Jesus was a poet

Our church just finished a series from the Sermon on the Mount which has been called the most important sermon preached ever. As we evaluate the life of Christ we can make several observations but not too often do you hear about Jesus the poet. That's right, I said Jesus the poet. Let me explain.

Our culture places a high value on rhyme in poetry and lyrics (see any pop song for reference... no wait, avoid pop music at all costs). In Hebrew culture the "rhyme" is in thought, not sound. Parallelism is the primary form of poetic expression. That just means that lines of the poem carry the same thought or is repeated in a different way. There are many variations of parallelism but here's a simple illustration:

Psalm 103:3
(a) The forgiver (b) of all your iniquities.
(a) The healer (b) of all your diseases.

or Proverbs 17:4
(a) A wicked doer (b) gives heed (c) to false lips
(a) And a liar (b) gives ear (c) to a naughty tongue

What is cool about this is that it happens between verses, paragraphs, and even chapters within a book. A book in the Old Testament can follow an ABCBA structure. Craziness I tell ya. Pure craziness. Anyway, Jesus, being the good Jew that he was, would have also known about Hebrew poetry and seeing how he was always relevant he incorporated this into his teaching. Just look at the Beatitudes:

(a)Blessed are the poor in spirit (b)for theirs in the kingdom of heaven.
(a)Blessed are those who mourn (b)for they will be comforted.

(a) Blessed are the merciful (b)for they will be shown mercy
(b) Blessed are the peacemakers, (b) for they will be called sons of God.

Jesus found poetry important enough to include in the most influential and significant sermon ever given. Not only was He relevant in topic but He was also relevant in His delivery. We must always strive to be relevant to our culture.