Show notes
Book 1: An Illumination of Matthew Part 2: The Thesis of JesusChapter 5: Abolish or Fulfill? (Righteousness I: the Past) This episode continues Part 2: The Thesis of Jesus, beginning with the first discourse of Jesus - what has become known as the Sermon on the Mount. Jake joins again - this time, in my therapy office in Seattle - and we discuss Jesus' masterpiece, his "thesis" on Righteousness, the foundational ethical teaching of Christian culture.Here we look at chapter 5 of Matthew's Gospel, which contains the first part of the Sermon on the Mount and pertains to right relationship to the past, the tradition, and the Father. In the following episodes we will discuss chapters 6 and 7, which correlate to the questions of present and future. In this episode:0:45 - Recap last episode - the 3 dimensions of Jesus’ Messianic Campaign2:45 - The combination of the 3 dimensions in the Sermon on the Mount3:45 - What Jesus came to do with his life5:45 - The symbolism of the Mount and the invocation of Moses/the Torah10:10 - Reading of the Beattitudes10:50 - The Beattitude and the invocation of David/the Psalms13:50 - The Structure of the Sermon on the Mount16:00 - The theme: Righteousness=Ethics=How to live17:30 - The thesis: Righteousness is life lived from the heart; the heart is grounded in presence to the present; presence to the present requires right relationship to past and future19:25 - Clearing space for the present21:40 - The 8th beattitude: Persecuted for Righteousness26:25 - Courage, despite paranoid anxiety29:30 - Jesus embodies the courage to shine31:20 - Abolish or Fulfill - on right relationship with the past33:15 - Abolishing the past leads to the return of the repressed36:50 - The 7th beattitude: Peacemakers38:40 - The formula of fulfillment: “You have heard it said… but I say to you” 40:50 - The only reason why you haven’t killed anyone yet44:45 - The most difficult ethical teaching ever given48:00 - The 6th beattitude: Pure of Heart50:35 - Purity - the undivided heart52:10 - Being married to your one and only finite life54:10 - The moral equivalence between porn consumers and sex workers1:01:05 - The 5th beattitude: Mercy1:03:15 - The oldest principle of law - retributive justice1:08:00 - Growing into the full stature of ethical being1:09:10 - The difference between mercy and passivity/masochism1:12:50 - How Jesus embodies mercy on the cross1:14:30 - Did Jesus do it so that we wouldn’t have to?1:17:00 - The guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John1:20:05 - The first mention of “Heavenly Father” and the being of the Son1:22:05 - Ultimate relations to past, present, and future: a glimpse of the Trinity1:23:20 - Closing the book on this chapter