Perspective: Overanalyzing a Simple Story

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Overanalyzing a Simple Story

Simon's mother-in-law was in bed, sick with a fever, and they told Jesus about her at once.  He went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up.  The fever left her, and she served them.

Mark 1:30-31 (CEB)

I have seen the healing hand of God
Reaching out and mending broken hearts
Taste and see the fullness of His peace
And hold on to what's being held out
The healing hand of God

From "Healing Hand of God" by Jeremy Camp

In the Gospels, we read that, one day, Jesus visits the home of Simon, where the disciple's mother-in-law is bedridden with a fever.  The family asks Jesus to help her, so He goes to her bedside and heals her.  When she rises from her bed, she begins serving Jesus and those who are with Him.  That evening, many of the townspeople bring to Simon's home their loved ones who are either sick or possessed by demons, and Jesus heals all of them.¹

This simple story is found in three of the four Gospels, and, though all three versions are mostly the same, there are some differences worth noting.

In the Gospel of Mark, the writer notes that, when Jesus casts demons out of people brought to Him, He refuses to let them speak because they recognize Him.²  In Mark's Gospel, there is a recurring theme that scholars sometimes call the "Messianic Secret."  Repeatedly Jesus forbids anyone from saying anything that might lead people to think that He is the Messiah, the long awaited leader who would liberate the Jewish people and restore Israel to its former glory.³  The reason, I suspect, is that people have certain expectations for the Messiah which Jesus does not intend to meet.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the writer suggests, regarding the miracles Jesus performed that day, "This happened so that what Isaiah the prophet said would be fulfilled: He is the one who took our illnesses and carried away our diseases."⁴  Throughout Matthew's Gospel, the writer suggests that the things Jesus does or the things that happen in His life fulfill the Hebrew Scriptures, and one of the books the writer references most frequently is the Book of Isaiah.

In this particular story, the writer is referencing a passage from the Book of Isaiah known as the Song of the Suffering Servant.  In it, we read,

It was certainly our sickness that he carried,
and our sufferings that he bore,
but we thought him afflicted,
struck down by God and tormented.
He was pierced because of our rebellions
and crushed because of our crimes.
He bore the punishment that made us whole;
by his wounds we are healed.⁵

When a Gospel writer suggests that Jesus fulfills the Hebrew Scriptures, he is not saying that they predicted Jesus but rather that Jesus embodies the story of His people.⁶  Though the Servant Songs in the Book of Isaiah are commonly associated with Jesus, they are also thought to describe the people of Israel as a whole, the servant people of God.⁷

According to Matthew and Mark's Gospels, Jesus heals Simon's mother-in-law of her fever by either touching her hand or taking her by the hand and lifting her up from her bed.⁸  According to Luke's Gospel, Jesus heals Simon's mother-in-law by leaning over her and rebuking her fever.⁹  The Greek word translated into English as rebuke or speak harshly is epitimaō.¹⁰  Interestingly, the writer uses the same word to describe how Jesus speaks to the demons He throws out of the people brought to Him that evening.¹¹  The writer will use the same word later on to describe how Jesus speaks to a violent storm to make it stop.¹²

Jesus' rebuking illnesses and demons is a testament to Jesus' authority.  According to scholar N.T. Wright,
The strange thing about Jesus... is that he did what he did by simple commands.  No magic formulae; no (what we would call) mumbo-jumbo.  He just told the spirits to go, and they went.  That was what astonished people.  He didn't have to summon up stronger powers than his own; he just used the authority he already possessed in himself.  And... he did the same with "ordinary" diseases as well, like the raging fever of Simon's mother-in-law.¹³
Jesus is greater than anything in life that oppresses or troubles us.

When I study the Gospels, I like to compare different versions of the same story.  It reveals to me things about the different Gospel writers, and it draws my attention to things I might ignore otherwise.  It also reminds me that there are no throwaway details in the Gospels.


Notes:

1. Matthew 8:14-17; Mark 1:29-34; Luke 4:38-41
2. Mark 1:34
3. Wikipedia: "Messianic Secret"
4. Matthew 8:17 (CEB)
5. Isaiah 53:4-5 (CEB)
6. Peter Enns and Jared Byas.  "Pete & Jared Ruin Prophecy (Christmas Edition)."  The Bible for Normal People, Episode 289.
7. Wikipedia: "Servant Songs"
8. Matthew 8:15; Mark 1:31
9. Luke 4:39
10. Blue Letter Bible: "epitimaō"
11. Luke 4:41
12. Luke 8:24
13. N.T. Wright.  Luke for Everyone.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 51

Christ Healing Peter's Mother-in-Law was drawn by Rembrandt in the mid 1600s.

Perspective: Offensive Thoughts About an Offensive Parable

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Offensive Thoughts About an Offensive Parable

So the last will be first, and the first will be last.

Matthew 20:16 (NRSV)

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'

From "The Times They Are A-Changin'" by Bob Dylan

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells a story about a vineyard owner who hires day laborers to harvest grapes.  Early in the morning, the vineyard owner hires a group of workers, agreeing to pay them a denarius, the standard daily wage at the time.  A few hours later, at nine o'clock in the morning, he goes to the marketplace and hires additional workers, agreeing to pay them "whatever is right."  The vineyard owner goes out three more times that day - at noon, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and finally at five o'clock - hiring more and more workers to harvest grapes.¹

At the end of the workday, the vineyard owner sends his manager to pay the laborers he hired, instructing him to start with those he hired last.  The workers who were hired at five o'clock receive a denarius, as do all of the other workers who were hired throughout the day.  Naturally, the workers who were hired first expect to receive more, since they worked the entire day, but they too receive a denarius, the same amount paid to those who were hired last.²

As one might expect, the laborers who were hired first feel cheated.  They complain to the vineyard owner, saying, "These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat."³

The vineyard owner replies, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?  Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you.  Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?  Or are you envious because I am generous?"⁴

What I'm supposed to tell you about the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard is that it teaches us that, whether a person turns to God early in life or late in life, the person will be met with God's abundant grace.  That said, I've wondered if maybe this typical interpretation is actually an over-spiritualization of this parable, and recently I've started to wonder if maybe we over-spiritualize this parable in order to make it less offensive.  A literal reading of the parable is a shock to our system, and the real-world implications of such a reading would be unthinkable to many of us.

When we encounter this parable, everything inside us screams that the laborers who worked all day should be paid a lot more than those who were hired toward the end of the day.  Someone who worked twelve hours should be paid twelve times as much as someone who worked only one hour.  It's only fair, after all.  The idea that someone who worked only one hour should be paid the same amount as someone who worked twelve hours offends our sensibilities.

Notice that, when the vineyard owner hires the first workers early in the morning, he agrees to pay them the standard daily wage but that, when he goes out later in the day to hire workers, he agrees to pay them "whatever is right."  Apparently, in the vineyard owner's eyes, the right thing to do is to pay all of his workers the standard daily wage, regardless of how long they worked for him.  He gives his workers both a living wage and also the dignity of having worked for it, even if they only worked one hour.

Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven is like this vineyard owner.⁵

What St. Matthew calls the "Kingdom of Heaven," other Gospel writers call the Kingdom of God.  This Kingdom is not Heaven itself but rather the place where God's will is done "on earth as it is in heaven."⁶  It is where God reigns.  It is the world as God intended it to be.

When Jesus begins His public ministry, He proclaims, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."⁷  Repentance is not merely feeling bad about the sins one has committed.  As I've noted countless times on this blog, the Greek word metanoia, which is translated into English as repentance, literally describes a change of mind.  Repentance is a change in the way one thinks that ultimately changes the way one lives.⁸  The world as we know it is not what God intended it to be, so if the Kingdom of God is indeed breaking into this world, then we need to be ready to rethink anything and everything.

Maybe we even need to rethink something as basic as the idea that a person who works twelve hours should be paid twelve times as much as someone who works only one hour.  If the Kingdom of Heaven is indeed like the vineyard owner in Jesus' parable, then maybe God wants us to care about what people need and not what they deserve.

Maybe, dear reader, when you hear Jesus call people to repent in preparation for the coming of the Kingdom of God, you are tempted think that He is talking to everyone besides you.  Surely Jesus doesn't think about things differently than you do!  After all, if your opinions were wrong, you would have changed them by now, right?

Maybe you need to let go of some of your most deeply held beliefs, including your beliefs about politics and economics.  I've heard it said that, though people commonly leave their churches over politics, they rarely ever leave their politics over the Church.  What if Jesus is not the good conservative, progressive, capitalist, or socialist you think He ought to be?  Would you still want to be part of what God is doing in the world through Him?


Notes:

1. Matthew 20:1-7
2. Matthew 20:8-10
3. Matthew 20:11-12 (NRSV)
4. Matthew 20:13-15 (NRSV)
5. Matthew 20:1
6. Matthew 6:10 (NRSV)
7. Matthew 4:17 (NRSV)
8. Wikipedia: "Metanoia (theology)"

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard was painted by Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich in the 1750s.

Perspective: The Kingdom Is Like...

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The Kingdom Is Like...

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3 (NRSV)

It's everything you ever want
It's everything you ever need
And it's here right in front of you
This is where you wanna be

From "The Greatest Show" by Pasek and Paul

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that, when Jesus begins His public ministry, He announces, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."¹  Later on, we read that, when He sends out His disciples to do the things He has been doing in His ministry, He instructs them to announce that "the kingdom of heaven has come near" as they liberate people from their diseases and demons.²

Jesus mentions the Kingdom of Heaven throughout His teachings, but He only seems to come close to defining it in the Sermon on the Mount, when He teaches His followers to pray, saying, "Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."³  The Kingdom of Heaven is not limited to some distant realm beyond this world.  It is a kingdom coming to this world.  It is the place where God's will is done.  Perhaps Jesus and His disciples are announcing that the Kingdom of Heaven is actually invading this world, and perhaps their miraculous healings are signs that this invasion is indeed taking place.

I've come to understand the Bible as the story of how the good world God created was corrupted by evil and how God has been working to set the world right.⁴  That said, I've come to understand the Kingdom of Heaven - or Kingdom of God, as it is called in other Gospels - as the world as God intended it to be.

One day, Jesus tells a series of parables in which He compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a number of different things.  Perhaps these parables teach us something about how God is redeeming this world.

First, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a farmer who scatters seeds on different patches of soil.  Some patches of soil are more suitable for the seeds than others.⁵  This parable teaches us that some people will be more receptive of the announcement that "the kingdom of heaven has come near" than other people.  For example, people who benefit from the injustice in this world might not hear the news that the world is going to be set right as good news, while people who daily suffer from injustice are ready for a change.

Second, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a farmer who sows wheat in his field and allows the stalks of wheat to grow alongside weeds until the harvest.  He will not allow his servants to pull up the weeds because they might uproot the good wheat he planted.⁶  This parable teaches us that God's redemptive work requires patience and that our own ideas for rooting out what we think is wrong in the world can be shortsighted.

Next, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a tiny mustard seed that, when planted, grows into a large plant in which birds find shelter.  He then compares the Kingdom of Heaven to some yeast that is thoroughly mixed into flour.⁷  These parables teach us that doing the redemptive work God gives us might seem inconsequential at first but that it makes a major impact in time.

Next, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a treasure found in a field, which compels the finder to sell everything he owns so that he can buy the field.  He then compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a pearl merchant who sells everything he owns so that he can buy one extremely valuable pearl.⁸  These parables teach us that the world as God intended it to be is worth divesting ourselves of the ways of the world in its present state and that God’s kingdom is made up of people who have done this very work of repentance.

Finally, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a net that catches all kinds of fish.  The good fish are kept and the bad fish are discarded.⁹ This parable, like the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds before it, teach us that God's redemptive work will require judgment and winnowing.  Some things in this world, like greed, hatred, exploitation, and oppression, cannot be allowed to continue if God's will is to be done on earth as in heaven.

The Kingdom of Heaven has been described as both "already" and "not yet."  Though the Kingdom of Heaven has not yet been fully realized in our world, we can already catch glimpses of it if we are paying attention.

Notes:

1. Matthew 4:17 (NRSV)
2. Matthew 10:7-8 (NRSV)
3. Matthew 6:10 (NRSV)
4. See N.T. Wright's article "How Can the Bible Be Authoritative?"
5. Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23
6. Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
7. Matthew 13:31-33
8. Matthew 13:44-46
9. Matthew 13:47-50

The photograph featured above was taken by me in May 2016 in the driveway of my grandmother's house.