We finish, we begin

This Thursday, we finish studying the gospel of Matthew, closing out with these remaining questions:

5. Fear thou not! Why does everybody keep telling the women not to be afraid?
6. What were the women doing there, anyway?
7. Just curious: When was the last time you hugged the feet of anyone?
8. What is the significance of Jesus rising on that particular day of the week?
9. Review the end of John's gospel for comparison. Matthew's account emphasizes something a bit more than John does. What is it?
10. Is baptism important for a Christian?

Though we finish Matthew's gospelthis Thursday morning, we also begin something new, if we desire to be a doer of the Word. Good.

Questions for this Thursday

We will go into a few questions from last week, viz.

1. How is the intention of the magi, to worship the newborn king (verses 2, 11), different from Herod's similarly stated intention?
2. In v. 13, Herod sets out a plan to destroy the innocent children near Bethlehem, but re-read Rev. 9:1-11, where another king has the name of Destroyer. How did people suffer when that destroyer in Revelation went to work? Was its intention similar to Herod's?

...because we have hardly talked about Herod yet.

Also, we will probably dip into chapter 3 this week, for which a few extra questions might be reasonable:

1. John the Baptist had a diet of locusts and honey. It is a curious menus and a curious symbolism in that the Bible uses honey and locusts in very different ways. What does honey signify in the scriptures, usually? What do locusts usually signify in the scriptures?
2. What does John the Baptist look for in his flock of Israelites?
3. When was the last time God raised up a human being from a stone?
4. What does it mean to the people flocking to the Jordan that the axe is laid to the root of the tree?
5. What does it mean to bear a winnowing fan by the threshing floor?
6. What does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit?
7. What does it mean to baptized with fire?
8. What does Jesus' statement in v. 15 tell you about his relationship to John the Baptist and his relationship to the Torah?

As you can see, there are some big ideas in this part of Matthew's gospel, and this is just a short list, but we will start here on Thursday morning!

Wrong message, right message

The concept we came back to several times was the distinction found in Jesus' admonition to tell no one. He wanted people to give out the right message, for the right reasons, not the wrong message for the wrong reasons, the new wine and new wine skins, not the old wineskins. We see this especially in Mark's message about baptism and repentance.

Questions for next time

On July 23 we will finish up Mark 1 and push deeper into chapter 2. Here are some questions to think about for next time:

1. Why does Jesus undergo the baptism of John the Baptist?
   
2. Why does Jesus instruct so many NOT to tell others who He is?
   
3. If Jesus can heal leprosy, is it important to seek Him in the sacrament of confession?
   
4. In chapter 2, Jesus acts twice for a paralytic man. Why did take the second action, healing the paralytic man's body?
   
5. What was the price Jesus paid when he healed the paralytic man's body?
   

We will discuss these and other question on early this Thursday morning!

Notes and results from July 16, Mark 1

Our section of study was Mark's gospel chapter 1.

To set this first chapter of Mark into perspective, we also read John's gospel, chapter 1. The men made comments about Mark 1 compared to John 1, a few of which were:

1. Both gospels use the word "beginning."
   
2. Baptism of Jesus is in both.
   
3. In both, Jesus calls the first few of the disciples.
   
4. Neither cover the birth of the Messiah like Matthew and Luke.
   
5. John does not mention any healings yet, but Mark mentions several, including leprosy.
   
6. Mark details how-what-where-when information, but John discusses the meaning of the Word, especially in the first 18 verses.
   

We discussed several Greek words in the original text.

1. εξομολογουμενοι, confessing, which contains Greek roots we might recognize
   
   
   1. εξ, ex-, meaning out of
      
   2. ομο, homo-, meaning same as
      
   3. λογο, logo, meaning word
   
   
2. σχιζομενουs, being rent: notice the fragment σχιζ, which stands out as the root of our English word schism.
   
3. φωνη, voice, which is a root for our English words phone, phonetic etc.
   

We also discussed the Greek word in Mark 1:41, σπλαγχνισθειs, which literally means intestines, but which translates as compassion. Some of the men did not enjoy thinking about intestines. :) However, this word is only translated as real intestines in one place in the New Testament, and all other times as compassion. Philippians 2:1 contains another famous use of the word. We compared it to the English word balls which means one thing anatomically, but in many contexts means courage or gumption.

As a result of Jesus having compassion on the leper, He was forced to head for the hills with his men. He could not go openly into cities but had to rest up out in the lonely, desert places. This invites comparison to David, who also had to escape several times to the wild, desert places like Adullam.