NUTSHELL AND KERNEL
- Jan 29
- 1 min read
200 words: Above the Crowds - From Stone to Speech
The Beatitudes begin the Sermon on the Mount. The setting is helpful:
Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill. There he sat down and was joined by his disciples. Then he began to speak. (Matthew 5).
Moses goes up the hill. Jesus goes up the hill.
Moses receives the Ten Words. Jesus gives the Eight Beatitudes.
The Ten Commandments promote and protect fundamental human values. We do well to know, love and preach and teach them.
The Eight Beatitudes are the inner core of the Ten Commandments:
Think nutshell and kernel
Is Matthew portraying Jesus as the new Moses? Maybe. Maybe not.
Moses received, but Jesus gives.
Surely the God-man, Jesus, transcends any great prophet?
Most intriguing is the phrase employed by Matthew:
He began to speak. Literally, ‘he opened his mouth.’
We imagine Jesus speaking to us:
A majestic, captivating moment for us.
His teaching is full of authority, so too his way of speaking. Surely Matthew is alerting us to the persona of Jesus.
The second person of the Blessed Trinity is the eternal Word, now the Word made flesh.
God speaks:
My life is a listening. God’s is a speaking (Thomas Merton).
AMEN.
