O'Donoghue MTh_Thesis-FinalCopy.pdf - South African Theological ...

the scope of this thesis to conduct a detailed Christology, examining the person andlife of Jesus, particularly as it relates to His position of authority to give this sermon,will prove to enhance the understanding of Matthew 6:19-34.The third motif to be explored will be the God of the sermon. Jesus through out theSermon makes reference to God. Several times referring to Him as Father and alsomaking reference to the providential way God works. It will be shown that the wayJesus spoke of God as Father and encouraged His disciples to speak of God asFather was unique in Judaism. Further references to God providing for His peoplewould need to be understood in light of what a Jewish audience would have alreadyknown about the way God provides.Fourthly, Jesus talking of laying up treasure in Heaven merited discussion in theliterary analysis. Thus the theme of rewards for a disciple’s obedience to God will beexplored. Again this is a theme which was briefly touched upon briefly, but will beexplored in greater detail here.Fifthly, as was mentioned in the first chapter, the SOM is addressed to the ChristianDisciple. Also, the historical context showed one of the purposes of the gospel ofMatthew is instruction in discipleship. Thus the theme of Christian Discipleship and inparticular how it is practised in the context of the church community will be explored.Further, the nature of what discipleship is intended to be will be explored.6.2. The Theological Themes6.2.1 The Kingdom of Heaven and His RighteousnessAs Jesus in Matthew 6:33 instructs His disciples to seek first God’s Kingdom and HisRighteousness, the questions to be answered in this section are what is this kingdomand how does it look once it is found or arrived? Further highlighting the importanceof this motif is that it was concluded in the literary analysis that by Jesus instructingHis disciples to seek “first” the Kingdom He was advocating that they prioritise thisactivity over and above the accumulation of wealth. It was already stated in chapter 5that the kingdom and God’s righteousness were used synonymously in Matthew69