GOSPEL OF MATTHEW CHAPTER 1 - 7

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

When Matthew takes a hint from Mark to make
Another Gospel in the Gospel’s wake,
He adds not just a superstitious touch
In finding more of Scripture and as much
In proof of Jesus’ claims from Moses and
The Psalms and Prophets gone out in the land.
It’s not so much prediction that he sees
As will to fulfil all the prophecies,
The attitude that what is written must
Be the fair model for us men of dust.
So Jesus rides two donkey in his trust.
Beloved, I find with faith or not the care
That Matthew gives to Jesus and to spare.

MATTHEW 1

1 The book of genealogy,
Line of transmission appointee
To Jesus the Christ, David’s son,
The son of Abraham when done.

The same concern that veils Muhammad’s speech
Is here, that return to Abraham’s peach.
But that is only half the striven goal.
To be a Muslim counts the middle toll.
Beyond the bowing and the fasting I
Must find the son of David, at least try.
The unity in Abraham is good,
But loyalty to David’s what I should
Maintain, if I am serious in the way
Of following the Scriptures in their ray.
This Gospel is the logical recourse
After the books just read that would endorse
The kingdom and the throne of David here
And for eternity and without fear.

2 Abraham handed down the crown
Isaac then to Jacob’s renown,
And Jacob to Judah and brothers.
3 Judah also produced some others,
Perez and Zerah by Tamar,
Perez produced Hezron, a star,
And Hezron produced Ram, 4 that rab
In turn produced Amminadab,
Amminadab produced Nahshon,
And Nahshon then produced Salmon.
5 Salmon got Boaz by Rahab,
Boaz produced Obed by Ruth,
Obed produced Jesse in truth,
6 And Jesse got David the king.
David the king got Solomon
By her who was the fiancée
Of Uriah. 7 Solomon's sway
Gave way to Rehoboam, who
Produced Abijah, Abijah
Produced Asa, 8 and Asa too
Got one Jehoshaphat for awe,
Jehoshaphat got Joram, and
Joram then produced Uzziah.
9 Uzziah had Jotham in hand,
And Jotham Ahaz, who produced
Hezekiah stayed home to roost.
10 Hezekiah got Manasseh,
Manasseh Amon for his say,
And Amon had Josiah then.
11 Josiah not weakest of men
Got Jeconiah and his brothers
About the time with all the others
They went captive to Babylon.
12 When they were brought to Babylon,
Jeconiah got Shealtiel,
And Shealtiel Zerubbabel.
13 Zerubbabel got Abiud,
Abiud produced Eliakim,
Eliakim got Azor good.
14 Azor produced Zadok in scheme,
And Zadok then produced Achim,
And Achim produced Eliud.
15 Eliud got Eleazar,
Eleazar Matthan in car,
And Matthan Jacob tenderly.
16 Jacob produced Joseph unwary
The husband of the Virgin Mary,
Of whom was born Jesus called Christ.
17 So all the generations spliced
From Abraham to David are
Just fourteen generations' bar,
From David to captivity
In Babylon fourteen run free,
From the bondage in Babylon
To Christ are fourteen ages gone.

The fourteen holy ones in every age
Bear on their shoulders, page by shining page,
The burden of the world, without their right
The universe would sink into the night
Of nought, instead of being shimmering screen
Where is reflected beyond space and seen
Your golden image. We who slumber on
Are kept in peace until the ruddy dawn,
No retribution comes, for their dear sake
Who pass the loving cord along and make
The circle close around the whirling feet
Of forties and fourteens, where masters meet.
Beloved, look on the generations’ dance
And give the rising dancers glance for glance.

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Christ
Was so: his mother was enticed
By Joseph and engaged, but then
Before they came together men
Saw she was pregnant by the power
Of holy spirit in an hour.
19 But Joseph her fiancée was just,
Not wanting to humble to dust,
Intended to break the contract
In secret as merciful act.

If the man really was a just one, why
Did he try then to hide her on the sly?
By law he ought to have brought her straight out
To be stoned for adultery en route.
It's not mercy to break the law because
The miscreant's a friend, kin or in-laws.
Nepotic action's root of every ill
In government from town hall to the hill.
Beloved, if the man knew the child was not
His own, then he should have exposed the plot.
Let dreams and visions of angels require
A man still follows law and order's pyre.
Or then reverse it all to meet the kind
Of order that the jungle's like to find.

20 But while he thought about these things,
Indeed, an angel of YHWH brings
A message to him in a dream,
Saying, “Joseph, not what things seem,
You son of David, do not fear
To take Mary your wife and dear,
For that which is conceived in her
Is of the holy spirit’s stir.
21 “And she’ll bring forth a son, and you
Shall call his name Jesus, for YHWH
Saves, for He’ll truly save his folk
From their sins as He promised, spoke.”

They say the name of YHWH is never found
In the New Testament of Scriptures bound.
It’s true the word the Septuagint made
Come in translation of that word waylaid
Is often used for Jesus on parade
And for You Yourself, my Beloved and stayed,
And for a gentleman called sir when paid.
Behind the curious Your name appears,
In some of these, and even without fears
Within the name of Jesus when sky clears
To see YHWH saves remains after the shears.
Beloved, I say Your name in any case,
With every breath exhaled I find the trace
Of YHWH impaled on living, fleshly face.

22 So all this was done that it might
Be fulfilled which was spoken right
By YHWH through the prophet, saying
23 “Indeed, the virgin shall be spring,
Pregnant with child, and bear a son,
And they shall call his name when done
Immanuel,” which is translated,
“God’s with us” still and not abated.
24 Then Joseph was aroused from sleep,
Did as YHWH’s angel said to keep,
And took to him his wife, 25 and did
Not lie with her until what hid
In her was born, her firstborn son.
And he named him Jesus when done.

I take issue, Beloved, with Matthew’s tale
Stolen from Isaiah and dressed in mail.
The truth is Isaiah in prophecy
Spoke to the king who was too proud to see
A sign that You would save the people brought
Under threat of the enemy unsought.
The words were spoken and fulfilled right then
Before the king so he’d have faith again.
So Isaiah could not have meant at first
The baby born to Mary when he durst.
And yet the events of that ancient day
Were signs of Your salvation on the way,
And as such were appropriate to take
In memory of a new baby’s wake.

God with us still, despite the Roman yoke,
You sent this Son, and thus and thus he spoke.
God with us still, despite the prophets gone,
And only whispered promise of the dawn.
The same God that fought with the waves of old
That turned the ship of Noah to sheep’s fold,
The same Jehovah that taught the Red Sea
To make a path wherein the oppressed flee,
The same God that spoke fire on Carmel’s hill,
And then again on Sinai, deep and still.
Arouse me from my sleep to know the voice,
Beloved, of whom You sent and to rejoice
His name means then and now Jehovah saves,
Let no Saviour but You abide the waves.

MATTHEW 2

1 Now after Jesus Christ was born
In Bethlehem of Judaea
In the days of Herod of scorn
The king, indeed, wise men of law
From East came to Jerusalem,
2 Saying “Where is he who has been
Born King of the Jews to be seen?
For we’ve seen his star in the East
And have come to prostrate at least
Before him.” 3 When Herod the king
Heard, he was troubled by the thing,
And all Jerusalem with him.
4 And when he had gathered to him
All the people’s chief priests and scribes
Together, he inquired with bribes
Of them where the Christ should be born.
5 So they said to him not forsworn,
“In Bethlehem of Judea,
For thus is written by the paw
Of prophet: 6 ‘But you, Bethlehem,
In the land of Judah, a gem,
Are not the least among the high
Rulers of Judah, for from you
Shall come a greater ruler who
Will shepherd My folk Israel.’”

The prophecy of Micah came to spill
The news that David would return to fill
Israel's throne united with all men
In peaceful, Messianic sort of den.
In fact the prophecy may not be that
At all, but just report that David sat
In Bethlehem with dad and mum and kin
Before he came to reign on Israel’s din.
Beloved, how does the word relate at all
To Jesus born in Bethlehem in stall?
Not by prediction, but obedience
To Scripture in both sense and in nonsense.
Beloved, let me too do in Scripture’s light
My deeds and goings in and out of sight.

7 Then Herod, when he’d on the sly
Called the wise men, determined from
Them what time the star seen had come.
8 And he sent them to Bethlehem
And said “Go search with stratagem
For the young child, and when you’ve found,
Bring back to me the word and sound,
That I may come and prostrate too
Before him who is born and true.”

I see the star, Beloved, the Persians sought
Sent to proclaim the coming of the one
You set upon the throne of hearts that ought
To know and do Your will. The thing is done.
The rulers in hypocrisy pretend
That they too wish to follow him and mend
Their ways and all injustices. Believe
No man in power. Prime ministers will weave
A net of violence for babe in arms.
Retreat, retreat from smiles and hidden harms.
The star alone, Beloved, is uncorrupted
That leads by Your permission, the erupted
Enlightenment of You in oneness poured,
A bright and guiding star above me soared.

9 When they heard the king, they departed,
And indeed, the star not down-hearted,
Which they had seen in the East, went
Before them, till it came where sent
And stood where the wee child’s present.
10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced
With exceedingly great joy voiced.
11 And when they had come in the house,
They saw the young child with the spouse
Mary his mother, and fell down
And prostrated before his crown.
And when they had opened their treasures,
They gave gifts to him without measures:
Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 Then, being
Divinely warned in a dream seeing
That they should not return to Herod,
They departed after they’d tarried
For their own land by other ferried.

The Persian guests brought gold to give to one
Whose lifework ended as it had begun
In witness to Your oneness. Nevermore
Does gold appear in Your sent prophet’s store.
Perhaps good Joseph used the unexpected
Windfall to travel to the land selected.
But then his donkey used so little gas
That travelling there could well be done on grass.
Despite their insight into dream and veil
The Persian contribution’s always sale.
They bring as gifts what they themselves find dear
And never take a thought for what brings cheer.
Their gifts are all one needs to worship idol.
An Arab would have brought him spur and bridle.

13 Now when they had departed, lo,
An angel of YHWH came to Jo-
Seph in a dream, saying, “Arise,
Take the young child to his surprise
And his mother, flee to Egypt,
And stay there until I’ve let slipped
The word to you, for Herod will
Seek the young child that he would kill.”
14 When he arose, he took the wee
Child and his mother faithfully
By night and left for Egypt, 15 and
Was there until the death as planned
Of Herod, that might be fulfilled
What was spoken by YHWH and drilled
Through the prophet, saying “Out of
Egypt I called the son I love.”

No Persian has monopoly on dream
And divine guidance, though the Persian seem
To take the sceptre handed down from Cyrus,
To hold the world in wonder and admire us.
Stepfather of a prophet can hear You
In night dreams guiding him in what to do.
Your son was once called from far Egypt’s land
To walk across the Red Sea on dry sand.
That great and awful paradigm remains
The prophecy of when Your blessing rains.
So You, Beloved, call Jesus from the Nile
Where he went down to rest and hide awhile.
Call me too from the city where I sleep
Where mothers and their sons still fail to weep.

16 Then Herod, when he saw that he
Was deceived by the wise men, he
Was exceeding angry, and he
Sent forth and put to death all male
Children who in Bethlehem’s vale
And in its districts could be found,
From two years old and under, sound
According to the time which he
Had found out from the wise men’s plea.
17 Then was fulfilled what Jeremiah
The prophet said, when he spoke higher,
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah then,
A lamentation, weeping when
A great mourning Rachel was weeping
For her children, and was not keeping
Comforted, since they’d gone from men.”

The Roman creed still spoken by the fair
In every grand cathedral, everywhere
That missionary sword has staked a claim
To bow to idol and profane Your name,
Was first invented, or to me it seems,
By Herod in his anger against dreams.
It is an ancient heathen faith that knows
All things are righted, thorn becomes a rose,
When Jesuses are crucified or bombed.
Each village through the centuries pogromed
Attests to faith in infant crucifixions
To save the world from all of its afflictions.
Herod, not Christ, set up the Christian Church
When he was left by magi in the lurch.

19 But when Herod was dead, indeed,
An angel of YHWH came with speed
By dream to Joseph in Egypt,
20 Saying “Get up, take the young shipped
Child and his mother, and go to
The land of Israel, for those who
Sought the young child’s life now are dead.”
21 Then he arose, took the young bred
Child and his mother, and came to
The land of Israel. 22 But when he
Heard Archelaus was reigning free
Over Judea and instead
Of his father Herod, he was
Afraid to go there. And he was
Warned by God in a dream, and turned
Aside to Galilee he’d spurned.
23 And he came and lived in a city
Called Nazareth, that without pity
It might be fulfilled which was spoken
By the prophets, “He’ll be in token
Called Nazarene in line unbroken.”

Some say that Nazareth was still unknown
And unbuilt when the warning dream was shown.
Perhaps the name was meant indeed to be
A signal of the vow he should be free
Of wine and drunkenness, a Nazarite.
Whatever’s true, whatever theory’s right,
There’s always some new king to set the stage
For bloodshed of the poor, to rise and wage
Wars and to make new floods of refugees.
The human body’s always on its knees.
Only the spirit hears Your faithful call
And flies in freedom when the bodies fall.
The children offered to the golden calf
Lie bleeding where the new kings come to laugh.

MATTHEW 3

1 In those days John the Baptist came
Preaching in wilderness of fame
In Judaea, 2 saying “Repent,
For heaven’s kingdom has been sent.”
3 For this is the one told about
By the prophet Isaiah’s shout,
Saying “The voice of someone crying
In the desert ‘Prepare the flying
Way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”
4 And John himself was clothed in rate
Of camel’s hair, and with a leather
Belt round his waist to hold together,
And his food was locusts and wild
Honey delicious to the child.
5 Jerusalem, and all Judea,
And all the region round to see you
Beside the Jordan went out to him
6 And were baptised who came to view him
By him in the Jordan, confessing
Their sins Lord Almighty addressing.

I hoist my camel cloak and tighten belt
And peer at vain solutions wise men felt
Would make society not paradise
Perhaps, but where the great and rich and nice
Can make a profit. Honey crystallizes
On roasted locust, food the world despises,
But which to me is desert luxury.
Instead of liberation for the free,
The gospel message still provides the best
And shortest corridor from east to west.
Repentance is the best that men can do,
All else must soon fail and the rule and rue
Give way, Beloved, to Your lone sovereignty.
I take it for myself rejoicingly.

7 But when he saw the multitude
Of Pharisees come with the brood
Of Sadducees to his baptism,
He told them in a word to frizz them,
“O brood of vipers! Who warned you
To flee from coming wrath in view?
8 “Therefore bear fruits worthy of coming
To repentance, 9 “and in your summing
Do not think to say to yourselves
‘We’ve Abraham as father delves.’
For I say to you God is able
To raise up children round His table
To Abraham from out these stones.
10 “And even now the axe laid groans
To the root of the trees. Therefore
Every tree which does not bear store
Of good fruit is cut down and thrown
Into the fire. 11 “I do atone
By baptizing you with a soak
Of water to repentance’ stroke,
But he who’s coming after me
Is mightier than I can see,
Whose shoes I’m not worthy to bear.
He will baptise you and beware
With the holy spirit and fire.
12 “His winnowing fan of desire
Is in his hand, and he will clean
Thoroughly through his threshing green,
And gather his wheat in the barn,
But he will burn the chaff to darn
With fire unquenchable as seen.”

Beloved, the sermons You inspire are not
Constructive, positive, indeed, they’ve got
An air of madness and a tone well placed
For insurrection of the pauper-faced.
Successful preaching has no place for words
Of disrespect for priest and prince or birds
Of regal feather. Water, fan and fire
Seem far too near undisciplined desire.
Let axe be laid not to established trees,
But let’s hope reformation by degrees
Will turn all people into gods. For that,
Beloved, John too must learn to eat the fat
And know there is none greater than the I
That stands upon the threshing floor to die.

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee
To John at the Jordan to be
Baptised by him. 14 John hindered him,
Saying “I am in need and dim
To be baptised by you, and do
You come to me?” 15 But Jesus true
Answered and said to him “Permit
It to be so now, for it’s fit
For us to do all righteousness.”
Then he allowed him to confess.
16 Then when Jesus had been baptised,
He came up straightway from capsized
In the water, and lo, the skies
Were opened up before his eyes,
He saw God’s spirit coming down
Like a dove landing on his crown.
17 And suddenly from heaven a voice,
Saying “This is my Son of choice,
In whom I am pleased to rejoice.”

I too come up from breath to breath, but find
Baptisms following baptisms blind
And make me deaf. I see no lovely dove
Descending from the sacred heavens above
Upon my holy crown. Instead I sputter
To get my breath before I hit the gutter
Again. To tame wild birds takes patience and
Days quietly in toil upon the land.
I hear no voice divine and pure and sweet
Above the waves to sweep me off my feet.
I only know directly that the I
In silence, too close to my ear and eye
To see or hear, is greater far than any
Son, daughter or the pride and power of many.

MATTHEW 4

1 Then by the spirit Jesus led
Went up into the desert dread
To be tempted by Satan’s spread.
2 When he had fasted forty days,
And forty nights spent in God’s praise,
After that he was famished man.

Like Moses anciently upon the mount,
Jesus too fasts the same greater account.
The ninth month or the third depending how
One starts the count, arises and somehow
Draws all to fast before Your coming word.
So Moses, Jesus and Ahmed were stirred.
Each year the season comes to mind the time
When You gave books of revelation’s rhyme
To prophets whom You called up in their prime.
Beloved, I too have fasted when the days
Where gilded for Your speaking and Your praise.
Beloved, I too have fasted while the nights
Promised the incantation of delights
Of Torahs, Psalms, Qur’ans and Gospel rights.

3 Now when the tempter came to scan
Him, he said “If you’re Son of God,
Which means Messiah on the sod,
Command that these stones become bread.”
4 But he answered tempter and said,
“It’s written, ‘Man shall not live only
By bread in crust or even stonely,
But by each word that proceeds from
The mouth of God where good words come.’”

Satan delights in those words “Son of God”
Knowing what deceits he will find to prod
Humankind into infidelity
And idol worship before gallows tree.
But Your sent one does not despite the word
And argue if son or servant’s preferred.
He leaves the level of mere bread to find
The higher, greater hope of heart and mind
In noting that such argument’s behind,
Instead devouring Your word is the best
Of every argument to take a rest.
Beloved, I live by Your word and I know
The beauties of its blossoms and the show
Of its perfumes in melodies to flow.

5 Then Satan took him up into
The holy city for the view,
And set him on the temple spire,
6 And said to him in his desire,
“If you’re the Son of God, Messiah,
Throw Yourself down. For it is written
‘He’ll give His angels charge of smitten,’
And, ‘In their hands they’ll carry you,
Lest you dash your foot on a stone.’”
7 Jesus told him, “It’s written too,
‘You’ll not tempt the Lord on His throne.’”

If Satan tries to quote a word divine,
He twists it to his own purpose’s shine.
Any crime can be justified in truth
By reference to Scripture like a youth,
But there’s a way to know the right from wrong,
And that’s to use criterion of song
In ten commandments. Suicide is not
Acceptable in any sort of plot.
Beloved, I see the doubt again in stride
About the Son of God gone for a ride,
And how Your sent one does not argue case,
But answers the doubt with a sane embrace
Of Scripture in response to the abuse
Of Your word. Beloved, always bless recluse.

8 Again, the devil took him up
On a very high mountain cup,
And showed him all the world’s kingdoms
And all their glory in its sums.
9 And he said to him “All these things
I’ll give to you if you like kings
Fall down in prostration to me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Now flee,
Satan! For it is written, ‘See,
You shall worship the Lord your God,
And Him only serve by His rod.’”
11 The devil then left him, indeed,
Angels came to serve him and feed.

The god of this world is a god impearled
From the beginning with the flag unfurled,
And known with intimacy from the light
That Enoch sheds upon the earthly night.
Though given power and glory, even might,
He never was to worship, even when
He still was friend-protector of earth’s men.
His message is always that worship’s due
To others in this world and not just You.
Though Your sent one maintains that You alone
Are worthy of worship, some can’t atone
Without trying to make this very one
An idol bowed to on the day of sun.
But You, Beloved, sit single on the throne.

12 Now when Jesus heard that John had
Been put in prison dark and bad,
He departed for Galilee.
13 And leaving Nazareth, then he
Came and lived in Capernaum,
Which is by the sea when you come
In the regions of Zebulun
And Naphtali under the sun,
14 That it might be fulfilled which was
Spoken by Isaiah who was
A prophet, saying 15 “The land of
Zebulun and also land of
Naphtali, by way of the sea,
Beyond Jordan, in Galilee
Of the Gentiles, 16 the people who
Sat in darkness saw great light true,
And on those who sat in the place
And shadow of death light’s found face.”

I doubt not that the great light that was seen
By prophet Isaiah was more the screen
Of hope that Israel might escape the clutch
Of the Assyrian and pagan touch.
Ahaz looked out upon the weary dark
And longed for comfort from the graven spark.
He had no time to think Messiah might
Come centuries after the perk and fight.
Beloved, I too look to the northern hills
And hope to find after the darkness fills
The winter of my life, that light instils
Upon the many watches of the night.
Be it Messiah or the spoken grail,
I look toward a new sky and a pale.

17 From then Jesus began to preach
And say “Repent, for now in reach
Is heaven’s kingdom come to teach.”

The message of Your Christ is not to stand
Before the gallows of Your son and hand
His blood in sacrifice atoning sin.
Rather it is to contemplate within
Repenting of such sin and not relying
On human sacrifice and someone’s dying.
Rather it is to repent and to live
According to the easy yoke You give
In ten commandments brief and soon to learn.
The message is not to arise and burn
With heathen watchfulness that gods arise
In spring when earth awakens under skies
Of warmth to sprout anew with green and gold.
The message is one sweet and one soon told.

18 And Jesus, walking by the Sea
Of Galilee, saw two agree,
Being brothers, Simon called Peter,
Andrew his brother to complete her,
Casting a net into the sea,
For they were fishermen again.
19 Then he said to them, “Follow me,
And I’ll make you fishers of men.”

Some see the Dagon fish-god of Phoenician
Arising here to make its faith’s completion
In made-up legend of a century
After the time that Jesus touched the sea.
Though Veda and Little Red Riding Hood
As well as Jonah’s whale and gourd withstood
Remind us of the fallen image there
With broken hands and fins on the floor bare,
The truth is Your sent one knows well the ark
Containing the tablets where to embark
Upon the ten commandments and Shekinah
That illuminate all the world for finer.
If legend comes to tarnish the mind’s power,
I turn to You, Beloved, to find Your hour.

20 They straightway left nets, followed him.
21 Going from there, he saw not dim
Two other brothers, James the son
Of Zebedee, and John for one
His brother, in the boat along
With Zebedee their father strong,
Mending their nets. He called to them,
22 And straightway they relinquished hem
Of the boat and their father, and
Followed him obeying command.

I follow Your sent one, indeed, I do,
He’s mentioned in all Four Books to be true,
And his mother is raised in Qur’an’s word,
A miracle beneath the palms occurred.
I follow Your sent one, though I’ve no net
To leave behind, nor boat, nor brother yet,
And still I follow Your sent one to be
Obedient to You, Beloved, and free.
Let my steps ever follow in those set
By caller of the fishermen beside
The sunny waters of Galilee’s tide,
Until the little hills turn red and blue,
The poplars join in evening’s briefest hue,
And I find that he leads me back to You.

23 And Jesus went round Galilee,
Teaching in their synagogues free,
Preaching the gospel of the reign,
And healing every kind of pain,
And all kinds of disease among
The people who sat there unsung.
24 Then his fame went throughout the land
Of Syria, and they in hand
Brought to him all the sick folk who
Were there afflicted with the rue
Of many diseases and ills,
And those who were in demon chills,
And epileptics, paralytics,
And he healed them, goy and Semitics.
25 Great multitudes came after him,
From Galilee, and from the rim
Decapolis, Jerusalem,
Judaea, and beyond Jordan
To hear and be healed by the man.

The man You sent is famed around the earth
For every kind of purpose, every worth.
The native nations in my place of birth
Must see him as first of medicine men.
The Roman ready always to make king
A god instead of man for anything
Will cry him god before the altar found
In every temple of the Roman round.
Each man sees the reflection of his hopes
In the sent one and that’s the way he copes.
This moment I need healing not at all
Since I am healthy at Your constant call,
But if You will, make my hand like his was
To heal those sick about me as he does.

MATTHEW 5

1 And seeing the crowds, he ascended
A mountain, and when he had wended
His way there and was seated, then
His disciples came to the glen.
2 Then he opened his mouth and taught
Them each one, saying not for naught
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
Theirs is kingdom of heaven’s door.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, they shall be
Comforted in a while for wee.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they’ll inherit
The whole world instead of a garret.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst
For righteousness, for they not worst
Shall be filled. 7 “Blessed the merciful,
For they’ll obtain mercy to pull.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
Shall see God. 9 “Blessed the peaceful way,
For they shall be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who’re struck by the rod
For righteousness’ sake, for theirs is
The kingdom of heaven and His.

Islam, the faith of peace and Shalom set
Upon the desert and the river met,
Should produce many known as sons of God.
Instead the rue and cry is on the sod
That God has no sons, not even in pod.
Disarmingly the truth is such, I guess,
You have no wife (though mother some confess),
And so no sons indeed. Mary remains
A virgin after all for all Your pains.
Refusal to allow God any sons
Seems to result in violence in tons.
Give me back my original Islam,
Its peace born under cultivated palm,
And I shall count again the Prophet’s gains.

11 “Blessed are you when men shall revile
And persecute you for a while,
And say all kinds of evil things
Against you falsely for my stings.
12 “Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
For great is your reward and had
In heaven, for so they persecuted
Prophets before you unrefuted.
13 “You are the earth’s salt, but if salt
Has lost its flavour, where’s the fault?
It is then good for nothing but
To be thrown out and trampled glut
Underfoot by men. 14 “You’re the light
Of the world. A city in sight
Upon a hill cannot be hidden.
15 “Nor do they light a lamp unbidden
And put it under basket, but
On a lampstand, and it gives glut
Of light to all who’re in the room.
16 “Let your light so shine on men’s doom,
That they may see your good works and
Praise your Father in heaven’s land.
17 “Don’t think that I come to destroy
The Law or the Prophets’ employ.
I did not come to destroy but
To fulfil everything that’s shut.
18 “For truly, I say to you, till
Heaven and earth pass away to fill,
Not one jot or one tittle will
By any means pass from the law
Till all is fulfilled to the paw.
19 “Whoever therefore breaks just one
Of the least of these commands done,
And teaches men so, shall be called
Least in the heavenly judgement walled,
But who does and teaches them, he
Shall be called great in the kingly
Courts of heaven. 20 “For I tell you,
That unless your righteousness grew
Beyond that of the scribes and yet
The Pharisees, you won’t, you bet,
Come in the kingdom of heaven met.

I know not if I have a light to shine,
It seems to me so many under pine
Think they have faith to share that I must hear.
Nobody wants to know my love and fear.
I have no jot or tittle in the wave
To change in Decalogue before the grave,
And anyone can read or hear my hope
By looking at Your law with telescope.
Beloved, I teach no one to keep Your law.
My words fall on the empty air and claw.
But if someone heard what I have to say,
They’d know that I’d be great on judgement day,
Because I have no truth or word to speak
Besides the Sinai law at which I peek.

21 “You have heard it said of old time,
‘You shall not kill for paradigm,
The one who kills commits a crime
In danger of the judgement’s fine.’

When Peter Chelcicky wrote in his net
Against the slaughters of the church that set
Its violence with king to rule the crude,
He was a Christian pacifist in brood
Of anarchy. Two virtues he displayed,
And only missed the Sabbath on parade.
If he had taken trinity to be
His pacifism and his anarchy
United with his Sabbatism found
Upon the seventh day, I'd raise the sound
Across the world that he was a true saint.
Two out of three is not bad without plaint.
Beloved, look on the hallowed grave with grace,
And raise him up in Sabbath-keeping's trace.

22 “But I say to you in this line
The one who’s angry with his brother
Without a cause is like to smother
In the judgement. The one to say
To his brother, ‘Raca!’ one day
Shall be in council chamber’s way.
But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall
Be in danger of fire of hell.
23 “Therefore if you should bring your gift
To the altar, and memory lift
That your brother’s aught against you,
24 “Leave your gift there before the stew,
And go your way. First reconciled
Be to your brother, like a child,
And then come and offer your gift.
25 “Agree with your foe in the way,
Quickly, lest foe take you in sway
Of the judge, the judge hand you over
To the officer and the drover,
And you be thrown in prison’s doom.
26 “Truly, I tell you, it will loom
Over you not to get out from
There till you’ve paid last penny’s sum.

I understand, Beloved, Your sent one hopes
The listening crowd upon the disgorged slopes
Will understand by these awful words that
Jesus does not deny the law out flat,
But lends support to Your word and the true.
But at the same time he here seems to make
The easy difficult for spirit’s sake.
Most men refrain from killing, well enough,
But to avoid anger is really tough.
We can choose not to act on anger, but
We cannot choose to feel no wrath in gut.
The sweet Christian, for all the fortitude
Turns simple law into a lawless feud.
Actions, not feelings, are the soul’s own brood.

27 “You’ve heard that it was said of old
‘You’ll not commit adultery bold.’
28 “But I say to you that who looks
At a woman to lust her tooks
Has committed adultery yet
With her in his heart, and you bet.
29 “If your right eye cause you to sin,
Pluck it out and give it a spin,
For it is better for you that
One of your members perish drat,
Than for your whole body to be
Cast into hell eternally.
30 “And if your right hand make you sin,
Cut it off and throw in the bin,
For it is better for you that
One of your members perish fat,
Than for your whole body to be
Cast into hell eternally.

I beg to differ with the hopeful steer.
Erection is a sign of healthy gear,
No sin to be confessed with sigh and tear.
More than that, as I read the law I see
That to destroy one’s eye or hand must be
Prohibited. What’s wrong to perpetrate
Upon the body of a loyal mate
Is wrong to stay upon oneself as well.
I pick these two points and I come to tell
You that Your grand Messiah fails the test,
Of both the law and reason with the best.
All men know that the lust of heart is root
Of sinful actions in the hidden boot,
But also that sin happens to invest.

31 “Furthermore it was also said,
‘The one to divorce a wife wed,
Let him give divorce bill instead,’
32 ”But I tell you the one who does
Divorce his wife except for cause
Of uncleanness will make her fall
Into adultery for thrall,
And the one who will marry her
That is divorced will so incur
Adultery in his own stall.”

Uncleanness must be defined by the law,
And that is only at a final straw
When one discovers that the mate so sweet
Is too close kin to keep her for a treat.
If uncleanness were sleeping with the neighbour,
The punishment for that is not hard labour
Or divorce, but death sentence. Read the book.
The Christian evangelical forsook
Both law and gospel when he cried aloud
Biblical grounds for divorce under cloud.
The law gives no excuse for such a thing,
But grudgingly allows divorce in sting
For those hard-hearted on their way to pout.
No Biblical grounds give reason to shout.

33 Again you’ve heard it has been said
By those in ancient times once bred,
’You shall not forswear yourself but
Make your oaths to the Lord from gut.’
34 But I tell you, don’t swear at all,
Not by the sky, for it’s God’s stall,
35 Not by the earth, it’s His footstool
Nor by Jerusalem as cool,
For it’s the great king’s city rule.
36 Nor shall you swear by your own head,
Because you cannot make instead
One hair white or black in your dread.
37 But let the thing you say be yes
Or no, what’s more than these is guess
Of evil and not your address.

Though Torah teaches that a man must swear,
The good Lord does a good thing in the glare
Of swearing’s abuse, when he says to tell
The truth and not falsehood that leads to hell.
Intention to deceive by formula
And patent ways of oath set without awe
Is punishable by the king at law.
Here Jesus shows authority to state
The law’s intention at the city gate.
As such he flies in face of reprobate,
The Pharisaic sop to Roman king,
The Sadducean confinement to the thing
Set down in writing. He would keep both of
The points of faith: law and the royal glove.

38 You’ve heard it has been said before,
An eye for eye, and tooth in store
For tooth. 39 But I say don’t resist
Evil, but who has hit or missed
You on your right cheek, turn to him
The other also, if he’s grim.
40 If anyone takes you to court
To take away your coat for sport,
Let him have your shirt-tail as well.
41 And when one makes you walk a spell
As far as a mile, don’t be short
But go two miles not to compel.
42 Give to the one who asks of you,
And do not turn away from view
Of anyone who borrows too.

A step beyond resistance passive is
To go a second mile in eager fizz
Complying with demands oppressors lay
Upon the backs of hopefuls in the fray.
It is great form of sabotage of all
Foremen and factory owners in the stall.
But I doubt that it helps with central bank
In private ownership, we’ve them to thank.
Resist or not, do good work at the wheel,
Or sabotage the metal at the heel,
Nothing avails but violence destroying
The central banks that overturn employing.
If I flout pope, he’s a saint seen beside
The board of IMF in brew and bride.

43 You’ve heard it has been said of late,
You’ll love your neighbour and you’ll hate
Your enemy. 44 But I tell you
Love your foes and bless who curse you,
Do good to those that hate you, and
Pray for those who treat you with hand
Of spite and persecute you banned.
45 So you may be the children of
Your Father in the sky for love;
For He makes His sun rise upon
The wicked and the good in spawn,
And sends rain on the just and on
The unjust both at dusk and dawn.
46 For if you love those who love you,
What reward do you have in pew?
Don’t even publicans do that?
47 And if you greet your brothers fat,
What's more to you than any cat?
Don’t even publicans do that?
48 Be perfect then just like your Dad
In heaven is a perfect lad.

You would have more followers in this place
If You just made a difference in the race
Of righteous and the wicked when You trace
The blessings of the sun and rain in space.
If there were benefit in prayer in fasting
Beyond the spirit blessing while it’s lasting,
Then for the benefit many would come
And be perfect as You are in Your sum.
Beloved, I ask for nothing as my share,
I fear neither Your hell nor covet fair
Celestial palaces, white robes to wear.
I’m satisfied to love You. Let You be
My lover or my hating enemy.
It is enough to love You everywhere.

MATTHEW 6

1 “Take heed you do not give your alms
In front of men, or without qualms
You’ll have no reward with your Dad
In heaven. 2 “Therefore, as though sad
When you give in your charity,
Don’t blow a trumpet for your fee
As do the hypocrites around
In synagogues and on the ground
In the streets, so they get the sound
Of praise from men. Assuredly
I tell you they have their reward.
3 “But when you give your alms in board,
Don’t let your left hand know what you
Are doing in your right hand’s view.
4 “So your alms may in secret be
Seen by your Father who can see
In secret to come openly
To reward you and faithfully.

The one You sent, Beloved, proclaims a faith
Well-pillared, not an unsubstantial wraith.
The first stone column of that faith is alms
In charity, in bread beneath the palms.
The secret gift of fruit and meat without
A showy proclamation without doubt
Fulfils that word. So alms remain till now
The first and boldest pin of righteous vow.
That man You sent is dear to me and many
For the fair words he spoke, but is there any
So hard to do as this? I feed the poor
Week after week that seek my door obscure,
And find the morsel laid on other’s tongue
Fed to the blessed Messiah though unsung.

5 “And when you pray you must not be
Like hypocrites who love to see
Their prayers standing in synagogues,
And on street corners just like dogs,
So people see them praying there.
Truly I tell you that their share
Of reward is already there.
6 “But you, when you pray go into
Your bedroom and shut the door too,
Pray to your Father who’s not seen,
And your Father whose sight is keen
To see in secret will pay you
Openly for the thing you do.
7 “So when you pray do not repeat
Words vainly as in heathen seat,
For they think that they will be heard
Because of their abundant word.
8 “Don’t be like them, because your Father
Knows what you need before you bother
To ask Him. 9 “So pray like this stirred:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be
Your name. 10 Your kingdom come to see
Your will done on earth as in heaven.
11 Give us today bread without leaven.
12 And free us of our debt of sin
As we forgive those who are in
Such debt to us. 13 And bring us not
Into the trial, but save from plot
Of evil. For the kingdom sought
Is Yours, the power over men,
And glory for ever. Amen.
14 For if you forgive men their sins
Your heavenly Father too begins
To forgive you. 15 But if you don’t
Forgive men their sins, then He won’t,
Your Father won’t forgive your sins.

If prayer is meeting You, Beloved, in heart
Instead of many words, then do Your part
To build the second pillar of this room
Messiah grants the world to escape doom.
Indeed the first concern of prayer is that
You might forgive the sinner where he’s at.
The only requisite for Your forgiving
Is that I too forgive the poorly living.
Much easier, I trow, to trust in crosses
Than to forgive transgressors and their bosses.
But then divine grace granted to us all
Is infinite or else that grace must fall.
I enter in the silent house of prayer,
The inner chamber where the soul must dare.

16 Moreover when you fast, don’t be
Like hypocrites with face sadly
So men will know that they are fasting.
Truly I tell you their pay’s casting.
17 But when you fast anoint your head
And wash your face, 18 so they’re not led
To think you’re fasting before men,
But to your Father who again
Is in secret, your Father who
Sees you in secret will give you
Open reward for what you do.

My secret fast, Beloved, is known to You.
You follow at a heartbeat what I do.
At evening when I sip the water and
Lay date on tongue, I stop to understand
What fast might bring to mind and bring to heart.
What fast might bring to hand’s a higher part,
To feed the hungry’s fasting’s better start.
My fast was never planned by Your command,
It was not fabricated legal art,
But was my rushing past the full fruit stand
Forgetting all else in the busy street
To greet You, my Belovèd, where we meet
In unexpected rendez-vous. Forgive
The unpreparedness in which I live.

20 “But lay up for yourselves in heaven
Treasures where neither moth nor leaven
Nor rust corrupts, and where thieves do
Not break through to steal revenue,
21 “For where your treasure is, there too
Will be your heart. 22 The body’s light
Is the eye, if your eye has sight
Your whole body is full of light.
23 “But if your eye is evil, then
Your whole body is a dark den.
If then the light in you is dark,
How great’s that darkness without spark!
24 “No man can serve two masters, he
Will hate the one and love to see
The other, or else he will hold
One and the other shut out cold.
You can’t serve God and your greed told.
25 “That’s why I tell you, Take no thought
For your life, what you’ll eat on spot
Or what you’ll drink, or what you’ll wear.
Is not life more than food and share
Of the body than clothes to wear?
26 “See how the birds fly in the air,
They do not sow or reap the bear,
They don’t gather up into barns,
Yet your heavenly Father by tarns
Feeds them. Are you not better yarns?
27 Who of you taking thought can add
One armlength to his height unclad?
28 And why do you consider clothes?
Consider the lilies in rows,
How they grow without labour and
Without spinning their clothing planned.
29 And yet I say to you that even
Solomon in all unbelieving
Glory of his was not arrayed
Like one of these here on parade.
30 So if God dresses up the grass
Of the field here today to pass
Tomorrow in the fire, shall He
Not much more clothe you in degree,
O you with little faith to see?
31 “So do not say ‘What shall we eat?’
Or ‘What shall we drink on the street?’
Or ‘What shall we put on with pleat?’
32 “For all these things the Gentiles seek,
While your heavenly Father’s not weak
To know you need all of these things
To keep life in your legs and wings.

Hypocrisy waylays the soul that strives
To carry out the divine law, contrives
In charity both alms and prayer, and fasting.
But other dangers block the pilgrim way.
Excuses for not going out today
In pilgrimage, endemic are and lasting.
The economic factor is the first
Excuse for staying home, if not the worst,
And followed hard on by security
Both of the house and store, and vagrancy.
I who have little faith seek first Your house
As I depend on living like the mouse
On lilies of the field without my spinning.
Perhaps Your pilgrimage will be my winning.

33 “But strive first for God’s kingdom and
His righteousness and all this band
Will be poured on you. 34 “Take no thought
About tomorrow, for the lot
Of the tomorrow will take thought
Of the things of itself. Enough
For this day is the bad and tough.”

The Decalogue to Moses can be found
In Exodus, the one on David’s ground
In Psalm fifteen, the third to last appears
When Christ Messiah had reached thirty years.
Beloved, vouchsafe another without tears
And I in no one else shall slate the sound,
Forgive impatient waiting on my part,
Since this last word is sharpened like a dart:
Sufficient to each day its evil work.
Who knows but I in evil do not shirk
Despite my daily reading of Your word.
Who knows but that its flight, unlike the bird,
Aspires to no skies met, but’s satisfied
With gates of truth upon an earth descried.

MATTHEW 7

1 “Judge not, that you may not be judged.
2 “For with what judgement you fers judge,
You will be judged not to be budged,
And by the measure you might fudge,
It will be measured back to you.
3 “And why do you look at the clue
In your brother’s eye, not regarding
The rafter-beam that’s still bombarding
Your own eye? 4 “Or how can you say
To your brother, ‘Let me remove
The speck from your eye’, and approve
The beam in your own eye? 5 “For shame!
First take away the plank of blame
From your own eye, and then you’ll see
Clearly to remove what may be
The speck in your dear brother’s eye.
6 “Don’t give what’s holy to the dogs,
Nor cast your pearls before the hogs,
Lest they trample them with a cry
Under their feet, and turn and tear
You in pieces there while you swear.

But who’s to judge who is a dog or hog
Before whom I should not speak Decalogue?
I dare not judge a speck for fear of plank,
That detriment that blinds religious crank.
Commission one to bear a message and
He’ll certainly come under tooth and hand
Of wolfly dog and every kind of swine.
There’s no escaping the effects of wine.
The dog and hog betray by bark and smell
Their names and their intentions very well.
The one can grunt, the other smile and snarl,
From meanest magistrate to lordly jarl.
That’s why I’m burdened with a slightly care,
And sit up in the filth a while to swear.

7 “Ask, and it will be given you,
Seek, and you’ll find, knock, and it’s true
It will be opened for you too.
8 “For everyone who asks receives,
And he who seeks finds sheaves and beeves,
And to him who knocks it’s unlocked.
9 “Or what man is there who unblocked
Among you, if his son asks bread,
Will give him a hard stone instead?
10 “Or if he asks a fish of you,
Will give a serpent to make do?
11 “If you then, being evil, know
How on your children gifts bestow
In goodness, how much more will your
Father who is at heaven’s door
Give good things to the ones who ask!

It’s not my lack of faith that makes me ask
You naught, Beloved. I have my heavenly flask.
My satisfaction in my house and gear,
And in my status and my lack of fear,
Is what makes my fasting prayers oft appear
Deficient in petition where I wait.
The second p of plaint is also state
That finds little room in my prayers of late.
Of four p’s I have mostly praise and penance
To make half the store of most of Your tenants.
Though I give only half of what’s Your due,
I still enjoy the softness of Your pew,
And all the fish and bread and stones You give,
And that there are no serpents where I live.

12 “Therefore, whatever you want men
To do to you, do so again
To them, for this becomes the law
And the prophets when held in awe.
13 “Enter in by the narrow gate,
For wide’s the gate, and broad estate
The way that leads down to destruction,
And many go in by its suction.
14 “Because the gate is narrow and
Restricted is the way to stand
Which leads to life, and there are few
Who find it in the things they do.

The harsh restrictions mentioned by Christ here
That make the narrow gate a gate of fear
Are not the many actions and remote
Of saintly church-goers who do by rote
According to the expectations' note.
The harsh restrictions mentioned here are quite
Simply and clearly brought up to the light
In saying do to others as you would
That others did to you and when they could.
Your genius can reduce the law at once
To one rule comprehended by a dunce,
But hardly fit for those with self-esteem
To guide them to ambition’s higher dream.
The others have to wait and bear the brunts.

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come
In sheep’s clothing, but meddlesome
Inside like wolves ranging for prey.
16 “You will know them by their fruits’ sway.
Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes
Or figs from thistles in their pushes?
17 “Even so, every good tree bears
Good fruit, but a bad tree ensnares
With bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot
Bear bad fruit, nor can one with blot
Bear good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does
Not bear good fruit’s cut down that was
And thrown into the fire. 20 “Therefore
By their fruits you will know their score.

Unless we rehabilitate the one
Reported to have betrayed Your own son,
He lacks one of the twelve fruits in his store
To prove him not a false prophet and more.
Accepting that Judas was not the fiend
That anti-Semites have so long opined,
I move on to the prophet that’s to come
To number his own fruits’ compendium,
And find their number one by one in store
To make up twelve from Ali to the door
Of the steed that in secret way upbore
The Master of the Age to a new shore.
The prophecies, Beloved, count and recount
While I turn my eyes toward that ranging mount.

21 “Not everyone who says to me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter in the spree
Of heaven’s kingdom, but he who
Does my Father’s will in heaven’s due.
22 “Many will say to me that day,
‘Lord, Lord, have we not come to say
Prophecies in your name, and in
Your name cast out devils of sin,
And in your name miracles win?’
23 “And then I shall declare to them,
‘I never knew your stratagem.
Get out, you workers of such sin.”
24 “That’s why whomever hears this word
Of mine and does as he had heard,
I will compare to a wise man
Who built his house on a rock’s plan.
25 “The rain came down, the floods came up,
The winds blew and beat like a tup
On that house but it did not fall,
Since the strong rock bore up its wall.
26 “And everyone who hears this thing
I say and does not bellowing
Do as I say, is one just like
A foolish man who made his strike
To build his house upon the sand,
27 “The rain came down, the floods arose,
The winds blew and beat in their throes
Upon that house and it fell down
With a great fall, one of renown.”
28 It happened when Jesus had done
With these sayings the folk were spun
Astonished at his teachings won.
29 For he taught them as one who had
The power to cleave the good from bad,
And not as the scribes followed fad.

The wise man builds his house upon the rock
Was good advice from one who ought to know
For having built beside both fell and loch
Before his call to serve the Manito.
So carpentry is something he’s got pat,
A job to fall back on in case of famine
Or rabbis’ monthly wages falling flat.
There is one thing I’d like him to examine
In one mess I have made in floor and wall
When I installed a sauna in the attic.
I only left a little leak. That’s all
It took to make my downstairs rooms aquatic.
In Edinburgh they make every house
Of sandstone. It’s combine or learn to dowse.



AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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