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Mary and Joseph follow God’s guidance one step at a time, not knowing what each new step will be but trusting that he will show them what to do. Can we, too, trust God to guide us one step at a time? [Luke 2:25-40; Matthew 2:1-12; 2:13-18; 2:19-23] Previous Mary Index Next Session 3: When life gets complicated Mary and Joseph follow God’s guidance one step at a time, not knowing what each new step will be but trusting that he will show them what to do. Can we, too, trust God to guide us one step at a time? [Luke 2:25-40; Matthew 2:1-12; 2:13-18; 2:19-23] Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973). The Holy Family Resting - The Flight into Egypt . Original Bronze Sculpture. 1963. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC. Photo by Tom Faletti, 21 Jan. 2025. Tom Faletti July 13, 2025 Luke 2:25-40 Mary receives a surprise prophecy about herself In verse 25 and verse 26, how is Simeon described? What does Simeon do in verse 28, and what does he say in the verses that follow? How does Simeon describe Jesus in verse 32? Is this an accurate description of what Jesus ends up being? Explain. Simeon’s statement about the Gentiles in verse 32 builds on a statement in Isaiah 42:6 and Isaiah 49:6 that Israel will be a light to the nations (i.e., the Gentile nations). What is significant in Simeon’s interpretation that this claim applies to Jesus? In verse 33, how do Mary and Joseph react? Now Simeon turns his attention to Mary. What does he say to her in verses 34-35? How does the prophetess Anna add to the story? When we make ourselves available to God, as Mary and Joseph did by going to the Temple and as we do when we go to church, we open ourselves up to the possibility for interactions and blessings that we might miss if we weren’t there. How has your participation in your church’s rituals and activities opened the door to blessings for you? Now look at this incident through Mary’s eyes. What happened, from her perspective? What do you think the phrase in verse 35 meant to Mary, when Simeon said, “and you yourself a sword will pierce” (Luke 2:35, NABRE) or “a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:35, NRSV)? What do you think this experience with Simeon meant to Mary later, when Jesus was an adult? Are there times when we must accept the pain of a figurative sword that accompanies the blessing of doing God’s will? What can we learn from Mary here? How is Mary a role model for the kind of person we are called to be? How is Mary an example for how to actively live out our faith? Now we are going to read the story of the “wise men.” We usually look at this story from the perspective of the wise men or “magi,” because that is how Luke tells the story. However, we are going to look at it from Mary’s perspective. From Mary’s perspective, the story begins in this way: While she and Joseph and Jesus are staying in a house in Bethlehem (Matthew tells us in verse 10 that they were in a house when the wise men arrive), the Holy Family receives a surprise visit from some well-to-do wise men from far away in the East. Consider Mary’s perspective as you read the story: Matthew 2:1-12 The magi find Jesus We do not know where in the “East” these men came from. We do know this: Matthew does not use a Greek word to describe them. Our word “magi” is a transliteration of the Greek word that Matthew uses, and that word is a Greek transliteration of the plural Persian word magi (the singular is magus ), which referred to a caste of Persian priests of the Zoroastrian religion. Zoroastrian priests were astrologers in the sense that they carefully studied the stars. Priests of that caste were also at times associated with magic, and our word for magic comes from the same root word as magi , but it would be misleading to think of them as magicians or as astrologers. In their time, the movements of the stars were thought to affect the fortunes of people and nations, so at a time of limited knowledge of the natural world, they were trying to be wise observers of nature. We might think of them as the wise or scholarly practical philosopher-scientists of their time, in addition to being priests of their religion. Since we are focusing on Mary in this study, go back and read verse 11 carefully. What happens from Mary’s perspective? What does she observe happening? What do you think she thought when these wealthy, probably well-dressed, knowledgeable men came into the house and prostrated themselves before the baby Jesus? Mary has now seen three very different groups of people approach the baby Jesus: the local, rough, lower-class shepherds; the very old, holy man of God; and the foreign, refined, upper-class magi. How might Mary have reacted to the fact that all these very different people had important things to say about Jesus? Throughout history, Mary has been seen as a saint who is accessible to everyone. How might her experiences as a young mother have shaped her as an accessible and welcoming person? Do you see Mary as the kind of role model who is accessible to people of all social classes, all nationalities, all levels of education and economic status? Explain. What can you learn from Mary here in the story of the wise men? Matthew 2:13-18 The escape to Egypt and massacre of innocent children The wonderment of the magi’s visit doesn’t last long. Soon, an angel appears to Joseph with a dire message. What does the angel tell Joseph? How do you think Mary reacted to this? What is our term, in English, for someone who has to flee their homeland and go to a different country because they are in danger? Our term for people in this situation is “refugee,” which is a specific kind of migrant – see “What is the difference between a refugee and a migrant?” ( USA for UNHCR ). How do you think Mary felt about being a refugee? Note: There were Jewish communities in Egypt, so they might not have been totally alone (just as refugees who come to Western countries in our time often have communities they can connect with), but because of their religious and cultural differences, they would have been seen as outsiders in the broader Egyptian culture. How do you think Mary’s experiences as a refugee shaped her as a person? Looking at this part of Mary’s life, how can we be like Mary? Matthew 2:19-23 They return to Israel Throughout this set of passages, Matthew is making subtle connections between Jesus and the ancient Israelites who were brought out of Egypt by God in the experience we call the Exodus. In verse 15, he quotes Hosea 11:1, where the prophet refers to Israel as God’s son but Matthew sees a new application to God’s Son Jesus. In verse 20, Matthew makes a connection to Moses. An angel tells Joseph that he can return to Israel, “for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” This echoes the experience of Moses. In Exodus 2:15, Moses had fled Egypt because Pharaoh wanted to kill him. In Exodus 4:19, Moses is told that he can return, “for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” How might Mary have seen parallels between Jesus and Moses and between Jesus and the nation of Israel as she journeyed to Egypt and back to Israel? As Mary and her fellow Jews celebrated their faith, they constantly recalled the story of God’s action that brought salvation to the Israelites in the event known as the Exodus where they escaped from Egypt. How might that story have been an encouragement to Mary in her ordeal of escape from and return to Israel? Where do Mary and Joseph settle, and why? Matthew and Luke focus on different stories related to Jesus’s birth and infancy, with Luke presenting Mary’s story while Matthew focuses on Joseph. Luke 1:36-37 indicates that Mary’s hometown was Nazareth. Matthew does not tell us where Joseph lived before Jesus was born; he says only that Joseph’s ancestral home was Bethlehem. When they return from Egypt, they settle in Nazareth, which Luke tells us is Mary’s hometown, whereas custom would have had a bride move into her husband’s home. How do you think Mary felt as she returned to Israel? What would it have been like, raising your child, knowing that powerful people might again someday decide he is a danger and should be killed? Do you think that Mary told Jesus about the dangers, or kept them to herself, and why? When you face ongoing dangers in life, how do you find a balance between ignoring them and obsessing over them? How might Mary be a role model for how to deal with the risks we take in life? Take a step back and consider this: In these passages, Jesus is honored, Mary receives a troubling prophecy, and then Jesus is targeted for execution. What a complicated start to motherhood, for Mary! Mary and Joseph did not realize what an adventure their marriage would be, and they did not have all the answers for what to do. The angel who first visited them did not tell them about Herod, or the magi, or that they would become refugees in order to escape Herod’s murderous plan. They did not need to know those things in the beginning, nor did they need God to spell out solutions in advance. God revealed what they needed to know, when they needed to know it. Notice what this means: Following God was not, for them, just one big leap of faith. It was a series of smaller steps, where they trusted God each time for what they needed to know and do at that moment, in order to get to the next step. The same is true in our lives. We don’t need to know everything about our future. We only need to know what we need to know for the present moment – and then we need to do it, in order to get to the next step. It’s an important lesson: We don’t always need to know what is coming. God sees the whole picture, and that is enough. When in your life have you had to trust God through a series of steps where you did not know where things were going, but God ultimately led you to a good outcome? What are you facing right now, where you would like to know more about what is coming than God has revealed to you, and you just have to trust God and take one step at a time? What are the best things for you to remember as you face times of uncertainty? How might Mary be a role model for you in these times of uncertainty? Bibliography See Mary - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/mary/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Mary Index Next

Peace and war; welcoming children; prisoners. (Paragraphs 7-10 of Spes Non Confundit) Previous Next Jubilee Year 2025: Embrace God’s Hope and Extend It to All Session 3: Where signs of hope are needed today, part 1 Peace and war; welcoming children; prisoners. (Read paragraphs 7-10) Link to S pes Non Confundit This ancient tree looks hollowed out and dead on the bottom (left), but it is still producing new leaves in its upper branches (right). Photo by Tom Faletti, On the grounds of the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, Turkiye. October 26, 2023. Tom Faletti November 16, 2024 Everywhere we look in our world, hope is desperately needed. People everywhere are suffering. No one seems more aware of the magnitude of the suffering than Pope Francis. The whole world is his flock, and he calls on us to care as he cares. In the third section of Spes Non Confundit , Pope Francis discusses the many areas of people’s lives where greater hope is needed and what we can do about it. We will explore these areas over the next three sessions, starting with the difficult issues of war, the need to build a society where people want to welcome children into the world, and how to treat people in prison with dignity and respect. Our study guide questions will help us explore ways that leaders can work for peace in our world, but also ways we can be peacemakers in our own lives. We will also explore ways to encourage young people to be open to starting families, and ways that our justice system could do more to honor the human dignity of all people. It is our calling and privilege to bring God’s hope to all people, even in the most challenging circumstances. Read paragraphs 7-10 in preparation for this session. (Section 3) Signs of hope In paragraphs 7 through 15, Pope Francis discusses 8 areas of social life where hope is especially needed in our time. Where he provides scriptural references, we will explore them. Where he does not, we will look at Scripture passages that clearly speak to the concerns he raises. Paragraph 7 (signs of the times) 🔗 Pope Francis uses the term “signs of the times.” To read the signs of the times means to examine what is going on in the real world around us. Pope Francis recalls that the Second Vatican Council document Guadium et Spes (“Joy and Hope”) reminds the Church to interpret those “signs” in the light of the Gospel. That is what we will do in the next few sessions. Why is it important to use the Gospel in interpreting what is happening in our world today? Pope Francis does not want us to recognize only the challenges we face but also “the immense good present in our world” and “the yearning of human hearts” (par. 7). Why is it valuable to start by seeing the good and the desire for good, as we consider areas where people are suffering? Paragraph 8 (peace and war) 🔗 Pope Francis says the first sign of hope is the desire for peace amidst war. He finds it baffling, or perhaps shocking, that world leaders have not done more to resolve the many regional wars that are causing so much death and destruction around the world. He offers the Beatitudes as the starting point for discerning how to address the immense suffering caused by so many wars. Read Matthew 5:9 Who does Jesus call “blessed” in Matthew 5:9? What is a “peacemaker”? Jesus doesn’t bless those who “wish for” peace but those who are peace makers . What steps are required to be the kind of person who helps make peace? What is the vision of hope that God would want us to have as we respond to the wars that plague our world? What does Pope Francis want world leaders to do , in order to try to secure a lasting peace? Pope Francis mentions diplomacy. What is the role of diplomats and diplomacy in working for a lasting peace? Why are they important? In what ways can we encourage our leaders and diplomats to be peacemakers? Our leaders are not the only ones who need to be peacemakers. Pope Francis says, “The need for peace challenges us all.” We need to be peacemakers in our own lives – in our families, in our relationships, in our political conversations, in our workplaces, in our social media posts, in our parishes, etc. What are some concrete steps you can take to be a peacemaker in some area of your life where peacemaking may not always be your first impulse? It is hard to be a peacemaker if you do not have peace in your heart. How can you cultivate an inner peace at the core of your being? Suggested Activity: Explore the work of Pax Christi USA , a membership organization of Catholics working to promote peace and nonviolence and resist war, violence, domination, and racism. You can check to see if there is a local chapter of Pax Christi USA near you. Pax Christi USA is a member of Pax Christi International , a global Catholic peace movement. Paragraph 9 (welcoming children) 🔗 Why might Pope Francis be concerned that many young adults don’t want children? In the first part of paragraph 9, what are the societal issues Pope Francis identifies as reasons why people are less open to parenthood in our time? Read Psalm 127:3 In what ways are children a “gift” or “heritage” we receive from God? How is having children a result of hope? How does it also lead to additional hope? Pope Francis calls for a “social covenant” – i.e., public policies – that will help young adults embrace bringing children into the world. How might we do this in a way that is “inclusive and not ideological” and avoids making young adults feel pressured to have children? Paragraph 10 (prisoners) 🔗 In paragraph 10, Pope Francis asks us to think about people in prisons. What does he ask governments to do with regard to prisoners? In the second part of paragraph 10, Pope Francis quotes from Leviticus 25:10 and Isaiah 61:1-2 as a basis for proposing programs that would reintegrate prisoners into the community. Why might this be a worthwhile goal? What might be the positive effect of developing well-planned programs to do this? Pope Francis calls on Christians to demand dignified conditions for prisoners and respect for their human rights. Why do prisoners have a right to be treated with dignity despite their crimes? What is it about our faith that demands that they be treated with dignity? Suggested Activities: Find a Catholic prison ministry (through your diocese or online) that has a pen pal program for writing letters to a prisoner, and consider becoming a pen pal. Do some research about the treatment of prisoners in your local prisons and jails. If you find that they are being subjected to degrading or inhumane treatment or unsafe living conditions, contact a public official to express your concern. Throughout the Bible, people of God are unfairly imprisoned; for example, Joseph (Genesis 39); Jeremiah (Jer. 37-38); Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego (Dan. 3); Daniel (Dan. 6); John the Baptist (Luke 3); Peter and other apostles (Acts 5); and Paul and Silas (Acts 16). Toward the end of the second part of paragraph 10, Pope Francis reminds us of the Church’s opposition to the death penalty, which is discussed in paragraph 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church . You can read a statement of the Church’s position on capital punishment at “ New Revision of Number 2267 ” ( The Vatican , 1 Aug. 2018). Why does Pope Francis say that the death penalty “eliminates all hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation” (par. 10)? Why does the Roman Catholic Church oppose capital punishment? How is it "at odds with Christian faith" (par. 10)? Read John 8:1-11 In the story usually called “The Woman Caught in Adultery,” scribes and Pharisees come to Jesus and seek his approval to execute a woman. They want Him to join them in condemning her to death. He refuses. How is His response – “Neither do I condemn you” – a rejection of the death penalty? Why would God want us to preserve the life even of criminals? What can we do to help our society respect every human life, including the lives of prisoners? How can the way we treat prisoners become a sign of hope in our society? Suggested Activity: Explore the work of Catholic Mobilizing Network , an organization that uses education, advocacy, and prayer in its efforts to end the death penalty, promote responses that provide justice and support human dignity for both those who have been harmed and those who have caused harm, and foster approaches such as restorative justice that promote healing. Closing questions: In these paragraphs, Pope Francis explores problems where we might be tempted to think, “That’s just the way the world is.” He invites us instead to envision a different world that is guided by respect for the value and dignity of every human being. What are the commonalities in these problems: war, the hesitation to have children, and the harshness of prisons? How are the similar at a root level? What are the commonalities in the alternatives: peacemaking, welcoming children, and granting freedom to prisoners? How are they similar at a root level? What are the values or mindsets we are called to have, that would help us take the approach of hope as we confront these issues? Bibliography See Jubilee Year 2025 - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/jubilee-2025/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Jubilee 2025 Next

Pray with confidence that God will respond as your Father. Previous Matthew Index Next Matthew 7:7-11 Pray with confidence that God will respond as your Father. Image by Gustavo Sánchez, provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti June 7, 2024 Matthew 7:7-11 Pray expectantly Overall, what is your initial impression of this passage? What is it saying? In verses 7-8, what is the attitude Jesus is calling us to have in prayer? The tense of the verbs in these verses is the present imperative active ( Interlinear Bible , https://biblehub.com/interlinear/matthew/7.htm ), which means that they would be better translated as: Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking; or continually ask, continually seek, continually knock. We don’t have this tense in English, so our translators settle for “ask, seek, knock,” but the tense in Greek means to continually do that thing. The Greek verbs that are used in verses 7-8 indicate that Jesus is not talking about asking just once. The verbs actually mean “keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.” How does that affect your understanding of this passage? What does this tell you? In verses 9-10, Jesus offers two images of what human parents would or would not do, and then uses them as analogies to God. What would human parents not do, and why? To an innocent and undiscerning child, a large stone might look like a small loaf of bread. A small fish might look like a snake or eel. If a child asked for bread or fish, a parent would not give them a stone or a snake; that would be malicious. Almost all parents love their children and would responding lovingly, not cruelly or callously. In verse 11, Jesus then compares the parents to God. What does he say about “your Father in heaven”? By describing our prayers as like a child seeking what he or she needs from a parent, Jesus is telling us about our relationship with God who is our Father. What does this tell us about how we can approach God in prayer? Jesus says even human parents, who are “evil” (NRSV) or “wicked” (NABRE), wouldn’t give their child a stone if they asked for bread. What is he trying to tell us by using that word “evil” or “wicked” to contrast us with God? God, who is all good, will not give us fake gifts or false gifts. God will only give us what is good, what is consistent with His perfect love. This means God will not always give us what we ask. Even when we ask for good things, God does not always give us what we ask for. How do you make sense of that reality in the context of this passage? It is often said that God answers our prayers in one of three ways: Yes, No, or Not Yet. If the answer is Yes, we receive the blessing and move forward. If the answer is No, we accept the answer and move on. If the answer is Not Yet, we wait patiently, continuing to pray and trust that God has our best interests at heart. God cannot always give us what we ask for, because sometimes what we ask for would not actually be what is best for us, and God would not give us a stone even if we thought it was good and asked for it. How have you experienced God answering your prayers with a Yes? How have you experienced God answering your prayers with a No? How have you experienced God answering your prayers with a Not Yet? There is a fourth way that God answers prayer. Sometimes, after praying for a period of time, we come to realize that what we truly want and need is not what we were asking for, but something else. In this case, God has answered our prayer by changing our heart and our desires. When our heart is aligned with God, it opens the door for God to work in new ways that might not previously been feasible. But that requires us to be willing to more forward according to God’s ways, not our ways. How have you experienced your requests to God changing as you kept asking God for something? There is a fifth way that God answers prayer: with a “Not That But This.” God sometimes gives us something that is a blessing but not the blessing we sought. As William Barclay says: “God will always answer our prayers, but He will answer them in His way, and His way will be the way of perfect wisdom and of perfect love” (Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 1 , pp. 275-276). A relevant quote that has been attributed to many people over the years is: “When one door closes another always opens, but we usually look so long, so intently, and so sorrowfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened” (quote investigator Garson O’Toole concludes that the source is unknown, although part may have come from Johann Paul Friedrich Richter). How have you experienced God answering a prayer not by giving you what you asked for but by opening a door to something else? Did you find it easy or hard to recognize that God was answering your prayer by giving you that alternative? The relationship we have with God, our Father, is far more important than anything we ask God to do. Are there ways that your prayer life might change if your prayers were consistently founded on the relationship you have with God as Father and not so much on what you want? How does this passage help you pray to God with confidence? Having looked at this entire passage in detail, what does it say to you? Take a step back and consider this: Sometimes what we ask for is not evil but misses the point. My grandfather, when he was in his 60s, told me that when he was young, he had asked God for three things: a beautiful wife, a beautiful car, and a big house. With his 8th-grade education and hard-scrabble upbringing, those probably seemed like big asks. But he was a hard worker, a sociable person who was good at understanding what other people wanted and how to bring people together, and a wise man about many things despite his meager formal education. He advanced in the steel mill from blue collar to white collar, then left to become a very successful insurance agent. He married early and eventually obtained a big house (relative to others in his community) and the fancy car he wanted. But he told me about his early prayer not boastfully but ruefully, as if to show the foolishness of the request. When he told me this, he was spending most of his time in one room of the big house, sitting next to the bed where his wife lay 23 hours a day. Her life had been sapped by chronic health problems, but she had all the time in the world to carp at him as he sat there. The fancy car mostly sat unused in the garage. People sometimes say: Be careful what you ask for. But that is too cryptic to catch the point. It isn’t what you ask for, but why, that matters. For whom are you asking, and to what end? For whom are you most earnest prayers delivered? To what end do you ask God to bless you? How would your prayers change, if you were only allowed to pray for things that you knew would help advance God's loving work in the world? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew Index Next

Clean and beautiful on the outside, dirty and ungodly on the inside. How can we avoid falling into the trap of focusing on our exterior image? Previous Matthew Index Next Matthew 23:25-36 Clean and beautiful on the outside, dirty and ungodly on the inside. How can we avoid falling into the trap of focusing on our exterior image? Image by Nadot Yannick, provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti August 22, 2025 Matthew 23:25-36 (Part 2 of Matthew 23:13-36) Read Matthew 23:13-36 Jesus denounces the scribes and the Pharisees for their hypocrisy Part 2 Verses 25-26 The Pharisees were very conscious of the ritual or ceremonial purity of their cups and dishes. This was not a concern about cleanliness as we mean it; it was a concern about whether their cookware and dinnerware were “clean” as a matter of ritual purity. The Old Testament and the traditions preserved and developed by the scribes identified many ways that a person or object could become unclean. Some were extrapolated directly from the Law. For example: A utensil was unclean if it came in contact with pork. A man was unclean if he touched a dead body or a Gentile. A woman was unclean during her menstrual period. If you came in contact with anyone or anything that was considered “unclean,” you could become unclean too. The Pharisees were very focused on avoiding anything unclean and drew upon the detailed and nuanced teachings of the scribes, who developed intricate rules for what was and was not unclean. What does Jesus accuse the scribes and Pharisees of, in verses 25-26? How does Jesus describe the “inside” things that he says they are neglecting to pay attention to? What are the actual words he uses in verse 25 to describe the “inside”? Jesus uses 2 terms. The first word can mean plunder or robbery or greed. The second word means self-indulgence in the sense of lacking self-restraint, which could be applied to drinking, sexual conduct, or other matters. With these words, Jesus is clearly not talking about cups and plates – cups can’t be accused of greed or self-indulgence. What do you think Jesus is really saying here? When Jesus tells them to clean the inside of the cup, what do you think he means (not cups and plates, but what)? How might people “clean” this “inside” aspect of their lives? Jesus calls the Pharisees “blind” in verse 26. How might that be an appropriate description of their behavior? How might this metaphor of the “outside” and “inside” apply to our churches today? What are the things on the “inside” that we might be ignoring while we focus on things on the “outside”? Here is an example of failing to focus on what is unclean on the inside: The Catholic Church, and other denominations to a lesser extent, for decades ignored scandalous sexual predation by clergy in its parishes. Local parishes sometimes develop an excessive focus on external things that are less important. For example, I have seen church members get stuck in constant carping over the choice of altar furnishings and music. I spent weeks at one church trying to address the enormous unrest that arose when the pastor decreed that church groups would henceforth have to pay to use the parish hall for their meetings, a move that took everyone’s focus off of the purpose of the parish’s ministries. What are the “outside” matters that you personally might be giving too much attention to, and what might be the “inside” matters that you are ignoring that need to be cleaned up? Verses 27-28 In verses 27-28, what does Jesus say about the scribes and Pharisees? This accusation uses an actual practice that was useful as a metaphor. In Jesus’s time, there were not strict laws about where dead bodies could be buried. Tombs could be encountered anywhere, and if you came into contact with something dead, you would be considered “unclean.” Tombs were painted white to mark them clearly so that people would not accidentally stumble into them. The “whitewashing” of tombs was a practical attempt to help people practice their religion. Jesus uses the idea of a whitewashed exterior covering a corrupt interior as a metaphor for what is going on in people’s spiritual lives. Jesus uses a metaphor of a tomb that is painted white on the outside but is rotting on the inside. In verse 28, how does he describe what is happening on the inside of the scribes and Pharisees? How might a person be “beautiful” on the outside but full of hypocrisy and evil on the inside? What are some ways that we show to the world a public exterior that might not match the less godly things going on inside us? A question to consider in the silence of your own heart: What is an area of inward unrighteousness that you could work on so that your inner reality would better match the exterior ways you present yourself? Verses 29-36 In verses 29-30, what does Jesus say their attitude was toward the murder of prophets of the past? According to Jesus, what will they do to the prophets and wise people of their own time? As Matthew writes this, several decades later, who do you think he has in mind? Who are the kinds of people that were scourged, hunted from town to town, killed, and crucified? Matthew is thinking about the Christians who have been persecuted in the early years of the Church. In verse 35, Jesus uses an “A to Z” formulation to summarize the breadth of the murders in the Old Testament, from Abel to Zechariah. Abel is in Genesis. For Zechariah, there are two possibilities. A Zechariah was murdered in 2 Chronicles 24, which was the last book in the Hebrew Bible because they put the books of history after the books of the prophets in their scriptures, but he was the son of Jehoida (2 Chron. 24:20), not the son of Berechiah. Alternatively, Zechariah the prophet is described in Zechariah 1:1 as the son of Berechiah, and his book is the second-to-last book of the prophets. The Bible does not describe him as having been murdered, but later rabbinic tradition said that he was murdered in the Temple (( Ignatius Catholic Study Bible , Matthew 25:35 fn., p. 49). Jesus’s point is that from beginning to end, the Jewish scriptures tell of people who claim to be following God killing other people who are following God. Jesus accuses the scribes and Pharisees of following in that long line of rejecting people who are actually following God. In vv. 34-36, what does Jesus say is coming in the years ahead? Who are the people that will experience this suffering? Christians. Matthew, written perhaps 50 years after Jesus spoke these words, can see how Jesus’s prophecy came true as Christians were mistreated by Jewish leaders in the decades after Jesus’s resurrection. Given Jesus’s repeated and frank warning that Christians will suffer persecution, does it make sense that some Christian leaders in our day preach that Christians should expect prosperity and a good life? Explain. Take a step back and consider this: We live in a time where people curate themselves, posting a carefully crafted image of themselves online in social media. A person may be clean and beautiful on the outside, yet evil and violent on the inside, and we would never know it from their social media accounts. Most Christians use social media, and there is nothing wrong with telling others about the good things going on in our lives. But does that lure us into embracing the world’s priorities, which say that the exterior is what really matters? How important is the interior, really? How can we stay engaged with others via social media yet avoid falling into the trap of focusing primarily on our exterior image? What can we do to keep our focus on becoming like Jesus on the inside and letting that guide what we do on the outside? And, perhaps not on social media but in more intimate settings, is there a place for letting people know what is really going on inside of us, on the inside? Consider the song “Inside” by John Fischer ( audio , lyrics ): “Come see / Everything that lies inside of me / ’Cause amidst the mess I’ve made of me / You might see the Lord.” Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew Index Next

A young woman living in obscurity receives a visit from an angel of God and says “Yes” to God’s plan. How can we be like her? [Luke 1:5-25; 1:26-38; 1:39-45; 1:46-56] Previous Mary Index Next Session 1: What Mary was, we are called to be A young woman living in obscurity receives a visit from an angel of God and says “Yes” to God’s plan. How can we be like her? [Luke 1:5-25; 1:26-38; 1:39-45; 1:46-56] Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). The Annunciation . 1657. Cropped. The National Gallery, London, UK. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L%27Annonciation,_vers_1655,_Londres,_National_Gallery.jpg . Tom Faletti July 11, 2025 The Theme The theme of this study is: What Mary was, we are called to be. What Mary did, we are called to do. When we say, “What Mary was, we are called to be” we mean that we are called to be the kind of person Mary was. She is an example of what the character of a person of faith looks like. When we say, “What Mary did, we are called to do,” we mean that we are called to put our faith into action the way she did. She is a role model for how to live the kind of life where our faith permeates everything we do. Who is this study for? This study is intended for anyone who is interested in exploring how to live a life of faith. It can be used by Catholics and Protestants, evangelicals and Orthodox believers. While the study acknowledges that Catholics and Protestants have a long history of disagreement about some Catholic teachings about Mary, the study keeps its focus on what the Bible says and does not address Catholic doctrines that developed later. Where there are disagreements about how to interpret the Scriptures, the differences are noted and explored. For this reason, Catholics and Protestants can all be comfortable with this study – and could even use it to study together. It is also worth noting that many Protestants find much to admire in Mary – see, for example, Timothy Keller’s “God’s Call to Mary and to Us” (published by Focus on the Family) and Jacob Prahlow’s “A Protestant Thinks about the Blessed Virgin Mary” . Everyone who values the Word of God will find this study useful. IF YOU ARE STUDYING WITH A SMALL GROUP This study material can be very enriching either for small-group Bible Study or for individual study and growth. If you are studying with a small group, please take some time to build community, beginning with ensuring that everyone knows everyone else’s name. Here are some questions you could invite everyone in the group to answer: What is your name? What is your connection to this church/parish/group? Why were you attracted to be part of this study of Mary? From what you already know about the mother of Jesus, what stands out to you? What questions do you have? What would you like to know more about, with regard to Mary? Where you see a Scripture passage in bold and underlined (like Luke 1: 5-25 below), it means you should read that passage before proceeding. Let’s dive in. Luke 1: 5-25 What happens before Mary appears in Luke’s Gospel Some helpful background Mary’s story in the Bible begins when she was probably a teenager, possibly as young as 14 years old although we are not told what her age was. She was suddenly catapulted from living a normal, obscure teenage life to living an heroic though still obscure life. But before that happened, some extraordinary things were already happening in her extended family. Before mentioning Mary, Luke tells us about what leads to the birth of John the Baptist, who was born into Mary’s extended family. Mary’s relative Elizabeth (Luke 1:36) was childless (1:7) and advanced in years (1:18), but now she has become pregnant. Before she becomes pregnant, Elizabeth’s husband, a priest (1:5), has a vision of an angel while he is serving alone in the holiest inner sanctuary of the Temple. The angel tells him that Elizabeth will have a son, who is to be named John (1:10-14). The angel informs him that this son will be filled with the Holy Spirit like Elijah and will turn people to God to prepare them for the Lord (1:15-17). When Zechariah questions this message because he and Elizabeth are fairly old, he is rendered unable to speak (1:18-20), and when he comes out of the sanctuary, everyone knows that he has seen a vision. Mary is likely to have heard about this event. Note: Although some older translations such as the King James Version and some simplified translations call Elizabeth Mary’s “cousin,” the Greek word is a more generic word used for relatives of all kinds, close and distant, so most modern translations say “relative,” not “cousin.” We do not know if Elizabeth was an aunt, a cousin, or a more distant relative. We also do not know if Mary came from the lineage of priests as Zechariah did. Similarly, we do not know if Mary was descended from the line of David. Matthew presents Joseph’s genealogy (Matt. 1:1-17), which shows that Joseph was from the line of David, i.e., a direct descendant of David. Luke also tells us that Joseph was a descendant of David (Luke 1:27 and 2:4). Some scholars through the centuries have suggested that Luke presents Mary’s genealogy, but many other scholars have rejected that idea because Luke 4:23. For Jews of Jesus’s time, the father’s lineage was all that mattered. Joseph was not Jesus’s biological father, as Matthew tells us in his account of the virgin birth (Matt. 1:18-25), but Joseph essentially adopted Jesus as his own son by raising him. So, Joseph’s ancestry is Jesus’s ancestry for Jewish legal purposes even though Jesus was the Son of God. Does Mary’s relative obscurity trouble you, or draw you to her, or not matter to you? Why? What do you think of a God who chooses to enter the human race by being born of an obscure woman whose pedigree is unclear? What does this tell you about God? What does Mary’s obscure background tell you about Mary? Does this tell you anything about yourself? Can you be from obscure roots and still fulfill God’s purposes for you? How does Mary’s background speak to you? Elizabeth conceives, and roughly 6 months later, Mary enters Luke’s story. Luke 1:26-38 An angel tells Mary she will have a son from God (the “Annunciation”) Let’s start by walking through the conversation between Mary and the angel. In verses 26-27, what does Luke tell us about Mary (what kind of person is she, where is she, what is her marital status, etc.)? To be “betrothed” was far more than what we call being “engaged.” After betrothal, the couple was considered married even though it would be months before the marriage was consummated. If a person was betrothed and had sex with someone other than their intended, it was considered adultery (see New American Bible , Luke 1:18 fn.). In verse 28, how does the angel greet Mary? In verse 29, how does Mary respond? In verses 30-33, what does the angel prophesy to Mary about what is to come? In verse 34, Mary questions the angel. What is her question? When the angel had appeared to Zechariah, Zechariah had asked, “How will I know this, for I’m an old man and my wife is old too?” His question was, in essence, a demand for proof. How is Mary’s question different? How is her question appropriate, whereas Zechariah’s was not? Mary is not challenging what will happen or asking for proof; she is merely asking the process by which it will happen. Her question is, literally, in the Greek, “How will this be, since I do not know a man?” – i.e., How will this be since I do not have sex? In verses 35-37, how does the angel explain to Mary how she will become pregnant? In verse 38, how does Mary respond to this announcement? Look over the passage and focus on the things the angel says. What do the angel’s words tell us about Mary? What do the angel’s words tell us about God? Look over the passage again, focusing on the things Mary says. What do Mary’s words tell us about Mary? What does this passage tell us about Mary’s attitude or approach toward her faith? One of our themes for this study is: What Mary was (the kind of person Mary was), we are called to be. What can we learn from Mary? All of us can, like Mary, say, “I am the servant of the Lord.” How can you take that approach to your own faith more consistently? What does this passage tell us about Mary’s use of her whole being: her mind, her will, and her spirit/faith? What Mary did, we are called to do. Mary accepted the coming of the Holy Spirit to her to enable her to fulfill her God-given role in God’s plan of salvation. How can you welcome or say yes to the Holy Spirit to fulfill your particular God-given role in your life? Mary is now the second woman in her extended family to have an unusual pregnancy after an unusual encounter with God. Mary decides to go visit her relative Elizabeth. In the next scene of our story, we see two women, both chosen by God for something special, having a chance to have some woman-to-woman time together. Luke 1:39-45 Mary visits Elizabeth (the “Visitation”) What happens? Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit as a result of her encounter with Mary and the response of the child in her womb. How can we become more open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as Elizabeth was? When Elizabeth has this special, spirit-filled moment, her response is praise. How can we become more confident in giving praise to God when we are touched by his Spirit? Luke 1:46-56 Mary sings God’s praises (the “Magnificat” or “Canticle of Mary”) What Mary says here is called the “Magnificat” because in Latin, the first word of Mary’s prayer is the word Magnificat , which means “praises,” as in “my soul praises.” What is your overall impression of Mary’s “song”? What is your favorite line or phrase or word from Mary’s song, and why? What does this song tell us about God? What does this song tell us about Mary? Mary could have praised God in many different ways. We can learn a lot about her from the subjects she chooses to focus on and what she says about them. What does Mary’s choice of topics about God tell us about her and what kind of person she is? Notice that one of the themes Mary focuses on is that some people are rich and mighty, and some people are poor and lowly, and God has here taken decisive action on behalf of the poor and lowly. One of the themes for this study is: What Mary did, we are called to do. Mary praises God energetically and expansively. What can we learn from this for ourselves, regarding our prayer life or interactions with others? The other theme for our study is: The kind of person Mary was, we are called to be. What does this prayer tell you about what kind of person Mary was, and what does it encourage you to be? Here is a brief summary of how Elizabeth’s story ends, so that you are not left hanging: ( Luke 1:57-80 John is born and Zechariah’s mouth is opened to sing God’s praise) Elizabeth gives birth to a son (1:57), and when Elizabeth says he will be named “John” (1:60), the neighbors and relatives object, thinking that he should be named for Zechariah or some other relative. Zechariah indicates that the child is to be named “John” (1:63), and at that moment his tongue is freed so that he can speak (1:64). He responds with his own canticle of praise to God (1:67-80). Take a step back and consider this: One of the things we see in Mary’s prayer is that she sees the world from the perspective of the lowly, not from the top of the social ladder. In the Gospels we see that Jesus has a similar perspective. I have summarized how both the New Testament and the Old Testament present God’s downside-up view of the world here: God Takes a Downside-Up View of the World . Some examples are: blessed are the poor, God cares for the one as much as the 99, wealth is an impediment to salvation rather than a sign of God’s favor, what you did to the least of these you did to me, the Lord hears the cry of the poor, etc. Do you think Jesus learned to see through the eyes of the have-nots from his mother Mary, who proclaimed God’s concern for the lowly and hungry, as well as learning it from his heavenly Father? What might this suggest about how Mary raised her child? How are we called to imitate Jesus and Mary in viewing things from the perspective of the lowly? Bibliography See Mary - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/mary/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Mary Index Next

You have free will. Previous Next God's Purposes You Can Choose You have free will. Tom Faletti You have free will. Every day, all the time, you have the awesome privilege of making choices. For the most part, you can choose what you will do, who you will spend time with, and what you will think about. God has free will. He can do what He chooses to do. One of the ways in which you are made in the image of God is that you have free will. God made you that way. You are like Him in that way. What you do with that awesome freedom may show how much you are living in the image of God. You may choose to do what God would do, or you may choose other things. As you make those choices, you may present to the world an accurate image of God or a warped image of God. The choice is yours. But it isn’t that simple. As St Paul says in Romans 7:19, sometimes I don’t do the good that I want to do…. TO BE CONTINUED If God knows what I am going to do, how can I have free will? TO BE CONTINUED Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous God's Purposes Next

Jesus cares about our afflictions. Previous Matthew Index Next Matthew 8:1-17 Jesus cares about our afflictions. Alexandre Bida (1813-1895). The Leper . 1875. Detail. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jesus_heals_the_leper.png . See also https://archive.org/details/christinartstory00egglrich/page/60/mode/2up . Tom Faletti July 30, 2024 Re-read Matthew 7:28-29 Jesus acts with authority Matthew ends the Sermon on the Mount by saying that Jesus “taught them as one having authority and not as their scribes.” What does it look like when someone teaches with authority? Who has been someone who taught with authority in your life? Matthew has shown Jesus teaching with authority. Now he is going to show Jesus acting with authority. In chapters 8 and 9, we will see 10 miracles in 9 separate incidents, presented in groups of 3, interspersed with brief but pointed dialogues. Matthew 8:1-17 Jesus cures all who come to him Who are the kinds of people Jesus helps here? Who is Jesus for ? The ones Jesus helped here include an outcast leper, a lowly servant, an enemy commander in need, a mother-in-law who probably spent most of her life being overlooked, and then many others who suffered various afflictions. What does this tell you about Jesus and about Matthew’s sense of who Jesus cares about – who God cares about? Who do we care about? Do we care about the same people Jesus cares about? Explain. How are Jesus’s priorities a challenge to our society? Now let’s focus on each of these three stories separately. Matthew 8:1-4 the leper What happens in this passage? Recent translations of the Bible mostly replace “a leper” with “a man with a skin disease,” because the word was used for a variety of skin diseases, not just leprosy. Any persistent skin disease rendered a person unclean, under Old Testament law (Lev. 13-14), both in a hygienic sense (such diseases can be transmitted through touch) and in a religious sense (ritual impurity). Therefore, people with skin diseases were supposed to live in isolation, away from others. What attitudes or character traits does the man with leprosy show? In verse 2, the man said, “You can make me clean.” What is the significance of being made clean? How were lepers treated and what would being made “clean” do for him? What does Jesus do? Why is touching so significant beyond just being an action used in the healing? Jesus’s willingness to touch the man violated Old Testament norms both with regard to health and with regard to religious purity, so it was probably shocking to onlookers. In what way does Jesus’s touching the man communicate not only a willingness to violate social conventions but also a special type of caring? What effect does touching someone have? Why does Jesus tell him to tell no one? Why does Jesus tell him to go to the priests? Note that the purpose of going to the priests is to satisfy the priests; Jesus does not make it his own concern – i.e., he does not say, for example, that going to the priests was necessary in order to receive the healing. Jesus stands above the Law, even as he tells the man to fulfill the Law. What do you discern about Jesus’s/God’s character from this incident? Who are we called to “touch” or care for today in or lives, in order for them to receive God’s healing? How might our choice to “touch” people whom society shuns shock people around us, and should that affect us? What should we do about the fact that if we follow Jesus we will sometimes show care for people that others think we should stay away from? Matthew 8:5-13 the centurion’s slave A centurion was a commander of 100 men in the Roman army. He was a Gentile. The Greek word for the centurion’s “servant” is ambiguous and could mean “son.” John 4:46-54 has a similar but not identical story about a royal official’s son. But if we follow the common understanding that it is the centurion’s servant who is sick, how do you think he felt about this servant cared as a person? The centurion was an officer in a hated army that occupied the land, oppressed the people, and treated with harsh brutality anyone who dared to cross it. Why would Jesus want to help him? Jesus says, “I will come and cure him.” What Jewish cultural expectation would that have been violating? Observant Jews did not enter the homes of Gentiles, because they would becoming ritually unclean from any interaction with any unclean items in the home. Why do you think Jesus makes the offer to “come”? How does the centurion see himself relative to Jesus (verse 8) and relative to other people (verse 9)? What does he ask Jesus to do? Why does the centurion think that a word from Jesus will be enough? Matthew 7 ended with a reference to Jesus’s authority. How does this passage help us understand the authority of Jesus? For what does Jesus praise the centurion? What does he think of the centurion’s faith? How does Jesus turn this event into an indictment of the failure of the people of Israel to believe in Jesus? How can we be more like the centurion? Note: We can’t conjure up faith by our own willpower. Faith is a gift. But we can choose to be open, we can take the time to approach God, and we can welcome God’s presence and lordship in our lives. If we create the conditions for faith by nurturing whatever seed of faith we have, that openness can allow faith to grow. Matthew 8:14-17 Peter’s mother-in-law, and many other people What does Peter’s mother-in-law do when she is healed? How can she be a model for us? What happens that evening? In verse 17, what Old Testament passage does Matthew quote, and what does it mean? What is Matthew trying to suggest to us about Jesus? The quote is from one of the Suffering Servant passages of Isaiah, and the Suffering Servant ultimately makes reparation for the sins of the people, so Matthew sees it as a prophecy about Jesus as the Messiah. Take a step back and consider this: In Matthew 8:2, the leper is confident that Jesus can cure him; he is only unsure if Jesus is willing to cure him (he says, “if you wish”). In Matthew 8:8, the centurion is confident that Jesus can cure his servant, and he has a solution to the question of Jesus’s willingness (“only say the word”). With both of those issues laid to rest, the crowds that follow Jesus come with great expectation. When it comes to asking God for healing for yourself or others, do you get stuck on the question of whether God wishes to heal? Do you get stuck on the question of whether God is able to heal? Or are you able to get past both of those questions? In our time, we know that some people for whom we pray are healed and some are not. How do you approach God when healing is needed? There is power in the passage from Isaiah that Matthew applies to Jesus in verse 17. In what ways do you find it to be true of Jesus that he bears our weaknesses and diseases, and how does that help you to approach him in prayer? The next time you pray, how can you approach the Lord with greater confidence that he bears your afflictions? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew Index Next

Worry – how to deal with it. Previous Matthew Index Next Matthew 6:25-34 Worry – how to deal with it. The "lilies of the fields" Jesus talked about may have been these multi-colored flowers called anemones, which are found in Israel today as they were in Bible times. Zachi Evenor, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anemone-coronaria-in-Dalia-Israel-Zachi-Evenor-176.jpg . Tom Faletti May 24, 2024 Matthew 6:25-34 Do not worry; seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness Jesus has just been teaching us not to focus on money, telling us that we can’t serve both God and wealth. The natural reaction might be: But we need money! He responds to that natural concern in this passage. In verse 25, Jesus tells us several things not to worry about. What are the things he tells us not to worry about? Concerns about our life such as what we are to eat or drink, and concerns about our body such as what we are to wear. What does it mean to “worry”? Is worry different than simply thinking about things? What is “worry”? Worry dominates the mind in a way that causes stress or distress. It takes over or preoccupies our thoughts so that we find it difficult to set aside the thing we are worried about and think about other things. In this way, worry absorbs our attention to the extent that it makes us less free. How would you interpret the question in verse 25: “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” What is the point of Jesus asking this question? In verse 26, what is the meaning of the illustration Jesus gives of the birds? Why should we not worry, according to verse 26? Here, the point is a spiritual one: God provides for the birds, and you are more valuable than the birds. What is the illustration Jesus uses in verse 27? Why should we not worry, according to verse 27? Here, the point is a practical one: Your worrying can’t make any difference, so it is wasted effort. Note: Translations of verse 27 vary because the Greek word can mean “life-span” or “stature” (i.e., height). So he may be saying we can’t add a single unit to our life-span or to our height. Both interpretations make the same point – worrying can have no effect on the stated problem. What is the illustration Jesus uses in verses 28-29? Why should we not worry, according to verses 28-30? Here, the point is a different spiritual one: You are an eternal being. God is generous in lavishing beauty even on things that are finite and die quickly; he will clothe you, his immortal ones, with what you need. In verse 28, Jesus says of the lilies that they “neither toil nor spin.” These words describe what humans do to create cloth for clothing. People toil: they work the crop – for example, flax in Jesus’s time. Then they spin: they turn the fibers of flax into yarn from which linen cloth is made for clothing and other purposes. Jesus is certainly not telling people not to work, so we have to look beyond the literal to find his meaning. One possibility is to consider it a caution about focusing too much attention (worry) on how impressively beautiful our clothes are. In your culture, do people worry about whether their clothes are beautiful enough or impressive enough, or made by the right designers? What might Jesus say? This passage might be interpreted metaphorically as referring to our calling to be clothed in righteousness in the kingdom of God, particularly in the context of verse 33. How might you worry less if you clung to the assurance that God desires to, and is able to, provide you with the “clothing” you need? At the end of verse 30, Jesus identifies the spiritual issue at work when we worry. What is the spiritual issue here? The spiritual issue is trust in God. What does worry do to people? In what ways is it harmful? When we are worrying, what is our focus on? What does Jesus want us to be focused on? It is hard to “not” do something, unless we replace it with “doing” something else. How do we “not” worry? Saint Paul offers advice on what to do instead: Read Philippians 4:6 . What does Paul tell us to do instead of being anxious? What does that verse mean? Let your requests be made known to God; i.e., tell God what you need. What it the difference between asking God for what we need and worrying? Why is praying, or talking to God about our needs, an antidote to worry? Worrying is talking to ourselves while focusing on what we lack. Praying about what we need is talking to God while focusing on the Person who can do something about what we lack. Paul is telling us that it is OK to ask God for what we need. Is there any need that is too small to talk to God about it? Explain. In verse 32, Jesus gives us some perspective. What does he tell us about God? What difference does it make that God knows what we need? The phrase “your heavenly Father knows” might be a good refrain or mantra for all the things we face in life. How would absorbing that assurance change your life? In verse 33, what does Jesus tell us to strive for? What does it mean to strive for the kingdom of God? In what ways might striving for the kingdom call us to action? What might it call us to do? What does it mean to strive for righteousness? This could be referring to the righteousness God wants to work into our character, or the righteousness God wants to bring into the world through the coming of his kingdom. In what ways might striving for righteousness call us to action? What might it call us to do? Jesus says that when we strive for these things, the other things will be given to us as well. We know that, in a literal interpretation of this statement, it isn’t always true. Non-believers are not the only people to starve to death in famines; Christians have starved to death too. This is the sort of thing that might make a skeptic take this sentence in isolation and use it to reject the gospel of Jesus. Yet Jesus has warned us earlier that Christians will face trials and persecutions. So, how should we understand this statement? How would you explain it to the skeptic? In verse 34, Jesus broadens his point by adding “tomorrow” to the list of things to not worry about. That takes us far beyond just food or drink or clothing. Almost any concern or possible trouble can lead us to worry about tomorrow. What is he telling us about all the other things we tend to worry about? What are the worries about “tomorrow” that are most likely to take over or absorb your thinking? If you could have a conversation with Jesus where he mentioned the worry or worries you have, what would he say to you about it? At the last sentence of verse 34, Jesus throws ends with a little twist at. What does he say? Today has enough trouble for today. In the final sentence in verse 34, the majority of Bible translations use the word “trouble,” but some say “evil.” There is a reason why the translators don’t agree. According to lexicographers, the word here, which is kakia , means badness (Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon , entry for κᾰκία at http://folio2.furman.edu/lsj/ ; Vine, Vine’s Expository Dictionary , https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ved/e/evil-evil-doer.html ). The word is often used in a narrow sense with regard to human character flaws or evil, but here it more likely encompasses the broader troubles we experience because of the “badness” in the world. This verse might be saying: Don’t worry about tomorrow; today has enough bad stuff for today. There are times when, in the economy of God’s plan for this world, we may be called to help fill the needs of others, and thereby be God's means of answering other people’s prayers. In what ways might we be God’s means of answering other people’s prayers for their basic needs? Take a step back and consider this: Jesus is not telling us to be lazy, and he is not telling us to not think about the things we need. We need jobs in order to pay our bills and in order to contribute in our unique ways to the good of the world. Parents need the means to feed and clothe their children. When we are sick, we need good health care. Our communities need good schools, safe streets, and assistance for those who struggle. Our businesses need customers and affordable inputs and good workers. Our governments needs leaders who seek justice and work for the common good, and don’t settle for assisting the powerful or wealthy or the noisiest voices. We need to apply our minds to think through what we face in order to address these needs. But there is a difference between thinking about things and worrying about things. Can Jesus be our model here? Jesus clearly thought about a lot of things, including the terrible death he was going to endure on our behalf. Yet we don’t see signs that he spent much time worrying. How do you think Jesus handled his thoughts about the difficult things he was going to endure without falling prey to worrying? What is one area of your life where worry often intrudes? What would Jesus encourage you to do about it? How would your life be better if you replaced worrying with trustful conversation with God about the thing you are worrying about, even if the problem didn’t magically go away? How can cultivating a life where you are constantly talking to God, and routinely letting your needs be made known to him, improve your life and help you become more like Christ? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew Index Next

Living parables: Incidents in Jesus’s ministry that tell a bigger story, including the feeding of the 5,000. [Matthew 13:54-58; 14:1-12; 14:13-21] Previous Matthew Index Next Matthew 13:54-14:21 Living parables: Incidents in Jesus’s ministry that tell a bigger story, including the feeding of the 5,000. The feeding of the multitude. Hagia Sophia, Trabzon, Türkiye. Late 13th century fresco. Photo by Dosseman (Dick Osseman), 6 Sept. 2018, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trabzon_Hagia_Sophia_Feeding_of_the_thousands_93_080.jpg . Tom Faletti June 6, 2025 In chapter 13, Matthew gathered together a broad group of Jesus’s parables. Now, from Matthew 13:54 through chapter 14, Matthew gathers together some of Jesus’s actions that might be thought of as living parables : stories that reveal something bigger than just what happens in the story. Matthew 13:54-58 Rejection in his hometown of Nazareth What does verse 54 tell us that Jesus does? How do the people react? At root, what is the reason Jesus is not accepted in Nazareth? What is beneath their doubt? Is it jealousy? Insistence on upholding the accepted social hierarchy? Something else? Do you think the proverb quoted in verse 57 is true most of the time, or only occasionally? Explain. Verse 58 says Jesus did not do many miracles there. Why? Read Mark 6:5-6 , which provides a bit more detail. Why do you think that some people who were sick were able to be healed by Jesus? Matthew 13:58 says that Jesus did not do many miracles there, but Mark 6:5 says that Jesus was not able to do many miracles. Most scholars believe Mark’s Gospel was written first, and that Matthew drew from Mark. There are a variety of places where it appears that Matthew made edits to Mark’s words as he incorporated them into his Gospel. In this case, perhaps he did not want to imply that Jesus could be limited. Do you think the reason so few miracles were done was because Jesus did not want to heal people who didn’t believe in him, or because their lack of faith did not provide the right conditions for him to act? Explain. How might we be preventing God from acting mightily in our lives due to our lack of faith? How is this reaction of the people of Nazareth a living example of the parable of the sower and the soils? If we take this story as a living parable illustrating a bigger point for the early church and for us, what might that point be? Matthew 14:1-12 The death of John the Baptist Herod the tetrarch was a son of Herod the Great (the one who tried to have Jesus killed as a baby) and inherited one fourth of Herod’s territory – including Galilee. What happened to John the Baptist? Why had John criticized Herod? Why was John the Baptist killed? According to Jewish historian Josephus, Herod had John killed because he was afraid that John had become so popular that he could start a rebellion (Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2 , pp. 103-104). Is that plausible? From Herod’s perspective, why was John killed? From Herodias’s perspective, why was John killed? From Salome’s perspective, why was John killed? From the perspective of the early Christians, why was John killed? From Herod’s perspective, the matter is political and personal, and eventually touches on his ego and his social standing. From Herodias’s perspective, the matter is personal and also touches on her legitimacy as Herod’s wife, so it is vindication. From Salome’s perspective, it is something she can do for her mother, and also possibly for power. For the early church, John’s death is a passing of the torch and is also a foreshadowing. John was committed to speaking the truth and died honorably for it. Herod was committed to upholding a foolish vow even though it meant an innocent man would die. Staying true to your word doesn’t make you honorable if it means doing something wrong. How do you know when you should stick with a commitment? Should you ever let a commitment go unfulfilled? If we follow Jesus’s command to not swear by anything (Matt. 5:34-37), we will never be in a position where we have to choose between going back on an oath or doing something evil. Some people think Herod was experiencing guilt for what he had done, and that is why he imagined that Jesus might be John, raised back to life. John the Baptist was Jesus’s cousin. They probably had times together when they were growing up. How might Jesus have reacted to John’s execution? According to John 1:35-42, some of the disciples started out as followers of John. How might they have reacted to John’s death? If this story is a living parable illustrating a bigger point for the early church and for us, what might that point be? Matthew 14:13-21 Jesus feeds 5,000 We use the shorthand phrase that Jesus fed 5,000 people, but verse 21 tells us that it was 5,000 men, plus the woman and children who accompanied them; so it was actually far more than 5,000 people. Why do you think Jesus withdrew to a deserted place? How do you think he felt when the people found him so quickly? When Jesus saw the crowd, he had “compassion” for them. What does this say to you? What happens in this story? What does this story tell us about Jesus? What does this story tell us about the crowds of people? They were focused on wanting to be with Jesus, so focused that they chased after him and didn’t pack their bags first. They may not have always been thinking clearly, but they were orderly and open to God. What does it tell us about the disciples? They were caring and practical, even though they didn’t have a miracle in mind. They didn’t know Jesus would care so much. They were instruments of God’s miraculous work. Put yourself in this story. Where would you have been, and what would you have been thinking about what happened? What do you think God wants us to learn from the fact that there were so many leftovers? What do you think God wants us to learn from the fact that so many people were fed? What does this overall story say to you? Why do you think God doesn’t multiply food all the time? Hundreds of millions of people go hungry every day. Nine million people die from hunger every year, including 3 million children. Why do you think God doesn’t feed them all, as Jesus fed everyone here? Note that although God doesn’t fix everything for us, he always welcomes what we bring to him and seeks to transform it to do more – when they said they had 5 loaves and 2 fish, Jesus said, “Bring them here to me” (Matt. 14:18). This story is so central to story of Jesus that it is the only miracle (other than the Resurrection) that is told in all 4 gospels. Christians of all stripes see this story as far more than just a story about a good thing happening to 5,000+ people. It illustrates much bigger points about God and our relationship with God. If this story is a living parable illustrating a bigger point for the early church and for us, what might that point be? From this story, people often draw lessons about the power of God, God’s provision for us, God’s love for us, how much can be done when we take what little have and hand it over to God to what he wants with it, etc. There are some bigger points here as well: First, this story is an anticipation of the Eucharist (Communion), through which God feeds us spiritually today. The language in Matthew 14:19, where Jesus “looked up to heaven” (perhaps in prayer), “blessed and broke the loaves,” and “gave them to the disciples,” is very similar to the actions he took at the Last Supper when he instituted the Eucharist/Holy Communion (Matthew 26:26). What connections would you make between this miracle and the Eucharist/Holy Communion? Second, it can be interpreted as a foreshadowing of the eternal banquet which we will enjoy with God forever in heaven (see Matt. 8:11; Rev. 19:9). What connections would you make between this miracle and the heavenly banquet God is preparing for us? Take a step back and consider this: The Bible shows that God loves situations where lots of people are fed: We see this in the scenes where Jesus feeds thousands of people (Matt. 15:29-39 as well as Matt. 14:13-21). We see it in Jesus’s imagery of heaven as a place where feasting is the norm (Matt. 8:11; Matt. 26:29; Luke 22:29-30; Matt. 22:1-14). We see it in John’s vision of heaven (Rev. 19:9). We see it in the Old Testament, in God’s provision for the Israelites in the dessert (Ex. 16), in the celebration of the Passover feast (Ex. 12:1-28; Num. 9:1-14; Deut. 16:1-8), and in prophecies of the future (Isaiah 25:6). Clearly, God loves feasts and wants us to associate good eating with him. How can you make every meal a reminder of God’s love and a celebration of God’s provision for us? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew Index Next

We explore how to apply the Bible to everyday life, with free Bible studies for individuals and small groups and a positive approach to issues of faith and justice. See our full set of Bible Studies for the Gospel of Matthew Read our Latest Blog Post Take a look at our Jubilee Year 2025 Study Guide Based on the Word of God The Faith Explored website is for everyone who has an open heart: Catholics, Protestants, evangelicals, and Orthodox; people who are active in their church, have stepped away, or have never found a church home; people who are familiar with the Bible and people who are just starting out; seekers, doubters, agnostics, explorers, and the curious. Everyone is welcome here at Faith Explored. We explore what the Bible says and means, how it applies to our everyday lives, how God is calling us to care for each other and extend his love and justice to everyone, and how we can respond more fully to God's invitation to become like him in every part of our lives. Come join us as we explore! Faith Explored Exploring how to apply the Bible to our lives today Applied to Real Life Bible Study Materials Resources for Justice Resources for Growth Our Latest Posts We are continually developing new materials that apply God’s Word to our lives and our world. Here is a sample of our recent articles: A Lesson from an Open Casket Funeral As I looked at my friend’s body, the message was clear: Your days are numbered; use the time you have well. It’s a lesson that applies both to our personal lives and to our professional lives. Tom Faletti 18 hours ago The “Three Kings” Show That the Good News is For Everyone The “wise men” of the Christmas story are foreigners who travel from another country to see Jesus and are welcomed by the Holy Family. But these wise men are part of a much bigger story that Matthew is telling in his Gospel. What is Matthew's bigger point, and how do the wise men fit into it? Tom Faletti Jan 4 Lessons from a Christmas Cactus My Christmas cactus didn’t bloom for years. When it did, I learned some lessons about having patience and not judging others. Tom Faletti Dec 29, 2025 Read More Articles Subscribe to Be Notifed of New Posts Bible Study Materials Our Bible Studies provide study materials that equip small groups and individuals to study the Bible confidently and apply it to their lives in practical ways, with thought-provoking questions, background commentary where needed, and challenging reflections. Explore Our Bible Study Materials Justice The Justice section of the website explores God’s repeated call for justice throughout the Old and New Testaments and how we can respond to that call by working for justice in our time. God is not willing to settle for only saving our individual lives; He also wants to transform our societies, businesses, governments, and cultures. This section explores how we can participate in that work. Respond to God's Call for Justice Christian Faith The life of a follower of Christ is an adventure. The Christian Faith section of our website addresses a variety of questions and challenges that arise as we try to live the Christian life. Each article focuses on one aspect of the faith or one component of Christian living, such as joy or forgiveness. The goal is to help us understand how we can put our faith into action in every area of our lives. Grow in the Christian Faith and Life God's Purposes God’s Purposes explores what God is trying to do in our world, why He doesn’t make life easy for us, and how each of us is called to join in God’s work to transform the world in our own unique ways. Consider God’s Purposes for Your Life Images at top of Bible, individual with Bible, and small group provided by Wix. All other images by Tom Faletti.

Are you acting like you are ready for the Lord? What would it look like in your life to be the faithful servant, the well-prepared attendant? [Matthew 22:45-51; 24:1-13] Previous Matthew Index Next Matthew 24:45-25:13 Are you acting like you are ready for the Lord? What would it look like in your life to be the faithful servant, the well-prepared attendant? Peter von Cornelius (1783–1867). The Parable of Wise and Foolish Virgins (unfinished) . 1813-1816. Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_von_Cornelius_-_The_Parable_of_Wise_and_Foolish_Virgins_(unfinished)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg . Tom Faletti September 7, 2025 Matthew 24:45-51 two servants – one ready and one not ready for the master’s return This is the first of 2 parables about Jesus’s return and the need to be ready. Some translations use the word “servant” and some translations use the word “slave.” In New Testament times, perhaps 20% or more of all the people in the Roman Empire were slaves ( Welch and Hall ; The British Museum ). Slaves performed professional as well as menial jobs, often side by side with freed people. They moved freely around their cities and beyond, were allowed to earn money, and could buy their freedom if their master was willing. Although masters were allowed to abuse their slaves, and some or many did, Roman slavery was not the same as the chattel slavery of the American South. To help us understand the relatively independent, decision-making roles they played in their society, I will use the translation “servant” in this study. That will also help us understand that Jesus wants us to be able to see ourselves in these servants. What happens in this parable? Who do the two servants stand for? Jesus is talking to the disciples now, not the Pharisees or chief priests. Matthew is probably expecting his audience to apply the parable to themselves, in which case it applies equally to us and to all Christians in every age. One member of my Bible Study, when asked who the faithful and unfaithful servants stand for, thoughtfully replied, “It [i.e.,both] could be us at different times.” What is the job of the two servants? What would it look like when these servants were doing their jobs properly? Jesus wants us to see ourselves in these images, so translate this to your life. What would it look like in your life if you are the faithful servant living your life until the master comes? What would you, the faithful servant, be doing in your life? What are the things we might become distracted by, that would leave us caught by surprise when the master comes? Note that this servant is not just distracted, he is wicked: he abuses the other servants. In verse 51, what happens to that wicked servant? Jesus is talking to his followers in this parable, and Matthew is telling the story as a caution to his fellow Christians. Jesus says the wicked servant will be assigned a place with the hypocrites. Why is that a devastating outcome for a Christian? Who has Jesus accused of being a hypocrite, and why would Jesus use that term for “followers” of his who do not live the life of a faithful servant? It was the job of these servants to take care of the household and make sure the other slaves/servants were fed at the proper times. Each of us has a different “job” as we serve God, based on the unique circumstances of our lives. What are the “jobs” God wants to see you doing faithfully right now? Matthew 25:1-13 being ready – a parable of 10 virgins In the second parable, 10 virgins (i.e., unmarried women) are supposed to be ready so that when the bridegroom arrives (probably with the bride he has gone to get from another city) they can welcome him and accompany him to their new home for a week-long celebration ( Ignatius Catholic Study Bible , fn. to 25:1-13, p. 53). In Jesus’s time, travel was unpredictable and the timing of events was often more uncertain than in our day. It might not be clear when the bridegroom would have completed all the necessary steps to bring the bride home. When he was approaching, it was expected that the word would go out ahead of him so that they could be greeted, day or night. In this case, the bridegroom represents Jesus, so the focus in on him. The Greek word can mean “virgin” or “unmarried woman” (what in the past was called a “maiden”). Some translations use the term “bridesmaid.” Most translations use the term “virgin,” so this study uses that word. What happens in the parable? Who do the wise and foolish virgins represent? What is Jesus’s point in this parable? Notice that Jesus calls the virgins who weren’t sufficiently prepared “foolish,” whereas he called the unfaithful servant “wicked.” Are there ways that we might not be “wicked” but could still be foolish (unwise) and therefore not be what Jesus is expecting us to be? How might we be guilty of being, or in danger of being, unwise in our spiritual lives, even though we are not trying to be wicked? What does this tell us about faithfulness in living the Christian life? What happens to those who are not ready when the time comes? Matthew wants us to hear this parable as applying to all of us. What does it say to us? There are aspects of our lives where we can’t wait until the last minute to be ready for Jesus’s coming. What might be some of those things we need to be doing in advance? What might be some things we can’t “borrow” – that we need to already have when Jesus comes? In verse 12, when the foolish women finally show up late to the wedding banquet, the bridegroom says, “I do not know you.” In the context of the story , this makes sense: the groom, perhaps coming from far away, might not know the friends of the woman he is marrying. But what does this say to us about our lives? We would not want Jesus, when we come before him at the end of our lives, to say, “I do not know you.” What do we need to do about that? What does it mean to be known by Jesus? What would you do differently if you lived your life, like the five wise virgins, with a real readiness for the day you will meet God face to face? As with earlier statements by Jesus, this parable can be applied to being ready for the Second Coming of Christ, but it applies equally well to our deaths, for we shall see him then. What does this parable say to you about being ready for your inevitable death? Jesus’s ends by saying, “Stay awake, for you do not know the day or the hour.” What does it look like to, in a spiritual sense, “Stay awake”? Take a step back and consider this: We are always making choices. Sometimes our choices make us more ready for Jesus, and some do not. Some choices help us as we seek to know and be known by Jesus, and some do not. Sometimes we act like we can put off spending time with God or wait until later to do what God wants us to do, and yet still be ready for Jesus when he comes. That approach might make us unready for the Lord when we die. But it also has an impact long before we die. There might be things that God wants to do through us, but if we are not “ready,” he might not be able to open the path for us to serve him or others in that way. Our choices affect not only the endgame of our lives, but also the plays we make every day. To what extent is your life focused on being ready for each next thing that Jesus is showing up for in your life? How can you be more ready for every little thing that he might want to do in you or through you? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew Index Next

Jesus wanted the Temple to be a house of prayer and a place of healing. Can our churches and our lives be that, too? [Matthew 21:12-13; 21:14-17] Previous Matthew Index Next Matthew 21:12-17 Jesus wanted the Temple to be a house of prayer and a place of healing. Can our churches and our lives be that, too? August Jernberg (1826–1896). Kristus utdriver växlarna ur templet [Christ Driving the Moneychangers out of the Temple]. 1857. Cropped. Göteborgs konstmuseum (Gothenburg Museum of Art), Gothenburg, Sweden. Public domain. Photo by Hossein Sehatlou, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_Driving_the_Moneychangers_out_of_the_Temple_(August_Jernberg)_-_Gothenburg_Museum_of_Art_-_GKM_0008.tif . Tom Faletti August 4, 2025 Introduction to Matthew 21:12-17, Jesus’s first day in Jerusalem What do you think is the first thing Jesus does after he arrives in Jerusalem and gets off the donkey? Make a courtesy call to the political leaders? Visit the religious leaders and ask for their blessing? Get a permit for a rally where he can preach to the people in the city? Set up a healing tent? As we will see, the first thing he wants to do is heal people, but he needs a quiet place to do it. So the first thing he does is one of the most disruptive and confrontational things he could have done: clear the Temple of the people providing currency exchange services and selling sheep and doves for sacrifice. Matthew 21:12-13 The cleansing of the Temple: Jesus clears the Temple area of commercial business We saw in our study of the previous passage that, in the time of the Maccabees, palm branches were waved as part of the ritual in which the Temple was restored and purified after its defilement by the Greeks. Here, Jesus is addressing what he sees as a new defilement of the Temple. Some scholars see in this passage a reference to Mal. 3:1-3, where the prophet says that the Lord will come suddenly to his temple and “he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD” (Mal. 3:3, NRSV). What does Jesus do in the Temple? Who is the target of his disruption? Why does he do this? Jesus quotes from two places in the Old Testament. Let’s take them in reverse order. A den of robbers When Jesus refers to a “den of robbers,” he is drawing from Jeremiah 7:4-11. In that passage, God tells the people not to boast about the Temple because they are oppressing others and acting unjustly and have turned the Temple into a den of robbers (v. 11) In what ways might the Temple have become a “den of robbers”? The selling and buying took place in the outermost court of the Temple complex – not in the Temple building itself but in the Court of Gentiles. This was the first of several courts Jews had to walk through to reach the Temple itself, which could only be entered by the priests. The Temple tax, which every male Israelite was required to pay yearly, was a half-shekel, which was equivalent to about two days’ wages. However, the Temple authorities would not accept Roman or Greek coins because the emperor’s image was stamped on the coins. They would accept only Tyrian coins (because of their higher silver content) and Jewish coins. The currency exchange fee was about 10% (one gera or ma’a, which was around one-twentieth of a shekel, according to my research). In addition to paying that fee, if you brought a larger coin and needed to have change given back to you, the charge was doubled. So the fee was 10%-20% of two-days’ wages, which was a significant charge for poor people, who didn’t always find enough work to earn a days’ wages every day and who were sacrificing several days of wages to come to the Temple. There was a thriving trade in cattle, sheep, and doves (see John 2:14) for the sacrifices people needed to make at the Temple. For pilgrims, it was hard to bring an animal from far away, so people in Jerusalem sold sheep to them. This could have been seen as a helpful service, unless the prices were set high to take advantage of the pilgrims. Furthermore, you could only sacrifice an animal that was without blemish, and the power to decide if an animal was without blemish was in the hands of the Temple priests. It was easy for the Temple authorities to reject a supposedly “imperfect” animal, so the potential for abuse was high. Doves With regard to doves: Poor people who could not afford a sheep were allowed under the Law to bring turtledoves and pigeons (Lev. 5:7). Also, whereas Israelite men were commanded to offer a lamb, women were directed to offer a dove. Barclay says that price for a dove inside the Temple precincts could be as much as 20 times as high as the price outside the Temple (Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2 , p. 270). Matthew and Mark both specifically mention that Jesus overturned the seats of the people selling doves. In John, he specifically chastises the people selling doves, telling them to stop making his Father’s house a marketplace (John 2:16). Why might Jesus be especially concerned about the selling practices regarding doves? Since doves were the offerings made by poor people, Jesus might have been particularly concerned about how the sellers were taking advantage of poor people. Poor people are easier targets for financial abuse since they have little power to respond, so perhaps the markup was especially large for doves, or perhaps he was concerned more generally about the impact of these practices on the poor. There is one other significant point of background: The high priest Annas had major control over this business and therefore probably took it personally when Jesus drove out the sellers. Are there ways that we can be at risk of turning God’s holy places into places of commercial exploitation? There is a lot of money-making associated with the Christian faith (consider Christian music, Christian books, Bible sales, Christian movies, Christian art, statues, candles, devotional materials, Sunday school materials, etc.). How can we evaluate when it is appropriate, or not, to make money from religious activities? A house of prayer In verse 13, Jesus says that his house should be a “house of prayer.” This phrase comes from Isaiah 56:6-7, where God says that foreigners will come to the Temple and worship there, and it will be a house of prayer for all people. Even if there was no exploitation going on, how might the money-changing and selling and buying have made it hard for this to be a house of prayer? How might this have been particularly problematic for the Gentiles, and why would Jesus care? Jews could go beyond the Court of the Gentiles, to the courts where things were quieter. But Gentiles could not go further and were stuck in the court where the marketing was going on. Do you think that all of the people involved in changing money and buying and selling were evil? Or is it possible that many were devoutly trying to honor God in their lives? Is it possible for Christians today to be faithful believers but not realize that they are caught up in accepted practices that undermine God’s work? What might be some examples? How might we take this message into the business world? What should the Temple have looked like and sounded like and felt like, as a house of prayer? If our churches are to be effective houses of prayer, what do we need to help them look like and sound like and feel like? Matthew 21:14-17 Jesus heals people and responds to the criticisms of the leaders After Jesus has cleared the Temple courts of the sellers, it is presumably a quieter, more prayerful place. What is the first thing Jesus does (verse 14)? Notice that he does this in the Temple – i.e., in the courtyards of the Temple – a place that is crowded with thousands upon thousands of pilgrims. What does this tell you about Jesus? Given that the Jewish leaders have not been friendly to Jesus, what does it tell you about Jesus that he is doing this right in the Temple courtyards? Why do you think the chief priests and scribes are unhappy that children are crying out, “Hosanna to the Son of David”? How does Jesus respond (verse 16)? Jesus quotes from Psalm 8:2. This is the psalm that begins, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.” The verse Jesus quotes is the very next verse, which says, roughly: out of the mouths of babes and infants, you have [done something – scholars aren’t sure what the words mean here] to silence your enemies. Jesus chooses not to quote the words calling them “enemies” – he is an eternal optimist, hoping people will respond to his teaching. What is Jesus implying, by using this quote? What kind of link is he implying between himself and God? Notice that Jesus defends himself by quoting God’s Word to the religious leaders. How important is it to know the Bible? It is telling that the chief priests had no problem with the hubbub of the animals and the buying and selling and money changing in the Temple precincts, but now they are indignant about the noise of the children’s praise of Jesus. They see (verse 15) the miracles of healing that Jesus is performing. Yet they are indignant about the children, rather than moved by the healings. The chief priests may be unhappy that Jesus is healing people in the Temple precincts. Leviticus 21:16-23 said that people with a “blemish” – i.e., a physical deformity or deficiency – were not supposed to approach the altar. But Jesus is welcoming them right there in the Temple precincts, not far from the altar. The chief priests and scribes are more focused on their ideas about what the Temple should look like than on the good that Jesus is doing. Are we sometimes like that too, focused on our rules and preconceptions and missing the good that God is doing? Do any examples come to mind? If so, how might you do things differently? Jesus spends the night in Bethany, presumably with his friends Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. Martha and Mary are mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, and all three of them are mentioned in the Gospel of John. Take a step back and consider this: Jesus had had a special fondness for the Temple at least since he was 12 years old, when he first called it “my Father’s house” (Luke 2:49). He clearly believed that this was a special place – a place where heaven and earth meet and people have a special opportunity to commune with God. He is now making it not only a place where prayer can happen, but also a place where healings happen. Are there places that you think of as specially graced for prayer, healing, and communion with God? If so, how do you nurture the prayerfulness of those spaces? We are not bound to a Temple as the unique place where God resides, but rather have come to understand that every Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who resides in us. What are some things we might consider doing to make our hearts, our souls, our very selves more fitting places of prayer, and healing, and communion with God? What can you do to nurture a spirit of prayer and healing in your own life? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew Index Next