F O O T H O L D
READING
31 RADICAL TEACHING
PRAY Help me to learn what
you want to teach me today, my Lord and my
Father.
READ Matthew 5:116.
THINK Try to match the
following verses with verses from today's
reading: Isaiah 57:15;
Isaiah 61:1; Psalm 37:11; Isaiah 55:1,2;
Psalm 24:3,4.
FOCUS TRUE JOY (112). What
do you think would make you really happy?
Good health? Lots of money?
Plenty of friends? A secure job? In
the time of Jesus, people
made a mistake that is still common.
They believed that obeying
God was sure to bring wealth and
success. In this passage
Jesus turns upside down these
conventional ideas about the
conditions for happiness.
'Blessed', sometimes
translated 'happy', describes a joy that is
not influenced by our
outward circumstances. This joy comes from
recognising our own
spiritual inadequacy and depending completely
upon God (3). All the other
qualities that Jesus mentions here
follow from this (eg. sorrow
for our own sinfulness and the sins
of the world (4), humility (5),
a deep desire for righteousness
(6), etc.)
SALT AND LIGHT (1316). Salt
is different from the food that it is
mixed with. Today we use it
chiefly for flavouring, to enhance the
taste. In the time of Jesus,
salt was used (as it sometimes is
even today) to stop meat and
fish from decaying. Think about that
for a moment: how may a
Christian be like salt in the world?
Light contrasts with
darkness. The purpose of lighting a lamp is
that it should be clearly
seen in the dark. Only a fool would
cover a lamp with a bowl (15).
Being 'salt' and 'light'
isn't easy. Most of us feel safer if we
are just like other people.
But Jesus makes it quite clear. He
wants us to be different.
Like salt and light. Why? (See verse
16).
