Category: The Bible as Literature

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…

In Matthew 11, we discover that John the Baptist, who earlier preached the Kingdom of God in the wilderness, is now imprisoned. At this point in the story, we do not know how John ended up in prison. All we know is that he preached the Kingdom.  Looking a few verses ahead, we learn from…

Image credit: “Mother of God, Protectress of the Oppressed,” by Kelly Latimore,  inspired by Brother Robert Lentz.  Today is July 4, a holiday in the United States. As is the custom of our church, over the centuries, many such holidays have been coopted to serve the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In this spirit, on this day,…

Bewitched by the lie of acquisition and consumerism, we have become a society of people whose actions proclaim the vulgar creed, “me first.” With supposed possessions in hand, we emerge as a nation of cowards, so terrified of losing what we think we have that we elevate our cravenness with ugly platitudes: family first, religion…

People claim to be members of God’s household—to be followers of his teaching—but in the Roman Empire, your master determines your household, and in the Bible, your fears reveal your true master.  Insofar as our fears control us, the Matthean metaphor of the Roman household contextualizes this dynamic perfectly, as a kind of slavery. If…

Critics of the Bible often complain about its violent stories. How could the Bible be considered sacred, they ask, when it is full of so much cruelty and abuse? The answer—of course—is that it is human civilization that is overflowing with cruelty and violence, and the Bible holds this fact up to our face.  Almost…