Fast Fridays: 30 Minutes for God: Difference between revisions
→Friday, Nov 15: "Get behind me,Satan!"
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== Friday, Nov 15: "Get behind me,Satan!" == | == Friday, Nov 15: "Get behind me, Satan!" == | ||
From [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/16?23 Mt 16:23] (also in [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/8:33 Mk 8:33]): <blockquote>''He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”'' (Mt. 16:23)</blockquote>As at the arrest of Jesus in the Garden, Peter brashly tries to defend Jesus’ person. He just didn’t get it, didn't get the logic of God’s plan. (Perhaps had he not slept through Jesus’ prayer in the Garden, he would have better understood...) We’re worse than Peter though— God's plan has been fully revealed to us and we are still stuck “''thinking… as human beings do.''” | From [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/16?23 Mt 16:23] (also in [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/8:33 Mk 8:33]): <blockquote>''He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”'' (Mt. 16:23)</blockquote>As at the arrest of Jesus in the Garden, Peter brashly tries to defend Jesus’ person. He just didn’t get it, didn't get the logic of God’s plan. (Perhaps had he not slept through Jesus’ prayer in the Garden, he would have better understood...) We’re worse than Peter though— God's plan has been fully revealed to us and we are still stuck “''thinking… as human beings do.''” | ||
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John, as usual, gives us some different passages, including the seven "I am" statements of Jesus, with the most direct one regarding knowing Abraham:<blockquote>So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/8:57 Jn 8:57-8:x]) </blockquote>Jesus' listeners take great offence at this and try to stone him. But the Messiah will be "lifted up" not knocked down, so Jesus miraculously escapes. | John, as usual, gives us some different passages, including the seven "I am" statements of Jesus, with the most direct one regarding knowing Abraham:<blockquote>So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/8:57 Jn 8:57-8:x]) </blockquote>Jesus' listeners take great offence at this and try to stone him. But the Messiah will be "lifted up" not knocked down, so Jesus miraculously escapes. | ||
But even if they understood him to be the Messiah, as did Peter (albeit by divine inspiration; see [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/16?17 Mt 16:17]), they had no idea of the Messiah's actual mission. They of course understood that the Son of David would free Israel from foreign enslavement, as did Moses for them out of Egypt, and then restore the kingdom. | But even if they understood him to be the Messiah, as did Peter (albeit by divine inspiration; see [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/16?17 Mt 16:17]), they had no idea of the Messiah's actual mission. They of course understood that the Son of David would free Israel from foreign enslavement, as did Moses for them out of Egypt, and then restore the kingdom. This is why Jesus (and John the Baptist) says, repeatedly, "The Kingdom of God is at hand" -- to clarify that the "kingdom" is not of man (a "son of David") and not of this world. The phrase "Kingdom of God" appears but once in the Old Testament, coming in [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/wisdom/10:10 WI 10:10] in reference to staying faithful to God. | ||
But they entirely misunderstood | |||
The bias is so strong that they completely mistake Jesus' miracles for demonstrations of power, not mercy, and his teachings of repentance for expiation of Israel and not for personal salvation. You can feel the frustration of the Pharisees -- if you're the Messiah, save us already! <blockquote>Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he said in reply, “The coming of the kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the kingdom of God is among you.” </blockquote> | |||
And then mock him when he is on the Cross<blockquote> | |||
Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him. ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/15?32 Mt 15:32])</blockquote> | |||
It's not in any sense ironic that forty years later the Romans ended up destroying Jerusalem, killing hundreds of thousands of people through warfare, starvation, and, again, no irony, crucifixion. It's logical for them to have thought that God would once again save his chosen people. He brought them from Egypt, he saved them from the Babylonians and Assyrians, and he gave them victory over the Seleucids (Greeks) who had profaned the Temple. For the Israelites, the lesson was always that God punishes infidelity and rewards faith. Along with the element of thanksgiving, the Jewish system of sacrifice was not for expiation of individual sins, but for those of Israel as a whole. Thus | |||
It is ironic, however, that the only person in the Gospel who realizes before Jesus' death what was actually going on was the "good thief," who after mocking Jesus for not saving himself ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/27:44 Mt 27:44]), repents, telling Jesus,<blockquote> | |||
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/23:42 Lk 23:42])</blockquote>asdf<blockquote> | |||
Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. | |||
>> under construction as of 2pm 11/15 | Do you think that I cannot call upon my Father and he will not provide me at this moment with more than twelve legions of angels? ([https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/26?52 Mt 26:52])</blockquote>>> under construction as of 2pm 11/15 | ||
"Messiah," | "Messiah," | ||