The judgement of the nations, Matthew 25

We have a section of Matthew's gospel, ch. 25, verses 31-46, that is loaded with importance. Here are a few questions to help us look into it and put it into action:

1. How does the Our Father jibe with the judgement of the nations in this section?
2. Is there matching truth in the Beatitudes of Matthew ch. 5?
3. BRAIN-BURNER: Is there any place in the Old Testament that correlates with the actions that the Son of Man rewards?
4. In all the actions rewarded by th Messiah, note that there is no teaching or preaching mentioned. Why is that?
5. In the "make my day" miracle of healing, where the four men lowered their friend by ropes through the roof to Jesus, were they acting in the manner that finds reward in this section of Matthew's gospel?
6. What does this passage tell us about the Eucharist?

We are only walking in the foothills of this mountain, but these few questions can get our feet headed upward, especially if accompanied by some coffee this Thursday morning!

Some study questions for chapter 8.

There is a lot of action and danger in Mattthew's 8th chapter. Let's look into it by asking a few questions:

1. Why does Jesus instruct the leper to follow the commandment from Moses as to his healing but to refrain from telling anyone about himself, Jesus?
2. Leprosy is an illness, a difficult kind of bacterial infection, but it is also a figure for a specific spiritual state. What spiritual state is that?
3. What is the command structure in which the centurion lives and operates?
4. How does the centurion's experience of authority affect his ability to see Jesus accurately and his readiness to believe?
5. Where did Roman centurions come from? Were they Jewish or Gentile?
6. How does Matthew know that the centurion's servant was healed that very moment?
7. How do the people react to Jesus, those whom He healed: the leper, the centurion's servant, Peter's mother-in-law, the two demon possessed men in the tombs?
8. The scribe and the disciple in vv. 19 - 22 got different lessons from the Messiah -- different but similar, too. How were they similar? How was Jesus using his word like a scalpel to differentiate each individual from other things?
9. Is the Sea of Galilee dangerous? How does it figure into the story of the men crossing in the boat and into the story of the two demon possessed men?
10. How does this sea figure into Jesus' teaching? Does it relate to the previous stories of healing and freedom from possession?

We have a million more questions we could dive into, but let's start with these tomorrow morning at 7 AM.

Matthew 2, a few findings

On Thursday past, we spent a lot of time talking about the magi, the Gentile priestly visitors to the newborn Messiah. One question generated a lot of discussion and insights:

1. What is the significance for us in the worship offered by the magi?
   Some of the men offered insights that are profitable to remember:
   1. Len: The magi were a bit like apostles, except that they were called inwards, to Jerusalem.
   2. Scott: The magi were like the first Christians.

It is interesting to consider how the Lord used the astrologer concepts of the magi to draw them to the Messiah. Len suggested that this is similar to Paul's famous speech to the smart Athenians, where he started form their religious activity and led them to the message of Jesus the Messiah. Each man's life is like that -- called from outside to come in toward the center, Jesus.