The Destruction of the Temple

What Jesus predicts here is actually what happened: the Temple in Jerusalem--a stunning architectural and engineering achievement--was pulled down, stone by stone, by the Romans in AD 70.

When we were in Israel earlier this year, we visited Jerusalem and stood on the ruins of the Temple. It is amazing to walk on those ancient stones and know that you are walking on the exact same stones on which Jesus himself walked. And it's even more amazing to consider that Jesus is actually the true Temple, the place where Heaven and Earth came together.

Today’s Scripture:

Matthew 23:37-24:2

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Jesus and Judgment

I appreciate what Stanley Hauerwas has to say about the seven woes that Jesus pronounces on the teachers of the law and the Pharisees:

"The series of woes that Jesus directs at the scribes and Pharisees make for difficult reading in light of the Christian condemnation and persecution of the Jews. That these characterizations of the scribes and Pharisees have unfairly been used to condemn all Jews as well as Judaism is a sign of Christian failure and sin. But the sin is not that Christians thought it necessary to make judgments informed by those forms of life that Jesus's condemns, but that we have failed to apply those judgments to ourselves. We cannot forget that Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees from a position of weakness. He has no power to act against those he condemns. Christians betray Jesus when they make judgments--like those Jesus makes against the scribes and Pharisees--from positions of power that transform those judgments into violent and murderous actions rather than attempts to call ourselves and our brothers and sisters to a better life."

Stanley Hauerwas, Matthew

Today’s Scripture:

Matthew 23:13-36

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I’m blogging through the Gospels in 2019. Subscribe here to receive a weekday update on that day’s Gospel reading. (There is also an option to subscribe to non-Gospels posts as well through my plain ole Andrew Forrest Newsletter.)

Jesus and Hypocrisy

Jesus has talked many times in Matthew's Gospel about the problem of hypocrisy, of not practicing what you preach. Here, he again takes the Pharisees to task, not for what they say--he even says "You must be careful to do everything they tell you"--but for what they don't do: namely, follow their own advice.

If Jesus talks about this so often, it must be important. So, here's the question:

Where today am I not living up to my own principles? How am I not practicing what I preach?

Today’s Scripture:

Matthew 23:1-12

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***How to Subscribe***

I’m blogging through the Gospels in 2019. Subscribe here to receive a weekday update on that day’s Gospel reading. (There is also an option to subscribe to non-Gospels posts as well through my plain ole Andrew Forrest Newsletter.)