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Gehenna, this is the first appearance of this word in the New Testament, gehenna is the Greek word Jesus uses, it’s consistently translated as hell, but hell is not entirely helpful, because the word hell has had attached to it lots of meanings and associations that have come from later...

But what does it mean to fulfill the will of God that’s revealed in that command, it’s not just to end somebody’s life, it’s about weaning yourself off of this habit that we have to evaluate other people’s worth. This gets very personal very quickly, the ease with which I’ll be more flippant...

What Jesus said he was going to do was offer teaching about how the Torah is fulfilled and so if you have something that’s fulfilled, you have something that’s real, but also it’s pointing to some greater, more full reality, realized in some way. Jesus used the commands as pointing to some way...

There’s a status to be attained in this new reality, but where Jesus is getting the status language is from the least, the idea of the least and the greatest commands and so if you undo the least of the greatest commands, what you have done will be done to you, you’ll become least in the Kingdom...

Jesus makes two points to underscore that he’s not here to dismantle the Torah, because Jesus views the Torah as so valuable, here’s how he would describe its divine authority, not one little tiny detail, the little squiggles of Hebrew letters, this got translated in King James as jot and title...

Matthew 5:17-21, don’t suppose that I have come to dismantle the Torah or the prophets, I have not come to dismantle, but to fill them full. So Jesus, I’ve heard that there are some people saying, that you are kind of loose with the Sabbath, are you really here to honor the Torah and the...

Justice in a later poem in Isaiah 49, we get a speech from the servant who repeats all these images, God has called me from the womb to be his servant. The servant says later on, God told me I will make you a light to the nations, so that my salvation “salvation is the word Yeshua, it’s Jesus...

The last line of this opening poem is the prophet now talking to Israel saying, come house of Jacob, “Jacob is Israel’s ancestor,” let us walk in the light of Yahweh, the or and Torah word play. God is shining a light on Israel, whose capital city is the city on the hill, Jerusalem and that...

Matthew 5:13-16, key point is that God’s light and God’s instruction shine out to the world to show the way to true life and Jesus is assuming and building on Isaiah’s word play and that’s going to play a key role in understanding what he means. Jesus calls his followers the salt of the land...

Matthew 5:10-12, the good life belongs to those who are persecuted. Because we’re going to do what’s right, which will result in us getting caught in the crossfire of a lot of angry people. Jesus’ ethic of doing what is right by God and others and if we’re going to get involved in conflict, get...

Matthew 5:9, the good life belongs to those who are peacemakers, because they will be called the children of God. The good life belongs to those who are being persecuted for the sake of doing what is right, when people insult us or spread evil lies about us, all on account of Jesus, because...

Matthew 5:8, the good life belongs to the pure of heart, because they will see God. They are the ones, who will look upon the face of God, but looking upon the face of God, isn’t that a very dangerous thing to do? It is, but it’s only dangerous if we live on the outside of Eden, because if we’re...

Matthew 5:7, the good life belongs to those who show mercy, because they will be shown mercy. The famous parable of the guy who’s debt was forgiven, but he doesn’t forgive a debt owed him. The conclusion of that is the guy who holds the debt said, shouldn’t you have shown mercy to your fellow...

Matthew 5:6, the good life belongs to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be satisfied. Righteousness refers to the character of someone who is in right relationship with others around them. The good life belongs to those who hunger and thirst for, Jesus is using a...

Matthew 5:5, the good life belongs to the afflicted, because they will inherit the land. The afflicted or the unimportant one, whoever the afflicted are, they are a group of people that need to be rescued when God brings ultimate justice. The unimportant one are people who are being abused and...

Matthew 5:4, the good life belongs to those who grieve, for they will be comforted. Grief, people who experience life in a constant state of grieving, because they’re experiencing death and loss. Comfort, the New Jerusalem is on its way, that will be the comfort for those who grieve and mourn...

Matthew 5:3, the good life belongs to the impoverished in spirit, the Hebrew word for spirit is “ruach,“ poor in relation to their ruach. Ruach, refers in it’s essence to invisible energy. It can be impersonal energy like wind or it can be the presence of someone’s personal life energy. It’s...

This whole setup is about how Adam and Eve in Eden are like priests in the cosmic Temple and there’s abundance, they walk with God, they are meant to rule, that is organize their lives in such a say that there’s flourishing. This whole package, this is the blessing. Jesus starts touring around...

The Sermon on the Mount is the first of five blocks of Jesus’ teaching in the gospel according to Matthew. So for most of the history of the Jesus movement, it’s the first main block of teachings that people encounter if they pick up and start reading the New Testament. Just the sheer...

Something new has happened, we have in effect fitted Jesus and even his resurrection into the story that our Western churches have had all along of the present world as the preparation for the various options of life after death in the traditional scheme, heaven or hell. But in the New...