March 04th, 2023

This Sunday is the Second Sunday in Lent. As we continue in this Lenten season, we are in the so-called ‘A Series’, and these particular writings are a journey through the Gospel according to Matthew. These writings are currently within what is commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus first had grabbed our attention at the beginning of that Sermon by laying out what groups of people are being blessed by God, with the last group being those who were hearing these words and being persecuted on account of Jesus (see Matthew 5:11-12). Then he began to speak of God in terms of ‘Father’, certainly a rare title within the Old Testament.

This movement away from the title ‘God’ to ‘Father’ continues within this sermon, and those two words will be given in bold in what follows. And what follows is the next section of the text, again in a somewhat-literal translation [Matthew 7:1-12]:

Do not Judge, that not you be judged. For in what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and in what measure you measure, it will be measured to you. Now why you see the chip, the one in the eye of the brother of you, now the in-your-eye beam you not consider? Or how will you say to the brother of you, Allow I throw out the chip out of the eye of you, and, behold, the beam in the eye of you? Hypocrite, throw out first out of the eye of you, the beam, and then you will see clearly to throw out the chip out of the eye of the brother of you.

Do not give the holy to the dogs, nor throw the pearls of you before the pigs, lest they trample them in the feet of them and, turning, they tear you. Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For all the one asking receives, and the one seeking finds, and to the one knocking, it will be opened. Or who is from you, a man, whom will ask the son of him a bread, not a stone he will give to him? Or also a fish he will ask, not a snake he will give over to him? Therefore, if you, evil being, know gifts—good—to give to the children of you, how much more the Father of you, the One in the heavens, will give good things to the ones asking him. Therefore, all things as many as you wish, that they may do to you, the men, thus also you yourselves do to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

There has been some movement away from ‘God’ to ‘Father’, but the latter word only appeared once within this section. In the text above, Jesus speaks of a man having a son, but he does not call that man a father. Jesus is not only getting to the end of the sermon; he has a more important ‘Father figure’ to describe.

The lack of the special word ‘Father’ may also have something to do with the structure of this sermon, that there are seventeen uses of that word within the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and the middle word is the use of the word within what is known as the Lord’s Prayer.
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The last use of the word ‘Father’ within the Sermon on the Mount is significantly different from the others. If you would like to look ahead, that verse is Matthew 7:21. But you can be sure it will be the focus for next week’s writing.