May 13th, 2023

This Sunday is named ‘The Sixth Sunday of Easter’, and with that name you probably can tell that we are nearing the end of the Easter season. The Gospel reading for this Sunday [John 14:15-21] continues right after the previous week’s text, and in much the same way, our study continues in the Gospel according to Matthew, right after the previous text.

Last week’s writing ended the second of the five sermons within this account. The point was brought up that there is a structure to the sermons of Jesus that helps us to focus on the oft-overlooked midpoint of a text. This may help us to see a beautifully intricate message within the text.

As the previous non-sermon section of this gospel account put some emphasis on a ‘then’ section of the text—which, by the way, may also function as a type of midpoint—that introductory word may also be found in this section, but this time in more than one place. The following, somewhat-literal translation will go until after the first ‘then’ [Matthew 11:1-24]:

And it happened when he ended, the Jesus, directing to the twelve disciples of him, he removed from there to teach and to proclaim in the cities of them.
Now the John, hearing in the prison the works of the Christ, sending through the disciples of him, he said to him, ‘You, yourself, are the coming one, or another may we expect?’

And, answering, the Jesus said to them, ‘Going, report to John the things which you hear and you see. Blind men see again, and lame men walk, lepers are cleansed, and deaf men hear, and dead men are raised, and poor men are evangelized. And blessed is whoever is not scandalized in me.’

Now these, going, he began, the Jesus, to say to the crowds about John, ‘What you went out into the wilderness to behold, a reed by wind being shaken? But on the contrary, what you went out to see, a man in soft material having been clothed? Behold, the ones, the soft material wearing, in the houses of the kings, they are. But on the contrary, what you went out to see, a prophet? Yes, I am saying to you, and more of a prophet. This is he about whom it has been written: Behold, I myself am sending out the messenger of me before face of you, who will prepare the way of you before you.’

‘Amen, I am saying to you, not has arisen in those born of women, a greater of John the Baptist. Now the lesser in the kingdom of the heavens, greater of he is he. Now from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of the heavens is violently treated, and violent men seize it. For all the prophets and the law until John, they prophesied. And if you are willing to receive, he himself is Elias, the one about to come. The one having ears, let him hear.’

‘Now to what will I compare the generation, this? Like it is to children, sitting in the marketplaces who, calling to the others, they say, “We piped to you and not you danced; we lamented and not you mourned.” For he came, John, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “A demon he has.” He came, the Son of the Man, eating and drinking, and they say, “Behold, a man, gluttonous and a wine drinker, of tax collectors a friend and of sinners.” And it was justified, the wisdom, by the works of her.’

Then he began to reproach the cities in which it happened, the very many powerful things of him, because not they repented: ‘Woe to you, Chorazin; woe to you, Bethsaida, because if in Tyre and Sidon they happened, the powerful things, the having happened in you, long ago in sackcloth and ashes they would have repented. However, I am saying to you, for Tyre and Sidon more tolerable it will be in day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, not until heaven were you exalted? As far as hades you shall descend; because if in Sodom they happened, the powerful things, the having happened in you, it would have remained until the today. However, I am saying to you that in land of Sodom more tolerable it will be in day of judgment than for you.’

The important events that were brought up from the last non-sermon section were a somewhat-oblique reference to Jesus’ death and resurrection. What helped to get the attention of those two things was an historical present, and there has been no historical present in this chapter so far.

At the very beginning of this text, there is a somewhat hidden reference to Jesus’ death and resurrection in the very beginning of this section, that Jesus went out to teach and proclaim. Note that the text does NOT say that Jesus went out and did lots of miracles.
We can see this emphasis on the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection a bit more clearly on with his ‘to do’ list of things that he gives to the disciples of John, with the last thing on that list is that he evangelizes the poor. Note that the item immediately before that is that he raises the dead. What could be better than that? Something that gives ETERNAL life.

This is connected to what Jesus was ‘anointed’ to do. Note also near the beginning of the text above that John hears about the works of the ‘Christ’. Perhaps he was hoping for a miracle that would allow him to get out of prison.
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At the beginning of the last paragraph above is the first ‘then’ of the text. How is this first ‘then’ a midpoint? It will be clearer in the weeks to come, but this may be considered a type of reaction to the death and resurrection of Jesus. There are some who are unrepentant. They have chosen to place their trust in their own ‘miracles’. (This is not a great point on which to end, but if you would like to go farther into the biblical text, there is some definitely good news ahead.)