It took me awhile to get through these parables. I'm glad that they're all explained, at least.
I liked the parable of the sower (Matt 13:1-23). The seed sown along the path is someone reading but not understanding; the one sown in the rocks is the person who's enthusiastic at first but their faith dies off once they face persecution; the one sown among the thorns is choked out by the person's focus on life and wealth; the one sown in the soil grows roots and flourishes. It's cute. I don't think my seed was sown in any of those places, but it's a cute parable.
The parable of the weeds (Matt 13:24-30) seems to be saying to leave people alone to be good or evil and God'll sort them out later to either burn or be put in the barn.
The parable of the net (Matt 13:47-50) is pretty much the same as the weeds, except this time people are good or bad fish. The bad ones are, yet again, tossed into fire. So much talk about hell in this book. Is it a coincidence that the two most popular religions by far are the only two that threaten their followers with eternal hell? I somehow doubt it.
I find it weird when Jesus won't do miracles because of people's lack of faith (Matt 13:58). It would be so easy for him to be like "See, guys? No lyin'. Now you can see with your own eyes!" But, no, people are expected to believe the rumors they've heard about this guy, despite many other men of the time making similar claims. Like "How can you guys not realize I'm the real deal? I know you heard that a friend of a friend of a friend totally saw me heal a blind guy." He's totally willing to prove himself to one group of people, but then not another. I'm going to withhold judgment on this, though, since I'm still only 13 chapters in. I admit it's not giving me the greatest impression, though I do find Jesus to be overall kind of a funny guy.
It should be noted that Matthew's Jesus is often very different from the Jesus as portrayed by other gospel writers. Many of the NT's writers and later edits were done without being able to have met any alleged Jesus who died in 30-ish AD (especially later writers like John). These writers were working off the same rumors and myths you mentioned, and their own religious biases. The Jesus character became an idealized prophet, a vehicle for pushing the writer's own religious agenda. Basically, the early Christian's Ronald Reagan.
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, there is the question of whether Jesus even existed, of which there is little to no extra-Biblical evidence. And if he did, his portrayal in the Bible is pure after-the-fact propaganda. Judaic prophets thousands of years ago were mud-covered raving lunatics prone to collapsing on the ground in spasms due to the power of Yahweh, not the sophisticated, idealized persona in the NT. For the brief overview of this issue, even as accepted by many Christian scholars, see: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/james_still/jesus_search.html.
Yeah, I figured "This is just one account of Jesus, I'll let it go..."
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