Well we have begun our second annual fifty day Bible reading challenge. Welcome aboard! As you know over the next fifty days we will be working our way through the Gospel of Matthew. Twice a week we will comment about the readings and hopefully challenge folks to think a little bit about what they've read over the next fifty days.
Matthew opens his gospel, with, as preacher Fred Craddock puts it, a walk through the graveyard. Matthew intends this genealogy to anchor Jesus in the line of David, the place from which the Messiah will come. Nothing like starting with a long list of name we can't pronounce and people we've never heard of. But it is what it is.
Over the course of the next few days, we will cover quite a bit of ground from Matthew's birth narrative through John the baptist and Jesus' baptism. What struck me as I read these opening chapters is how much angels have shown up. The show up in Joseph's life, directing him to take Mary as his wife, to warn him to flee to Egypt, and alerting Joseph that it's safe to return home.
Now the Greek word for angel simply implies a messenger from God. Angels, need not be supernatural beings with wings and powers we humans don't have. They could simply be human beings. We might describe John the Baptist as a messenger or an angel sent from God.
When have you encountered a messenger from God? What did the messenger say? When have you been a messenger sent from God? What did message did God invite you to share?
What struck me on this reading, is reading the long lineage, and how it forces you to think back to the connectedness of the Old and New testament.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pat! You are absolutely correct. Matthew is very much trying to connect this guy Jesus with the messiah that the people wrote about in the Old Testament.
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