Cakes for Kierkegaard and Sermon on the Mount as Existentialist Answer Perhaps (Matthew 6:1-18)

That which apparently tastes like the chocolate flavoured Sara Lee pound cake (though without the contents of a salt shaker having been emptied into it) and an espresso

One blustery rainy evening, possibly not unlike the one that came upon Nigel Slater (but without the napping cats and speckled brown eggs), there was indeed the warm wholesome smell of a dense chocolate loaf cake in the oven.*

Homey-ness and comfort? As much as might emanate from the Übermensch donning red gingham, the shade of standard issue Stepford wife aprons, for Halloween.

Belatedly clearing some boxes (physical and metaphorical), a mound of unopened birthday presents (physical) was uncovered. With all the archaeological skill of a woolly mammoth, a fossil strata (physical again) was unearthed and found to contain a glass jar of powderily mouldy poppyseeds and a box of more fascinatingly mouldy chocolate (grey mould tendrils reached out in all directions from what were once possiby yummy chocolate spheres). A spate of cake baking followed in an attempt to provide other organic matter an opportunity for the due fulfilment of the purpose of their existence, before being ravaged by the various forms of artistic death that would surely come upon them.

Kierkegaard might have baked them himself, for a pandemic of pantry despair and Sickness Unto Death** was imminent. Despair as a human condition, according to Mr. Poofy Coiffure, is a symptom of the failure to be human in the fullest sense. This despair could be (i) "the despair that is ignorant of being despair or the despairing ignorance of having a self and an eternal self"; (ii) "the despair that is conscious of being despair and therefore is conscious of having a self in which there is something eternal and then either in despair does not will to be itself or in despair wills to be itself" - the awareness of something more than this finite reality but refusing to define one's self by anything more than the immediate and the finite; or (iii) "the despair to will to be oneself" apart from God - accepting the eternal but refusing to accept the purpose for which one has been made, and therefore attempting to create itself according to its own desires (or so I read, probably badly, Anti-climacus anyway). The cure for despair is to become "eternally and decisively conscious of himself as spirit, as self, or (what is the same thing), "became aware and in the deepest sense received an impression of the fact that there is a God, and that he, he himself, his self, exists before this God".

(Kierkegaard's slap-up solution of taking the leap of faith seems as frivolous as frilly lace cuffs and assuring the terminally ill that a gâteau au yaourt with much lemon and many blueberries will surely make everything a-okay because they taste of citrus, which of course connotes summer sunshine. But that's for another time. Because of the lemurs.)

Gâteau au yaourt with enough lemon to pucker your dying lips and many blueberries because a little anti-oxidant never did no one no harm

There is another sort of despair that comes from reading the Sermon on the Mount as a Christian, with a conscious decisive desire to please God.

First there is the despair of ever hoping to keep the Law without fault and to attain the perfection of our heavenly Father (Matthew 5:17-48). Fortunately, this very accurate assessment of our situation helps to bring on the meekness and the dependence on God for salvation that brings us into the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3). While the Kierkgaardian despairing man avoids self-examination and the most hurtful knowledge a human can ever acquire, the Christian thanks God for it because it is only the man who has truly seen himself for what he is who is likely to fly to God.

Unfortunately, it isn't happily ever after (at least for the meanwhile) for the Christian. It becomes rather obvious that life post-conversion isn't a panacean existence from the troubles of this life. It is full of difficulties, pitfalls and snares. There are struggles between whom we know we should be and who we are. There are contradictions between whom we know God to be and how we relate to him etc.

While ostensibly on our knees declaring our cannot-make-it-ness and clinging to God, it appears that our hearts and minds will give us the slip and go back to our bad old ways, but now under cover of Christianity (Matthew 6:1- 18). Works of righteousness ought to come out of having being brought into a right relationship with God. But we perversely turn them in vulgar showcases of our godliness so that people will praise us (Matthew 6:1-2, 5-6, 16). It is easy to diss the trumpets of the Pharisees but many of us will admire and praise the obviously saintly and aspire to be seen by others in the same way. Christian activity can look sincere and devout but we can engage in them without having a real relationship with God, being concerned rather on having the spotlight on ourselves. Public prayer is encouraged in the Bible and about encouraging others in their relation with the living God, but are we more concerned with our sonorous tone, the number of incidents of women falling to their knees and weeping as we pray, the right verses quoted to demonstrate the soundness of our theology? Singing songs and playing instruments encourage people to express their relationship with God but are we more concerned with showing the beauty of our voice or our competent musicianship or being the song leader that everyone remembers for his charisma and choice of songs with the most engaging yet biblical lyrics? Do we spread ourselves so thinly in our preaching engagements because we want the word of God to be preached to all men or is our full diary (so that we have little time and energy to prepare for each talk) a result of wanting to pad our preaching CV ("Pastor XXX, a regular speaker at the Very Exclusive Evangelical Conference")? What about how we lead bible studies or counsel people - is it really about pointing people to God or to be known as the go-to leader whose touch of Minas anointed wisdom and godliness always multiplies ministries a hundred-fold? Sin is turning the attention from God and onto ourselves and to continue to do so is encouraging others too to sin. So Jesus warns us: "Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 6:1).

But perhaps even if we are not as uncivilised, even if we do our good works in secret, we do the less obvious: patting ourselves on the back when we have done good and kept to our spiritual disciplines, and recording our deeds in our little book of accounts with bonus points for doing all this in the secret, in the quiet, place. We might even thank God that we are not like those poor ungodly souls in church, because we are neither pastor, nor preacher, nor song leader, nor bible study leader, nor do we bother to serve in any ministry. We can put on a very good show for ourselves in the privacy of our own closet. The utter perversity of it all. So Jesus also warns "do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing" (Matthew 6:3, cf Matthew 6:16). But not only is our relationship with other people (Matthew 6:1-3) and ourselves (Matthew 6:16) sickening and inauthentic, even the noblest, most important activity available to mankind, prayer, is tainted with petty self-interest and glorification (Matthew 6:5-6). Cue: the despair of ever doing anything with the right motives.

And as if that were not foul enough, we also have to deal with matters that seem inherently contradictory. So we are told to let our light shine before others so that they may see our good works and praise God (Matthew 5:16) yet also to give our alms in secret (Matthew 6:4), pray in secret (Matthew 6:6) and fast in secret (Matthew 6:18). We are meant to do both in the same act - the extremes of great ostentation and cloistered living (so fearful of self and self-glorification that one segregates the self from the world) are to be avoided.

What's to be done? Let every man examine himself.

Which is where the lemurs come in. Ok, sometimes it's lemmings, but they don't last long what with all that running off cliffs and stuff, so mostly, it's lemurs. They sit in the den that is my mind, ensconced in comfy cushy armchairs, smoking fat lazy cigars brought in by Cuban boat people, playing cards and arguing. They might also do so in Italian accents, while eating cannoli, but that's besides the point. The point is that it seems that the Christian life is such a delicate balance that it requires a committee to decide what one should say and do.

"I, Lemur One, would like to table the motion of participating in this new ministry opportunity."
"Lemur One, what is our motive for participating. Is it so that we can get our name in the church bulletin and get the praise of men?"
"Lemur Two, you have too sensitive a conscience! If everyone thought like you, nothing would ever get done for God's kingdom!"
"Lemur One, surely this is a pertinent question. Are you trying to dismiss the warnings of our Lord Jesus Christ?"
"Lemur Three, perhaps if this is such an issue for you guys, I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse: why don't we tell the church staff to leave our name out?"
"Ooh Lemur One, cunning you are. By so doing, would we not be trumpeting our "godliness" on the pretext of being godly?"

At which point, a visiting three-toed sloth might have piped up with a wise word but the lemurs would have been too furiously machine-gunning the stuffing out off each others' armchairs to pay much attention.

Perhaps the problem with the lemurs is firstly, legalism. If we are to take Jesus' teachings and warnings as rules, never the twain shall meet because they seem inherently contradictory. The second problem is that they are sitting in a smoky den arguing. This insular self-focus can do no good and is also very bad for the upholstery.

The focus should instead be on God, afterall, all this is about the relationship we have with him. If we have any relationship with God, if we are aware that God is our Father and also the Creator, Sustainer and Judge of the world (Matthew 6:9); if we are aware that God's desire for his kingdom to come in fullness to this world has the certainty of, well, the will of an omnipotent God (Matthew 6:10), then we would be seeking to please him and not ourselves. (The choice is always pleasing the self and God. When we want to please the others around us, when we desire their praise, it is really about us being concerned about having a good opinion of ourselves, and therefore wanting to please ourselves.)

It wouldn't say much about the relationship if we thought we could appear to be working for God but be moonlighting for ourselves on the sly. This would, in fact, be fairly insulting to God since we would be thinking little of his omnipresence and omniscience if we thought we could get away with this. In Matthew 6:1-18, Jesus reminds us that we are always in the presence of God. He sees our every action no matter how small, no matter how secret; he hears our every thought. So therefore, while we must keep examining ourselves, the solution to the possible impurity of our motives is not mulling ceaselessly over the purity of our hearts and spending our lives paralysed by the continuous dithering over whether or not to do this or that good work, but, by filling ourselves with more and more of his word, experiencing the very reality of having a relationship with an omniscient God. In the blinding light of his presence, all hypocrisy, pretence, sham, self-adulation and superiority would surely be moot.

Somewhat like the Kierkegaardian solution to Kierkegaardian despair, the answer to the despair of impure motives is by focusing on God and depending on him who gives us all things, from our daily sustenance to our salvation, and who controls all things (Matthew 6:11-13).

Addio lemurs?


A Trundle Through Sermon on the Mount
Earth Moves Under Feet, Kingdom Comes (Matthew 5-7)
This is the Sound of Inevitability (Matthew 5:1-6)
Breeding - We Hazs It (Matthew 5:7-12)
Coffee, Salt and Light, and the Essence and Use of the Christian (Matthew 5:13-16)
And the Missing Link is Jesus (Matthew 5:17-20)
Perfect Laws for Perfect Relationships (Matthew 5:21-48)
Cakes for Kierkegaard and Sermon on the Mount as Existentialist Answer Perhaps (Matthew 6:1-18)

*Thankfully, I ingested two thick slices of this chocolate loaf amounting to possibly 3 million calories on the final morning of the Barclays Open at the Serapong. Because by the time we found parking near someone's fetching house with a boat in the backyard, we were 3 planets away in Sentosa Cove, and had to board the complimentary inter-galactic shuttle to Sentosa Golf Club, where we discovered that we had only S$12 between us. This was spent on a S$4 bottle of 100 plus and a comparatively cheap S$8 wagyu burger.

** Sickness Unto Death:

So then in the Christian understanding of it not even death is the sickness unto death, still less everything which is called earthly and temporal suffering: want, sickness, wretchedness, affliction, adversities, torments, mental sufferings, sorrow, grief. And even if such things are so painful and hard to bear that we men say, or at all events the sufferer says, "This is worse than death" -- everything of the sort, which, if it is not a sickness, is comparable to a sickness, is nevertheless, in the Christian understanding of it, not the sickness unto death.

So it is that Christianity has taught the Christian to think dauntlessly of everything earthly and worldly, including death. It is almost as though the Christian must be puffed up because of this proud elevation above everything men commonly call misfortune, above that which men commonly call the greatest evil. But then in turn Christianity has discovered an evil which man as such does not know of; this misery is the sickness unto death. What the natural man considers horrible -- when he has in this wise enumerated everything and knows nothing more he can mention, this for the Christian is like a jest. Such is the relation between the natural man and the Christian; it is like the relation between a child and a man: what the child shudders at, the man regards as nothing. The child does not know what the dreadful is; this the man knows, and he shudders at it. The child’s imperfection consists, first of all, in not knowing what the dreadful is; and then again, as an implication of this, in shuddering at that which is not dreadful. And so it is also with the natural man, he is ignorant of what the dreadful truly is, yet he is not thereby exempted from shuddering; no, he shudders at that which is not the dreadful: he does not know the true God, but this is not the whole of it, he worships an idol as God.

Only the Christian knows what is meant by the sickness unto death. He acquires as a Christian a courage which the natural man does not know -- this courage he acquires by learning fear for the still more dreadful. Such is the way a man always acquires courage; when one fears a greater danger, it is as though the other did not exist. But the dreadful thing the Christian learned to know is "the sickness unto death."

Perfect Laws for Perfect Relationships (Matthew 5:21-48)

Green Tea Cream Frap, Hazelnut Latte and a few Good Snacks. Taken with an iphone and messed with on Mill Color.

Starbucks has overtaken McDonalds as the new mugging (as in hogging a table and swotting, not the thing that happens in a dark lonely alley with a knife) hotspot, with a smellscape of coffee instead of french fry grease and a soundscape of easy jazz* instead of the hyperness of Rick Dee's Top 40s. At least one macbook and an iphone adorn each table.

Mugging up God's word is hard work, especially with the sort of warped feeble minds we sinful people have rattling in our skulls. But after having sweatily grasped it, our equally corrupt and flabby hearts have great difficulty living out what we know. The Pharisees and the scribes who made a living from studying Scripture got their knickers all in a twist in the end, what more us 21st century information junkies - our constant plugged-in-ness to Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds to favourite blogs and sites while simultaneously watching cable news, sitcoms and movies and listening to podcasts, fresh hot new songs or curated playlists and playing online games, necessarily means we skim and will/can hardly linger for a hard look and anything more than a taste and sniff before being whisked off to new things by the fast-moving knowledge conveyor belt ("128,540 updates since you started reading this sentence").

Matthew 5:17-20 took a bit of working through (What was the connection between Jesus and the Old Testament? In what ways did he fulfil the Law and the Prophets?) but we got that sorted. Matthew 5:20 ("For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.") sat a bit uncomfortably but could have been explained by our partaking of Jesus' perfect obedience to the law. As could "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48).

We could just as happily, with a quick sigh of relief, dismiss the teachings on murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, retaliation and loving neighbours (Matthew 5:21-48), as mere aspirations not principles to be worked on; or perhaps think, surely God could not have meant that and domesticate what Jesus said so as to bring his teaching within range of our accomplishment.

Or if we are uncreative enough to take Jesus' words as-is, then we strive hard to pass Christ's strict examination, flagellating ourselves literally and/or metaphorically to make ourselves better Christians; or we sink under the weight of the impossibility of perfection.

While this last might lead to the poverty of spirit commended by Jesus (Matthew 5:3), the poor who are promised the kingdom of heaven (William Taylor of St. Helen's Bishopsgate gives a good exposition of this aspect of Matthew 5:17-48 here), there is nothing in the Sermon on the Mount that any of what Jesus is commanding cannot be fulfilled by his disciples. In fact, he fully expects his disciples to obey them:

"whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:19)

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock." (Matthew 7:24)

The Law will not pass away even in the least bit (Matthew 5:18) because we are told by the rest of Scripture that it does several things: (i) it expresses the character of God and thus his will for man's life; (ii) it demonstrates, by man's failure to keep it, the character of man and therefore his need of God's salvation; and (iii) it teaches us the character of salvation. (i) and (iii) are eternal, while (ii) will continue until everything is accomplished and all things are made new.

So Jesus fulfils the law by, inter alia, (i) filling out the height, breadth, width and depth of the Law and thus the character of God; (ii) by so doing in Matthew 5:21-48, challenges the hollowness of the self-righteousness (if any) of his audience; and (iii) teaches them how to live when they have been saved and become sons of God.

As a son of God, the Christian, that person bankrupt of spirit and mourning over sin hungering and thirsting for righteousness (Matthew 5:3-6), is a desperate drooling canine straining at his leash in the cage of his sinfulness, nose squashed against the bars, sniffing the yummy scent of righteousness in the air but unable to get at it. If someone came along and unlocked the cage and took off the leash, would he not make a frantic mad dash for the righteousness he was going crazy for? If we are so completely crazy for God and knowing him and his will for our lives, would we not, once we are given the chance, rush to, bask in the glorious beauty of his created order, gulp down his words and live according to them? The Law is the wonderful enveloping fragrance of salvation.

It is common to say that Matthew 5:21-48 reminds us to obeys the heart of the law and not just the letter. Living authentically as such would inevitably render us salty and useful, and spotlights for the glory of God (Matthew 5:13-16). But even non-Christians would tsk at a pharisaical fulfilment of merely conforming with the letter of the law, and even much maligned secular legal systems and lawyers endorse equitable principles concerning the "spirit of the law". This encompasses something more: our relationship to the Father in heaven as his sons and our need both to accept our innate character and to work at imitating him (Matthew 5:48). It is like the new husband who is told that he must show his love by remembering his wife's birthday with flowers. He dutifully sends a bouquet along to her workplace every year and, even though he has not been told to do so, brings her out for a nice dinner that night, and her colleagues commend her on her loving spouse. But if he is prone to letting doors slam in her face after he'd passed through or to ignoring her frankly tediously boring daily updates about the home and the children, the existence of the relationship and his character as husband and father would be in question. Merely value-adding to existing legislation just isn't enough; relationships with God and man and the character of God our father which is to be our character as sons of God cannot be adequately and fully legislated or defined.

We are not left alone to figure out these relationships or to build up a holy perfect character though. The blood of Jesus has been spilled for us and the Spirit has been given to us, by which and whom only we can be and are comforted and satisfied (Matthew 5:4,6), to help us follow the guide given to us in the written word.

Still, we are told to knuckle down and work at these relationships because we are continue to live in the now-but-not-yet, confused and confunded by our still-sinful beings: truth-seeking trips are derailed by the murder of fellow journeymen, flagrant abuse of even grace and truth (truth without charity being intolerant and persecuting; grace without truth being weak and untrustworthy in judgement (Joshua Swartz)) carrying on unchecked, so some are too eager to condemn without due evidence, whilst others are too eager to overlook evidence of sin and soothe confessions of obedience failure with false comfort, and still others argue bitterly over which represents a true and accurate picture/interpretation of a given situation...etc etc

Tough enough perhaps to make one deny the truth of Christianity and the existence of God? Discussing the attractiveness of Harry Potter, we realised that the Bible and the Christian life had everything Harry Potter had and more: Good and Evil? Yes. Bildungsroman of protagonists? Somewhat. Blood, gore, death, difficulties, persecution requiring stout-heartedness, strong-headedness as regards what is good and true and loyalty at the risk of one's life? Yes in truck loads. Love? Actually and massively. Good ending? Definitely. Our problem is that we are somewhere in Book 3 and though we've been told how Book 7 ends, we don't quite believe it sometimes.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:21-25)

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said,"Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written,"I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4)

A Trundle Through Sermon on the Mount
Earth Moves Under Feet, Kingdom Comes (Matthew 5-7)
This is the Sound of Inevitability (Matthew 5:1-6)
Breeding - We Hazs It (Matthew 5:7-12)
Coffee, Salt and Light, and the Essence and Use of the Christian (Matthew 5:13-16)
And the Missing Link is Jesus (Matthew 5:17-20)
Perfect Laws for Perfect Relationships (Matthew 5:21-48)
Cakes for Kierkegaard and Sermon on the Mount as Existentialist Answer Perhaps (Matthew 6:1-18)

*They've just switched to what sounds like Glenn Gould's deliberate tinkling of Bach's Goldberg Variations...followed closely by...horrors, La Paloma!

This post is brought to you by:

far too many instances of frustratingly cold burgers and cold fries from Burger Shack by Island Creamery
559 Bukit Timah Road
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slightly more decent burgers from Fatboy's - The Burger Bar, 187 Upper Thomson Road

sadly overpriced milkshakes from the cute once upon a milk shake
32 Maxwell Road
#01-08 Maxwell Chambers (fka The White House)
Tanjong Pagar
Singapore 069115

And the Missing Link is Jesus (Matthew 5:17-20)

It would have been clear to Jesus' Jewish audience that the characteristics of members of the kingdom of heaven (= the real disciples of Jesus = Christians) and their relationship with the world (Matthew 5:3-16) was not unlike what they had been taught through the ages by God's prophets and written down in the Law and the Prophets. Viral meme word associations would have hit a chord in their (sub)consciousness, like "zipbra preens", "duck genes" and "boomz" to a Singaporean.

But the elephant in the room on that mountaintop might have had its trunk in a knot trying to fit Jesus' teaching into the Old Testament Hebrew worldview: how did the dots all join up? Was Jesus teaching a new thing and ought he then be stoned for heresy? No, said Jesus,

Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-20)

This pushes off an astonishing teaching section on the connection between this seemingly new revelation and God's revelation through the centuries, and ends with Matthew 7:11 - "this is the Law and the Prophets".

Ok, cool. So it was clear that all the preceding commandments and teachings still stood. They were God's words afterall and one wouldn't expect revisionism from an all-powerful all-knowing God. And if these were still in effect, then entry into the kingdom of heaven would be by obedience to these words.

The scribes and the Pharisees apparently were well aware of this and were fastidious OCD keepers of the commandments...or well, the commandments were a bit vague you see so they put in a clarification here and a neatly packed some others and put them in colour-coded boxes within reaching distance filed by aleph-a-bet. It would be easy to fall in the pharisiacal did-God-really-say trap of concluding that it wouldn't be too difficult to top the righteousness of the Pharisees - after all they were all law no love nasty smug legalistic moralistic bullies with simpering voices who deserved their comeuppance. But the standard, Jesus emphasised, in case anyone was thinking otherwise, was far higher - "...be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). Not an iota or a dot was to pass from the Law, and no part of the commandments was to be relaxed.

At this point, the elephant on the mountain might have fainted clean away, causing massive environmental damage by tsunami on the other side of the earth. Real, unwatered-down perfection? Impossible!

And just how impossible? From Jesus' six examples of how the Law and the Prophets had indeed not been diluted but were far more Extra Strength Man Sized than the wimpy righteousness promulgated by the Pharisees (see Matthew 5:21-48), infinitely impossible. The terrible overwhelming sinfulness of sin. This dreadful realisation would have driven anyone, screaming OMGOMG, to the poverty of spirit that characterises the person in Matthew 5:3 to whom is promised the kingdom of heaven.

No wait.

Are there two ways of entering the kingdom of heaven? Why have those contrite failures been promised the kingdom earlier in the Sermon (Matthew 5:3)? But doesn't the need for perfection strictly preclude any other backdoor (contrition) route? The ridiculousness of anything short of perfection managing to see God would be like singing the scary fat man song Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham in rounds in the crisp mountain air making everything alright in the world and with God.

Ah, the missing link is
...
...
...
wait for it
...
...
...
wait for it
...
...
...
Jesus!

Unable to Follow Even Simple Tart-making Instructions Person is Obviously Needing Jesus

The rest of the Bible then explains how Jesus' death allows grossly imperfect people to enter into a relationship God. Huge and mind-boggling. Theological terms like substitutionary atonement, penal substitution, imputed righteousness, propitiation, expiation all go some way to attempting to explain this and obviously a paragraph can't do it justice. But regardless, this was the good news Jesus was to preach to the poor (Matthew 5:3 cf Matthew 11:5, Isaiah 61:1), that he had come to enable the scum of the earth to meet the perfect maker of heaven and earth. So Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17) not only by keeping them perfectly in the fullness of their meaning, but also by being the one to whom they had been pointing (qv Matthew 1:22, 3:15, 4:1-12, 4:14, 11:12-15). Therefore obeying the Law and the Prophets would necessarily require acknowledgement of Jesus as saviour and obedience to his words which, far from abolishing them, bring out the real significance of the Law and the Prophets. So some aspects of the law, eg. the ceremonies, priests, temple and sacrifices, no longer existed in their Old Testament form because the person to whom they had been pointing had arrived and the event/problem to which they had been anticipating was fulfilled/accomplished by Jesus.

If Jesus has fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, if all has been paid for already, does that mean we don't have to bother with them or with working on our righteousness?

To think so would be to fall into the same hole, on top of the bodies of the Pharisees and scribes littering the bottom. Such a view assumes that the commandments and instructions are but mechanical means of entry into heaven, so once these have been satisfied they can be tossed into the junkheap. It's just as erroneous to see these words as mere commandments to be kept so that God will give us a little pat on the head for being such an obedient boy/girl when we see him. Nor are they to be co-opted by those who love certainty and rules to live by as the perfect moral complement to their rigorous self-improvement, healthy mind and body regime. Nor are they in the first instance (though it is one of their purposes, see Romans 7) the evangelistic instrument by which God bats us out so we will be contrite in heart and poor in spirit. Just as the Law and the Prophets were first given to Israel when they became God's people and he became their God, Jesus' commandments are meant to teach us who have come to know God the character of God embedded therein and how to live in direct, living, true relationship with this God. The focus is on the living person of God not the letter of the law (and the inevitable pharisaical sub-laws, regulations and guidelines that trail not far behind).

And besides, if we are Christians who think the kingdom of heaven is ours, are we not then people who also hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matthew 5:6) surpassing that of the Pharisees and scribes (Matthew 5:20), and who are pure in heart and seek after God (Matthew 5:8)? If we treat the law lightly and teach others to do the same (Matthew 5:19), we demonstrate that we aren't what we say we are.


A Trundle Through Sermon on the Mount
Earth Moves Under Feet, Kingdom Comes (Matthew 5-7)
This is the Sound of Inevitability (Matthew 5:1-6)
Breeding - We Hazs It (Matthew 5:7-12)
Coffee, Salt and Light, and the Essence and Use of the Christian (Matthew 5:13-16)
And the Missing Link is Jesus (Matthew 5:17-20)
Perfect Laws for Perfect Relationships (Matthew 5:21-48)
Cakes for Kierkegaard and Sermon on the Mount as Existentialist Answer Perhaps (Matthew 6:1-18)

Coffee, Salt and Light, and the Essence and Use of the Christian (Matthew 5:13-16)

Buoyed by great waves of enthusiasm, we stopped at Papa Palheta for a refuel between bible study and dinner that night. The Terra Firma blend was indeed bootylicious, complex with long palate, as advertised, unfairly disadvantaging the Sulawesi Today, Tomorrow, Toraja that came after.

A bag of Terra Firma, ground on the spot with the dial at 5.5, for the stovetop, was delicious stuff; a beacon of light amongst the soured drainwater of big chain coffeehouses. The steady stream of caffeine fiends even without any real attempt at publicity bore testimony. It did not hurt that onsite, there were, outside: wooden benches and black metal chairs and tables and fluffball kittens who stalked you until you acquiesced and rubbed their little soft tummies; and inside: comfy sofas and vintage fittings and friendly fellow-imbibers who educated you that poker was now the game of choice amongst males of a certain set. Should have known eh, Lady Gaga.

There is much talk nowadays, post-9/11, post-AWARE saga, of the role of Christians in society. Jesus' take is:

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16)

Much ink has been squirted, squid-like, on the subject of salt: ah, Christians as salt act as preservatives, preventing putrification and decay, keeping morals untouched in this rotten world; or Christians are the antiseptic to the infective germs of the evil in this world; or Christians purify the world because wasn't that the use of salt in the Old Testament?; or Christians are valuable because in ancient times, salt was used as currency etc.

But the user of a metaphor usually employs it with a certain characteristic in mind. And Jesus seems less concerned by the specific uses of salt than the need for salt to retain its essence - the saltiness that makes it salt (Matthew 5:13).

This is a warning then to Christians that if they do not retain their essence of being Christians, they will be useless for anything and be thrown out of the kingdom (Matthew 5:13). And what is the Christian to be used for? Jesus says that Christians are meant to be the light of the world, shining before others so that others may see their good works and give glory to God the Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16).

What is the essence of a Christian then? If you boil him down to his core, what is the distinctive residue you are meant to find sticking to the pot? Perhaps contrary to popular belief, a Christian is not defined by the Nobel Peace Prize-worthy mercy relief of Mother Teresa, the early political agitation for human rights by William Wilberforce, or lobby groups that ensure that conservative morals continue to be upheld by the law of the land. Healing the sick, relieving the suffering of the poor and oppressed and abused, preserving God's design in the world are, in their fashion, good things. But there are many voluntary welfare organisations who too hold to "conservative" value and are also concerned with the poor, the sick, the needy (and also the animals and Mother Earth). While these may be (necessary) outworkings of the Christian's distinctiveness and are sometimes highly commended in the world, they cannot be his primary priority in life nor do they make him the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

The essence of the Christian is found in Matthew 5:3-11: considering his failure to obey God makes him poor in spirit; he mourns for his sin; because he is aware of where he stands before God, he is meek; he hungers and thirsts for a right relationship with God, and because he trusts with his whole being that God has gracefully and mercifully dealt with his sin as God himself has promised, the Christian is himself merciful to others; he lives a God-centred life and works to bring others to a peaceful, right relationship with God. These are the true good works that will bring others to glorify God on the last day, though they may persecute the Christian in the meantime! (Matthew 5:10-11)

As the light of the world, God's use for the Christian is as a good influence, someone who has a positive impact on others (whether they think so or not). The Christian can be a light only if he is salty. While aid organisations and moral crusades may help plaster over the consequences of the global problem of sin, they do not even bother to warn others that they are mired in sin, much less tell anyone how to get out of the mess they're in. In fact, they mostly ignore God and his purposes altogether, advocating instead the self-sufficiency of man in dealing with his own problems and those of his neighbours. But as the rest of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17ff) shows, Jesus is the only one who can deal with the root problem of sin and stave off its dire consequences. If a Christian is in his essence authentically Christian, he will and must point others to the only way they can be saved from the wrath of God in his coming judgement for that is God's purpose for him in the world. And already, there is the implication of final judgement in the Sermon on the Mount: there will be a time of reckoning - useless salt that has lost its saltiness will be thrown out; Christians who do nothing to cause others to give glory to the Father by telling them about his son will be summarily ejected from his kingdom.

The house is burning to the ground. If our primary concern is the adverse effect of the rise in house temperatures on the electricity bill (the air-conditioning will have to work harder) or the threatened extinction of the rare species of aspidistra on the window sill or winning lengthy discussions on the complementary of decorative wall-painting techniques and lose our lives in the imminent destruction of the abode, do we really believe that destruction is at hand and that we, together with all the occupants of the house, are in imminent danger of a terrible fiery end? If we truly understand our position and truly trust in the only (and rather narrow) escape route, the treatment of smoke inhalation might be of some importance but we would find the even more pressing issue to be the evacuation of housemates to a place of safety and be saved ourselves as well.

A Trundle Through Sermon on the Mount
Earth Moves Under Feet, Kingdom Comes (Matthew 5-7)
This is the Sound of Inevitability (Matthew 5:1-6)
Breeding - We Hazs It (Matthew 5:7-12)
Coffee, Salt and Light, and the Essence and Use of the Christian (Matthew 5:13-16)
And the Missing Link is Jesus (Matthew 5:17-20)
Perfect Laws for Perfect Relationships (Matthew 5:21-48)
Cakes for Kierkegaard and Sermon on the Mount as Existentialist Answer Perhaps (Matthew 6:1-18)

Papa Palheta
140 Bukit Timah Road, off Hooper Road
Tel: +65-9799 0420 (Leon Foo)

Breeding - We Hazs It (Matthew 5:7-12)

My name is BlahBlah. And i am a yoghurt addict. My fermented milk of choice is La Fermière's Nature. Unlike most commercial brands, this trumps Nestle's La Laitière in the Proustian associative stakes - thick, creamy, tart, very good with morning muesli before heading for the slopes. But at S$8.90 a hit (S$4.00 if only 2 days to go to expiry), regular expenditure on sandstone pots was not a viable lifestyle choice.

Thanks to Harold McGee however, we've been breeding colonies of the stuff in old pots with a minimal outlay of Meiji full cream milk (which tastes so good that one wonders if the made-in-Thailand ladies at Patpong give sufficient warning mutatis mutandis wrt this other Thai export).

1. Sterilise old yoghurt pots in boiling water.
2. Double-boil almost a litre of full-cream milk until bubbles start to form at the edges and it is steaming (83-88 degrees celcius).
3. Bake random snacks while waiting for the milk to cool to somewhere between very warm and hot (46-49 degress celcius).
4. Stir in two tablespoons of starter yoghurt of your choice into milk.
5. Pour defiled milk into sterilised pots.
6. Cover pots with original cover/foil, place in heavy-bottomed pot, tuck in kitchen towels, stick whole lot in still warm oven.
7. Go to sleep.
8. Stick happy fermented milk pots into fridge until yoghurt is needed.

Very good seed on fertile ground. Probably just like Jesus' description of the members of his kingdom:

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:7-9)

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy" (Matthew 5:7) presents a further stage in Jesus' description; a breeding of a different sort from milk-made-bad but just as inevitable. A member of Jesus' kingdom is defined more by who he is, his character and disposition, than what he does. Logically, his being and his attitude will affect his actions. But Jesus' emphasis has been on the being. Therefore, the point is not to act in a Christianly manner but to first be Christian so that our actions are the outcome of that state. So perhaps it is less helpful to be primarily concerned with finding the main point of the passage so that one can apply it to one's life and more important to be so thoroughly convinced and dominated by the truth that it controls us and we cannot help but apply it thus.

So far, Jesus has been describing the sort of person who is given the kingdom of heaven, he is the man who has seen the truth of his own poor condition before God and is painfully conscious both of his need to be right with God and his own inability to satisfy such a need. And to this helplessness and desperation, having no righteousness of his own yet having to face God in his perfect righteousness, gloriously, Jesus says, because the king has now come, those who are truly objectively hateful yet hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled.

He is now given the free gift of righteousness for no good reason other than the generosity and mercy of God. This mercy isn't an easy-going flabby mercy that smiles indulgently at naughty-naughty sin and winks then turns a blind eye to injustice. God is merciful yet righteous, holy and just. His mercy does not come at the expense of truth and law or his Son would not have had to die to pay for our transgressions. Rather than ignoring the muck and evil around, mercy looks upon the miserable consequences of sin and desires to relieve the suffering (see occurrences of "mercy"). Pity + action = mercy.

There are some people who are naturally kind-hearted and given to doing works of charity. These are not the people Jesus has in mind. Rather, it is those who are bred this way because of the mercy that they have already. The parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21-35, cf Matthew 6:14) illustrates this well. So Jesus is not promising mercy to aspiring Mother Teresas (cf Exodus 33:19) but those who, as an inevitable living out of their great conviction of the mercy God has shown them, do their acts of mercy. They see the world with Christian eyes, not as people whom they like or dislike, not with a smug superiority, but victims of their own sin, slaves of Satan cluelessly recklessly bound for hell; they see everyone who is in a state of sin as someone who is to be pitied and are moved to help them out of this dire state.


"Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, I wanna see you"? Jesus implies this is no further step from being Christian: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8). Is the Christian necessarily pure in heart? Aren't they poor in spirit, mourning etc precisely because purity of their very beings in relation to God is severely lacking, because they know the wicked and deceitful tar in their hearts and the ?

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob. (Psalm 24:3-6)

Purity of heart in view here is not keeping God's commandments perfectly and never thinking an evil thought because people have isolated themselves in monastries and lobbed off stumbling bits of flesh to no avail. Neither can it be reduced to a mere matter of decency, morality or intellectual interest in the Christian faith. Rather, it is about single-minded-ness and holiness (Hebrews 12:14) that has been given to us, about our whole being seeking God from whom we will receive righteousness of his salvation (Psalm 24:5 - therefore this is not reading too much into Matthew 5:8), by whom we will be cleansed now and at the end of days, which happy ending makes us eager to do good works here and now (Titus 2:14, Hebrews 9:14, 1 John 1:7, Revelation 19).

This complete change of mind from me!-centredness to God-centredness comes as no surprise because the Christian is far too aware of the sheer good fortune of his undeserved salvation. If his only concern now then is the glory of God amongst men, then he would not be embroiled in the sort of useless quarrels and wars that stem from lust, greed, self-interest and self-centredness. He is not concerned about the effect on himself or his reputation, nor about covering his ass and defending himself. But being a "peacemaker" (Matthew 5:9) does not mean his motto is "anything to avoid trouble". He is not concerned with appeasement at all costs (the League of Nations and its spawn, the United Nations, proves that the cost of such appeasement is more conflict anyway). Jesus was the "Prince of Peace" but no one would have awarded him Obama's Nobel Peace Prize for extraordinary efforts at international diplomacy, relations and co-operation amongst people. Just as the Christian would after him (Matthew 5:7), Jesus pitied his fellowmen because he saw that they remained in the clutches of death, and his mercy included healing the sick, the blind and the lame (which made him rather popular) and also warning people to repent and proclaiming that he was the king who would save them (which did not go down as well). So for the Christian, facilitating the making of peace between God and men will actually include an element of conflict. Actually, scratch that: conflict and persecution come highly anticipated:

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:10-12)

Our breeding (Matthew 5:1-6) must inspire a certain lifestyle (Matthew 5:7-12) centered around Jesus (Isaiah 61, Matthew 5:11), so the Beatitudes cannot be taught as a secular moral code. If we won't turn to Jesus in faith (Matthew 5:11), it is because we don't consider there is anything wrong with us - we are poor in spirit, mourning sin, or hungering and thirsting for righteousness. If we are not merciful to others, or single-minded about God, or concerned with making peace between man and God, then we have not had our sin dealt with.

A Trundle Through Sermon on the Mount
Earth Moves Under Feet, Kingdom Comes (Matthew 5-7)
This is the Sound of Inevitability (Matthew 5:1-6)
Breeding - We Hazs It (Matthew 5:7-12)
Coffee, Salt and Light, and the Essence and Use of the Christian (Matthew 5:13-16)
And the Missing Link is Jesus (Matthew 5:17-20)
Perfect Laws for Perfect Relationships (Matthew 5:21-48)
Cakes for Kierkegaard and Sermon on the Mount as Existentialist Answer Perhaps (Matthew 6:1-18)

*********************

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, D.A. Carson

This Is The Sound of Inevitability (Matthew 5:1-6)

Foray into Sermon on the Mount looked to be fairly epic. Adequate fortification was necessary.

L.A. Burgers at Café Hacienda, Dempsey

The Handburger at Raffles City. Interior thanks to Plystudio. Dry-pattied blue cheese beef burger no thanks to kitchen dude.

A well-lubricated good dinner on pretty Klaus Haapaniemi plates. Now if only the tastebuds had returned in time for the occasion.

Human culture has been built great epic stories. The most exciting sort feature long journeys into far-flung little-known lands by quaint systems of transportation, muscley heroes with big personalities (all set up for a hubris-catharsis moment, or if un-muscley, weak and unimpressive then all set for journey-as-bildungsroman). If Jason had sobbingly declined Pelias' offer of the throne citing lack of ability and abject incompetence, The Argonautica (if written containing Jason's monumental list of personal defects) would have been the laughing stock of the Ancient Greeks. Whether bundled with willing or reluctant heroes, the quests completed at each pitstop in a packaged expedition has been a sure hit for all peoples of all ages. Like scaling the highest mountain or exploring the darkest depths of the sea, we love celebrating the human spirit - the affirmation that humans can prevail, overcome and conquer all difficulties and enemies as long as they put their minds and wills to it. Less nobly, prime content for macho boasts at drinking parties and a money-churner on the inspirational/motivational talk circuit. So the Crusaders rode out to heathen places for land and glory, and returned with citrus fruits, bags of sugar and a future cameo in Dan Brown's bestsellers.

But Jesus said that the people blessed by God are very different kettle of fish altogether. (The 9 "blesseds"/"Beatitudes" are often regarded as Jesus' rules for successfully happy living, which is about as logical and realistic an interpretation as pinning the tail on the donkey in a physical vacuum. "According to experts", the Greek makarios translated to the English "blessed" has in its family tree the name he makaria, given to the island of Cyprus which was apparently so bountiful and beautiful that all who lived on in were completely satisfied and had no interest in the outside world because nothing could be better than that heaven on earth. A blessed person is to be congratulated on his state for he has everything supremely desirable. That person is to be honoured and affirmed in his state. He is approved. More importantly and specifically in context then, blessedness in the Old Testament (via the Septuagint) is the condition of a man who has been approved by God and having God's grace and favour, has been given the gift of salvation (eg. Psalm 32:1-2).)

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you false on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:3-12)

Exclusive Membership
Familiar words often misused. In the context of the coming of King Jesus and the inauguration of his kingdom (Matthew 1-9), the blessed are those who will be subjects in his kingdom, that is, Christians, the ones who will suffer because of Jesus (Matthew 5:11). Matthew 5:3 and 5:10 also bracket together the intervening verses, suggesting that the blessed person described in the entire passage is one and the same - one whom God has promised the kingdom of heaven. Therefore:

1. All Christians are meant to manifest these characteristics, not just the "holier" or "godlier" ones.

2. No one who is not Christian will be able boast of any of these characteristics, however nice they might be. One cannot say "So-and-so does not claim to be Christian, never reads the Bible nor prays nor submits to God. But, you know, he's so nice and polite and patient and never says a harsh word and is so encouraging, I think he's more of a Christian than many people who warm a church pew."

Matthew 5:3-10 is a description of the Christian: this is the sort of man he is. Matthew 5:11-12 then shows us the character of the Christian as proved by the reaction of the world to him: because he is the sort of man he is, the world reacts this way to him. Matthew 5:13-16 is an account of the relationship of the Christian to the world: God's purpose for and so the function of the Christian in society and in the world.

Commencement and Term of Membership
Matthew 5:3 and 5:10 are the only verses in the "beatitudes" where blessedness is expressed in the present tense. As the disciples were blessed then with the kingdom Jesus was inaugurating, so the Christian is blessed now with membership of the kingdom inaugurated by Christ. But the kingdom in full glory and so membership with all its privileges is not yet (see future tense in 5:4-9).

Description of the Character of Members
What sort of man gains membership? Well, the man who is "poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3), who is fully aware that he absolutely, irrevocably, uncontroversially fails the meet the criteria for membership. The man who knows all too well that his righteousness cannot exceed that of the Pharisees ("unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20)). There is a tremendous awareness of his nothingness before God. There is a complete absence of pride, self-assurance and self-reliance. He puts no confidence in his theological education and training, his position in life, whatever talents has been given to him, nor the chuminess of his natural temperament to stand him in good stead before God. And because Christ had not come to abolish the Old Testament but to fulfil it, none of this is new. Already, God'd spoken through Isaiah saying:

this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)

And quite inevitably, as the man is confronted with God and his holiness, sees where he himself as he is, he cannot help but mourn (Matthew 5:4). Every night, running through his day, he considers what he has done and said and thought and behaved with respect to others and finds that he has done things he ought not to have done and harboured thoughts and ideas and feelings most foul, and is smitten with grief and sorrow that he was ever capable of such deeds and thoughts, and mourns. And like Jesus himself who wept over the city of Jerusalem, the Christian too mourns over the moral messes, the unhappiness, the suffering of the whole of mankind. God too had spoken in the past of the blessedness of those who mourn for their sin and the sin of others:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me...
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. (Isaiah 61:3)

This was written to God's people when they were in exile under the judgement of God.

And just as inevitably, having seen his own utter nothingness and helplessness face to face with the demands of the law of God, having mourned his sin and inner evil, the man cannot then relate to another person in any other way than in meekness (Matthew 5:5). This meekness is not a natural temperament like how some dogs are nice and friendly and easy to get on with and others are plain irritable and love nothing more than getting their little sharp teeth around a stray finger. This meekness is born of a clear-eyed assessment of where he stands before God and in the world and so, like Moses (the meekest man on earth (Numbers 12:3)), the meek man does not demand his rights, his position, his privileges, his possessions or his status in life. He does not bother protecting himself or going on the defensive because he does not see anything worth protecting or defending. He does not pity himself or explain away his own sin saying,"You are having a hard time. You didn't really mean to do/think that. God will understand." or "If only these people had caught me in a good mood, they would know how godly I really am.". He is not more concerned about justifying himself and his actions; instead, he trusts God (Zephaniah 3:12) and busies himself edifying his brother. And meekness is not an optional extra to the Christian life. God'd said previously, opposite of meekness is wickedness:

A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look for them, they will not be found.

But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy great peace. (Psalm 37:10-11)

And still inevitably, this leads the Christian to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6). He has seen his sorry estate and now yearns desperately for a solution. He moans and regrets and hates it all and cries in great anguish for deliverance from his own evilness that prevents him from living in right relationship with God. He wants nothing more in his life than to walk in fellowship with Him. Already, the Psalmist characterised this deepest, most universal human need thus:

Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;
hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things. (Psalm 107:4-9)

and

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42:1-2)

Benefits of Membership
And the most wonderful and delicious thing is that Jesus wasn't merely describing the poor, downcast, desperate, sobbing members of his kingdom, far better yet, he brought them the good news that all God had promised to people such as these would soon be fulfilled: those far too aware that their presence will befoul the kingdom of God would be welcomed into it (Matthew 5:3), those mourning over their diseased hearts would be comforted (Matthew 5:4), those who truly see themselves as they are so that nothing anyone can say about them can be too bad will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5), and those who yearn to be right with God again would have their thirst and hunger more than satisfied (Matthew 5:6)!

This was amazing news - unspeakable incomprehensible grace to the undeserved and mercy to the utterly hopeless and helpless. What a God this was: what a generous deliverer and saviour. But how could this be? How could perfection be sullied by imperfection? How could corrupt immoral incompetent imbeciles be put in charge of the world? Jesus did not explain how this would come to pass at that point. It would have been too much to comprehend. But we know now that the magnanimity and greatness of God did not end there. The king himself died so that all this could be fulfilled. Perhaps this too was inevitable given the awesomeness and complete goodness of God.

Enough to make the lame leap and dance for joy and the mute sing (cf Isaiah 35:6). Literally. There is no one like our God.







Unfortunately, in the here-and-now, physical tummy-wise, the burgers have been long digested. To be continued In šāʾ Allāh IFTLW...

PS. William Taylor explains this much better of course: The Good, The Bad... from the series, Revolution Not Resolution.


A Trundle Through Sermon on the Mount
Earth Moves Under Feet, Kingdom Comes (Matthew 5-7)
This is the Sound of Inevitability (Matthew 5:1-6)
Breeding - We Hazs It (Matthew 5:7-12)
Coffee, Salt and Light, and the Essence and Use of the Christian (Matthew 5:13-16)
And the Missing Link is Jesus (Matthew 5:17-20)
Perfect Laws for Perfect Relationships (Matthew 5:21-48)
Cakes for Kierkegaard and Sermon on the Mount as Existentialist Answer Perhaps (Matthew 6:1-18)

*********************

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, D.A. Carson

Café Hacienda
Blk 13 Dempsey Road, #01-07
Tel: +65 6476 2922

The Handburger
Raffles City Shopping Centre, B1-77/78

Earth Moves Under Feet, Kingdom Comes (Matthew 5-7)

Outside, at six in the evening, there was fog and clammy greyness. A pervasive heaviness, the colour of the presence of life-sucking Dementors, the hue favoured by the Nazgûl. Then buildings shook. And the worker bees inside looked up in terror. "I thought I'd worked too hard and was about to faint," gasped one. "I thdoughtd I'd overdosed on cold meds," sniffled another. Several hysterical ones grabbed their bags and fled for the lifts, then deciding it was too dangerous to take them, ran back and down the emergency staircase. "I'm staying put," declared the boss and strode back to her office. Those who remained murmured their compliance, pulled the blinds and sat down. Immediately, there was silence except for the clattering of keyboards.

Outside, in a clearing in the greyness, the sun glowed a blood red. But no one saw the warning.

Then, the world ended.
...
...
...
...

Ok, so it didn't. But loads of nasty things happened. But blissfully unaware, we went to Chili's for margaritas and nachos, Big Mouth burgers and football on ESPN.

The next day there was meeting DG mates for gut-busting lunch and then the boys for stodgy dinner at Hua Yi with Inglourious Basterds in full gory for afters.

Babies were born and many came to have a look at the squidges and celebrate their births.

People got sick but didn't quite die so at some point, someone had to make squidgey brownies (not derived from aforementioned squidges) to help the medicine go down a wimpy throat in the most delightful way.

And since it was Mid-Autumn Festival, there were frivolous discussions about mooncake packaging (Casahana 喜月堂 was voted Most Likely to Impress Potential In-laws For Least Cold Cash) and new ideas in mooncake studies.

But despite appearances, we live in those times don't we - the almost The End-but-not-quite? Humanity has been living in those times for about 2,000 years.

In his Gospel, Matthew wrote about the one who heralded the beginning of the End. Jesus' genealogy at the start of the Gospel (Matthew 1:1-17) is more than fodder for those dreadful quizzes that come round every year at church Christmas parties; they tell us that Jesus is born into a real family with significant bloodlines: descended from Abraham, Jesus is a true Israelite, and, descended from David, Jesus stands in the line to which God had given the promise of kingship. In fact, he is the culmination of all the promises ever made in the Old Testament. Born of a virgin, he is the Immanuel (the God-with-us) promised by God through Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:24). He is born in Bethlehem, the promised birthplace of the king of the Jews in Micah (Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:6). And the infant born in David's royal line is worshipped as such by Gentile magi (Matthew 2:1-12). His Egyptian sojourn means he is the son God calls out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1, Matthew 2:15). And Jesus' victory over the same temptations Israel faced in the wilderness proves he is the true Israel (Matthew 4).

So the long-awaited king has arrived and his kingdom is at hand (Matthew 3:2, 4:17).

And we're only just getting started.

Nothing like this man has ever been seen or would ever be seen even if, despite the pessimistic predictions of the eco-types, the earth trundled along for several trillion more years with space colonies on the moon and on Mars. All eyes on Jesus. And, what? Only four accounts of the most important man in the world? Why quit the saucing and dish up the goss on him already!

No naff no faff then: "Jesus went throughout all Galilee/the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people" Matthew says in 4:23 and again in 9:35.

Woah Einstein, back up a bit and take it slow? This is exactly what Matthew does from 4:24-9:34. Matthew 5-7 is an entire chunk commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount probably because it starts with Jesus ascending the mountain (Matthew 5:1) where he taught the disciples and ends neatly with him descending the mountain after (Matthew 7:28 - 8:1). In this section, Jesus proclaims the good news of what it means for his people that King Jesus has come and Matthew 8-9 describes the manifestation of the king's presence with the healing of every disease and sickness.

The consequences of the arrival of the King are wrapped up in the identity of that King which is itself wrapped up in the prophecies God had been making about the king and his kingdom over a period of thousands of years before he came. These promises were contained in what we moderns call the Old Testament and what New Testamental Jews called the Law and the Prophets. So when Jesus came he said,"Do not think that i have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them" (Matthew 5:17) and, he ends the teaching section known as the Sermon on the Mount by saying, "this sums up the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12), he means that world history until the time of his arrival has been one long breath-held wait for him. Okay Barbie, let's go party.

But stay the run on the Louboutin, who's on the guest list?

See Matthew 5:1-16.

(Like any true blue Adam/Eve spawn, I blame the cold medication for everything wrong about/in this post.)

A Trundle Through Sermon on the Mount
Earth Moves Under Feet, Kingdom Comes (Matthew 5-7)
This is the Sound of Inevitability (Matthew 5:1-6)
Breeding - We Hazs It (Matthew 5:7-12)
Coffee, Salt and Light, and the Essence and Use of the Christian (Matthew 5:13-16)
And the Missing Link is Jesus (Matthew 5:17-20)
Perfect Laws for Perfect Relationships (Matthew 5:21-48)
Cakes for Kierkegaard and Sermon on the Mount as Existentialist Answer Perhaps (Matthew 6:1-18)

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The Beatitudes, Thomas Watson
Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, D.A. Carson
The Sermon on the Mount, Sinclair B Ferguson
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Teaching Matthew, David Jackman and William Philip
What Jesus Said About Successful Living, Haddon W. Robinson