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November 25th, 2023

11/25/2023

You made it! This Sunday is entitled, quite famously I might add, the ‘Last Sunday of the Church Year’. And with this writing are finishing our look at what is infamously known as the Gospel according to Matthew.

For the last three weeks, the Gospel Reading has been from what is known as the twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew [with this Sunday’s text being Matthew 25:31-46]. With a slightly different pace on this website, our reading is the last few verses of the entire account, what is typically called Matthew 28:11-20. At the end of the previous week’s translation, Jesus had just appeared to the two women who were going away from the empty tomb. And now we hear what happens after that.

These last few verses of this account contain some very familiar things that have happened, but they may be translated below in an unfamiliar way, since the translation below is quite literal. Please feel free to look at other bibles to help with your understanding of the text. This is an important amount of information. As was mentioned with last week’s writing, this is the Jesus—the Savior—who is STILL alive today. And here is an attempt at a somewhat-literal translation of the end of this gospel account:

Now going, they [the women], behold, some of the custodian, having gone into the city, they announced to the arch-priests all the things having happened.

And having been assembled with the elders, and consultation having taken, silver, enough, they gave to the soldiers, saying, “Tell that the disciples of him, in night having come, they stole him, we sleeping. And if it is heard, this, before the governor, we ourselves will persuade him, and you, non-anxious, we will make.” Now the ones, having taken the silver, they did as they were taught. And it was spread throughout, the word, this, among Jews, until the today—day.

Now the eleven disciples went into the Galilee, into the mountain of which he appointed them, the Jesus, and having seen him, they worshipped, now the ones doubted. And having approached, the Jesus, he spoke to them, saying, “It was given to me, all authority in heaven and upon the earth. Therefore, having gone, disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all things whatever I commanded you; and, behold, I myself with you, am, all the days, until the completion of the age.

You may have noticed a contrast between the above two events, that of the enemies of the gospel, that their story was taught to others, and that story has continued ‘until the today—day’. And then there is the teachings of Jesus that will continue, and that he will continue with them ‘all the days, until the completion of the age’. Those two groups are not unlike the two groups of people that are presented within the gospel reading for this Sunday, that of Jesus separating the sheep from the goats. Both groups have a story to tell. And both stories focus on Jesus. But both groups end up in significantly different places.

Non-Christians are also taught. And those who do the teaching of the non-Christians may promise that, because of this teaching, they will be ‘non-anxious’. But such a small perspective on life does not match how this world came into being and, even more importantly, how the world was saved with such a significant action from God.

Thanks be to God for the Gospel according to Matthew! From beginning to end, Jesus is portrayed as a very special man, a God-man. His genealogy is laid out. His special birth and the giving of his special name are mentioned. He travels. He does some miracles, but they are certainly not the focus. He does speak a lot of words. And as he guides those words, he is guided by his heavenly Father to make a sacrifice in the place for the sins of all.

It is amazing that words about that God-man Jesus are written down in basically all the major languages of the world. That makes sense since the eleven were told to disciple all the nations. And thanks be to God that we are included in that as well.

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November 18th, 2023

11/18/2023

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This Sunday is known as the Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost, and that is the highest number we will be seeing this year. (Next Sunday will have the following title: ‘Last Sunday of the Church Year’.) This week’s Gospel Reading will continue along in Matthew 25[:14-30]. And the writing for this week will look at the start of the last chapter of that gospel account.

What follows is this writer’s attempt at a somewhat-literal translation of the start of Matthew 28[:1-10]. Although it is probably a very familiar text, you may wish to look also at a study bible or at least another translation of the text, to help with your understanding of it (why, for example, the word ‘Sabbath’ is in the plural below). The following words are very important, since they are the closest to the time that we have today; Jesus is alive again after he died, and his name means ‘Savior':

Now after Sabbaths, in the enlightening into first of Sabbaths, she came, Mary the Magdalene, and the other Mary, to view the grave.

And behold, an earthquake happened, a great one; for an angel of Lord having come down from heaven, and having approached, he rolled away the stone, and he was sitting upon it. Now it was, the appearance of him, as lightening, and the clothing of him, white as snow. Now from the fear of him, they quaked, the ones watching, and they become as dead.

Now having answered, the angel said to the women, “Do not fear, you; for I know that Jesus, the one having been crucified, you are seeking. Not he is here; for he has been raised, just as he said. Come, see the place where he was lying. And quickly having gone, tell the disciples of him that he has been raised from the dead. And behold, he is going before you into the Galilee. There him you will see. Behold, I said to you.”

And having gone away quickly from the tomb, with fear and joy, great; they ran to report to the disciples of him. And behold, the Jesus met them saying, “Rejoice!” Now the ones, having approached, they seized of him the feet, and they worshiped him. Then he says to them, the Jesus, “Do not fear; go, report to the brothers of me that they may go away into the Galilee; and there me, they will see.”

If you have been on this website before, you probably know that the above words in bold are called the historical present, where the past tense is expected but the present tense is given. The vast majority of the verbs in the historical present in this gospel account have been words of speaking. We will see other verbs in the other accounts doing something like this—yes, we will continue on with the Gospel according to Mark in a couple of weeks.

It may be interesting to note that there is a hint of Jesus’ importance in the words that are right before the historical present. Usually when there is a description of whose noun it is, that description comes right after the noun. Earlier in this text, there is ‘the appearance of him’, ‘the clothing of him’, and ‘the fear of him’, just to name a few. But now it is ‘of him the feet’ that the women seized.

You might imagine that the word ‘seize’ does not happen too often, but that is only somewhat true. The word did appear VERY frequently when Jesus was getting arrested. It should be pretty obvious that the women are not interested in arresting Jesus’ feet. But there is something important about that Jesus; after all, his name does mean ‘Savior’. And therefore, there must be something very important about Jesus’ feet.

Those feet of Jesus went to the cross. Then those feet were carried to the tomb. And then those feet went away from that tomb. And even though the feet of Jesus’ disciples went away from him, and even though they deserted him before he died, Jesus calls those disciples his brothers in the text above. And you can probably imagine how few times that title is given to Jesus’ disciples in this account.

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November 11th, 2023

11/11/2023

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This Sunday is known as the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost—the numbers get increasingly higher—and the gospel text appointed for this Sunday goes farther along in the Gospel according to Matthew (25:1-13)—although it is not as far along as it is on Passion Week. But we are even farther along in this gospel account as we come near to the end of the church year.

Although what happened to Jesus after the cross should be quite familiar, you may wish to look at what some other translations have and/or a study bible. This may give some insights regarding the details of the following text—which can sometimes be a bit complicated.

Sometimes a very old Greek word is similar to an English word, but the two words do not bring up the same picture in one’s mind (take, for example, the word ‘custodian’). And, of course, each of the four accounts will have some unique details when it comes to the final events of Jesus’ life—and especially after his resurrection (spoiler alert!). Each account gives a valuable and slightly different perspective. What follows is this writer’s attempt at a somewhat-literal translation of what happened after the centurion—one of the last people you would expect—confessed Jesus to be the Son of God (Matthew 27:55-66):

Now they were there, women, many, from afar, beholding, who they followed, the Jesus, from the Galilee, ministering to him; in whom was Mary, the Magdalene, and Mary, the one of the Jacob and of Joseph, mother, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

Now evening having happened, he came, a man, rich, from Arimathea, the name Joseph, who also himself was discipled to Jesus; this one, having approached the Pilate, he asked for himself the body of the Jesus. Then the Pilate commanded to be given over. And having taken the body, the Joseph, he wrapped it in a sheet, clean; and he placed it in the new of him, tomb, which he cut in the rock, and having rolled a stone, mega, in the door of the tomb, he went away.

Now she was there, Mary, the Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave.

Now on the next day, which is after the Preparation, they were assembled, the arch-priests and the Pharisees toward Pilate, saying, “Lord, we remembered that the deceiver, that, he said, still living, ‘After three days I am rising.’ Therefore, command to be secured the grave until the third day, lest having gone, the disciples of him may steal him, and they may say to the people, ‘He was raised from the dead,’ and it will be, the last deceit, worse of the first.”

He told to them, the Pilate, “You have a custodian; go off, secure for yourselves as you know.” Now the ones, having gone, they secured for themselves the grave, having sealed the stone with the custodian.

As was mentioned above, each account includes some unique things. There are a lot of unique things in the Gospel according to John. (It will be a while before we study that gospel account.) The last two paragraphs of the text above are what could be called unique to the Gospel according to Matthew.

It is interesting to see a contrast in how this unique section begins, especially when compared to some of the things that have happened in the past. The word ‘assembled’ is the basis of the word for ‘synagogue’. And the last time this word was used was in 27:27, where the soldiers are assembling ‘against’ Jesus to make fun of him, sort of the opposite of what is happening here. The enemies of Jesus are assembling ‘toward’ Pilate, and they call him ‘Lord’. An assembling that is ‘toward’ Jesus and that is positive happened a long time ago, in Matthew 13:2. (You may wish to look up these verses.)

People assemble a lot these days—especially when compared to the time of COVID—and they are ‘against’ certain things and ‘toward’ certain things. There also may be an ‘assembly’ of only one person who is very much against certain things and toward certain things. But this person does not need to be alone. Perhaps this person can find someone else who agrees with them on the important things.

The title ‘deceiver’ that is given to Jesus above is connected to the verb ‘to wander’. A lot of people wander a lot these days. And some can be convinced that they are headed in a good direction. But a good direction is not always that obvious.

There are two groups that are becoming more prominent as this gospel account comes to an end. Jesus may have wandered for a little while in Galilee. His disciples were sometimes not too good of an example to follow. But Jesus finally and most certainly made his way to the cross and the tomb—which will soon be empty (yet another spoiler alert!).

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November 5th, 2023

11/5/2023

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If last Sunday was “Reformation Day (Observed)” in a congregation, in all likelihood this Sunday will be “All Saints’ Day (Observed)” as well. The traditional text for that festival is Matthew 5:1-12. In the rare case that the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost will be celebrated, that Gospel reading will be from Matthew 23:1-12.

In the rare case that you have been not been following with the writings of this website, it should be stated that we are continuing with the Gospel according to Matthew in the very order that it was laid out, from beginning to end. And in the same way that the church year is coming to an end, we are almost at the end of this first gospel account.

This part of this gospel account will focus on the crucifixion of Christ. And since this event appears in all four gospel accounts, along with some detail, it may be helpful to point out a couple significant points that are unique to this gospel account. This will be done at the end of the text.

What follows is this writer’s attempt at a somewhat-literal translation of the account of the crucifixion of Jesus, Matthew 27:33-54.

And having come into a place called Golgotha, which it is of a skull, a place, called; they gave him to drink wine, with gall having been mixed, and having tasted, not he wanted to drink. Now having crucified him, they divided the garments of him, throwing a portion and sitting, they were keeping him there. And they placed on, over the head of him, the charge of him, having been written: “This one is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Then they are crucified with him, two robbers, one from right and one from left.

Now the ones going by, they were blaspheming him, moving the heads of them and saying, “The one destroying the temple and in three days building, save yourself, if Son you are, of the God, and come down from the cross.”

Likewise, also the arch-priests, mocking with the scribes and elders, they were saying, “Others he saved, himself not he is able to save; King of Israel he is, let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe upon him. He has trusted upon the God, let him rescue now, if he wants him, for he said that ‘Of God I am, Son.’” Now the same also, the robbers, the ones crucified along with him, they were reproaching him.

Now from sixth hour, darkness happened upon all the land until hour, ninth. Now about the ninth hour, he cried out, the Jesus, in a voice, mega, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani;” this is: “God of me, God of me, why me did you forsake?”

Now some of the ones there, standing, having heard, they were saying that, “Elias he is calling, this one.” And immediately, having run, one of them and having taken a sponge, having filled both with vinegar, and having put around a reed, he tried to give to drink, him. Now the rest were saying, “Release, let us see if he comes, Elias, saving him.”

Now the Jesus, again, having cried out in a voice, mega, he released the spirit.

And behold, the veil of the temple was split, from above until below, into two, and the earth was shaken, and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the having fallen asleep saints were raised. And having come out from the tombs, after the rising of him, they entered into the holy city, and they appeared to many.

Now the centurion and the ones with him, keeping the Jesus, having seen the shaking and the things having happened, they feared exceedingly, saying, “Truly, of God, Son, was this one.”

There is only one section where the words are in bold print. If you have been reading the other previous writings, you probably know that this is the sign of the historical present, where the past tense verb is expected but a present tense verb is given. Interestingly enough, the historical present focuses on the robbers and not Jesus.

Ultimately the focus is on a person though. There is the person of Jesus, and then there are the two persons, the two robbers.

This may connect with what is one of the most unusual things from the perspective of this account. In no other account is there a record of having other saints rise from the dead. (This is the second-last paragraph in the text above.) And saints are also persons. And Jesus is a person.

In the Gospel according to Matthew the emphasis is that others are crucified. And others also rise from the dead. Could this be a lesson for the one who is aware of the other accounts? What is probably most important is that these four accounts are not seen as competing against each other, but they each give a different perspective of this totally wonderful thing. And it is not at all inappropriate for the Gospel according to Matthew to emphasize the person—and ultimately you.

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A Sabbath Day's Journey

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