Category: The Bible as Literature

We human beings do not take responsibility for what we teach. We speak careless words motivated by self-interest and look the other way when our words—directly or indirectly—cause suffering in the world. It feels good to pretend that we are puzzled by gun violence in the United States, but we all know the truth. If…

Scripture is written to supplant human words and thwart human agency, so that its wisdom might govern the affairs of men in the place of human self-interest.

When the Pharisees accuse Jesus of being in league with Beelzebul, Jesus slams them by exposing a fatal contradiction in their logic: if the only way I am able to’ cast out demons is by Beelzebul, how are your sons able to do it? I’ll tell you how. If you are right and I am…

Internet comment culture invites useless and emotionally charged conflict that accomplishes nothing, except to inflame everyone’s self-serving sentiments. That’s why, in Matthew, Jesus refuses to engage in any argument with the Pharisees. To do so, Matthew teaches, is to squander what is holy.  In keeping with the teaching of Isaiah, Jesus refuses to quarrel with…

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female slave or your cattle or…

When the Pharisees complain about the disciples picking and eating grain on the sabbath, they betray both their ignorance of Torah, and their desire to control the consecrated bread of God’s instruction to consolidate their power. But God, Matthew teaches, does not need our bread. After all, whatever we offer him already belongs to him….

In a society that consumerizes rebellion against parents both as entertainment and an axiom of pop-psychology, the basic premise of the New Testament—that the Son is disempowered because all glory and all power belong to his Father—is practically impossible to accept.  In Matthew, when Jesus praises his Father, in the very content of his prayer,…

One of the strangest characteristics of religious psychology is the commonly held belief that those who have received instruction are better than those left untaught. We don’t phrase it that way, but the implication of consumerized evangelism is that others need what we have so that they can become like us. It is precisely this…

When we choose an ideological framework, we employ a system of ideas and ideals to bolster our self-styled morality. We want so desperately to have power over others that we create a false reality in which we are always right, always the victim, always justified, and always able to find the culprit. Instead of child…

When we look at the world, intuitively, we betray Matthew’s admonition against judgment, assessing and interpreting people and texts based on our presuppositions.  Instead of seeing everything through the lens of God’s teaching, we trust the lamp of our human eyes, which presents the world to us in darkness.  Thankfully, the preaching of John the Baptist—made…