Matthew 17-18

Chapter seventeen starts out with Jesus transforming into Super Jesus, and God spoke to Peter, James, and John. He told them not to tell anyone, but based on me reading this I'm guessing one of them blabbed.

Later that evening (maybe), Jesus was approached by a man who said his disciples failed to heal his son, to which Jesus replied, "You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me," (Matt 17:17). I'm pretty sure he rolled his eyes too.

Some tax collectors asked if Jesus paid the temple tax, so he told Peter to go get it out of a fish's mouth. The fish paid Peter's tax too; how sweet. (Matt 17:24-27)

I'm not sure how I feel about the start of chapter eighteen. A man asks Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and Jesus tells him "whoever takes a lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven," (Matt 18:4). It's weird to me that heaven has a hierarchy. Even if it does, it's not paradise if you have to worry about stuff like that.

In versus 6 though 9 Jesus goes over again the idea that, if your eye causes you to sin, you should gouge it out. I'm still not sure if he intended that literally.

This chapter also gives instruction on how to deal with it when others sin: First, you quietly point it out to them, then bring two or three people to give them the business, then you try telling the church on them, and if all that doesn't work you treat them "as you would a pagan or tax collector," (Matt 18:17). I don't think anyone quite deserves the latter, but I will do as I'm told. I'll have to go to Home Depot and get a bat full of nails.

I imagine a lot of Christians use those versus as some kind of holy command to be rude to people they view as more sinful than themselves. Which is odd because, in the parable just before this part, Jesus said of wandering sheep "See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven," (Matt 18:10). At what point does a person go from wandering sheep to tax collector?

Chapter eighteen ends with a message to pay mercy forward and forgive those who sin against you seventy-seven times. I'm going to take that literally and start a tally.