89 chapter project: Matthew

[Pavlos Maros]

Ah ... certain doubt. How reasonable.

Yes it is reasonable. It is reasonable listen. but as always the evidence must be weighted. if it fails then doubt will remain. The times people have tried and failed is immeasurable. Hence I doubt it.

The virtue of your doubt can be addressed later in this thread ...
“When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful” (Matthew 28:17).

And how would that make an iota of difference, to my virtue.

 

[Luce NDs]

It has only just occurred to me to ask why there would be a herd of pigs in a Jewish village.

Ground breaking questions as peculiar ... or unorthodox reason as coming from the less powerful than the high courts of Judei is eM!

 

[Luce NDs]

There could have been non-Jewish populations in the area but I forget. Certainly, the Philistines and Phoenicians came from that region and could still have had descendants there.

Z' going swine? Wanderers of legion ...

 

[Luce NDs]

Ah ... certain doubt. How reasonable. The virtue of your doubt can be addressed later in this thread ...
“When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful” (Matthew 28:17).

But the Book of Thomas is not Canna 'n ... thus tossed!

Inky wells as bumps in the dark ... m'n trapists? Nous eh!

That dark lady will get elected fore shore ... that's ultimate (distant intelligence as stranger drift) ...

This all in the dash of the essences ... emotions versus intellect ... and Dam Goleman was write Eire ... just to put it differently to support the chaos ... a place of learning in a dark nebulous storm ... that's life! But you can't speak of it ... the resolution as flip ... even Belgium has its reciprocations about ancient concepts of justice for the powerful only!

'A question of law and justice': Belgium begins reckoning with its 'brutal' colonial past | CBC News
​

If the past is forgotten is this like a bump in the unknown ... a night time thing as "n" word .... neglected support system? That won't serve equitably ... in time it will collapse or fall like purple reins ... richattire ... chattered irregularity?

 

[paradox3]

Summary: Matthew 9: 1 - 38

1. A paralyzed man is healed and told by Jesus to pick up his bed and walk.

2. Matthew, a tax collector, is called to follow Jesus.

3. The disciples do not fast because the bridegroom is still with them. Put new wine into new wineskins.

4. A girl is brought back to life from the dead. And a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years is healed after touching the hem of Jesus' garment.

5. Two blind men are healed and instructed to tell no one.

6. A man who is mute and possessed by a demon is healed.

7. Jesus continues his ministry of healing and is moved with compassion for the multitudes. "Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (NKJ Matthew 9: 37 - 38)

 

[Luce NDs]

" Jesus continues his ministry of healing and is moved with compassion for the multitudes. "Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (NKJ Matthew 9: 37 - 38)"

What can we learn from this coded parable, being the injury of naivete continues in reality?

The light of wisdom ... we're buried in it but some can't see it for nebulous clouded paradigms ... avatars of Isis ... foreshortened to avarice! A scion of things to come ... control is pushed ... especially regarding strange concepts! Like little peoples small portion of reason ... a poor field? Potter's area ...

Can't see for the Jaerd condition ...

 

[paradox3]

Reflection: Matthew 9: 1 - 38

This chapter continues to present Jesus as a powerful and skilled healer. In verse 35, we are told he heals every disease and every sickness of the people. All of these stories are familiar to me but the section about the bridegroom and the new wineskins has always confused me. It could be a foretelling of the death of Jesus, I suppose.

I can recall bible study sessions that focused on minute details of these narratives. Why was the man told to pick up his bed and walk? (Had he always been able to walk?) Why did Jesus call a lowly tax collector to follow him? (Was the gospel writer saying Jesus has come for all people?) Why are the two blind men asked to tell no one about their healing? (Wouldn't folks realize these two guys could now see?)

And then putting ourselves into the story. What would it be like for us to touch the hem of Jesus' garment? This particular session led to a great deal of personal sharing and discussion of brokenness. It was several years ago but I remember that evening very well.

In those days, my bible study group was really looking for metaphorical understandings of the various stories. So healing became all about spiritual and psychological healing. And demons became those things that burden us that are hard to release. Is this what the gospel writer had in mind? I would guess not.

LuceNDs asks above:

" Jesus continues his ministry of healing and is moved with compassion for the multitudes. "Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (NKJ Matthew 9: 37 - 38)"

What can we learn from this coded parable, being the injury of naivete continues in reality?

My reading of it would be that Jesus needs help to carry out his mission. Perhaps it reflects a growing realization on his part that he cannot do it all alone. And I was reminded that we will encounter other parables about the harvest as we continue reading the gospels.

 

[Luce NDs]

Reflection: Matthew 9: 1 - 38

This chapter continues to present Jesus as a powerful and skilled healer. In verse 35, we are told he heals every disease and every sickness of the people. All of these stories are familiar to me but the section about the bridegroom and the new wineskins has always confused me. It could be a foretelling of the death of Jesus, I suppose.

I can recall bible study sessions that focused on minute details of these narratives. Why was the man told to pick up his bed and walk? (Had he always been able to walk?) Why did Jesus call a lowly tax collector to follow him? (Was the gospel writer saying Jesus has come for all people?) Why are the two blind men asked to tell no one about their healing? (Wouldn't folks realize these two guys could now see?)

And then putting ourselves into the story. What would it be like for us to touch the hem of Jesus' garment? This particular session led to a great deal of personal sharing and discussion of brokenness. It was several years ago but I remember that evening very well.

In those days, my bible study group was really looking for metaphorical understandings of the various stories. So healing became all about spiritual and psychological healing. And demons became those things that burden us that are hard to release. Is this what the gospel writer had in mind? I would guess not.

LuceNDs asks above:
My reading of it would be that Jesus needs help to carry out his mission. Perhaps it reflects a growing realization on his part that he cannot do it all alone. And I was reminded that we will encounter other parables about the harvest as we continue reading the gospels.

Like mustard seed (dark) do we seed shadowy activities ... that can only increase in the future due to toleration of great injustice regarding those in need? Perhaps further allegory ...

A rose of Sharon appears as a dark Eros ... Charon Moonlighting to survive ... there's Moe?

 

[paradox3]

Honestly, you might have been better with your one chapter per thread analysis. I think someone should start a thread about the "if you ask" verse, in context. *Bette busies herself getting caught up with reading*

Might try it that way when we get to Mark's gospel. Will see how I feel by the end of the Matthew thread. I am just happy my gospel reading project is attracting some interest around here!

 

[Luce NDs]

"if you ask" ... is that ... queer eh ... or query ... contrary to those that will not question the bible when the best book interpretation says question all things ... doing a flip on those certain that they understand Uncertainty Principle.

Always investigate things from the alternate side ... ad continuum!

I don;t know and thus can't tell you ... and have been told to remain silent ... thus de script as writ but perhaps wrong too ... in time we shall see what's yet to come ...

 

[paradox3]

Through a glass darkly?

 

[Luce NDs]

Through a glass darkly?

Much liked as extremely stimulating for those entitled to quiry ... questionable interests?

Index points to "You Never Know" digitation ...

There is a host that would question nothing ... an expression of Gothic Nature ...

 

[GeoFee]

Hi,

What would it be like for us to touch the hem of Jesus' garment?

A wee sidebar. I was a regular visitor to Or Shalom Synagogue in East Vancouver. As the service proceeded there came a time in which the Torah Scroll was walked around the room. Folk reached out to touch it or kiss it. Folk further back held their open palms towards it. There was a resonance with Matthew's narrative of the woman touching the hem of Jesus garment. We can also remember young girls swooning as the Beatles passed by, each striving to touch any bit of the fab four.

Also would like to get back to the virgin birth for a bit. It takes me time to ponder a text. Matthew draws on Isaiah's narrative focused on the coming of redemption by the son of a virgin. The son of Mary will be one who makes God present in human experience. These notions being rooted in the creation and fall narratives of Genesis. The serpent is presented as the adversary of God. An adversary who will be overcome by the son of a woman.

Through the whole of the Biblical narrative there is a consistent thread. When God begins something new it starts with a woman. Sarah who was well beyond the age of conception when she conceived Isaac. Hannah who was barren and conceived Samuel. Elizabeth, again well beyond the age of conception, conceived John. The paradigm expressed in Mary's conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

Modern psychology makes it clear that intimate bonding between fetus and mother is crucial to the formation of that child's character. Mary pondered the word of God concerning her son as he matured within her. No doubt she told him related stories while tucking him into bed at night. As an infant and young boy, Jesus was primarily in the custody of Mary. She was his educator in the way of God. This comes through in the beatitudes. They invert the prevailing patriarchal norms and standard.

I'll leave it at that on the chance that there may be some further thought along these lines.

George

 

[GeoFee]

Hi Pavlos,

Hence I doubt it.

Do you doubt your own integrity? Evidence suggests that your professed love of reason is misplaced. The language you deploy is generally ad hominem. You denigrate those who hold to values and beliefs you take to be irrational.

For example, those who take it that seeking leads to finding, asking leads to hearing and, knocking leads to the opening of doors, are dismissed by you. I would expect one professing adherence to reason would in the first place ask questions of clarification.

What do the words "ask" and "receive" mean in general? What do they signify in their narrative context? Sorting out definitions and such would lay a foundation for further exploration of the premise implicit in the quoted phrases from Matthew. This, based on my experience with reason, is how a reasonable exploration of difference takes place.

Are you up for such a conversation?

Or will you simply blow me away with some dismissive bias?

George

 

[paradox3]

Hi,
A wee sidebar. I was a regular visitor to Or Shalom Synagogue in East Vancouver. As the service proceeded there came a time in which the Torah Scroll was walked around the room. Folk reached out to touch it or kiss it. Folk further back held their open palms towards it. There was a resonance with Matthew's narrative of the woman touching the hem of Jesus garment. We can also remember young girls swooning as the Beatles passed by, each striving to touch any bit of the fab four.

Your comment reminds me of times at funerals and memorial services when we touch the casket or the urn. . . it is a powerful moment. Or indeed when we lay hands on each other during times of prayer.

 

[BetteTheRed]

Last time I went to a Jewish service, during the time of prayer, many people were using their prayer shawls. They welcomed those without shawls to share the protection of a shawl by touching an edge of it. It felt very much like a blessing.

 

[Ritafee]

but as always the evidence must be weighted. if it fails then doubt will remain.

The simple fact is that there is no more powerful and influential person in human history than Jesus of Nazareth. The Jews may have rejected him and the Romans executed him, but his followers literally turned the empire upside down by first converting its slaves. The history of Europe is completely unintelligible apart from the dominant influence of the Christian Church. The expansion of Christianity and freedom of Christian worship were the primary reasons for the European settlement of the Americas. Sub-Saharan Africa has become completely dominated by Christianity after untold centuries of Animism. India is so frightened of the burgeoning Christian church that the Hindu nationalist government is passing all sorts of anti-conversion laws. China, since the days of Mao has desperately tried to control the Chinese Church within strict bureaucratic confines. But, it has failed miserably and there are hundreds of millions of Chinese Christians meeting in unregistered meeting places.

You can talk all you want about the resurgence of Islam and the steady rise of agnostic secularism. But, you can never argue with the fact that for the last 2000 years history’s biggest winners have been the followers of Jesus. Seasons of persecution have followed them in almost every nation. At times they have been forced to migrate en masse. When the church has been successful, it has often been dogged by corruption. But, even as it has stumbled from seasons of revival to times of reformation and then renewal, Jesus of Nazareth is the reason.
https://www.quora.com/Hypotheticall...Earth-what-kept-him-out-of-historical-records

 

[Delightful Life]

^
Sometimes we imperfect humans
Get it right
(With a little help)

Mystically Theoretical,
Inannawhimsey

 

[Ritafee]

but as always the evidence must be weighted

Is There Any Evidence for Jesus Outside the Bible? | Cold Case Christianity

 

[Ritafee]

Might try it that way when we get to Mark's gospel. Will see how I feel by the end of the Matthew thread. I am just happy my gospel reading project is attracting some interest around here!

I have never been interested in reading the bible as a general rule yet this thread has 'inspired' me to read along 'for some reason' ... the answer my friend is blowing in the wind?

Why did Jesus call a lowly tax collector to follow him?

So ... Matthew (a Jew) was a tax collector ... in other words he worked for the Roman government ('enemy') and would have been hated and considered a traitor. "As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. 'Follow me,' he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him" (Matthew 9:9). "While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and 'sinners' came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and "sinners"?' On hearing this, Jesus said, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners'" (Matthew 9:10-13).