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Common Misconceptions
When some people think of the four Gospels they are confused on why there needs to be 4 different books about the same events. In reality they portray Jesus using different themes such as Matthew trying to prove that Jesus is King/Messiah to the Jews of the time. Next we have Mark who's theme is about Jesus as a teacher, then Luke's theme is Jesus as the perfect human being. Lastly, John's theme is that Christ is our only path to eternal life. Another common misconception which is wide-spread due to popular mainstream media is when the "Wise-men" visited Jesus. If you look at pretty much any movie or nativity play the wise men show up right after Jesus' birth, but in fact Matthew states that the Magi as they are called do not show up until 1-2 years after the birth of Jesus. Matthew 2:11 validates this as it says the Magi showed up to the house not the manger. It is also the reason why Herod orders the deaths of male babies up to 2 years of age. It's easy to be dismissive of this this, I mean does it really matter? Yes, in a way it does because it illustrates that most people got there information from other media rather than the original source. People aren't getting their knowledge of Jesus from the Bible, but through TV and that's dangerous because if we have been deceived so easily about something so small, what else have we been deceived about?
Political Climate During the Book of Matthew
At this time period Israel was under Roman rule and the Jews of the time could not stand it. They were supposed to be God's chosen people and they waited for a Messiah to come and lead them to a military, or political victory by destroying the Roman government. There were two main factions of Jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees, who followed the laws of the Old Testament and segregated themselves from most non-Jews. Then you had the Sadducees who only believe in the books of Moses and used their beliefs to further their political positions. These two sides often butted heads, but when Jesus showed up on the scene and started teaching they teamed up to get rid of Him. Also during this time in Israel they were sub-ruled by King Herod. He was not appointed by God, but was appointed the by Roman government to keep things orderly. The citizens didn't really like him that much, but he did help to build the temple in Jerusalem so they put up with him. Herod died and then one of his sons took over.
Drawing political similarities to then and now
As I said above, the Jewish leaders were expecting their Messiah to crush the Romans and lead them to a political and military victory so that Israel could once again be an independent nation. This got me thinking. We still expect our Messiah to do the same thing today, maybe not in a military sense anymore, but definitely in a political sense. How many times do we see politicians or pundits proclaiming they're on God's side, have the values God would want them to have, all to get the attention of Christian voters so they can get elected into office? Too many times. The problem with this is that God's kingdom is above all kingdoms or any Earthly political office. If you really want to get down to it we see in the Book of Revelation it says that the enemy is the one that gives authority to the Earth's governments(Rev 13:4). Am I saying that everyone in congress or any government is evil? Not at all, but what I am saying is that if you think God/Jesus is going to lead us to some political victory over heathens, unbelievers in an Earthly political sense, than you may be miss-characterizing God's Kingdom. The pharisees and Sadducees did not understand this because they had hardened their hearts towards Jesus and they were so legalistically following the laws and traditions that the traditions became more important than where the traditions were supposed to point to. Look at the walls we build between us with actions like this, when in actuality Jesus came to breakdown spiritual walls. I'm not saying to not use the values of your faith to vote for people who share the same, just don't use them as a violent weapon against others who don't have the same ones. As Christians it is our duty to seek out lost sheep (Mat 18:12-14), not to cast them out if they don't agree with our political beliefs. Remember the greatest commandments; (Matthew 22:37-40 NIV) "37 Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
How did Matthew Prove Jesus was/is the Messiah
An important thing to remember while reading the book of Matthew is that he was talking to the Jews of his time, to convince them that Jesus was/is the one they were looking for. For this, he lists the Genealogy of Jesus showing he was the descendant of Abraham and David. Next he called upon Scripture of the Old Testament's prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah. The first example of such use is Matthew 2:6-7, which concerns the birthplace of the Messiah. Then of course there is all of the miracles he performed. Miracles are great yes, but it was really the teachings of Christ that showed them and now us how to usher the kingdom of God into this world, what kind of kingdom it would be and what we needed to be like to get into this kingdom. He did most of this by teaching through parables starting with Matthew chapter 13. I'll provide the whole parable to give an example and Jesus' reasoning behind it:
3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. 23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Again Matthew displays that Jesus also uses prophecy to reveal he is the King with verses 14 and 15. It also shows how the Bible confirms itself through the Old and New Testament.Conflict with the Religious leaders
Time and time again the religious leader would try to snare Jesus in a verbal trap, but he was already aware of their intent and often made them look like fools with his answers. A good example of this is Matthew 18:15-22 which has the famous verse "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's". I already mentioned that the religious leaders wanted a superhero for a messiah, but another reason why they despised Jesus so much is that he was constantly calling them out on their hypocrisy. They would live so strictly by the law that they forgot the intent of the law, or they would appear so pious on the outside, to receive the admiration of the public, and yet had an immoral lifestyle behind closed doors. The example that's fresh in my mind is Matthew 27:4 upon where Judas realized what a huge mistake he made and went to the temple to tell the priest that he had sinned and wanted to return the money they gave him. They replied "What is that to us? That is your responsibility." Which was wrong because before the death of Christ it was the priest's job to be an intercessor for the people of Israel to God. Essentially the priests turn their backs on their role. Another great example is found in the Gospel of Luke 18:9-14.
It is important as believers to confront our hypocrisy. We all have been guilty of it at times, we are human after all, right? We want to live life as Christ like as possible, but being human we are bound to stumble, much like Peter did a few times. Appearing to be pious on the outside while having a poor relationship with God on the inside is a stumbling block and sooner or later some one may call you out on it. That is why it is important to have a humble heart before God and others, it is not a weakness to admit your mistakes, and more importantly, practice what you preach dawg.
The Miracle That Was Right Under Their Nose
It has long been an opinion of mine that humility is one of Christians' most powerful assets. Just imagine how powerful it is in the hands of God, but do most people put God and humility hand and hand? Maybe, maybe not, I haven't asked to many people to be honest and if we look at the definition of the word humility it's not so flattering:
hu·mil·i·ty
(h)yo͞oˈmilitē/
noun
- 1.a modest or low view of one's own importance; humbleness.
synonyms: modesty, humbleness, meekness, diffidence, unassertiveness;
Not so impressive right? Look at humanity as a whole, we're pretty meek even though we like to act tough with our big weapons, SUVs and what not. Yet, it only takes a natural disaster to wipe us off the map. So then, take the creator of nature and the universe and put Him next to us and surely we are the meekest. The miracle that the religious leaders missed, the sign they were looking for, was that God, creator of the Heavens and the Earth, came down to our level as a weak and humble man, "...the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matt 20:28) Just think about that for a minute, even if you're not a believer, just play along and say that there is a God who created the cosmos and everything in it including you, think of a being that powerful. Then think of Him saying I love you so much, I'm going to take on all of your issues, your negative actions, your suffering, your guilt, I'm going to take all of that on to myself and sacrifice my Son, (which essentially Himself) for you so that I can be with you eternally. Is not a being that powerful coming down to our level, OUR LEVEL, a miracle? If that is not the miracle that we all need than I don't know what is. And then of course we have the triumphant Resurrection.
Like I said at the beginning of the entry, this is only a taste of what I learned. If I told you everything it would probably take a year or seven . I hope this encourages you at least a little to pick up your Bible and study it. You may find things in there you never knew about. For example, one thing I didn't know was that after Jesus died, the tombs of holy people who died were opened up, they were resurrected and walked around Jerusalem for a bit. God Bless.
P.S. I say a lot in here about the religious leaders of the time who were Jewish, it is true that they conspired to kill Christ, but we must remember that Christ was destined to be sacrificed, so to be harboring any grudge against a person of Jewish faith today is foolishness.
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