September 9th, 2023

The season of Pentecost continues on, and we are currently at what is usually called the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost (with the Gospel reading of Matthew 18:1-20). Most currently, with the writings on this website, we are going through the entire Gospel according to Matthew, as it was laid out many centuries ago, a little at a time.

We are at a point where the tension has heightened between Jesus and his enemies. It was seen in the writing of last week, and it is in this one as well. And this heightening is especially found near the historical presents (when something like a past tense verb is expected but a present tense verb is given; these special words will appear in bold print). The following is an attempt at a somewhat-literal translation (of Matthew 22:15-46), continuing on from where we left off with the last writing:

Then, having gone, the Pharisees, counsel they took, how him they should trap in a word. And they send out to him the disciples of them with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that true, you are, and the way the of the God, in truth you teach, and not it concerns you about no one, for not you look into a face of men; therefore, say to us, what to you it seems? Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?”

Now, knowing, the Jesus, the evil of them, he said, “Why me, you tempt, hypocrites? Show me the money of the tribute.” Now they brought to him a denarius. And he says to them, “Whose the image, this, and the epigraph?”

They say to him, “Of Caesar.”

Then he says to them, “Therefore, give away the things of Caesar to Caesar, and the things of the God to the God.” And having heard, they marveled, and having left him, they went away.

In that, the day, they approached him, Sadducees, saying not to be a resurrection, and they questioned him, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If anyone dies, not having children, he shall marry as next of kin, the brother of him, the wife of him, and he shall raise up seed for the brother of him.’ Now there were, among us, seven brothers; and the first, having married, he died, and not having a seed, he left the wife of him to the brother of him; likewise, also, the second and the third, until the seven. Now, last of all, she died, the woman. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose of the seven will she be wife? For all had her.”

Now having answered, the Jesus, he said to them, “You err, not knowing the writings nor the power of the God. For in the resurrection, neither they marry nor they are given in marriage, but on the contrary, as angels in the heavens they are. Now concerning the resurrection of the dead, you did read, did you not, the thing having been said to you by the God, saying, ‘I myself am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’? Not he is the God of dead, but on the contrary, of living.” And having heard, the crowds, they were pounded out upon the teaching of him.

Now the Pharisees, hearing that he muzzled the Sadducees, they were assembled upon the same, and he questioned, one of them, a law-man, tempting him, “Teacher, which commandment, great in the law?”

Now the One said to him, “’You will love, Lord, the God of you, in all the heart of you and in all the soul of you and in all the intelligence of you.’ This is the great and first commandment. Now, second, like it: ‘You will love the neighbor of you as yourself.’ In these, the two commandments, all the law hangs, and the prophets.” Now having been assembled, the Pharisees, he questioned them, the Jesus, saying, “What to you it seems, concerning the Christ? Whose Son is he?”

They say to him, “Of the David.”

He says to them, “Therefore, how David, in Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’ saying, ‘He said, Lord, to the Lord of me, “Sit from right of me until I put the enemies of you under the feet of you”’? Therefore, if David calls him Lord, how, son of him, is he?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor dared anyone, from that, the day, to question him no more.

It is interesting that there is a ‘then’ at the start of the text above, then there is the time reference to ‘that day’ later in the text, then at the end of that scenario, after Jesus pushes back a bit, there is another mention of ‘that day’ (and both times are in a way that seems a bit emphatic, with the word ‘that’ before the word ‘day’), and then the enemies of Jesus do not question him anymore. This seems to be an important day.

Perhaps, combined with the importance of ‘that day’, is the importance of the phrase in the historical present that the Pharisees ‘send out’. This is a translation of the word very similar to the word ‘apostle’. Jesus had his apostles, and it seems that his enemies have theirs as well. And this is the day that those other apostles are sent out. This seems to be the day that they try to win the war over Jesus. And this is the day that they lose.

Since words are not working, it seems that some serious actions are ahead. And Jesus already had hinted as to what was ahead of him—and his followers—with the mention of suffering and even a cross (see Matthew 16:21, 24). He knows exactly where things are headed as far as actions go. But, as we will see in the writing for next week, Jesus does not abandon his use of words. And that is a good reminder of what things are like today.