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April 29th, 2023

4/29/2023

This Sunday, typically called ‘The Fourth Sunday of Easter’, is often entitled ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’. And as Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd in the tenth chapter of the Gospel according to John [the Gospel text for this year is John 10:1-10], last week in these writings we looked at Matthew 9, at the text which said that Jesus had compassion on the crowds ’because they were weary and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd (Matthew 9:36b; in a somewhat-literal translation).’ Soon after this, Jesus begins his second sermon within his series of five sermons within this gospel account. The first part of it will be given below (Matthew 10:5-13; in a similar style of translation):

These, the twelve, he sent out, the Jesus, instructing them, saying:

“Into a way of nations do not go, and into a city of Samaritans do not enter, now go, rather, toward the sheep, the lost, of a house of Israel. Now, going, proclaim, saying, that it has come near, the kingdom of the heavens. Ailing, heal; dead, raise; lepers, cleanse; demons, throw out; freely you received, freely give.”

“Do not provide gold or silver or copper into the money belts of you, nor a wallet into a way, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staves; for worthy, the worker of the food of him. Now into whatever a city or village you enter, search out who in it worthy is; and there remain, until you go out. Now, entering into the house, greet it; and if, on the one hand, it is, the house, worthy; let it come, the peace of you upon it; on the other hand, if not it is worthy, the peace of you toward you, let it return.”

You might consider the words here an ‘intermission’. It IS, after all, a long sermon, and this IS a ‘Sabbath Day’s journey (a short journey)’ with a text. But there is something important to point out, or perhaps you noticed it already. There were some ‘easier’ commands given in the last few words of the above section.

This sermon, as a whole, contains a lot of commands. That is what Jesus indicated he was going to do at the very beginning. But there are only two commands that are given in what is called the ‘third-person’. These are similar to the commands that God had at the creation account, ‘Let there be light (Genesis 1:3).’

It also should be noted that these two gentle commands above have to do with peace. And this is something important after Jesus was raised from the dead. Jesus gives out peace in the resurrection accounts of both Luke and John (see Luke 24:36 and John 20:19, 21, 26). We could say that ultimately the peace that was from the apostles came from Jesus. The phrase above that is ‘the peace of you’ does not point to the individual disciples. Both times the word ‘you’ in that phrase is the plural ‘you’. In other words, the disciples cannot have an individual peace, one that comes from the Self. True peace comes from the One, Jesus, and it goes toward his many followers.

The following picks up from where we left off. Here is more of the text of the sermon in the same translation style (Matthew 10:14-23):

“And whoever will not receive you nor hear the words of you, going out, outside the house or the city, that, shake off the dust of the feet of you. Amen, I am saying to you, more tolerable it will be, land of Sodom and Gomorrah, in a day of judgment, than the city, that.”

“Behold, I myself am sending you, as sheep in a middle of wolves; therefore, be wise as the serpents and harmless as the doves.”

“Now beware from the men, for they will deliver you into sanhedrins, and in the synagogues of them, they will scourge you; and before leaders, now also kings, you will be led for the sake of me, into a testimony to them and to the nations.”

“Now when they deliver you, do not be anxious how or what you say, for it will be given to you in that, the hour, what you say; for not you, yourselves, are the saying ones, but on the contrary, the Spirit of the Father of you, the One saying in you.”

“Now he will deliver, a brother, a brother into death, and a father, a child, and they will rebel, children, against parents, and they will kill them. And you will be, being hated, by all, on account of the name of me; now the enduring, into an end, this will be saved.”
“Now when they persecute you in the city, this, flee into the other; for, amen, I am saying to you, not at all, you will complete the cities of the Israel until he comes, the Son of the Man.”

If it is true that instructions or commands within this sermon are important, the last sentence above is also important. What appears here may be called an emphatic negation. There is a certain amount of authority that is given in such a statement.

What is interesting is that, like the gentle commands above, this emphatic negation only appears two times within this sermon as well, but they are not near to each other like the gentle commands. The emphatic negation appears near the middle and the end of the sermon, and this structure has been seen in other places.

There is the special name of ‘Jesus’ at the beginning and the end of the account of his naming (1:18-25), then with the phrase, ‘and they [the disciples] followed him’ a few chapters later, at the time when Jesus is calling his disciples (4:18-22), and then a somewhat similar structure was found in the first sermon of Jesus, the so-called ‘Sermon on the Mount’; there the usual use of the special title ‘Father’ was ‘your Father’, but the middle use of ‘Father’ was ‘our Father’ and the final use was ‘my Father’ (see 5:16 through 7:21).

This middle-and-end structure is an important one, and it certainly fits with an important gospel account that connects to a man (rather than the lion, ox, or eagle). The emphatic negation is closely connected to the coming of the Son of Man. He certainly came with authority, and an emphatic negation also has authority. And Jesus also came at the ‘middle’ of time, and he will come again at the End.

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April 22nd, 2023

4/22/2023

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The second Sunday after Easter is typically called ‘The Third Sunday of Easter’. This Sunday the gospel text is from the Gospel according to Luke [24:13-35], and this text speaks of the ‘way’ or ‘road’. And we are continuing our ‘way’ or ‘road’ through the Gospel according to Matthew, at a slightly different position. But the ending is the same.

In the writing of last week, we looked at the last specific miracle that was described between the first and second sermons in this gospel account. This is the miracle that established two different directions in which one could go (Matthew 9:32-34). One could say that Jesus could do these ‘miraculous’ things because of the ‘ruler of the demons’, or he could do these things ultimately because of his heavenly Father. How will the last section of this non-sermon part of this gospel account (hopefully) point the reader/listener to the second of those two options?

Before we look at this last section of this narrative, it may be helpful to restate an earlier part of this gospel account, Matthew 4:23. This will be given a similar translation style to that of the text to be studied:

And he was going about in all the Galilee, teaching in the synagogues of them and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing all disease and all weakness in the people.

One will notice a great similarity to the first part of this next section (Matthew 9:35):
And he went about, the Jesus, the cities, all, and the villages, teaching in the synagogues of them and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing all disease and all weakness.

There are some extremely close similarities, but what are the differences? One difference is that the second text includes the name of Jesus, which is understandable since there have been many more people described since the chapter four. And the area in which Jesus is working is only Galilee in the first reference, and in the second reference, it is described as much larger. That is also understandable, since Jesus has gained more notoriety. After those slight differences, in both texts, there are the same three things described in an extremely similar way.

There were also three temptations given earlier in Matthew 4, and their order was different from that temptation account in the Gospel according to Luke. As the central temptation was the most important in the Gospel according to Matthew—the one having to do with Jesus in Jerusalem—and both times, the central thing of the three things listed that Jesus is doing seems to be the most important. Jesus is proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.

This action is significantly different from simply teaching in the synagogues. And it is certainly different from miracles; powerful news is not necessarily good news. And it may be helpful to remember that the word ‘gospel’ is based on the word for a messenger being sent by a person with authority to do something important and not necessarily powerful. And in this statement, Jesus is seen as the messenger from the throne of his gracious heavenly Father.

What follows are the verses after that, the ending of chapter ten (Matthew 9:36-38; again, in the same translation style—somewhat literal—with the historical presents, like before, in bold print):

Now seeing the crowds, he had compassion concerning them, because they were weary and scattered as sheep not having a shepherd.

Then he says to the disciples of him, ‘On the one hand, the harvest, large, now on the other hand, the workers, few. Therefore, petition the Lord of the harvest so that he may throw out workmen into the harvest of him.

The concern is for the crowds that are ‘as sheep not having a shepherd’. How those crowds get shepherds is the next concern. The importance of the disciples is given in the verses which follow, up to the point where Jesus begins his next sermon. And the following is a somewhat-literal translation of that section (Matthew 10:1-4):

And calling near the twelve disciples of him, he gave to them authority of spirits, unclean, so as to throw out them, and to heal all disease and all weakness [cf. 9:35]. Now of the twelve apostles, the names are these: First, Simon, the one called Peter, and Andrew, the brother of him, and Jacob, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of him, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax-collector, Jacob, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas, the Iscariot, the one also betraying him.

Names are important, as is yours. This is especially true if you have been baptized. And at the beginning of this account, the story behind the name of Jesus was given. And now this ‘One who saves’ is sending out his twelve—but not yet to proclaim the gospel. For now, that is the business of Jesus.

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April 15th, 2023

4/15/2023

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The last two Sundays were known as the Sunday of the Passion and the Sunday of the Resurrection of our Lord. And there were two parts in Matthew 9 which had a noticeable connection to these significant events. Jesus started talking about the days when he would be taken from his followers (9:15), and Jesus also raised a person from the dead (9:25). These two events in Matthew 9 seem to be somewhat connected to death and resurrection of Jesus, and they were also connected to each other in that, while Jesus was talking in the first event, the second event begins right away (9:18).

It may be helpful to give, again, the response after Jesus raised the girl from the dead. Here is Matthew 9:26, again, in a somewhat-literal translation: And it went out, the report, this, into all the land, that. That line may be connected to the final line of the next miracle that Jesus does, which, interestingly enough, is also connected to the previous miracle in that Jesus is ‘passing by from there’. What follows is the text of Matthew 9:27-31, again, in a somewhat-literal translation (with the verbs in the historical present in bold print):

And passing by from there, the Jesus, they followed him, two blind ones, crying out and saying, “Have mercy on us, son of David.”

Now coming into the house, they approached him, the two blind ones, and he says to them, the Jesus: “Believe that I am able, this, to do?”

They say to him, “Yes, Lord.”

Then he touched the eyes of them, saying, “According to the faith of you, let it happen to you.” And they were opened of them, the eyes. And he warned them, the Jesus, saying, “See, no one, let know.” Now they, going out, spread about him in all the land, that.

After the miracle of the Matthew 9 resurrection, the text says that ‘the report’ is the thing that spreads into all the land. After the next miracle of the healing of the two blind ones, there is more of an emphasis on the people going out. In the same way that the previous events connected to the death and resurrection of Jesus, this event may be connected to the disciples going out at the end of Matthew 28.

The unique thing of this last miracle is that this is the first occurrence in this section of Matthew of someone else besides Jesus saying or doing something that is given in the historical present. The text could have said, ‘They said to him’, but the text says, ‘They say to him.’ This occurrence also connects this miracle to the events after the resurrection, since Jesus is alive forever and is still connected with his followers.

There is another close connection to what immediately follows this last miracle. What follows below is the last specific miracle that is given before the next sermon of Jesus. And it is an interesting miracle, especially when the result of it is given. Again, the translation type is the same as above (Matthew 9:32-34):

Now them, going out, behold, they brought to him a man who could not speak, demon possessed. And being thrown out, the demon, he spoke, the man who could not speak. And they marveled, the crowds, saying, “Never it appeared, thus, in the Israel.”

Now the Pharisees were saying, “In the ruler of the demons he throws out the demons.”

There already was a contrast between the crowd that was mourning the girl’s death and the two blind men. The crowd basically laughed at Jesus when he told them she was just sleeping, in stark contrast to the blind men who had faith. In contrast to the laughing crowd of mourners, these two blind men treated Jesus very seriously. Now after this last miracle, the marveling crowds said that nothing like this has happened before. And it seems that, with the inclusion of the comment of the Pharisees, there is a fork in the road for those who are traveling along with the text.

The uniqueness of the event could join the instigator with Satan, the so-called ‘ruler of the demons’. The other option is obviously that Jesus is connected to his Father in heaven. And the Sermon on the Mount gave a start to that connection.

After Jesus’ resurrection, the news went out. And, in the same way, there were some incredible things happening. And Satan or God is behind those unbelievable things, because some extra power is needed. The thing to remember with this God, though, is that he is not so obvious in the giving out of his gifts with his power; he is better known for his love. And that is something that faith receives—as a gift.

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April 08th, 2023

4/8/2023

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You probably already know that this Sunday is Easter Sunday, the Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. And you also probably know that the gospel text for this Sunday is a short one, especially when compared to last Sunday’s text. The gospel text which follows immediately after last Sunday’s typical text (on the Passion of Christ) is only the first ten verses of the beginning of the last chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew (28:1-10).

We are not that far, as we have our own pace through this Gospel account. We are basically going straight through that gospel account, in an effort to see its literary structure, without some of the distractions of chapter and verse divisions. We are all still headed toward the same ending. And, along the way, there may be some not-so-obvious references to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

As far as our placement within our own pace, we are currently in the middle of the first two sermons in this gospel account. The first one is the Sermon on the Mount. And the next one will be the sermon to the disciples before Jesus sends them out.

Last week we looked at the text that had the first historical present after the Sermon on the Mount that was not ‘he says’. The text does NOT say that the disciples of John ‘approached’ Jesus. It says that the disciples of John ‘are approaching’ Jesus (verse 14). Jesus is interacting with others, and he continues to do so.

Then Jesus hints that he will be taken away from them for some ‘days’ and that his followers will mourn. This seems to be a reference, basically to his departure during his arrest, his crucifixion, and his time in the tomb.

What follows below is a somewhat-literal translation of the next section, Matthew 9:18-26. Note that it connects to the previous text in a very basic way because Jesus, at the beginning of this text, is being interrupted.

These things, he speaking to them, behold, a ruler, one, coming, worshipped him saying, “The daughter of me, just now, died; but on the contrary, coming, lay on the hand of yours upon her, and she will live.” And, rising, Jesus was following him, also the disciples of him.

And, behold, a woman, blood flowing twelve years, approaching behind, touched the fringe of the garment of him, for she was saying in herself, “If only I may touch the garment of him, I will be saved.”

Now Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; the faith of you has saved you.” And she was saved, the woman, from the hour, that.

And coming, Jesus, into the house of the ruler and seeing the flute players and the crowd, troubled, he was saying, “Depart, for not she died, the little girl, but on the contrary, she sleeps.” And they were laughing at him. Now when it was put out, the crowd, entering, he took hold of the hand of her, and she was raised, the little girl. And it went out, the report, this, into all the land, that.

In the previous text, Jesus mentioned the days when the bridegroom is taken away, and then, there is the above text that points to a resurrection. For those who know how this gospel account will end, it is relatively easy to connect these two things to the death and resurrection of Jesus that will be coming relatively soon.

Life is very complicated. But think of how complicated it was for Jesus! And there are more important things for Jesus than just speaking here and healing there. If we slow things down a bit, we may see a purpose in all of this.

As we live in this world, we basically have some life-and-death situations. But Jesus is a death-and-life situation. And that makes a huge-and-eternal difference.

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April 1st, 2023

4/1/2023

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This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, and this Sunday is also called the Sunday of the Passion. And the Gospel text usually read this Sunday is by far the longest of the year, Matthew 26:1 to Matthew 27:66. That text has one hundred and thirty-six verses. Last week, with the writing for a “A Sabbath Day’s Journey,” that was a long one as well, and Matthew 8:1 to Matthew 9:13 was translated, but that text was only a mere forty-seven verses. And this week will be much shorter.

Previously, all the historical presents within the last two chapters of this gospel account were ‘he says’. But at the beginning of Matthew 9:14, there is a different historical present. Here is that verse and the rest of the text (9:14-17, in a somewhat-literal translation) which relates to that very interesting occurrence:

Then they approach him, the disciples of John, saying, “Why we and the Pharisees fast much, now the disciples of you not fast?” And he said to them, Jesus, “Not can the sons of the bridegroom to mourn, so long as with them is the bridegroom? Now they will come, days, when it is taken away from them, the bridegroom, and then they will fast. Now no one throws upon a patch, cloth, of unfulled, on an old garment; for it takes away, the fullness of it, from the garment, and a worse schism it becomes. Neither they throw wine, new, into wineskins, old; now if they do, they are burst, the wineskins, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are destroyed. But on the contrary, they throw wine, young, into wineskins, new, and both are preserved.

A lot of people have been approaching Jesus. The verb can also be broken up into two words, ‘coming toward’. In Matthew 8:2, a leper not only comes toward him but worships him, and he wants Jesus to heal him. Just a little later than that, in verse 5, a centurion comes toward him and also implores him to heal his ‘boy’ (verse 6). In verse 19 of that same chapter, one scribe comes toward him and says that he will follow him wherever he goes. Then, after the above text, one ruler comes toward Jesus, and he also worships him, and he would like his dead daughter to be raised (9:18). And while Jesus is dealing with that issue, a woman who wants to be healed comes toward him as well (9:20f). And later in the chapter, two blind men come toward Jesus, and they also want to be healed (9:27f).

Matthew 9:14 is the first time that the word is given in the historical present. And the rest of the historical presents in this section of the gospel account will go back to using ‘he says’ (although they are not all connected to Jesus saying the words).

There have been a lot of people coming and going—but especially coming. Previously, though, this action of coming toward or approaching has not been emphasized with a historical present. Why now?

First of all, it may be helpful to remember that there were no chapter and verse divisions within the original text. The reader (and listener) had to rely on grammatical clues to hear a division and ascertain a new direction in the text.

What is this new direction? Before this, the historical presents in the last two chapters were not only ‘he says’, but they are were only Jesus talking. Now this changes. Now our attention turns toward the disciples of John, and they want to know why Jesus’ disciples do not fast. And Jesus references a time when the bridegroom will not longer be with them. Our attention turns to what will happen to Jesus, due to the people who will be coming to him at the end of his life.

These ‘days’ that are mentioned in the text above are important. And these special days will be mentioned more frequently as Jesus gets closer and closer to them. There happen to be two important phrases within this gospel account which also use the word ‘then’. The phrase ‘from then’ appears in Matthew 4:16 and Matthew 16:21. The latter verse starts to get the disciples ready for his death and resurrection. And the historical present of ‘coming toward’ starts to get people ready to hear that Jesus will be killed and, on the third day, be raised.

We do not want to get too far ahead of ourselves though. But these are some hints as to what is ahead, and hearing that in advance reminds us that this is all part of the plan. And that plan is certainly a good one, one far better than we could ever imagine.

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