Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 5-6.

Today’s passage contains the centerpiece of Jesus’ teaching.  It contains enough material to blog on for days.  However, I am going to write about something which I have never thought about the way it struck me today.  That is not quite true, it crossed my mind several times, but I just went on and dismissed the thought as unimportant.  Today I realized that it is important, and that I cannot recall anyone taking note of it.  So, Jesus talks about being angry at people as being as great of a sin as murder, and then says “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled t them; then come and offer your gift.”  Or, if you realize that someone is angry with you, drop everything, no matter how important, and go make it right with them.  And why does He say you should do that, because being angry with someone is just as bad as murdering them!  But wait, He doesn’t say, “Because being angry is so bad, go and resolve things with those YOU are angry at.”  No, He says, “Because being angry is so bad, if you know that someone is angry at YOU, go and resolve things with them.”  He doesn’t say to make it right if it is your fault. He says, make it right, no matter whose fault it is.  Now, we could easily make the mistake of thinking that if we are angry at someone, it is their job to come to us and make it right and that it is OK for us to stay angry with them until they do so.  But that doesn’t work because Jesus has just gotten done saying that being angry with someone is the same as having murdered them.  So, it comes down to this: if you are angry at someone and hold on to that anger, you are sinning.  On the other hand, if you know someone is angry with you, or think they might be, and you do not go and try to make peace with them, you are sinning.  Or, to put it more generally, if you realize that someone sins because of you, you should strive to change either your behavior, or how they view you.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 1-4.

One of the things we often miss in reading the New Testament, particularly the Gospels, is the way in which Jesus’ ministry was connected to what was going on in Judaism at the time.  The Gospel of Matthew was written in attempt to convey the connection between Christianity and Judaism in a manner convincing to Jews.  Which brings me to Herod and why he and “all of Jerusalem” were disturbed by the arrival of the Magi looking for the newborn king of the Jews.  I think that, in part, Matthew included this account because it reminded his readers about the political instability of this region.  Most of us are familiar with the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid dynasty based out of Antioch on the Orantes (a city located in what is now Turkey) to establish the Hasmonean Dynasty over Judea.  What we generally are unaware of is the many civil wars fought among the Hasmoneans.  To a large degree those civil wars were fueled by disputes over the proper way to worship God.  Fights between Jews who had adopted the cultural practices of the Greeks (Hellenists) and those who supported more traditional cultural practices.  Further, it is clear from the stances on these issues taken by the various Hasmonean rulers that the conflicts were more about different factions than about specific religious practices.  Herod the Great had been made king over Judea, in place of the last Hasmonean, by the Romans and despite his cruelty brought a period of stability.   Since Herod was an Idumean who had converted to Judaism, he had brought a sort of peace among the factions.  So, the various leaders of Jerusalem had to be alarmed by the news of the birth of a new king…especially since they knew he was not being put forth by their own faction.  While the various factions hated each other, and fought each other for power, they were united in opposing Jesus because His very existence was a threat to their power.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.