Deep Calls

So ... my supposition:  the proximate cause of Matthew's abandonment of his life as a tax collector could have been Jesus' first Sermon on the Mount. Ok...lets clarify some terms: proximate cause :   a cause that directly or with no intervening agency produces an effect abandon:  (synonyms:   relinquish, renounce) means to give up all concern in something. Abandon means to give up or discontinue any further interest in something because of discouragement, weariness, distaste, or the like: to abandon one's efforts. Relinquish implies being or feeling compelled to give up something one would prefer to keep: to relinquish a long-cherished desire. Renounce implies making (and perhaps formally stating) a voluntary decision to give something up: to renounce worldly pleasures.   first I do think that Jesus preached 2 sermons on hill/mountain sides, two sermons that were different

OK, I started writing about the sermons on the mountain given by Jesus and recorded in Matthew and in Luke ... and I stalled. Somehow I couldn't do it -- even in my head it kept coming out like "wahwah wahwah wah. . ." Now, don't get me wrong ~ I do love the SoM's -- both of them, the differences, the power statements, the passion of the values Jesus so clearly elucidates. But somehow I just couldn't write it out. I really do recommend that you go yourselves and check out the OT references for the Matthew sermon: Isaiah 60-61, Isaiah 55 especially. What kept filling my head was Matthew himself. I kept getting caught in the MATTHEW / LEVI-ness of his story. I mean - why did Mark and Luke call him Levi, and yet he called himself Matthew. Was it a nic-name? Mark and Luke were the 'non-disciple' gospel writers. I suspect that Mark was actually there for much of Jesus' ministry and did actually hear Jesus himself ~ but as a 'kid brought along'

Matt 5:3-4 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. blessed : 25.119 maka/rio pertaining to being happy, with the implication of enjoying favorable circumstances (from Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domain. Copyright © 1988 United Bible Societies, New York. Used by permission.) So ~  blessed, to be happy and enjoy favorable circumstances, are the poor in spirit , and those who mourn . So this is Jesus' opening salvo -- hmmmm.  Besides those who quote the Bible, do you know anyone who says "poor in spirit"? Yeah, didn't think so. When I am confronted with phrases like that one as I read, I think, "wow -- must be something they all understood and we are missing" ~ and I go do what I can to look it up, cross reference, do some digging. Here is what I found. "Poor" as in "poor in spirit" means poor . It comes from a word that means to