Scripture text for Monday, March 22nd, 2010: Matthew 5:1-6:4
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This passage is known as the Beatitudes from the Latin for “blessed” or “happy.” The scene is the beginning of Jesus’ teaching ministry. In Matthew, Jesus has just called his first disciples and begun healing. And he goes up onto a mountain side, sits down and begins with these verses.
The Jews of the day believed that the first in the Kingdom of God would be the educated, the priests and teachers of the law (all males and middle to upper-class). The last in the Kingdom would then of course be the poor and often oppressed “people of the land,” along with women and gentiles.