Matthew 5: 21-48

After exhibiting the interconnecting story of Jesus’ birth to the prophecy, Matthew continues to portray how Jesus’ theology and teachings are founded on the commandments. As Professor Smarr asserted, Jesus is seen more of a “moral-religious teacher” (Smarr 18 January 2012) rather than “a warrior king who will vanquish the Romans” (Smarr 18 January 2012) as demonstrated in Mark’s Gospel. After accumulating a small group of Jewish followers, he begins to preach what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. In one of the descriptions, he stated that other should not think “ . . . that [I] have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). He unquestionably declares that he grounds his teachings on the established Jewish laws. On top of that, he reinforces it by telling the crowd that “whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven . . .” (Matthew 5:19). These laws are in no way replacements for the law

Some critics of this passage would argue that there are two sets of behavior standards given for Christian and Jews. In order to obtain salvation in Jewish faith one must follow the rule of like and ceremony. In order that a Christian obtain salvation they must only believe in Christ. Some were worried that this new religion would be saturated by people who wanted to commit acts against the law and still be saved because they professed to believe in Christ. The concept of grace and mercy was a foreign one and harsh judgment was a reality of the day. The other part of this verse was, is Christ a master of sin?

In today’s Gospel, we read about Matthew 20:1-16. A man hired laborers for his vineyard. The men started at 9 o’clock, and agreed to usual daily wage. Around 5 o’clock, the man met more people standing around. He asked them, “Why do you stand here and idle all day?” The men replied, “Because no one has hired us.” He then told them to work in his vineyard. Later, the man told his foreman, “Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.” When the men who started at 5 o’clock came, they received the usual daily wage. When the the man who started at 9 o’clock came, he received the same wage. The man who worked earlier started to complain about how he worked more, but received the same wage.

In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus is teaching that In Matthew 5:21-24, Jesus addresses his followers and states that killing someone is subjected to the judgment. This is a thought, which we all understand in the society because taking someone’s life is directly

Within the Old Testament, God commanded the use of the death penalty for specific crimes ranging from murder to blasphemy. “Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death” (Exodus 21:12, English Standard Version). In contrast, the New Testament shifts the focus of capital punishment towards Jesus and his example

The second is like is: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.” Jesus summed up 613 commands into two. He took the complexity of the Law and stripped it down to the very core. He made obeying the Law of the Lord easier to understand through the accessibility of simplicity. Churches today must follow Jesus’ example and seek simplicity.

Jesus raised the standard of the Mosaic Laws in the Sermon of the Mount by supporting it with further guidelines to help guide the community. While Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 28 warned the followers of God to not do certain things or else you get certain punishments, Matthew 5-7 gives out a more peaceful set of codes to follow. Codes such as to from Matthew 5. spread your teachings to others, to not commit murder, an d to reconcile with your brothers and sisters quickly. Love your enemies and to not seek revenge or commit adultery. Matthew 6 tells Gods follows to not do big actions and to be praise. Lastly, Matthew 7 explains that one should respect others and to not be judgmental. To give good gifts and follow Gods teachings. To treat others the way you want to be treated.

The Jesus Creed has really helped me to look at Scripture from what I believe is a more biblical and Jesus centered perspective. While I have read the words Jesus used from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and Leviticus 19:18 many times in Scripture, I never considered how all His teachings might have stemmed from them. I did not know Jesus had amended the Shema of Judaism because I didn’t know there was a Shema before reading this book, but now knowing this I can more clearly see what Jesus was doing. He was correcting a misunderstanding how some used and understood the Torah. Most paid excellent attention to the letter of the Law;

The text in Matthew 22:38-40 is one that Jesus stated, and it is used constantly by instructors in Christ who preach a life lived in laws and rules. Here Jesus says to:

After reading Mk. 6-11, several things stood out to me. First, in Mk. 6: 50, when Jesus walks on water, the disciples are incredibly frightened. They think he is an evil specter. This stood out to me because the disciples trusted Jesus with their lives, but when he does something like that, which is beyond their understanding, they freak out. You would think that with the things that the disciples had seen Jesus do, that this wouldn’t really surprise them. Second, in Mk. 7:1-9 Jesus thought that the Commandments were more important than tradition, but the Pharisees didn’t. This stood out to me because the Pharisees were supposed to be religious leaders, but in some cases, seemed to disregard the Commandments in difference to their traditions. This mainly seemed to come into play with divorce and its rules. Third, in Mk. 10:2-8 Jesus taught that a husband and wife became one flesh. This stood out to me because I know that a husband and wife are supposed to be close, but Jesus teaches that they should become one. This has to be awfully hard to achieve because I know that sometimes a husband and wife have disagreements. The lesson that I learned in these chapters is that Jesus said, “Whatever goes into a man from outside can’t defile him, what comes out of the man defiles him.” This shows

The point of this assignment is to discuss the passage chosen, as well as information regarding the historical/cultural background of the passage and applying it to my life as a human being. It is also important that I apply this information on the passage to the Christian life or church ministry. The passage I have chosen for this assignment is from Matthew chapters 5-7 and is labeled “The Sermon on the Mount”. The Sermon on the Mount is the longest and most prominent of the five discourses of Jesus in Matthew. The whole point of the Sermon on the Mount was to show people who converted to Christianity how to live. It is to show how Christians should live in their actions, words, thoughts, and others ways of life. With that being said, this way of life was preached by Jesus Christ as he “went up on the mountain” to deliver his powerful message. The information for this passage is in, of course, the bible and our textbook “Encountering the New Testament”, as well as many other resources on the web that are related to the bible and passage.

The direct teachings of Jesus give instructions of how to live as Christians and the Parables were used in the Gospel to immediately confront us with a truth and evoke a change. (Fee & Stuart,2003, p. 152). The five major discourses of Matthew’s Gospel are centred around five lengthy Sermons using parables to make a point and call the people to make a change.

For this Bible study, my passage comes from Matthew 8:5-13. It is the story of the Roman Centurion with the servant who was very sick. This is the Centurion whom Jesus said had the greatest faith in all of Israel.

This is a summary of a No Travel Seminar on a Study of the Gospel of Matthew. The seminar was lead by Dr. John Dunaway who is a professor at NTS and has served as a pastor for over 50 years. After his brief self-introduction, he began his presentation with an overview of the Gospel of Matthew, followed by a more elaborated narrative summarizing the gospel, and he finished with brief closing remarks. Throughout this enthusiastic presentation, Dr. Dunaway made reference to remarks by multiple prominent commentators, which added substance to his narrative, even though none were explicitly stated upfront.

During biblical times crime not only affected society, but it was believed to have also been directed towards God himself. The Bible is the oldest book to reference with many directives to living life peacefully and without revenge. As retribution is considered a form of punishment, if not the first, the Bible itself explains that the punishment should not exceed the crime. Matthew 5:38 states, “You have heard that it has been said, eye for eye and tooth for tooth”. This passage is meant as a way to explain that the punishment should fit the crime. As a member of society, the offender was punished equally as brutal as the crime