As occurs every Spring (and Fall), Apple announces its new products in an hour-long, studio quality presentation, as happened today, March 8, 2022.
Apple’s claims for its “breakthrough” new products triggered a connection to an even greater breakthrough hour, actually multiple hours, that occurred two thousand years ago, hours of eternal consequence. More on that below. First back to Apple.
Apple’s Use of Superlatives Regarding Their New Products
Apple’s presentation imagery, and dramatic testimonials, is a continual visual and audio explosion of enthusaism. Accompanying every rapid-sequence of scenes is a steady stream of superlatives.
In one such previous presentation Apple used the term “next level” so frequently that it became unintentionally comedic. (I even wrote a letter to editor at the Wall Street Journal making a parody of Apple’s use of the term, and like terms; since then–and I like to take credit for this–they have toned-down their use of “next level.”)
But they’ve gone bonkers with the number of superlatives they use. I tried to capture as many as I could speed-write during their presentation today. They are below in alphabetical order with frequency counts. I recorded 55 superlatives, many of them used multiple times; I know I missed many–but the list is impressive as it is.
| SUPERLATIVE | COUNT |
| Advanced | |
| Amazing | 5 |
| Astonishing | |
| Astounding | |
| Big leap | |
| Big step forward | |
| Blow your mind | |
| Blown away | |
| Breakthrough | 5 |
| Breathtaking | |
| Brings to life | |
| Change the world | |
| Changes eveything | |
| Class of its own | |
| Cranks up | |
| Crushes (competitors) | |
| Entirely new | |
| Even further | 2 |
| Extraordinary | 3 |
| Further than ever | |
| Game changer | 2 |
| Ground breaking | 2 |
| High performance | |
| Huge | 4 |
| Incredible | 4 |
| Innovative | 2 |
| Massive | 4 |
| Most powerful | |
| New heights | |
| Next giant leap | |
| Next level | 3 |
| No other | 2 |
| Other dimension | |
| Outrageous (good) | |
| Outstanding | |
| Power (way more | 2 |
| Profound | |
| Raises the bar | |
| Re-imagined | |
| Remarkable | 3 |
| Shattered | |
| Shock(-ing) | |
| Spectacular | |
| Staggering | 2 |
| Striking (new) | |
| Super | 2 |
| The highest | |
| Tranform(ative) | 2 |
| Ultimate | |
| Unbelievable | 2 |
| Unitque | |
| Unleashing | |
| Unprecedented | |
| Warp speed | |
| Way ahead |
The Sermon on the Mount
However mesmerizing the above references to Apple’s new product announcement, it pales, actually cannot even begin to compare, to the presentation given by Jesus Christ that we know as the Sermon on the Mount (SOTM). It is not actually called by that term in the Bible. A perhaps better term would be something like, The Breakthrough Introduction to The New Covenant. But we’ll stick with SOTM.
The duration of the SOTM may have been comparable to the hour of Apple’s. And the SOTRM on the mount would be worthy of an uncountable majesty of superlatives, as Apple sought to do on its behalf. But beyond such comparisons, the SOTM was, and remains, on the very short list of the most-significant opening discourses that has ever occurred in the history of the universe.
Background in Matthew’s Gospel Preceding The Sermon on the Mount (SOTM)
Let us set the context for the SOTM by observing In Matthew’s Gospel, the veil on Jesus Christ slowly, purposefully lifted, in its five opening scenes:
- The genealogy of Jesus Christ demonstrating, even before and by the miracle of His physical birth, His claim to Being the unique Heir of the Abramic and Davidic Covenants. (Matt. 1:1-17)
- The prophetically foretold and miraculous circumstances of the birth of Jesus who was Immanuel, God with us, and attested to even by those outside the Mosaic Covenant (i.e., those who came from the East as witnesses) (Matt. 1:18-2:12)
- The immediate rejection of Christ as King by TPI exemplified by the Roman vessel King Herod. (Matt. 2:13-23). Such rejection will recur at the very end of Christ’s mission on earth by Herod’s successor, Pilate. But first must come the Lord’s presentation of His claims as Messiah to the Jewish people and receive the ultimate and final rejection of TRI by the union of the Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers, and scribes.
- The forth-telling of Jesus as the Son of God inaugurating the Kingdom of Heaven, proclaimed by John the Baptist, in accordance with the prophetic words of Isaiah, and the accompanying call to “repentance,” a fundamental change of mind (frame) as to any grounds of righteous self-attainable by means of perceived adherence to the Mosaic Law. (Matt. 3:1-17).
- The attack of the Devil by three dealmaking propositions: (1) as to the the physical needs of an incarnated being–by eating the Devil’s bread, (2) as to the dramatic unveiling of His Divine Being–miraculous temple jumping by the Devil’s challenge,(3) as to His taking hold, through a short-cut, of His rightful Kingship–by the worship of the Devil himself. (Matt. 4:1-11). Variants of such dealmaking propositions had been used by the Devil and accepted by TRI, as is evidenced fully in the Gospels.
At Matt 4:11 the entire structure of the narrative changes. Jesus Christ becomes the Great Actor–not as a performer, or pretender, but as the Initiator of action, as to fulfilling His Great Purpose for Being. Beginning in Matt 4:12, and throughout the rest of the Gospel of Matthew until again, at the end He becomes the one acted at the culminating judgments and union of TRI and TPI.
From Matt 4:12, we see the preparation for the Lord’s great declarations of the SOTM in Matt Ch 5 -7, and in particular the opening four “beatitudes”, namely:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mt 5:3–6). (2016). Crossway Bibles. (Highlighting mine)
What is is to be “Blessed?”
As discussed elsewhere, the Koine word that begins each of the above sentences is makarios. In most translations it is given as “blessed;” some translations use “fortunate.” Both words are inadequate, even confusing.
We can think of “blessed” as meaning something like words of high praise, a well-wishing or claim conveyed upon the person(s) in question. That is not the idea behind makarios. There is another Koine word, eulogia, from which we get the word “eulogy,” which does mean, literal, good (“eu”) words (“logos” or “logia”). Makarios is not the synonym of eulogia.
Another kind of confusion results from the translated word “fortunate.” First, the word “fortunate” is basically the same word as “lucky,” as they each derive from the same idea namely that certain random, unknowing events has resulted in a condition of one’s liking, something like ‘the luck of the draw’ in a card game leading to table-winnings. Such is not the idea behind makarios.
What then do we do with makarios? Perhaps the best approach for a rich Koine word is to simply learn it as a Greek word that we know in its full meaning and so leave it untranslated as we do certain other words such as “baptize” and even “Jesus.” This goes against the spirit of our age which has taught Bible expositors to not make reference to the very words in which God has chosen to reveal His Word. As I’ve written elsewhere, in my view this is a mistake on many levels including the assumption that even a ‘lay’ audience is stupid and lazy. People who have a love of something, learn all kinds of vocabulary specific to the subject of their love. Think of fisherman, football fans, lovers of music, and a hundred other examples of passion. There are literally thousands of specialized vocabularies associated with each of such interest areas. People learn by desire that which they love.
So, let us replace “blessed” with makarios. Returning to the Sermon on the Mount let us first just focus on the first ‘half’ of each verse–the “A” part, the protasis, contrasting the “B” part, the apodosis, that ends each phrase. We then have:
markarios are the poor in spirit…markarios are those who mourn…makarios are the meek…makarious as those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…
Matt 5:3-6 (modified ESV translation)
Now this leads us to seek a deep understanding of what exactly does the single Koine word makarios represent, and how, in particular, does it relate to the four related ideas to which is is connected: poor, mourn, meek, and hunger / thirst?
An extended discussion of this matter is part of page elsewhere in this site:
The Reaction to the SOTM
To grasp the significance of the SOTM hour, let us look ahead to the closing words of such message as given below:
A Tree and Its Fruit
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
I Never Knew You
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Build Your House on the Rock
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
The Authority of Jesus
28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
Matthew 7 (ESV; headings [pericopes], are from Crossway’s publication of the ESV) Highlights are mine.
What follows the SOTM beginning in Matt 8 are rapid-fire scenes that testify by example and power, much as Apple did in its announcement, of the significance of the SOTM, namely:
- Jesus sees, talks with, and touches (!) the utterly despised and excluded leper, and immediately cleanses him, and gives him the instruction to show himself to the Levitical priest as a testimony to “The Religion Industry” of that time.
- Jesus sees, talks with, and heals by remote power, the servant of the hated, despised Roman soldier (a centurion), representative of “The Political Industry,” considered to be the utterly contemptible occupying force violating God’s holy land.
- Jesus sees, and touches the ill mother-in-law of the Apostle Peter (was she another example of the “despised” category?), followed by many healings of all who were oppressed by demon possession, which was apparently at that time a prevalent condition, and a spiritually-contemptible example of the utterly despised.
- Jesus in a boat with experienced fishermen, His disciples, caught in a sudden and extreme storm, is called upon by those terrified men to save them from death, which He does by His rebuking both the winds and the sea, resulting in a great calm.
- Jesus upon entering the condemned outskirts of Israel, he confronts two men possessed by a a legion of demons, in a land of pigs (thus the place was triply despised: foreign, demons, and pigs), and heals the men by casting out the demons who in turn invaded the pigs causing their drowning in the same sea that just previously His disciples had feared to be their fate.
Then in Matt 9 begins His encounter with the contrary response to the SOTM, namely that of “The Religion Industry” who rejected Jesus’s claim to be Messiah. Consider the paragraph that opens Matt 9:
1 And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. 2 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” 4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 7 And he rose and went home.
Matt 9:1-7 (ESV)
Up until this moment (in Matthew’s narrative) we see no objection to the power and work of Jesus. He is approved in healing (the leper, the servant, the mother-in-law, the demon possessed), controlling the power of the natural world (winds and waves), judging the demons (into pigs, and pigs into drowning). Now, we get to the crux of the matter: the great issue that Messiah came into spacetime to address was not the aches and pains of physical life or adversities of the natural world, but the issue of sin.
Recall from the above how the SOTM began with the “blessedness” (makarios) of the poor, those who mourn, are meek, and hunger / thirst for righteousness. These all point to the great underlying problem, and curse, namely that of sin, both in terms of specific offenses against God (and one another) but also, even more significantly, sins of and by our nature, much as the natural world of wind and waves, and diseases (leprosy, illnesses). But even further, is the example of the inner demons in which we all have a form of being so possessed, and from which we need deliverance that comes from outside of ourselves.
How does the above scene in Matt 9:1-7 end?
8 When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
Matt 9:8 (ESV)
There are multiple layers of complexity in Matt 9:8. God is glorified is one layer, though because there were two distinct miracles–one the healing of physical paralysis and the greater larger healing of spiritual deformity and paralysis–we have to wonder which, or both, was the basis of such praise. Another layer is the expression of fear. Fear in the sense of overwhelming awe, humbling power, blinding incomprehension, is a common element of experiencing God. As with Moses, Isaiah, Paul, Apostle John (in Revelation) and all others, being in some direct sense of apprehending God strikes at the very core of being human, and especially being fallen human (as Peter said on the shores of Galilee in John 21).
But then we are given the cause of such fear and glorifying, namely that “God…had given such authority to men.” If “men” was in reference to the category of God Being in true humanity then the crowds had a proper understanding of what they had just witnessed. However, if they saw Jesus only as “man” with supernatural powers, perhaps like a current example of a famed OT prophet then they were greatly mistaken, and still in the dark. And we have the fear of the scribes, the present representatives of “The Religion Industry.” That fear would have been the threat against such system of religion and the privileged position of the Jewish leadership at that time.
So we see in the rest of Matthew, and indeed in all the Gospels, and rest of the NT, the unfolding of confusion, true belief, and vehement opposition in the crowds, the faithful, and The Religion Industry, respectively. And, so it continues to this day.
Contentment
Returning to the example of Apple and its new product offerings, all those 50 plus superlatives were about creating discontent. Apple, after all, is all about selling its new stuff, to replace the old stuff it sold before in previous announcements full of previous superlatives, and to expand to new customer bases who have not to date experienced such rain of superlatives.
But what of contentment? With products and services, contentment seems only to last a little while until something better comes along that seems to be worth the expense to gain the advantage in experience. Sadly, and more significantly, way more, is the lack of contentment with God’s provision by His Person and finished Work.
As we see in the record of the Gospels, and the rest of the NT, The Religion Industry of that day, as of every day since, has not been contented with God’s provision of redemption and reconciliation (the more exact word is “propitiation,” not an every day word, but a good one). Instead, it is too common that we seek contentment before God and man based on what we can do, and what we think we are intrinsically (namely, that were are basically “good,” at least in our intentions). Further, we all too commonly seek “religion” that will affirm, and ever entertain, us that such is indeed a correct world- and God- view of things. For this affirmation to ‘work,’ it needs ever louder and more dramatic forms because it isn’t true and somewhere deep within we know it.
Even for those who have crossed into Faith in Christ’s finished Work, and know that our redemption (and God’s propitiation) is secure, we are often prone to discontent even in spiritual contexts.
Given below Scriptures cited by the late Jerry Bridges in his book The Practice of Godliness in his chapter on “contentment.” There is great treasure in its reading and meditating on. Shown are the same passages in five forms: NASB95, ESV, KJV, YLT, and the Koine Greek manuscript. (Elsewhere on this website I discuss the value of the YLT, the Young’s Literal Translation).
Perhaps appropriately, given that I have used the company Apple as an example here, I have posted below the same contentment Scriptures but in the more easily editable format of Apple’s word processing software “Pages.” For convenience of Word users, I’ve converted it to docx format.
The Apple and Adam / Eve?
I will close with a joke that is not original with me: “Adam and Eve were the first people who had not carefully read the Apple’s terms and conditions.”
There actually is a heavy truth within the humor. Those terms and conditions were permanent exclusion from God’s presence and, death both physical and spiritual, and eternal judgment. Christ came to save sinners from the consequences of Adam’s choice by the choice and work as the Second Adam (as to His work: He was of course much more than an ‘Adam,’ which word means “of the earth” both as to material origin and spacetime position).
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
Romans 5 (ESV)
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Cor 15:22 (ESV)
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
1 Cor 15:45 (ESV)