Matthew 25:34-36
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
The next few verses establish that these blessed did not think of this as service to the King: "We never saw you!"
Not having ever looked through those in need and seen their Lord is the primary commonality between both those who worked to meet those needs and those who didn't. They only saw people, but some valued people and cared about those needs and some didn't.
I think I have a lot to say about this parable, but the thing that came to me on this most recent re-reading is that this kingdom that we are supposed to have, that has been prepared from the foundation of the world, is a kingdom where the needs of all are met.
One way of looking at the list of needs is that it is deliberately all-inclusive. It includes physical needs that can be easily solved by giving, but also the issues that cannot be resolved that simply are still served by coming and visiting. Without mentioning poverty, it includes the results of poverty.
The only thing that appears to be excluded is spiritual correction. There is no mention of "I was sinning or not working hard enough, and you came and corrected me." It's almost as if that isn't really a need.
And it makes me think "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
That if we would do God's will, that kingdom would be here now. We would not have to wait for it. The hungry would be fed, the thirsty sated, the naked clothed. Strangers would be embraced and become no more strangers. There might still be sickness and prisons, but they would be remembered and comforted.
And, there is much more that we could do in those regards. That's the case I want to make.
When Jesus was confirming his identity to an imprisoned John (possibly for the benefit of John's disciples, as we have already seen evidence that John knew), Jesus answered:
"The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." Matthew 11:5
That may not all be in reach for us, but much more of it is in reach that we are accomplishing. How much do we care? How committed are we to doing His will?
That's what we are going to be covering over the next few weeks.
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Sheep and goats
I know, I wrote about Matthew 25 before, and that parable, before. I have not written about the time it became real to me.
It was a normal Sunday in the singles ward. We tried to keep an eye out for people. When I was worried about someone and didn't know what was going on, I would ask around, and Carlos was generally my best source. I think that day was in December, and being both cold and near Christmas made it seem worse. Of the people I asked about, one was sick and one was in jail.
With the sickness, it wasn't a disease requiring hospitalization or anything like that, but it had lasted about three weeks at that point and she was having a hard time shaking it. That's the kind of thing that can put your job in jeopardy, and make cleanliness and shopping difficult, as well as cooking for yourself if you do still have food. It can be lonely and isolating.
For jail, yeah, you don't expect to hear that at church, but there are a lot of ways and reasons that it can happen. I think I need to do a second post on that topic.
For right then, I just remember the knowledge washing over me that there are sick and in prison right now. There is nothing antiquated about that parable.
It had been easy to think about service in terms of people needing emotional support (which they do) or that sometimes they will need help moving or meals brought as appropriate, and maybe sometimes you bring cookies just as a little boost.
Nothing is wrong with any of those things, but they are predicated on lives that proceed fairly normally and that we know when things go on. That just isn't always true.
For someone sick or in prison, they drop out of sight. We won't know without looking. We may not realize how catastrophic a little thing can be.
The parable is pretty simple on the service, but there is a lot in there, and a lot that we may not think about, at least not without having it shoved in our faces.
Maybe over these next few weeks I will do some shoving. Maybe that will feel like a shove not due to the forcefulness that I use, but because taking the information in can be a push far outside of the comfort zone. I've been there.
However, for those who are sick and in prison and hungry and thirsty and naked and strangers, their discomfort is far worse, and there is nothing more critical to our salvation than how we respond to that.
It was a normal Sunday in the singles ward. We tried to keep an eye out for people. When I was worried about someone and didn't know what was going on, I would ask around, and Carlos was generally my best source. I think that day was in December, and being both cold and near Christmas made it seem worse. Of the people I asked about, one was sick and one was in jail.
With the sickness, it wasn't a disease requiring hospitalization or anything like that, but it had lasted about three weeks at that point and she was having a hard time shaking it. That's the kind of thing that can put your job in jeopardy, and make cleanliness and shopping difficult, as well as cooking for yourself if you do still have food. It can be lonely and isolating.
For jail, yeah, you don't expect to hear that at church, but there are a lot of ways and reasons that it can happen. I think I need to do a second post on that topic.
For right then, I just remember the knowledge washing over me that there are sick and in prison right now. There is nothing antiquated about that parable.
It had been easy to think about service in terms of people needing emotional support (which they do) or that sometimes they will need help moving or meals brought as appropriate, and maybe sometimes you bring cookies just as a little boost.
Nothing is wrong with any of those things, but they are predicated on lives that proceed fairly normally and that we know when things go on. That just isn't always true.
For someone sick or in prison, they drop out of sight. We won't know without looking. We may not realize how catastrophic a little thing can be.
The parable is pretty simple on the service, but there is a lot in there, and a lot that we may not think about, at least not without having it shoved in our faces.
Maybe over these next few weeks I will do some shoving. Maybe that will feel like a shove not due to the forcefulness that I use, but because taking the information in can be a push far outside of the comfort zone. I've been there.
However, for those who are sick and in prison and hungry and thirsty and naked and strangers, their discomfort is far worse, and there is nothing more critical to our salvation than how we respond to that.
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Gospels wrap-up - Horrible Saturday
I am interested in people. I want to know what they have been through and how they felt about it and everything.
Scriptures usually aren't heavy on that kind of detail, but there may be hints. There are a few verses that have resonated with me.
John 6:
67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
Luke 22:
35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.
Things like this give me a sense of how hard it must have been for the apostles to know Jesus was dead.
We've already addressed how they were not expecting the Resurrection. Sometimes they did not seem to understand that he would die either, but there were times when they clearly felt it.
John 11:
16 Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellowdisciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.
They were willing to die with him. They were willing to fight for him, but he didn't want that. They had seen his power, but he didn't use that. He really was gone, and we know now that it was only going to be for a short time, but they didn't.
Did they feel despair? The Pharisees were worried enough about him rising to request guards, so maybe the apostles had some hope too. Did they struggle with whether they had been mistaken all along? They had not been given the Holy Ghost yet; the gift of the Holy Ghost and knowledge of the Resurrection transformed them (and can do that for us as well). Maybe there was a fear that they would be next, or only a numb grief. I can only imagine that it hurt.
It seemed strange to me that we should call the day of the crucifixion Good Friday, but I suppose we do because we understand that it was an important step on a way to good and needed things. There was terrible darkness, but there was a new light with the dawn.
There will always be hard times. They do end. They can bring great blessings.
Let's keep up hope for that.
Scriptures usually aren't heavy on that kind of detail, but there may be hints. There are a few verses that have resonated with me.
John 6:
67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
Luke 22:
35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.
Things like this give me a sense of how hard it must have been for the apostles to know Jesus was dead.
We've already addressed how they were not expecting the Resurrection. Sometimes they did not seem to understand that he would die either, but there were times when they clearly felt it.
John 11:
16 Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellowdisciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.
They were willing to die with him. They were willing to fight for him, but he didn't want that. They had seen his power, but he didn't use that. He really was gone, and we know now that it was only going to be for a short time, but they didn't.
Did they feel despair? The Pharisees were worried enough about him rising to request guards, so maybe the apostles had some hope too. Did they struggle with whether they had been mistaken all along? They had not been given the Holy Ghost yet; the gift of the Holy Ghost and knowledge of the Resurrection transformed them (and can do that for us as well). Maybe there was a fear that they would be next, or only a numb grief. I can only imagine that it hurt.
It seemed strange to me that we should call the day of the crucifixion Good Friday, but I suppose we do because we understand that it was an important step on a way to good and needed things. There was terrible darkness, but there was a new light with the dawn.
There will always be hard times. They do end. They can bring great blessings.
Let's keep up hope for that.
Sunday, September 3, 2017
Gospels wrap-up - points of view
One of the parts that has always stood out to me (way before this phase of study) was the injuring and healing of Malchus. I suppose initially it just stood out for the gore: ear comes off, ear goes back on.
Later (closer to now, but I might have thought of it before), is that only one of the gospels tells us about the ear going back on. It speaks a lot to who Jesus was that even at the time of his arrest -- after the suffering in Gethsemane and after finding his companions had fallen asleep on him again -- his priorities are not just keeping his friends safe, but even healing one of those who is presenting as an enemy.
(I would say it says something about his enemies that this show of mercy and power didn't stop him, but he had been compassionately and miraculously healing all along; there was never any reason to think that one more would make a difference.)
After confirming that the healing is only mentioned in one place, I started noticing the other differences in each telling.
First of all, only John names names. Everyone identifies that it was a servant of the high priest, but only John knows his name, and only John tells us that it was Peter doing the smiting.
It makes sense that John knows more if we assume that he is the disciple known to the high priest who got himself and Peter let into the hall (John 18:15-16). That puts them in a position to know more about the trial, and about Peter's denial.
At the same time, some of those details end up in all of the other gospels. Of course they spoke to each other, but the person catching the others up may not remember everything. Even if several listeners hear the same telling, different things stand out. The one who included the healing was Luke, the physician. Maybe that detail meant more to him.
There is a part of me that wonders if maybe the reason the others didn't name Peter is that they were afraid of making him look bad. In the end they had all been told not to fight it.
That is only speculation. Even with knowing that transcription and translation can affect what I read, I do love the Bible, and especially the gospels. I find value in them. Going through them so carefully this time has had value, and it has still not completed my learning. I know that.
I do want to point out that remembering different things, or noticing a difference, is very human. Some of the differences may point to different personalities or passions, which we can only guess at, but in our day it means that we can get different lessons for different times, even with no new material being added. The new is in us.
I often want to know things that are left out, but I am grateful for what we have.
Actually, John has something helpful to say about that as well:
"And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen." (John 21:25)
Amen to that.
Later (closer to now, but I might have thought of it before), is that only one of the gospels tells us about the ear going back on. It speaks a lot to who Jesus was that even at the time of his arrest -- after the suffering in Gethsemane and after finding his companions had fallen asleep on him again -- his priorities are not just keeping his friends safe, but even healing one of those who is presenting as an enemy.
(I would say it says something about his enemies that this show of mercy and power didn't stop him, but he had been compassionately and miraculously healing all along; there was never any reason to think that one more would make a difference.)
After confirming that the healing is only mentioned in one place, I started noticing the other differences in each telling.
First of all, only John names names. Everyone identifies that it was a servant of the high priest, but only John knows his name, and only John tells us that it was Peter doing the smiting.
It makes sense that John knows more if we assume that he is the disciple known to the high priest who got himself and Peter let into the hall (John 18:15-16). That puts them in a position to know more about the trial, and about Peter's denial.
At the same time, some of those details end up in all of the other gospels. Of course they spoke to each other, but the person catching the others up may not remember everything. Even if several listeners hear the same telling, different things stand out. The one who included the healing was Luke, the physician. Maybe that detail meant more to him.
There is a part of me that wonders if maybe the reason the others didn't name Peter is that they were afraid of making him look bad. In the end they had all been told not to fight it.
That is only speculation. Even with knowing that transcription and translation can affect what I read, I do love the Bible, and especially the gospels. I find value in them. Going through them so carefully this time has had value, and it has still not completed my learning. I know that.
I do want to point out that remembering different things, or noticing a difference, is very human. Some of the differences may point to different personalities or passions, which we can only guess at, but in our day it means that we can get different lessons for different times, even with no new material being added. The new is in us.
I often want to know things that are left out, but I am grateful for what we have.
Actually, John has something helpful to say about that as well:
"And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen." (John 21:25)
Amen to that.
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