Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?
Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• This is it! The last words of the last discourse, the climactic point to which Matthew has carefully built. This scene is not a parable, it is an apocalyptic drama. Before we proceed, let’s unpack the word “apocalypse.” It is not, as commonly portrayed, a cataclysmic battle at the end of time. The Greek apokalpsis comes from the Greek apo meaning “under” and kalypto meaning “covering.” Apocalypse literally means uncovering or revealing, in religious terms it usually means the disclosure of something that had been kept hidden or secret. At the very end of his earthly ministry, Jesus reveals for the disciples what the judgment day will look like. Again, in story form, so we have to resist the urge to read it literally. But we can and should read it seriously. Jesus’ final words highlight for his disciples the importance of seemingly ordinary, this-worldly deeds.
• One of the major themes of Matthew’s Gospel is the conflict between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of the world. In this final image, Jesus reveals that the conflict of the two kingdoms is not the ultimate reality. There is, in fact, only one kingdom, the kingdom ruled by God.
• This image’s focus on humanitarianism comes not out of a general preference by God for being a good person, but is a mark of who Jesus is. Humanitarianism is a descriptor of Christology, not the other way around. Yes, we are to care for our neighbor, but it is because who Jesus is, not because love and mercy are nice things.
• For Matthew, the criteria for salvation is not right belief or correct confession of faith, but action. What counts is how one has behaved toward people in need.
Works Sourced:
Boring, M. Eugene. “The Gospel of Matthew.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.
No comments:
Post a Comment