The Sermon of the Beatitudes (1886-96) by James Tissot from the series The Life of Christ, Brooklyn Museum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: Is the greatest sermon ever preached. The Lord’s Prayer, the beatitudes, and the golden rule are in this sermon.
Jesus delivered this sermon on a mountain near Capernaum. There is some dispute whether Jesus sat while delivering the Sermon on the Mount. Sitting asserts authority, so rabbi’s often sat while teaching.
The Sermon on the Mount is in the 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters of Matthew. You can read the entire sermon here: http://www.biblepath.com/beatitudes.html. It’s divided into 5 sections listed below:
Beatitudes – Teachings that begin with “blessed.” These were meant to comfort suffering believers.
New laws – Contrasts the Old Law of Moses with the new law of Christ. Lord’s Prayer – Instructions on prayer. Jesus also teaches the proper motives for fasting and offering gifts.
Money – Christian attitudes concerning the use of money. Reasons to avoid worry.
Warnings – Dangers of false teachers and hypocrisy. Jesus also presents the parable of the wise and foolish builders.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the Catholic Church is a force for good in the world. When it comes to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and looking out for the poor, the Catholic Church is second to none. It has, more so than any other religious institution spread its wing in diverse places across the globe. Wherever there are suffering and oppression, the Catholic Church is there to lend a helping hand.
Nevertheless, the Church is not perfect. Its failings in recent years and in its distant past continue to be an Alcatraz around its neck. However, such failings should not in any way shape or form take away from its importance as a force for good in the world.
I strongly believe was it not for the Catholic Church, even with its failings, the world would be worse off than it is today.
Let’s be realistic, everybody struggles with something. Heavenly religious or earthly secular, personal weaknesses are real. Furthermore, you cannot be a follower of Jesus Christ and not struggle with demons. The Apostle Paul calls his, a “thorn in the flesh.” And while Simon Peter never admits this publicly, he hated the Gentile.
Here is how Paul describes his personal weakness: “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. . .” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).
Jesus knew that personal weaknesses or borne out of self-indulgence and there are no shortcuts around them. Perhaps that’s the reason He declared: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).
God does not want you to carry anything that He has not asked you to carry. Everything that He has asked you to carry, He will give you the grace to carry.
If you try to carry something that God wants someone else to carry, they will be given the grace to carry it, but you will not. If God has not asked you to carry something, do not pick it up.
Although taking up your cross involves denying yourself, the main focus is about following Christ. The cross you carry has to do with the choices you make with your will, the responses you have in your actions, and the attitude you have in your heart.
God has called you to carry your own cross. His cross for you is something that you can take up daily, because grace will be in your hands to lift the cross, grace will be on your shoulders to carry the cross, and grace will be in your heart to live out the cross in your daily life. It is grace that makes bearing your cross possible.
Your cross means that you are putting to death every decision, every response, and every attitude in your life that is not consistent with the love of Jesus Christ.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1). “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman” (Galatians 4:28).
In his letter to the Church in Galatia, the Apostle Paul compared the old Jewish customs and tradition (Moses law) to a yoke of bondage. He contended that the law was so rigid and burdensome, no man could keep it. According to Paul’s reasoning, (and he would know because he was an enforcer of the law) it was useless to even attempt to keep the law.
“Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love” (Galatians 5:2-6)
What is a Yoke?
A Yoke is a bar of wood, so constructed as to unite two animals (usually oxen), enabling them to work in the fields, drawing loads, pulling instruments used for farming. The purpose of the yoke is primarily to control the animals. No wonder the Apostle Paul compared the law to a yoke of bondage.
But God is a bondage breaker. He does not want you to be under any law that is outside the law of love. Christ came to set you free from anything that is not in His will or plan for you.
Bondage is any weight that tries to slow you down, pull you down, or keep you down as you seek to walk upon God’s pathway for your life. In Christ, you are no longer a slave to any sin, and fear, or any lie of the enemy. You are a
Oxen Team: getting yoked and prepped for work. (Photo credit: Laskaris)
free citizen of God’s Kingdom and you have a rightful claim to all its blessings, freedoms, and privileges. As someone who is free in Christ, there is nothing to prevent you from fully processing and enjoying the life He has given you.
Jesus resurrected and Mary Magdalene (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
John 20:1-29
New International Version (NIV)
The Empty Tomb
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen laying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb, first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (Which means “Teacher”)?
Jesus said “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Again Jesus said, “Peace is with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Jesus Appears to Thomas
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
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