When English speakers co-opt the Matthean words, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” they inevitably de-scripturalize them. They twist the words of Jesus as though they refer to an inner psychological struggle or matter of conscience: “I want to do the right thing, but my nature fights against it.” After 400 episodes…
Category: The Bible as Literature
Not As I Will
We naturally want Jesus to be invulnerable, and the thought of him feeling anxiety or, as Matthew writes, extreme grief about his predicament presents an uncomfortable picture of God’s messiah. We prefer a version of Jesus that manifests perfection and stoic implacability because we believe in this possibility for ourselves. But that’s not what Matthew…
The Bitter Pill
Just as human biology is inevitable, so too are human words about development and growth. We talk about building and sustaining to defend and survive, and we talk about supporting and protecting for deeply selfish reasons tied to our biology. In Matthew, Peter’s zeal when he proclaims, “I will not deny you,” is not for…
Pink Floyd and Mr. Rogers
When Jesus uses the word “body” in Matthew’s gospel, unless you abandon all assumptions, transporting yourself to first-century Roman society, it is impossible to hear—let alone understand—what the Lord is saying during his Last Supper. The disciples may be concerned with tribe and city, eager to wave their flags and pledge their allegiances, but Jesus…
It’s All About You!
We Americans love it when it’s about us. We just love it. Until we are sitting with Jesus in the Middle East, eating with our hands, and Jesus says, “it’s the guy sitting with me, eating with his hands.” “Which guy, Jesus?” Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Matthew 26:20-25. Photo Credit: “The Last Supper,” by…
You Are Not Ancient
We imagine an historical connection between the peoples of the biblical story and the peoples living in the modern world because our premise in 2021 is our identity. Who are you? To what group do you belong? What are your beliefs? On whose side are you? The moment you mistakenly answer these invalid questions (almost…
Judas Iscariot
Tribe, nation, city, patrimony, heritage, religion, flags and bumper stickers—Judas Iscariot. Value, opportunity, market, profit, commerce, civilization, exploitation and slavery—Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot, “man of the city.” Judas Iscariot, “tribe and city.” Judas Iscariot, securing his future by the throwing “the ordinary man” under the bus. Nothing changes under the sun. Richard and Fr. Marc…
A Poverty of Instruction
In so far as the “daily bread” of the Lord’s prayer is the daily reading by which the disciples should be fed, in Matthew’s gospel, poverty is the consequence of refusing to receive and distribute the Lord’s heavenly bread. In the plainest and most obvious meaning of Matthew’s metaphor, if the people living in your…
An Ordinary Guy
Sometimes we want so desperately for Jesus to be a super hero that we willfully ignore what is written before our eyes. Faced with powerful religious chiefs and elders—men whose position and power in Israel depends on the approval of the very people they mistreat—we ourselves are blinded by titles and want to make the…
There Will Be No Flags in the Kingdom
Whatever term we use to describe it, be it “worldly,” “earthly,” “materialistic,” or the more precise biblical phrase, “of the flesh,” the fact is, the way we think and speak is dominated and controlled by our fears and desires. We fear judgment, so our hands bend the commandment into a cultural bludgeon. We desire comfort,…