Thus the word ‘amen’ contains its own explanatory mechanism: God is a faithful king, or the king of faithfulness.
His kingdom is linked closely with the concept of repentance (Matthew 4:17 and Mark 1:15). In associating the concept of repentance and the concept of God’s kingdom, Jesus is operating with notions that would have been familiar to His audience.
The Pharisees of the time emphasized both repentance and God’s kingdom, so they had set foundational ideas in place, upon which Jesus built.
By their exposition of Mosaic texts (e.g., Exodus 20:22 to 20:26), the Pharisees had also promulgated an early version of the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. In this way, too, they had cleared a path for Jesus, however unwittingly.
In contradiction to oversimplified views of the New Testament, often and inappropriately presented to small children, the Pharisees were not uniformly the ‘bad guys.’ Jesus was in many respects similar to them, and many of them became followers of Jesus.
In teaching about repentance, the Pharisees offered a trifold explanation: repentance is first the recognition of wrong, second the resolve to change, and third the actual change. Repentance is more than remorse; remorse is mere emotion.
In teaching about generosity, the Pharisees used phrases which Jesus would likewise use. ‘Storing up treasures in heaven’ was their idiom for giving to the poor (Matthew 6:20 and 19:21, Mark 10:21, Luke 12:33 and 18:22). Having a ‘good eye’ meant being generous (Matthew 6:23, Luke 11:34 to 11:36).
[These thoughts loosely based on a talk given by Dwight Pryor on Saturday, October 01, 1994]
