Matthew 5:21-24What was Jesus’ point in the teaching?
Matthew 5:21-24 depicts the way Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. The teachings serve as a replacement and transcendence of the Law of Moses. Matthew 5:21-24 is Jesus’ teaching against anger. Herewith our Great Teacher restates the wisdom of ancestors who warned us about the danger of murder. One who commits murder becomes subject to judgment, Jesus points out.
What sort of relevance does this teaching have for other worldviews?
This way, Jesus tries to shape people’s worldviews in a sense that anger is a root of evil and eventually murder. Thus, He condemns anyone who is angry and turns them into subject to judgment. He wants us to become kinder and able to forgive others.
What does this teaching reveal about Jesus?
The given teaching reveals the depth of true love that is impossible if we are not able to reconcile to our wrongdoers. Only through genuine forgiveness, we may appear before God and sacrifice to Him. This is a deep sense of Jesus’ understanding of true love and faith. In other words, He rejects anyone who cannot forgive or reconcile to another person. Following this teaching, we consider Jesus as a source of eternal light that is love. Now we associate Him only with true love while we ourselves become kinder to one another.
With Matthew 5:21-24, Jesus appears as a great change maker and disruptor of stereotypes grounded on revenge and hatred. Instead, Jesus offers reconciliation, forgiveness and love. If we would change anger to love, the world would definitely become a better place without murder. Unfortunately, too few people understand and follow Jesus’ teachings. Without such understanding, though, God will never accept our sacrifice (Bible Gateway, 2016).
Mark 2:1-12
In an overcrowded place, four men brought a paralyzed man before Jesus. Because of the crowd, they had to dig through the opening in the roof and lower the mat. Then Jesus eyed their s faith and forgave the sins to the paralyzed man. This way, Jesus proved his authority to forgive sins on Earth. This way, Jesus proved His nature of a God’s Son and the purpose of His ministry to heal people spiritually. On that instant, the religious teachers rejected His legacy of forgiving sins. Then he asked what was easier “forgiving sins” or making a paralyzed man get up and walk. Immediately he told the man to get up, take his mat and go home; and so he did. The miracle was amazing and proved extra nature of Jesus as God’s minister on Earth.
Rather than healing the paralyzed man’s physical illness, Jesus forgave his sins. With that, He showed that spiritual health that is eternal is much more important than the physical (earthly) one. The only substance that remains eternal is human soul, and therefore the sense of Jesus’ ministry foremost cares about our spiritual purity. Today, Jesus’ “rise up and walk” stands for God’s readiness to forgive and bless sinners. His unlimited kindness is above human understanding, and so too few people are able to understand a genuine sense of God’s love. God remains invisible to us and so is His forgiveness of our sins. Unfortunately, all we can see and believe is physical (Grace Communion International, 2016).
However, the truth is that the forgiveness of sins is real even though we cannot see it physically. While the paralyzed man in the story did not see his forgiveness, he had all reasons to believe that Jesus told the truth. Eventually, he got up and started walking. This way, through the healing of the man, Jesus highlighted the power of his authority. He wanted others to see that His words serve as the law others should obey.
How would you personally answer Jesus’ question, “But who do you say that I am?” Describe your own beliefs about Jesus.
Jesus came on Earth as God’s son, which is undoubted truth. As God’s minister, he did His best to heal and re-shape people’s consciousness. That is to say, with His teachings, He wanted to make the world a better place and challenge set stereotypes.
To me, Jesus is foremost the greatest philosopher of all time who tried to apply the God’s power to make people obey the 10 commandments God once presented to Moses. Eventually, Jesus and further his disciples called apostles radically changed the social reality settled by the principles of the Old Testament. Thus, Jesus was the crucial change maker of His time while His teachings have always had an immense impact on the lives of billions of people. No person on Earth had made such a great effect as Jesus did.
Hence, I would call Jesus as the greatest disruptor of social and moral stereotypes that held people in sin. Instead, Jesus introduced the philosophy of love and forgiveness. Without understanding and accepting these fundamental cornerstones of Christian philosophy, we will never understand the sense of God above us. Through His extraordinary deeds, Jesus proved that it is not necessary to sense something physically, one may simply believe and the faith will save him/her. What is more, I perceive Jesus as the most essential mark God has ever made on Earth. The appearance of Jesus was the greatest historical chance people failed to understand. Eventually, the society has live d through more than two centuries of sin reflected through evil. Still there is always a room for hope, love and forgiveness, and that is when Jesus comes to my life!
- Bible Gateway (2016). “Matthew 5:21-24,” retrieved October 24 from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205:21-24
- Grace Communion International (2016). “A Lesson about Healing (Mark 2:1-12),” retrieved October 24 from https://www.gci.org/bible/mark2a
