The New Testament in 90 Days

Now is the beginning of the end (and the beginning) of the story.  Everything is set in place.  First note that it begins with the religious leaders, conspiring about how and when to get rid of Jesus. In Bethany, an unnamed woman comes to the house of Simon the leper with an alabaster jar of ointment.  She pours it over Jesus head, angering his disciples.  For some reason, they are concerned that she is wasting her money on this act.  And why is she doing it, anyway?  It is an extravagant act of devotion.  Jesus tells us what it means:  she is anointing him for burial.  (I wonder what the woman thought of this.)  Jesus also proclaims that everyone will remember this woman, because of her action.  But do we? Then Judas agrees to betray Jesus.  Jesus celebrates the passover with his disciples, and tells them that one of them will betray him.  He tells them that the bread they break is his body, and the wine is his blood....

I don't know about you, but I find some parts of Matthew 23 difficult to read.  This chapter is a long diatribe against the scribes and the Pharisees.  In some translations, the words, "Woe unto you" are repeated again and again.  The charge?  Hypocrisy. Certainly, given the controversies and arguments with the religious leaders, I can understand Jesus/ anger.  On the other hand, I know a Pharisee named Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night... granted, his story is in Another Gospel.  But does Jesus mean him?  I also read these words considering many of the things that have come after between Christians and Jews:  persecution, pogroms, Inquisitions, the Holocaust.  I want to remind readers that Jesus is Jewish and that Matthew is the most Jewish of the gospels.  There are more quotations from the Old Testament in Matthew than in any other gospel. Chapter 24 is sometimes called the "little apocalypse". They are Jesus' teachings regardi...

There are more parables and miracles now, though still some of each.  The parable of the workers in the vineyard is, depending on your point of view, either troubling or comforting.  Do you imagine yourself as one who has been working all day?  Or are you one of the last hired?  Is Jesus unfair or is he merciful?  I have heard both capitalists and socialists use this parable to their own ends.  (The landowners is a capitalist because he is free to hire whoever he wants and pay whatever he wants; he's a socialist because he is concerned not that anyone get rich, but that everyone gets enough.)  But I think this parable challenges all of our views of economics.  What do you think? Just now I am thinking about Matthew's use of the term, "the kingdom of heaven."  Matthew uses the word "heaven" not because he is primarily concerned with the hereafter, but because, as a good Jewish man, he doesn't want to over-use the name of God.  So the ki...

From now on, everything that Jesus will do and say will be in the shadow of his prediction of his suffering and death.  Think about this with every parable, every teaching, and every miracle from now on.  Does Jesus' prediction make you think about what Jesus says in a different light? The first thing to notice is the transfiguration:  Jesus shining on the mountain with Moses and Elijah.  What is this about?  What's gong on?  Why does Jesus take these two disciples with him and why do they get a glimpse of his glory?  What do you think? When Jesus comes back down the mountain, he heals an epileptic boy, predicts once again his death and resurrection, and then instructs his disciples to pay the temple tax with a coin they found in a fish's mouth.  No, I don't understand what this story means.  I'm not sure anyone does. In chapter 18, there are instructions for the church found in many church constitutions.  What are we to do when th...

Today's reading begins with the murder of John the Baptist.  It is a grisly story, in many ways, and when Jesus hears about it, he retreats to a lonely place.  But he can't really get away, can he?   That's one thing I notice when I read these three chapters.  Jesus tries to get away but the crowds follow him.  He feeds 5,000 (with the help of the disciples), and later he feeds 4,000, and his disciples, who see both miracles, don't really understand what they mean (hint:  it's not just about the bread and fish.)   I also notice that Peter is beginning to emerge as one of the "main disciples".  He gets two important scenes -- in chapter 14, when the disciples are stuck in a boat during at storm, Peter steps out on the water to go to Jesus, even in the middle of the storm.  Now, to be honest, he is not entirely successful in his attempt to walk on water, but at least he tries.   i will confess to you that this is one of the Bibl...

In the beginning of this section of Scripture, we find out that John the Baptist is in prison.  He's in prison and he's asking about Jesus.  He sends his disciples to Jesus with the question, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?"  Jesus responds by asking John's disciples to return with a report of what they have heard and seen. And what have they heard and seen?  "Those who were blind are able to see.  Those who were crippled are walking.  People with skin diseases are cleansed.    Those who are deaf now hear.  Those who are dead are raised up.  The poor have good news proclaimed to them." Jesus preaches good news to the poor, but he doesn't mince words either.  In this passage there are words of comfort:  "Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest."  I gravitate to passages like these, thirsty for comfort.  But I can't help noticing ...

I can't help noticing now that the Sermon on the Mount has bee preached, that Jesus gets busy healing all kinds of illnesses, and exorcising demons.  There are many healing stories, and no two are exactly like.  There is leprosy, a fever, demon possession, paralysis, death, hemorrhaging, blindness, inability to speak. But somehow the healing can't be reduced to the names of the illnesses -- we need to know the people who were healed, and something about them:  so there is a centurion's servant, healed by command from a distance, a twelve year old girl, a man lowered on a mat through a roof by four of his friends, a man who was made an outcast by his skin disease, a woman who touches the hem of Jesus' robe.  Oh, and Peter's mother-in-law.  Among others. In the middle of all these things, Jesus finds times to quiet a storm (my translation says that the waves were "sloshing over the boat"), to call another disciple (Matthew, from his tax booth), to answer...

On Day 2, Jesus goes up a mountain and begins to teach people.  This is the famous "Sermon on the Mount, of which we have heard snippets.  ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" comes to mind.)  But today we get to read the whole thing, in one sitting.  How does this sermon strike you?  (Be honest.) It is no coincidence that Jesus go up the mountain to teach, for Matthew wants us to draw parallels between Jesus and Moses, his ancestor.  Moses went up the mountain and received the Ten Commandments.  From his mountain, Jesus also gives teachings, which seem to me to be upping the ante on the commandments Moses gave.  "You have heard that it was written",  "but I say to you...." The Sermon begins, however, with some incredible statements about who is really blessed in this world.   My translation calls them "Happy."  "Happy are people who are hopeless, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.  Happy are people wh...

Here we are at the beginning of the New Testament:  Matthew's Gospel.  And here we are at the beginning of Matthew's gospel.  Matthew begins with Jesus' ancestry, his family tree.  I've often joked about how boring these lists of names can be.  If you want people to keep reading your story, why would you start with a list of names?  Why begin with "A Record of the ancestors of Jesus Christ", instead of something like this:  "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times," or "Call me Ishmael."  Even "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God" has more of a ring to it.  But Matthew must have thought that it was most intriguing, because he put it first.  He must have thought it would draw people in. There's actually a lot to be curious about in this family tree.  There are stories underneath every single name, but perhaps the people to whom Matthew wrote knew more of these stories than we do.  For me, the women...