Matthew's Gospel and Some Fall Dates
Gospel of Matthew Reading Plan begins 8/21
Our next Bible reading plan at Asbury will be through the Gospel of Matthew; we begin Monday, August 21 and will conclude the Friday before Christmas.
Like the rest of the Bible, Matthew’s Gospel can only be understood through repeated, attentive reading. Accordingly, I’ve parceled out the readings at a slow pace; each particular day’s passage is short (less than 5 minutes!) and very manageable and it is my hope therefore that you’ll have time to go back and re-read a previous day or days and see how it all connects. (The readings are assigned on weekdays only—all the more reason to take your time and read and re-read on the weekends.)
The Shape of Matthew’s Gospel
Matthew can best be understood as being made up of three main sections:
Part 1 – Preparation for Jesus the Messiah [1:1-4:16];
Part 2 – Proclamation of Jesus the Messiah to Israel [4:17-16:20];
Part 3 – Passion and Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah [16:21-28:20].
Our reading plan will be divided up into three books; in Part 1 we will read about both the origins of Jesus—his genealogy and his infancy—and the events that lead up to the launch of his public ministry—the ministry of John the Baptism and the baptism and temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Part 1 begins on Monday, August 21. Part 2 begins on Monday, September 11; Part 3 on Monday, October 30.
[I’m indebted to David Bauer for this insight about the shape of Matthew, and recommend his book, The Gospel of the Son of God: An Introduction to Matthew.]
How to Get a Matthew Book (Pictured Above)
Asburians can pick up Matthew books all week, and we will be have them for pickup next Sunday, too.
Live out of town but want a book?
Email Sandie Tomlinson ASAP and she’ll mail you however many copies you want. If you live in Dallas, please let Sandie know—we’ll arrange a central pick-up spot in the M Streets (East Dallas) for East Dallas folks.
(Want a soft-copy? Here’s the pdf of Matthew Part 1.)
My Fall Schedule
Though I’m preaching all services this coming weekend, on Friday and Saturday my wife and I will be attending The Middle School Fall Retreat at New Life Ranch—looking forward to getting to know our kids better. It’s a great event—last year I was really impressed with our Student Ministry staff and leadership. Will be a fun weekend, but I’ll be back at church Sunday morning, because:
I start a new series on the Gospel of Matthew next Sunday, August 20—The Temptation of Jesus. (Our next series will begin in September on The Sermon on the Mount.) This is gonna be fun….
Our first (of 4) Churchwide Bible Studies on Matthew will be Wednesday, 8/30, 6:30-8:00 PM. If you live in Tulsa, I’m going to stick my neck out and say that these Bible studies are DO NOT MISS events. The Lord is doing something exciting at Asbury, and the Bible studies we’ve had over the past year on Genesis and Revelation were electric. Please do whatever you can to be present.
If you live out of town, go ahead and move to Tulsa. If that won’t work, then join us on the livestream!
The other remaining Bible studies will be:
September 13
October 11
November 8
I’m teaching The Daniel Project on Friday-Saturday, September 8-9. It’s a weekend seminar in which we address the FAQs of the faith. Because the Daniel Project is really tiring, I’ve learned that I need a guest preacher on those weekends. So…
Sunday, September 10 is World Missions Sunday at Asbury. I’ll be at all 3 services that day, but our guest preacher will be from Voice of the Martyrs. VOM is dedicated to speaking up for the persecuted church around the world, and the things that we’ll hear that day will make your hair stand up and your heart beat fast. That day, we’ll be encouraging folks to sign up for an international mission trip, so go ahead and get your passport application in now.
The last Sunday in October (10/29) is Vision Sunday at Asbury. We’re trying something new, which I’m really looking forward to. Here’s what you need to know.
One service 10 AM only on 10/29;
The service will be held in the UMAC across the street from Asbury! (The UMAC is the “Union Multipurpose Activity Center,” a 5,600 seat arena that we will be taking over for that weekend.)
The purpose of this event is to get our whole church together under one roof and to talk about where we are headed, as well as to HAVE FUN;
Afterwards, we’ll do a big party/Fall Festival and trunk-or-treat event on the grounds.
Lots more info to follow—this is just a save-the-date, so mark your calendars now! (I know folks will have lots of questions—trust me when I say that we’ll make sure everyone knows where to go, and that our older members will have an easy time getting in and out that day. Stay tuned.)
Every breath is proof: the Lord’s not done with us yet.
God has more for each of us.
Let’s GO.
The Spiritual World is Very Close
The spiritual world is very near--even now at hand--and all around, and yet it is also inaccessible to us by normal human actions. The spiritual world is invisible, but it is there. From time to time, God permits us to experience the spiritual world, but those times are rare this side of the grave, like seeing a snow leopard or Haley's Comet.
Peter, James, and John are given one of those rare glimpses of the spiritual world on the Mount of Transfiguration:
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
Matthew 17:1-3
They see Jesus as he is in the spiritual world--glorious and radiant. When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, he humbled himself and became as we are, but on the Mount of Transfiguration, his glory is unmasked.
Understand, though, that his glory is not in spite of his humiliation, but because of his humiliation:
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.Philippians 2:5-11
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Suffering is the Way Forward
When Jesus begins to tell the disciples that he is going to Jerusalem to suffer and die, Peter pulls him aside and rebukes him.
Why?
Because Peter wants to believe that salvation is possible without suffering.
Jesus knows that suffering is inevitable, and I think the reason he reacts so strongly to Peter--"Get behind me, Satan!"--is precisely because the main temptation Jesus faces is the temptation to seek the Crown without the Cross. Jesus doesn't need Peter speaking the devil's words into his ear--the way of the cross is difficult enough.
Things haven't changed. Suffering is part of life, and the faithful will suffer. The Cross comes before the Crown. Good Friday comes before Easter Sunday.
But of course, if suffering is part of life--and I'm certain that it is--that means that you will suffer if you choose faithfulness, and you will suffer if you don't. Both the faithful and the unfaithful suffer. The question is, will we suffer because we are walking the Way of Jesus, or because we are trying to seek our own way? Both ways are difficult, but only one way leads to life.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 2What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
Matthew 16:25-26
Which way are you walking today?
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The Rock
The church is not a charity. The church is not a social service agency. The church is not a fraternal club.
The church is a group of people called and centered around Peter's confessional claim at Caesarea Phillipi:
"You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
Matthew 16:16
Now, the church indeed does charitable things, serves the community, and draws people together. But each of those things derives from its identity; none of those things constitutes its identity. It is Jesus himself who gives the church its identity.
As long as we hold onto Peter's claim, the forces of evil and death itself will never prevail over Christ's church.
Herod is dead. Caesar is dead. Pilate is dead.
But Jesus is alive, and his church will never be defeated.
Amen.
As long as we hold onto Peter's claim, the forces of evil and even death itself will never prevail over Christ's church.
Some Quick Notes
- The English word "church" is a translation of a Greek word which means "called out." It was originally a political term that the early church co-opted.
- "Peter" is really just "Rock." Peter's given name was Simon--"Simeon"--but in this passage Jesus gives him his nickname and explains its significance--he will be the "rock" on which Jesus begins to build his church. (By the way, the Aramaic word for "rock" is "cephas," which is why Peter is sometimes called "Cephas" in the New Testament. It seems clear that Aramaic and not Greek was the first language of Jesus and the disciples--Greek was the language of commerce and politics.)
- Jesus's words to Peter are a bit confusing there at the end:
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 16:19
What does that stuff about the binding and loosing mean? I like how Grant Osbourne puts it:
"The church exists on earth but with a heavenly authority behind it. As the church takes the teaching of Jesus and lives it in this world both in terms of opening the doors of the kingdom to converts and opening the truths of the kingdom to the new messianic community, it does so with the authority and guidance of God."
Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Matthew, pg. 630.
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The Sign of Jonah
Some years back, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth (TX) put on an exhibition called "Picturing the Bible: the Earliest Christian Art." I went and still remember being struck by one particular theme that emerged over and over in the artwork: Jonah!
Why Jonah? The early Church saw Jonah as a symbol for Christ:
- Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days;
- Jesus was in the belly of the earth for 3 days.
- Jonah was vomited up from death to life;
- Jesus was vomited up from death to life.
- Etc.
Here is an example of the Jonah theme from the Roman Catacombs:
In today's passage, Jesus for the 2nd time in Matthew's Gospel refers to the "sign of Jonah." The Pharisees ask him for a sign, and this is what he says:
“When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”
Matthew 16:2-4
"The Sign of Jonah." Of all the images he could have pulled from the Old Testament as a way of explaining his ministry, I would never have predicted that Jesus would pull from Jonah!
But Jesus is endlessly surprising, which is one of the things I really like about him.
How might Jesus surprise you today?
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Jesus and the Canaanite Woman
Here's the first question to ask of this difficult story: what is Matthew trying to tell us? The Gospels are not an exhaustive transcript of the events of the life of Jesus. Rather, they have been arranged selectively to make a theological point. For example, here is how John explicitly explains the purpose behind his Gospel:
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.... If every one of [the things Jesus did] were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
John 20:30-21, 21:25
Although Matthew doesn't have a statement of purpose as explicit as John, his point is fairly obvious: he wants us to believe in Jesus. So, the only reason to include the strange story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman must be because Matthew thinks it teaches us something important.
Context, Context, Context
Where does the story take place? Not in Israel proper, but in "the region of Tyre and Sidon." These are cities of Israel's traditional enemies, and to make sure we don't miss the point, Matthew makes it clear that it is a "Canaanite" woman who is pestering Jesus. The Canaanites were the violent idol-worshippers the Children of Israel fought when they entered the Promised Land. In other words, she is DEFINITELY NOT an Israelite.
This story takes place immediately after Jesus has had an argument with the Pharisees about what real faithfulness looks like. The Pharisees DEFINITELY ARE Israelites, but their hard-heartedness ultimately leads them to reject and crucify Jesus.
Contrast the Pharisees dismissal of Jesus with the Canaanite woman's persistent pursuit of Jesus. The chosen people REJECT the Messiah, whereas the Gentiles are eager to receive him.
"To the Jew First, then to the Greek"
Since Genesis 12, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before the time of Jesus, the Lord's plan has been clear: to use the family of Abraham as the means by which he would save the entire world. The Apostle Paul explains this plan in Romans 1:16:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
Romans 1:16
Jesus is therefore explaining the rescue plan accurately when he says, "“I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel" (Matthew 15:24). His ministry takes place in Israel, and is directed toward Israelites. But because the Jews reject him as Messiah, the gospel is then taken by Paul and others to the non-Jews, the "Greeks" or Gentiles.
The Jews traditionally viewed the Gentiles as unclean sinners, and no devout Jew would have anything to do with them. The Jews also called the Gentiles "dogs." Jesus is therefore using traditional Jewish ways of referring to Gentiles in this passage. He seems like a jerk, but I think he's setting up the disciples (and by extension, us) with the language he's using.
You Know the Tree by Its Fruit
His language seems harsh, but look at what Jesus does: he heals this pagan woman's daughter. Jesus has been telling us over and over again: you know the tree by its fruit. It's not words that matter, but actions. Though his words might seem harsh at first, he does in fact heal the little girl, just as he has previously healed the Centurion's slave. The ministry of Jesus is to the Jews, but here and with the Centurion there is foreshadowing: soon the gospel will be taken to the ends of the earth.
The Canaanite Woman is a Model for Faith
I think Matthew includes this story because he wants us to see the woman as a model for faith. She is persistent and single-minded: she needs what Jesus has, and she's not going to stop until she gets it.
I think Matthew includes this story because he wants us to see the woman as a model for faith. She is persistent and single-minded: she needs what Jesus has, and she's not going to stop until she gets it.
How can you imitate this unnamed woman today?
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How to Tell a Good Man from a Bad One
I know it's been a few weeks since I've sent out my daily posts on the Gospel readings, but I'm back from Israel and actually sleeping at night, so here we go again. The plan is for me to write a brief commentary on each day's reading that I will post on my blog and email out to those of you who are subscribed to my Gospels 2019 mailing list. In addition, I write other posts on all sorts of other topics from time to time, and I email those out to folks who are on my Andrew Forrest newsletter list. Subscribe!
Context is Key to Understanding the Gospels
One of the keys to understanding the Gospels is to pay attention to context:
- Where specifically is this story taking place?
- What happened beforehand? What happens after?
- Why did Matthew (or Mark, Luke, or John) place this story in this specific place?
Two Contrasting Banquets
Today's story of the feeding of the 5,000 is a great example of the importance of context, because it occurs immediately after Herod's beheading of John the Baptist at a drunken banquet. (I preached about that story yesterday.) After a banquet that culminates with a scene of horror --John's severed head is brought in on a platter--Matthew tells us the story of a very different kind of banquet on the green hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee.
The crowds are gathered to see Jesus, and he has compassion on them. In addition to healing their diseases, Jesus presides over a remarkable miracle: everyone there is given plenty to eat.
How to Tell A Good Man from a Bad Man
Jesus has been telling us throughout the Gospel of Matthew: you know a tree by its fruit. A good tree produces good fruit, a bad tree produces bad fruit.
It's not what someone says that matters, it's what someone does. We know all we need to know about the difference between Herod and Jesus by comparing what happens at the two quite different banquets.
You know how to tell the difference between a good man and a bad man? Watch his actions, not his words.
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Jeff Bezos Is Getting Divorced
As I'm sure you have heard, Jeff Bezos is getting divorced. This is news because Mr. Bezos is--at least on paper--the world's richest man, and presumably his divorce settlement will have effects on both his company--Amazon--and maybe on the American economy itself. I am very sorry for this news; Mr. Bezos and his wife are real people with real feelings, and it must be humiliating to have your private details known all around the world. I feel sorry for them.
But this news just proves once again what virtually everyone who ever lived used to know, and what most people today have forgotten: our deepest problems are spiritual problems.
The spiritual is real, but it is not the material. The material can be experienced with the five senses; the spiritual can't be seen, touched, tasted, smelled, or heard. But it is definitely real.
For example, friendship is spiritual in nature. It has effects in the material world, absolutely--you might meet a friend for coffee and the mugs you hold are material--but the source of the friendship is spiritual.
If it were the case that our deepest problems were material, then money would fix our deepest problems. But they aren't, and it can't. Our deepest problems are spiritual. And so Jeff Bezos--world's richest man--is getting divorced.
If it were the case that our deepest problems were material, then money would fix our deepest problems. But they aren't, and it can't. Our deepest problems are spiritual. And so Jeff Bezos--world's richest man--is getting divorced.
In Matthew 9, Jesus first forgives a man of his sins, and then heals his paralysis. Why? Because the man needed both--spiritual healing and physical healing. Jesus clearly knew that if he had only healed the man's legs, the man would still be lacking. It would be false to say that our material needs don't matter--the baby would never have been born in Bethlehem if God didn't love the material world--but it is true that our deepest problems are spiritual.
The good news: the God who is Spirit entered into material reality and fixed our problem himself.
Scripture:
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What Conspiracy?
I hear the same canard all the time: "You know, the New Testament was actually put together by a group of men intent on perpetuating a conspiracy about Jesus. Jesus was actually such-and-such a traveling prophet, but the early church started spreading incredible stories about him to justify their power claims. The Gospels are a hoax."Here's the problem with that theory (one of many problems, actually): if you were creating a conspiracy about Jesus, WOULDN'T YOU GET YOUR STORY STRAIGHT BEFOREHAND? Hasn't it ever struck you how strange it is that there are?four Gospels in the New Testament, and not just one? Why include four similar but separate accounts of the life of your religion's founder?Today we began reading the Gospel of Mark in our Bible reading plan. Mark is the shortest Gospel, and though it generally tells the same story as Matthew, you'll see differences in detail and emphasis. In fact, each of the four Gospels is different from the others in detail and emphasis. The basic story is the same, but some of the details are hard to reconcile. To cite one important example, although each of the Gospels tells the story of the Resurrection and the empty tomb, they each place a difference number of women actually there that first Easter Sunday morning as eyewitnesses . Either there were one woman there, or there were two women there, or there were three or more women there, but the differences are irreconcilable. Why would the early church permit those sorts of discrepancies to be included in the Bible?The early church was okay with including those sorts of discrepancies in the Bible for the same reason that there are four Gospels in the Bible, and not just one: because that's what had been passed down by the eyewitnesses. It was so important that the early church preserve and not tamper with the testimony of the various eyewitnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that it decided to stamp all four Gospels as "official" and include them in the New Testament, even though that meant there would be slight discrepancies between accounts. If you were creating a conspiracy, you would never do that--you'd get your story straight and clean.But real life isn't straight and clean--it's messy. And if you actually witnessed God-made-flesh walking among you as a man named Jesus, and if he did the amazing things that Jesus did,?and if the tomb really were empty and you subsequently met and touched and ate with the Risen Jesus, you'd expect there to be some discrepancies between eyewitnesses.The Gospels are not a sign of some ancient conspiracy; the Gospels are signs of an ancient certainty:this stuff actually happened.
There's Nothing Else Like it
I don't know of anything else in the history of the world's literature that is like the passion narratives in the Gospels. I've often wondered what it would be like to read that sorrowful story as an adult, without any prior knowledge of Jesus.Then again, what would it be like to read about the Resurrection, never having heard that news before?When those stories are read in church every spring, they are broken up--the Crucifixion on Good Friday, the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. This morning, however, I read them together, back to back, as one story.There's just nothing else like it.
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And Neither Group Knows It
The pop culture version of Jesus meek and mild doesn't conform to the Jesus we read about in the Gospels. Jesus is not some kind of Semitic Santa Claus, who pats us all on the head, who tells us not to be too naughty, but who always ends up giving presents to everybody--Jesus is not tame, so to speak. The teachings of Jesus are often extremely unsettling if you actually pay attention to what he says.Nowhere is the gap between the pop culture idea of Jesus and the Jesus of history wider than in the terrifying parable Jesus tells in Matthew 25, the famous parable of the sheep and the goats:
31??When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32?All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33?He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.34??Then the King will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdomprepared for you since the creation of the world. 35?For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36?I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.37??Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?38?When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39?When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you??40??The King will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.41??Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42?For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43?I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.44??They also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you??45??He will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.46??Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. [Matthew 25:31-46]
This parable is often referenced in the media. Here, Jesus gives a beautiful picture of what faith should look like--caring for "the least of these"--and it is right for the media to use this parable to point out the failures of the contemporary church. All well and good. However, it is also a parable about judgment, which is a detail that is usually overlooked--folks are loathe to acknowledge that the same Jesus who says such nice things about the poor would also speak so clearly about eternal punishment. But, he does. Jesus doesn't conform to our expectations.I think about this parable often; I find it terrifying. Am I going to be held to account for the ways I've failed the least of these? But there is one detail that's particularly unsettling: neither the righteous nor the unrighteous are aware of what they've been doing--both groups are surprised by what Jesus tells them about themselves.What does this mean? It means that who we're becoming matters. Over time, righteous acts will become second nature to some of us, whereas selfish, self-centered acts will become habitual to others of us. In other words, the righteous act righteously out of who they have become, while the unrighteous act unrighteously out of who they have become. As Lewis famously puts it:
?[E]very time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before.?And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself.?To be the one kind of creature is heaven: That is, it is joy, and peace, and knowledge, and power.?To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness.?Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.??C. S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity"
What kind of creature are you becoming today? Every choice matters.
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Just Who Exactly is a "Sinner"?
Just who exactly is a "sinner"? If you are anything like me, you get this wrong all the time.
9As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me. And he rose and followed him.10And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?12But when he heard it, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. (Matthew 9:9-13)
One of the striking things about Jesus--repeatedly mentioned in all four Gospels--was that he deliberately reached out to the people despised by the religious establishment of the day. These "tax collectors and sinners" were people who were WRONG: they were collaborators with the hated Romans, they deliberately betrayed their fellow Jews, they totally disregarded the Torah. They were WRONG. And yet Jesus graciously reached out to them, even having dinner with these sorts of people. It's an amazing example of what love looks like. We should go and do likewise.But there is a problem, and that problem is that we often misunderstand who the "tax collectors and sinners" are in our own day. In the time of Jesus, the Pharisees were the religious establishment, and in the Gospels they are outwardly pious, but inwardly self-righteous and hard-hearted. They despised the tax collectors and sinners. Disregarding their good opinion, Jesus deliberately reached out to the people the Pharisees despised. In diagram, it goes like this:X→Y→ZwhereX is Jesus; Y are the Pharisees, who are enemies of Jesus; and Z are the "tax collectors and sinners."Jesus→hated by the Pharisees→reached out to the people whom the Pharisees despisedOr, to put it another way, Jesus reached out to the people that the people who didn't like him didn't like.So far so good. The problem comes when we try to determine who the "tax collectors and sinners" are in our day. Who is Z?Here's what we do: we decide that the "tax collectors and sinners" in our day are the people that are despised by the people that we don't like. We're X, our enemies are Y, and "tax collectors and sinners" become Z, who are despised by Y. When we read the gospels, our "tax collectors and sinners" become the people we don't like don't like. For example:
- If we are a secular liberals, our "tax collectors and sinners" are the people that Trump voters supposedly despise.
- If we are a social conservatives, our "tax collectors and sinners" are the people that the New York Times editorial board supposedly despises.
What we do today is we take groups that we feel are unfairly marginalized or despised, and we put them in the place of Z, "tax collectors and sinners." But this gets the example of Jesus backwards; we draw the wrong conclusion because we misunderstand where to place ourselves in the diagram. When Jesus talks about showing mercy to the tax collectors and sinners, we do this subtle thing where we place ourselves in the position of Jesus and start shaking our head and clucking our tongue at the Pharisees, these wicked self-righteous people who just don't get it. It's as if we thinkX→Y→ZwhereX is Jesus AND us; Y are the Pharisees, who are enemies of Jesus AND us; and Z are the "tax collectors and sinners."But this is the point: we are not with Jesus--we are not X; rather, we are Y.We are the Pharisees, which means Jesus is asking us to love the people that we know to be WRONG.A few examples:
- If we are secular liberals, our "tax collectors and sinners" are NOT the people that Trump voters supposedly despise. Our "tax collectors and sinners" are TRUMP VOTERS. They are the people we are supposed to love.
- If we are social conservatives, our "tax collectors and sinners" are NOT the people that the New York Times editorial board supposedly despises. Our "tax collectors and sinners" are THE MEMBERS OF THE NY TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD.
Do you see what this means? I get the story of Jesus and the "tax collectors and sinners" EXACTLY backwards when I think it applies to the people I don't like. In fact, it applies to me, and how I love the people that I personally don't like, even the people I think are morally WRONG.So, who are your "tax collectors and sinners" today? Who are the people that you don't like, the people that are wrong? In the Gospels, we read that Jesus reached out to the tax collectors and sinners--the people who were wrong--with love and kindness.Go and do likewise.
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Of Pigs and Human Nature
Do you actually want to change, or would you rather wallow in the filthy status quo?
28?And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed?men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. 29?And behold, they cried out, What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?? 30?Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. 31?And the demons begged him, saying, If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs. 32?And he said to them, ?Go. So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. 33?The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34?And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. (Matthew 8:28-34)
Jesus performs an astounding miracle in their village, freeing these two men from filth and misery,?and the villagers would prefer he leave than cause any more changes to the way things are.You don't think that those villagers had parts of their lives that needed healing? But rather than begging Jesus to stay and work among them, their immediate response is to beg him to leave and never come back.How true of human nature--so often we prefer the pain we know to the possibility of change.
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"I'm Basically a Good Person"
People say that all the time: "I'm basically a good person." What I think they mean is that they are basically?moral. They don't lie or steal or cheat or murder. But, when you read the Sermon on the Mount, you see how inadequate that idea of goodness is. For Jesus, goodness is not primarily moral, but spiritual--it's about being like God, who is even kind toward those who are evil: "For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45).It is possible to be perfectly moral and at the same time remain selfish, contemptuous, and resentful. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is explaining that true goodness is active love toward others--it's not refraining from doing evil--it's actively doing good, even towards those who are doing evil.I've read the Sermon on the Mount many times, but each time I read it I am reminded that there is nothing else like it in all of human history.
"Immediately"
18?While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19And he said to them, ?Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. [Matthew 4:18-22]
I've always thought that the calling of Andrew and Peter, James and John was a strange story, but recently I read something somewhere that made a lot of sense to me. Twice, Matthew tells us that the brothers left their nets "immediately," i.e., when Jesus calls, they respond totally: they don't hedge their bets or halfway follow him. What's Matthew trying to tell us?Either we follow Jesus, or we don't: there is no place for a half-hearted discipleship.Jesus says, "Follow me." In response, what do you need to "immediately" leave, drop, or do today?
![Matthew's Genealogy, Billy Joel's Song, and a Quiet Divorce [Matt. 1-2]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d70f59aefca59000162e4e6/1568657624961-U2U3O601F6XBF7DUGJOQ/image-asset.png)
Matthew's Genealogy, Billy Joel's Song, and a Quiet Divorce [Matt. 1-2]
I'm going to be blogging regularly this fall as I read through the New Testament. (I'm going to commit to blogging each day as we read through the Gospel of Matthew, and see what that's like. Each day's Bible post will go live at 4:30 AM.) Below are some quick thoughts on our first day's reading, Matthew 1-2.Two important things to keep in mind as you read The New Testament:
- The story of Jesus only makes sense in the context of the Old Testament. Lots of what Jesus does is a conscious fulfillment of the Lord's covenant with Abraham's family (which started way back in Genesis 12). This means when something Jesus does doesn't make immediate sense to you, it's probably because you're missing the Old Testament connection.
- Even more than the other Gospel writers, Matthew is particularly concerned with connecting Jesus to Israel's story.
This is why Matthew begins with a genealogy of Jesus--the family tree he provides shows that Jesus is related to the family of Abraham. More than that, each name is shorthand for all the times and places in which that person lived. The genealogy seems boring to us because the names might not mean anything us--like reading random entries in a phone book--but to the 1st century Jews who were Matthew's original readers, each name was a touchstone to family stories that were cherished by the descendants of Abraham.
"Jesus and Genealogies"
On The Bible Project site I'd recommend you read "Jesus & Geneologies," an article I found really helpful. For example, did you know?
Just think about the separated sections of the genealogy of Matthew. It is broken up into three parts that cover 14 generations each, but why 14?Within the written language of Hebrew, the letters are also used as their numbers, and so each number is assigned a numerical value. The name of David in Hebrew is ???,? and from here you just do the math. The numerical value of the first and third letter ?? (called dalet) is 4. The middle letter ?? (called waw) has a numerical value of 6. Put it into your mental calculator: 4+6+4=14, the numerical value of the name of David.Matthew has designed the genealogy, so it links Jesus to David explicitly, and also in the very literary design of the list. In fact, Matthew wants to highlight this 14=David? idea so much that he‘s intentionally left out multiple generations of the line of David (three, to be exact) to make the numbers work.Wait, Matthew has taken people out of the genealogy?Yes, and this is not a scandal. Leaving out generations to create symbolic numbers in genealogies is a common Hebrew literary practice, going all the way back to the genealogies in Genesis (the 10 generations of Genesis 5, or the 70 descendants of?Genesis 11). Ancient genealogies were ways of making theological claims, and?Matthew‘s readers would have understood exactly what he was doing and why.
"We Didn't Start the Fire"
This opening genealogy has got me thinking about Billy Joel. Each name meant something to Matthew's audience, in the way that the names in Billy Joel's song mean something to a certain type of Baby Boomer:[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g[/embed](By the way, I love this related scene from "The Office:"[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrjBpW6OSbg[/embed]That's from when The Office was still funny....)
The Quiet Divorce
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, but before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly"
I've always found that to be a quietly moving line: "And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly." That decision of Joseph's was a small, selfless act of kindness on which the fate of the world turned.Don't underestimate the importance of a small, unnoticed act of selfless kindness today. Who knows what hangs in the balance?
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This is the last post that my subscribers will receive as a standalone email. Starting Friday, August 24 through Monday, December 24, at Munger we are going to be reading through the New Testament. I'm planning on posting more frequently in this space, including regular (daily?) commentaries on what we're reading. Right now, subscribers get an email every time I post, but I don‘t want to fill up your Inbox, so tomorrow I'm going to be switching to a weekly newsletter that will contain links to the previous week‘s posts, as well as some other original content from me not available anywhere else.If you are already a subscriber, you don‘t need to do anything else. (If you want to be sure and read each post as it comes out, subscribe to my blog‘s RSS feed. There are lots of tutorials online to explain how to do that.)If you are not a current subscriber, here‘s how to subscribe: