Excluding sermon on the mount
Someone once pointed out something that opened my young ears a little, and it was something which should have been obvious to my thick little head. All of the people in that sermon (Matthew 5) are the same people The people who mourn are the people who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Something else I learned much later was that Jesus was speaking to his own people, not gentiles. His phrases 'Salt of the Earth' 'Light of the world' are messages that they should integrate in instead of cordoning themselves off. That is one of his major themes, but it is not the whole picture. He took a side in one of the philosophical Jewish questions of how much should they integrate, and how close should they get to gentiles. You can see in the 3+ major Jewish groups of modern times (Reformed, Conservative, Orthodox, Other) this is a very important question for Jews.
His sermon (on the mount) does have some relevance to gentiles (non-Jews), but its not being spoken directly to us. We can apply it
in principle. In the next section I will tie this in to Jesus' overall message.
What do you think? What are the important lessons taught by Jesus? Please share your opinion backed up with verses from scripture.
As I mentioned he is all about mixing with people who don't live by the same standards. Many of the parables and stories about him emphasize this. He touches lepers, but instead of becoming himself ceremonially unclean they are instead healed. He talks about how people are a mixture of wheat and deadly (but identally looking) tares. He says you can't pull out the tares without damaging the wheat. He says people who think they are good or bad are wrong about ourselves, and what appears to be one thing can be another. The gospels go on and on about this. Show me any parable or story about Jesus, and I can probably show you how it is just one more example.
That being said the parables are not repetitive but do have that major theme. Have you heard the famous miracle story of water turned into wine? It happens at a Jewish wedding, and Jesus takes basic water to make wine. The host is impressed with the taste of the wine and observes "Wow, you saved the best wine for last!" By this the story alludes to one of Jesus common phrases "The first shall be last and the last shall be first," which is of course part of the theme of all of his parables.
Have you heard of the parable of the talents? Its my favorite. Have you heard of the parable of the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins? They all looked exactly the same, but when the time for the wedding came the bridegroom found out differently.
This theme begins not with Jesus but with his mentor, John the Baptist who preaches a message to the effect that all of the high places would be brought down and the low places brought up, and the source given by
Matthew is Isaiah 40 (though he doesn't provide the chapter for you like I have done). Its pretty much a repetitive and ever present theme throughout the gospel of Matthew.