Friday, March 20<\/b><\/p>\n
Matthew 19:11-15: This section on celibacy is proper to Matthew, but its content is consonant with the general New Testament thesis of the superiority of consecrated celibacy over marriage (cf. Luke 14:20; 18:29; 1 Corinthians 7:25-35).<\/p>\n
From a discussion about marriage Jesus passes to the subject of children (verses 13-15), in which He repeats the injunction indicated in 18:1-4.
\nThe subject arises when children are brought to Jesus to receive His blessing (verse 13), a scene found in all the Synoptics (Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17). All of them likewise include the objection of the disciples against what they evidently regarded as an unwarranted intrusion on the Lord\u2019s time and attention.<\/p>\n
It has been suggested that the early (pre-Scriptural) Church preserved the memory of this scene because it answered a practical pastoral question about infant baptism. Read in this way, Jesus is affirming the practice of infant baptism: \u201cLet the little children come to Me.\u201d Indeed, the verb that Matthew uses here, koluein<\/i>, \u201cforbid<\/i> them not,\u201d is identical with the expression used with respect to the baptisms of the Ethiopian eunuch and the friends of Cornelius (Acts 8:36; 10:37; 11:17).<\/p>\n
I do not think this interpretation of the passage to be likely, because there is simply no evidence in the New Testament that infant baptism was a problem. On the contrary, the reader should presume that baptism, as the Christian replacement for circumcision, was available to infants, just as circumcision was. In each case it was admission to the covenant. It would be strange indeed, if Jewish children could belong to the Mosaic covenant, while Christian children could not partake of the Christian covenant.<\/p>\n
Proverbs 29: Here are more maxims about the blessings of wise government (verses 2,4,8,14) and the curse of its opposite (verse 12), along with warnings about unnecessary contentions (verses 9,22). As we know from the wrangling of partisan politics, these two concerns are not unrelated (verse 8). A wise society requires not only righteous citizens, but also prophetic visionaries (verse 18; cf. Hosea 12:11; Isaiah 29:7) and wise and righteous rulers. These latter, it is hoped, will come from the ranks of truly humble men (verse 23), self-controlled individuals who know exactly how long to hold their tongues (verses 11,20; James 1:19). Alas, we are forewarned, they will not be respected by the wicked (verse 27).<\/p>\n
These latter are described as having stiff necks (verse 1), a metaphor for the stubbornness of the scofflaw (Exodus 32:9; 33:3,5; Deuteronomy 9:3). Stiff necks, however, may get themselves broken. There is no parity between the fear of God and the fear of man (verse 24). The latter leads to compromise and infidelity. The only way to avoid this fear of men is to cultivate the fear of God.<\/p>\n
Saturday, March 21<\/b><\/p>\n
Proverbs 30: This chapter contains the first of the book\u2019s three final collections of wisdom maxims, a collection called \u201cthe words of Agur, the son of Jakeh.\u201d The Hebrew text further identifies Agur and Jakeh as \u201cof Massa,\u201d the same place in northern Arabia (Genesis 25:14; 1 Chronicles 1:30) as King Lemuel in the next chapter. Agur, the son of Jakeh, is not called a king, however, nor is he otherwise identified. It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that he must have been a figure of some renown among the readers for whom the Book of Proverbs was intended, requiring no further introduction.<\/p>\n
What we have in this chapter is a philosophical discourse delivered by Agur and recorded by his two disciples, otherwise unknown, named Ithiel and Ucal (verse 1). Ancient history from places as diverse as China, India, Egypt, and Greece provides other examples of such discourses given by masters and transcribed by their disciples. One thinks, for instance, of the \u201cDeer Park Sermon\u201d of Siddhartha Gautama.<\/p>\n
Unlike Siddhartha, however, whose recent enlightenment (Bodhi<\/i>) enabled him to discern a relentless Chain of Causation in existence and to devise an ascetical system for dealing with it, Agur of Massa confessed himself completely bewildered by the whole thing: \u201cSurely I am more stupid than any man, and do not have the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have knowledge of the Holy One\u201d (verses 2-3).<\/p>\n
Such a sentiment makes Agur resemble Socrates more than Siddhartha. Socrates, we recall, once identified by the Delphic oracle as the world\u2019s wisest man, spent his life trying to prove the oracle wrong. Socrates finally concluded, however, that the oracle must be correct because he discovered all reputedly wise men to be just as ignorant as himself, except that they were not aware of being ignorant. Socrates concluded that it was as though the oracle had declared, \u201cAmong yourselves, oh men, that man is the wisest who recognizes, like Socrates, that he is truly nobody of worth (oudenos axsios<\/i>) with respect to wisdom.\u201d Socrates and Agur, then, both associate the quest of wisdom with a humble mind.<\/p>\n
Whatever his resemblance to that wise Athenian, nonetheless, Agur more readily puts us in mind of the Psalmist, who confessed to God, \u201cI was so foolish and ignorant, I was like a beast before You\u201d (Psalms 72 [73]:22) and \u201cSuch knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it\u201d (138 [139]:6).<\/p>\n
Sunday, March 22<\/b><\/p>\n
Proverbs 31: Destined someday to be the king of Massa, a small realm in northern Arabia (cf. Genesis 25:14; 1 Chronicles 1:30), Lemuel was grateful to a wise mother for several verses of practical instruction that would serve him well in the years ahead. That instruction, being brief, could be inscribed on a single small sheet of vellum or papyrus, and Lemuel probably had a number of copies made for his friends. As gifts, those copies he also shared with other kings in the region, so that his mother\u2019s instructions made the rounds of various royal courts, carried by emissaries otherwise dispatched to attend to the diplomatic and mercantile concerns of Massa.<\/p>\n
In due course, one of those emissaries came to Jerusalem to arrange
\nsome commercial treaty or other with King Solomon. Lemuel, well acquainted with Solomon\u2019s universal reputation for wisdom (cf. 1 Kings
\n4:31), had sent along a copy of his mother\u2019s instructions as a personal gift.<\/p>\n
Now it happened that Solomon was in the process, just then, of editing a collection of traditional wisdom proverbs. Gladly receiving Lemuel\u2019s little scroll, therefore, he read it promptly and was so impressed that he incorporated the maternal instructions verbatim into his collection. Thus now, three thousand years later, we read those brief instructions of Lemuel\u2019s mother in Proverbs 31:1\u20139.<\/p>\n
Perhaps significant also is the context in which Solomon placed the instructions of Lemuel\u2019s mother in the Book of Proverbs. Namely, immediately in front of the famous description of the ideal wise woman (31:10\u201331). Was Solomon thereby paying the Queen Mother of Massa a compliment, suggesting that she herself exemplified that description?<\/p>\n
Although the Book of Proverbs several times recommends that a young man pay attention to the teaching of his mother (1:8; 6:20; 15:20), these verses from Lemuel\u2019s mother are the only example of maternal teaching explicitly contained in Proverbs.<\/p>\n
And, on reading this material, we gain the impression that it is not, on the whole, much different from the instruction that a young man received from his father. There are warnings against lust (31:3) and drinking alcohol (31:4), along with an exhortation to take care of the oppressed and the poor (31:5\u20139).<\/p>\n
The final twenty-two verses of Proverbs (verses 10-31) form an acrostic, the verses all beginning with the sequential letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The theme is the good wife, a blessing often remarked on throughout this book (5:15;11:16; 12:4; 18:22; 19:14; cf. Sirach 7:19; 26:1-4,13-18). Here, however, the ideal wife is elaborately described in terms of her industry, economics, stewardship, discipline, labor, charity, wisdom and piety<\/p>\n
Monday, March 23<\/b><\/p>\n
Mathew 20:1-16: The parable about the day-workers is probably found in this place because it tells a narrative about the last called being the first paid, thus illustrating, as it were, the final verse of Chapter 19: \u201cBut many who are first will be last, and the last first.\u201d The parable ends with the repetition of the theme of reversal (verse 16).<\/p>\n
It is obvious, nonetheless, that this parable, found only in Matthew, is easily separable from that verse, and it touches only one aspect of the parable\u2014namely, the reversed order in which the payment to the workers is made. In fact, the parable itself is just as comprehensible without that theme.<\/p>\n
The parable of the day workers was doubtless remembered among the early Christians because it did, in fact, address one of their early theological questions \u2014 How to regard the Gentiles who were \u201clate-comers\u201d to the Church. The earlier comers to the field are all given a work contract, which may be interpreted as God\u2019s established covenant with His people. Those that come last, however, work without a contract; that is to say, they have been promised nothing specific. They are outside the ancient covenant (Ephesians 2:12).<\/p>\n
But God\u2019s generosity rewards them anyway, and this parable is more descriptive of the Owner of the vineyard than of the workers. The Owner, of course, is God, who is described as merciful and generous with those who work for Him, as well as firm with those who contemn His generosity. The vineyard is, of course, the People of God (cf. Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 12:10).<\/p>\n
The grumblers, who are reprimanded at the end of the parable, are not rebuked for dissatisfaction with what they<\/i> have received, but for their dissatisfaction with what the other<\/i> people have received. These grumblers may also become the enemies who have already commenced plotting against the Son of the field\u2019s Owner (21:33-46).<\/p>\n
The workers themselves are day laborers, the sort especially needed at the harvest. This feature suggests the eschatological import of the story: These are the \u201clast times,\u201d and everything is settled \u201cin the evening\u201d (verse 8).<\/p>\n
Psalms 31 (Greek\/Latin 30): In this psalm we enter into the sentiments and thoughts of Jesus in His sufferings. We see the Passion \u201cfrom the inside,\u201d as it were. There is the plot, recorded in the Gospels, to take His life (cf. Mark 3:6; 14:1): \u201cPull me out of the net that they have secretly laid for me. . . . Fear is on every side; while they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life.\u201d There are the false witnesses rising against Him (cf. Mark 14:55\u201359): \u201cLet the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.\u201d We learn of the flight of His friends and the mockery of His enemies (cf. Mark 14:50; 15:29\u201332): \u201cI am a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and am repulsive to my acquaintances; those who see me outside flee from me. I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reason that the voice of Christ in His Passion must become our own voice is that His Passion itself provides the pattern for our own lives: \u201cBut beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues\u201d (Matthew 10:17). \u201cThen they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name\u2019s sake\u201d (24:9). We are to be baptized with His baptism; the bitter cup that He drinks we too are to taste in our own souls. The prayer of His Passion becomes our own, because \u201call who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution\u201d (2 Tim. 3:12).<\/p>\n
Tuesday, March 24<\/b><\/p>\n
Zechariah 3: Chief among the priests who returned from Babylon was the high priest Jeshua, or Joshua, whose father Jehozadak had been carried away to Babylon back in 586 (1 Chronicles 6:15). Jeshua\u2019s name invariably appears second among the returning exiles (Ezra 2:2; Nehemiah 7:7; 12:1,10,26), right after Zerubbabel, the governor appointed by Cyrus to oversee Jerusalem\u2019s restoration.<\/p>\n
In the prophecies of Zechariah, Zerubbabel and Jeshua are paired as the spiritual and political leaders of the people, as we shall see in Chapter 4. In the present chapter the prophet beholds the high priest Jeshua standing before God with an angel and with Satan. Satan is doing for Jeshua what he did for Job, namely, \u201copposing\u201d him, saying bad things to God about him (verse 1; cf. Job 1:9-11; 2:4-5). In both these cases Satan is the \u201caccuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night\u201d (Revelation 12:10).<\/p>\n
In the case of Jeshua, Satan\u2019s accusation had to do with the \u201cfilthy garments\u201d of the high priest (verse 3), which signify his unworthiness. This may refer to his personal unworthiness and\/or to the unworthiness of the people that he represents at the altar. Either and both interpretations will fit the context. The question under debate is, can such a priest, so improperly vested, properly offer sacrifices to the Almighty?<\/p>\n
At this point the angel of the Lord rebuked Satan for his accusation against the priest: \u201cThe Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!\u201d (Zechariah 3:2) (In case anyone inquires, \u201cThe Lord rebuke you!\u201d is the execration regularly preferred by angels who are obliged to deal with Satan; cf. Jude 9.)<\/p>\n
Jeshua may be taken to represent any and all of God\u2019s servants aware of their total unworthiness as they come to worship. Their hearts are full of such sentiments as, \u201cDepart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord\u201d (Luke 5:8), \u201cI am not worthy that You should enter under my roof\u201d (7:6), and \u201cGod, be merciful to me a sinner! (18:13). Satan, of course, is ever at hand on such occasions, ready even further to discourage these saints who feel guilty in their filthy garments, suggesting to their minds that they may as well give the whole thing up as useless.<\/p>\n
But what do the angels say? \u201cTake away the filthy garments from him. . . . Let them put a clean turban on his head.\u201d We do not come before God with any cleanliness of our own. \u201cSee,\u201d the Lord says, \u201cI remove your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes\u201d (verses 4-5). That is to say, we approach the worship of God only in the pure grace of our redemption. \u201cIs not this,\u201d asks our good angel, \u201ca branch plucked from the fire?\u201d (3:2)<\/p>\n
In the literal context, this plucking refers to redemption from the Babylonian Captivity. In its Christian context it refers to a more radically redemptive plucking from a far more serious fire. In either case, when someone is plucked from the fire, he tends to be a bit smudged up, and his clothes are in pretty bad shape. Not to worry, the angel says, God can handle that.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, March 25<\/b><\/p>\n
The Annunciation: Once it was determined to celebrate the Lord\u2019s birth on December 25, it was inevitable that Christians would count backwards nine months to determine the date of His conception. Thus, March 25 became the feast of the Annunciation of Gabriel to Mary. In the West this feast is sometimes moved if it falls during Holy Week or on Easter Sunday. In the East this is not done; because it is the day celebrating God\u2019s assumption of human flesh, this feast is celebrated even in the midst of Holy Week or on Easter Sunday itself.<\/p>\n
Our readings for this day include the second chapter of Hebrews, which was perhaps the single most important biblical text used back in the Christological controversies of the fifth century. It was to this passage that appeal was made in the great Councils of Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451) that gave final, defining formulation to the doctrine of the Lord\u2019s Incarnation. (Caro<\/i> means \u201cflesh.\u201d Hence, Incarnation carries the sense of \u201cenfleshment,\u201d as in the passage from John: \u201cThe Word was made flesh.\u201d)<\/p>\n
The protection and maintenance of this doctrine was crucial to the Christian Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries, because they perceived that the doctrine of salvation itself was at stake. If God did not assume our full humanity, they reasoned, then our full humanity was not redeemed. Thus, those heretics who denied God\u2019s assumption of our full humanity, beginning with those heretics denounced in the First Epistle of John, would be logically obliged to place salvation elsewhere than in the atoning death of Christ on the cross. It was very clear to those Church Fathers that, unless the blood shed for our salvation was the human blood of a divine Person, then we are not saved, and this was the reason they consistently gave for fighting so fiercely in defense of the doctrine of the Incarnation.<\/p>\n
Old Testament history finds its fulfillment in today\u2019s \u201cBe it done unto me\u201d of the young maiden of Nazareth. Mary\u2019s yes<\/i> to God\u2019s plan is the Old Testament\u2019s final and culminating act of faith, through which God himself assumes a human role in history. This is why the Christian poet Dante regarded the mother of Jesus as the last of the Old Testament saints (Paradiso<\/i> 32.19\u201330). She represents the culmination of God\u2019s long, providential, and prophetic cultivation of a people proper unto Himself, intent solely on the doing of His will. All of God\u2019s historical preparation found its fulfillment in the assent of that soul who gave herself over completely to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is through the virgin mother of Christ that the whole of the Old Testament is filtered into the Incarnation, which is why Amadeus of Lausanne, in the twelfth century, spoke of her as containing the mysteries of all the Old Testament saints. Thus, Dante calls her the termine fisso d\u2019etterno consiglio<\/i>\u2014\u201cthe fixed goal of the eternal plan\u201d (Paradiso<\/i> 33.3).<\/p>\n
Thursday, March 26<\/b><\/p>\n
Matthew 20:20-28: This story records the occasion on which the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, request of the Lord the privilege of sitting to his immediate right and left when he enters into his kingdom. Still worldly and without understanding, the two brothers are portrayed as resistant to the message of the Cross.<\/p>\n
Matthew\u2019s version, moreover, presents Zebedee\u2019s wife, the mother of the two brothers, approaching the Lord to make the request on their behalf. This woman, elsewhere known as Salome, Matthew calls simply \u201cthe mother of Zebedee\u2019s sons.\u201d The detail is certainly significant, inasmuch as this designation, \u201cmother of Zebedee\u2019s sons,\u201d appears only twice in the entire New Testament, both times in Matthew: here in 20:20 and later, in 27:56, at the foot of the Cross.<\/p>\n
In the first of these instances Zebedee\u2019s wife is portrayed as an enterprising and somewhat ambitious worldling who fails to grasp the message of the Cross, while in the later scene we find her standing vigil as her Lord dies, now a model of the converted and enlightened Christian who follows Jesus to the very end. This marvelous correspondence between the two scenes \u2014 a before and after \u2014 is proper to Matthew and points to a delicate nuance of his thought.<\/p>\n
Zechariah 5: In this chapter, which also uses dialogue to interpret what is seen, there are two visions: In the first (verses 1-4), the prophet sees a flying scroll considerably larger than one would expect; indeed, it is the same size as the portico in Solomon\u2019s temple (1 Kings 6:3). This scroll contains the curses attendant on those who violate the terms of God\u2019s covenant (cf. Deuteronomy 29:18-20). This scroll represents a permanent warning of the dangers of infidelity.<\/p>\n
In the second vision (verses 5-11), the prophet sees \u201cWickedness\u201d portrayed as a woman carried in a basket. Unlike the very large scroll in the first vision, the present vision gives us a very small basket. It holds only an ephah, yet this woman fits into it. She must be a pretty insignificant woman—this Wickedness—and the angelic figures contemptuously shove her down into the basket and enclose it with a leaden lid. Representing the power of Babylon, which the Bible holds in contempt, the woman and her basket are deposited in the Babylonian plain (verse 11; cf. Genesis 11:2). This is the same woman, by the way, who looks so much larger and more impressive in Revelation 17.<\/p>\n
Friday, March 27<\/b><\/p>\n
Matthew 20:29-34: Matthew\u2019s literary construction effectively juxtaposes these two blind men with the two sons of Zebedee, who are symbolically healed of their spiritual blindness with respect to the mystery of the Cross. Thus healed, says the text, \u201cthey followed \u201chim\u201d (20:34). They become part of the congregation that will accompany Israel\u2019s true King into Jerusalem to accomplish the mystery of Redemption.<\/p>\n
To \u201cfollow\u201d Christ means to live by the pattern of the Cross, to pursue the implications of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist, the one a mystic identification with His death and resurrection, the other a proclamation of His death \u201cuntil He comes.\u201d These two men have accepted the challenge just made to James and John.<\/p>\n
These blind men, calling on Jesus with the Messianic title, \u201cSon of David,\u201d ask for the opening of their eyes<\/i>, an expression which in prophetic literature is associated with the Messianic times (cf. Isaiah 29:18; 35:5).<\/p>\n
Zechariah 6: This chapter contains both a vision and an oracle. In the vision (verses 1-8) the prophet sees four chariots drawn by horses, which are also four \u201cwinds\u201d or \u201cspirits,\u201d as it were (verse 5). He saw them earlier (1:7-11). Like the \u201cfour winds\u201d of common parlance, these horses go in four directions: the black northbound, the white westbound, the dappled southbound, and the red eastbound. They represent God\u2019s providential \u201cpatrol,\u201d as it were, of the whole universe. God is keeping an eye on things, Zechariah is reminded, even things that don\u2019t seem to be going very well.<\/p>\n
Although Babylon lies east of Jerusalem, one journeys there by leaving Jerusalem in a northerly direction and then following the contour of the Fertile Crescent. (One who journeyed straight east would simply have to pass through the Arabian Desert, an area best avoided.) Consequently, there is a special significance in the northbound horses in this vision, for they go to Babylon, where, God assures His prophet, He has everything under control (verse 8). This vision is related, then, to the woman in the basket in the previous chapter. The \u201cSpirit\u201d that guides world history, including geopolitical history, is the same Spirit proclaimed to Zerubbabel in 4:6.<\/p>\n
The oracle in this chapter (verses 9-15), like the vision of the two olive trees in 4:11-14, pertains to the Lord\u2019s two \u201csons of oil,\u201d Zerubbabel and Jeshua, the priest and the governor, the religious and the civil authority. Both are anointed by God and must work in common endeavor for the Lord (verse 13). The \u201cbranch\u201d in verse 12, as in 3:8, refers to Zerubbabel, whose Akkadian name means \u201cthe branch of Babylon.\u201d He is both a foreshadowing and a forefather (Matthew 1:12-13) of the One who combines in Himself the twin dignities of King and Priest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, March 20 Matthew 19:11-15: This section on celibacy is proper to Matthew, but its content is consonant with the general New Testament thesis of the superiority of consecrated celibacy over marriage (cf. Luke 14:20; 18:29; 1 Corinthians 7:25-35). From a discussion about marriage Jesus passes to the subject of children (verses 13-15), in which … Continue reading March 20 – March 27<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}