Man toils in his service, acts on his behalf, and slaves for personal gain. Even when he strives to gather food for his family, the human being does so selfishly—for his family—a community readily exploited to fulfill his personal needs. The act of gathering food, which should be a gesture of unselfish love toward those…
Category: The Bible as Literature
On the Margin
The first three chapters of Matthew portray a confrontation between the God of Abraham and the many false gods and kings that rule the earth. Even as these kings—represented here by Herod—struggle to cling to power at the visible center, the Lord moves the center of power to the invisible margin. This move deludes the…
Jesus Does Not Speak
When a child reads a letter of St. Paul aloud in church, it does not matter if the child himself understands the reading, it only matters that he pronounce the text correctly. When the words of the letter are pronounced correctly, it is as though Paul himself is speaking to the church. It does not…
W.W.J.B.?
To the extent that Christians believe in the power of their actions and the value of their ethics, it’s understandable why they would interpret the Bible as a set of moral guidelines, or the life of Jesus as a moral example. But this is nonsense. The Bible does not present a philosophy of life, a…
The Axe is at the Root
It’s difficult for us to wrap our minds around, but the fact is, God does not need us. He does not need our abilities, our sentiments, our help, our efforts, our offerings, our deeds, our families, or our communities. God needs nothing from us yet provides everything for us. In Scripture, he freely offers Scripture…
Subjugation of Identity
People assert and impose an identity from their king, their nation, their city, their tribe, and their family—all of which are dismantled and repurposed in Matthew’s genealogy. Now, in chapter 3, on the lips of John the Baptist, we come face to face with this new purpose: the adoption of all nations as brothers and…
A New Branch
When a person’s behavior improves, we naturally speak about how they have grown or changed, when, what has changed is not the person, but the instruction that controls their actions. Scripture bypasses human psychology to focus strictly on commandment and behavior. The Bible relieves the burden of sin by substituting one master for another. That’s…
It’s Not a Fortune Cookie
Modern students of Scripture dumb down the power of the New Testament by dealing with the Old Testament as a kind of antiquated fortune cookie. They see a connection between Matthew and Jeremiah, and exclaim, “You see! Jeremiah predicts Matthew!” Even if we suspend reality for a moment (and ignore the fact that Matthew had…
The Liberation of Egypt
In secular ideology, we tend to depict everything as a struggle between bad actors and (so-called) good actors; between victims and oppressors. Thankfully, this self-righteous view of the world is dismantled in the Bible, which assumes that all humans are bad actors. In Scripture, all peoples come face-to-face with God’s wrath through a functional judgment…
Rejoice, O Unwedded Bride
The most difficult part of following the Bible is accepting the factuality of our powerlessness. Human beings repeatedly invent ways to sustain the illusion of control and self-importance, scheming tirelessly to defend and secure the passing fallacy of our place in the world. According to (more accurately, as evidenced by) the written Gospel of Matthew,…