our dear brother’s death/the memory be green, and that it us befitted/To bear our hearts in grief”, indicating to his audience that he empathized with their feelings of pain. However, two lines later, Claudius declares “discretion fought with nature/That we with wisest sorrow think on him/Together with remembrance of ourselves.” Here Claudius introduces the idea that spending time grieving, “nature”, is at odds with practicality, “discretion”, and that for the citizen to become too absorbed in mourning would be to neglect their own well being.
The book of Matthew chapter 5 through 7 was known as, “The Sermon on the Mount”. Which were words spoken by Jesus Christ. The purpose of this Sermon was to show representation of the normative foundation of Christian Morality. For instance, this passage was more so fixated on whole hearted benevolence towards others around you and genuine devotion to God.
The Gospel of Matthew is an eyewitness story written for an audience of believers, under great stress, and persecution. Matthew develops a theological plot incorporating genealogy, speeches, parables, inter and intra textual references, common vocabulary, and fulfillment quotations, with a tension that builds as we are invited into the story. The crucifixion and resurrection bring us to a Christological climax that symbolically points beyond its conclusion to God’s Kingdom, bringing atonement, salvation and the ushering in the Eschaton. The extraordinary events surrounding the crucifixion act as commentary, adding important details concerning the death of Jesus.1
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition Bible. Eds. Dom Bernand Orchard, Rev. R. V. Fuller. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1966. Print.
The book consists of three parts. The first part has five chapters of which focuses on explaining what the key questions are and why we find them difficult to answer. The second part has nine chapters explaining in detail what N.T. Wright considers Jesus’ public career and the approach he had in first century Palestine. The third part of the book, the last chapter, challenges readers to wrestle with the questions of Jesus’ life and ministry.
Brown, Raymond. A Crucified Christ in Holy Week: Essays on the Four Gospel Passion Narratives. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1986.
In conclusion, the understanding of God in Roman civilization provided the cause of the society’s decline. The concept of the gods provided no moral template for the Roman people, while the Caesars unsuccessfully tried to establish peace around the worship of their emperorship. While the story of Rome is one of great success and tragic loss, the civilization’s history highlights the importance of God in one’s worldview. With a basis of who God is, a person articulates morality, reality, and humanity’s role in history.
God’s goodness and mercy far transcends the comprehension of the most brilliant human mind! He “who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth”(Psalm 113:6).Yet in His infinite love for us He stoops down to reveal Himself to us by a multitude of illustration, types, and shadows, so that we may learn to know him. This paper will describe what is meant by the Kingdom of God; examine the religious philosophy of the various sects of Judaism during the Second Temple period: Pharisee, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots, describe the religious philosophy and political philosophy of each sects, it will also describe how the Messianic expectation differ from the Messianic role that Jesus presented, and include an exegesis of the temptation of Jesus and how other sects defined the Messiah.
However, I feel that the Lord's prayer is essentially a Jewish prayer, exhibiting the form and function of contemporary Jewish prayers. As with many other studies of any writings in the Gospels, it is important to discuss how these traditions have been brought to us, and what, if any modifications were made to the original text. Therefore it would be prudent, for the purpose of this paper to first look at the literary elements of the Lord's Prayer. To illustrate why the Lord's Prayer is essentially a Jewish prayer, we must first define and explore what Jewish prayers were like during the time of Jesus.
The Gospel according to Matthew, although being the first book of the New Testament canon, it was not considered the first gospel genre to be written. Matthew’s gospel gives an account of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. In this essay, I intend to look at how the exegesis and interpretation of this gospel may be affected by our understanding of the authorship, its intended readership and where and when it was written. Although all these categories are important in their own right, I will focus more of the intended audience and readership of this gospel.
Be Merciful (Luke 6:31). "Be merciful just as your father is merciful." (Matthew 5:7): "Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them." The passage s teaches us mainly about being merciful to our enemy and God will be merciful toward us. Forgiveness of kind especially toward our enemy. We should not harm others even if they done bad things against us. We should show compassion towards others because if we don't people might not show compassion towards us. The passage told us that Jesus is merciful even towards his enemies. Perfect example of this is forgiving Jusus' enemy when he was put on the cross. Jesus even prayed for them to not punish them.
Holy Bible: Contemporary English Version. New York: American Bible Society, 1995. Print. (BS195 .C66 1995)