In Bad Faith, Part 7: Entitlement

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (Matthew 7:11 ASV) It shouldn’t be too surprising that in an era and place of unbridled abundance and wealth (that is the US in the 1970s and following)

Mt26ff “He’ll Be Back”

I began my journey through Matthew’s gospel over 4 1/2 years ago. Those were amazing days. I had been away for 15-years and everything seemed so new. And I was in love, trying to understand how this could happen to me and more importantly how I was going to deal with the fact that everything about this love was “wrong.”

Mt26 31-56 – Disciples Scattered & Jesus Arrested

Matt. 26:31-56 Disciples Scattered & Jesus Arrested Part of me was distressed that, once again, it seemed that the disciples at the moment of the savior’s great need were not able so much as just stay awake with him while he prayed. Who knows whether they had any appreciation for what had just happened, the Last Supper, or the events

Mt26 17-25 – Destiny & Responsibility

Matt. 26:17-25 Destiny & Responsibility What began with his baptism in the Jordan and what he began to confess to his close disciples during his teaching ministry was coming to fruition. Like a path set before Him, he stepped upon it and, in today’s parlance, “made the path his own.” And so the menial steps of where to prepare the

Mt26 26-30 – Ritual

Matt. 26:26-30 Ritual Part of me is surprised at the brevity of this passage. Here is this important moment in Jesus’ ministry that we remember every Sunday (or at least once a month, depending on your church’s tradition) and Matthew spends a mere four verses on it. It seems so deceptively simple and straight forward. Four verses and over a

Mt26 1-16 Intentions

Matt. 26:1-16 – Intentions Having finished teaching the disciples “all these things” Jesus reminds them of his intended destination, the cross. Interestingly Matthew doesn’t record the disciples reaction (at least not here). At the same time the religious rulers plot to bring Jesus down, but it is not their intention to do it when it might create a riot situation.

Mt 25 31-46 The Parable of the Final Judgment & Being “Good Enough”

Matt. 25:31-46 The Parable of the Final Judgment This image of Jesus separating the good people from the bad people, like a shepherd separating sheep from goats, is something that I remember as a Catholic kid growing up. It expressed the kind of relationship that I thought we had with God, him being the judge and we the helpless animals

Matt25 14-30 Doing with What You’ve Been Given

I’ve been sitting on this parable for over a week (or longer…). The last one (“The Ten Virgins”) seemed to speak about having an active sense of preparedness. What I liked was something that I understood from the “IVP Hard Sayings” commentary, that the foolish virgins’ error was something they could learn from and at the next wedding feast they

Matt25 1-13 Jesus Was A Boy Scout

I had always taken these verses to be similar to the warning in the previous chapter (Matt. 24:36-41), “One will be taken and one will be left.” (of course the Matt. 24 verses don’t seem to mean what I used to believe back in the “waitin’ for the Rapture” days). Or maybe this is like the final separation between the