Author: Al
Posted: 2007-02-11 23:19:04
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Disciple – Week 18 & 19
Weeks 18 and 19 covered the same scriptures with different emphasis. The exercise was interesting, but I have opted to do a single commentary on them both, as they will be covered in the same meeting.
Day 1
Mathew 1 - 2
Birth Narrative. Actually a very abbreviated birth narrative. We have the nice little genealogy there at the beginning, which we will be warned against later in the NT. Of course, this isn't a genealogy for no purpose. There is much that we can take from it.
Let's start the NT off with a little introduction from Scofield:
WRITER: The writer of the first Gospel, as all agree, was Matthew, called also Levi, a Jew of Galilee who had taken service as a tax-gatherer under the Roman oppressor. He was, therefore, one of the hated and ill-reputed publicans.
DATE: The date of Matthew has been much discussed, but no convincing reason has been given for the discrediting the traditional date of A.D. 37.
THEME: The scope and purpose of the book are indicated in the first verse. Matthew is the "book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1). This connects him at once with two of the most important of the Old Testament Covenants: the Davidic Covenant of kingship, and the Abrahamic Covenant of promise. ; 2nd Samuel 7:8-16; Genesis 15:18
Matthew 3 - 7
Radical discipleship. Ever since I was introduced to MacDonald, the temptation in the wilderness has held a fascination for me.
MacDonald:
This narrative must have one of two origins. Either it is an invention, such as many tales told of our Lord in the earlier periods of Christianity; or it came from our Lord himself, for, according to the story, except the wild beasts, of earthly presence there was none at his Temptation.
As to the former of the two origins: The story bears upon it no sign of human invention. The man who could see such things as are here embodied, dared not invent such an embodiment for them. To one in doubt about the matter it will be helpful, I think, to compare this story with the best of those for which one or other of the apocryphal gospels is our only authority-say the grand account of the Descent into Hell in the Gospel according to Nicodemus.
If it have not this origin, there is but the other that it can have-Our Lord himself. To this I will return presently.
And now, let us approach the subject from another side.
With this in view, I ask you to think how much God must know of which we know nothing. Think what an abyss of truth was our Lord, out of whose divine darkness, through that revealing countenance, that uplifting voice, those hands whose tenderness has made us great, broke all holy radiations of human significance. Think of his understanding, imagination, heart, in which lay the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Must he not have known, felt, imagined, rejoiced in things that would not be told in human words, could not be understood by human hearts? Was he not always bringing forth out of the light inaccessible? Was not his very human form a veil hung over the face of the truth that, even in part by dimming the effulgence of the glory, it might reveal? What could be conveyed must be thus conveyed: an infinite More must lie behind. And even of those things that might be partially revealed to men, could he talk to his Father and talk to his disciples in altogether the same forms, in altogether the same words? Would what he said to God on the mountain-tops, in the dim twilight or the gray dawn, never be such that his disciples could have understood it no more than the people, when the voice of God spoke to him from heaven, could distinguish that voice from the inarticulate thunderings of the element?
There is no attempt made to convey to us even the substance of the battle of those forty days. Such a conflict of spirit as for forty days absorbed all the human necessities of The Man in the cares of the Godhead could not be rendered into forms intelligible to us, or rather, could not be in itself intelligible to us, and therefore could not take any form of which we could lay hold. It is not till the end of those forty days that the divine event begins to dawn out from the sacred depths of the eternal thought, becomes human enough to be made to appear, admits of utterance, becomes capable of being spoken in human forms to the ears of men, though yet only in a dark saying, which he that hath ears to hear may hear, and he that hath a heart to understand may understand. For the mystery is not left behind, nor can the speech be yet clear unto men.
At the same moment when the approaching event comes within human ken, may from afar be dimly descried by the God-upheld intelligence, the same humanity seizes on the Master, and he is an hungered. The first sign that he has come back to us, that the strife is approaching its human result, is his hunger. On what a sea of endless life do we float, are our poor necessities sustained-not the poorest of them dissociated from the divine! Emerging from the storms of the ocean of divine thought and feeling into the shallower waters that lave the human shore, bearing with him the treasures won in the strife, our Lord is straightway an hungered; and from this moment the temptation is human, and can be in some measure understood by us.
But could it even then have been conveyed to the human mind in merely intellectual forms? Or, granting that it might, could it be so conveyed to those who were only beginning to have the vaguest, most error-mingled and confused notions about our Lord and what he came to do? No. The inward experiences of our Lord, such as could be conveyed to them at all, could be conveyed to them only in a parable. For far plainer things than these, our Lord chose this form. The form of the parable is the first in which truth will admit of being embodied. Nor is this all: it is likewise the fullest; and to the parable will the teacher of the truth ever return. Is he who asserts that the passage contains a simple narrative of actual events, prepared to believe, as the story, so interpreted, indubitably gives us to understand, that a visible demon came to our Lord and, himself the prince of worldly wisdom, thought, by quoting Scripture after the manner of the priests, to persuade a good man to tempt God; thought, by the promise of power, to prevail upon him to cast aside every claim he had upon the human race, in falling down and worshipping one whom he knew to be the adversary of Truth, of Humanity, of God? How could Satan be so foolish? or, if Satan might be so foolish, wherein could such temptation so presented have tempted our Lord? and wherein would a victory over such be a victory for the race?
Told as a parable, it is as full of meaning as it would be bare if received as a narrative.
Our Lord spake then this parable unto them, and so conveyed more of the truth with regard to his temptation in the wilderness, than could have been conveyed by any other form in which the truth he wanted to give them might have been embodied. Still I do not think it follows that we have it exactly as he told it to his disciples. A man will hear but what he can hear, will see but what he can see, and, telling the story again, can tell but what he laid hold of, what he seemed to himself to understand. His effort to reproduce the impression made upon his mind will, as well as the impression itself, be liable to numberless altering, modifying, even, in a measure, discomposing influences. But it does not, therefore, follow that the reproduction is false. The mighty hosts of life-bearing worlds, requiring for the freedom of their courses, and the glory of their changes, such awful abysses of space, dwindle in the human eye to seeds of light sown upon a blue plain. How faint in the ears of man is the voice of their sphere-born thunder of adoration! Yet are they lovely indeed, uttering speech and teaching knowledge. So this story may not be just as the Lord told it, and yet may contain in its mirror as much of the truth as we are able to receive, and as will afford us sufficient scope for a life's discovery. The modifying influences of the human channels may be essential to God's revealing mode. It is only by seeing them first from afar that we learn the laws of the heavens.
The entirety of that “unspoken sermon” is one of the best.
This section too contains the Beatitudes. I feel out of place commenting on them as each one has received the attention of innumerable sermons.
Let's take #1.
Wesley's commentary on 5:3
Happy are the poor - In the following discourse there is, A sweet invitation to true holiness and happiness, ver. 3 - 12. Matt 5:3-12. A persuasive to impart it to others, ver. 13 - 16. Matt 5:13-16. A description of true Christian holiness, ver. 17; chap.vii,12, Matt 5:17; Matt 7:12. (in which it is easy to observe, the latter part exactly answers the former.) The conclusion: giving a sure mark of the true way, warning against false prophets, exhorting to follow after holiness. The poor in spirit - They who are unfeignedly penitent, they who are truly convinced of sin; who see and feel the state they are in by nature, being deeply sensible of their sinfulness, guiltiness, helplessness. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven - The present inward kingdom: righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, as well as the eternal kingdom, if they endure to the end. Luke 6:20.
After the Beatitudes, Christ spends a lot of time talking about sins of thought. As popular as they are in Christian works, you would think that we should be a little better about these things. Yet cavalier anger and lust still abound in our world. They are encouraged and joked about. It's very sad indeed.
Day 2
Matthew 8 - 10
The Mission.
Let's talk about 8:5 – 13. There are a few things that I think are very important to notice here. The first, and most obvious fact to most Christians is that Jesus acknowledged that the gentiles would be converted to Christianity while many Jews would not. This is important, but mostly speaks for itself.
The second, and more subtle thing to notice here is that the miracle (of healing) is really secondary. The miracle does not give the Centurion faith. The faith came first. The miracle came out of Christ's compassion for the Centurion. Thus, when we are looking for miracles so that God might prove himself, know that they will not come. If they do come, it will be because God's love required that the miracle happen. In Chapters 8 and 9 there are a lot of healing episodes. Together they build a picture of a very desperate time. When there is no lesson to expound upon Christ admonishes the healed to keep quiet about the miracle. When there is a lesson, such as in 9:4 we are given something quite pragmatic in the scriptures.
Day 3
Matthew 11 – 13:52
Secrets of the Kingdom.
In my mind, there are two really important things in this section. The first is 11:39 – 42.
It is an evil and disloyal generation that craves a sign.
How very very true. A demand for miracles betrays not only a lack of faith, but a lack of understanding as well. How many of us find that things we once thought miraculous fade and become doubtful over the years? That is what is supposed to happen. Miracles don't prove anything for us. A faith built upon signs will fail given only a short time. Faith built on the love of God will last indefinitely.
The sign of Jonah
There is a lot of meaning in that image. Literally, the sign is that Christ was dead for three days, just as Jonah was in the fish for three days. Jonah went to save the gentiles. Christ did the same. Out of the pagan lands, came judgment on those who rejected Christ. That fulfills Christs prophesy, but condemnation is not right, and our rhetoric has (for the most part) calmed, and clearer heads have prevailed. Today I think of Jews as a great ally in our strife with the other great monotheistic religion.
The second thing that I want to address is 13:13. The interpretations of this verse just puzzle me. Many people act as though Christ was trying to confuse and condemn the Jews. Do they not realize that parable is one of the most powerful methods for getting a point across? Parable is the time honored method of Aristotle and Plato. Parable is a tactic that is used when all other forms of instruction fail. I think it far more likely that what Christ really meant in this verse is that he had given the Jews every possible chance to comprehend, and they were still unwilling or unable to do so.
Clarke had a similar line of thought:
Therefore speak I to them in parables] On this account, viz. to lead them into a proper knowledge of God. I speak to them in parables, natural representations of spiritual truths, that they may be allured to inquire, and to find out the spirit, which is hidden under the letter; because, seeing the miracles which I have wrought, they see not, i.e. the end for which I have wrought them; and hearing my doctrines, they hear not, so as to profit by what is spoken; neither do they understand, they do not lay their hearts to it. Is not this obviously our Lord's meaning? Who can suppose that he would employ his time in speaking enigmatically to them, on purpose that they might not understand what was spoken? Could the God of truth and sincerity act thus? If he had designed to act otherwise, he might have saved his time and labour, and not spoken at all, which would have answered the same end, viz. to leave them in gross ignorance.
Day 4
Matthew 13:53 - 18
Life and leadership in the church.
For some reason, Moffatt took out 16:3 and put it in a footnote instead. I found that strange.
Seven times? I say seventy times seven
This is one of those verses that it might benefit us to read on a regular schedule. Once a week or whatever is fruitful so that we do not take it lightly. I've been blessed with an inability to hold a grudge. I feel quite thankful for this, but as I get older, the ability seems to come more naturally. Mostly this is true when the parties involved are not present.
Day 5
Matthew 19 - 25
Being ready for the Judgment.
20:1-16
Laborers in the vineyard. Clarke and Wesley both had what I would call a very strange take on this parable.
Wesley's is below:
That some of those who were first called may yet be last, our Lord confirms by the following parable: of which the primary scope is, to show, That many of the Jews would be rejected, and many of the Gentiles accepted; the secondary, That of the Gentiles, many who were first converted would be last and lowest in the kingdom of glory; and many of those who were last converted would be first, and highest therein. The kingdom of heaven is like - That is, the manner of God's proceeding in his kingdom resembles that of a householder. In the morning - At six, called by the Romans and Jews, the first hour. From thence reckoning on to the evening, they called nine, the third hour; twelve, the sixth; three in the afternoon, the ninth; and five, the eleventh. To hire labourers into his vineyard - All who profess to be Christians are in this sense labourers, and are supposed during their life to be working in God's vineyard.
I find Wesley's charge that this section was about the rejected Jews to be baseless. The secondary is at best, suspect in my mind. What I take from it is that the reward of Heaven is given to all no matter when in their life they come to Christ. I find that most Christians accept this thesis completely. No one curses the new convert for getting the same reward as a lifetime of Christian service.
23:7 – 12
One teacher, One father, One leader. This appeals to my emotions. It draws me to the worship services of our Quaker friends. Yet there are pragmatic problems with this style of worship. Instead I go in for the human precept of preachers and bishops, and charges, and conferences and such. It is a system that has been abused many many times over the last two thousand years, but has also been met with great successes. For the kind of thing that Christ speaks of here we have bible studies and the Internet. It really is a lovely place to test your theological muscles.
Week 19
Day 4
Matthew 26, 27
26: 26 – 28
From Moffatt:
As they were eating, he took a loaf and after the blessing he broke it; then he gave it to the disciples saying, “Take and eat this, it means my body.” He also took a cup, and after thanking God he gave it to them saying “Drink of it, all of you; this means my blood, the new covenant blood, shed for many, to win the remission for their sins.”
Moffatt really bit off a chunk of controversy there by changing a metaphor into a simile. Part of me really applauds him for it, and part of me thinks it was a bit heavy handed. I am pretty sure that the part of me that applauds Moffatt here is the same part that enjoys all things heavy handed though.
Day 5
Matthew 28
The Resurrection.
There exists one snippet of literature that I will always reference when dealing with the resurrection of Christ.
From The Everlasting Man (Part 2, Chapter III) by G.K. Chesterton:
They took the body down from the cross and one of the few rich men among the first Christians obtained permission to bury it in a rock tomb in his garden; the Romans setting a military guard lest there should be some riot and attempt to recover the body. There was once more a natural symbolism in these natural proceedings; it was well that the tomb should be sealed with all the secrecy of ancient eastern sepluchre and guarded by the authority of the Caesars. For in that second cavern the whole of that great and glorious humanity which we call antiquity was gathered up and covered over; and in that place it was buried. It was the end of a very great thing called human history; the history that was merely human. The mythologies and the philosophies were buried there, the gods and the heroes and the sages. In the great Roman phrase, they had lived. But as they could only live, so they could only die; and they were dead
On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realized that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but the dawn
Gives me the jibblies every time.
Day 6
The questions and assignments for 18 & 19 are both asinine. Instead, let's talk about something that this section brought to the forefront in my mind.
Matthew 15:8 – 9 says:
This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me: Vain is their worship of me, for the doctrines they teach are but human precepts.
I love the UMC. Partly because it challenges me by adopting stances I disagree with, and partly because I wholeheartedly endorse Wesleyan theology. Still, as the country has become more polarized over the past decade or so, the church has seemed to embrace more and more Humanistic concepts. The complex God of the bible has been slowly usurped by a white-washed esoteric, almost deistic entity that just sits around projecting sunshine and bunnies. Church leaders seem more enamored with pluralism and politics than actually being witnesses to the world. That kind of soft soap is just as useless as the hard line fundamentalists that we seem to so hate. |
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