Tuesday, October 05, 2010
ACE Class: Before Week Four
Before Week Three offer your reflections on one of the following passages: Matt 8:18-22; Matt 9:12-13; Matt 10:34-36.
In one or two paragraphs prepare a response and reflection by leaving a comment to this post. When preparing your reflection make sure to consider the surrounding literary context. Meaning, if I am writing about Matt 1:21 it is necessary to understand the meaning of this passage by reading all of chapter 1 (and even chapter 2).
Further, each week use this blog as a means to respond to other peoples reflection.
One other thing to note. Week Five will be a "junk drawer day." Any questions that would result in a "bunny trail" are encouraged!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Matthew 10:34-36
This passage is quite interesting; it seems that often people feel limited by their families in how they pursue God. Either, they are attached to them and get stuck doing things the same way, or they sometimes are influenced to not do something that maybe they should in pursuing God.
We are called to love our families, but our primary love is to be reserved for Jesus.
We often see this today; the people who do not agree with us are people in our own families. It seems sometimes that they know us so well that they do not understand the drastic change that God makes in our lives and that the patterns that are contrary to our destiny in Christ must be changed. Jesus a couple of verses later talks about leaving things behind and losing our lives for his sake. It is not his intention that we hate our family, but that we love Him above all.
This all comes up in the context of persecution. It seems that persecution is more difficult to bear when the people are close to us. Jesus gave people fair warning that they would be despised as He was even by those closest to them; not exactly "American Christianity."
In response to Matthew 10:34-36...
I took a course my senior year of college about Christian and Islamic ethics; I remember talking a lot about this verse, specifically in the context of the importance of taking into account the surrounding verses and considering the cohesion of a given book. Taken by itself, without consideration of the surrounding verses (or the entire book of Matthew, or the NT as a whole...) this verse could easily be interpreted as Jesus declaring a purpose of violence (represented by the sword and by him saying he did not come to bring peace), rather than brotherly love. The problem with this interpretation is that it would contradict much of what he has said already. Here is my interpretation: When Jesus says that he did not come to bring peace, he means that he does not deny that there will be conflict for us. The preceding sections (especially the one about how persecution will come...) support this idea, that life for believers is not going to necessarily be easy. The image of the sword is symbolic of division; after all, what does a sword do but cut something into pieces? He has come to polarize people, to separate the hot from the cold. Does Jesus desire conflict (the absence of peace)? Does he desire division? No...or at least not directly; but he does desire that people are reconciled to him at all costs, and reconciled completely. There will be conflict between people, and in some cases, that conflict will lead to a division.
Matthew 9:12-13 In context, Jesus was responding to the Pharisees saying to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus did not say that it was because he loved them better, he said that it was because they, as sin-sick people, needed his help.
He commanded them to learn what it meant that God "desire[s] mercy, not sacrifice". That was taken from Hosea 6:6. The whole verse is "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings". The Pharisees did a lot of sacrifices and burnt offerings and rituals. God wanted them to learn to be merciful and demonstrate His character.
(Christine Schultz)
Matthew 8:18-22 A teacher of the law straight up tells Jesus I will follow you wherever you go and Jesus basically says he needs some rest (a nice pillow),the Son of man has no place to lay his head. I don't think Jesus disregards the question but says what he needs of him at that moment.
In verse 21, a disciple says "Lord, first let me go and bury my father," and Jesus replies "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." Jesus is very direct in this statement. He implies if you follow him, you will have to give up things you thought were important in your life. Jesus also may mean that nothing is more important that following Christ, even your immediate family.
Mat 8:18-22 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Another of the disciples said to him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." And Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."
There are many that would think to follow Jesus and even say to him – “I will follow you” – but have not considered the cost of following Jesus. In the first statement (“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”) Jesus is saying – I have nothing. I have emptied myself and have nothing. Are you willing to do the same? Do you have any idea what it means to follow me – to be my disciple? I am not attached to things, and I am not attached to people – are you willing to drop your attachments and become like I am? In Luke (9:23) Jesus says "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Although Jesus does not, in this passage in Matthew give instruction – the message is the same – deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If we are going to follow Jesus – we must count the cost and we must be willing to lay all down in order to follow him. Have I counted the cost? Am I willing to be emptied in order to follow Jesus? Am I willing to lay my ego at the foot of the cross – to not be attached – even to my own ego self – my ego self that is all about me – the ego self that needs a Copernican revolution (learning that the universe does not revolve around me)
In the second statement ("Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.") Jesus is asking/telling the person – if you are concerned about the things of the world – there will always be something that will stand in the way of being my disciple. In this scripture Jesus responds to a request that may seem reasonable at first glance ("Lord, let me first go and bury my father." ) but needs to be questioned if it gets in the way of following Jesus. Following Jesus must take top priority – that is a prerequisite.
Mat 9:12-13 But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
There are people that live what they consider to be a good life – they appear to be self-sufficient – they are full of appearances and have no need for a savior. They are self-righteous – which is the wrong kind of righteousness. The only righteousness that is real is not self made righteousness but righteousness that comes from God and God’s righteousness is only attainable by living a faultless life. There was only one faultless life – and that was Jesus. The only way to be restored and reconciled back to God our Father is through the price paid by his righteous son, Jesus. Those, on the other hand that know they are sinners – that they are not fooling anyone with their lack of righteousness – those that can see clearly that they need a savior – someone who can restore them and reconcile them – they know that that in their heart they are not faultless and can never be faultless because their Sin (not what they do but who they are) is embedded in them and there is no way out. Jesus came to make a way to be reestablished in a relationship, reconciled, and restored to the God who created all and to whom we have been estranged.
Once we know in our hearts that we possess Sin in our lives and there is no way out – we can only cry for mercy. The classic Jesus prayer – used for centuries has the priorities right (there is a reason it has been used for centuries)… “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God – have mercy on me, a sinner.” There was a time in my life when I thought I was okay in my heart – and God pulled me up short and showed me my dark side – the shadow that is me. I was stunned and horrified at my own dark side and have used a shortened version of the Jesus prayer ever since.
If we don’t see our overwhelming need for mercy – the easy way out is to sacrifice. A classic Biblical example of sacrifice and not mercy is the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-11). The Scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman who was caught in the act of adultery to Jesus and tell him that the law says to sacrifice this woman. Jesus tells them that only one who is not sin can sacrifice this woman – and one by one all but the woman leave – Jesus knows that law of Moses – he knows that the punishment for adultery is stoning – and he is qualified to do that – but he extends mercy to the woman and does not accuse her. Sacrifice is always the easy way out – a friend offends us – so we sacrifice the friendship. Somebody does something foolish which they regret – and we shun them – we sacrifice them. The church is full of sacrifice when mercy is on the heart of Jesus. We want to be the judge and the jury – to find people guilty and sacrifice them – have them step down from a position – to exclude them from a group – to ignore them and the whole while Jesus is wanting us to follow him and die to our reaction to sacrifice and to extend mercy. Extending mercy is laying down our life for our friends, our family, and even strangers. It is mercy, when sacrifice is called for that will get the attention of the one to whom the mercy is directed. We are culturally so familiar with sacrifice that we don’t even know we are doing it. We have to stop and add to our awareness of when we go into sacrifice mode so that we can start to be more like Jesus – to show mercy.
Post a Comment