Luke

I started reading Luke this past Tuesday morning at a hotel where I was for some work meetings. I had time to get through the first nine chapters, but only was able to get back to it this morning to finish it.

I was struck by the emphasis on teaching in Luke. More often than not, the miracles seem to be an aside to what Jesus was doing. Often, he'd interrupt his teaching to heal someone, or heal them to make a point.

I was also struck by people's inability to grasp what seems to be obvious. On three occasions, Luke notes that Mary didn't understand what God meant when she was told about Jesus. Later, at the empty tomb, Peter saw it was empty, after the ladies told him about the angels' message, and he "wondered what had happened."

I can't imagine what it must have been like to people in Jesus' day to be listening to his teaching and watching his life. It was so against what the people were taught about God, and what they expected of God and his return, that it was clearly hard to grasp. I guess if you believed something all your life, even if you saw it with your own eyes, it would be hard to undo that previous understanding.

Of course, in Luke especially, it seems Jesus spent a lot of time devoted to telling the Pharisees and the leaders in the temple that they had gotten it wrong. They had the information to draw people to God (the Scriptures), but they we're holding it from them. They were not modeling the Law of Moses as God intended. They wanted to be honoured, but God wanted them to honour others. They wanted prominence, but God doesn't want to share that. Instead, he wants to give favour to "the least of these."

I find it interesting that in response to John's question about Jesus, Jesus says 'blessed are those who do not fall away because of what Jesus did.' I guess Jesus himself understood that people were finding his teachings and actions hard to take.

Jesus was a revolutionary. He healed when he wasn't supposed to. He ate with those he shouldn't have. He spent time with people that he was not supposed to. Of course, these rules were what the people had made up and / or believed. Jesus taught and showed that his people needed to look out for those in need, that that was who his father was after. In 10:21, Jesus thanks his father: "I am grateful that you hid all this from wise and educated people and showed it to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that is what pleased you." I like that, because I'm ordinary. I realize that the world looks at accomplishments, education and acclaim; God looks at people's dependence on Him.

I think the thing that struck me the most is Jesus' observation about the widow's offering in 21:1-4 -- "Jesus looked up and saw some rich people tossing their gifts into the offering box. He also saw a poor widow putting in two pennies. And he said, 'I tell you that this poor woman has put in more than all the others. Everyone else gave what they didn't need. But she is very poor and gave everything she had.'"

Jesus spent a lot of his time trying to debunk the teachings and lifestyles of the leaders of the temple. Here, he praises the widow for her offering, all she had, to the temple. I didn't see it before, but in other cases Jesus told his followers to sell everything and give it away. In some cases, it was to the poor, in other cases, it was to God, which I can only assume would be through the temple.

In spite of its shortcomings, and even corruption, Jesus must have seen that the temple was God's place and that there was still hope in it. He also spent a lot of time teaching in the temple, even though it was against the leaders in the temple.

If I were to translate that to today, it seems that although there may be some challenges within the structure of church, it is still a place where God wants to do something. I'm sure there's more there for me to learn, if I just think about it.

Mark

I've often read that Mark is the 'Action" gospel. Makes sense, because it's like he's thinking "Let's get to it" right from the first sentence. In a matter of paragraphs, Mark gets right to the miracles. But, it seems Jesus was trying to teach or talk or visit with people whenever someone needed him to do something supernatural. Even then, he'd tell them not to tell anyone, yet people still heard how this fellow from Gallilee was doing miracles.

All in all, Mark contains the same stories that are in Matthew, but generally less detail. Jesus spent a lot of time talking to the religious folks and telling them they had it all wrong. He also told a lot of stories.

Yesterday at church someone told me that they could handle me wearing sandals to church, but the blue jeans were a bit much. The funny thing is that only motivates me to dress even more down next week. Then I read Jesus' words when he quotes Isaiah (Mk 7:6-7): "You are nothing but show-offs! The prophet Isaiah was right when he wrote that God had said, 'All of you praise me with your words, but you never really think about me. It is useless for you to worship me, when you teach rules made up by humans.'" Then, a few sentences later (7:20-23): "What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean. Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness. All of these come from your heart, and they are what make you unfit to worship God."

I don't think the people that dislike my blue jeans are show-offs, necessarily, but their rationale makes no sense. They talk about respectful clothing for church. Who defines respectful? God's standard is modesty and the heart, not the type of clothes. If we wore what Jesus wore, it would be sandals and dresses. Pardon my cynicism, but things are the same today as it as in Jesus' day - people emphasize the wrong stuff, not heart-changes, and they are still ignoring "evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness." This is happening all over the body of Christ, and people are perseverating on blue jeans.

Clearly, this is a sore spot for me.

I think it is interesting that Jesus told stories. I also think it's interesting that the disciples didn't get it, even after he explained it. In 8:31, Jess talks about dying, then coming back to life. Then, Mark says "Jesus explained clearly what he meant." Six days later, Jesus talked again about beign raised from the dead, and his disciples wondered, but kept it to themselves, what he meant by that.

I find comfort in the fact the disciples were right there, day in and day out, with Jesus, and they didn't get it. I've learned over the past couple years, and especially as I've gone through this exercising of reading and journalling, that I often have no idea why God does what he does. Yes, I know it's a love thing, but in the day to day, sometimes God does not make sense to me. I've learned not to let that bother me, just to take it as it comes and trust. But, Jesus disciples had in their own mind what they expected of the Messiah, and I guess that clouded their ability to see and hear what he was living and teaching to them. I imagine I'm the same way - the world and church around me, my own opinions, all have worked together to cloud my view of what a follower of Christ looks like. Why is there such a huge gap between what Jesus expects of me and what others of his followers expect of me?

Matthew

Reading Matthew after just finishing the Old Testament put a bit of a different spin on it for me. For example, the genealogy right at the getgo actually means something. Matthew listed Jesus ancestors, and established that he was from the line of Abraham and David. In doing so, he draws attention to Judah and Tamar, Rahab, and Solomon and Bathsheba. He also notes some of the Kings who were part of his line, such as Ahaz and Manasseh. Had I not just finished the Old Testament, I would not fully appreciate the evil that these people committed. Ahaz and Manasseh were evil Kings. Tamar was Judah's daughter-in-law, who pretended to be a prostitute and Judah got her pregnant. Solomon slept with Bathsheba while her husband was still alive and then had her husband killed. Rahab was a prostitute and also a liar.

When I first read the line of David in Chronicles, it occurred to me then that Jesus family line was really screwed up. I realize Matthew was trying to establish his heritage, but it seems he also established that Jesus was coming as a regular person, with all the crazy baggage that any one of us might have.

Matthew also took every chance he could to say that something Jesus said or did was in fulfillment of or according to a prophecy. He seems to have wanted to prove to his readers that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the prophesied one.

In reading it through yesterday morning, I was struck by how Matthew just went from one miracle to another in his telling if the story of Jesus. Then, he'd interrupt the miracles with a teaching session from Jesus. Matthew's first recorded teaching of Jesus was the "Sermon on the Mount," which was to the general public Matthew's second recorded teaching was Jesus lesson to the disciples. After that, he records a talk Jesus has with the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. This was all between miracle stories. I think I'm as impressed by how Matthew put the book together by the stories contained within.

There was not a lot of detail in the miracle stories. Sort of like "here's what happened, ok, next." Jesus teaching, on the other hand, he was not as quick to get through.

This is Easter weekend. Even the Easter story itself, the culmination of Jesus' physical existence on earth, was told in a couple of pages. It's like Matthew wanted to get to the miracle of the resurrection and ascension so that he can finish it up with Jesus last words, to go and make disciples, and that he'd always be with us.

There are so many important lessons in this book: be like a child, don't try to be first - try to be last, do something to demonstrate that we are followers of God, faith in God can accomplish great things, don't be a show off, be humble, and the list goes on. I guess an emphasis on the lessons themselves will be for the next time I read and study Matthew.

For now though, this exercise has been teaching me so many things. And Jesus summed up how I feel in 13:52 - "So he told them, 'Every student of the Scriptures who becomes a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like someone who brings out new and old treasures from the storeroom.'" I'm learning things that I had forgotten from childhood. I'm also learning things that I had not known before, although I had read it before. I don't think I could have articulated it before now, but I think I'm becoming a student of the Scriptures.