Lent Part 4: The Cross and the Empty Tomb

Welcome back for the final installment of this miniseries. I will be looking for new things to write about and if you have any suggestions please let me know. I have some ideas floating around but we will see what happens with those. Happy Easter. I hope you have been enjoying yourselves and are rested. If you wish to explore how the Christian Easter began, I have another video link for you - Sacred Calendar: Easter. (This is also made by the University of Nottingham). Essentially the details of the video include, the centrality of Easter to the Christian faith; Easter focuses the Gospels onto the risen Christ; Easter originates out of the Jewish Passover; the Christian enters into the new life of Christ through baptism; Easter is the end of the preparation of Lent. With that aside, let's go.

First off, here is a rough layout of some of the key events from Matthew 21, leading up to the crucifixion.

Crucifixion, as you may have heard before, was a Roman punishment which was not administered to Roman citizens. It involved being nailed or tied to a wooden cross. The person on the cross would be left to hang for hours, even days until they died. The legs of the condemned would often be broken so they would be unable to push themselves up. Eventually their weight would stop their breathing and they would die. This method of execution was evidently very gruesome and horrible. Jesus was sentenced to die in this manner. He died at roughly three in the afternoon, then was laid in a tomb on Good Friday. The tomb was discovered to be empty the following Sunday. Jesus then appeared to his followers and gave them a task to spread the Gospel to the world.

We can see from the early rise of Christianity that despite the fear of death and the widespread  persecutions that began as early as 30 years into the beginning of the Jesus movement, the movement exploded. Initially, the Christian's who first spread the Gospel were the disciples. These men had journeyed with Jesus for some years and had come to worship him as the Son of God. It is unsurprising that the Jewish people of the time considered this blaspheme. For the people in Jerusalem and Judea it would have been very difficult to conceive of the Creator God of the world and heavens to limit Himself in the form of a human. That he would not be even a king but a carpenter. However, some of the early Christians pushed heavily on an elevated understanding of Christ. The Philippian Hymn (Phil. 2:5-11)  is perhaps one of the earliest doxologies, that is to say if you read it you will get a feeling for a people wanting to worship Jesus as God. These people knew him. Some, like James, were even related to him.

What is interesting about early Christianity is that the Jesus movement grew rapidly despite, as we see in Acts 4:32-35, the followers giving up their material wealth and generally not forcing anyone to convert. What should have been limiting for the growth actually did not seem to halt growth. The leaders of the movement did not end well. For a short concise summary please visit this link,

https://www.reclaimingthemind.org/content/Parchmentandpen/DeathoftheApostles.pdf

The guy who wrote it is doing some interesting things with coffee shops and studied at Dallas Theological Seminary, where Daniel B. Wallace teaches, of whom I have a Greek textbook (There's your six degrees of separation, although not quite).

Essentially my point is that the main witnesses of Jesus' ministry all told as many others as they could until their preaching led to their deaths. These people were from different walks of life, some fishermen, one a tax collector, another a zealot (basically a rebel against the Roman rule in Judea). They all agreed for the most part on what they saw. They all believed this enough to give up their lives for events they were present at. If that isn't worth consideration, I'm not sure what is.

The Theology Network at Nottingham recently hosted the Revd. Dr Ian Paul, who I remember saying something along the lines of, "I'm not 100% certain, but I'm confident enough to stake my life on the Gospel." (http://www.psephizo.com/ is the link to his blog, I also may be misquoting him slightly and if so I apologize. As far as I am aware that was the general gist.) What I found fascinating about that is since Christianity started, followers have been willing to give up their lives for the sake of the Gospel. Unfortunately people have also sometimes chosen to make others give up their lives when they don't want the Gospel but I hope we can agree that this was a mistake.

Just under two thousand years ago, a man called Jesus walked on the earth. He was crucified, died, laid in a tomb, and then rose again. People who witnessed this testified until they were executed. They knew this would happen. Paul for example was present when Stephen was stoned, then went around after his conversion/calling doing near on the same thing. Have a think, maybe a pray, and I will finish with an open question. In concrete terms, what would it take for you to believe the account given in the Gospel according to Matthew and would these terms be hugely different from what it takes to make you believe in anything else?

Take care, I will be back soon,

Joe

Lent Part 3: Jesus heals

Welcome back. With tomorrow being Palm Sunday and therefore next week being Easter weekend, this miniseries will be wrapping up shortly. Hopefully you are also getting excited for Easter and if you want to know what lies at the heart of Easter then visit next week and we can have a look.


Today I will be taking a look at some of the people Jesus encountered and how he changed their lives. I will go through three instances of healing recorded in Matthew and examine what I think they mean and symbolize.


First things first from Matthew 8.1-4 Jesus encounters a leper. Leprosy in the Bible is probably not what we understand as leprosy today (see The Oxford Bible Commentary, section on Matthew 8.1-4). Actually leprosy was probably several skin diseases grouped together under the blanket term. In Number 12.10 and 2 Kings 5.1 the term leprosy is used for a contagious skin disease. Leviticus 13-14 contains a large number of ordinances for skin diseases. These cover both practical health issues and ceremonial purity issues. Essentially, those with leprosy were ostracized and rejected by society. They lived an existence cut off from their people. In Matthew 8.2, a leper approaches Jesus. He recognizes who Jesus is and asserts that Jesus is able to heal, and the leper will be healed if Jesus wills it. In verse 3, Jesus shatters this lepers' world. He touches him. Now imagine having not being touched by another person for a long time. When Jesus reached out he made a connection. Jesus not only touched him. He near on bear-hugged him. When Jesus touched him, he took hold of the leper, grasping him by the hand. This gesture would have meant so much to the man. This real love for people is also what led Jesus to the cross. The leper was healed (or rather cleansed as the disease was understood as an impurity), and Jesus told him to uphold the law (cf. Lev. 14.2-32).


The second example of healing I will take from Matthew 9.1-8. In this example, a paralyzed man is brought to Jesus. The first thing Jesus does is forgive him of his sins. It is clearly a priority for Jesus that the internal health is more important than the external. Jesus recognizes the real problem that lies at the heart of humanities' existence. In James 5.16 we can see that sometimes sickness has a spiritual element. "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." The teachers of the law see this and accuse Jesus of blasphemy. As a response, Jesus claims it is harder to heal a person physically than forgive them of their sins, as a physical healing can be observed. Jesus heals the man and restores his ability to walk.


The final example will be from Matthew 17.14-18. A boy is demon-possessed, which we could interpret today as an epileptic. "He has seizures and suffers terribly." Jesus is concerned with the fact that his disciples have not been able to heal the boy. Jesus deals with the demon and the boy becomes well. Before this instance, the boy has always been the object in the sentence. This is harder to pick up in the English but the whole time the boy has been mentioned, he always is an object. Either he is been thrown into fire and water, or being brought to the disciples and Jesus, or being healed. After Jesus heals him, the boy becomes the subject. It is God's wish that we become subjects and not objects. We are children of God, who have been given stewardship over the earth and when we are subjugated and not seen as creations in the image of God, we have distorted and upset the created order.


Time and time again, Jesus' disciples are told and expected to heal and imitate Christ (Matt. 10.8; 11.5; 17.16; 28.18-20). The call is to restore creation. Jesus didn't come to make people into superhumans but to restore them back to what they should have been. The paralytic wasn't able to run as fast as a cheetah, the boy wasn't suddenly able to walk unharmed in fire, the blind do not have x-ray vision. Jesus unties the bonds of a fallen world. He gives an expectation for what will happen in the end. I will also note that whatever you may think about healing, we can agree it doesn't seem to happen as easily as it happened for those around Jesus. From 2 Corinthians 12.7-10 we can see that St. Paul learned to accept his limitations. Many scholars consider the "thorn" to be a physical ailment when compared with Galatians 4.13-15. Paul seems to have a condition which he has learned to accept. He instead uses it to glorify God. We should be willing to accept that not every illness is healed. We should be hopeful, however, that one day everything will. For now, we can treat people with love, as images of God. People are not to be abused, but loved and treated with dignity because of the fact that they are created by God, made by His hands.


Please do leave a comment if you have any thoughts. I just felt I would share what seems to be a large theme in Matthew and the Gospels in general, which is healing. I have commented in favor of eschatological readings, meaning I consider them to be a sign of things to come at the second coming rather than an everyday expectation. However I am well aware of the potential to be completely wrong. Bless you guys, take care,

Joe


*Unless otherwise stated I have used the NLT Bible translation.

Lent Part 2: Matthew 5-7

Welcome back, if you haven't read my first Lent post, then it is below if you so wish to read it. As always I am by no means the final word on this, the blog is a collection of my thoughts which I will welcome any discussion over. Here is part 2, enjoy.



Matthew 5 is famous for what are known as the beatitudes. Essentially this is a list of blessings which are found in Matthew and Luke, although Matthew is generally better known. To get a better understanding of the situation you can view this short video, kindly made for the bibledex channel by some of the faculty of the University of Nottingham.







For a more full reading of the sermon on the mount please see Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book, The Cost of Discipleship. I would argue for an eschatological reading of the beatitudes. By this I mean we are not waiting for an end to suffering in the world we know, but in the new creation that is to come. We can see instances of this new kingdom or new creation breaking out in Acts 4:34-35. "There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need." While we have been aware of the poor, the mourners, the weak and the persecuted for a very long time, and in Deuteronomy 15:4 God Himself says that "There should be no poor among you," He later says in verse 11 that "There will always be some in the land who are poor. That is why I am commanding you to share freely with the poor."



The real situation is that in the world, we hurt. In fallen creation not everything is as it should be. What remains is our ethics. Creation may have fallen but we are still expected to try and live up to the holy standard. We can't, but there was one who could. Matthew 5:17 "Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No I came to accomplish their purpose." Or as the NSRV puts it, Jesus came "not to abolish but to fulfil." Across Matthew 5-7 Jesus lays out the ethical expectation of those who truly claim to love God. In each case, the Law is built upon. Jesus makes the radical case not for outward law abiding, but inner obedience of faith. The Gospel is about a change of heart. We no longer have to sin because of the Cross. We can opt out of what the world would have us do, and into what we were made to do. If you want to know what a heart changed by Christ should look like, Matthew 5-7 is a good place to start. I will make the point that this is a journey of life, so please do not feel like you have to suddenly be this 'Ultra-holy person', but instead strive towards this Christlike ideal. The road will be hard. Jesus said as much. "The gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult." (Matt. 7:14)



I will make a mention of the Lord's Prayer, which comes up in the longer form in Matthew 6:9-13. I particularly like this prayer as Jesus gives us a nice formula to pray with. We pray knowing that God is already aware of what exactly our hearts desire. It can take the pressure off of getting every word right. Instead we praise God for who He is and we pray for our own inequities. First we get ourselves right, then we can help sort out everything else, or rather God can sort everything else out through us once our selves stop getting in the way.



Matthew 6:19-34 is a long passage but I would advise you read it, then read it again. I would suggest that the point is we order our priorities correctly. The rich man who will shall cover in a few weeks places his wealth between God and himself. We are told that we cannot serve two masters. God should take his rightful place as the centre and then we can order the rest of our lives. Once we have sorted out our relationship with our creator and saviour, we can then interact with the world properly. We realign what we think it means to be a human being with the ideal we are presented in Christ.



I will make a side note on Matthew 7:12. A point was made in a recent lecture that when the Golden Rule is stated, most cultures tend to portray it negatively. That is to say, don't do to people what you don't want done to yourself. Jesus brings this home but in a different shape. He says "do to others whatever you would like them to do to you."

There is a portion of behaviour that will appear in both instances. However when we really examine what you would have to do Jesus presents us with a method of looking outwardly to those that need us, instead of inwardly to our own desires. Hopefully my diagram made it clearer.



Bless you guys, thank you for reading. If you have any thoughts please comment, although all comments are moderated to cut out abuse etc. Hopefully you are getting excited for Easter, not only for the chocolate but for the Cross and the empty tomb.



Joe x





*Unless otherwise stated I have used the NLT Bible translation.

Lent Part 1: Matthew 1-4

Good afternoon everyone. Today I will finally begin my short series for lent. Over the next few weeks I hope you journey with me as I share some thoughts on the Gospel according to Matthew in the build up to Easter Sunday. My aim is to rediscover the story of Jesus once again and help share that with you, or anyone you feel should hear it. So, if you are still with me, let us begin.

Some 2000 or so years ago, a child was born in what is modern day Israel, just outside of Jerusalem. This child was to change world history, and if you believe the accounts found in the New Testament, also change everything. From Matthew 1 we can read that an angel appeared to Joseph, after it was discovered that his fiance was pregnant. Some background might help out. For the Jewish society at the time an unmarried woman would be disgraced if she was found to have slept with a man. Marriage and the customs surrounding it are traced back for the Jewish people to Moses and then even further to Adam and Eve. The institution, however misused and abused it had been, was still a binding tradition. Joseph, probably being a kindly sort of fellow, planned to send away Mary so as to spare her public shame. Then the angel comes to him.
- "Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All of this occurred to fulfil the Lord's message through his prophet: "Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel which means 'God is with us'". (Matt. 1:20b-23) -
I will draw out a few points:

1. The child is divine. Other places where God allows couples to have children throughout the Bible such as Zechariah and Elizabeth or Abraham and Sarah. He gives the couples the gift of a child, whereas here, Jesus is not Joseph's biological son, rather his adopted son, taking the full rights and inheritance of Joseph's biological sons. It is important to note here that a virgin birth if made up by the Gospel writers would only complicate what they are trying to say. The messiah should come from the line of David, King of Israel some 1000 years before. Jesus is adopted into this line as opposed to being an actual blood member. It would be much easier if Jesus wasn't from a virgin birth for the sake of this prophecy so the fact it goes against a trend should lend it some credibility. 
2. The name Jesus comes from a rendering of Joshua. The Hebrew behind this means salvation or deliverance. The prefix of Je comes from the Hebrew divine name for which we substitute "the Lord". So Jesus' name means the Lord saves. This was not an uncommon name although does betray his purpose. 
3. The name Immanuel is also Hebrew and I will revisit this point at the end of this mini-series when we come to Matthew 28. 

Then we have a section of the Nativity story and this not being the holiday season I will spare you the details of Matthew 2. Matthew 3 brings us forward around 30 years. We don't have any record in Matthew of what happened to Jesus during this time. John the Baptist, who is the child gifted to Zechariah and Elizabeth I mentioned earlier, is wandering the wilderness proclaiming the prompt arrival of 'the Kingdom of Heaven'. This phrase used by Matthew whereas Luke uses Kingdom of God. The terms can be seen as interchangeable and there is a lot of discussion about what these actually mean and when the Kingdom arrives and the manner of it arriving.

Jesus comes to be baptised by John. For a longer explanation of baptism, I would invite to a future Theology Network session in which we will be discussing this idea (more details to follow). John recognizes Jesus for who he is, the messiah whose way he has been preparing, going on to say that John is not worthy to baptise Jesus. Jesus then says that it is proper John baptises him, to fulfil all righteousness. This concept is a running theme in Matthew so watch out for its use. For now take righteousness to indicate good ethical behaviour before God. In Matthew 3:16-17 we have some trinitarian imagery. The spirit descends upon Jesus, by which we will later see he gets his ability to perform miraculous signs and miracles from. Also the voice from heaven proclaiming that Jesus is God's son. He is then whisked away into the wilderness to be tempted and have some alone time getting closer to God, a period of 40 days which we now replicate by practicing lent.

Matthew 4 gives us the temptation narrative. The first temptation is for Jesus to provide food for himself and not rely on God's providence. We will revisit this point in the next post as Jesus spends some words on relying on God for everyday things. We can see God doing such things when we visit the Garden of Eden and the Israelites in the wilderness being given bread from heaven and Quail.

The second temptation is to defy death, another example of something that is in God's power to command. The third and final is for Jesus to assert governance over the world. All of these temptations involve a warping of the created order. Humanity is not made to rule the earth but steward it in God's place.

Next Jesus calls his first disciples. At his word they follow. They leave families because they have been called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. They all realise that the greatest thing they can do when Jesus asks them to follow is to do so. They make no recorded protest, unlike some of the people in later chapters. The disciples are willing to follow him. They realise as is recorded in John's Gospel they have no where else to go, no other real option to take.John 6:67-69, the disciples see that Jesus has "the words that give eternal life" and when they truly see this, they cannot go. They are arrested by love.

I hope this hasn't been too long for you. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you will carry on with me as we journey through Matthew in a build up to the cross. I'm sorry I haven't included any further reading, but for now I too am still exploring. If you would like a discussion please get in touch, or leave a comment. I can have a look myself or put you in touch with someone far more knowledgeable than me. Take care and may God bless you,

Joe