WHO COPIED FROM WHOM?
I went to Manila last October 21st to attend a modular course on the Gospels. It's called New Testament 1. We talked about the historical, cultural, and a little bit of both literary and linguistic background of the first four books of the NT. We also talked about what was written first: Mark, Matthew, or Luke? Who copied from who? I also learned so many new things and you'll fall asleep if I begin enumerating them here. But here are some interesting ones:
The Good Samaritan: Almost all preaching that I hear or books I read about this parable focuses on the response of the hearer to the question asked by the Lord Jesus at the end of the story. Who is our neighbor? Our professor presented another understanding that I think does not take out from the story but rather presents another good way to make sense of it. It is better than the interpretation where the parable was totally allegorized and even the donkey is taken to symbolize something. This one is not like that at all: Remember that the hold-up happened at a certain place across a path going to Jerusalem from Jericho. Geographically, Golgotha is located between Jerusalem and Jericho, so it's like Jesus is saying that "The one who is going to hang somewhere between Jerusalem and Jericho, you can either reject or take." Jesus hang on a cross for our sins and we can either take it or leave it. If we take him, we are like the Good Samaritan who did the right thing.
The Samaritan Woman. When I first read this story, I felt for the Samaritan woman. How Jesus brought into light her secrets, like short of embarrassing her. But Jesus wanted to teach us to let go of our pretensions. People can come to church or come to Jesus as if everything is swell and impressive in their lives. But the Lord Jesus wants us to face our true self, our sinful self, our weak self, our prideful self head-on and deal with it. He wants us to be honest with ourselves and others, and Jesus won't condemn us but forgive us and show us His mercy and love.
The Coin with Caesar's Image. Remember that time when Jesus was asked about taxation? (Matt. 22:17-22) "20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 * They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." This is almost always explained in church as a passage for paying your taxes or giving to the church. My professor said, the Greek literally says: "Give to Caesar whatever has his image, but give to God whatever has his image." So it is like even if Jesus is giving a direct answer to a direct question about taxation, He is also implying or trying to teach us something else. Who are made in God's image? Us! We are created in His image, therefore we should give to Him what is originally His.
Reflecting more on this, the question that comes to mind is "How?" Naturally sinful that we are, we do not have even the slightest ability to choose to give ourselves to God without help. Some might say they can, but the thing is, will God accept? So the reality is, we can't give ourselves to God. It's just impossible. Here is where the power of the death of Jesus Christ comes in. It embodies the power of the love of God, and the power of His justice and His holiness. His holiness calls for Him to hate sin. His justice calls for Him to punish the guilty. And His Love called for Him to offer His own Son to satisfy His holiness and His justice. And all I do is believe and appropriate this in faith, (which is actually doing nothing) then He'll accept me in the merit of His Son's sacrifice.
Having appropriated this wonderful gifts, I can now say that I am willing to give to God whatever has His image. I can now choose to give myself to Him because I now understand that I can do that in gratitude and worship of this One in whose image I was created.
The Prodigal Son: This is a two-fold story of how God our Father forgives and accepts us, the prodigal sons and daughters. And the part of this story that usually gets emphasized is how the repentant son came back, humbled himself and was accepted by his father. But the context in which Jesus tells this story was that, there were Pharisees who were criticizing Him because He associated Himself with the tax collectors/sinners. These sinners were repenting of their sins and humbling themselves before Jesus, but this self-righteos Pharisees are not happy with that. They are like the brother in the story who won't go to the party dedicated to the safe return of his prodigal brother because he was busy thinking about how their father should throw his brother out of the house because of all the shameful things he did. He was busy pitying himself for being such a good son that he thought his father cheated him because he never rewarded him of anything.
Sometimes, we may catch ourselves thinking about how someone does not deserve all the blessings s/he is getting, and yet here we are doing all this and that yet God seems silent about it, giving us no glimmer of hope that what we are doing will someday come to something. Hah, most of the time, I find out that it's either I'm looking in the opposite direction or do not really wanna see what He wants me to see so I act blind or asleep. :)
There you have it! :)
The Good Samaritan: Almost all preaching that I hear or books I read about this parable focuses on the response of the hearer to the question asked by the Lord Jesus at the end of the story. Who is our neighbor? Our professor presented another understanding that I think does not take out from the story but rather presents another good way to make sense of it. It is better than the interpretation where the parable was totally allegorized and even the donkey is taken to symbolize something. This one is not like that at all: Remember that the hold-up happened at a certain place across a path going to Jerusalem from Jericho. Geographically, Golgotha is located between Jerusalem and Jericho, so it's like Jesus is saying that "The one who is going to hang somewhere between Jerusalem and Jericho, you can either reject or take." Jesus hang on a cross for our sins and we can either take it or leave it. If we take him, we are like the Good Samaritan who did the right thing.
The Samaritan Woman. When I first read this story, I felt for the Samaritan woman. How Jesus brought into light her secrets, like short of embarrassing her. But Jesus wanted to teach us to let go of our pretensions. People can come to church or come to Jesus as if everything is swell and impressive in their lives. But the Lord Jesus wants us to face our true self, our sinful self, our weak self, our prideful self head-on and deal with it. He wants us to be honest with ourselves and others, and Jesus won't condemn us but forgive us and show us His mercy and love.
The Coin with Caesar's Image. Remember that time when Jesus was asked about taxation? (Matt. 22:17-22) "20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 * They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." This is almost always explained in church as a passage for paying your taxes or giving to the church. My professor said, the Greek literally says: "Give to Caesar whatever has his image, but give to God whatever has his image." So it is like even if Jesus is giving a direct answer to a direct question about taxation, He is also implying or trying to teach us something else. Who are made in God's image? Us! We are created in His image, therefore we should give to Him what is originally His.
Reflecting more on this, the question that comes to mind is "How?" Naturally sinful that we are, we do not have even the slightest ability to choose to give ourselves to God without help. Some might say they can, but the thing is, will God accept? So the reality is, we can't give ourselves to God. It's just impossible. Here is where the power of the death of Jesus Christ comes in. It embodies the power of the love of God, and the power of His justice and His holiness. His holiness calls for Him to hate sin. His justice calls for Him to punish the guilty. And His Love called for Him to offer His own Son to satisfy His holiness and His justice. And all I do is believe and appropriate this in faith, (which is actually doing nothing) then He'll accept me in the merit of His Son's sacrifice.
Having appropriated this wonderful gifts, I can now say that I am willing to give to God whatever has His image. I can now choose to give myself to Him because I now understand that I can do that in gratitude and worship of this One in whose image I was created.
The Prodigal Son: This is a two-fold story of how God our Father forgives and accepts us, the prodigal sons and daughters. And the part of this story that usually gets emphasized is how the repentant son came back, humbled himself and was accepted by his father. But the context in which Jesus tells this story was that, there were Pharisees who were criticizing Him because He associated Himself with the tax collectors/sinners. These sinners were repenting of their sins and humbling themselves before Jesus, but this self-righteos Pharisees are not happy with that. They are like the brother in the story who won't go to the party dedicated to the safe return of his prodigal brother because he was busy thinking about how their father should throw his brother out of the house because of all the shameful things he did. He was busy pitying himself for being such a good son that he thought his father cheated him because he never rewarded him of anything.
Sometimes, we may catch ourselves thinking about how someone does not deserve all the blessings s/he is getting, and yet here we are doing all this and that yet God seems silent about it, giving us no glimmer of hope that what we are doing will someday come to something. Hah, most of the time, I find out that it's either I'm looking in the opposite direction or do not really wanna see what He wants me to see so I act blind or asleep. :)
There you have it! :)
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