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Jesus cares about our afflictions. Previous Matthew List 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 List Next

Can you embrace a king who comes in peace? Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 21:1-11 Can you embrace a king who comes in peace? Aelbert Cuyp (1620–1691) (school of). Christ Riding into Jerusalem. Circa 1640–1700. Glasgow Museums Resource Centre (GMRC), Glasgow Life Museums, Glasgow, Scotland. Image provided by Art UK, CC BY-NC-ND, https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/christ-riding-into-jerusalem-83691 . Tom Faletti August 3, 2025 Matthew 21:1-11 The crowds rejoice as Jesus enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey Jerusalem was the capital of Judea. Bethphage (pronounced Beth'-fuh-dzhee) was a village on the Mount of Olives, just outside the city of Jerusalem, around one mile from the Temple. The “village opposite you” was probably the nearby village of Bethany, where Jesus will go that evening (see Matt. 21:17) – Mark names Bethphage and Bethany in Mark 11:1. Jesus is arriving just as Passover is beginning. Barclay says that 30 years later, a Roman governor said that around a quarter of a million lambs were sacrificed in Jerusalem at the Passover, and the Jews had a regulation that there should be at least 10 people for every lamb. That would suggest that there could have been 2.5 million people crammed into Jerusalem – a huge crowd far beyond its usual population (Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2 , p. 262). Jesus has chosen to come to Jerusalem at the moment when his arrival may have maximum impact. How does Jesus get a donkey? There is no way to know whether Jesus arranged this in advance or used supernatural power to make it possible; but either way, what does it tell you about how much Jesus has been thinking about how to approach the final week of his life? Jews who were expecting a messiah to come soon had interpreted Zechariah 14:4 in a way that suggested that the messiah would approach Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives on the “day of the Lord.” That is what Jesus does. How does Jesus enter into Jerusalem (verse 7)? Riding on a donkey Matthew 21:5 quotes from Zechariah 9:9-10. Read Zechariah 9:9-10 The daughter Zion or daughter of Zion mentioned here and also in Isaiah 62:11 is Jerusalem and its inhabitants. There is only one donkey in Zechariah, it is referred to twice in the typical Hebrew way for poetic effect. Why would Matthew say that there was a donkey and her colt, and that Jesus sat on “them”? Scholars have a variety of ideas: Perhaps he was interpreting the Zechariah passage overly literally; perhaps the “them” refers to the cloaks he sat on; or perhaps he rode on one and then the other. Why would the disciples have brought two donkeys to Jesus? Perhaps a young donkey – one that hasn’t been ridden on yet – would not be eager to be led away from its mother but follow her if she was led to Jesus. These details don’t really matter. What matters is this: What is the significance of riding into a capital city on a donkey? A conquering king would ride in on a horse. Jesus comes in peace, not as a conquering king. How does the rest of these two verses from Zechariah suggest to us about Jesus? He has not come as a worldly, conquering king. What is the nature of his coming? Now return to Matthew 21:1-11 What do the people do? Spreading cloaks Spreading cloaks on the road was a way to acknowledge the reign of a new king. This had been done for Jehu in 2 Kings 9:13 when he became king of Israel. Matthew says just refers generically to branches from the trees, but John specifically identifies them as palm branches. In around 142 BC, when the Maccabees overthrew the Seleucid (Greek) empire and gained independence, 1 Maccabees 13:51 tells us that in celebration of that great victory, the people waved palm branches as the miliary leader Simon and his troops entered the citadel at Jerusalem. This was the end of the fight for liberation from the Greeks that put an end to the defilement of the Temple, which Antiochus Epiphanous had ordered. 2 Maccabees 10:1-8 describes the steps that were taken to purify the Temple, which included the waving of palm branches. So when the people spread palm branches before Jesus, they are invoking a history of liberation. What do the people say? Hosanna In Matthew 21:9, the people cry out, “Hosanna,” which is literally a cry in Hebrew to “save, I pray/beseech.” We see this word in Psalm 118:25, where the psalmist calls on God to “save us,” followed in the next verse (118:26) by the statement, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” They appear to be clearly invoking Psalm 118:25-26. What is the significance of the people identifying Jesus as one who can save them? The Son of David What is the significance of the people calling Jesus the “son of David”? An interesting footnote is that when David declared that the king who would follow him would be his son Solomon – the first person who was the “son of David” – Solomon rode into Jerusalem on David’s mule (1 Kings 1: 32-40) – again, not the horse of a warrior. People might also have recalled this as they proclaimed Jesus to be the “Son of David.” What is the significance of the people proclaiming that Jesus comes in the name of the Lord? In what ways can we embrace the words of the crowd when they identify Jesus as the Son of David, proclaim him to be the one who comes in the name of the Lord, and ask him to save them? What do you think they people are thinking about Jesus? The Jews at that time had a strong expectation that their Roman oppressors would be thrown off by a descendant of David and that the kingdom of David would be re-established as an earthly kingdom. Calling Jesus the Son of David and spreading cloaks and palm branches were ways of signaling that they thought he was the one who would come and establish a new earthly kingdom. When God does something in our lives, how do we express our joy at what God has done? Can we learn something from the people of Jerusalem? Notice that Jesus does not correct their thinking about what kind of messiah he is. The time will come for people to understand better who Jesus is, but for now he responds to their faith, not their understanding of doctrinal facts. We see this in our day as well. Christians don’t agree about major points of doctrine, which means somebody is wrong. Jesus makes it clear in other parts of the Gospels that it is important to know the truth, but God still works in the lives of believing Christians who have conflicting views, some of which must be wrong. Why do you think God still works in the life of people who don’t have all their doctrinal facts sorted out perfectly, and what does that tell you about God’s relationship with us? Verses 10-11 have an interesting juxtaposition. The “whole city” is in turmoil and asking who is the person people are making such a fuss big deal about, and the “crowd” explains. The “whole city” would be the people who were already there and mostly knew little about Jesus, and the “crowd” would mainly be the people who had come with Jesus all the way from Galilee or had joined him on the way to Jerusalem as he traveled through Judea (see Matt. 19:2 and 20:29). The people in Jerusalem want to know why people are so excited about this person they don’t know about. Where do you see yourself in this story? Would you have been with Jesus from the beginning, accompanying him from all the way back in Galilee? Would you have been so moved by him when he came through your little town in Judea that you left town to follow him? Would you have already been a devout person intending to go to Jerusalem for the feast, and you decided to go with Jesus when you learned that he would be walking to Jerusalem for the Passover too? Would you have been part of that crowd waiving branches and spreading your cloak on the road? Would you have been among the people asking, “Who is this?” Would you have been one of the people answering the question, explaining who Jesus is? Would you have been watching skeptically? Would you have missed it entirely? Where do you see yourself in this story? What does this story of Jesus’s entrance into Jerusalem say to you today? Take a step back and consider this: We have seen a number of instances in Matthew’s Gospel where Matthew shows us a Jesus who cares especially about the people at the bottom of the social spectrum – what we have called God’s downside-up view of the world. Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem shows the contrast again, where Jesus’s approach is the opposite of what the world expects. They expect a king who will establish dominion under the mantle of power; they get a servant who will establish his kingship under a mantle of peace. John Fischer, a Christian friend of mine who was a popular musician in the Christian contemporary music scene in the 1970s and now runs an online ministry to try to extend the grace of God to people who feel left out of traditional churches, wrote an online post in which he says that the “strong, biblically-based evangelical church” he grew up in always seemed to skip over the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes (Matt. 5-7). That is where we first see clearly Jesus’s downside-up view: Blessed are the poor; turn the other cheek; love your enemy; etc. John wrote: [W]e should stick out like a sore thumb in our culture right now. The acceptable cultural milieu is currently one of separation, isolation, fear, bullying, show no mercy, take no prisoners, no sympathy, no empathy, foster hate, and a rejection of that which is different. It is the culture of the strong man more in keeping with John Wayne than Jesus. In fact, our culture right now is dominated by everything that is the exact opposite of the Beatitudes. So if you want to be different, now is the time to follow Jesus, and steer clear of any movement of Christianity that borrows from the strong man tactics that are prevalent today. That’s not Jesus; it’s John Wayne. (“ John Wayne and the Sermon on the Mount ”) Jesus challenges us to turn the world’s view upside-down – to see differently, to think differently, to act differently. He did not come with horse and chariot to force our submission to him. He came on a donkey of peace. We are called to follow his example. What does Jesus’s refusal to accept the trapping of power say to leaders in our day? How might Christians in our time be overly eager to embrace the exercise of military power? In what ways does Jesus’s refusal to exercise worldly power challenge us? What might we need to do differently to point the leaders of our time to the Jesus who enters Jerusalem on a donkey? How can we join the One on the donkey who comes in the name of the Lord, and follow his way? How can we also point the powerless of our time to the Jesus who rides on a donkey? 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 List Next

What do the final hours in the life of Jesus say to us about racism in America today? Previous Justice Articles Next Stations of the Cross on Overcoming Racism What do the final hours in the life of Jesus say to us about racism in America today? The first station in the Stations of the Cross in the Church of Saint Stephen in Salmbach, Bas-Rhin, France, cropped. Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salmbach-St_Stephan-Kreuzweg-01-Jesus_wird_zum_Tode_verurteilt-gje.jpg . Tom Faletti March 1, 2024 Do the final hours in the life of Jesus say anything to us about racism in America today? The connections are numerous and compelling. I invite you to pray the “ Stations of the Cross: Overcoming Racism ,” which I wrote to explore those connections: Stations of the Cross: Overcoming Racism (PDF) The link to the PDF can be found in the Prayer Resources section of this page: Combatting Racism - Parish Resources Background The Stations of the Cross, also known as the Way of the Cross, are an ancient prayer form that Christians developed to remember the events surrounding the Passion and death of Jesus Christ. This particular version of the Stations challenges us to explore the ongoing problem of racism through the lens of the suffering of Jesus. While the Stations are often prayed in churches during the season of Lent, these Stations can be prayed anywhere, anytime. You don’t need to be in a church to reflect on the links between Jesus’s suffering and the struggles of those who endure racism in our nation today. You can download a PDF document containing the Stations here: Stations of the Cross: Overcoming Racism . You can also find a link to it and other resources under the “Prayer Resources” heading here: Combatting Racism - Parish Resources . The US bishops wrote a lengthy letter addressing the issue of racism. A PDF of that pastoral letter can be found here: Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love Pastoral Letter Against Racism . Links to that letter and other statements can be found here: Combatting Racism - Statements and Letters . The unjust and racist treatment of our Black brothers and sisters as well as people of many other races and ethnicities continues to tarnish our nation. Their pain must become our pain, their cause must become our cause, until the discrimination ends and all people are truly treated equally. USCCB Links PDF of the Stations: Stations of the Cross: Overcoming Racism : https://www.usccb.org/resources/stations-of-the-cross-overcoming-racism.pdf A variety of resources on racism, including a link to the Stations: Combatting Racism - Parish Resources : https://www.usccb.org/committees/ad-hoc-committee-against-racism/combatting-racism-parish-resources (see the Prayer Resources section) U.S. Catholic Bishops' Pastoral Letter: Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love – Pastoral Letter Against Racism : https://usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/racism/upload/open-wide-our-hearts.pdf Other resources: Combatting Racism - Statements and Letters : https://www.usccb.org/committees/ad-hoc-committee-against-racism/combatting-racism-statements-and-letters Copyright © 2024, 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 Justice Articles Next

We are not alone. We can work with groups that speak out for justice. Previous Justice Articles Next Groups That Work for Justice We are not alone. We can work with groups that speak out for justice. Image provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti August 1, 2024 Proverbs 31:8-9 calls us to be a voice for the voiceless and to defend the rights of the poor and needy. You do not have to be a silver-tongued expert in order to be an advocate. You can join with organizations that know the issues, the facts, and how to present the concerns of the needy to people in power. Here is a list of organizations that provide advocacy for people whose voices are often not heard in the halls of power. These links may take you to their home page or advocacy page. In general, you can look for words like “Advocacy” or “Campaigns” or “Take Action” (or similar words) in an organization’s menubar, to find out how you might get involved in advocacy efforts on behalf of others. Find a group whose agenda makes sense to you, and join in their efforts to be a voice for the voiceless: Franciscan Action Network . Bread for the World . Catholic Charities USA . Catholic Relief Services . Catholic Climate Covenant . Catholics Mobilizing Network . Justice for Immigrants . NETWORK . U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops . When you act as a voice for those who are not heard, you are showing your solidarity with Jesus, who told us we serve Him when we help the hungry, the stranger, the sick, and others in need. Copyright © 2024, 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 Justice Articles Next

What will those who give up earthly goods for Jesus receive? Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 19:27-30 What will those who give up earthly goods for Jesus receive? Image by Emma Shappley, provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti February 13, 2024 Matthew 19:27-30 The rewards of giving up everything for God Peter observes that the disciples have left everything behind to follow him. What does Jesus say they will have “at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne” (19:28, NRSV)? What does Jesus say that other believers who have left things behind will have in his kingdom? In verse 29, “a hundredfold” is a metaphor rather than a literal accounting term. What is “a hundredfold” describing, metaphorically? A hundredfold might mean an abundance, a richness of life. If they have left behind houses, brothers and sisters, parents and children, property, what do you think it means to say they will have “a hundredfold” in God’s kingdom? Perhaps “brothers and sisters” is metaphorically referring to the fellow believers we will have as spiritual brothers and sisters. It might have a similar meaning for parents and children, but wouldn’t it be awesome to think that I might have some great-great-great-grandparents who might, in heaven, be like parents to me? The property might stand for the abundance and richness of life that we will experience in heaven. Jesus concludes in verse 30: “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first” (NRSV and NABRE). In what ways does this passage support the conclusion that “the last will be first”? Take a step back and consider this: This incident is part of a series of events in this part of Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus explains what I call Jesus's downside-up/upside-down view of life : the greatest must become like a child (18:1-5), God cares as much about the one stray as the 99 who are safe (18:10-14), the prayers of just two or three people can move heaven (18:19-20), forgiveness is not something we can choose to dole out in limited amounts — we are called to forgive to the utmost (18:21-35), men are to be committed to marriage and not find reasons to divorce their wives (19:1-9), the kingdom of heaven belongs to the children, who are the lowest people on the social ladder (19:13-15), wealth is a potential impediment to receiving God's salvation rather than being a sign of God’s favor (19:16-30), the rewards of the kingdom are available to those who come late to Jesus as well as those who (think they) have followed God’s law from the beginning (20:1-16), those who wish to be first must be the servant of all (20:20-28). Jesus’s perspective is often diametrically opposed to prevailing societal perspectives regarding what is important, or valued, or expected, or right. If you want to see as God sees, you generally need to train yourself to look at things from the bottom, not the top. This can be hard for us. We have to work to see as God sees. Sometimes we have to force ourselves to see differently than the world has trained us to see. What is one aspect of your life where you can challenge yourself to see what it looks like from the bottom up, from Jesus’s downside-up perspective? Why does God choose to take that vantage point? Can you do the same? What difference would it make? 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 List Next

Living the Christian life in the church. [1 Thessalonians 5:12-22; 5:23-28] Previous 1 Thess. List Next 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 Living the Christian life in the church. Image from Wix. Tom Faletti January 31, 2025 1 Thess. 5:12-22 Relationships and behavior within the church Paul now turns to his expectations for how the Thessalonians should live with each other in the church. In verses 12-13, he describes how the leaders of the local church should act and how the “congregation” (the members of the local church) should treat them. In verse 12, what 3 things does he say the leaders do? They “labor” among you, they have a leadership role over you, and they “admonish” you. Different Christian denominations have different terms for these leaders of the church: priests, ministers, pastors, deacons, elders, etc. In the following questions, the term “priests and ministers” will be used, but please translate that into whatever terms you use in your church. In what ways do our local priests and ministers “labor”? What is the “work” they do? In what ways should we defer to them as our leaders? Do your priests/ministers admonish you? If so, how? If they don’t, should they, and if so, how? How important is it to have people in your life who will “admonish” you? And how should they do it so that it is effective and not just off-putting? In verse 13, what 3 things does Paul ask the members of the church to do in support of the leaders? He asks them to show their leaders “esteem,” love them ( agape ), and be at peace. Why is it important to “esteem” our priests and ministers and to show them “love”? Are there ways you could show them more appreciation for the work they do? Are there ways you could show more appreciation or support for the other church employees, who do so much unsung work? Paul adds that the Thessalonians – the members of the congregation – should be at peace with one another. Why is peace important? Why is being at peace with the other members of your church such an important part of loving the leaders of your church? What do you do to help bring about or maintain peace in your church? In verses 14-15, Paul moves into a longer list of things the members of the church should do with each other. What does he tell them to do? Why is he concerned about people who are idle (he also mentioned them in 4:11)? What would it look like to admonish people who are idle? How might you encourage the fainthearted and help the weak? Why is patience so important? How does it help us deal with the idlers, the fainthearted, and the weak? Verse 15 could be a good rule for life in a variety of circumstances. What does Paul tell them to not do and to do in verse 15? Don’t return evil for evil. Always seek the good for each other and for all. The first half of verse 15 says: Don’t return evil for evil. Why is this an important rule? What might this stop us from doing, and what are the kinds of circumstances where we need to remember this? The second part of verse 15 goes further. The first part only tells us what not to do. The second part tells us what to do instead . Why is seeking the good of “each other” important? And how does it counteract our tendency to focus on ourselves? But Paul goes even further. He tells us to seek the good of “all,” meaning everyone else, too. In order to be the kind of person who always does what is good not only for myself , and not only for just me and you, but also for everyone else , how might we need to change how we think about the situations we are in? How does this approach to interpersonal relationships reflect the way God does things? How does this approach to interpersonal relationships challenge you? In verses 16-18, Paul focuses more on what is going on inside of us – in our inner selves. What does he say? How can we rejoice always? (What have we to rejoice about even when things are going wrong?) How can we pray without ceasing? For a simple way to approach the habit of praying constantly, you might explore the very short book The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, an uneducated 17th century monk who spent most of his time working as a cobbler and in the kitchen of the monastery. It can be bought very inexpensively, but it can also be found online at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library . How can we give thanks in all circumstances? What might we give thanks for when we are experiencing illness, mistreatment, or misfortune? How might this attitude of rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks at all times revolutionize your relationship with God? How might it revolutionize your relationships with the people in your world? In verses 19-22 where Paul talks about prophetic utterances, he is probably talking about the kinds of manifestations of the Spirit that appear to have been common in the early church and are sometimes seen in charismatic communities in our time. What is the balance he is seeking? Paul seeks to allow people to speak freely in response to the movement of the Holy Spirit, but with testing and discernment by others. How might this be a good approach to inspiration in general? 1 Thess. 5:23-28 Paul’s closing prayer and greeting Paul ends with prayer (verses 23-25) and greetings (verses 26-28). In his prayer, what does Paul ask of God? Looking at verse 23, what would it take for you to embrace the goal of being “perfectly” (NABRE) or “entirely” holy? Paul’s hope is that the lives of all God’s people would be entirely without blame or fault, “spirit, soul, and body” – i..e, in all aspects of their being. God is working to perfect us. How do our spirit, soul, and body all play a role in the perfecting process that God wants to work in us? What does Paul add in verse 24, and how is it an encouragement? Do you live as though God is faithful and will accomplish your perfection in Christ? How might that insight transform your life? In verse 25, Paul also asks them to pray for him. Why is that important? What does it tell us about Paul? In verse 26, Paul tells them to greet “all the brothers” with “a holy kiss.” A kiss was a common form of greeting in his time. It was used in Christian communities and very early in the life of the Church it became part of the ritual or liturgy. (The Roman Catholic Church reclaimed it as a formal part of the liturgy after Vatican II.) In light of verse 27, however, there may be more to verse 26 than meets the eye. Paul orders, in unusually strong terms (roughly equivalent to “I charge you under oath”), that the letter be read to “all.” He says this right after he tells them to extend the holy kiss to “all.” We do not know why he felt the need to issue such a stern order to have the letter read to everyone in the Christian community. Scholars speculate that there might have been factions developing and Paul wanted to make sure his words reached everyone. But we don’t need to assume that there were factions in order to make sense of verse 27. Paul wanted to make sure that his letter reached everyone – even the idlers (5:14), even the ones who were not peaceful (5:13) or patient (5:14), even the ones who were not walking as children of the light (5:4-8), even the ones who were not living in sexual holiness (4:3-8). Greet all of them, he says, with a holy kiss, and make sure this letter is read to all of them. Paul wants his letter to reach even those who are not living the holiest of lives. Why is it important that we keep reaching out to all of the people in the church, not just the ones who are consistently living holy lives? How might your church be more welcoming of people who are not (and maybe not anywhere near) perfect? How might you be more welcoming of people who are not living a fully Christian life as you perceive it? Paul ends (5:28) where he began (1:1), with grace: May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. How can you grow in being the kind of person who extends God’s grace to everyone? Take a step back and consider this: We need a Christian community. First, we humans are social creatures and need other people. Second, it is difficult to become like Christ without spending time in a community that is dedicated to living like Christ. Third, we cannot abound in love (3:12), encourage each other and build each other up (5:11), support those who are weak or fainthearted (5:14), or do the many other things Christians are called to do, if we are not living in a Christian community. We need to be around people in order to minister to them. Christian communities also offer opportunities to become more like Christ in another way. Spending time with other people opens us to interactions that may have some friction, which become additional opportunities to grow in holiness (5:23) as we try to serve our Lord together. They also give us a place to ask questions and answer questions (3:10; 4:13). We can explore together who God is, what he is trying to accomplish in our world, and how we can participate in God’s work in the world. It is fair to say that we need to be in a Christian community to be all we are intended by God to be. The fact that Paul ends his letter by urging that the holy kiss be extended to everyone and that his letter be read to all tells us how important he thought it was that everyone be supported and included in the community of believers. What is your church or Christian community? How is your Christian community important to you? How does your church enable you to be all you are meant to be? How could your church do more to enable others to grow in Christ, and what part might you play in that effort? How does your church challenge you to grow in Christ, and what might God want you to do in response? What is one practical piece of advice or insight or attitude that Paul offers in this letter, that you can take to heart and pursue within the context of your Christian community? Bibliography See 1 Thessalonians - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/1-thessalonians/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 1 Thess. List Next

Herod seeks to kill Jesus, which is why Jesus ends up as a refugee in Egypt, and then in Nazareth. Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 2:13-23 Herod seeks to kill Jesus, which is why Jesus ends up as a refugee in Egypt, and then in Nazareth. Image by NEOM, provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti February 13, 2024 Matthew 2:13-23 Jesus becomes a refugee, avoids a massacre, and ends up in Nazareth Matthew tells this part of the story to help us understand how Jesus could be the Messiah even though he grew up in Nazareth, not in Bethlehem. Why does Joseph take Jesus and Mary to Egypt? When the angel tells Joseph to “flee,” the Greek word for flee is pheuge , which is related to our English words “refuge” and “refugee.” It was common for Jews to hide out in Egypt if they were in trouble or in danger in Judea; there were Jewish communities in a number of Egyptian cities, so they would not have felt totally alone. Still, it was a long way from home. Jesus began his life as a refugee. Fortunately, Joseph and Mary did not have to convince a skeptical government that the family was worthy of asylum status. God was willing to become not only a human, not only a poor person, but a refugee. How does that help us understand the inherent dignity of refugees and the importance of being welcoming to them? The “fulfillment prophecy” that Matthew cites in verse 15 is not actually about Jesus or the Messiah. It was a statement from Hosea 11:1 about the fact that God called his “son,” the people of Israel, out of Egypt, long ago. Matthew repurposes it, perhaps to try to convince Jews that there is a huge amount of evidence in the Hebrew Scriptures pointing to Jesus. Matthew might also be thinking that Jesus’s experience of being brought out of oppression is a foreshadowing of our own experience of being brought out of oppression by Jesus. Matthew’s frequent use of these “fulfillment prophecies” leads some scholars to conclude that Matthew is picking out Old Testament prophecies and then creating stories to fit them. There is no evidence that he is doing that. Rather, it appears that he is organizing the stories he knows about Jesus and then searching the Old Testament to see if it has “prophecies” that might fit with those events. The stories come first; not the prophecies. When the wise men do not return to him, what does Herod do? Bethlehem was not a large town, so scholars think this would have been a slaughter of perhaps 20 or 30 children. While not large in number, all the children killed by Herod would have been deeply mourned by their mothers and fathers. Some scholars think the killing of the innocents is inspired by Pharaoh’s killing of the first-born sons of the Israelites before the exodus from Egypt, but again if Matthew created the story for that purpose he could easily have made the connection explicit and he did not. The “fulfillment prophecy” in verse 18 is from Jeremiah 31:15, where the original verse is about the Israelites being forced into exile by the Babylonians. It is followed by prophecies that the people will return from exile. Ramah was 5 miles north of Jerusalem, so it was 10 miles from Bethlehem. Rachel’s tomb was thought to be in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Matthew puts that all together and sees Jesus. Where do you think God was, as this was happening? God allows humans to do a lot of evil things, without intervening. Why do you think that is? God is guiding us to be people who as fully as possible reflect God’s image. If he intervened every time something bad happened, we would not be able to learn the lessons of our actions and would not grow to spiritual maturity. Also, we might stop trying to be our best selves, figuring that God will make things better if we mess up. Allowing us to do evil is the price that must be paid for giving us the chance to grow and mature and be great: to take on the mind of Jesus, to be the Body of Christ to the world, to live in the power of the Spirit. Jesus escapes from a tyrant by going to Egypt and then returning when the tyrant is gone. How does this connect with Moses’s escape, as an infant, from a pharaoh who was a tyrant in Egypt, and the Israelites’ later escape from a tyrant pharaoh in Egypt? The words “go . . . for those seeking the child’s life are dead” (2:20, NRSV) echo the Lord’s direction to Moses to go back to Egypt because the Pharaoh who wanted to kill him is dead (Exodus 4:19), setting up a possible linkage between Jesus and Moses: Jesus is the new Moses, leading his people out of oppression and giving them a new Law. When Herod dies, why doesn’t Joseph go back to Bethlehem? Joseph is afraid of Herod’s son Archelaus, who is given the southern territory including Jerusalem and Bethlehem by his father. Joseph had good reason to be afraid of Archelaus. Archelaus was so oppressive and hated so much by the Jews that he was eventually deposed from his position by Rome. Recall that Herod’s roots were in Idumea. Archelaus had roots in Idumea and Samaria, so he was even more suspect of not being a real Jew, and he treated the Jews so horribly that this suspicion was confirmed in the people’s minds. For example, Josephus tells us that in one of Archelaus's first official acts, 3,000 Pharisees were killed in response to an uprising protesting his father’s last act of oppression in Jerusalem. Joseph goes north to Galilee, to the town of Nazareth, a place far away from Jerusalem and not under Archelaus’s jurisdiction. Matthew’s final “fulfillment prophecy” in this chapter (verse 23) cannot be found in the Old Testament. Scholars have searched and never found anything that matches. So we don’t know what Matthew had in mind here. The closest thing is a prophecy before Samson is born that Samson will be a “nazirite” (Judges 13:5), but that is not the name of a place. Perhaps Matthew was inviting a connection to the nazirites, which were Israelites, including Samson and Samuel, who consecrated themselves to God, never drank alcohol, and never cut their hair, among other strict practices (Numbers 6). But the connection is flawed, since Jesus didn’t live an ascetic life and refrained from the demonstrations of human strength that Samson excelled at. Other scholars point to a possible word-play as Isaiah 11:1 talks of a “branch” arising from the stump of Jesse, and the Hebrew word for “branch” is netser , which sounds similar to the beginning of the name Nazareth. Since Jesus fulfilled in his own person some prophecies that were addressed to “Israel,” some scholars think this word-play hinting at the branch that arises from Israel is in Matthew’s mind. All of these are nice ideas, but we don’t know what Matthew had in mind; so this suggested quote remains a puzzle. Even if we don’t expect God to communicate to us nowadays through dreams, how is Joseph a role model for seeking guidance from God? When you figure out what God is asking you to do, do it! ; make yourself open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit; trust that God has a way forward for your life; take care of those around you; be aware of what is going on around you in the world, but don’t be paralyzed by it. Joseph settles his family in Nazareth. What do you know about Nazareth as a place to live and work? Joseph might have seen that he could find good work in the area of Nazareth, especially in Sepphoris, 5 miles away. This is explained in Raymond Brown’s one-volume biblical commentary: “Joseph, involved in the building trade, probably settled in in Nazareth, because he could find abundant work in neighboring Sepphoris, which Herod Antipas was rebuilding as his capital at that time” (Benedict T. Viviano, O.P., “The Gospel According to Matthew,” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary , par. 15, p. 636). Historians say that Sepphoris, though a Jewish city, did not join the Jewish rebellion against Roman rule in 66 A.D., suggesting that it took a more cosmopolitan rather than strictly Jewish approach to life under Roman occupation. How might this choice of a hometown have affected Jesus as he grew up? Although Nazareth was a small town, it was not a backwater. Besides being just 5 miles from Herod Antipas’s capital at Sepphoris, it was nestled in the fabric of trade routes to faraway places. It was only 15 miles away from the major international north-south Roman highway that ran through Israel along the Mediterranean coast from Syria to Egypt. Nazareth was also the crossroads of two smaller highways that served as trade routes, one starting at Ptolemais on the coast (modern-day Acre, Israel) and running southeast to Samaria, and the other running northeast through Nazareth to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, a city founded by Herod Antipas (see “Palestine in the time of Jesus, 4 B.C. - 30 A.D.: (including the period of Herod, 40 - 4 B.C.),” Library of Congress , https://www.loc.gov/item/2009579463/ ). As a result, Jesus, as a growing child and as a young man, would have been exposed to other cultures and a bigger world even while living in his Jewish village. This is all we get from Matthew for the “Christmas story” – very little compared to what we have from Luke. What important points about the background, birth, and infancy of Jesus are provided to us by Matthew? Jesus is Son of David, son of Abraham, Son of God due to his virgin birth, Emmanuel (“God with us”), perhaps a new Moses, born in Bethlehem, and raised in Nazareth. His birth story shows how the hand of God protects a little one so that he can grow up and save us, and the first people to recognize that this little one is great is a small group of Gentiles, a bit of foreshadowing that continues to play out as Matthew shows that the gospel is for Gentiles as well as Jews. How do you see the hand of God working subtly but decisively to bring good out of evil in these stories? How do you see the hand of God doing the same thing in your life? Do you think Matthew succeeds in making his point that Jesus fulfills the messianic prophecies even though he grew up in Nazareth, not Bethlehem? Explain. What can you take from this story of the wise men, Herod, Joseph, and Jesus to strengthen your faith or your approach to God? Take a step back and consider this: God could have chosen anywhere in the world for his Son to be born as a human. He could have selected a “chosen people” anywhere. He could have chosen any time in history for his coming. God chose this particular people, whose particular history placed them in this particular place in the world at this particular time. At this particular time, the Roman Empire made it easy to spread a message far and wide. Growing up in Nazareth would place Jesus among people who could both nurture him in the monotheistic culture of Judaism and also expose Him to the rest of the world, and living at a minor crossroads could help him tailor his message to speak to both Jews and Gentiles and prepare the way so that his followers could use their location in the midst of the Roman Empire to take the gospel ultimately “to the ends of the earth.” You also live at a particular time, in a particular place, among a particular people, at a crossroads of particular relationships and opportunities. God desires to work through you to share some piece of his good news with some particular people by your words and actions. How is God calling you to use the embedded realities, relationships, and crossroads of your life to bring his good news to others and make the world more like the kingdom of God that it was meant to be? What is God calling you to do next, where you are? 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 List Next

Pray with confidence that God will respond as your Father. Previous Matthew List 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 List Next

God wants Christians to work for justice. Previous Justice Articles Next Justice and the Bible God wants Christians to work for justice. Image provided by Wix. Tom Faletti February 28, 2024 In the Bible, God repeatedly calls us to work for justice. Here is a short overview of the many Scripture passages where God’s demand that we work for justice is clear : God makes every human person in his image (Genesis 1:27) and tells us to treat all people with respect (1 Peter 2:17). Jesus tells us that he is present in every person in need (Matthew 25:34-40). Repeatedly, throughout the Old Testament, God demands that his people establish justice in their society (Amos 5:15), end the oppression of immigrants and those who are poor (Zechariah 7:8-11), provide for the poor and alien (Leviticus 23:22), and treat the immigrant like a citizen (Leviticus 19:33-34). He tells us to free the oppressed and provide for the needy (Isaiah 58:6-7). He calls us to defend the weak, the poor, and the oppressed (Psalm 82:3-4). He tells businesses to treat their customers fairly (Leviticus 19:35-36; 23:35-36) and to pay just wages to their workers (Deuteronomy 24:14-15; James 5:4). He tells governmental leaders to seek justice, defend the oppressed, and take up the cause of those who are at the bottom of society (Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 22:3). He directs those in political authority to act with justice and deliver the needy from those who oppress them (Psalm 72). How can we follow the Lord’s commands to establish justice in our land if we do not work to transform the social and political structures of our society? With so many Scripture passages directing us to take action for justice, how can any preacher suggest that salvation is just between you and God and we don’t need to be involved in transforming our society, our government, our businesses, and our culture? Furthermore, if we live in a democracy, we are responsible for our government’s laws. We cannot claim that God does not care if we allow laws that violate the principles of justice He has established – we are responsible to choose, guide, and influence our lawmakers, who are responsible to work for justice on our behalf. God demands that we get involved. He will hold us accountable for our response to His call to seek justice in our world. May we respond to God’s intense desire for justice and join His work to make it so. Copyright © 2024, 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 Justice Articles Next

Can we say “Yes” to God, and then actually do the work he asks us to do? Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 21:28-32 Can we say “Yes” to God, and then actually do the work he asks us to do? Georg Pencz (ca.1500–d. 1550). The Parable of the Father and His Two Sons in the Vineyard , from the series The Story of Christ . 1534-35. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Public domain, CC0 , https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/432116 . Tom Faletti August 7, 2025 Matthew 21:28-32 The parable of the two sons What does the first son say and then do? What does the second son say and then do? Let’s look at this parable first on the surface level – the ordinary human level. How would you describe the difference between the two sons? Notice how the second son respectfully calls his father “sir” or “lord” ( kyrie in Greek). He is all lip service, no action . Pious words don’t substitute for obedience in doing what God wants. Given that neither son is totally without blame, Jesus’s question is interesting. Which seems to be more important to him: what the sons said or what they did ? Neither son fully reflects what the father hopes his children would be, since the father would have liked his sons to both respond to the initial request and carry it out. We also sometimes don’t want to do what God asks us to do. How does God want us to deal with that? God doesn’t mind if we express how we feel. But he hopes we will do what he asks. God would like you to embrace his goals both in word and in deed. But why do the actions count for more than the words? There are probably times in your life where you have said no to God. Like the first son, you can always change your mind and begin again with a new yes . How might you seek God’s forgiveness for times you have said no and embrace a new yes ? Now let’s look at the metaphorical meaning of the parable. A vineyard is a symbol of Israel. We see this, for example, in Isaiah 5:1-30 and Jeremiah 12:10. If the vineyard is Israel, who do the two sons represent? Jesus does not leave any ambiguity as to which son represents the chief priests and elders. He turns the story directly against them. He says that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before them. What does this mean? This passage relates to the previous one. Jesus asked the Jewish leaders about John the Baptist. The Jewish leaders did not embrace John’s message of repentance, but many of the ordinary people did, including tax collectors and prostitutes. They same pattern reoccurred in people’s reactions to Jesus. The leaders professed to honor God, but they did not respond with the appropriate actions. They were like the son who did not do his father’s will: all lip service, no action. What have the tax collectors and prostitutes done that leads Jesus to praise them? How does their approach to John (and presumably to Jesus) differ from that of the chief priests and elders? The tax collectors and prostitutes Jesus is talking about are those who have amended their lives to follow Jesus, so that they are showing fruit for God. In verse 32, Jesus says to the leaders: “even when you saw” that the tax collectors and prostitutes were responding to the call of God “you did not change your minds.” It is possible that this made them even less inclined to believe, but Jesus says it should have made them more inclined to believe. Why should we be encouraged in our faith when people who are not part of the faith come to faith? What does this parable tell us? How valid do you think the following conclusions are? God cares what we do, not just what we say. In God’s eyes, what we do counts for a lot more than what we say. God is willing to put up with a lot if we come around in the end. He gives us time to turn around and do what he wants. Now think about the father’s feelings toward the son who treated him respectfully but did not do what the father asked. How do you think God feels about people who say they do God’s will but don’t actually follow through with action? In our lives, God’s directions are not always as simple as “God work in my vineyard today” – but sometimes they are. How would you describe the “work in God’s vineyard” that God wants you and me to be doing right now in our lives? Which of the following might be examples of “working in God’s vineyard” today? Living a holy life that follows God’s moral laws. Looking for opportunities to tell others the good news about Jesus that we have received – and then actually telling it. Putting God’s love into action by caring for the poor, the hungry, the sick, the stranger, etc. Standing up for justice and the proper treatment of all the people created by God. There are many Christians who live out their faith in word and deed. There are also some who seem to talk the talk but don’t seem to show much concern for loving those who struggle and seeking their well-being. There are also people who don’t talk the talk of faith at all but try to live by a strong moral code and care for the needy. What do you think God thinks about these groups of people? Is there an area in your life where you might be saying the right things but not doing what your Father wants? What might you do in response to this parable? In this parable, Jesus draws a clear line, challenging the chief priests and elders to choose a side – His side – and stop opposing him. In the next parable, he makes this even more explicit. Take a step back and consider this: The Washington, DC, news station WTOP presented a story by Kyle Cooper about the claim that most people give up on their New Year’s resolutions by the second Friday in January. This phenomenon even has a name: Quitter’s Day . But if you consider Jesus’s parable about the two sons, it raises a question: Is the second Friday of January the right time to decide that you are not going to put into action what you said you would do? Or is it just another day when you can turn your lack of action into action? If we have not done something at the first opportunity – whether it is to follow through on a resolution or something else – we can still start now. Start it at the first opportunity: It would be wonderful if we could catch God’s vision for what he is trying to do in our world, embrace the vision, and follow through with steady, consistent action from the beginning. We don’t want to excuse a “No,” even if it eventually becomes a “Yes,” or to excuse a “Yes” that isn’t followed by action. Neither of those is God’s ideal for us; he desires our words and our deeds. But it’s a fact of life that sometimes we don’t follow through. That’s not necessarily the end of the story, however. Often, we still have an opportunity to start now. Start now: Every moment is another moment when we can say “Yes” to God in place of a previous “I will not,” or to follow through on a “Yes” we have not yet delivered on. God is always ready to welcome us into the vineyard, and he always receives us with joy. Is there something that God has been asking you to do, and perhaps you said “No” or perhaps you just haven’t followed through? If so, what can you do now to get to work on it? What can you do to cultivate the attitudes and habits of mind that will help you be the kind of person who, when God says, “Go and do this today,” you say “Yes” and do it? It is a privilege and a gift from God that we are invited to participate in the work of his vineyard, working with him as he transforms us into a fuller image of himself and transforms the world so that it is a fitting place for his kingdom. Let us welcome the opportunities and embrace the work he gives to 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 List Next

A healing, a second warning of suffering to come, an interruption to pay a tax – just a normal day in the life of Jesus . . . and us? [Matthew 17:14-21; 17:22-23; 17:24-27] Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 17:14-27 A healing, a second warning of suffering to come, an interruption to pay a tax – just a normal day in the life of Jesus . . . and us? Mattia Preti (1613-1699). Il tributo della moneta [The tribute coin] . circa 1640. Cropped. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mattia_Preti_-_Tribute_Money_-_WGA18400.jpg . Tom Faletti June 19, 2025 Jesus comes down from the mountain where he experienced the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8), only to find that he must deal with regular life in all its complexity. It’s not that different for us: even when we have mountaintop moments, we must return to “real life” in all its ordinariness. Let’s look at the 3 incidents that Matthew tells us about right after the Transfiguration. Matthew 17:14-21 The healing of the boy with epilepsy, and the power of faith and prayer In the previous passage, Peter, James, and John experienced the overwhelming power of God during Jesus’s Transfiguration. How have you experienced the power of God in a special way? What problem does Jesus encounter that the disciples had not been able to solve? In verse 15, Matthew literally says that the boy is “moonstruck”, i.e., struck or affected by the moon. Some translations say the boy is a “lunatic” a word that comes from the word “luna” for “moon.” The symptoms are what we would call epilepsy, and people thought those symptoms were affected by the phases of the moon ( NABRE , Matt. 17:15 fn.). In verse 17, how does Jesus react to the fact that the disciples were unable to heal the boy? When Jesus calls them “faithless and perverse,” it isn’t clear whether he is reproaching unbelievers among the crowd or the disciples. He has previously chided the disciples for having “little” faith (Matthew 6:30), and in verse 20 he says they have “little faith.” He does not say they have no faith. Based on what happens here, does Jesus give up on people with “little faith,” or does he stick with them? He sticks with them and provides the healing that is needed, despite their lack of faith. Jesus sounds frustrated, or even exasperated, in verse 17. Frustration is a human emotion and not necessarily a sin. When would you say being frustrated or exasperated is sinful, and not just human? Jesus’s is ready to move to the next step, but his disciples don’t seem to be as ready as he might have hoped. Do you think God might feel this way about us sometimes? If so, what does this passage tell you about God’s enduring commitment to us even when we fall short? Jesus says, “How much longer must I put up with you.” It won’t be much longer until his death and resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit to empower us. In verse 20, Jesus compares faith to a mustard seed. Many translations say, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,” but that is not what he actually said. He says, “If you have faith as a mustard seed.” It isn’t the size of the faith that Jesus is talking about, it is the recognition of the potential that is available to even a person who is very small , if they have faith. How does this encourage people who think they are small in this world? The fact that Jesus calls for faith “ as a mustard seed,” not “ the size of a mustard seed,” is important, because we sometimes think we have to muster up a large faith, and that puts the focus on ourselves when the focus should be on God. The point is to be as open to the working of God as a mustard seed, and to cooperate with the work of God as a mustard seed cooperates with God’s work of creation. What does this say to you? Seeds need darkness as well as light to become what they are meant to be. Does our faith similarly need times of darkness as well as good times? Explain. Jesus is using metaphors here, so he isn’t talking literally about moving mountains. What does moving mountains stand for? Having something come to pass that seems impossible or very hard. Seeds don’t cause their own growth; they have to trust God to provide the conditions for the growth of the seed. Similarly, our faith doesn’t move the mountain; God moves the mountain. We just have to trust him. What does that kind of mustard seed faith look like? How have you experienced answered prayer? How have you seen what seemed like a mountain be moved so that God’s will could be done? Go back to chapter 7 and read Matthew 7:9-10 . Jesus tells us that God wants to give us good things to us, his children. How does that assurance affect your thinking about prayer, faith, and trust? Sometimes, no matter how much faith we have, we do not receive what we ask for in prayer. The mountain we ask God to move does not move. That’s part of real life. What do you do when it seems like your prayers are not answered? Here are some ways to think about this question: 1. We are asked to trust God. God gives us what we need, but not necessarily what we think we want, just as human parents who love their children don’t always give them what they ask for because it might not be what is best for them. 2. God always answers our prayers, but his answer may be “Yes,” “No,” or “Not Yet (i.e., Wait).” Sometimes, he needs to work in our spirit to help us realize that we aren’t asking for the right thing. Sometimes, he may be waiting for us to grow spiritually so that we can handle the blessing we are asking for. One of the challenges of faith is to accept God’s answer. If we try to force it, as though we know best, we may make something happen that God knows is not best for us. Instead, we need to trust him. Matthew 17:21 Verse 21 does not appear in most modern translations of the Bible, because that verse does not appear in the oldest manuscripts. The New Testament was divided into verses before some older manuscripts were found, and those older manuscripts don’t have Matthew 17:21. It might have been added accidentally at some point by a copyist who was recalling Mark 9:29. In the oldest manuscripts, Mark 9:29 reads: “This kind can come out only through prayer.” The words “and fasting” only appear in later manuscripts of Mark and Matthew. In the oldest manuscripts we have, there is no Matthew 17:21 and Mark 9:29 does not include the words “and fasting.” Although Matthew 17:21 does not appear to be original to Matthew, Jesus does say in Mark 9:29, “This kind can come out only through prayer.” Why might there be times when prayer is necessary for healing? Matthew 17:22-23 Jesus again foretells his Passion; the disciples respond with grief Matthew 17:22 adds a new piece of information to what Jesus said in Matthew 16:21: it says Jesus will be betrayed. How does the idea that he will be betrayed make Jesus’s suffering and death even sadder? Notice that this time, the disciples are more ready to accept what Jesus is saying about his coming suffering and death. That is why they are so distressed, and perhaps also because someone who appears to be on his side will betray him. Jesus has said twice now that he will be raised. The disciples may not have understood what that meant, but what difference does it make to you that Jesus’s prophecy includes his resurrection and not just suffering and death? Matthew 17:24-27 paying the Temple tax After a long time away in more Gentile areas, Jesus now returns to Capernaum in Galilee. Matthew has several stories about Peter that the other Gospels do not have. This is one of them. This is not the story about the tax paid to the Romans (“give to Caesar what is Caesar’s”). We will see that story in chapter 22. Every male Jew age 20 and older was expected to pay a tax for the upkeep of the Temple, based on a command in Exodus 30:11-16. The tax was two drachmas (equal to a half-shekel). (Some scholars think Matthew is writing about a situation his community faced after AD 70, when the Temple had been destroyed and the Romans ordered that the tax continue to be paid, but for the upkeep of a temple in Rome dedicated to Jupiter.) What does the fact that Peter speaks for Jesus in verse 24 tell us about his role? Peter has clearly become a leader of Jesus’s band of followers, and he would have assumed that Jesus would not refuse to pay the tax that was expected of all adult males. Jesus asks whether the children of a king pay taxes that are owed to a king. (Some translations use the word “subject,” but the Greek word in verses 25 and 26 is actually “sons.”) What is he implying by his use of the word “sons”? Jesus is indicating that he is the son of God. But he uses the plural, “sons,” so he is implying that his disciples are also children of God. In verse 27, Jesus says that he does not want to offend those who expect him to pay the tax. The Greek for “offend” comes from the same root as the word “scandal” in English and the word for stumbling block in Greek. He does not want to scandalize them or be a stumbling block to them. Why is it important not to give scandal if you can avoid it? How might we decide when we may act in freedom and when we do what others expect of us in order to avoid giving scandal? Jesus tells Peter where to find the money to pay the tax, and he thoughtfully adds that Peter will find a stater (a coin equal to 4 drachmas or a full shekel), which is enough to pay the tax for both Peter and himself. What do you think about how Jesus handled this incident? Jesus does not have money, but when he needs something, the whole world is at his disposal (think of the few loaves and fish that led to the feeding of the 5,000). Jesus here shows that he cares about our earthly concerns, not just spiritual matters. What does this say to you the maters you face in your life? Jesus provides for Peter, and he will provide for us. What do you need, that Jesus can provide? Take a step back and consider this: If you think of this set of passages as a day in the life of Jesus, it might not seem all that different from some days in our lives: Suddenly, someone urgently needs you to do something; you know that a serious challenge is looming on the horizon; and then another issue unexpectedly pops up. Many people frequently have days like that; for some, it is just a normal, hectic day. When we have days like that, sometimes we might get exasperated, as Jesus did. But if we are following the model of Jesus, we will keep our cool, keep doing what needs to be done, keep helping those who need help, and keep solving the problems that arise. That’s what Jesus did on this hectic day; and with his help, we can too. When unexpected problems pop up on already busy days, how do you tend to respond? Do you become bossy? Grow anxious? Shut down? Or keep doing what needs to be done? And with what attitude? How might Jesus help you deal with those kinds of days? 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 List Next

Adultery, lust, and divorce start in the heart. Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 5:27-32 Adultery, lust, and divorce start in the heart. Image provided by Wix. Tom Faletti May 2, 2024 Matthew 5:27-30 Adultery and lust What does the Old Testament say in Exodus 20:14 and Deut. 5:18? What is lust? Why would Jesus say a person who lusts has already committed adultery in their heart? Is there a difference between committing adultery “in your heart” and committing physical adultery? What is Jesus prohibiting here? Jesus prohibits not only the action but the intense thoughts that underlie or can lead to the action. While Jesus is telling us to reject the thoughts that can lead to the action, we need to make a distinction between uninvited thoughts and the thoughts we nurture. Thoughts pop into our minds all the time. When uninvited, instinctual desires pop into our mind unbidden, that is not, in itself, a sin. When we intentionally nurture those thoughts and enjoy the fact that they are arousing our sexual passions, that is when we are embracing the lust that Jesus is telling his followers to reject. We cannot help looking at people, and our bodies sometimes react to what we see. But when we allow our eyes to linger so that our desires can be fed, then we have crossed the line. Why does he prohibit even entertaining the thought of adultery? What difference does a thought make? Actions begin with thoughts. Choosing to entertain the thought of lust means imagining that you are relating sexually with someone who is not your spouse. To choose to desire something which would violate the marriage commitment, Jesus says, is already a violation of that commitment to have only your spouse. When we look at another person as someone to have sex with, we are looking at them primarily as a body rather than as a whole person. We are called to treat all people as being made in the image of God, to treat them as people carrying infinite human dignity. In what ways does looking at someone with lust violate this principle of human dignity? In verses 29-30, do you think Jesus is actually recommending that people pluck out an eye or cut off a hand to avoid lust? (Would that actually solve the problem of lust, or could a one-handed person still lust?) What is Jesus’s point? Jesus is not speaking literally here. He is using the traditional Jewish technique of exaggeration or hyperbole to emphasize the importance of what he is saying. He is telling us to take our thought life seriously and not to allow our thoughts to linger in places they do not belong. Jesus clearly takes our inner thought life very seriously. Daniel J. Harrington tries to explain the thinking behind what Jesus is saying in this way: “The salvation of the whole person is of more value than the preservation of any one part that may lead to sin” ( The Gospel According to Matthew , p. 29). Myron S. Augsburger says, “We should understand these statements attitudinally, just as the previous injunction is addressed to our thoughts and attitudes. This means taking literally the basic intent of the passage, rather than physically removing the eye. The loss of one eye or one hand cannot in itself prevent a lustful look or thought. The word-picture is to emphasize deliberate, decisive action in dealing with our propensity to sin” ( Matthew , p. 74). Does our culture take our thought life as seriously as Jesus does? What is the prevailing attitude regarding thinking about things that would be sinful if acted upon? Do you take your thought life as seriously as Jesus does? The word translated “hell” in this passage is literally the Greek word Gehenna , which Jesus also uses in verse 22. Gehenna was the valley of Hinnom, a valley running along the south and southwest side of Jerusalem that had an ugly history. More than 700 years before Christ (in the 700s B.C.), it was a place where children were burned in sacrifice to the god Moloch (see 2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Jeremiah 7:31-33; and Jeremiah 32:35). That location later came to be known as a garbage dump where refuse was burned, leading to its being used as a metaphor for hell. How can we avoid or fight lust and sins that involve our thoughts? It is a well-known principle that you can’t banish a thought by saying you won't think about it The more you try to “not think" it, the more you tend to focus on it. The only ways to get one thought out of your mind is by replacing it with another thought. So in this case, we need to replace the lustful thoughts with thoughts about good things. Barclay also suggests that a life of action helps. He says of the person struggling with sinful thoughts, “[H]e will certainly never defeat the evil things by withdrawing from life and saying, I will not think of these things. He can only do so by plunging into Christian action and Christian thought. He will never do it by trying to save his own life; he can only do it by flinging his life away for others” (Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 1 , p. 147). A life filled with good actions and good thoughts has less room for lust. Matthew 5:31-32 Divorce Read Deuteronomy 24:1-4. According to Deuteronomy 24:1, for what reasons might a man give his wife a certificate of divorce? There were two great Jewish scholars in the years before Jesus’s time – Hillel and Shammai – who launched two primary “houses” or schools of thought. The school of Hillel believed in marriage but interpreted Deut. 24:1 so loosely that a man could divorce his wife for any reason, while a woman could never divorce her husband without his consent. The school of Shammai was far less lenient about divorce. In contrast, the Greeks and Romans of Jesus’s time had an extremely low regard for marriage and little disapproval of sexual relationships outside of marriage. Having concubines and lovers other than your spouse was a normal part of society. In all of these cultures, obtaining a divorce was simple. In Israel and Rome, a man could have a divorce by simply writing a statement of divorce witnessed by two people. The Greeks didn’t even require a written statement; a man could simply dismiss his wife in the presence of two witnesses, although the woman at least got her dowry back (Barclay, Gospel of Matthew, Volume 1 , p. 148-155). How might Deut. 24:1 have been interpreted more permissively or less permissively? What impact would the permissive practices of these cultures have had on the security of women? How does Jesus redefine the law of divorce? How does this transform the thinking about divorce? Note: Matthew allows an exception in 5:32, which is translated in the NRSV as: “except on the ground of unchastity.” Older translations of the New American Bible said, “lewd conduct is a separate case,” but the current NABRE retranslates it in a way that more clearly upholds Catholic Church teaching on divorce: “unless the marriage is unlawful.” The Greek word that is here is porneia , which was used to describe a range of illicit/unlawful sexual activity and might refer to adultery or might refer to other unlawful situations such as incest. Most Protestant denominations interpret it to refer to adultery and allow divorce in cases of adultery. Catholic scholars argue that if Jesus had meant “adultery” rather than other kinds of “unlawful” situations, he would have used the more common word for adultery, which he uses later in the same sentence. In practice, the Catholic Church offers an annulment process for marriages, allowing annulments in situations where the marriage was founded on a misunderstanding of true marriage, and that misunderstanding of true marriage in some cases might be demonstrated in part by an unwillingness of a spouse to be committed to the sexual exclusivity of Christian marriage. We will hear more about marriage in Matthew 19:3-9. The New Testament also includes Ephesians 5:21-33, which sees the marriage covenant between husband and wife as an image of Christ’s covenant with his people, the church. How does Jesus’s new law on divorce change the status of marriage? How does Jesus’s new law on divorce affect the status of women? Where does our society today fit on the scale of possible views of marriage and divorce? How does it compare to the teaching of Jesus on marriage and divorce? What difference does it make how our society views divorce? What can we do to encourage strong marriages? Take a step back and consider this: Although Jesus’s teachings about adultery, lust, and divorce here could be seen as simply a series of “don’ts,” in the broader context of the Sermon on the Mount these teachings might be better seen as calling for a transformation in a married couple’s thoughts and attitudes toward each other. In marriage as Jesus sees it, husbands and wives are committed to each other. They aren’t thinking about having sex with anyone else. They aren’t looking for a way to get out of their marriage commitments. They are committed to finding their fulfillment in each other. What might we say or do to help reclaim the vision of marriage as a union of committed love where the desire to stray is never nurtured because the commitment to mutual fulfillment is paramount? How can we help married couples to keep their eyes on their mutual commitment to love each other, when the marriage is tested and the temptation to “look at another with lust” arises? 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 List Next