Rama Ramanathan

This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder Matthew 5:13-20. The English Standard Version supplies the heading “Salt and Light” to verses 13-16, and the heading “Christ Came to Fulfil the Law” to verses 17-20. Last week, I discussed the earlier verses in today’s chapter, the first words in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus […]

Why did Jesus begin with blessings? And why did he label as “blessings,” things which we surely don’t want?

In the first months of my discipleship, a man called Mr Purdie asked me why I chose to follow Jesus. I said I somehow …

Jesus joined sinners in solidarity. Not to commit sin together with them. But to reveal sin as the cause of so much trouble in our world, and to reveal and to act out God’s solution to it – a solution which required his death on the altar of a Roman cross in Jerusalem, the Holy City.

The words “fulfil all righteousness” ring in my ears. I wonder. Is the baptism of Jesus more than a commissioning, more than a shot fired to say the race has begun? I wonder if it’s an enactment of

The more I read the Gospels, the more I believe that I – and most Christians I know – fail to read them correctly.

Christians who live in Muslim-majority Malaysia, filled with ethno-religious rhetoric, especially in the era of the Gaza conflict, must reflect on Israel. Are churches the new Israel? If they are …

In the Bible, the church is called the Bride of Christ. Today, churches around the world bear much reproach. When people share stories about churches, they choose stories of exploitation and greed. Or stories of promises of personal peace and abundance, affluence. Not of mercy, honour, protection. What can you and I do to change the narrative?

Matthew also tells us Jesus pointedly added that John had less honour than “the least in the kingdom of heaven.” Why did Jesus say that? Why did Matthew write that Jesus said that?

John had a blunt message for Israelites who thought they were safe because they were descendants of Abraham, to whom God had promised the land. He said Israel was like a tree which failed to bear fruit. He said the tree’s owner had raised an axe to chop it down.[8] Until John, baptism was reserved for proselytes, non-Israelites who wanted to join Israel. But John said …