Category Archives: Matthew

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Matthew 5:1-12 – The Beatitudes

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In Matthew’s Gospel is found the so-called “Sermon on the Mount.” 

This “sermon” took Matthew three chapters to write: five, six, and seven.  It is important to realize that chapters of divine Scripture are themselves statements of division, such that the wholeness of a chapter goes from the beginning (the first verse) until the ending (the last verse).  There is no bleed-over from one chapter to the next.  Each chapter (each word and each verse) is authored by Yahweh and written by a Saint. 

The end of a chapter ends an assortment of stories and lessons that are meant to be kept separate from the stories and lessons of the chapters preceding and following.  That simple element of divine Scripture understanding means the “Sermon on the Mount” was not all done at one time.  Because Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” spreads over three chapters it cannot be seen as one long sermon; if it were, then Matthew would have written it all in one chapter.  Minimally, three chapters means three “sermons,” which changes the heading (the ones our imaginations like to use) to something more appropriate, such as “Jesus Teaches His Disciples.”  

This can be seen in how Matthew 4 ends with verses that tells of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, having chosen his first disciples (Peter, Andrew, James and John of Zebedee).  He was drawing “large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan” [in addition to Syria].  Those crowds of people who followed Jesus, were looking for healing miracles, more than Scriptural lessons. 

Chapter five then begins with the statement: “Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.”  The division and separation from chapter four and chapter five says Jesus taught his disciples.  It is therefore wrong to think that Jesus would teach crowds (“ochloi“) of common people, before he would teach his disciples (“mathētai“).  Possibly, some people in the crowds enrolled in the ‘Jesus school of disciples,’ based on the teachings of Jesus over chapters five, six, and seven.

This is where the common people in those who call themselves “Christian” are just like the crowds that followed Jesus around.  In the ‘modern era’ of Christianity, people flock to churches; they do so just to be near a priest [supposedly one reborn as Jesus Christ] who will heal their illnesses [signs of sin], without any desire to learn anything.  The common people are drawn to churches [in non-pandemic times] by free offerings that ease their maladies (physical, mental, and spiritual – body, mind, and soul).  The common people do not have the first inkling of thought that asks, “What does righteousness mean?”  Common  people just want things to be freely given to them – no strings attached.  The element of desiring to learn, therefore, is a trait of a disciple, pupil, student following a teacher (rabbi). 

Christians today are more like tailgaters going to a college football game, having never attended the college they flock to be associated with.  Therefore, Jesus teaching the disciples becomes not a “casually listen and learn” principle; it was a show and tell program of study, with questions and answers mandatory [minimally graded through testing].

This means the “Beatitudes” sounds great to the common people.  They are the ‘headlines’ of things taught, without any text explaining those eye-catchers to follow.  The common people know the general news, but stay away from the details.  However, it is uncommon to say such profound things without some student (more than one) raising his hand and saying to Jesus, “Could you explain more, please Sir?”

According to the New Revised Standard Versions (NRSV) there are nine separate teachings by Jesus stated in chapter five.  Chapter six then follows with six separate teachings.  Chapter seven follows with eight more lessons.  As far as one “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus taught twenty-three classes worth of insight.  At the end of chapter seven, Matthew wrote:

“Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” 

This gives the impression that Jesus taught twenty-three lessons without a single question asked, leading the crowds (“ochloi“), not the disciples (“mathētai“), to be “astonished at his teaching.”

This has to be grasped as having occurred over an extended period of time – be it days in a row or Sabbaths in a row – and not all in one sitting.  No one knows where the mountain (“oros“) is located, but it is probable (to me) that it was the same hillside that was on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, which overlooked the plain where five thousand would be fed.  In that location one finds a normal air circulation that is caused by eastern Mediterranean winds blowing over a below sea level body of water, sweeping down the eastern ‘mountainside,’ blowing over the plain below and across the sea.   That natural setting makes the acoustics of that place be where Jesus could speak in a normal voice to disciples close around him and have his words be carried clearly to those waiting to be healed down below. 

It is also probable (to me) that these lessons took place in a manner similar to the reading of scrolls are in a synagogue on a Sabbath, where the rabbi then states a few words about the meaning of that Scriptural lesson, before opening the floor for discussion.  Jesus would not need any scrolls to read from, as he would know it through the Father (the author of the Scrolls).  It could be that Jesus and his disciples went to synagogue and heard lame explanations given, whereby they left and went to the mountain to get a good understanding of what Scripture means.  That is indeed the definition of a real “sermon.”  Therefore, each of the lessons in Matthew 5-7 have to be seen as having a source in Scriptural teachings; and, what Matthew recorded were what Jesus said about them.

While this opinion is mine alone and without any scholastic backing (that I know of), it makes logical sense that the ‘school of Jesus’ would begin with just his disciples, but grow over time to included ‘auditors’ down below, who would then be “astonished” at how Jesus explained Scripture in ways that they had never heard explained by the scribes.  In addition, Jesus spoke with assurity, whereas the rabbis and scribs probably prefaced everything they said with disclaimers, such as, “Well, I’m not Moses, but I think this means ….”  Jesus spoke with the power of authority (“exousian“) that made the listeners hear Moses reincarnated before them (or David or a Prophet before them), knowing the meaning of the Word for the first time.  To me this makes more sense than Jesus sitting on a mountainside just rambling from one personal opinion to another (whatever popped into his Mind), with Matthew writing every word down.

Because Jesus began by speaking about the “Beatitudes,” which is a Latin word that means “supreme blessedness,” those lessons could not possibly be stated without explanation.  If I had been there, I would have been wildly raising my hand and verbally trying to get Jesus’ attention, just like was portrayed by the character Arnold Horshack in the seventies television sitcom Welcome Back Kotter. 

“Excuse me Jesus, but could you please expound on that?” I would ask.

Certainly if Jesus had not gone to the mountain and instead went to an Episcopalian church (as a ‘guest speaker’), the priest would have interrupted him after twelve minutes, probably to a standing ovation by the crowds (“ochloi“).  Prior to the priest becoming their ‘savior,’ they would have all been muttering under their breaths, “I came for the wafer and wine, not all the hot air.” 

And, while I like to pick on the Anglicans-West Church a lot, there really is no interest in Bible Studies anywhere in Christendom these days.  Perhaps this is a result of sixteen hundred years of the ‘blind leading the blind,’ with experienced Christians saying, “No more falls into holes for me.  I’m just going for the senior discounts from now on.”

That is why we have come to the end of the age and the birth pangs of the end times are close to one another, meaning a global cataclysm is due soon.  That timing has the evangelicals squealing with glee about all hell’s water about to break loose; thinking that is when Jesus is going to come down from a cloud and sweep them up in something they call the Rapture (a basket or chariot?); as if knowing nothing about the truth of Scripture [failing to ask God to lead them to understanding] warrants Spiritual favoritism.

Each and every lesson taught by Jesus from the mountain demands all true Christians be fully aware of the meaning behind the words.  The assumption must be that a true Christian asks God to expose the meaning; and, once that meaning has been exposed, a true Christian will then teach others, “in the name of Jesus Christ.”  A lengthy interpretation could be written on all twenty-three lessons (and should be written and studied), which would add many, many pages of text to what appears to simply be three pages of Matthew’s Gospel. 

That is why I write this interpretation about the Beatitudes.  If my twelve minutes are up, it is okay to click this article off and go hunt for cute memes to share on Facebook.  Only the serious student should continue on from here.

The Greek text of Matthew 5:3-11 cannot be trusted to only mean what the English translations make them appear to be.  Greek is a language that is closer to divinity than English; and, the divinity of God’s language is better contained in a human language that allows for a broad scope of translation, thus deep interpretation.  The Greek word “Μακάριοι” or “Makarioi” is translated into English as “Blessed.”  That Greek word is translated into Latin as “Beati,” from biatitas or beatitudos, both meaning “happiness, blessedness.”  The Greek word “makarios,” according to Strong’s definition means, “blessed, happy.”  Strong’s usage adds the meaning “to be envied.” 

While this word can mean Jesus was stating a series of happiness scenarios that existed in the world, the capitalization gives the word a higher meaning, such that Spirituality is applied to capitalized words spoken by Jesus – which Matthew recalled from a Spiritual state as an Apostle.  Seeing capitalization in this light of importance means Jesus indeed spoke of what should be considered in human brains as “Blessings from God.”

This demands one understand the definition of “Blessed” as being (in English), “Made holy, consecrated.”  The Greek word “Makarioi” is then a parallel to the Hebrew words “barak” (bless, kneel) and “qadash” (set apart as consecrated, sanctify), as found in Genesis 2:3:

“And blessed the elohim (gods) on the seventh day,  and sanctified [the Creation] because it rested from all the work which the elohim had created and accomplished.” 

Just as Yahweh “Blessed” His gods (“elohim“) for their good works [God’s design], Jesus spoke of Yahweh also having “Blessed” traits held by human beings.  This divine Blessing is not to be seen as a ‘gold star’ for human deeds, but a change within a human, based on the presence of the Lord.  Ordinary human beings [sorry Roman Catholics] cannot even begin to consider themselves as “Blessed.”

The capitalized Greek word “Makarioi” is written nine times, each as the first word of verses 3 through 11.  Repetition in Scripture is a statement of importance that is designed to draw one’s attention and cause closer inspection; so, these verses are addressed because they state God’s blessings placed upon those who will be rewarded with eternal life in heaven. 

It should be realized that the human bodies of flesh are not “Blessed,” nor are those forms of matter given the “Happiness” of Yahweh.  Instead, it is souls that are “Blessed.”  This means the “Blessing” of the Lord, just like those He gave to His elohim (angels), are placed upon eternal entities, not dead matter.

In verses three through eleven, where “Makarioi” is found repeated, many plural pronouns and articles are likewise repeated, which shows the importance places on “those Blessed” and “this” that “they” display.  When repetition is seen as a sign of importance, as is announced by capitalization, one should then place the focus of importance all capitalized words, especially any capitalized words repeated.

The Greek word “Ὅτι” or “Hoti” is one such word that needs to be seen.  This capitalized word leads the second half of verses three through ten.  That repetition demands one understand the meaning of that word.  The capitalization adds to that importance, but it should be recognized that the lower-case spelling, as  “ὅτι” or “hoti,” are also in play in Matthew 5, such that the total repetition for this word has it appear twenty-five times. 

The Greek word that is capitalized as “Ὅτι” and written in the lower-case as “ὅτι” is defined by Strong’s as “that, because.”  In usage, Strong’s adds: “since; may introduce direct discourse.”  The Bible Hub Interlinear shows every spelling of this word as capitalized in verses three through ten, while showing the other seventeen uses of the same word as being in the lower-case.  While other sources for the Greek text make it appear that all uses of “hoti”  are only in the lower-case, it is interesting that Bible Hub chose to make those eight uses be given the significance of divinely heightened spelling.  The capitalization is a great insight into the translations that should come.

The NRSV translations of verses three through ten repeat “Blessed … for,” with the lower-case spelling of “ὅτι” or “hoti” applied, while translating into English to say “for.”  The lack of capitalization and the lack of translating “because’ means readers are not led to dwell on the divine “Cause” for having been divinely “Blessed.”  The capitalization is then more appropriate to accept, as the comma mark in each verse (Matthew 5:3-10) is missed as a mark noting why God’s Blessing is warranted.  Without that inner guide leading one’s divine understanding, a disciple without that guide needs to ask for clarification.

Look at the standard English translations (NRSV) when the comma mark is pronounced and a capitalized “Ὅτι” (“Hoti“) replaces it as “Because.”  It becomes, as follows:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit  ,  Because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn  ,  Because they will be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek  ,  Because they will inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness  ,  Because they will be filled.

7 “Blessed are the merciful  ,  Because they will receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart  ,  Because they will see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers  ,  Because they will be called children of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake  ,  Because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Simply by reading these eight statements this way, realizing that capitalized words are divinely heightened in meaning, Jesus was stating the ‘Cause and Effect’ of Sainthood.  By reading the capitalized “Makarioi” as one’s being Consecrated or one Made Holy, one is able to see Jesus was not speaking in terms of ordinary Catholics, run-of-the-mill Episcopalians, or any old Joe-Gentiles.  The word “Blessed” becomes (clearly, in my mind) a statement of a Saint (or a disciple turned into an Apostle).  The “Cause” that becomes the motivation for seeking the Blessing of Yahweh is then the promised reward of a servant of the Lord (i.e.: priest, wife, Son reborn).

That means verse three literally can be seen to say, “Saints [the Blessed] those poor then breath  ,  Because theirs is authority that heavenly ones.” 

That means that all human beings have heavenly [God-given and eternal] souls within temporal bodies of flesh.  A soul (as pneumati) is “helpless, spiritually poor, destitute, and bent over” when only having physical matter to cling to.  A Saint realizes that absence and begs God to take control of one’s life.  Therefore, Because one has realized [an epiphany] that God does not favor souls who abuse the weak and poor, lording over them for self advancement, giving the illusion of being God’s favorites [His chosen people] their sacrifice of self has allowed Yahweh to use them as His wives, servants, and priests, Blessing them by God reigning [His Kingdom] in their hearts and souls.

Look at verse four in the same way.  It can be seen to state: “Saints [the Blessed] those grieving over death [mourning]  ,  Because they will be sent for.” 

The Greek word “penthountes” is translated as “mourning,” but the root word places focus on “feeling guilt,” with the word meaning “mourning over death” (or grieving over death).  The aspect of “death” is not someone else’s death (as a personal loss external to one’s being), but the concept that being a soul born into a body of flesh that will eventually die.  This means one “mourns” one’s own death to come.  That self-awareness is what Causes one to sacrifice self while still a soul in a living body of flesh, so the soul can be joined with the Holy Spirit [Christ soul] and become Jesus Christ reborn.  That Sainthood then means one has been “sent for,” where the Greek word “paraklēthēsontai” means, “will be summoned, invited, encouraged” to make that sacrifice of self, in order to become “Blessed.”

Verse five is one that I could never get my head around, as the way it is worded makes it seem that being a weakling is blessed by God.  While I can grasp how God would bless someone meek, my question focuses on why would anyone want to inherit the world, because the world is the only place where sinners can exist.  Who wants to inherit sin?  I would be waving wildly at Jesus to get him to explain this one.

The truth is hidden by not seeing “Blessed” as meaning a Saint.  The verse can then be seen in a better light as “Saints [the Blessed] those gentle  ,  Because they will possess this body.” 

Instead of “inheriting the earth,” which a soul in a body of flesh has already done through reincarnation, the soul has married with the Holy Spirit and that means the body of flesh no longer possesses the soul.  By having sacrificed self to be married to Yahweh and being reborn as Jesus Christ, the flesh-earth-dust has been possessed by a Saintly Spirit. 

The Greek word “klēronomēsousin” translates as “will inherit, obtain, acquire,” but has symbolic association with “sonship.”  The Greek word “praeis” translates as “meek, gentle,” which is a statement about one’s self-ego after having been filled with the Holy Spirit.  This makes one act as did Ezekiel, who responded to God’s question “Mortal, can these dry bones live?” by saying, “You know,” too meek or gentle to say, “I think.”

Verse six is one that clearly states this concept, as “righteousness” is the objective of one’s “hunger kai thirst.”  Clearly one is a Saint [the Blessed] when lusts for worldly possessions have lost all inner motivations.  Thus, this verse states, “Saints [the Blessed] those hungering  kai  thirsting for this righteousness  ;  Because they will be satisfied.” 

Here, it is worthwhile to see that both Greek words, “peinōntes” and “dipsōntes,” can yield the same translation, as “desiring earnestly.”  The two words surrounding the Greek word “kai” means that sincere desire goes beyond simply consuming the Word [the bread of heaven] to also sincerely desiring to drink the wine of the Holy Spirit.  The two together reflect the two soul spirits joined, becoming an Apostle and Jesus Christ reborn.

Notice also how the two segments of words in verse six are not separated by a comma mark, but by a semi-colon.  This is the only such mark in the collection found in Matthew 5:3-11 (another comes in verse 12).  A comma mark separates two parts of a sentence, while a semi-colon separates two independent clauses that are closely related in thought.  In divine Scripture, a comma marks a separation in sequence or order, as are those of “Cause and Effect.  A semi-colon marks two closely related clauses, such that a deep desire to be filled with the Holy spirit means one’s deep desires will be met. 

Verse seven then can be read as, “Saints [the Blessed] those actively compassionate   ,   Because they will receive mercy.” 

The Greek word “eleēmones” translates as “full of pity, merciful, compassionate,” (Strong’s) where one is “acting consistently with the revelation of God’s covenant.” (HELPS Word-studies) The Greek word “eleēthēsontai” translates as “will receive mercy” (from a slightly different root, “eleeó” versus “eleémón“), such that it means “receipt of pity or mercy,” while also meaning “will show kindness.”  This must be seen as meaning that oneself is not given pity or mercy, nor given some form of acceptance by God for mistakes made.  The meaning says that once one is a Saint, one who is actively compassionate about being a servant of God, then the ability for one to demonstrate pity, mercy, compassion, or kindness will come from God, through the Christ Mind and Holy Spirit.  To receive such a gift means to act appropriately in those acts of forgiveness.  Once one is a Saint [the Blessed] one will no longer require forgiveness; and no human beings can give anyone forgiveness as that can only come directly from Yahweh through a direct personal relationship with Him [Husband to wife].

Verse eight, following the same line of thought, can say, “Saints [the Blessed] those pure the inner self  ,  Because they the one God will experience.” 

Here it is vital to understand that purity (like righteousness) is not something obtainable by a human being (body with soul) without divine assistance.  Thus, a Saint has been made “clean, pure, unstained, either literally or ceremonially or spiritually; guiltless, innocent, upright” (the usage of “katharos,” according to Strong’s) by the marriage of one’s soul with the Holy Spirit [reborn as Jesus Christ].  The second stage of this development of a Saint is they will experience insight (from the Greek word “opsontai” having the Strong’s usage that means “see, look upon, experience, perceive, discern, beware – a future form of “horaó“).  This inner vision comes from the presence of God within, which will come from that marriage [a wife of God] of a soul (the breath of life) to the living waters of eternal life [as Jesus Christ resurrected].

Verse nine then can show: “Saints [the Blessed] those loving peace  ,  Because themselves sons of God will be named.” 

The Greek word “eirēnopoioi” translates as “peacemakers, pacific, and loving peace” (Strong’s usage)  HELPS Word-studies adds to this element of peacemaker: “a peacemaker bravely declares God’s terms which makes someone whole.”  That says that the individual (body with soul) does not get credit for having created wholeness within oneself, but one bravely surrendered one’s soul to God [death of self –ego], in order to become one with His Holy Spirit and experience the peace that brings.  Thus, this speaks of the peace that comes from one’s marriage to Yahweh, with the second segment speaking of the result of that union.  The consummation of that marriage brings forth the resurrection of His Son’s Soul-Spirit within one’s flesh, which means one becomes “in the name of God’s Son.” This adoption of God’s lineage makes all who enjoy that peace His sons, able to call Yahweh the Father.

[Note: The noun “sons” incorporates all human gender, as Saints [the Blessed] are not limited by human gender. God is masculine essence.  Jesus is His Son as masculine essence.  Thus, all reborn as the Son of God take on the same masculine essence.  A Spirit does not require sex organs because reproduction is unnecessary.]

Verse ten can then be seen as stating, “Saints [the Blessed] those having been persecuted for the sake of righteousness  ,  Because theirs is authority that heavenly ones.” 

Here, it is important to see the second use of “righteousness” (also used in verse six).  Additionally, the “Because” stated here in verse ten is a repeat of that stated in verse three.  This links verses three and six in this statement of the Saints [the Blessed].  This makes “persecution” be relative to one standing upright in the name of Jesus Christ [righteousness] be said to attract attacks from those poor then breath [the poor souls without God or Christ stated in verse three].   Ordinary souls, controlled by their material addictions, will strike out in anger in response to any who tell them they are not going to enjoy the reward of the Father in heaven [preaching the Word and living righteously, filled with God’s Holy Spirit, as stated in verse six].  This can be intuited because of the two associations (verse three and verse six).

With those eight verses stated above (Matthew 5:3-10), the use of a capitalized “Hoti” ceases.  Verse eleven replaces that statement of “Because” with the word “kai,” which begins each of two subsequent segments of words.  The word “kai” can always be read like a marker that signals importance to follow (rather than simply a statement of “and”).  Verse eleven also includes a fourth segment of words, which is merely separated by a comma mark.  The whole verse (following the above model) can be shown as stating:

“Saints [the Blessed] you are whenever they shall insult you  ,   kai  shall persecute   ,   kai  shall speak every kind of evil against you  ,  speaking falsely on account of me.” 

This becomes a prophecy of what the Apostles reborn in Jesus’ name would face.  The two uses of “kai” state the importance of the truth that all of Jesus’ eleven (excluding Judas Iscariot) would face painful persecution, which was rooted in the Temple elite having plotted to refuse to allow talk of Jesus to continue after the guards reported the stone rolled away from the tomb.  They would continue to reject the disciples of Jesus, because they had followed him.  Still, the same persecution of Christians has continued till today, through the overthrow of the original intent – A Church only composed of Apostles & Saints – so seekers are persecuted by False Shepherds; and, the enemies of the true religion of the One God Yahweh, carried out by all who hate anyone or any nation that calls itself Christian [Muslims and Jews] – so Christians are persecuted by Wolves.

[Note: I advise you do research on the people called “Cathars,” who thrived between 1100 and 1300 A.D.  Their name [given to them by others] is based on the Greek word “katharos,” found in verse eight.  They were called “Pure ones” because of their way of life, called gnostic by the Church of Rome.  The Cathars were the ‘practice run’ of a system of genocidal Inquisitions led by the Vatican, which eradicated those (who were a community of Saints) from the face of the earth.] 

Verse twelve is not technically one of the Beatitudes, but it concludes this section as a statement of how one should receive the status of Sainthood [the Blessed].  Here there is the first of many other uses of the lower-case “hoti” and there is another use of a semi-colon.  There is even one use of “kai.”  This is how the twelfth verse can be read:

“rejoice  kai  full of joy  ,  because this reward yours much among those heavenly ones  ;  in this manner indeed they persecuted those prophets those before you.” 

Here, the first word of this verse’s ‘sentence’ is not capitalized.  Capitalizing the first word of a sentence is an English element of syntax and not divine syntax.  The word “chairete” (translated as meaning “rejoice, be glad, or as a hail of salutation) is not capitalized, thus it is not given a higher level of divine importance.  It and “full of joy” (a translation of “agalliasthe“) are words stating similar emotions, surrounding the use of kai.  As a conjunction of importance, both words state the importance of exuberance one should feel from having been “Blessed” by God. 

The phrase “among those heavenly ones” is a statement of being in possession of a soul that qualifies as one of Yahweh’s elohim.  There have been a line of such elohim in human form, which is the history told of in the Holy Bible’s Old Testament.  In reading the Old Testament, one will notice that all – from Adam to Malachi (and all in between) – suffered rejection by a world of poor souls of life breath, without the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, a Saint should not get angry at being persecuted because of being “Blessed,” they should instead be glad for having gained the assurance of eternal life of a soul, independent of a need for flesh.

It is important to see how Jesus was not giving this lesson to the common people.  He was teaching his new disciples (planting the seeds that would grow within their minds) – of what they would become, through devoted study of his works and words.  While common people can hear Jesus now, through the words of Matthew, the message has been hidden from the common brains.   

Genesis, Language, Matthew, Psalms, Romans, Teaching

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost – Reaching the point of decision

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Please read these verses that come from the readings offered for today. A sermon will follow.

Genesis 25:23-26

And the Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger.”
When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. 25 The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. 26 Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.

Psalm 119:107-110

107 I am deeply troubled; *
preserve my life, O Lord, according to your word.
108 Accept, O Lord, the willing tribute of my lips, *
and teach me your judgments.
109 My life is always in my hand, *
yet I do not forget your law.
110 The wicked have set a trap for me, *
but I have not strayed from your commandments.

Isaiah 55:11; 13

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Psalm 65:2-4

2 To you that hear prayer shall all flesh come, *
because of their transgressions.
3 Our sins are stronger than we are, *
but you will blot them out.
4 Happy are they whom you choose
and draw to your courts to dwell there! *
they will be satisfied by the beauty of your house,
by the holiness of your temple.

Romans 8:5-8

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law– indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Matthew 13:20-22

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.

——————–

These are excerpts from the possible readings for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 10, Year A), which will be read aloud in Episcopal churches (those not out of business due to fear of viral disease) and/or broadcast via streaming video (live or recorded) displayed on Facebook (one of the elohim of Aquarian technology) on Sunday, July 12, 2020.

These excerpts are parsed from the whole, rather than present the whole. I cut and paste here to keep wandering minds from being confused by the surrounding verbiage, thus easily confused by the ramblings of a hired hand with a political agenda. If you read the words closely, you might be able to pick up the theme of duality, where “duality” means “an instance of opposition or contrast between two concepts or two aspects of something.” (Google #2)

This should become quite evident in the Genesis reading, as God told Rebekah she would deliver twins. The two fought within her womb, causing her great concern.

Psalm 119 sings of the troubles within the righteous, based on the opposition posed by the wicked, who set traps.

Isaiah sang of the differences present in the world (the duality), all which serves a purpose. He states the duality of a thorn and a cypress and a brier and a myrtle.

Psalm 65 sings of the human duality that is sinner and Saint, where the difference is based on who chooses to “hear prayer.”

Paul wrote to the Christians of Rome, telling them of two types of human beings: those who “set their minds on the things of the flesh” and those who “set their minds on the things of the Spirit.”

Finally, Jesus explained his Parable of the Sower (to his disciples who asked for explanation – found from the missing verses in the reading), such that the seeds will always produce growths that are by design, but dependent on their environment. The duality is (basically) that of a failed purpose and a successful purpose.

The duality of these readings is reflected in the news of America today.

There is fear of a pandemic getting bigger! Oh my!

There is the Caucasian mayor of New York City standing with militant Negroes painting “Black Lives Matter” on a main thoroughfare, in front of a building named after President Donald Trump.

There is the media portraying the demands to defund the police as if that were some kind of logical idea.

There are the Communist Chinese persecuting the Chinese of Hong Kong, while addle-minded (and morally corrupt) Joe Biden is propped up like a stuffed puppet, whose strings are pulled by his keepers making him condemn Donald Trump (like a pot calling a kettle black).

Donald Trump is commuting the sentence of Roger Stone, with Nancy Pelosi introducing a bill to limit presidential powers of pardon (although not a hindsighted bill that would send heinous criminals pardoned by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama back to prison).

Meanwhile, the land is being scorched by oppressive heat and humidity, making wearing a mask in public sweaty, if not life threatening.

The list of terrible news goes on and on and on.

There will never be an end to the terrible news.

It is a purposeful trap played by the media (the duality of left and right wings flapping against one another in the womb of civil war).

It is the illusion of evil that attempts to replace cypress trees with thorns and drown out all ears that hear the voice of God within their minds, designed to turn human brains towards matters of the flesh.

Black lives are souls in colored flesh, are they not? What color exists in the ethereal realm?

Rather than be true priests of Yahweh and speak as divine Apostles – the Saints of true Christianity – hired hands, false shepherds and community organizers with clerical collars around their necks do not teach “stay the course – keep your minds in the Spirit.”

They cannot teach that which they do not know.

One in the pews, who likewise does not know the Holy Spirit within, cannot possibly realize a hired hand, false shepherd, or social justifier is poisoning their minds with propaganda. The blind have no way of knowing who else is blind, but pretending to see.

When I watch the news of the day for five minutes (given that the first four minutes are always commercials – which draw a different rise of ire within me), I cannot believe the world is allowing such things. I boil with hatred.

I turn off the television and go to the computer and log onto Facebook. I am rewarded by meme after meme of worthless clutter, with it being just like the news. I boil with the ineptitude of ‘friends’ thinking an evil world can be kept at bay by inane sayings, stupid jokes, and items of horrific news not shown on the television.

It is enough to cause such deep anger within that one wants to go into the streets shooting anything that moves.

[Calm down. Slow deep breaths. Count to ten.]

To hell with some priest promoting a new protest march on the police department, planning to walk arm-in-arm with the poor Negroes (from another part of town) whose hearts are filled with such deep hatred of Caucasians that they lust for someone – anyone – to set them off as they protest, so they can capture the raw emotion of violence on a smart phone video, which they can then post on social media to further inflame souls.

I don’t need a priest to further my anger that sin has taken over the world, aiding and abetting it by becoming priests.

When Jesus preached a sermon in parable that told of seed planted in good soil, that good soil is the Holy Spirit.

Our souls are the seeds.

Nothing material, physical, or fleshy human – or even American national, including any and all political philosophies coming from the physics of human brains – is the intent of Jesus’ words.

Good seed is ONLY THAT GROWN IN HOLY SOIL – as Saints reborn as Jesus Christ.

From the words of Isaiah, who wrote a song about the ones who will become good seed, the purpose of evil is to tempt.

God knows evil is in the world. God sent His Son Adam to be the first priest to open hearts and minds to the dawning of knowledge of good and evil. To preach about that knowledge, Adam had to experience that evil is as forceful as a suggestion – an idea – a whisper that asks, “Why don’t you go ahead and do it?”

Our souls are born into bodies of flesh that are bound to die. That element of death is our ultimate fear in this world. We fear death when we should only fear God – or losing God’s alliance, by turning away from God. With God within one, death becomes a joyful event.

God knows the world loves to bring death to scattered seeds – before they have any chance of doing anything good. That is the metaphor of birds eating them as soon as they are scattered. The symbolism is souls being reincarnated into a repeating of lost life in the death of flesh.

God knows souls are placed in races and in places that offer little in the way of guidance towards the light of Christ. That is the metaphor of rocky ground. Those souls planted might rejoice when they see the light; but that joy is short-lived, before reality throws a soul back into the darkness of the world.

God knows souls will be sown into fertile places, where Satan will be free to sow his seeds of evil alongside. That is the metaphor of the thorns [the duality of Isaiah’s cypress].

Does that not smell like the ‘freedom of Democracy’ and the governments of Republics?

No ‘slaves’ are sent out into the fields to pull the weeds up, which are there to choke the life Spirit out of good seeds, turning fertile ground into Satan’s paradise.

If a ‘slave’ was to do that, then the good would be destroyed with the bad. That is the meaning of the Parable of the Weeds. God told the “slaves’ “Let them all grow until the harvest [End Time], when a sorting will take place. Meanwhile, get the fire pit started.”

Does the news in the media not tempt one to go yank the hell out of the weeds, while stomping all over the innocent lambs that live in those neighborhoods – all the big cities run by fools that promote selective anarchy (only evil has the right to be unfettered by laws)?

The good soil that a seed is planted in is Jesus Christ.

Jesus was a human being, born of the earth. Adam was formed of dust, given the soul of Spiritual life that would reincarnate from the womb of the Virgin Mary. The Son of God is the Son of Adam. An Apostle is adopted into that Soul-Spirit state of being, as the fertile soil that again holds Jesus Christ.

The good soil today is a Saint that teaches other seeds of souls: “Turn off your televisions and computers. Look away from the evil in the world and look to God and Christ within. Be reborn as Jesus Christ!”

Alas, where is the good soil today?

The fertile soil of America is full of weeds, all of which are preaching insanity, trying to choke out the good of the United States of America and replace it with the evil of a philosophy that is whispering, “Why don’t you go ahead and do it?”

Jesus showed us how powerful evil is when he told Satan, “Get behind me!”

Jesus showed us how the demon named Legion begged not to be sent away from the flesh, crying out, “Send us into pigs!” Jesus gave those demons who possessed one man that freedom; but, then the pigs ran off a cliff and drowned.

Evil has no power other than the power you allow it to have over your soul and flesh.

Fallen angels still have to do the will of souls trapped in dust and clay. God ordered it. However, God did not tell them they could not tempt; and, that temptation serves a purpose in God’s overall plan.

Those who hear prayer will become stronger than the winds of suggestion. They will be able to resist temptation.

When David sang:

“Happy are they whom you choose
and draw to your courts to dwell there! *
they will be satisfied by the beauty of your house,
by the holiness of your temple.

Each individual is a house of the Lord. Each Saint becomes a temple for Jesus Christ.

The Israelites were taken away from the world (Egypt) and taught to live together as one separate people, not mixed and not promoted as equal to the evil of the world.

When David was pure of heart and had the Christ Mind, so too did the people of Israel. Evil always surrounded them. Evil always challenged them. It was God who always led His righteous to stand and defeat evil.

Still, defeating evil will never make evil be eliminated from the world. Evil will always be a test of righteousness.

When David was still a boy, he volunteered to go to battle against Goliath. His courage was God within. With God’s help he slew the evil beast and brought the fear of Yahweh into the hearts of people who had been led by evil.

The Israelites were a nation where evil was always trying to be weeds of growth within their land. The weeds were destroyed, pulled from their midst, just as a good gardener will keep weeds controlled. The Israelites did not attempt to eradicate evil from the whole world, as they left the weeds of evil to grow in the places where the Israelites did not live.

The Jews today still try to live in cloistered places, to keep non-Jewish thoughts from infiltrating their safety zones. That becomes the model of salvation for America today.

The fork in the road is upon us. America either becomes an evil nation, at which point the good seed will be destroyed or choked out for the most part by the weeds of evil. Or, America will be led by someone pure of heart and mind [like a Saintly David reincarnation], who will expel the evil from all power of influence in the nation. Evil will beg to be cast into pigs again.

Whichever way it goes, the path to the future will be drenched in blood.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Human blood spilled is only more of the world returned to the world. The soul cannot be killed; but, a soul can either be recycled back to the world in a new body of flesh, or it can rejoice in being placed in an exclusive neighborhood where only good souls exist – Heaven.

To reach that destination, one must first be planted in the good soil of Jesus Christ, becoming a Saint.

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost & Matthew 13: Mixed nuts & assorted hard candies

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This is an explanation of the parables told in Matthew’s Gospel that will be read aloud in Episcopal churches on the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 12).  This next reading is scheduled for Sunday, July 26, 2020.

Matthew 13:31-33,44-52

Jesus put before the crowds another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

—————

In Exodus 16 Yahweh told Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. In the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” (Exodus 16:4-5, NIV)

Manna (Hebrew meaning, “What is it?”) was spiritual food from heaven, which fed the souls of the Israelites. It was not physical food, from which normal life was sustained [they had livestock for that]. Therefore, God placed a limit on how much spiritual food can be properly digested by a soul trapped inside a body of flesh, so the soul’s health is maintained as a good servant of God.

A daily omer of Spiritual food means being given enough to have a new spiritual dawning that keeps one’s faith at the proper level of excitement for God’s knowledge.  Taking more spiritual food than one can possibly use in one day is then no different than eating too much at the all-you-can-eat buffet [when those existed prior to the pandemic]. Eating too much physical food makes the excess be stored around one’s fatty regions, so one looks grossly unfit.

Similarly, trying to eat too much spiritual food makes all the excess go into the fatty regions of one’s brain, where the result is a life-shortening case of the Big Brain symptom. Relative to that nasty disease, we are told that pigging out on spiritual food led to one being “full of maggots,” with the Big Brain beginning “to smell.” That is the same thing as we see these days, when a priest stands before a gathering of listeners and begins to speak dead words that stink to high heavens.

The all-you-can-eat warning is necessary because today’s Gospel selection amounts to three days worth of spiritual food [minimally, more than two]. Given that two days worth is allowed before the Sabbath (technically Saturday, but Christians cut the grass and play gold on that day of rest), three days worth breaks the rules [as does two and a half]. That can then be expected to lead to bad sermons.

The reason this is three days worth because the mustard seed and the yeast was one parable that Jesus told to a crowd that had gathered along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Possibly, Jesus and his disciples were having lunch – what we would call hoagies – and someone asked, “Can you pass the mustard?”

That led Jesus to point out the source of mustard was the smallest seed and the fluffy tastiness of the hoagie roll was the yeast. Thus, he stood and spoke to the crowd below, speaking those parables. The meaning is: From small, seemingly insignificant things (like you and I) are grow huge rewards that benefit others in many ways (the planned ministries of ALL who call themselves Christians).

Then, after lunch, one of the disciples (or more) asked Jesus to explain his previous parable about the weeds, which was metaphor that flew over their heads. That explanation is the time lapse of the missing verses in this week’s reading. Last Sunday, the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, we read about Jesus telling that parable and then explaining it, skipping over the mustard seed and yeast in flour parables.

Seeing that time did pass by before Jesus then spoke again to the disciples, with the crowd able to hear, Jesus spoke about things of great value – the treasure known to be buried in a field and a great pearl. While those two parables can be seen as counting as one serving of manna (an omer), the parable about catching fish is like that one little extra helping at the buffet, which puts one over the limit. Still, since the three  are all led by Jesus saying, “the kingdom of heaven is like,” the three can pass the omer test as simply being a plate of chocolate pudding and jello, with a side of a pineapple slice – for a variety dessert.

When Jesus had finished telling those three parables, he asked his disciples, “Have you understood all this? They said, “Yes,” which means Jesus was not explaining the meaning of a parable to the commoners by the sea. He was only teaching those who would follow in his footsteps, as him reborn. After all, the crowd was just gathered in case Jesus was handing out free food (wafers and wine?) and not as interested in having parables explained.

Because the disciples said, “Yes” to Jesus’ question, everyone in an Episcopal church today should likewise need no explanation. Right?

I forget.

Disciples are few and far between these days, with nobody even close to being Jesus Christ reborn, so only crowds show up for the ‘buffet at the rail.’  Everything needs explaining.

In case you noticed, all of the parables told in Matthew 13 are about what the kingdom of heaven is like. When the disciples asked Jesus why he spoke in parables, which were not always easy to understand, he told them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” (Matthew 13:11) Jesus was teaching the next generation of rabbis, which means they too would be teachers of divine wisdom as Apostles [Saints].

They would then have their own schools of students seeking to gain divine wisdom, which is the parable of the vine and the good fruit. The good fruit is an Apostle-Saint, who produces seeds that are disciples needing to be informed in divine matters. Thus, a priest should be expected to be an Apostle-Saint and a pewple should be expected to be a student whose heart yearns to be fed spiritual food – once a day, just not gathered on Sunday.

In case there is anyone out there that fits that scenario, here is an omer of insight about the treasure in a field, a perfect pearl, and the great catch of fish that will be sorted.

The kingdom of heaven is like a quest that is driven by the heart, not the head. If you have ever watched the History Channel shows The Curse of Oak Island or Lost Gold of World War II, you see people whose heads lust for the reward of physical wealth. The kingdom of heaven does not care about physical treasures or things that have great value in the material realm. Thus, the kingdom of heaven is like a physical treasure or thing of material value, meaning the reality of something greater – as spiritual worth.

Jesus said two men, each seeking different things, sold everything they had to buy into the same goal – what they ultimately sought that was worth selling everything in order to obtain.  We are never told that they found what they were looking for, but the implication is they found what they sought.  That implication reflects one’s faith, not needing to be told, “Oh, and they both got rich.” 

We are only told that the first man sold everything and with “joy” he bought the field said to contain the treasure. That joy is stated in the Greek word “charas,” which also translates as “delight, gladness, a source of joy,” but implies in Scripture: “the awareness (of God’s) grace, favor, joy (“grace recognized”).”

That means the quest is as valuable as the reward. That means a disciple yearns to know more each day (especially on Sunday), as each day comes understanding that keeps the heart burning with desire to search for the ultimate reward, which is spiritual knowledge that cannot be kept to oneself.  A burning desire to share what one sees as most valuable – worth giving everything up for – can be understood as the most valuable thing anyone can search for.  Sharing that found is more rewarding than keeping something for one’s private use.

The kingdom of heaven is like that. The United States of America is not like that. Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada is not like that. Mountain tunnels in the islands of the Philippines is not like that. Nothing about this material world is like that.

Now, if one is a student of the all-you-can-eat Holy Bible, especially loving the food available at the New Testament bar, one might recall Jesus telling the rich, young ruler [Temple elite, a Pharisee of the Sanhedrin], step two in the process of being assured entrance into the kingdom of heaven means: “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” (Matthew 19:21) In the parables of the treasure in a field and a great pearl, the seekers did just that. The metaphor of those objectives is then the same as the question posed to Jesus about the quest for “eternal life.” That says: If you want eternal life in the kingdom of heaven, then you will be driven to obtain that goal. Otherwise, like the rich, young ruler, you go away grieving because you have too many possessions to release from your grasp.

The lesson of those two parables is then: You get out of life what you are willing to put into life.

Since human life is known to always end in death, human things symbolize rewards of death. Since eternal life is not available in a physical body, one must be willing to sacrifice oneself for something unseen – the buried treasure that was hidden from sight. The great pearl was seen but cost everything to acquire. You cannot have something you want without paying the price.  Both parables reflect someone having great faith that possession of a right to the kingdom of heaven (assurance) is worth sacrificing a lifetime’s accumulation of material things.

Faith like that reflects the ideal of knowing, “You can’t take it with you.”

The sad thing about this parable is everyone gets that. Everyone knows how giving up all the things one has is too hard, if impossible to do.

The rich young ruler is no different than a lawyer I knew in a church, who gave tremendous amounts of his wealth (far from all) and tremendous amounts of his time (which the wealthy also have in abundance) to that church. I’m sure the rich young ruler likewise gave in support to Jesus’ ministry [can you say “Nicodemus”?]; but, when he walked away grieving about having too much to give it all away, in the same way that wealthy lawyer said about such a proposition, “That doesn’t work out very well.”

Talk all you want about give, give, give, and give some more, but Christians are like turnips -you can’t get blood out of them. All people have bills to pay. Living in the real world is not free.

We are forced by society to turn away from this parable and pretend we don’t understand what it means.

We hear these parables and we hear Jesus ask us, “Have you understood all this?”

We gulp as we say, “Yes.” We know what selling everything means. Then, we gulp again.

We overlook how Jesus then said, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

We hear those words words in physical terms so we generate images of teachers (Pharisees, rabbis, priests), of houses (Temples, synagogues, churches), businesses (tables of the vendors, rooms where the scrolls are kept, and the sacristy where the chalices and trays are washed). We miss the true meaning, just like the disciples did not know the truth when they said, “Yes” to Jesus’ question.

Every teacher of the law is meant to be Jesus Christ reborn. Jesus meant that, but the disciples (at that point in time) were clueless.  Jesus knew that a teacher of the law would become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven, which means an Apostle-Saint. A disciple, like those who said “Yes” when they were really clueless, is incapable of being a teacher in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus Christ is the only teacher in the kingdom of heaven. This means the kingdom of heaven is wherever Jesus Christ is teaching; and, that means a human body of flesh and bones is “the owner of a house.”  That becomes more than the body being the temple of the soul, as it elevates to meaning the body becomes the Temple unto the Lord, with Jesus Christ the presiding lecturer [High Priest / King] at the altar [a human brain] each day.

It is from that fleshy, convoluted “storehouse” that all divine wisdom is processed and spoken through mouths of teeth, tongues and lips. The law is written on the hearts of the Apostle, but the Christ Mind knows the depth of truth the words of the law mean.  The words are then the sermons of old and new revelations [what the words clearly appear to state and the “Aha! I see!” of what the words hide that is intended to state].  Hearing a sermon spoken by Jesus Christ through an Apostle’s lips becomes the epitome of spiritual food, which is then the appropriate daily allotment for the maintenance of the spiritual health of that owner’s house of worship.

This means that “sell everything you own and give to the poor” has nothing to do with material commands.  Having a materially rich Peter sell everything to give the proceeds to poor Paul does nothing more than make Peter poor and Paul rich.

“Sell everything” means kill your self-ego. It means cease letting the lusts of a material world keep you from gaining eternal life in the kingdom of heaven. It means stop selling your soul for you to be you.  Instead, sacrifice you to become reborn as Jesus Christ.

To do that, you have to fall madly in love with God and marry Him. Marriage to God means you become His wife [regardless of human gender], so you becomes absolutely subservient to whatever your Husband says. The consummation of that marriage means you bear the Son of God, so the birth of baby Jesus within you becomes you in his name. In the name of Jesus Christ, you can then call God your Father, so you become a Son of God too [regardless of human gender].  You then join in the Church of Christ [true Christianity] along with all other Apostles-Saints.

Now, this realization takes us back to the third extra serving about fishing. To remind everyone about what Jesus said, this is it:

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The world is the sea.  It is a sea of humanity. 

Human souls are the fish. Souls come “of every kind” – red, yellow, black, brown, and white; atheists, Hindu, Muslims, Jews, and Christians; and, Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals, and Anglican-Episcopalians.

The net is death, because we all have to be caught in that trap and pulled away from our bodies that are left in the sea.

The shore is the entranceway into the kingdom of heaven – eternal life with God. That is where the sorting of the souls takes place.  Notice how there is no mention of ‘pearly gates’ or Saint Peter.  Imagine God does the pointing and His angels do the casting.

Into “good baskets” are put the “righteous” souls, with the “bad-evil” souls thrown into the “furnace of fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

All of this should be fairly clear, but it really isn’t. Let me explain this sorting part a little.

This falls under the category of “new treasures” that come from the ole noggin (“storehouse”), when Jesus Christ is doing the talking. It is new because it came to me not long ago, as I wrote about the Parable of the Weeds [Seventh Sunday after Pentecost]. There, Jesus explained the sorting of the weeds and the good grain, where he said: “They will throw [the weeds] into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

There, the metaphor of a weed is the same as a fish here, with metaphor meaning not a physical weed and not a physical fish. When you realize the common element being sorted is souls, which as purely ethereal, immaterial, and without physical anything, then the weeping and gnashing is something that can only be done with physical eyes and teeth. Add to the realization that a “blazing furnace” would have absolutely no effect on souls [cue the Uncle Remus line cried by Br’er Rabbit – “Pleeease don’t throw me in the blazing furnace.”], there is truth to that end that needs to be realized.

As I stated in the other sermon I wrote, the earth is a big ball of matter (as far as us tiny specks of humanity are concerned), which (according to what the scientists tell us) has a big molten-rock center, which plays a role in the laws of gravity. This has to be seen as the age-old view of hell, which is a hot place within the earth. It was there that the fallen angels were cast – into the depths of the earth. John called it “the fiery lake of burning sulphur,” but some have called it Hades [the name of the Greek god of the underworld, which is synonymous with his realm]. That is then the “furnace of fire” and the “blazing furnace” – the center of the earth.

Of course, this too has to be seen as metaphor rather than literal, so a soul separated and determined to be “bad” and “evil” is then sent back to the earth, where the “furnace of fire” means gravity having hold of a physical entity.  The material realm means reincarnation into another body of flesh and bones.

As far as Eastern religions like to believe [and they prefer reincarnation to the blandness of eternal bliss in heaven], Karmic debt plays a role here. When “bad” and “evil” is seen as not having earned enough ‘Brownie points’ to return in a similar position of power, wealth, and influence one enjoyed in a past life, the debt is repaid by coming back in a worse state of life.  As far as coming close to righteousness pays some dividend, that would be akin to the young, rich rulers of the world – who lived according to the Law but could not sell everything – might only slip back a little or stay in a similar position.   Rather than a terrible fate, that sorting would be more like a Homer Simpson “Doh!” than “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

That way of reading this statement of truth by Jesus says the truly wicked do not even get to walk the face of the earth.  They would actually be put back in dead bodies and be forced to spend eternity in a grave; or they would go to Dante’s Inferno. Those options mean a worse fate than being reincarnated in India or southern Mississippi, both of which do occasionally catch a cool breeze.

Still, as far as the parables here are concerned – a human desiring the great reward of eternal life means the “bad” and “evil” souls must be seen as having fallen short of that drive for perfection. The ones who sell everything for the ability to walk righteously (which can only be done by becoming Jesus Christ resurrected) are the “good” fish, placed in the “good basket.” They are the ‘keepers.’

The Greek word “kala” is translated as “good.” It is a form of “kalos,” which means, “beautiful, as an outward sign of the inward good, honorable character; good, worthy, honorable, noble, and seen to be so.” (Strong’s usage) In the story of Jesus and the Rich Man [the young, rich, ruler, as told in Matthew 19, Mark 10 and Luke 18], the use of “good” was discussed.

Matthew can be read so the Pharisee asked Jesus what “good” he could do to be assured of eternal life, while Mark and Luke heard the man call Jesus “good Teacher.” Jesus jumped all over the man (the same by all three) by asking him what he thinks “good” is. Jesus told him “no one is good,” “only God is good.”

The Greek root word used in those three Gospel accounts is “agathos,” of which Strong’s states: “ intrinsically good, good in nature, good whether it be seen to be so or not, the widest and most colorless of all words with this meaning.” This usage explains how Jesus challenged the man for his conception that “good” could be accomplished alone, without God … without being reborn as God’s Son.

That then says here that “good” fish are indeed those who were reborn Sons of God [regardless of human gender]. ANYTHING short of self-sacrifice in order to marry God and give birth (rebirth) to His Son means one’s soul chose to not be “good,” which then brings about just judgment as souls that are “bad” or “evil.”

The Greek word “sapra” is translated as “bad.” It describes the fish that are not placed in the “good basket.” That word is defined as meaning “rotten, worthless, useless, corrupt, depraved.” It is a word used to describe over-ripe fruit. Over-ripe fruit is “bad fruit,” usually that fallen to the ground and picked clean by birds and rodents. This is then like the bottom-feeder fish that would be rejected by Jewish fishermen.

The Greek word translated as “evil” is rooted in “pontéros,” which means “toilsome, bad, evil, wicked, malicious, slothful.” All of these applications in human lives means a state of selfish desires led to wrong decisions. That is the outcome one can expect from trying to ‘go it alone’ and be righteous without giving up the ole self-ego.

The moral of the parable is then an either-or, all or nothing choice. You either sell everything that keeps you from being good or you keep all the worldly things that rock your boat and end up being deemed bad and evil when your soul leaves this world.

Any priest, pastor, minister, or preacher that gladly takes your tithes and gets paid to wear robes and such for speaking sermons about Scripture, who does not tell you those are the only options stated here, that person is just like you and really does not believe the truth. He or she is just like the crowds Jesus spoke to in parables, meaning he or she is clueless. He or she is just like the rich, young ruler, who has too much self-worth – as a priest, pastor, minister, or preacher – to even think about giving up that exclusive right to claim eternal life – the greatest possession he or she owns.

Just think how much your newborn teeth will gnash when you find out the field of dreams you bought into, sold to you by someone you trusted your soul’s safekeeping to (a discounted rate for assurance of heaven), turned out to be a bill of goods, not the good kind. Washing up on the shore of Heaven without that official paper in your spiritual hands means karmic debt is uninsurable.  Realizing that lie then would be enough to bring tears to those new little baby eyes in the next life on earth.

Amen?

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Matthew 10:40-42 – Where is the welcome party these days?

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The Gospel reading for Sunday, June 28, 2020 – the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – is one you will not hear any Episcopal priests preach the truth about. Beware of lies being told by false shepherds. Guard yourselves from being eaten up by wolves in sheep’s wooly vestments.

Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you [his disciples] welcomes me [Jesus as the Christ], and whoever welcomes me [Jesus Christ again] welcomes the one who sent me [God the Father]. Whoever welcomes a prophet [one who speaks the truth of God] in the name of a prophet [Jesus Christ, meaning being reborn as that prophet] will receive a prophet’s reward [eternal life]; and whoever welcomes a righteous person [a Saint or Apostle] in the name of a righteous person [Jesus Christ again] will receive the reward of the righteous [eternal life again]; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water [some iota of emotional welcoming, even if as cold as a verbal insult of recognition*] to one of these little ones in the name [reborn as Jesus Christ] of a disciple [someone calling himself or herself truly “Christian“] — truly I tell you, none of these [aforementioned] will lose their reward [eternal life in Heaven].”

All of the bracketed insertions are mine.  Print this out and take it with you to an Episcopal church [even if not a member … especially if not a member] and check off how many times an Episcopal priest will mention “being in the name of Jesus Christ.”  It will not happen!

Why, you might ask?

Because when my wife died the Episcopal Church had no one filled with the Holy Spirit left within their organizational ‘priest pool’, no one righteous … by far, and no one a Saint … not even close.  And, on top of that, outside of church you can forget about a priest even talking to you [unless you schedule a meeting in his or her church office], because it is Church Canon: Do not stoop as low as the sheeple, because the last thing the Church needs is the sheeple finding out its priests don’t know shit.

This means the whole concept of “welcoming” is a lie, as far as the Episcopal Church is concerned.  Do not listen to any bull about “welcoming the poor immigrants who have not paid a dime in taxes to live off the fat of the land” [white people who work for a living and pay taxes]. The Episcopal Church priests do not have the time of day to offer anyone who calls himself or herself Christian.  They are too busy wearing masks and being afraid their elderly (white mostly) congregations will sue them out of existence, because they went to an Episcopal church and caught COVID19 or some white person brought an assault rifle to church because the priest was marching in some protest that said “I hate everyone in my flock!”

The Episcopal priesthood, circa 2020. They served Pope Fauci.

I urge you to try to be welcomed in the Episcopal Church.  I implore you to schedule time with a priest and demand he or she give you straightforward explanations about Scripture.  I plead with you to stand up in the middle of church and ask loudly, “When did Jesus tell his disciples to devote their lives to forcing social justice, by standing before a rabble screaming, “Do not do what Pontius Pilate or Julius Caesar say to do!” 

Ask them, please, in your most Spiritually raised voice, “When did Jesus say to only love those a priests decides who is worthy of love, when priests say to love those so filthy with sin they need to be left alone … just to keep from getting sin all over oneself?”  Ask how a presiding bishop can openly be an active homosexual, which is an admission of sin and a stance that says, “I love sin too much to give it up!  Screw God’s denouncement of it being an abomination!  Screw Moses!  Screw anyone who will not sell their soul for carnal delights!”

Beg them to answer the question, “When did Jesus say it was God’s Will to preach hate for anyone (much less those like yourselves, who claim to be “Christian”), because of their race?  Wasn’t being Jewish a race?  Did Jesus teach “Hate the Jews!”?

Please, as you file past a priest after his or her having ridiculed himself or herself before God and Christ, in word and deed, on the way out of church say, “You know, neither God nor Christ said you have to be religious.  Free will says do as you wish.  You can break all the Commandments whenever you like.  However, pretending to be a priest when you are not will earn the ‘anti-reward’ – not that “eternal life reward” Matthew wrote that Jesus promised.”

The Episcopal Church has no one with any truth in them, as none of them are led by God and Christ.  In that summation, my disgust it targeting the institution, from top down.  Least are the minions that sparsely sit in pews [in non-pandemic times] and have never done anything righteous, simply from lack of being taught righteousness is expected by God and Christ – nothing less counts.  Still, the whole system is one of enablers, from bottom to the top.  So, all are guilty of sin … like all human beings; so redemption is still within their grasps.  But …. 

For that to happen, someone needs to slap some sense into them.

Jesus called the Episcopal Church out when he said, “You hypocrites!  Woe to you, teachers of [Scripture, no better than] Pharisees.  You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”

Can I hear an “Amen!”?

Amen! 

* In case you can’t read between the lines … I post religious insight regularly and regularly some people read what I post.  However, not a one has the Christian courage to comment, even if it is a cold splash of water that says, “I hate you for writing that … but it did make some sense.  Still, I hate you!”

P.S.

Don’t get me started about the Epistle reading from Paul’s letter to the Christians of Rome, when he said, “Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.   For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:12-14) 

There won’t be anyone preaching the truth of those words either, because no Episcopal priests are under grace!  They might, however, be protesting to free some rioters, flag burners, statue topplers, assaultors, murderers, thieves, arsonists, and faggots.  They love those ‘lost creeps.’

Update Note: 

It seems there is some Episcopal guidance booklet somewhere that knows priests will ask the question, “How the hell am I supposed to preach about the lessons of the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, without making all the flock run away in fear?”  The booklet says, “Simple son or daughter, just take where Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes” and preach about the hospitality of the Church.

It is sickening to me, but it should be frightening to all you who buy priests who will feed you Pablum [an old brand name of baby food] and place no expectations of piety on your sinful asses.  I read one sermon where the ‘priest’ wrote about the Hospitality Committee at his first church [his first church employer, long since left for greener pastures], where he and his wife were wined and dined by those leading church officials.  That fool complained that they did not maintain that luxurious amenities and accommodations for everyone in that church [including the lesbians who married in that church – I assume he officiated, but he did not fess up to that], as if Jesus said, “Welcome anyone and everyone with open arms.  Spare no expense for the cheap who cannot afford luxury.”   

My wife [a priest] and I were similarly treated.  It is the wealthy of a church who run the church and who interview applicants and offer them jobs [called the Search Committee, the Vestry, and/or the Hospitality Committee … they are the same people recycled].  They do the wining and dining because they want to get to know the priest they selected better [not the spouse].  They want to make sure they chose a puppet wisely, so there will not be power plays later, when the priest’s eyes are open to the labyrinth of wealthy Mammon worshippers he or she has landed amidst.  The “Welcoming Committee” is nothing more than a statement, “We run this church, and don’t you forget it.”

Ever wonder why priests get paid less than minimum wage, full-time Walmart employees and are happy with that position?  It is because: they barely have to work; they get great benefits; and they get to prance around town with a collar that says, “Look at me!  I am holy!”  Do not fall for it.  These days, they are all hired hands and false shepherds, with no intention of leading any flock to God and Christ.

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Matthew 13:24-43 – Weeds, weeds, everywhere weeds

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The Gospel reading scheduled for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 11), according to the Episcopal Lectionary, will come from the Book of Matthew. On Sunday, July 19, 2020 a priest of the Episcopal Church will read aloud, amid ritual pageantry from the center aisle of his or her church building, the following (from the New Revised Standard Version):

Matthew 13:24-30,36-43
Jesus put before the crowd another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!”

———-

Omitted from this reading selection are verses 31-35. The heading given to those verses is “The Parables of the Mustard Seeds and the Yeast.” (NRSV) I believe reading verses 34 and 35 are worth knowing, before attempting to explain “The Parable of the Weeds.” Those two verses state:

“Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.  So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:

“I will open my mouth in parables,
    I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”

The fulfillment of prophecy, quoted by Matthew, was prophesied by David in his Psalm 78:2 (footnote supplied by NRSV). That is not a Psalm selection option for July 19, 2020. The words of Psalm 78:2 will be recited in unison during the Proper 21 and the Proper 27 Sunday readings, as determined by the Revised Common Lectionary, applied to the Year A Ordinary schedule. However, it should be seen how Jesus speaking in parables – metaphor that will explain “things hidden since the creation of the world” – should shake one’s memory and make one recall the reading from Matthew 11, which was orated on the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 9 – Year A), when Jesus said:

“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”

Simply by hearing such words be read aloud in an Episcopal Church that alone should awaken the pew-sitter to the realization that what is read aloud publicly in a building set aside as holy (consecrated) demands explanation. The only ones who can easily supply that are those filled with God’s Holy Spirit. That is the truth of a priest, as a true priest is an Apostle (i.e.: a Saint) who has been reborn as Jesus Christ [God has revealed things hidden to newborns], so the deeper meaning is why seekers gather on days set apart as holy (consecrated) – they want to be fed Spiritual food by Saints.

One should not be forced to listen to an ordinary human being dress up like a priest and then orate opinions about the news of the day, because everyone sitting in a pew knows what is broadcast daily through media. The media has not been set apart as holy (not consecrated), because the media does not care about Spiritual matters. Saints of Yahweh do not explain the sins of the world. They explain the Word of God in ways that will open one’s hearts to a burning desire to know more of the truth to the meaning of Scripture. That is the only reason Christians go to church … on Sunday or any other day.

This is then stated in the reading today. Jesus told the parable of the weeds. Then he told the parable of the mustard seeds, followed by the parable of the yeast. After that, verse 36 says:

“Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”’

The question posed by Jesus’ disciples says two things. First it says that the disciples understood the parables of the mustard seeds and the yeast. They both related to the Psalm 78:2 prophecy of little things yielding big results. The “kingdom of heaven” is like an infant (a mustard seed) having access to the Godhead (a mustard tree). The “kingdom of heaven” is like a pinch of yeast added to a large amount of flour (plus salt, oil and water), rolled and turned and placed in an oven, giving rise to hot, freshly risen bread. The metaphor was of Scripture, which was the flatbread of Jewish sustenance, but just add God and the meaning of the words expand greatly. The disciples listened daily to Jesus feed them the bread of heaven, which was probably lessons lasting longer than twelve minutes. They were allowed to ask questions back then, because disciples always are students seeking to learn.

Second, it says the disciples did not understand the parable of the weeds. They did not ask to have anything else explained to them.  Previously, in Matthew’s thirteenth chapter, Jesus had told the parable of the sower and the disciples asked him to explain that to them, which he did.  Rather than listen to Jesus say something that made no sense to them, they asked him to explain what he meant, so they could learn.

This means that verses 37 through 43 are a classic example of what a sermon delivered by Jesus was like. Anyone professing to be “Christian,” thereby claiming to be “in the name of Jesus Christ,” should take the time to explain ALL READINGS delivered on a Sunday. Every sermon should begin with the invitation: “Anyone have any questions about what had just been read?”  Any priest that does not make this offering and does not take the time to fully explain Scripture to those seeking to learn the meaning is not qualified to hold that position [because of a lack of Holy Spirit within].

Jesus explained to his disciples – his students who thirsted for learning – “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.”

Jesus said, in the Greek of Matthew, “Huios tou anthrōpou,” which is three words with three meanings, not one meaning in three words. The only capitalized word is “Huios,” which alone states the importance of “Son” or “Descendant.” That one word (capitalized) stands for the “Son” of God, stating the Father of Jesus was greater than a normal father. The word “tou” is a definite article (from “ho“), meaning “the,” which is omitted from translation. Still, as a form of “tis,” the word means “what,” as a statement of possession. The “Son” (a noun) is clarified as in “what” form God’s offspring possessed, which was “of man.” The Greek word “anthrōpou” means, “human, mankind, of the human race.” Therefore, the good seed sown is that grown into everyone stated in the Holy Bible, from Adam to Jesus, by all who had become the “Sons” of God, which were then the Jews, but which are today Christians.  It should be read as stating “good seed yields the Son reborn in mankind.”

Jesus explained to his disciples, “The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom.”

The Greek word “kosmos” is translated as “the world,” but the word also conveys “worldly affairs; the inhabitants of the world; adornment.” According to HELPS Word-studies, the literal meaning is “something ordered” “properly, an “ordered system” (like the universe, creation); the world.” The Greek word “agros” translates as “field,” but that should be seen as metaphor for the “material realm,” from which comes the order of bodies of flesh that are filled with souls. Here, the Greek word “huios” is written in the lower case, in the plural number (“huioi“) and translated as “people;” but, the truth says “the sons of the kingdom” or “the descendants of the kingdom.” Therefore, “the people of the kingdom” are the souls planted into the world to continue the lineage of God’s Sons of mankind of earth, being first “sons,” before they grow into “Sons.”  

Jesus then explained to his disciples, “The weeds are the people of the evil one.”

Again, the lower case spelling of the Greek word “huioi” is found. The words “huioi tou ponērou” then states “sons what of evil” (or “sons possessed by evil”), where the Greek word “ponērou” also translates as “toilsome, bad, wicked, malicious, slothful” (Strong’s definition and usage), but means “properly, pain-ridden, emphasizing the inevitable agonies (misery) that always go with evil.” (HELPS Word-studies) Thus, the “weeds” are metaphor for the growth of “sons” that are natural in the “world,” as the earth is the only place evil can exist in human form.

Jesus then explained to his students, “the enemy who sows them is the devil.”

The Greek word “echthros” is translated as “the enemy,” but that is a substitute word for the real meaning: “hostile, hated,” with “a deep-seated hatred,” implying “irreconcilable hostility, proceeding out of a “personal” hatred bent on inflicting harm.” (HELPS Word-studies) The one who then planted the weeds upon the face of the earth is identified as “the devil,” coming from “diablos,” meaning “slanderous, accusing falsely. The word (if capitalized) gives a proper name read as “the Slanderer” or “the Devil,” but the lower case becomes a statement that evil one, like its weeds are, is weak, unworthy of being properly addressed or given heightened importance.

Jesus then explained to his Apostles-to-be, “The harvest is the end of the age.”

The Greek word “therismos” is translated as “harvest,” but the same word means a time for “reaping” that which has been sown and is fully grown. This then leads to the Greek words “synteleia tou aiōnos,” which have been translated as “end of the age.” The same words can also be stated as “completion what of a time span.” The Greek word “aiōnos” is the genitive case of “aión,” which is defined by Strong’s as meaning “an age, a cycle (of time), especially of the present age as contrasted with the future age, and of one of a series of ages stretching to infinity.” HELPS Word-studies adds, “characterized by a specific quality (type of existence).” This then does not mean “at the end of some unknown, distant time,” but it instead means the end of every human being’s life. Everyone’s soul will be harvested at “the completion of one’s time span on earth.”

Jesus then explained to his disciples, “the harvesters are angels.”

The Greek word translated as “angels” is “angelous.” The usage, according to Strong’s is ”a messenger, generally a (supernatural) messenger from God, an angel, conveying news or behests from God to men.” When one recalls how the parable stated: “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’’ One must realize that “the servants” of God, as “angels.” This awareness exposes the hidden reality that is consistently stated in all Hebrew usage of “Yahweh elohim.” The “elohim” are the “gods” of God, His servants who both planted (in the Creation) and harvested souls released, when their times on earth in bodies of flesh are completed. Thus, “the world” or “the universe” was “the field” into which Yahweh planted souls via His elohim – in their image was mankind – males and females – to be.

Jesus then explained privately to his children, “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.”  This referred them to remember the conclusion to the parable story that said, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned.”

Here it becomes valuable to look closely at the written Greek, as the NRSV translation has veered from the truth and transformed it incorrectly, by paraphrase (a common flaw of English). The Greek text states: “Hōsper oun syllegetai ta zizania ,  kai  pyri katakaietai  ,  houtōs estai en tē synteleia tou aiōnos  .” This is clearly three segments of words, which state three stages of development. The second segment of words is introduced by the Greek word “kai,” which typically translates as the conjunction “and.” However, there is no need to write “and” following a comma mark, meaning this word in Greek alerts the reader to a vital element that must be understood. With this knowledge, the Greek literally can become translated as stating:

“Indeed just as therefore is gathered those worthless resemblances of wheat ,  kai  in fire is burned  ,  in this manner it will be in the realm that completion what space in time  .“

The Greek word “zizania,” which the NRSV translates as “weeds,” is actually stated by Strong’s to mean (in the singular): “zizanium (a kind of darnel resembling wheat).” The usage is then said to mean, “spurious wheat, darnel; a plant that grows in Palestine which resembles wheat in many ways but is worthless.” HELPS Word-studies adds, “(figuratively) a pseudo-believer (false Christian); a fruitless person living without faith from God and therefore is “all show and no go!”‘ Therefore, rather than Jesus simply saying to his disciples, “As the weeds are pulled,” he stated the metaphor of those who clearly will be judges: “Indeed just as therefore is gathered those worthless resemblances of wheat.”

The capitalization of the Greek word “Hōsper” serves the purpose of stating the importance that must be seen in the translation “Indeed just as.” The metaphor of parable then clearly states moreover than “weeds,” but the souls of “false Christians” and “fruitless people living without faith” will be treated exactly as would be weeds harvested, which have no value. The importance of kai is then announcing those souls will likewise “be burned in fire.” The final segment then places focus on full opportunity being given to sinners to change themselves – die of self-ego and cease being worthless growth, as weeds, transforming into good wheat – over a natural lifespan. Once reaped, one’s soul will be judged by the results of one’s life – good seed grown mature or bad seed reflecting having been sown by evil.

Jesus then explained to his disciples, “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.”

In this repeating of “Son of mankind,” just as seen previously, but those words are now complemented by the Greek “tous angelous autou,” which is best stated as, “those messengers of him.” Knowing that an “angel” is the same as an “elohim,” and knowing that all “elohim” are Spiritual creations of “Yahweh,” the reality of this statement is that Jesus is one of Yahweh’s elohim, as the Christ. His “messengers” then become elohim by being reborn as him, being transformed from worthless human beings into “angels in the name of Jesus Christ.” At the time Jesus was speaking to his disciples, he was still alive and well – as an elohim of the Father in the flesh. However, after his death, resurrection and ascension, Jesus Christ came back on Pentecost Sunday and then “sent out the elohim” that would be his Holy Spirit soul merged (married) to the souls of men and women who had previously been mere mortals.

Again, the NRSV does not adequately preserve the divine intent of the written text, so it becomes necessary to realize the Greek that is written. It states: “kai syllexousin ek tēs basileias autou panta ta skandala  kai  tous poiountas tēn anomian ,” which can translate better as:

“kai  they will collect out from among those ruled by [the Christ Spirit] all who are stumbling blocks  kai  those causing this disobedience ,“

This translation makes it easy to see how this fully supports what Jesus would say later, found in Matthew 18:6-7: “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!” The same Greek word “skandala” is used, with it also written as “skandalisē” – “shall cause to stumble.”

This says, overall in verse 41, that the good seed sown as good wheat are the disciples of Jesus, who would fully develop as Apostles (i.e.: Saints), who would in turn act as elohim in the name of Jesus Christ to convert worthless Jews and Gentiles from weeds into wheat. All other Jews and Gentiles [i.e.: Romans] would continue to be worthless replicas of wheat (false Christians) or weeds trying to choke the life out of good wheat, while producing more weeds from their own evil works. The seed sown by the devil are the stumbling blocks to all growth and development of good wheat. Those will then be identified upon their deaths by the souls who gained eternal life as elohim in the name of Jesus Christ. In essence, this says “You can run, but you cannot hide.”

Jesus then explained this parable’s outcome to his disciples by stating, “They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Here, the introducing word “kai” is missing.  By adding that marker to the text, the verse then shows the importance of “they will throw them into the blazing furnace.”

The plural pronoun “they” is produced through the Greek word “balousin,” such that the third person future plural form of “balló” says, “they will cast.” The ambiguity of “they” needs to be realized as not being the elohim in the name of Jesus Christ, but instead the evil ones themselves. Their own actions as stumbling blocks will condemn their own souls, based on their actions while in the flesh. It will then be those lifestyles enjoyed while alive as mortal human beings, which did as much as humanly possible to block the growth of true Christians in the world, that will be what will “cast” the plural “they” into the “furnace possessing eternal fire.” Because sin is only allowed to exist on earth – in the material realm – the core of the Earth is where molten material generates the gravity that keeps all matter in this world from flying out into outer space. Thus, the metaphor of of ‘furnace possessing eternal fire” means those souls will be “cast” back into the world they so dearly loved, where Satan will form them new bodies of temporal flesh to die in once again [reincarnation].

The “weeping kai gnashing of teeth” are impossible of immaterial souls, especially those thought to be consumed by a furnace of fire. Therefore, eyes that weep and teeth that gnash are signs of a rebirth in a human body of flesh, which has grown old enough to know the errors of one’s ways and realize the anger of oneself not being less selfish before. This is the glimpse of the future God allows to the lost souls, before returning to the material realm.

At that point Jesus explained to his disciples, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

 The Greek word “dikaioi” translates as “righteous,” but this is a word that requires personal experience to begin to fathom. To be righteous is the actualization of Christ within one’s being. Anything less makes ‘righteous” just a word of human parameters, which is the ideal or concept of being “morally right or justifiable; virtuous.” (Oxford Languages definition) The use by Jesus, as written by Matthew, implies having released a soul from a dead body of flesh that had been in union (married) to Yahweh, a brother or sister in the name of Jesus Christ, the Sons of God the Father. Thus, those souls will return to “the kingdom of the Father.”

What is overlooked, due to one missing the aspect of the center of the Earth being the furnace of fire that creates a gravitational pull to the matter possessed by the devil, is how the “righteous will shine like the sun.” The Greek word “eklampsousin” is a statement (in the third person plural future) that says “will shine forth.” This is then a statement about the radiance that will be emitted from the souls of those filled with God’s Holy Spirit (i.e.: married souls to the Christ Spirit). It is the same shining forth that came from Moses’ face, when he spoke with God in the tent of meeting. It is the same aura depicted in religious painting of Saints with halos over their heads. The shining forth is then the righteousness of Jesus being the light of truth by which men’s souls are led. It is the shining light of the Good Shepherd, which cannot be hidden under a barrel or behind a veil, as it will always be known as a source of life for those souls lost in bodies doomed to die mortal deaths.

As a contrast to the magnetism of the earth’s gravitational pull, the sun emits a much greater field of influence, such that all planets in our solar system circle the sun. This, again, relates back to the lower case spelling of “diablos” – “the devil” – as no matter how hard the influence of earthborne evil is targeting human beings, it pales in comparison to the strength of the light of God – Jesus Christ. This is how Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) Therefore, the metaphor of “like the sun” is a statement of Jesus being the light, who shines through his Apostles (i.e.: Saints) as them being true examples of righteousness.

Finally, Jesus explained to his disciples, “Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

This is a statement that becomes the mantra of Apostles and the “Good News” of the truth being told. Jesus spoke those words to his disciples, which included Judas Iscariot, whose ears were probably tuned in to Jesus speaking heresies that could be sold for silver coins. The rest of the disciples would begin hearing the Word of God, as it flowed past their lips on Pentecost Sunday, when they spoke in foreign languages they had never learned, but then spoke so fluently that about three thousand with ears heard the truth and their hearts burned to know more. Jesus said that to his would-be-Saints, so they would be able to explain Scripture just as fluently as he did. Jesus said that to future Apostles who would explain the parables of Jesus in ways that go well beyond his explanations to them as disciples.

In the great overview of this parable told to the crowd of Jews, which was over the heads of Jesus’ disciples, causing them to ask him to give them insight to the meaning [the had also asked Jesus to explain to them the Parable of the Sower, which he did] it is important to know that the metaphor of servants planting good seed in their master’s field, finding good wheat surrounded by weeds, it is imperative to realize that the earth IS the place where weeds grow, without the need for servants planting them.  The seeds of evil blow in the wind and land everywhere.  Thus, the weeds were not the exception found by the servants.  The exception was the wheat among weeds.

Without good priests explaining such things to the ones who show up in a church on Sunday, the fields of the world will be nothing but weeds.

Amen

#explanationoftheparableoftheweeds #SeventhSundayafterPentecost2020 #Matthew132430 #Matthew1867 #Matthew132443 #Parableoftheweeds #Matthew133643

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Matthew 18:15-20 – Binding and loosening on earth and in heaven

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Jesus said, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

——————–

The key instruction in this reading is: “if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” 

Americans are members of the ‘church of income taxes’ and they are gathered in your name, payabel to the Internal Revenue Service

That says Gentiles and tax collectors are sinners and sinners cannot possibly be “gathered in my name.”  That is because it means sinners are those whose souls have not been merged with the Holy Spirit and therefore not reborn as Jesus Christ.

The Greek word “ekklēsia” (also “ekklēsias“) translates as “church.”  When Jesus was speaking these words to his disciples, they were all happy Jews, all of whom went to synagogues regularly.  None of them had yet become “Christians,” so there was no such thing as a “church,” per se.  This means the true translation of the Greek is as “an assembly, a (religious) congregation.” (Strong’s)  

When Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them,” think about what that means.  Jesus was there among his disciples, when he said that.  Judas was there as well.  Jesus was still three Matthew chapters (19, 20, 21) away from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem for his final Passover.  That means (minimally) Jesus was with an assembly of twelve.  However, at that time none were gathered in his name.  They were all gathered in their names, as disciples that followed Jesus around.

In verse 20, when Matthew wrote the word “onoma,” which is translated as “name,” that word also translates as “a name, authority, cause” [Strong’s definition], but also as “character, fame, reputation.” [Strong’s usage]  HELPS Word-studies adds the following:

“3686 ónoma –name; (figuratively) the manifestation or revelation of someone’s character, i.e. as distinguishing them from all others.

Thus “praying in the name of Christ” means to pray as directed (authorized) by Him, bringing revelation that flows out of being in His presence. “Praying in Jesus’ name” therefore is not a “religious formula” just to end prayers (or get what we want)!”

This then follows (in brackets): [“According to Hebrew notions, a name is inseparable from the person to whom it belongs, i.e. it is something of his essence. Therefore, in the case of the God, it is specially sacred” (Souter).]

Simply from realizing all that, to say “gathered in the name of Jesus” does not mean, “Here meets the club that calls itself a gathering of those who like Christ.”  In the name of Jesus means one is related to Jesus, as the Son of man reborn Spiritually, so all true Christians are Jesus Christ reborn.  Anything less than that does not qualify as being in the name of Jesus.  It qualifies as being in the name of Gentiles and tax collectors.

There is no such church on planet earth today that has pews with sinners sitting in them that would ever dare to confront someone claiming to be a true Christian, when there is nothing about his or her character, fame, reputation, authority or cause that says, “I walk the path of righteousness, as did Jesus, healing the sick, casting out demons, and explaining the Word of God for all who seek to know to become my brothers, in my name.”  Therefore, the only way to confront this absence of another who needs to be called out is to stop hanging out with Gentiles and tax collectors and pray for God to send His Holy Spirit upon oneself.

The only ‘spirit’ in an arena like this is the ‘spirit’ to give to the rich, as if an installment plan on the stariway to heaven.

That makes a “church” of one, but when that “church” is where Jesus Christ truly resides, then it is just a matter of time before one can touch two or more others, so the Holy Spirit has brought about a true gathering of those in the name of Jesus Christ.  Because Jesus will be there, two thousand years after his death-resurrection-and-ascension, the truth of that statement is Jesus will be there physically as those who are in his name, as him resurrected.

The only ones who profit from a church that is led by and filled only with a bunch of heathens pretending to be something they are most assuredly not are those who charge customers money [call it tithes, dues, club membership fees, pledges, or any amounts under 100% of a member’s ownings].  They pass off charging customers as though customers need to pay for the right to sit in a building that is supposed to be one God ordered built.  They want the customers to pay the salaries of those who are hired hands (working for false shepherds), who do little towards keeping the building nice and clean.  So, the warning Jesus gave to his disciples (including Judas) says, “Do not fall for those who claim to be the Christ, but are not, do not believe them.” (paraphrased from Matthew 24:23)

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Matthew 18:21-35; Questions about forgiveness?

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Note: I refer to an interpretation of Matthew 18:15-20 in this interpretation [relative to angle brackets used], but that interpretation is actually made in my interpretation of Ezekiel 33:7-11.  Sorry for any confusion created by that Old Testament reading being delegated “Track 2,” thus hidden under years of dust and barely seeing the light of priestly attention.

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In my interpretation of Genesis 50 (a potential accompanying reading for this Gospel selection), I wrote of this reading in comparison: Joseph speaking to his brothers who sinned against him; and, Peter’s questions to Jesus about a brother who sins against him. I recommend reading that article for additional insight as to the meaning of this selection from Matthew’s Gospel, as I am not going to delve deeply here into the metaphor of the parable told by Jesus.  (I did that in the other article.)

I want to make the point here about what I have said about looking at the original text of Scripture, as a way of confirming the English translations are accurately presented.  Even when they are able to convey the truth, translation erases all potential for grasping deeper meaning.  Truth is hard to nail down to a singular cross of meaning, as it has a way of expanding beyond one dimension.

An example that I routinely use to point this out is the translation of Acts 2:14, which the NRSV translates as, “But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.’”  Some can read that (or hear it read aloud) and think, “Man, I bet it was crowded there and Peter wanted those distant to hear him, so the poor fellow had to shout.  I hope he didn’t strain his vocal cords.”

The Greek word written,  “epēren,” is translated as “raised.”  According to Strong’s, it actually states “he lifted up,” in the third person singular, aortic active indicative form of “epairó.”  The simple truth says Peter was a ‘third person’ with a voice, so “he lifted up” his voice.

The Greek word translated as “voice” is “phōnēn.”  According to Strong’s that word can truthfully translate as “voice,” but it can equally be truthful as “language” or “dialect.”  Keep in mind that Peter and the other eleven new Apostles were speaking in foreign tongues in order to get everyone’s attention.  So, what “language” was Peter speaking loudly?

When I once explained that this does not place importance on Peter yelling loudly, but that his voice was “raised” spiritually, by the Holy Spirit, one woman screamed at me, “Then why doesn’t it [the translation] just say that?”

She did not want to hear anything of value come from me, so it was pointless to argue with her in a Bible study surrounding.  However, “it” does say that [when “it” is “ἐπῆρεν”], when one is reading the Greek text and having to look up every word, because one is not fluent in Greek.  The singular translation in a reading takes one away from that realization; but a singular translation is how people are given a general overview of the truth.  It is the stuff of syntax and how we make sense of anything spoken.

In Matthew 18:21 is another example, but this example is one that involves untranslatable marks that act as guides for the written text.  Often we see in a reading from John how he placed parentheses marks denoting him making an aside statement.  Such as: “Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias),” from John 6:1.  Or, “(For not even his brothers believed in him.), from John 7:5.  Such marks do not change the text.  They just assist the reader in understanding.

The NRSV translates Matthew 18:21 as saying: “Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” 

While that certainly can be a viable English translation that conveys the essence of what is stated, setting up that which follows, the reality is there is signage within that verse that is ignored.  Those marks of direction are important, as they point one to see how something deeper is stated.

The Greek text shows the following (using transliterations and my system of marking punctuation as separation points that should be realized): “Tote proselthōn  ,  «ho Petros eipen  »⇔autō  ,  Kyrie  ,  posakis hamartēsei eis eme ho adelphos mou  ,  kai  aphēsō autō  ?  heōs heptakis  ?” 

Look closely at the symbols that are directions to the reader, which are ‘lost in translation.’  Notice also the comma mark followed by the Greek word “kai” is not something normally accepted by an English teacher, because it reads like someone stuttering.  The comma mark intuits “and,” so to follow that with the word “and” is redundant and unnecessary.  However, I believe “kai” is a marker word that does not simply say “and,” as it acts to identify  text that follows to be read with heightened importance, as divinely elevated.  That is why I make it bold text.

By noting this actual text, one can then see the importance of the capitalized Greek word “Tote” being overlooked by elimination.  Capitalization in divine text means more than simply a name, title, or first word of a sentence.  A capital letter (in Greek) is a mark that should be recognized in a heightened sense of direction.

The word “Tote” translates as “Then, At that time,” with the capitalization addressing the previous statements (the reading of Proper 18, Matthew 18:15-20).  Because this reading is separated from Jesus telling his disciples about addressing the sins of those said to be in his name (commonly called a “church” – “ekklēsia“), the importance of the timing (“At that time” or “Then”) is lost. 

The capitalization acts as its own stand-alone statement of divine elevation, making the timing important.  It then links (solely) to “proselthōn,” meaning “to approach, to draw near” (Strong’s definition) and “I come up to, come to, come near (to), approach, consent (to)” (Strong’s usage). 

The NRSV translation sees that word and makes a translation of “came,” implying Peter at some time later “went” to Jesus to ask this question.  That is misleading, as this should be read as saying  “As soon as Jesus finished telling the disciples to confront a sinner among themselves [not some global confrontation with sinners everywhere] Peter had “a revelation draw near.”  The NRSV translation does not paint this picture, because it diminishes the value of these words in translation.

To see this is indeed the purpose of Matthew being led by the Holy Spirit to write those words as he wrote them, he then used a comma mark to separate that statement of sudden dawning.  He then followed the comma mark with another mark, that of a double left angle bracket (“«“).  This symbol should be read in two ways.

Relative to the first way to read it means one should read my analysis of Matthew 18:15-20 [found in the article Ezekiel 33:7-11], where a single left angle bracket and a single right angle bracket marks off the words “<eis se>“.  Matthew is now using a different set of marks, where the angles are doubled.  Individually, a double left angle bracket becomes a statement of “much lesser than,” whereas a single left angle bracket is a “less than” symbol. 

Jesus had stated generically the potential of a sinner “among you” (“<eis se>“), with the lesser than left angle bracket being a signal of one found to be less “in the name of Jesus” than the rest.  Again, this is found in the analysis of Matthew 18:15. [Ezekiel 33:7-11]

Here, in Matthew 18:21, the double left angle bracket now should be seen as Peter having a specific remembrance of one just as Jesus spoke.  Therefore, this untranslated mark makes a statement that the sinner Peter is remembering is a specific sinner that is indeed “among” them, sitting right there, who has done as Jesus warned the disciples to confront.  The mark does not name anyone specifically, meaning Peter can himself sense he has been much lesser than Jesus expects.

The double left angle bracket can then be read as a pronounced state that is relative to “Peter” (as “« ho Petros,” or “the answer [“proselthōn“] of a sinner [“«“] dawned  [“ho” as “this answer”] on Peter [the one Jesus called “the Rock”]”).  The double left angle bracket appearing after in the section immediately Matthew using a single left angle bracket has to be read as a guide to connect the two sections together, meaning “« ho Petros eipen  »” is complimentary to “<eis se>”.

That means the second way to read this double left angle bracket is as one-half of a tandem, with the double right angle bracket that follows the word “eipen” being the other completing one whole set of enclosing marks.  This means a set of brackets surround the words “ho Petros eipen” makes those words be indicated to be read together, as a silent aside rather than an outward statement.

The NRSV translates “eipen” as “said,” but Strong’s says it means “answer, bid, bring word, command.”  While “said” can be a statement of truth, seeing it in an enclosed setting, as a silent aside, means one should intuit nothing is actually “said” audibly.  Instead, this is the dawning that “drew near At that time,” within Peter’s mind.  Therefore, to understand “this Peter answer” or “this Peter command” means this aside is less about Peter speaking words to Jesus, and more about God having moved into Peter’s brain, spurring his memory to see an “answer” to what Jesus spoke, as well as being “commanded” by God to remember and then speak. 

Here, with the word “eipen” being followed by a double greater than symbol (the double right angle bracket), says Peter remembered a sinner among them.  When I wrote about the single right angle bracket (a “greater than” symbol) connected to the Greek word “se,” meaning “you,” I said Jesus implied his disciples would reach a “greater than” state of being, which would necessitate them confronting sinners “<among you>”.  Now, the “much greater than” indication of a double right angle bracket  following “answer” says Peter’s silent remembrance was led by God, urging him to raise a question to Jesus.  This element of interpretation is missed in the simple English translation.

Following the placement of double left and double right angle brackets surrounding “this Peter answer” is a mathematical symbol that is called a left right arrow (“⇔ “).  I have written in the past about this symbol being used, where important clarity comes from realizing a statement is being made about the truth of a statement, or the falsity.  This is became the symbol says, if that said before is true, then that which follows is true; or, if that which is said is false, then that which follows is false.  The arrow is a marker to connect two together as one.  Here, that symbol points to the word “autō,” which is the dative singular form of “autos,” meaning “him” as an indirect object.

The implication of the double right angle bracket [a heightened state of awareness, due to the Holy Spirit moving within Peter] and the left right arrow symbol acts to project the truth being a reflection of Peter’s “answer,” which is a recall of sins that had been witnessed by “him.”  Jesus is, therefore, not the primary person being stated by “autō” (although that can be a secondary “him”).  This is not realized by a translation that implies simply, “Peter said to Jesus,” which is not written. 

The totality of double angle brackets setting off “this Peter command,” as a silent reflection within that becomes the “truth” pointing “to him,” says Peter was the one who knew the truth of which Jesus had just preached.  Peter had experienced a sinner among the group of disciples; but, the falsity was Peter’s having allowed the sins to go unconfronted.  That became a sin Peter had just realized “of himself,” which elevated “him” to confess to Jesus.

The indication of Jesus is then seen by two comma marks setting off the one capitalized word “Kyrie,” which translates as “Lord.”  That makes it appear to be an address to Jesus, where Peter called him “Master” or “Sir.”  This is relative to the NRSV translating “eipen” as “said.”  However, when the word is realized to Peter having a conversation with “himself,” inside his mind, the address of Jesus is less important to grasp (even if it is true).

Reading “Kyrie” that way diminishes the importance of a capitalized word, such that the comma marks separate the fact that Peter has just had an epiphany, based on what Jesus said about confronting one of their own who is found sinning.  This means the left right arrow pointing “to him” (as the “self” of Peter, a viable translation) has become the truth that is then separately identified as “Lord.”  As a stand-alone word of heightened divinity, the capitalization says the word is the same Holy Spirit existing in Peter as existed also in Jesus.  The comma marks then state the divine elevation (temporarily), when Peter became an Apostle in the name of Jesus Christ (the point of the prior lesson).  He then was coming forth as the “Lord,” addressing Jesus as another Son of the Father, a brother of Jesus.

Following the comma to the right of “Kyrie” begins a statement that implies a question, but does not end with that punctuation mark.  Stated literally is: “how often will make a mistake upon myself this brother mine”.  The same words can state, “how many times will sin among me this brother mine”.  While this is the root of a two-part series of words, which does end as the first of two questions, this is also Peter speaking in the presence of Jesus and the other disciples, as God announcing, “many times will sin brothers, both in front of you (to you and to others among you) and discretely, requiring one be led to realize sins having been done by a brother, based on deductions of reason made.”

To read that as a statement, one should see how God was speaking through a disciple who was not yet in the name of His Son.  When Jesus taught his disciples to confront sinners among themselves – as being in his name – they would be empowered with the Christ Spirit (the Holy Spirit), individually (an Apostle-Saint) and collectively (an assembly of Apostles-Saints), therefore enabled to cease all sins within one (Jesus) and many reborn as Jesus. 

When Jesus said to confront a sinner one-on-one, in a small group speaking to one, and finally for the whole “assembly,” all had to be in the name of Jesus Christ.  Only with that divine presence within “a church,” speaking to one sinner, could the result be the sinner returning to the fold (as a lost sheep) or be rejected (as a wolf pretending to be “among you”) through that correction process.  Thus, Peter was speaking as the voice of God, stating “there is not one among us who can cease sinning on one’s own will-power, as brothers of man are born sinners and will remain sinners until they have each become in the name of Jesus – the Son of man.”

The first of the two questions asked by Peter is then separated by a comma mark and followed by the Greek word “kai,” which is a marker word announcing importance must be read into “aphēsō autō  ?”  The word “aphēsō ” (“ἀφήσω”) is translated by the NRSV as [somewhat loosely saying] “should I forgive,” seen as a subjunctive form of “aphíēmi.”  That translation does not hold up to close inspection. 

The same word (“aphēsō “) also appears in John 14:18.  There it is translated as “I will leave,” relative to Jesus promising “Not I will leave you orphaned.”  There is no subjectivity used there, neither is anything pointing to “forgiveness” being the intent, based on the context.  This makes “should forgive” a poor translation.

The Greek word “aphíēmi” bears these definitions: “to send away, leave alone, permit.”  The usage adds, “(a) I send away, (b) I let go, release, permit to depart, (c) I remit, forgive, (d) I permit, suffer.” (All from Strong’s.) As the future active indicative first person singular, the word states what “I will” do, relative to “sending away, leaving alone, permitting, letting go, permitting to go on, or allowing to suffer.”  In this way, the word is a dependent form of the root verb, as a statement of an action completed in a moment.  This means any possibility of “forgiveness” is momentary, at the time of witnessing a sin being committed, meaning the question is relative to “I will look the other way” or “I will ignore the sin.”

The importance of this question has to be seen in the light of Peter having had an epiphany of awareness, based on what Jesus had just taught about confronting sins.  Because God’s Holy Spirit had forced Peter to realize “how may times” he has seen sins and not done anything to confront them, God was moving Peter to ask how “I will permit him?”  At the same time, Peter heard himself ask, “Will I forgive him?”

This is an important question for Peter to make, simply because the Pharisees witnessed Jesus’ hungry disciples eating grains from the field without washing their hands before eating – a sin they called a “break of tradition.”  Jesus was confronted by those leaders, because Jesus was the one expected to be responsible for the actions of his students. [Matthew 15:1-20]  Jesus responded to the Pharisees that it was not what goes into the body that defiles, but that which come out – from the heart.

When one sees Peter speaking as the mouth of God, via His Holy Spirit, the first person becomes God speaking.  God sees all sins and knows the hearts of all, especially those students of His Son.  So, Peter was given the eyes of a Saint and enabled to realize all the sins that God puts up with, while seeing himself as needing to trust God in this process taught by Jesus.  Therefore, the greatest importance of the first question is: “[how many times] must God ignore sin?,” while being rhetorical because the purpose of Jesus is to address this failure.

The follow-up question is then shown as being “heōs heptakis  ?”  That is translated by the NRSV as “As many as seven times?”  A better translation would be “until seven times,” noticing there is no capitalized word that should be given greater importance.  By seeing “until” as the translation, the point is less about a stroke count that needs to be remembered, as “until” allows for any number to pass as unaccounted for sins ignored or forgiven.  That makes “seven times” be the important element of this second question; and that demands one recognize the symbolism of the number “seven.”

The number seven is symbolic of perfection.  It bears the sense of completion, in a base-seven system, where Creation took six days [a non-fixed amount of time], and the seventh day was the day deemed holy by God.  [Today we are still in the “seventh day.”]  This should be read into the word “heptakis,” as “seven times” [only used here in Matthew and in Luke’s account of the same question by Peter] is relative to coming to that point of rest, after all the work of creating an Apostle has been done.  Man will always be sinners “until perfection is completed.”

When this one verse is read in this way, the question posed by God in Peter was asked for all the sinning disciples (remembering Judas was there) to hear, as “seven times” would immediately bring their minds to the Sabbath – as the seventh day.  Hearing one of their own ask “seven times” would get them to think the strength to confront a sinner amongst themselves would be greater if done only one day a week.  The question heard was then akin to them all asking, “Should I make confrontations to my brother(s) on the Sabbath, when sins are more in need to bring out into the open?” 

Keep in mind here that this was the consistent theme the Pharisees had against Jesus, for healing sinners on the Sabbath.  If healing was wrong on a Sabbath, then what about confronting someone for sinning?  Therefore, God had Peter ask a logical question about what day would be the best day to confront a sinner among Jesus’s followers.

The answer given by Jesus (who also spoke what God told him to say) was a resounding “No (from “Ou” being capitalized).  He said do not “wait until the seventh day.”  He said do not ignore sin for six days and only address it “once a week.”  Then, following a comma mark of separation, Jesus said, “but until seventy times seven.”  This is not meant to be read as 70 X 7 = 490!!! 

God does not speak trivially.  God does not mean for little articles, prepositions and conjunctions to be ho-hum wastes of breath.  Thus, the word “alla,” translated as “but,” also means “otherwise, on the other hand, except and however.”  When this is understood to be Jesus responding to Peter and the other disciples – none of whom were yet ready to confront anyone among themselves – “but” becomes the time of exception, when a permanent change would set upon them, making the Apostles-Saints, reborn as the Sons of God.  That is the meaning of “but” here.

Form that and the restatement of “until” or “as many as,” which confirms those listening who would find that change within themselves (remembering Judas would not make that cut), each number must be read separately: “seventy times” and “seven”  Here, again, numbers need to be understood symbolically.

The number seventy converts to “seven times ten.”  The number “ten” is another number that is associated Biblically to perfection, for various reasons.  The way I see it is numerologically, where it is an elevated form of one (as 1+0=1).  This is relative to the base-10 number system, where numbers 0 through 9 are ten numbers, which recycle, such that 10 is another 0 beginning on the first level above 0-9.  The number 1 equates to man or self, but 10 equates to the highest level man can achieve by himself.  Ten then becomes a symbol of one (1) striving to be the best one can be.  As such, all the disciples of Jesus were learning to be tens.

When that striving for perfection is done by each disciple seven days a week – not just on the Sabbath – then they become a seventy number.  Still, a seventy is no better than a Pharisee, Sadducee, scribe, high priest, or rabbi, as all see that as their responsibility seven days a week.  In today’s Christianity, a priest, minister, pastor or leader of a church equates to a seventy or “seventy times,” but a seventy is still man alone with his (or her) good intentions.  Thus, the Law (the Ten Commandments) is related to the symbolism of ten, with following the Law seven days a week equating to being a (self-willed) seventy.

That is where the extra “seven” added by Jesus becomes the perfection of God, which comes through the addition of the Holy Spirit.  That was where Jesus was, as a human being; and it was where the disciples would be, once the Holy Spirit had joined with their souls, in their flesh.  The extra “seven” makes a “seventy times” (10 x 7 = 70) become a seventy-seven (11 X 7 = 77). 

Eleven is a master number that numerologically is 1+1=11, where it could be reduced to a 2 (if a human refuses God’s help – ala Cain).  Cain spoke with God, thus he was one who had been raised to a level of seventy, as a disciple of Adam.  However, when it came time to become “seventy times seven,” Cain refused God’s help.  He was reduced to a 2 – a body with a soul.  An eleven equates to the one being the soul with the other one being the Holy Spirit, so when the two are added together they becoming an eleven.  That becomes the perfection of God walking in a human body seven days a week, not just on the Sabbath.  Therefore, this is the meaning of verses 21 and 22.

The parable told is then one that needs to be seen in this light, where God is the only one who can forgive the sins of any.  I wrote about this in my explanation mentioned earlier; but do keep in mind the aspect I mentioned about the Pharisees complaining to Jesus about his disciples not following tradition.  The end of that lesson says it is what comes from one’s heart that determines what defiles.  Likewise, this parable ends by Jesus saying, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Matthew 20:1-16 – Seen through the eyes of Jonah

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Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

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First of all, I welcome seekers to read the article I posted in September 2017.  I stand behind everything I wrote then today. 

Because I wrote that then and because I just recently wrote about the accompanying Track 2 reading from Jonah 3:10 to Jonah 4:1-11, where I mentioned the parable of the vineyard owner, I just want to focus on the nuts and bolts coming from the text above (as presented by the Episcopal Lectionary’s NRSV rendition) and how that meshes with the Jonah reading. There is a sermon just in the connections there and this Gospel reading.

First, and foremost, Jonah 4:10 has God telling Jonah, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow.”  Also relevant is Jonah 4:2, which is Jonah’s assessment of God as being, “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.”  Those play well into the parable setting of a landowner who put up with poor laborers.

The bush, an overnight, one day only appearance, becomes metaphor for the vineyard owned by the landowner.  The bush was created by God to provide shade from the heat of the day, so the metaphor there is the good laborers are workers that happily do the work hired to do, not worried about the physical conditions.  The bush acts as the creation within a worker of God’s Holy Spirit.  No worker grows that by will, as it can only come as God’s blessing upon His servants.

The confession made by Jonah, about the mercy of God, His ability to not be angered by mistakes, and amazing love, disliking to mete out punishment speaks of the way a Father cares for a Son, which is not the same as a mother’s care.  For Jonah to use that confession about God’s ways as his reason for running away from the work expected by the Father, one should intuit the vineyard theme being place where Mother Earth welcomes her sons – those who tend a garden. 

It can then be seen how the laborers who stopped working, just as Jonah ran away from his obligation, were not punished by the landowner at the end of the day because the laborers were all the children of God – children who ran to momma saying, “It is too hot!”  Momma then said, “Well lay down in the shade and rest.  You have done enough.”  As the children of a forgiving Father, each child was paid for a day’s wages, as agreed, but the sons who did what the Father expected (not what the Mother allowed without punishment) are the one most highly rewarded.

As a parable, where metaphor is the objective to grasp and not the literal picture painted by words, one must keep in mind this reading begins by stating clearly, “The kingdom of heaven is like ….”  There was no earthly vineyard where a landowner went and hired human beings to pick grapes.  The owner of heaven is God.  Since no physical bodies of flesh ever go to “the kingdom of heaven,” the metaphor of laborers becomes focused on souls. That makes the metaphor for the vineyard  be Christianity, where the good fruit of the vine is Christ; and that means the labor done is relative to those souls that has been merged with God’s Holy Spirit (reborn as Jesus Christ), harvesting new Christians.

The metaphor for Christians is clear: What was told to Pharisees by Jesus is told to all the leaders of Christian denominations (equally by Jesus).  The comparison to Jonah is that he was a true prophet of the Lord – like Jesus, as a Son of God – and Jonah not only ran away from his responsibility, he had to spend three days and nights in the belly of a whale [more metaphor for another time to explain] before he was forced to go to Nineveh and work [thrown into the vineyard as a reluctant laborer]. 

It is important to realize that the landowner with the vineyard that needs harvesting is offering the opportunity for employment.  The landowner going out looking for laborers is God speaking to the souls of human beings, asking them if they would like to work for Him.  All of the laborers are idle, which means they are doing nothing for themselves or for others.

The Greek word “argos” is written and translated as “idle.”  The definition says “inactive, idle,” but the usage implies “lazy, thoughtless, unprofitable, and injurious.” (Strong’s)  When the landowner is seen as God the Father and the laborers given the opportunity to work for the Father, becoming His Sons, this says normal human existence is non-productive and selfish.  To then see how that opportunity to be ‘adopted’ by God is only an opportunity taken for a short while, until the heat and work becomes too much, says those who enjoy the title of “God’s servant” [call it Christian, Jew, or Israelite] comes with most returning to the idleness of human life, doing nothing to save themselves or anyone else.

In that vein of thought of idleness, priests, pastors, minister, and rabbis for Jesus would rather run to some far away place and pretend they are righteous, sneaking off to some shade to hide and avoid the true work demanded.  This becomes like some Roman Catholic pope that can retire to a villa and spend all the promised wealth of a day’s wages, when the “usual daily wage” is a “denarius” (Greek “dēnariou“), or the physical wealth of life, not the spiritual wealth of redemption.  The Christian vineyard needs true Apostles-Saints-Prophets going into the world teaching others how to be good fruit of the vine, which requires self-sacrificing labors to receive that reward.

The problem with that plan is it is hard work, done in the hot sun of persecution.  Priests, pastors, ministers and rabbis for Jesus love the titles they have and collars they wear and cars they drive (paid for by donations made to organizations that hire ‘temp laborers’), but none of them want to get their hands dirty.  The reason is telling someone, “You are going the wrong way,” usually gets the response, “Who the f**k are you?”  When a priest has one of the pewples say that to him or her, then he or she starts planning on looking for a new parish, because pewples like to hire a priest that says, “God loves you all, so you are all going to heaven. Amen.”

This make the time for payment for services, when the landowner said, “Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.”  That order of payment for services rendered meant the ones who did the most work, in the least amount of time, got the highest amount per hour.  The ones who were hired first, who might have done an hour’s work, but had to stay all day to get paid, their grumbles were over thinking [a big brain malfunction] they should get paid the same hourly rate the first got paid, meaning their length of service demanded more money.  That must be seen as metaphor and not the reality of twenty men all holding a denarius, with a few happy and the most unhappy.

The agreed wages for doing God’s work is not going to hell.  All got paid that wage for serving God the Father.  However, the ones who really did the work the Lord expected, they were given the price of admission to the kingdom of heaven – eternal life.  All the rest who pretended to do the work got the price of admission to an new life on earth, as a reincarnated soul.  This is the unseen aspect of day – when the light of life shines – and night – when a life comes to an end and the soul has to find a new place to call home. 

A day’s labor in the vineyard is a lifetime of service to God.  To be hired to work for God is the equivalent of when one hears the call to serve God and responds by saying, “Yessir, please use me.”  That is one’s age at the time of becoming “Christian.”  Some are sprinkled with water as infants, so they hide in the shade all their lives, having maybe picked a few Bible Stories grapes in children’s church.  Some see the errors of their lives in their teens and turn to religion as the work to do for salvation, but then they too find the work too hot to enjoy, so they sit and rest.  Others find God calling them to serve in their adult years and serve for a time, until distracted by selfish concerns.  Those who hear the call later in life and thank God for the opportunity and do the work without stopping – until death – they are the last who become the first rewarded.

While it is easy to read this story, knowing the setting of Jesus being in Jerusalem talking to Pharisees, where the landowner was looking for workers that were first the twelve tribes of Israel, but they didn’t work.  So, it then became the two nations of Israel, but they didn’t work either.  So, then it was the returning from exile Jews, but they didn’t work either.  So, late in the day, the Apostles went to work and the job got done.  Still, the same can be said of Christians today.

The Holy Roman Empire was hired first, but then they got hot and went to sit in the shade.  So, then the Lutherans and Anglicans (Henry-ites, who love their women with heads cut off), but they too stopped working.  That led to the hiring of migrant workers: Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and all the other breeds of Christianity that formed in the New World; but they too laid down  and stopped working from the heat of persecution.  That meant in the evening of day some true Christians not killed by all the others came to work and stuff got done.

The metaphor of this story is not who you know and who you blow [i.e.: born a Jew means as little as being baptized a Christian as an infant].  It is about works [thank you brother James].  All the ones hired to do the labor in this vineyard were those who walked up to the landowner and said, “I believe in God.”  The landowner (God) then said, “You’re hired!  Go bring me some souls!”  Instead of souls, he found a bunch of malingerers pretending to be working, expecting to all get the same pay – A free ticket to Heaven [or: a Get Out of Hell Free card]. 

To go to a church in America today is to go hear some young pastor or minister tell people that come to, “Join in!”  The people then watch a bouncing ball on the huge teleprompter that displays the song lyrics they sing [not the old standards].  The audience [cannot say “assembly” for a rock concert] stands and claps as they do the wave by their seats, while the five-piece band [not just an organist and pianist] play hot licks, with a choir of berobed swinging sisters dancing in place.  There is some swarthy lead singer and lead guitarist acting like they are making musical love on stage [cannot call it an “altar”].  Those laborers long ago quit working for souls.  They sit in the shade, got it made.

To go to an Episcopal or Anglican-Methodist-Lutheran-Catholic church and hear some young priest tell the pewples that protesting is a God-given right in a democracy, as if a protest that is only a smoke screen set up to protect rioters, thieves, and murders is all done in the Lord’s name is pure laziness and injurious.  Taking a Scripture reading and twisting it into some false message that suits one’s agenda is ceasing work and sitting in the shade of clergyhood.   Lying so someone seen as an evil president can be defeated in an election, is worse than being simply a quitter.  It is someone who is eating the grapes he or she is supposed to be gathering; or destroying the souls of those they are supposed to be saving.  When the pewples praise the young priest for having the courage to decry his or her own race, as a false way of projecting love of one’s lesser brothers, the only positive  is showing up, although the results shows nothing positive was done.

All the early laborers are trying to be Jonah, knowing what work one was hired to do, but preferring to run away or tell everyone what they want to hear.  All those answering the call because easy money could be made, while still being idle and useless is not something the Father sees as being responsible.  Mother Earth might wrap her loving denarii around her babies, excusing all their sins as just being born of a woman, in the flesh; but God the Father is strict about who enters His realm.

Then, there are the laborers who love telling the world how evil it is and God is going to kill you for sure!  The pewples who give them praise leap with joy, maybe even handling poisonous snakes to prove they are not afraid of believing in God.  Then, they rally to protest the protesters, carrying crosses and bearing chains, knives, and guns, hoping that some BLM or Antifa rat tries to mess with them.  Surely, God is on their side.

They are the workers hired that are like angry Jonah, certain that God is going to nuke Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington, just to prove to the adulterous and wicked that God don’t mess around with sinners.  Then, when it goes on and on and on, never ending, or if their president is overthrown and some other worthless politician takes his place, they sit and pout in their houses of the holy, being anything but responsible laborers.

The ones who do the work and save souls are those who walk fearlessly into arenas and face the hungry beasts that will tear them limb from limb, all while praising God Almighty.  They have been taught the lessons of Scripture properly.  They do not fear death, so a little hard work and a lot of persecution in the heat of the day is know to be just a passing discomfort.  They look forward to pay time.  They might have come to the vineyard late, but they come wholehearted and willing to work until the job is done.

Of course, Jesus spoke in metaphor about the harvest taking until the end of an age.  In human years, that means there is still time now.  It is still only five o’clock, with plenty of daylight left to get the job done.  The problem is too many have no Spirit within them to do the work.  Their souls fear death, so they enter the vineyard under false pretenses.  Their will-power is always short-lived and easily tossed away when the going gets rough.

This is where Jesus said [based on the above*], “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”  Jesus was telling parables like this for a week before his final Passover.  He told parables like a vineyard laborer hired at 5 o’clock, with only an hour until nighttime. He told of sheep and goats being separated and judged.  He told of virgins having oil in their lamps, with others forgetting to buy the oil needed to stay alert. 

Night time is quitting time, because night is like darkness, which is like death and sleep time.  Payment is made when the clock hits six and day becomes night.  Payment being the option of Go to Heaven free and Get Out of Hell free means the true Christians get to go be with God at death, while all the pretenders get recycled through reincarnation.  Pretending to do God’s work got them another chance at life in the flesh in a godforsaken world.

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Matthew 22:1-14 – The Wedding Banquet

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Once more Jesus spoke to the people in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

——————–

This Gospel reading will be delivered publicly by an Episcopal priest on the Sunday of the Ordinary season after Pentecost that is known as Proper 23. This will next take place on October 11, 2020, the day in the lectionary deemed the nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost.  It was last read aloud on October 15, 2017, which was also the nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost.

This reading comes from the string of parables Jesus taught while in Jerusalem prior to the official beginning of his final Passover attendance in the flesh.  Following Jesus’ return from beyond the Jordan, when he raised Lazarus from death, he spent four days making his presence be known, preaching on  the Temple steps.  This served as his time of inspection as the sacrificial lamb of God, when he would be found to be blemish free.  Matthew 21 told of his first day in this inspection process.  This reading is then an account of the beginning of the second day of Jesus’ inspection in the pubic arena.

It is worthwhile to take note that Luke presents a similar parable, told at a prior time when Jesus used the analogy of a great banquet.  In Luke 14 we read how Jesus went to eat dinner with some Pharisees on a Sabbath, at which point he noticed how the lawyers tried to gain favorable seating at the table.  This led Jesus to privately tell a parable that also told of invited guests refusing to accept an invitation to be freely fed by a man of great wealth.  That scenario is now made public, as Jesus is answering a question about the “kingdom of heaven” on the steps of Herod’s Temple.

When it is realized this is a parable about what the kingdom of heaven is like, it become important to grasp how nothing is stated by Jesus that says this place can be compared to some ethereal realm, such as Sheol. 

Instead, just as Jesus told a parable that was relative to the Pharisees scrambling to find a place of honor at a table inside a high-ranking Temple leader’s house, this parable about the kingdom of heaven is relative to the world we all live in.  It is a worldly comparison, which is both metaphor and symbolic of known reality.  That means the kingdom of heaven does exist in the worldly realm, just as Jesus existed there, while also existing beyond the realm of comprehension a human brain can fathom.

When the word “kingdom” is realized to be the place where a king rules, the realm of heaven is where God (YHWH) rules.  This means the “king” in this parable is God the Father.  When Jesus said his story was about “a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son,” it is easy to see how that metaphor is speaking of God as the king and Jesus as the son.  However, this is not the way to read the intent.

First of all, when Christians identify Jesus as the Son of God, the truth of that identification is Jesus became a vehicle of flesh within whom God spoke.  By realizing that, God was telling the parable through His Son Jesus.  This simple factor makes Jesus become synonymous in the parable Jesus told to a slave or servant, as one who went to invite others to a “wedding feast” (Greek “gamous“).

Second, and most important to realize, when Jesus is realized as the messenger in this parable, that says that when he spoke (as God) to the people, saying the wedding feast was “for his son” (“tō huiō autou  ” – “to son of him”) the metaphor is not about a marriage planned for Jesus (the servant) but to those others wo receive the message.  The invitation for a ‘wedding feast” (or “banquet”) is not to come as a guest, but the invitation is to become married to the king and become his son.  The invitation is a proposal from God to become the “son of him.”

Certainly, in the times of Jesus, men were the only ones of significance.  Women and the feminine pronouns were exempted from Jesus’ words, giving the impression that the message was only for males of importance.  Christians today love to think that having a penis was seen in olden times as a God-given right to rule the world (at least for men to lord over women).  Today, ordination of female priests, as an aftermath of “Women’s Liberation” and “Equal Rights” and as some mighty statement of power to all people, everyone loves to play the exact role as God painted through the words of Jesus (recalled by Matthew).  Nobody wants to hear an invitation to become the “son of [the king]” because all those hearing the invitation are so filled with self-importance that nobody (male or female) wants to submit to being the wife of God – and we all know that being a wife means being completely submissive to the Will of God, at all times.

[Here it is important to realize the tradition, as to who is responsible for throwing a wedding feast, says the father of the bride foots that bill.  Part of that designation is based on the tradition that having a female child is an ongoing expense, until someone takes that responsibility away through marriage.  Thus, a wedding reception is a celebration that a financial liability [a daughter] has been given away!  Seeing this makes it easier to accept the invitation to become a son of the king was metaphor for being a wife.]

The term “tō huiō autou  ” – “to son of him” must be grasped as an offer to become the offspring of God.  Because God is spiritual, God is the creator of all souls.  God is masculine [He is not a goddess], thus all souls are masculine as all that is spiritual is masculine.  All that is flesh is feminine, simply because feminine is the opposite of masculine.  The feminine flesh comes with different body parts that accommodate procreation [called males and females], so human beings like to think they are both masculine and feminine.  The proposal by God, sent via His messenger Jesus, says: “Your soul-flesh needs to marry God in order to become holy.  If you become holy, then you become subservient to God’s Holy Spirit, as the wife of God.  That, in turn, makes God your Father and you [regardless of human gender] His Son.”

Now, the metaphor in the parable told on the Temple steps spoke loudly of the Jews, who were God’s chosen people.  More than delivered to the normal Jews [many of them pilgrims in town for the upcoming Passover], God directed this parable though Jesus to those leaders of the Temple (Pharisees, Sadducees, high priests and the Sanhedrin), saying “they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.”  Not only had those leaders plotted to have Jesus killed (roughly one week later), but they would later persecute the apostles of Jesus (“his slaves” of God reborn as Jesus in the Christ) the same way.  Still, that is the historic bend of this parable, which denies the present historic and all times since Christianity became an exact reflection of the degradation of a religion claiming to be chosen by God.

Christians today make light of the concept of marrying God and becoming His Son Jesus reborn.  Just as the Jews [the remnant leftovers of a fallen Israelite nation] were only special in the sense that God had sent His servant(s) Moses (and Aaron) to invite the children of Israel to begin a learning process that would lead them to complete servitude to Yahweh, all marrying His Holy Spirit and becoming His sons [regardless of them possessing penises or vaginas], they never could fully sacrifice their self-egos and become lowly servants of God.  Likewise, worship of Jesus as an external god [an idol] keeps Jesus on the car dashboard or in a box at the church, so one is free to sin and then kneel before an icon and pray for forgiveness.  Christianity has then become an exact reflection of ancient Judaism, because so few over time had bothered to actually marry God and become Jesus reborn.  It is much easier to pretend righteousness than actually walk that rocky road.

Today, none of the big names of Christianity [called all kinds of prestigious titles] would accept an invitation to give up all the celebrity that comes from being a leader of multitudes, only to serve God as a lowly messenger [sans golden crucifixes and bejeweled crosiers].  It would mean giving up the best seats at the buffet and all the benefits of being known as a cable media contributor, when times come to defend religion.  That is why God spoke through Jesus about one going to a “farm” [the Greek “agron” means “field,” thus an area of interest] and another to a “business” [the Greek word “emporian” means “trade” or “trafficking”].  Today, this should be seen as the invited choosing instead to go to their mega-churches or their major denomination headquarters [be it what it may be], rather than marry God.

Christians seize those who ask questions about seeming inconsistencies in Scripture or what the true meaning is about when Scripture has been twisted so it fits one group’s special political agenda.  Those who speak the truth that comes out from within them, making them minimally become temporary sons of God [regardless of human gender], they become mistreated as outcasts.  While the laws of the land no longer allow for public lynching’s, burnings at a stake, or stoning those deemed sacrilegious to death, the messenger is regularly killed if the messenger does not toe the line as to commonly held beliefs.  Those beliefs are where misguided ideologies have been constructed, themselves taught and worshipped as gods.  Jesus said a prophet is not a prophet in his home town; so, if they will try to kill Jesus, they will certainly try to kill anyone who threatens a safe (and profitable) way of existence.

When God then spoke through His Son Jesus, saying, “The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city,” this should strike fear in everyone who cannot place their (his or her) hand on a Holy Bible and swear to God, “I have sacrificed my self-ego so my body of flesh can serve the Lord totally as a lowly servant that does nothing but seek others who will receive the Holy Spirit and become likewise Jesus Christ reborn.  I understand that is the truth of being Christian.  So help me God or strike me dead for lying.”

Plenty would stand up and publicly state those words, knowing no lightning bolts will ever come from the sky and kill anyone who says them.  They would have too much to lose by giving up their lifestyles as leaders who profit from religion, knowing the masses will give and keep giving more to follow someone who says he or she is God’s servant, so he or she never has to do anything other than give a few bucks to be saved.  What they do not realize as they would have broken a commandment (using the Lord’s name in vain) and death will surely come to them, as they stand in a body of flesh that breathes air, because their soul will be promised nowhere to go once physical death does overcome that body of flesh [a certainty].  Thus, the king sending troops to destroy murderers and burn cites [remember Sodom and Gomorrah?] is then metaphor for removing all chances of eternal life from those who anger God by rejecting His invitation to marry His Holy Spirit and become His Son reborn.

The troops are not angels flying down from heaven, swinging flaming swords.  They are all dressed like soldiers in the Red Chinese Army.  They are so-called Russians with CCCP t-shirts under their fatigues.  They are any and all Muslim militia ready, willing and able to sacrifice their lives for Allah, just to think that the great Satan in the West can be struck down dead.  The King does not create those who are willing to commit evil deeds in the world.  The troops of evil are created by the lack of God’s sons on earth.

Marriage to God is the only way for a soul to avoid an end that will always find it returning into the world as a body of flesh that has no true life.  Jesus is the model that all true Christians must become, in order to release their souls from that path to death.  Refusing to accept a proposal of marriage to the King means signing one’s own death sentence.  An “incarnation” means “the embodiment of a soul in some earthly form,” so “reincarnation” says a soul failed to marry God and be released from that repetition.  Refusing the proposal says one said, “I believe,” when that was a lie, bringing about one’s own condemnation – always a weak soul controlled by the evils of the flesh.

God then told the crowd that had asked what the kingdom of heaven is like what God the King did next.  He ordered his slaves, saying “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” Then we read that “Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.”  Clearly, this is the advent of true Christianity.  The Jews no longer were the special people they thought they were, as simple Jews and Gentiles were invited by the servant apostles to come marry their God.  Those accepting the proposal became true Christians.

As true as that was, the truth is also that the rapid spread of true Christianity became stunted by Constantine beginning to use the separation made from the fallen Temple of Jerusalem and the influx of pagans into gatherings called churches [ekklesia] to create an organization that would be little more than a reproduction of that Temple system destroyed.  This becomes a model of the collapse of Israel and Judah [two nations split from one], falsely resurrected as Jerusalem in Judea.  Early Christianity also split into Eastern and Western ideologies that organized hierarchies that ruled over the people, rather than lead the people to individual marriage with God.  Thus, the “good and the bad” reflects a mix of true Christians (apostles-saints) with pretend Christians [themselves degreed in beliefs], all at the same celebration of marriage for different reasons; that becomes a comparison to Jesus later talking of the sheep and the goats.

It is here that the companion reading from Luke becomes helpful in understanding the collection of “both good and bad.”  After those invited to come to the great banquet came up with one measly excuse after another for not attending, the master of the house instructed his servants to “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.”  The metaphor of “poor, crippled, blind, and lame” says the replacement invitees were those deemed to be sinners because of their physical maladies.  As for the Jews being the invitees, that meant the servants were told to go find the lesser Jews and bring them in the house to be fed.  The same sense of oneness should be applied to the Christians brought to the wedding banquet (or feast), such that “both good and bad” is a poor translation that needs to be closely examined, in order to grasp what God actually told his slaves to find.

The Greek text states the servants of the king brought all they could find, who were “ponērous te  kai  agathous” or “evil both  kai  good in nature.”  The Greek includes the word “kai,” which is a word that makes a statement of importance that should be recognized in that to follow where “kai” is placed.  By realizing that and by knowing these words are separated by comma marks, making them work collectively as one segment of words, the translation actually states, “pain-ridden also  kai  good in nature.” 

When read as one segment of words, the “bad” comes first, but then importantly (“kai“) those have been transformed into “good.”  The word “te” has been translated as “both” (a good translation possibility), but it translates better as “and.”  Because “kai” translates as “and,” “te” is transformed into “both,” simply to avoid saying “and and.”  Because all words are part of one segment, the meaning is the ones called are “both – pain-ridden turned into good.”  Therefore, no one present in the wedding banquet is “evil” or “bad,” although all had prior been “wicked” as sinners, who were pained by those addictions to sin before their marriage to God.

Improper translations need to be addressed at this point, as twice the NRSV & NIV ignore an important element (in particular when realizing the Jewish audience Jesus was speaking to), which is translated as “guests.”  In both cases, forms of the root Greek word “anakeimai” are written (“anakeimenōn” and “anakeimenous“), which translates as “I recline, especially at a dinner-table.” (Strong’s usage)  Certainly, any hired help would not be permitted to recline at a wedding party, implying that any so relaxed would be guests; but the element of reclining at a table to eat and drink offers implications that must be grasped.

In the Passover Seder ritual, the Jews recline while eating that specific dinner.  It is customary for a child to ask his (or her) father, “Why do we always sit to eat, but tonight we recline?”  The father then teaches all in attendance that reclining while eating is something only the rich do.  This says the Israelite race is meant to be poor servants to Yahweh, with the exception allowed being when they honor their commitment to observe the Passover.  It is then symbolically stated through the ritual that it is the sacrifice of themselves to serve only God that makes them rich spiritually.  Thus, at a dinner offering bitter herbs and charred bones of flesh, they are allowed to recline while dining.

The Passover was when the Israelites committed to their God, through the sacrifice of a blemish free yearling lamb, whose flesh was eaten and whose blood was spread over the doorposts of their homes.  It was the presence of that blood that spared them from the physical death of the firstborn males that came when the Lord passed over Egypt that night.  This must be read into this parable told by God through His Son, as it says all who had been wicked but then were good in nature had made themselves sacrificial lambs, so their souls had married God making each of them the son of the king.

By understanding that everyone is wholly good, through that marriage to God the King, it then makes sense when God said through Jesus, “When the king came in to see the one’s reclining, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe.”  That translation leads a non-Jew to think, “Well, I guess the Jews back then all dressed in wedding robes and gowns, as some Jewish ritual us Christians don’t have to observe.”  That is wrong to think, as the only ones who dress up fancy in a wedding is the bride and bridesmaids.  That makes knowing what was actually written important.

The Greek text written states, “eiden ekei anthrōpon ouk endedymenon endyma gamou“.  That literally translates to say, “he saw there a man not being dressed in clothes of marriage”.  The last word, “gamou,” can either translate as “marriage” or “wedding,” as it is the root word written throughout this parable, even meaning “wedding feast.”  That makes the word “endyma” (“clothes”) combine to mean the “apparel of marriage” or the “wedding garment.”  This says that “the king” [i.e.: God, who has an all-seeing eye] looked out over everyone present in this metaphorical gathering [for what the “kingdom of heaven is like”] and “saw one of the human race [which can include males and females as “anthrōpon“] not wearing a wedding gown.”

Back when gowns were not so expensive they had to be rented for a day and returned.

Of course, most Christians have seen the movie Wedding Crashers and they know people looking for free food and alcohol at a wedding reception (especially one paid for by wealthy parents of the bride) do not show up dressed like street urchins.  Everyone shows up wearing nice clothes, but none of those clothes hang in their closets afterwards, never to be worn to anything again, other than weddings.  The only “clothes of wedding” are those worn by the ones being married, most particularly the wedding gown of the bride.  Knowing that, God the King saw someone crashing His wedding reception whom He had not married.

God then spoke to the wedding crasher.  He called him “Friend,” through the capitalized Greek word “Hetaire.”  While this importantly (capitalization) makes it seem God is not angry with the wedding crasher, the word should be read accordingly: “hetaíros – properly, a companion (normally an imposter), posing to be a comrade but in reality only has his own interests in mind.” (HELPS Word-studies)  God then called this human being out for what he (or she) truly was: a pretender; one who rejected the proposal of marriage, but then expected to enter God’s kingdom because of a life of pretense.

Knowing this, the capitalization becomes the importance of God the King knowing the heart of the impostor trying to sneak into the kingdom of heaven.  The importance is a statement about the goats Jesus told his disciples would be separated from the sheep when the “son of man” comes in his glory.  The sheep go to the right hand of the king, while the goats go to the left hand.  Both sheep and goats feed in the same fields, but only the sheep are married to God, as “sons of man.”  The sheep are true friends, who help God without their egos allowing them to realize that fact.  Conversely, the goats do nothing to help God and they are too egotistical to realize that failure.  Therefore, the one who is called out in this wedding gathering is a goat and clearly a false friend.

When God asked this human how he came without being dressed as a bride to be married, the impostor was “speechless.”  This act of “silence” becomes proof that there was no love of God that drew in this soul to the wedding party.  All who are married to God, as rebirths of the Son, speak only what the Father tells them.  If the impostor was indeed married to God, he would have spoken the truth.  The truth was then spoken through an inability to speak for the Father.

This failure to be a devoted bride of God became clear when God the King had his servants take this impostor and “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  In that translation is another example of translators reversing the order of what is written.  The Greek text states: “Dēsantes autou podas  kai  cheiras“, where we find another “kai” indicating importance.   

The capitalized first word shows the importance of being “Bound,” by present actions in the past [Greek aorist active participle].  It was the inability to speak the Word of God that cause the human himself (or herself) to find its own actions “having Bound” itself to a state of being that was not a wife to God.  This meant the soul could not walk the path of righteousness – which was symbolized by the wedding dresses all the others had put on.  They had all walked down the aisle of righteousness, clothed in those robes that state commitment through self-sacrifice.  Thus, as Jesus had told his disciples only those who could raise the cross of responsibility and walk the path set by him could follow, this one wedding crasher was a failure in that regard.  That soul in a body of flesh was like Judas Iscariot and unable to walk, due to his own binding of his feet.

Following the use of “kai,” the importance is then placed on “hands” (Greek “cheiras“).  The importance must be read as another self-inflicted binding, where this soul would not sacrifice self-ego in order to serve God fully.  Thus, he (or she) bound its own hands, keeping them from being the hands of a servant.  According to HELPS Word-studies: “xeír – properly, hand; (figuratively) the instrument a person uses to accomplish their purpose (intention, plan).”  The importance says tied hands prevent one from truly becoming a Christian.

When the judgment of the impostor is found to be “throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” this should be realized as two phases.  In the Greek text a semicolon is placed, rather than a comma mark.  That punctuation mark makes it clearer to see the two are separate stages of punishment.  First, “the outer darkness” (or “skotos to exōteron” – “darkness about external”) is the opposite of the inner light of life that comes from God, through the Son: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)  God did not throw this soul there, as that soul cast itself into darkness [an absence of light] by not being willing to sacrifice self and serve only God.

Following the semicolon is a series of words that are separated by the word “kai.”  The first half of this segment places focus on the “weeping” or “lamentations.”  This becomes representative of the physical realm, where the plagues of the flesh cause pains and tears to flow.  The Greek word “klauthmos” (“weeping”) becomes a statement that says, “bitter grief that springs from feeling utterly hopeless.” (HELPS Word-studies)  The “wails” are from those who expect God to come to their aid, only to find their “cries” going unheeded, because of their own self-egos. 

Still, following the word marking importance to follow (“kai“), the “gnashing of teeth” symbolizes the true emotional feeling held for God, when He does not reward the goats of the Christian world, because they reap what they have sown.  The importance of this gnashing of teeth is similar to the “speechless” state the soul found.  The eyes of tears and the grinding of teeth are all physical elements surrounding a reincarnated soul, one which cannot be released from a soul’s refusal to serve only God.

Finally, God spoke through Jesus summing all this up by saying, “Many are called, but few are chosen.”  The “Many” (a capitalized “Polloi“) includes both Jews and Gentiles, so the whole world that seeks the truth of Yahweh will hear a call to attention.  The importance of capitalization says there is no human being that cannot find God offering their soul to marry Him and become His Son and letting Him become the Father.  This is the importance of the servants (apostles in the name of Jesus Christ) carrying invitations to more than just the Jews and then to the Gentiles.  Still, the “Many” are those who are seeking God in their lives.

The reality of “few are chosen” is it means “few indeed choose,” where it is up to the individual to self-sacrifice and say, “Yes” to God’s proposal.  When that devotion leads one to commit to God, then God will choose that soul to be His forever. 

Summary

The first words of Matthew 22 are: “Kai  apokritheis“.  This says this parable is most important to realize.  The importance it presents is such that what Jesus would then say  presents an “answering,” God “responding,” and a conversation “replying” to the questions seekers have about what the kingdom of heaven is.  It is a question that not only existed that day, because it is still one needing “answering” today.

The kingdom of heaven is then a marriage between one’s soul and God.  This is the merger of a soul with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is the prototype of this state of being, such that it is his soul that becomes reborn into all who marry God.  Marriage to God means the death of the self-ego, to be replaced by the Christ Mind.  Thus, the invitation so easily refused asks, “Will you submit your ego to God and become His wife?” – an invitation those stubborn and stiff-necked people refuse to accept.

The moral of this story is the choice is always left to the individual.  God will not force humanity to walk a road of righteousness; but then the world is the only place sin is permitted to exist.  Choosing to not sacrifice self and be willing die of ego, to be resurrected as Jesus Christ, is what most people choose to do.  Only those whose hearts feel the presence of God is near will open those hearts to be penetrated by God’s Holy Spirit.  That is how all spiritual wives receive their husbands.

Language, Matthew, Teaching

Matthew 22:15-22 – Give back unto Caesar

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The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

——————–

This is the Gospel reading assigned by the Episcopal lectionary for public presentation during the Ordinary season after Pentecost, numbered ordinally in their Year A as Proper 24.  This will next be read aloud by a priest on Sunday, October 18, 202, which will be the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost.

The simplest meaning of this reading is easy to discern.  There is nothing a human being owns, possesses or physically has that is of any concern to God.  The only thing a human being has that God expects returned to him is a soul.  Thus, Jesus set the expectation for all who claim to be devoted to God [YHWH]: God wants His soul back.

Of course, things are never as simple as they seem.

First off, Jesus was not speaking to Romans or anyone of pagan roots.  We read “The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus” and “So they sent out their disciples, along with the Herodians.”  From all that information, it is safe to say that Jesus was speaking to Jews; and, Jews considered themselves God’s chosen people.  In that sense, Jesus was not telling pagans they owed their souls to Yahweh.  He as telling that to priests that supposedly knew that already.

Second, the issue of paying a tax becomes important.  This was not something that came up haphazardly, as the leaders of Herod’s Temple [the Herodians were a sect that sided against the Pharisees and with the Sadducees] saw the taxes they paid to Caesar as taking away from their bottom line.  They most certainly would have contemplated getting out of paying that tax [after all they were lawyers, thus masters of deception], only to have some Roman boots come down on their Jewish necks, leading them to understand the tax to Rome is non-negotiable.  They had to pay something. 

Because the leaders of the Temple accepted that fact of life, they then made executive business decisions and added more tax burdens on the normal Jews.  That was the typical follower of Jesus.  The Pharisees (et al) figured Jesus would defend the poor Jews who had not only the weight of Rome on their shoulders, but also the weight of the Temple.  If Jesus was like those leaders of Jews (he was not), then they expected him to look for any way possible to save money and stay out of the poor house.

Now, it must be realized that Jesus was not just some really smart, quick-witted Jew.  He was exemplary what he told the “counsel” of plotters to do, who were amazed with that statement when they went away.  Jesus was a body of flesh, whose soul had been completely given to God [from before birth].  That means the soul of Jesus was married to the Holy Spirit of God.  From that union, the Christ Mind was how Jesus was so fast to give the right answer every time.  Jesus talked with God directly and God [being omniscient] knew all about how much the Temple clan loved their money … every denarius of it … and God knew [perhaps influenced them?] they would try to entrap Jesus with a tax question.

As far as the coin Jesus asked the counsel of plotters about, the Temple had its own coins in its treasury.  The Herodians would have known the Temple tax paid by all Jews was expected to be paid in half-shekels.  Some featured the face of Herod the Great, but by the time Jesus was answering their question, coins existed that featured Herod Antipas’ likeness.  While those were primarily silver coins, the Romans expected their payments to be converted into Roman coins, which featured Caesar.  Thus, the tax in question was not about what Jews owed for being Jewish, but what the Temple owed Rome for being allowed to exist; so “they brought him a denarius,” a Roman coin.

Relative to this, it becomes worthwhile to read what is written in Matthew 17:24-27.  There, Peter was approached by a tax collector and asked, “Doesn’t your master pay the temple tax?”  That was a two-drachma (“didrachma“) tax that the tax collectors got rich from collecting from the Jews [and thus tax collectors were hated for that].  After Peter went into the house of Jesus, Jesus asked him this question: “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”  The answer was “others,” leading Jesus to say, “Then the children are exempt.”  That says the children of God owe no physical tax to Him; but, Jesus then told Peter to go catch a fish and look in its mouth.  There a four-drachma coin would be found, which would then be used to pay his and Jesus’ temple tax.

In that recount in Matthew’s Gospel, it is easy to hear Jesus tell Peter, “Go fish,” and assume that means he did as Jesus said and took the boat out on the Sea of Galilee, where he caught a net full of fish.  They even call a tilapia Saint Peter’s fish because that was likely what he would have caught there. 

That means a miracle happened when Peter took the first fish he caught, opened it mouth and found a four-drachma silver coin.  The reality is this: Jesus told his disciples who had been fishermen, “I will make you fishers of men.”  Thus, “Go fish” meant, “Go find another Jew who wants to serve God.”  It was then from that “mouth” that came such a coin; this was how the ministry of Jesus was supported through donations (requiring Judas be the treasurer).  Quite possibly, Peter ran and converted the tax collector and he was so thrilled he gave him the coin, along with words of thanks from his mouth.

By seeing that, it makes it easier for one to understand the scope of meaning behind Jesus saying, “Give back therefore all of Caesar to Caesar” (from the Greek “Apodote oun ta Kaisaros Kaisari “).  Besides seeing how poorly those words are translated by the Episcopal Church’s lectionary translation is [it is not the NASB or NIV], it is important to realize there are three capitalized words out of five words written.  Capitalization is unimportant to normal human beings, but in divine Scripture it is presented by God’s servants for a divine purpose.

In that regard, the capitalized Greek word “Apodote” importantly states more than presenting a gift, as the word “give” might imply.  It is a form of the root verb “apodidómi,” which means “to give up, give back, return, restore.” (Strong’s definition)  The implication is then (importantly stated) a statement saying, “What one has been given, one should give back all that is asked in return.”  The fact that Caesar’s image was stamped into precious metal says, “This coin is the property of Caesar, Emperor of the Roman Empire.”  If Caesar deems one of his empire owes him back, then one pays back what one owes.

This is then found stated (importantly) in the capitalized words “Kaisaros Kaisari.”  This is the genitive (possessive) noun followed by a complimentary noun, stating “of – to.”  The capitalization is then addressing the all-powerful title of “Caesar.”  The Emperor of Rome was a human god, one who owned not only all the precious metals of that empire, but everything and everyone within that realm of authority.  If Caesar gave an order, “Conscript soldiers and fight a war,” there was no one who could say, “No.”  Thus, the power of “of Caesar to Caesar” says refusal to honor the emperor’s command meant severe punishment.

The counsel of the Temple all stood in awe of the emperor of Rome.  Whatever Caesar said pay they paid.  They knew it was useless to try and buck that system, so they did as the almighty Caesar said to do.  They had plotted to kill Jesus and hoped this trick question would get them some evidence to go running to Pilate and squeal, “Jesus said not to pay the tax to Rome!”  However, God prepared Jesus to tell them, “Give everything that has made you wealthy men of the Temple back to Caesar.”

That is like Jesus knowing the Temple counsel had all sold their souls for a piece of the Roman Empire’s wealth.  As such, God spoke through Jesus telling them, “Buy back your souls from Caesar, so you can still have a soul to give back to me before you die.”

The Jewish leaders “were amazed” because what Jesus then said about giving to God what is God’s made a cold chill run down their backs (where normal people have spines).  The Greek word translated as “they were amazed” is “ethaumasan.”  While that can be one translation, HELPS Word-studies says this about the root verb: “thaumázō (from 2295 /thaúma, “a wonder, marvel”) – properly, wonder at, be amazed (marvel), i.e. astonished out of one’s senses; awestruck, “wondering very greatly” (Souter); to cause “wonder; . . . to regard with amazement, and with a suggestion of beginning to speculate on the matter”‘  It was a state of wonderment based on them realizing for the first time that they were anything but beholden to God, because if they were, then they owed an awful lot of back-taxes.

Those lying bags of dirt [euphemism for “bodies of flesh”] had just recently put on their finest “I am pious” robes and waltzed up to Jesus, saying “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.” 

Not a one of them thought Jesus was a “Teacher” (from the capitalized “Didaskale“), especially since they were “disciples” of the Temple elite and had never been taught anything of merit about divine Scripture (the importance of capitalization here).  They lied when they said they knew Jesus was “sincere,” as the Greek word written (“alēthēs“) is a statement about one who speaks the “truth.”  They could not recognize the truth because they were too busy lying to see it with their own eyes.

Everyone of them knew that Jesus whipped them verbally every time they had encounters like this, because they were so blatantly evil-centered.  Some, undoubtedly, had seen Jesus overturn vendor tables at the same place they then stood, so they knew Jesus attacked those led by Satan whenever he saw evil raise its ugly head.  They were the ones who turned the pious cheek to those who called them out for being poor examples of God’s children and worse leaders of religious principles (like Jesus did), so they regularly walked away from confrontations … only to plot some retribution privately.

The words they had used to coax Jesus into their snare was then ringing in their ears as they walked away from Jesus, after he said, “Give back that of God to God.”  They must have realized their souls were more owned by Caesar than the God they swore by.

Certainly, this short Gospel reading is easy to see the meaning of, in terms of way back when.  Christians love to laugh and slap each other on the back, giving Jesus an imaginary fist bump, as if saying, “You told them Jesus!”  The sad fact is most Christians cannot see themselves in this Gospel story.

How many Christians pay homage to Jesus with platitudes, but then they turn around and sin?  In the last three generations (sixty years – since 1960), the Christians world has transformed greatly, away from the ways of the past.  The advent of technology has certainly aided the mindset that believes in the philosophy saying, “Progress shows up as change.”  This has happened so often in that past that change has restructured everything as a result.  Children of children’s children now believe, “If it once stood firm, it must be wrong, so tear it down and do the opposite.” 

The changes are way too many to list, but one clear change has been away from the ‘fire and brimstone’ preachers who tried to strike fear into the hearts of Christians so they would do good.  We now have community organizers and political hacks entering seminaries and being ordained as priests and ministers of flocks that are too busy texting to hear a sermon, much less care about any opinions on Scripture they might hear.  At least, not enough for that to have any positive effect. 

Christians have become the disciples of system that plots to overturn everything Jesus stood for.  The children of children who never knew Christianity the way it was now say to Jesus, “We know you defer to no one; for you are not partial to any; therefore, we can speak for you and say everyone is welcome in the Church, no matter how vile and repulsive they are.”

The churches of Christianity ask, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the State, or not?”  But, the churches are not those of your grandparents.  The laws that kept churches exempt from taxation are now used to make anything with more than four people involved be declared a “religion,” simply to keep from paying taxes.  Cults spring up like mushrooms.  The third generation of children would much rather join a commune and worship some Eastern guru, rather than go to a church and find any form of restriction of lifestyle. 

While the media flaunts ridicule at organized religion [blame a lot of that on the Church of Rome and its endorsement of pedophile priests], they kneel down and praise the idols of political party.  Propaganda promotes Caesar over God, with Caesar now going by the name of Big Government.  The taxes paid today to the State is what Jesus said was owed to God; but when the soul has already been sold into the physical realm there is nothing left to return to God.

If this message is not seen in this Gospel reading, then there is nothing to gain.  Might as well go fishing on Sunday mornings.