One In Jesus

The next couple of verses routinely show in lists of difficult passages.

(Mat 6:22-23 ESV) “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

And to Western eyes, this a truly obscure text. But Jesus is using an idiom familiar to Hebrew speakers —

The expressions “good eye” and “bad eye” are common Hebrew idioms for “generous” and “miserly.” Greek has no such idioms, and in Greek this statement of Jesus is meaningless, just as it is in English.

David Bivin & Roy Blizzard Jr., Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus: New Insights From a Hebrew Perspective (Kindle Locations 153-154). Continue reading →

(Mat 6:19-21 ESV) “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,  20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I’ve often wondered what that really means? Will there be degrees of reward? And what would that mean?

I mean, is it a bigger room? Higher quality gold on the street? Sitting closer to God at the great banquet table? Better cuts of meat?

Well, I don’t know. But I think the scriptures give us a few hints that we should ponder a bit. Continue reading →

So what would happen if adults acted out Jesus’ Parable of the Unmerciful Servant as told by children?

Thanks to reader Orion.

(Mat 6:12 ESV)  12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Another tough one. “Debts” is a Jewish euphemism for sins. And Jesus explicitly makes our forgiveness conditional on our forgiving others. In fact, in case we’re too slow to get his point, he explains it where we can’t misunderstand it —

(Mat 6:14-15 ESV) 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,  15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 

“Trespasses” is, again, a euphemism for sins. To Jesus’s listeners, “as we have forgiven our debtors” would sound very much like the command to lend to the poor and to freely forgive the debt. The generosity that is commanded of the Jews toward the poor is extended by Jesus to those in need of our forgiveness. (The “poor in spirit”?)

It’s easy to think of several other teachings by Jesus making the same point. Why speak in such strident, demanding terms? Well, he was speaking to an honor/shame culture in which easy forgiveness was seen as weak, even shameful. Far better to hold a grudge for generations! Continue reading →

You may safely skip to 0:55 —

For some reason, we in the Churches of Christ are reluctant to recite the Lord’s Prayer in church. Really. I mean, just as soon as I say the words, the absurdity of it becomes plain. And so I need to disabuse us of some very serious errors in our understanding of this passage. Continue reading →