nunblog: Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! We've been reading the Bible clear through this year. We've reached the New Testament, so read along with me. But first, let us pray:

Father,

When the fullness of time had come, you sent your Word in the One who said, “Whoever sees me, sees the Father.” No revelation can surpass this, until Jesus comes again in glory.

Open my mind today to the gift of life and truth your Word offers me through the Church. By your Holy Spirit, grant me wisdom and strength to put this Word into practice and to become, myself, a presence of Jesus for people who are looking for you.

Jesus, eternal Word and Son of the Father, live in me with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Today's chapters are Matthew 25-27.

Three parables of judgment start us off today, and as we continue, we find Jesus facing judgment. It is kind of whiplash-inducing, especially for us who know that Jesus really will "come again in glory to judge the living and the dead."

The great parable of the sheep and the goats, the theme of Michelangelo's fresco for the wall of the Sistine Chapel, recalls Ezekiel 34, where God is especially provoked by the failure of the powerful (specifically the "shepherds of Israel") to care for the weak and needy:

As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and [he-] goats.

Things quickly take us into the familiar events of the Last Supper, the Agony in the Garden, the Way of the Cross. Practically every detail refers to the Old Testament. Even the reward given to Judas for arranging the convenient (and private) location for Jesus' arrest—30 pieces of silver—had been specified in Exodus (21:32) as due the master of a slave (male or female) who had been accidentally killed by an ox; whereas in Zechariah (11:12) it was severance pay in an unworthy band of shepherds.

In the trial scene, notice how Jesus is commanded by the High Priest to respond "under oath before the Living God" whether he was the Messiah, the Son of God." The words echo the confession of Peter at Cesearea Philippi (perhaps at the exact moment Peter was denying him). Jesus responds to the High Priest not in ordinary speech, but by quoting the Book of Daniel (chapter 7). By claiming a seat at the "right hand of the Power*," Jesus is asserting equality with God: Daniel's "Son of Man" receives "dominion, glory and kingship" at God's right hand!

* Using a circumlocution like "Power" or "Heaven" or "the Name" to refer to God is an example of Jewish piety that we find often in Matthew's Gospel. It is an observance of the Commandment to honor the Lord's name. This continues online where you may find G-d in place of the usual word that refers to the Creator. Their example invites us to reflect on the reverence we show the Holy Name of Jesus. Even to say the Name of our Lord with love is a prayer!

Start reading here.

For additional background

On Matthew

We have barely a week and a half with the Gospel of Matthew, and there's just too much wealth there for me to even hint at in my little introductions (to three chapters a day!). So Dr Edward Sri's companion to the Gospel of Matthew is a good study guide: it even has reflection questions and space for you to write your answers!

For all Four Gospels

I am happy to recommend this volume of The Four Gospels in an edition directed to young readers and their parents. The text of all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in the New Revised Standard Translation is accompanied by FAQs that a middle-school reader might ask (or, to be honest, anybody reading the Gospels for the first time). The footnotes were prepared by a team of Scripture scholars for parents and guardians, making the book ideal for family Bible reading.