Matthew

I feel like I'm standing on a diving board or something,
about to jump.

Next time you hear from me I will be immersed.

OOOOOO
OOOO
ooo
oo
o
.
.

(splash)

"Come on in, the water's fine!"

Matthew starts his account by tracing the genealogy of Jesus.
If anyone is to believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah, it would have to be proved that God had kept His promises to Abraham and David.
My bible shows a reference to Genesis 22:18 as God's promise that the He would be a descendant of Abraham,

Gen 22:18
And in your Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

and 1 Samuel 16:1 as his promise that the Messiah would be a descendant of David.

1Sa 16:1
And Jehovah said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse of Bethlehem. For I have seen a king for Me among his sons.

Those seem rather vague to me (but I'm not a scholar or anything).
Are there other references that cover this in more detail?

This is the first time I have ever read Matthew, and my first thought was
"What's with those names?".
Did something happen between the Old Testament and the New Testament that caused people to switch from naming their kids Azor and Zerah, to names like Mark and John?
Or do some people still name their kids Zerubbabel?

"Time for dinner, Zerubbabel!"

Maybe its the difference between Hebrew and Greek?
Anyway, that's just a superficial observation, not really a question.

I do have a real question though; Why does the genealogy sometimes include the wives names? Did some of these people have more than one wife?

I was expecting a little more about the birth of Christ, but Matthew's account seems a little dry and unadorned. He really doesn't give us much more than the most basic facts:

Mary was with child,
Joseph intended to put her away,
An angel appears to Joseph and says all is well.
Joseph marries her, and names Him Jesus
This fulfilled a prophecy.

Not exactly docu-drama material, eh? I mean, as one of the most important events in history, I want DETAILS, man!
Matthew seems to place the importance of the story on corresponding the events with propechies in the Old Testament.

He is born in Bethlehem
This fulfills a prophecy.

They went to Egypt
This fulfills a prophecy.

He will be called a Nazarene.
This fulfills a prophecy.

It makes me wonder if there was some doubt or argument regarding the Jewish prophecies, and Matthew is setting out to show how it was resolved. You know, if one prophecy said Egypt and another said Nazareth, and another said Bethlehem, I'm sure some scholars wondered how all of them could come true, and wondered about the authenticity.

From what I've seen of prophecy so far, it doesn't seem wise to try to predict how things will play out in advance. I'm betting that anyone who tried future-telling on THOSE three would never have guessed correctly. But in hindsight you can see the logic.
Whenever I think of a mere mortal being given a glimpse of what is to come I really can't comprehend it. Did God just leave these clues so that when we notice them we will realize how impossible it would be for anyone to do but Him, and therefore we glorify Him?

-=-=-=-

We Three Kings of Orient Are?

Thinking about the wise men, I almost have to clear my mind of the children's Christmas story that I grew up with, in order to get a more authentic picture of what the text implies. For one thing, I always picture three guys on camels but the text doesn't say that; It says three gifts were given.

If these were men of high position who had been traveling hundreds if not thousands of miles, it was probably quite a significant sized caravan with food and animals and whatever. It could have been any number of people. Traveling so far through unknown territory, do you think they had security guards?

I had forgotten that after they saw the star they travelled to Jerusalem first to check in with King Herod. Visitors from another country crossing into a land and proceeding directly to a manger to see a fresh pink baby (like my childhood mental picture protrays), without announcing the intention to the proper authorities would have been a no-no, right? I use a Life-Application bible, and my notes say the by the time they finally reached him he was probably already one or two years old. Notice the text in verse 11 refers to a house instead of a manger,

Mat 2:11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

and throughout this chapter he is called a child, but before his circumcision he was referred to as babe. (OK, I cheated. I looked ahead to Luke 2:16).

The more I think about this scene, the more interested in it I become.

The text says Herod was troubled "and all Jerusalem with him".
All Jerusalem?
These visitors must have made quite a scene to get this result, huh?

I don't think Herod was troubled because he believed the baby was the promised one. I think his fear was that if the people started believing in a religious leader, his days would be numbered. He was sensitive to anything that could threaten his authority, especially since he wasn't the rightful leader and some were already calling him a usurper. He even had members of his own family killed.

But why was "all Jerusalem" so troubled? And how could these men from the east be so hip to the situation, without at least SOME of the Jews knowing what was happening?

I've heard speculation that when Daniel was released from the Babylonian captivity, he may have gone to Persia and started an "in-home study group" there , and that's how they knew what signs to look for. I guess I shouldn't spew stuff like that without a source, but regardless, it seems that others got it and Jews missed it.
How come?
I mean, they had access to all the wisdom and prophecy of the day, and had plenty of people/community for sharing/propagation of truth. I don't want to seem prejudiced or anything, but if the Jews were God's people and had thousands of years of God's examples and covenants and prophecies and hand-holding, why do they always seem blind to the truth? I suppose we are all blind and confused and fumbling about, but it seems like with all the history they had as their foundation they would be setting an example, and not be "troubled" by these events.
Were they upset because they felt left out?
Or did they think their objective was sheer madness?
Maybe they just didn't like visitors?

Consider the gifts they brought and what they symbolize,
gold is a gift for rulers, for kings.
Frankincense is a gift you would give to a priest,
and myrrh is an ointment for dead people.
Wha?
Bringing an ointment for dead people as a gift for a baby?
I wouldn't have thought of that...
But these guys seemed to know the significance;
That his death was to be an integral part of the story.
Jesus is the only one I know of who is an appropriate recipient of gifts for both Kings AND Priests.

And if they knew this, it seems significant to me that they chose this particular time to visit. The text says they came to worship Him. I mean, if it was me, I would rather come when he was at least old enough to Speak. To teach. I would want to witness some miracles. Or maybe I would be tempted to help him prove who he said he was when he was on trial. But no, they just wanted to worship him. That in itself seems a wonderfully loving giving action.
To come all that way just to see the baby was enough for them, receiving nothing in return.

THE COOLEST THING JUST HAPPENED TO ME.

Last night I was thinking about John the Baptist. He seems like such an interesting character, but Matthew only gives us a few facts. I resisted the urge to look ahead in the other three gospels to see what else is said about him, because I just want to take it as it comes. I had heard that he was the bridge between the Old Testament and the New, but I don't know why (so take that with a grain of salt). We are told what he wore, what he ate, and what he was doing, but no background.

Try to picture it; This wild man is out in nowhere-ville, mobs of people are traveling a long way to get to him, even scribes and pharisees decide to make the journey to see what all the hubbub is about, and this is all before anyone had ever even heard of Jesus?
What started it? Were people getting geared up for the grand event of history without even realizing what was happening in the world?
At this point in the story we don't know that Jesus and John were cousins, but even knowing that, I can't imagine the two of them sitting around beforehand and plotting this out or even discussing it.

Anyway, I have the kind of job where I sit a computer all day long, sometimes having virtually no human interaction for weeks at a time. This makes it very easy for me to sit and listen to music or audio messages/bible studies all day long. So this morning I was in the mood for a bible study, and I was browsing the website of one of my favorite churches out in California, and a title called "Studying Scripture" by Chuck Smith jr. jumped out at me.

"Studying Scripture", huh?

What could be a more perfect topic, since I have just begun this year-long bible study, right?

So I selected it, and guess what he starts talking about?
JOHN THE BAPTIST !
I was stunned.... God is the coolest. :)

Chuck's message painted a clearer picture for me, I hadn't realized that the Jordan was the river the Jews had to cross to get to the promised land. Doesn't it seem fitting that the Jordan is used here to mark mankind's access to God through the promised one? The change that marks our own crossing, when we leave behind a life of wandering? awesome. I hope I get to meet John someday.

By the way, if you hear this and want more, it was the first of a ten-part series that continues on the 2003 list. Look at the very bottom of this list for the remaining eight messages. I'm not recommending it since I haven't heard the rest of them, just lettin' you know it's there.

p.s. after I finished that study an even more awesome "coincidence" happened to me, but since it concerns a eunuch from Ethiopia it is slightly off the topic.
Ask me about it sometime...!

-=-=-

Heaven was Opened, and The Spirit Descended

All my life I have wondered what Jesus was like as a child. Was he playing with his powers? Healing broken bird wings for practice? Disappearing into crowds when playing tag with his siblings? I'm half-joking of course, but in a way you have to wonder if moving into maturity means making mistakes, and I can't imagine Jesus ever making mistakes, even as a child. Maybe its just the Catholic CCD catechism that shapes my mental picture of him as a child, but I can't seem to shake this off.
When your earliest memory is strangers coming to worship you, and decisions about your upbringing are being made by dreams and angelic appearances, doesn't that make your childhood quite a bit different than everyone else's?

But the moment I read this verse it seemed that I suddenly had a better understanding of the truth.

Matthew 3:16
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.

If heaven was opened to him, it says to me that previously it was closed to him, just like it is closed to us until we ask for our own personal baptism. (The reason I say "heaven" instead of "the heavens" is that the same Greek word #3772 is used 268 more times in the New Testament as "heaven".)

Until this happened and the spirit descended on him, he had no more power than the ordinary man. He may have had a sinless life and amazed people with his teaching before this, but I believe the power comes through us, but not of us. I think he had to sit down and learn the scriptures just like anyone else, he wasn't born knowing everything about everything. The reason we may think differently is because by the time we really see his actions in the scriptures, he already has been baptized by the spirit, and its easy to think he was always so powerful.

This is just my personal understanding based on my limited experience with the spirit, namely my own baptism (not either of the times I was baptized by water, I'm talking about the moment I truly accepted Christ and recieved a new heart) so I'm sure many would argue.

When I read the "heaven was opened to him, and the spirit descended" it says to me that this was the dividing line in the life of Jesus. The evidence for my statement is everything that happened afterwards. After this event his life immediately and drastically changed, and the remainder of the gospels record the amazing things he accomplished.

Ask God to forgive you your sins, ask for a new heart, ask the spirit to come and abide with you, and thank him for it. It will change your life.

Well, the first thing I learned while reading this chapter is this:

Being filled with the spirit doesn't make you immune to temptation!

In fact, it appears that it was just the opposite. I'm guessing that Jesus was attacked more severely than he ever had been in his whole life.

I've been thinking about this experience for the last day or so, because when it comes to temptation I am a total wimp.

Let me try to imagine how I would react in the same situation. Here I am weak with hunger, and tired, and ready to get out of the hot desert and back to something familiar. I would be feeling rather proud of myself for making it this far, and for getting some downright positive feedback from God himself. There's probably nothing in the world like the feeling you get when God tells you point-blank that he is "well pleased" with you, eh?

So anyway there I am, physically exhausted but feeling pretty darn good about everything, and suddenly the thought comes into my head that it has been 40 days and 40 nights and that's quite an accomplishment! So let's celebrate by having some nice warm bread!

Mmmmm, I can smell it now.... God has probably given me this thought about turning a rock into bread because he's so pleased with my latest acheivement, the 40-day thing.

Yeah, time to sit and relax and have a bite. Hey, I did it on my own, didn't I? No one said I had to do exactly forty days, but I did it anyway and now its over and I deserve my just reward. Whaddya think, I'm gonna give up food forever?

...and I would have taken that hint, assumed it was a pat-on-the-back from God, and made me some bread to eat!
Don't they say "God helps those who help themselves"?

:D

but that's me.


So how did Jesus know it was merely the temptor? What alerted him to the fact that it was a spoiler coming to trip him up when he was at his weakest? Maybe because he was being tempted to do something an ordinary person couldn't do? Was that what the true sense of the temptation was? That he knew he was able to change a rock, and someone with an extraordinary ability has to be careful how they use it?

Well, He did many other extraordinary things that I cannot do, but those things were not temptations.

Maybe it is the selfish aspect, either you trust God to take care of things, or you don't and therefore try to look out for yourself. Looking at it from that angle, maybe God DOESN'T help those who help themselves.

You know, I tend to think of this story the way I heard it as a kid. A grinning demon in a red suit with horns and a tail appeared and made the suggestion, and Jesus brushed it off and walked away.

If that's the way it had happened to me I would have instantly seen the truth and resisted it. But that would not have been temptation. To me, temptation means you have the urge to do it. If I don't recognize what is going on and squash it immediately, my mind starts rationalizing reasons why it is really OKAY to do it. And you know what? Once I get to that point, I usually find a way to do what I want to do. I am weak in every way except one, I have a strong ability to think my way around things, to mentally massage them into a most comfortable conclusion that is usually in my own best interest. Not a skill to be proud of, but I admit it.

Oh, and here is the REALLY scary part about it. Jesus is tempted again, and this time, holy scripture is used to try and "make it okay".

Oh no. This is a bad omen. I can just see myself learning a little scripture and using THAT to rationalize my thoughts and actions.

Ok, I'm warning you guys, you can't trust me!

:(

It started off so easily, and all of a sudden I find myself in deeper water, over my head.

Up until now, we have:
- been informed of the genealogy (which has no real personal effect on me)
- been told about the birth of Jesus (kind of a history lesson).
- been mystified by magi from the east,
and by events directed by dreams.
(almost beyond comprehension, stimulating but not really personal)
- witnessed baptism of the man, anointing of the king (ya)
- experienced temptation! (comparison with my own life draws parallels, now it is getting personal).
- heard the first words being said by Jesus post-baptism,
preaching "Repent" to all,
commanding "Follow Me" to a few.
A face to face confrontation (yes, definitely personal,
lives are being changed forever here.
Would I accept? Would I avert my eyes?)
- witnessed miraculous healing, drawing huge crowds

What's the buzz? What's he gonna say?

What he says next seems like the kind of thing I could read over and over and over, and on my deathbed still feel that I hadn't mastered it.

Eight times he says
"blessed are xxx, for yyy"
where xxx is a certain subset of us (meek, merciful, etc.)

In Matthew 5:11 he switches to
"blessed are you"
and continues to use either "you" or "your" from then on (except for the prayer, where he says "us" and "our")

So what about these first eight subsets?
(poor in spirit,
those who mourn,
meek,
seek righteousness,
merciful,
pure in heart,
peacemakers)

This doesn't seem like a list of goals to me, something I should strive for.
I mean, I wouldn't say to myself,
"Hmmm, I would like to be a son of God so maybe I need to go out and make some peace",
or
"If I was just a little meeker, I would get a larger slice of the pie".
No, these seem like conditions that just are, not like things one would purposely do to get a corresponding blessing.

...but from then on, I feel he is teaching directly to me.
Reading these verses:

Mat 5:1
When Jesus saw the crowds,
he went up on a hillside and sat down.
His disciples came to him,
and he opened his mouth and began to teach them

I can't really tell if he was speaking to the whole crowd, or just to the disciples who came to him, but I think "You are the light of the world" and "You are the salt of the earth" can apply to me here and now as well as it did to those on the hill, and the meaning is unchanged.
So I am interpreting this like he is talking to ME.

Boy oh boy, does this jump out at you like it does for me?

Mat 5:20
For I tell you, unless your righteousness greatly exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!"

All my life I have heard about Jesus and his conflict with the scribes and Pharisees, and here he sets them as our example?
Or, wait a minute...
Is this some kind of backhanded anti-compliment, that we are to do better than those bums?
Ok, I better be careful here, hypocrite that I am.
I'm leaving this one alone.

For the rest of this chapter his teaching is in the form
"You have heard xxx, but I say yyy"

Whoa... This is bold.

Especially if he says anything that will be considered contradictory or heretical to the word of God. Wasn't that punishable? I'm guessing this style was a shock to anyone who heard it, because by this time the crowd was probably starting to wonder "What's with this guy?. He has shown us miraculous works. He is different than our other rabbis. Maybe this really is a new thing, and we can abandon the old thing?". That's what I would be thinking anyway.

Wouldn't you want to know if what you had believed all your life in your religion was true?
And which parts of it were misinterpretations?

So I'm thinking Jesus knew just what to feed us when he taught this way.
He reinforces the law and the prophets,
He expands the listener's interpretation of them,
He speaks strongly with authority.
Great way to start, huh?

I could probably write forever on what the contents of this sermon should mean in my life, but I already used too much time rambling, and I have a lot more to read and ponder just to finish this week's chunk o' scripture.

This sermon only takes a few minutes to say out loud, but it contains so much. I have heard sermons that were ten times as long that didn't contain a tenth as much.

Where many would baby-feed us a little at a time, and only give us as much as they thought we deserved or could handle.

Jesus does just the opposite.

He sits down on that hill and spends some time with us, holding nothing back.

Praise the Lord.

The Sermon on the Mount

This is just a "thought experiment" I tried,
maybe worth sharing
(maybe not!)

I was thinking about something I heard (or maybe I just imagined it) something like "don't think I came to condemn the world, neither should you condemn it". When I searched for it in the scripture I didn't find anything, but it doesn't matter because that's not what I wanted to write about anyway, so just ignore it.

The reason I brought it up at all is that it got me thinking...

I accept the premise that Jesus lived a perfect life.
He gives an awesome sermon, teaching me how to live my life.
If we are to emulate Christ,
If Jesus is an appropriate role model for us,
maybe I can gain new insight by turning the text around and seeing how the same teachings apply to his life.

Ok, maybe not profound or even scripturally sound, (so don't quote me on it)
but hey its just a thought experiment, so here goes...

For example, in Matthew 5:11 he says
"Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely...

To me, it seems just as valid to rewrite Matthew 5:11 to say "Blessed is Christ when men revile him and persecute him, and say evil against him falsely. Rejoice, for his reward in heaven is great".

That is no stretch of the imagination, and I believe it.

So what happens if we continue on this "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" adventure?

I started scanning through the entire sermon, reading it as if he was talking about himself, about his own life...

5:13 Jesus is the salt of the earth,
5:14 Jesus is the light of the world
(makes sense to me!)
6:5 Jesus didn't pray like the hypocrites
(he even taught us a new way to pray 6:9)
6:19 Jesus had no treasures on earth
(I doubt if he even had a walking stick)
6:25 He wasn't anxious
7:11 He gave good things to his children
7:14 He took the narrow path
7:20 We know him by his fruits
7:25 He built his house on the rock
(and 2000 years later, nothing has blown it down)

and on and on....

So why am I even bringing it up?

By doing a comparison like this and noticing that almost all of it fits the pattern, what does it mean when one or two things don't seem to fit?

Maybe there is a fundamental difference between the life of Christ and the way I should strive to live my on life
or,
Maybe it means there is something I don't understand about the nature of Christ
or,
Maybe it means I am not interpreting the scripture correctly.

The first one that jumped out at me was:

Mat 5:23 Therefore if you offer your gift on the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you,
Mat 5:24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Jesus' gift was his own life, the supreme sacrifice one could leave on the altar. But many people had many things against him. It seems clear to me that he did not postpone his sacrifice until he was reconciled to those people.

So is it the word "brother" that makes this significant? Another memebr of the body of Christ?
Or maybe that somehow it only applies to things that are really your fault, that you need to resolve?
Otherwise I can't see that any true christian would be in the "comfort zone" with the entire world. Jesus certainly wasn't. I have to admit I don't understand this, but I will be thinking about it.

and a similar one:

Mat 5:25 Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him; that the opponent not deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.

Again, let's look at the life of Christ, did he agree with his adversaries? nope.
There are many other examples of those who cheerfully went to prison rather than agree, a guy named Paul comes to mind.
I'm reminded of stonings and burnings and martyrs.
Anyway, strictly looking at the text, Jesus did not resist being delivered to the judge.
This just does not fit my understanding.

I do think I have a greater understanding of Matthew 6:1 by looking at the text in this way.

Mat 6:1 Take heed that you do not do your merciful deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in Heaven.

On my first reading of this, my attention was on the words "before men". But Jesus did MOST of his merciful deeds before men.
Now I'm thinking the key to this scripture is "to be seen by them". Motive, in other words.
And again in 6:2 he warns us not to do the deeds to gain glory from men.
When we get to this:

Mat 6:3 But when you do merciful deeds, do not let your left hand know what your right hand does,
Mat 6:4 so that your merciful deeds may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret Himself shall reward you openly.

I lose the thread again.
I think I know what it means, but what a curious phrase
"your Father who sees in secret Himself..."
I just had a curious thought:
I wonder how many deeds were performed by Jesus in secret that we have not heard about (yet)?
...kinda makes me go "HMMM...."

I can't close without mentioning,

Mat 7:1 Judge not, that you may not be judged.
Mat 7:2 For with whatever judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with whatever measure you measure out, it shall be measured to you again.

oh never mind, my thought on this would take too long to explain. I was going to say that Jesus seemed to see the essence of a situation,
what the rich young ruler needed to hear,
what the woman at the well needed to hear,
and in a way it seems that you can't approach someone without judging them on some level.

But maybe that is not what is meant by judgement.

A former drug addict can know the damage being done to someone who is under that yoke, is that judgement?
Maybe so, and maybe there is nothing wrong with judging, as long as you are willing to be judged in the same way.
After all, Mat 7:5 implies it is okay to help remove that splinter, that speck, once you have removed the beam from your own.

And finally, applying Mat 7:6 to the life of Jesus:

Mat 7:6 Do not give that which is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and tear you.

Maybe after looking at it this way I have a better understanding of why Jesus switched to parables once the crowds started polarizing.

HEALING ALL

Ever since Jesus walked out of the desert, he has been healing people as fast as they could get to him.

This is from a previous chapter, but from then to now he is healing ALL.

Mat 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.
Mat 4:24 And His fame went throughout all Syria. And they brought to Him all those being badly ill suffering various diseases and torments, and those who had been possessed with demons, and those who had been moonstruck, and paralytics. And He healed them.

And it doesn't seem like he is just healing people who
profess belief, or
agree to devote their life, or
the ones who get baptized.
No, they brought ALL those being badly ill, and He healed them.

Even five chapters later, we are told:

Mat 9:35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

Healing EVERY sickness and EVERY disease.
Wow!
no discrimination?
He didn't pick the ones most deserving?

Did he feel like those popular people surrounded by autograph hounds, not wanting to turn anyone away?
He even touches lepers, something no one would do.

Now I get the impression the buzz is building.
Large crowds, or in some translations GREAT MULTITUDES are following him.

How long can this continue?

If that wasn't enough, he heals someone some distance away, a complete stranger!
and I don't even think he had x-ray vision!

Mat 8:8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my boy will be healed.

Mat 8:13 And Jesus said to the centurion, Go. And as you have believed, so let it be to you. And his boy was healed in that hour.

My logical analytical mind wants to know how this works. This kind of power is unimaginable to me. It doesn't even seem like he is praying or anything. He says it is so, and it is so.

Mat 8:23 And He entering into a boat, His disciples followed Him.

What?
He is leaving everyone else behind?
Is this a "time-out"?
Looks like he immediately went to sleep.
I'm wondering if all this healing is draining him.

Mat 8:34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus.

Hey, the crowds are back...
How is this going to end?
How much healing can one man do?

What is the purpose of all this healing? Are the recipients just like lucky lotto winners? Who just happened to be at the right place at the right time to enjoy the party?

Mat 9:15 (ISV) Jesus said to them, "The wedding guests can't mourn as long as the groom is with them, can they?

Is he tuning our minds to the fact that we will all be healed when he returns?

Then I read:

Mat 9:2 And behold, they brought to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, Child, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you.

And another one is healed.
Wait a minute...
...what did he say?
Your sins are forgiven you?

Now we are in uncharted territory folks!
No one in the history of mankind has ever truthfully uttered this statement, have they?

Isn't this a first?

moving on....

Mat 9:18 While He spoke these things to them, behold, a certain ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, My daughter has just now died. But come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.

Mat 9:25 But when the people were put out, He went in and took her by the hand, and the little girl arose.

Ok, now my mind is throughly blown.

He just brought someone back from the dead.

If God has taken a life, what reason is strong enough to bring it back?
What are we supposed to learn from this?
Even in my limited understanding of what Jesus was here to do, I can't imagine he is teaching us that we have the ability to direct the power of God in this way.

Is this reserved for God alone?
Is that what he is showing us?
To prove once and for all to see
that he is the one?

Well, it works for me.

hmmm...
I wonder how the girl felt about it?

The girl, or at least the fruit of her life is released from this world, her spirit is on its way to God, and suddenly she is jerked back into the empty husk for a while longer?

Did she glorify God in that moment?

What would you think if Jesus snatched a butterfly from the air and said,
"Your fellow caterpillars are mourning you. Come on back to caterpillar-world for awhile". (?)

I'm trying to forget.
I want to forget everything I have ever heard about the apostles,
and form a new mental picture as I read this gospel,
see it fresh as the events unfold.

Is this the first time the apostles have been asked to do anything?

They have been called to follow,
but until now they have been silent, haven't they?
Witnesses.

Mat 10:1 And when He had called to Him
His twelve disciples,
He gave them authority over unclean spirits,
to cast them out,
and to heal all kinds of sickness
and all kinds of disease.

What if I had been one of the apostles?
I'm trying to put myself in their shoes.
I'm trying to imagine how I would feel after
hearing this speech Jesus gives me in chapter 10

I've seen awesome things so far.
I've felt the excitement.
I've been happy to be part of it.

I'm feeling just a little bit special
to be one of the chosen

a disciple of
this rabbi who teaches with new meaning.
this miracle-working healer,
this mysterious being who can control the wind,
who has displayed authority over death itself.

Now he is commanding us
to go out and do these things:

Mat 10:8
Heal the sick,
cleanse the lepers,
raise the dead,
cast out demons.

Great!
I didn't know regular people like me could do those things!

Mat 10:16 Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.
Therefore be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.
Mat 10:17 But beware of men,
for they will deliver you up to the sanhedrins,
and they will scourge you in their synagogues.

Uh Oh...
suddenly I am hearing a different tone from Jesus.

Now He is talking about:

scourging (scourging? what did I sign up for here?)
judgement of cities worse than for Sodom and Gomorrah
brothers delivering up brothers to death,
setting men against their fathers,
children killing their parents,
hatred and persecution.

Is he talking about us?
Is he talking to the twelve of us?
or to the generations of disciples who are to come?

I mean, he looks like he is talking to us,
but his words sound so foreign,
as if he is seeing things we can't see
looking forward
and speaking to many.

-=-=-=-

I think I would be terrified.

I would probably volunteer to stay behind
and take notes,

start the biography or something.

-=-=-=-

Since Matthew is the writer of this book,
and since he is one of these twelve
who are about to go out into the world,
maybe we are about to get a first-hand account
of what happened next.

I can't wait to see how this plays out.
I'm in suspense,

With anticipation I turn the page
to start chapter 11...

(to be continued?)

Mat 11:19
The Son of Man came eating and drinking,
and they say,
Behold a man who is a glutton and a winebibber,

Ahhh....

Now I know that
in at least one way,
I am like Christ!

-=-=-

Well, I guess Christ is not going to let me live vicariously off the experiences of the twelve!
I have read through the next four chapters and I find no account of how they fared when he pushed them out into the world.

No, as soon as they are gone, he jumps to the next level.

And with the apostles and disciples gone, it seems like now its just He and Me.

Before I consider the meaning of that, I want to add a personal note.

I have been adrift this week.

I have made a decision to really attempt this project, take a fairly large chunk of scripture each week and spend some time with it and try to discern what it means and how it applies to my own life.

So far, I have done that.

What really happened back then?
What was it like?
How would I have reacted had I lived at that moment in history?

You know what? A month ago I rarely picked up my bible. Now I can't imagine going anywhere without it.

Where before I used it occasionally to look something up, in the past few weeks I have been absorbed, reading entire chapters over and over. If not from my bible then from an internet online bible. I have even printed chapters to carry in my back pocket for situations like this 3-day class I'm in right now, where I don't have access to either of the above.

What has become of me?

Honestly, I am really enjoying this.
Its just that we've covered so much ground so quickly, I can hardly absorb it before its time to move on, and then the next thing is even more powerful.

And the difference is:
This time I'm not just hearing it like I'm in Sunday school.

When I think about what the words mean, I can hardly comprehend what they are saying. It just seems too incredible.

Did he really bring people back from the dead?

Did he really walk on water?

When all of these miracles and teachings are presented so quickly,
I'm overwhelmed.
I'm intimidated.
The implications frighten me.

I am going out on a limb, because to believe that He was really here doing these things is beyond my comprehension.

Mat 11:5
the blind receive their sight,
and the lame walk;
the lepers are cleansed,
and the deaf hear;
the dead are raised,
and the poor have the gospel proclaimed to them.

My logical mind is stumbling over miracles.

I'm tempted to think something like,
"Well, even if walking on water is impossible, I can overlook it because it is not essential to the real core of the message."

But I don't want to start moving in that direction, picking and choosing which parts of the text are essential and which can be mentally discarded.
I want to assume that the book is true and see where it leads me.

I have never thought about the word "faith" much in my life, but for me right now that's what it is. Don't misunderstand, I'm a believer, I'm a christian. But if I'm at a point where all I can do is assume something is true without really understanding how it works, then that takes a leap of faith for me, something I don't have much experience doing.

In these passages I know he is pointing out the fact that some people will find any reason not to believe.

"He can't be the promised one because..."

And I get the impression that everyone who ever knew him would agree that he was different than their expectations.

But this is a struggle for me. My logical mind prevents me from seeing Christ "like a child", I am too busy trying to figure it out.

I read

Mat 11:25 At that time Jesus answered and said,
I thank You, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth,
because You have hidden these things from the sophisticated and cunning,
and revealed them to babes.

...and I know I've always wanted to be sophisticated and cunning, that has been a private goal of mine.

But Jesus is calling to me here.

Even though he doesn't come right out and say
"I AM THE ONE"
(because the mob would probably tear him to pieces it was such a forbidden thing to do)
he still finds ways to say it.

Mat 11:27 All things are delivered to Me by My Father.
And no one knows the Son except the Father.
Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son,
and the one to whom the Son will reveal Him.

Let's look at that statement for a moment.
From a legalistic standpoint, no one can accuse him of blasphemy. What has he said in the eyes of the law?
Let's look at it from that standpoint.

"All things are delivered to me by my Father".
Any religious person can make that claim. He didn't step over the boundary of claiming to be God, did he? nope.

"No one knows the Son except the Father."
Only God knows who the Messiah is.
Pure logic no believer can deny.

"No one knows the Father except the Son and those who the Son reveals Him to".
Well, this might have been a new concept to some, but certainly not breaking the law.

So in a legal sense he didn't cross the line, and those not ready for it would just interpret it as a teaching.

but...

To someone who takes a small leap of faith, Jesus has just made the most cosmos-shaking statement - - - HE IS THE ONE.

God has put all things in the hands of Jesus, and no one gets to God but through Him.

awesome.

For me, this chapter is the personal crescendo of the Gospel.

I know he is speaking straight into my heart when in the very next breath he says to me:

Mat 11:28 Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Mat 11:29 Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls.
Mat 11:30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.

I accept your invitation.
Thank you for promising a light burden.
Please let me enjoy working for you.
I'm looking forward to that "learn of me" part, too.

I'm pretty sure that Herod had made a deal with the Jews
that they could practice their religion
as long as they took the responsibility for maintaining order.

I don't know where to go to prove it,
but I'm sure I heard it that way.

Did you know that Herod's title was "King of the Jews"?
I just found that out.
Now that I know about Jesus, that just seems so wrong to me!

Anyway, its easy to criticize them because they seem so dense.
We can see how they missed the whole point of the master plan
because they were too busy nit-picking about the law.

And hey, Jesus came down on 'em,
so its probably safe for us to do the same, right?
Well, maybe not....

The only point I really wanted to make is:
I think they were very devout
and tried so hard to be moral and righteous,
and if it weren't for them keeping the faith for so long
the society could have easily spiralled down into chaos,
but they held up.

So yeah, they totally missed the boat,
and I'm not defending them for that,
but I have to be careful not to do the same thing
thinking I am superior because "I get it".

In fact, once I get my own little paradigm all built up nice and secure
I will probably be defensive about anyone coming along and poking holes in it.

They probably thought they HAD to get rid of him,
or he might jeopardize their whole way of life.

One radical dude comes along to upset the balance
and the Roman army could stomp out the entire Jewish population,
or at least make worship difficult.

just a thought....

One of the biblical concepts that is most interesting to me is that a particular passage can have more than one meaning, or that it can have different levels of meaning.

The more I learn about the bible, the more it seems to be almost fractal; no matter how deep I go, I still find just as much complexity as I can handle.

I never seem to get to the bottom of it.

I have heard people make comments like "new christians need to be fed on milk, but as they become more mature in Christ they will be ready for meat." Although I have no idea how they determine which portions are more "meaty" than others, or even if I am misunderstanding the meaning, it seem to me that this 13th chapter of Matthew has something for everyone.

Jesus implies that there is more to the story than what appears on the surface

Mat 13:10 And the disciples said to Him, Why do You speak to them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said to them, Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.

For example, when I first heard the thing about the mustard seed in verses 31-32

Mat 13:31 He put out another parable to them, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field;
Mat 13:32 which indeed is the least of all seeds, but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.

As a child I had such a pleasant mental picture of this, a beautiful tree full of lovely songbirds.

But now that I am an adult, and have learned a little bit about the internal consistency of the bible, it takes on a whole new meaning to learn that "birds of the air" are evil or wicked, as taught by Jesus himself in Matthew 13:19 when he was interpreting Matthew 13:4

Mat 13:4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them.

Mat 13:19 When anyone hears the Word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown by the wayside.

He makes a direct correlation between the birds and the wicked one (or evil one, in other translations)

In my mind, that changes the meaning of the unnaturally large mustard tree quite a bit.

(and if you can't trust Jesus' interpretation....)

-=-=-=-

Or consider the leaven in

Mat 13:33 He spoke another parable to them: The kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.

As a child I assume the parable is the spreading of the good news throughout the world.

Great!

But then Jesus himself speaks of leaven in this way:

Mat 16:6 And Jesus said to them, Take heed, and beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Mat 16:12 Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe the living word grows and is beautiful in people's lives.

I still believe wholeheartedly in the surface part of the picture.
To study it furthur does not diminish the value of the easy interpretation.

But I also believe there is more to the story that can only be found by having "ears to hear".

-=-=-=-

I have searched out many studies on this chapter because it fascinates me, but anything else I could say right now, I fear I would just be repeating someone else.

One of the best studies I have found on this subject is by a teacher I respect,
Ray Stedman
He presented a very good series called Behind the Scenes of History back in 1971.

If you are interested, you can read it online, or download a PDF, or listen to it in RealAudio at http://www.pbc.org/dp/stedman/behind/index.html

I have heard it a few times now, and each time has given me more to think about.

In Matthew 12:38, scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign

Mat 12:39 But He answered and said to them,
An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.
And there shall be no sign given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Now in again in 16:1 they ask for a sign,
and His reply is the same:

Mat 16:4
A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.
And there shall no sign be given to it,
except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
And He left them and went away.

Their reaction to this is not recorded here,
but I'm guessing it was probably something like stunned silence.

I'd be surprised if anyone had the slightest idea of what he was talking about.

baffling.

Maybe he said it "to confound the wise".

But since Jesus calls Jonah a prophet,
(I'll never wonder if Jonah was truly a prophet after THAT endorsement!)

I wanted to see what Jonah prophesied.

After a quick scan through the book of Jonah,
the only prophecy I see is this:

Well, before that, here is the background:

Jon 1:1 And the Word of Jehovah came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Jon 1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it;
for their evil has come up before Me.

but here is a prophecy:

Jon 3:4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said,
Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!

Of course, Jesus already drew a parallel between Jonah and himself in this verse

Mat 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so the Son of Man shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

so I am not questioning that,

but I also see another side of it.

They could have repented right then and been saved!

That's the sign they could have seen.

Just as Ninevah repented,
gained God's mercy,
and made Jonah's prophecy appear to have been incorrect,
so could the religious leaders have recognized what he was saying,
and accepted him.

No matter how much a religion has warped a person,
I believe he is still given the opportunity to truly hear the call,
repent and be converted.

-=-=-=-

Again I try to put myself in the shoes of anyone in the audience that day....

If I had been there at the time, I think I would have been wondering what he was all about,
trying to decide if he was the real deal,
believing that if he was, then I could be following in the wake of a conquering hero.

How could this possibly fit in with the following:

Mat 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

Up to this point I don't think Jesus has made a definitive statement that he is the promised messiah
(correct me if I'm wrong).

When John the Baptist asked if he was,
he answered in a different way:

Mat 11:3 And they said to Him, Are You he who should come, or do we look for another?
Mat 11:4 Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John again those things which you hear and see:
Mat 11:5 the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel proclaimed to them.
Mat 11:6 And blessed is he, whoever shall not be offended in Me.

See, he doesn't ever really say it.

He has alluded to it,
Prophecies point to it,
His works support it,
but he still lets me draw my own conclusion.
Just as Peter has to draw his own conclusion.

Jesus doesn't say who he is,
he asks.

"But who do you say I am?" (16:15)

and when

Mat 16:16 Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

He doesn't say
"You are correct! I am!"

No, he just blesses him.

He even comes right out and says "flesh and blood have not revealed this to you"

The reason I am looking at this is because of something he has been teaching me,
conveniently summarized in the phrase "actions speak louder than words".

sounds lame maybe,
or maybe too simple to be worth mentioning,
but I have really started to notice how he doesn't proclaim himself by just announcing it.

He shows us.

I guess I have a newer understanding of what it means to call him,

"The Living Word"


-=-=-=-

After Peter takes his step,
Jesus immediately (or "from that time")
starts explaining how he is to be killed.

Sheesh, does he know how to keep us unbalanced or what?

Just when we gain a footing he rocks the boat again!

"C'mon, you don't really have to die, do you?"

and just after Peter rebukes,
we are given a kernel of truth.
(a truth worth building a life around)

Mat 16:25 For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, and whoever desires to lose his life for My sake shall find it.
Mat 16:26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Mat 16:27 For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward each one according to his works.

THAT is a powerful statement!

He even gives us a week off to think about it.

Mat 17:1 And after six days...

The very next scene is glorious:

Mat 17:2 And He was transfigured before them. And His face shone as the sun, and His clothing was white as the light.

Mat 17:5 While he yet spoke, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.
And behold a voice out of the cloud which said, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear Him.

Okay, so maybe Jesus won't tell us in words,
but a higher authority doesn't hesitate! :laugh:

I'm not going to say anything else about this chapter,
because I am stuck on verse 17:20 right now.

Mat 17:20 And Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief. For truly I say to you, If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Move from here to there. And it shall move. And nothing shall be impossible to you.

movin' on...

Mat 21:23 And when He had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him as He was teaching...

Jesus is finally in the big city,
the center of the world as they knew it.

And Jesus is in the temple.
THE temple.

And now he faces the chief priests and the elders.
the heavyweights,
the main dudes,
the top dogs in the religious hierarchy.

I would think if he should be able to hold a serious conversation with any men on earth,
it would be these guys, right?

He does give them the opportunity....
He asks them a straight question about John.
but out of fear they fail to respond,

Mat 21:27 And they answered Jesus and said, We cannot tell.

Immediately he begins speaking to them in parables,
just as he speaks to all the other common people in parables.

and boy, the parables he presents to them have a sting!

A man asks his sons to work in the vineyard, and the result is interpreted by Jesus himself.

Mat 21:31 Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you that the tax-collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

A housemaster plants a vineyard, and the interpretation by Jesus is:

Mat 21:43 Therefore I say to you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing out its fruits.

A king's wedding feast for his son

Mat 22:8 Then he said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they who were invited were not worthy.
Mat 22:9 Therefore go into the exits of the highways, and as many as you shall find, invite them to the marriage.

OUCH!

It's easy for me to feel scorn for these religious authorities,
and it would seem I am in good company by doing so.

I know its wrong for me to judge,
I know I shouldn't have these hostile negative feelings regarding formal religion
and towards those who elevate tradition over
the message,
the love,
the truth,
the word,

but I know,
I am prone to the same weakness.

It's hard to admit,
but I'm way too proud of my own understanding.

I'm so blinded by confidence,
and insulated by fear,
that it wouldn't surprise me to learn that I had been in the presence of angels
and not realized it.
Would I have even recognized Jesus if I had been there?

I've been so pleased with my progress lately
that I feel a crash coming...
(oh God, anything but humility!)

Mat 22:21 Then He said to them, Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's.

Sounds easy, but how far do we take that advice?

The only way I know to explore the meaning of a teaching like this
is to look at examples in my own life, one at a time
and see how they measure up.

So say I'm driving along
and get pulled over by the police
and get ticketed for whatever.
(I'm not a totally law-abiding driver,
so this is no stretch of the imagination.)

But how will I handle it?

Argue with the cop about it?
Moan and groan about it to everyone I know?
Fight it in court?
Take measures to have it removed from my record?

Hey, I broke the law...
Pay the fine and move on.

Why waste time and energy that could be better spent on other activities?
The more I waste on it, the more I am "giving to Caesar" in a way.

And theoretically,
I would like to give him as little as possible.

So that's the way I'm thinking about this verse,
using an obvious example.

Well, the MOST obvious example is probably taxes.
I get taxed,
I pay it
I move on.
faggittabouddit

The more time and energy spent on it,
the more of my life I am voluntarily giving up.
The more I give to Ceasar.

Anyway, that's easy and obvious.

Mat 22:22 When they heard these words, they marveled, and they left Him and went away.

huh?

they marveled?

Hmmm, I wasn't exactly marveling....

but maybe there is more to this than the simple stuff above.
(how often do we come into contact with law enforcement in our daily lives anyway?)

Now I'm wondering about how much of my attention is being diverted
in not-so-obvious ways.
How much (of what I could be devoting to a higher purpose)
do I squander away?

Recently, I gave up watching television.

OK, so that may not sound like a sacrifice to a lot of people
who don't watch much TV anyway,
but I'm not one of those people.

If a TV is available, I am a compulsive watcher.
When I'm tired at night, I don't go to sleep.
Instead, I spend hours and hours flipping through channels,
always finding something to look at.

But like I said, I gave it up.

And you know what? I don't miss it.
I don't know how I ever found the time for it before,
I seem busier than ever.
It almost seems like I am more alive than I was before.

Have you ever heard,
that if you put a frog in a pot of warm water,
and heat the water slowly,
the frog will boil to death rather than jump out?

But that if a frog touches hot water
without getting used to it gradually,
it will recoil from it,
just like you or I would.

I kind of feel like that.

Now that I have partially gotten away from the comfortably numb warmth
of mindless television watching,
I am starting to realize what a trap it is.

And how living in this world,
I am forced to give a certain amount to Caesar.
I have to give a certain amount to the world
just to exist in it.

But that's all I'm gonna give.
All they get is my money,
they don't get my anger
or frustration
or time
or attention
or anything else.

I have a brother who refuses to give anything to Ceasar.
He doesn't accept the authority,
and won't buckle unless he is physically forced to.
But he spends so much energy opposing it,
and so much mental processing time and attention on resisting it,
that I'm wondering about what it really costs him.

Maybe it is better to pay the piper and be free.

Now that I am partially free,
(at least free enough to notice how duped I have been by the world),
I am noticing that I am getting even more sensitive to
the lies of advertising,
mental bombardment,
constant distraction.

It's almost as if the world knows we might just walk away from it
if we were to notice that silence and peace can be joyful.

I think that is what is happening to me.

So I don't watch television.
I don't read the newspaper.
and I don't feel any less "in the know".

I still listen to the radio,
but the ads are really becoming offensive to me.
"REWARD YOURSELF after a good physical workout by going out for beer beer beer!"
"PLEASURE your self by buying more more MORE!"
"Fill that empty hole inside you with an EXTREME MAKEOVER!"
"Render unto us everything you have!"

If I am constantly distracted and wanting,
what us left over for God?
What exactly am I "rendering unto him"?
What is He going to inherit from me when I die?

Maybe I need to decide

What I will give to Caesar
and
What I will reserve for God.

Now that I am slightly outside the range of continous feed,
I recoil from it.

(like mustard in my nostrils)

Thank God for the break.

Mat 24:1 And Jesus went out and departed from the temple.
And His disciples came to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple.
Mat 24:2 And Jesus said to them, Do you not see all these things?
Truly I say to you,
There shall not be left here one stone on another that shall not be thrown down.

Are the disciples starting to get discouraged here?
Are they hoping for ANY kind of positive statement from Jesus?
After a steady stream of harsh criticism,
they probably thought at least he would be happy with the temple.

Personally, I can't imagine what it looked like,
wasn't it one of the great wonders of the ancient world?
I think it had been started almost twenty years before Jesus was born,
and here he is around thirty years old,
so it had to be an incredible project to be 50 years in the making and still not finished.
I think history records claim another 18 years or so before it was completed,
and that some stones were over 8 feet tall, over 8 feet wide, over 40 feet long!
How did they even move them?

So anyway,
we might expect at least a nod from Jesus towards such a magnificent work for God.
Instead, he gives us a prophecy,
that sooner or later not one stone would be left upon another.

I'm thinking this would be quite difficult to believe at the time.
Standing right in front of it, it must have seemed to be
one of the most permanent structures ever built by men.
Right up there with the pyramids.

And yet, the next conqueror to happen by (Titus)
slaughtered everyone,
burned every Jew alive who was hiding in the temple,
and when the melting gold dripped down through the cracks
he took the whole temple apart stone by stone to get it.
Who could have imagined that?

So I'm picturing the disciples as feeling rather dejected.
They ask him about how it's all going to end, and he sits down and tells them!
No mystery,
No parables,
No illusions,
He just sits there and tells 'em how its gonna be.

And it doesn't sound good....

First we get a list of things that will happen, but don't signify the end:
- wars and rumors of wars - but the end is not yet.
- kingdom against kingdom - but not yet.
- famines and pestilence - but not yet.
- deliver you and kill you - not yet.
- betrayal and hate - not yet.
- false prophets - not yet.
- love become cold - not yet.
- gospel proclaimed - then...

Mat 24:15 Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation,
spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
stand in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand). Then...

Well, what an odd thing to say.

The first thing I notice is that he calls Daniel a prophet.
I've heard there are a number of scholars trying to [i]disprove[/i] Daniel.
Why bother?
One of my favorite teachers once said
"If a recommendation from Jesus is not good enough for you,
you got bigger problems than the authenticity of Daniel!"

So
If Jesus calls Daniel a prophet
I'm calling Daniel a prophet.

and now that I think about it,
I don't think Jesus ever criticized anything in the Old Testament.
If he was truly God, you might expect him at some point or another say something like
"You know, such-and-such book doesn't really belong in there"
or,
"By the way you left out two good ones, xxx and yyy".
But no, Jesus accepts the Old Testament just as it is.
Hmmm, I've never thought about that before....

but I'm getting off the subject.

My concern is,

There have been people in every generation since Jesus who have thought end was near.

There are people who think the end is near now,
but again
there have always been people like that.

I don't care to be just another one of them.

I'm okay with the idea that the end has begun,
because I've seen wars and famine and false prophets already,
and he has said

Mat 24:8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

So maybe the sorrows have begun.

But I'm looking for the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place.

That sure sounds like a bad thing, doesn't it?

I don't think it has happened yet.
because...
right after that, he says:

Mat 24:21 for then shall be great tribulation,
such as has not been since the beginning of the world to this time;
no, nor ever shall be.
Mat 24:22 And unless those days should be shortened,
no flesh would be saved.
But for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened.

and I don't know if we've really pushed ourselves to the brink of mass extension yet.

Since Jesus points to a key being the abomination,
what do we know about this?

Daniel mentions it twice:

Dan 11:31 And forces will stand from him,
and they will profane the sanctuary, the fortress,
and shall remove the daily sacrifice,
and they shall place the desolating abomination.

and

Dan 12:11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away,
and the desolating abomination set up,
a thousand two hundred and ninety days shall occur.

Most of the commentaries I have seen suggest (or insist)
that this is the Roman army that destroyed the temple.

Well, I don't know about that.

If this is the beginning of this:

Mat 24:21 for then shall be great tribulation,
such as has not been since the beginning of the world to this time;
no, nor ever shall be.

and it lasts 2290 days as Daniel told us in 12:11,

and facts about the great tribulation are detailed in the revelation of John
(which I don't want to digress into right now, but they haven't happened yet)

and what happens immediately after the tribulation is stated right here:

Mat 24:29 And immediately after the tribulation of those days,
the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light,
and the stars shall fall from the heaven,
and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
Mat 24:30 And then the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in the heavens.
And then all the tribes of the earth shall mourn,
and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of the heaven
with power and great glory.

Well, THAT surely hasn't happened yet!

but itsa gonna...

Mat 24:39 And they did not know until the flood came and took them all away.
So also will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Mat 24:40 Then two shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Mat 24:41 Two shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Mat 24:42 Therefore watch; for you do not know what hour your Lord comes.

Either the commentaries I've browsed dismissed this too easily,
or I am missing something and have dismissed them too easily.

Regardless,

I'm watching...!

Mat 26:21 And as they ate, He said, Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.
Mat 26:22 And grieving sorrowfully, they began to say, each one of them, Lord, not I am the one?

I'm starting to appreciate the disciples more and more.
They don't even question the fact that one of them will betray him,
instead, "each one of them" wonders if he will be the betrayer.
I would think after all this time they would be confident, assured, ready to carry the torch.
but they don't seem like it to me.

To an outsider like me, it looks things are beginning to unravel.
(and I don't mean that in a bad way.)

What I mean is, to someone like me who is looking BACK at history,
I can see the whole picture and how the pieces fit together.
I know the eventual triumph of the resurrected Lord.
So in this bad time I can kind of grit my teeth
and squint my eyes,
and wait for the painful part to be over with.
Its only temporary, right?

But in this weekly reading plan,
I have tried to ignore what I think I already know about Jesus,
and just take it as it is presented in the gospel of Matthew,
and try to put myself in the shoes of someone who was there at the time.
like someone who didn't know how it would turn out.

That's what makes this week's reading difficult for me.

Jesus has predicted his death over and over to those disciples,
but if it were me (if I were one of the disciples)
until it all really started happening,
I don't think I could have imagined it.
Once all the bad stuff started,
I would have been so confused, so despairing.

Anyone who could do all those miracles,
and heal,
and teach,
and be such a great person to follow around,
could [i]surely[/i] avoid going out like this.

Mat 26:67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him with the fist. And others struck Him with the palms of their hands,

Why is He allowing this to happen?
I thought he was the promised one!
Surely this can't be part of the plan!
Why doesn't somebody DO something?

(not me of course!
I'm quivering in a corner somewhere,
denying my part in it, now that I see it all dissolving)

I don't like this.
I am SO weak...

I have a problem with this.
It just doesn't make sense to me.

Mat 27:6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said,
It is not lawful to put them into the treasury,
because it is the price of blood.
Mat 27:7 And they took counsel and bought the potter's field with them,
to bury strangers in.
Mat 27:8 Therefore that field was called, The Field of Blood, to this day.
Mat 27:9 Then that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled,
saying, "And they took the thirty pieces of silver,
the price of Him who had been priced,
whom they of the children of Israel valued,
Mat 27:10 and gave them for the potter's field,
as the Lord appointed me."

If we can assume the cheif priests were familiar with their own holy scripture,
wouldn't they know
that the only place in the entire Old Testament that "thirty pieces of silver" are discussed
is in a prophecy that directly ties them to a potter?

I searched, and here is the ONLY reference:

Zec 11:12 And I said to them, If it is good, give My price; and if not, let it go.
So they weighed My price thirty pieces of silver.
Zec 11:13 And Jehovah said to me, Throw it to the potter,
the magnificent price at which I was valued by them.
And I took the thirty pieces of silver
and threw them to the potter in the house of Jehovah.

So my question is, knowing the scripture,
Wouldn't you be an idiot to take Judas' money and go buy a potter's field with it?
thereby fulfilling the scripture?

Wouldn't you rather buy just about anything else,
just to keep this Jesus character from becoming validated by the prophets?

Wouldn't you try to avoid having this event be forever tied to Old Testament prophecy?

I don't get it...

What were they thinking?

I also tried to get some insight from the commentaries I have,
but all of them are obsessed with discussing the fact that the prophecy appears in Zecariah instead of Jeremiah,
and offer various explanations for the apparent discrepancy in verse 27:9,

but none of them discuss the actual event!
lame...

I've been thinking about brutality lately.

cruelty.

Earlier in the text we read about a woman caught in adultery,
about to be stoned to death.

I can't think about stubbing my toe without a shiver,
so when I read about this it almost doesn't seem real to me.
My mind skips right over it.
People can't really DO that to each other, can they?

How many rocks would it take to actually kill me?

What exactly would I die of?
loss of blood pressure from all the bruising?
terror?

What kind of expression would I see on my accuser's faces
as they are hurling stones at me?

I know, there is still plenty of brutality and cruelty in the world today;
maybe I shouldn't be so shocked.
I recently watched a film showing people getting their fingers chopped off
under Saddam's regime,
and people with their hands tied behind their backs being pushed off three-story buildings
as punishment.
Maybe not deadly, just high enough to break lotsa bones.

Man, I shudder to think about stuff like that...

Mat 27:26 Then he released Barabbas to them.
And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.

You know, when I was reading about John getting his head chopped off
I thought it was pretty gruesome.
Now that I think about it, maybe he had it easy.
(don't tell him I said so)

From what I have heard of the Roman custom of scourging;
if the prisoner began confessing,
the strokes would go lighter.
if he was silent,
they would get harder and harder.
the bits of bone and metal woven into the braid would tear out pieces of flesh from the back,
and many died from it.

Although the text doesn't say it here,
I believe Jesus was silent.

-=-=-

and then...

To be crucified for a crime I didn't commit,
wouldn't I be screaming my innocence to anyone that would listen?

I just can't imagine it.
I tried pushing my thumb into my palm,
just to see what the nerves there feel like.
I can still feel it even though it was ten minutes ago.

Some people say a nail driven into a palm would never support any weight,
and that it was probably placed between the bones of the forearm, right above the wrist.
Try to wiggle your thumb between those bones just to see what it feels like.

really.
try it.

Man, there is one seriously painful nerve there!
It seems like the nailing alone would kill me!

geez, I'm such a wimp....

I've also heard that sometimes on a cross
there was a little horn of wood to kind of sit on,
so often it took more than three days to actually die,
sometimes up to seven.

but these guys were in a hurry.
"Hey, we got a feast to go to, let's get this over with".
so Jesus probably didn't have that support,
and his body collapsed quickly.

Imagine bent legs and nailed feet,
and trying to push with your legs enough
to take the pressure off your arms enough
to take a breath of air.
Slowly suffocating as your lungs fill up with fluid.
Muscles giving out, bones slowly popping out of their joints.

excruciating.
Whoever invented this was evil.

Would I have refused the gall that would have masked some of the pain?
I doubt it....!

And if these distasteful events threaten to spoil the feast and festivities?
no problem!
We'll just smash up their leg bones with a hammer.
That will speed things up and get us home for dinner, eh?

If I this had been me:

Mat 20:22 But Jesus answered and said, You do not know what you ask.
Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of,
and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
They said to Him, We are able.

I hope I would have said
NO!
No, I am NOT able.

God I pray I never have to prove myself with martyrdom

Mat 28:5 And the angel answered and said to the women,
Do not fear, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
Mat 28:6 He is not here, for He has risen, as He said.

ah...
So the story does have a happy ending!

Mat 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying,
All authority is given to Me in Heaven and in earth.

maybe I should take that back.
the story doesn't end...

Mat 28:19 Therefore go and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you.
And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen.

ok, so the world ends,
and he is with us until then.
That's good enough for me!

I'm not trying to be flippant,
I just don't have very much to say.

but...

Of all the things he has done so far
that have amazed me,
this last one is the pinnacle,
the peak,
the one I will probably never really comprehend.
(but that's okay)

Destroying the Temple,
and raising it up again in three days.

awesome.

Praise the Lord!

I'm happy to be here,
at the close of this first gospel.
This has been a great journey for me so far,
and I hope to continue.

I can't wait to see how the next gospel will affect me,
knowing that it is the same story,
but presented in a slightly different way.

Maybe hearing it a different way
will make me understand it a different way
than the way I do right now.
or don't.

any way...

I Give Thanks
for what I have received so far.