Day 8: Matthew 23-25. Judgment
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...