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Tag: Matthew

For you will always have the poor

Why mention the poor?

Once again, Jesus makes what appears to be an offhand remark about the poor. Jesus often criticized the leaders of Temple and Pharisees for their treatment of the poor; doesn’t this remark catch you off guard?

It would be easy enough to lose the context of Jesus’ apparent ambivalence toward the poor in the rush of events surrounding Passover week. Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem has many seemingly more important things going on than what to us would first appear to be a slip of the tongue (sort of like cursing the fig tree). Yet like in our previous series you may find some subtleties worthy of note that impact more than just the poor.

The Gospel Quotes:

Prior to examining Jesus’ point of the comment, which we will do later in this series, let’s begin quotes from the view points of three different gospel writers.

Mark 14:7

For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them.

Matthew 26:7

For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

John 12:8

For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

The 5 W’s

Now to discover the context we must examine all three stories asking:

Who, what, where, when and why?

You will find some variation in the three Gospel stories and some similarities. We begin today with Mark’s gospel.

Mark 14:

It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him, 2 for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”

We have the ‘when:’ two days before the Passover, which in this particular year with the Passover on a Thursday, was Tuesday.

3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.

4 There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

Where? In the house of Simon the Leper, in Bethany, near Jerusalem.

Bethany is today el ‘Azareyeh (“the place of Lazarus”- the L being displaced to form the article).

Who is present? Jesus, of course; Simon, host of the meal (who Jesus had likely healed from leprosy; ‘some,’ likely the Twelve and others; and an unidentified woman who enters Simon’s home.

What happens? She pours out some very expensive oil on Jesus, an act of great humility and worship.

(More about her and her gracious act later.)

To be continued…

August 1, 2017
for it was not the season for figs – 8
The Fig Tree Languishes

In this concluding part of our 8-part series we draw our conclusions of why JESUS on his way to Jerusalem cursed the fig tree.
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[circa 835 BC]
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The Prophet Joel:

1:3 Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation…

Generations recall what has been before.

Sin is always the downfall of the Lord’s chosen nation.

Surely scripture speaks contemporarily to those with ears to hear.

1:12 The vine dries up;
the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and gladness dries up
from the children of man.
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~A.D. 30
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Yesterday they shouted, ‘Hosanna!’

Eight centuries after Joel and other prophets warned Judah to repent, Jesus of Nazareth entered Jerusalem triumphantly. Even the children shouted praises and the crowds witness miracles.

Jesus then returned to nearby Bethany for the night.

A connection of Bethany to figs

Bethany was home to Lazarus, where some in the Jerusalem crowds had known that Jesus had raised him from the dead! Much is expected for this day.

Bethany “place of unripe fig tree near to Jerusalem

Bethany “house, place of unripe figs” is a village located on the E slope of Mt. Olivet, about one and one-half miles from Jerusalem.

It was called also the house of misery on account of its lonely situation and the invalids who congregated there.’ Source

Matthew 21:

18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.
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'It lies on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, fully a mile beyond the summit. Bethany has been commonly explained "house of dates," but it more probably signifies "house of misery." 
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19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!”
Gospel of Matthew 21:19

And the fig tree withered at once.

Once a withered fig, Jerusalem will wither once more

Israel and Judah had been destroyed.

Jerusalem’s walls and Temple are rebuilt after many years, first by Ezra then built back bigger and better by Herod the Great.

Rome, like other nations, has again captured a chosen people; sons of Abraham, sons of David.

A King rides up to the gates triumphantly and crowds praise Jesus.

Now the Lord returns to Jerusalem and curses a fig tree.

Do these jews praising Jesus know their scripture?

Of course they do.

“Nearly every 1st century jew knew the word of God better than most jews or christians in these last days with abundant access to unread Bibles.”

32:46 וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם שִׂימוּ לְבַבְכֶם לְכָל־הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מֵעִיד בָּכֶם הַיֹּום אֲשֶׁר תְּצַוֻּם אֶת־בְּנֵיכֶם לִשְׁמֹר לַעֲשֹׂות אֶת־כָּל־דִּבְרֵי הַתֹּורָה הַזֹּֽאת׃

and he said to them, “Place in your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to be careful to do, even all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 32:46

Deuteronomy 8:

6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills,

8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.”

Have we forgotten the lesson of the fig tree?
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Just in case you have missed the Prologue and Scripture bringing us to this conclusion: GO BACK to the PROLOGUE HERE
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Even as we have forgotten the Lord in our daily lives, Jesus the Messiah has found no fruit of repentance in Israel — in our nation

— perhaps rarely in our churches — and even in the landscapes and homes of this 21st century christian life.

The Lord found no desire of God’s chosen people to turn back to true worship of the Lord.

God our Father sent the Son to us in the flesh to become a Sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus neared the completion of His time with us on His created earth as Son of Man and then set his face toward Jerusalem and CURSED the fig tree.

‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”
Deuteronomy 27:26

It was not the season for figs, but a time for sacrifice.

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up – John 3:13

Matthew 21:

²⁰When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying,

“How did the fig tree wither at once?”

²¹And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. ²²And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
What season is your faith?

+ Do you worship the Lord?

+ Would a King entering your town recognize your fruit?
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Forgive me, Lord. Help me in my unbelief, for I have not asked you to take up the evil on this mountain of my mortal life and cast it into the sea.
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Jesus IS Lord. He will return to reign forever and ever.

Amen.
July 12, 2017
for it was not the season for figs – 7
The Lord Christ Jesus preaches the Prophets as well as the Law.

Read Habakkuk or any prophet and see the Lord predicted in days & centuries Before Christ.

Jesus shares scripture in ways few understand. Application may well apply to these last days as well. RH
Roger@TalkofJesus.com
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This series from summer 2017 began here.
https://talkofjesus.com/not-season-figs-prologue/ 
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The Lord warns of the tree and it’s fruit

In the early preaching of Jesus (right after the golden rule) Jesus offers this warning.

A Tree and Its Fruit

¹⁵“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶You will recognize them by their fruits.

Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Though the fig tree does not blossom

What shall we do?

“We live thistle-bound lives in lands of lost promise.”

“For the nations are led astray by men and women who seek not the will of the Lord.”

The garden of the Lord seems long lost to sin.

Leaders listening to the Lord’s command are no more.

Judges enact rules of unrighteousness.

Kings conquer, covet and divide.

Prophets no longer warn of God displeasure of even ‘christians‘ living this ‘life’ and the Lord’s silence disheartens the generations.

In the first century A.D. during Jesus’ ministry:

The head of John the Baptist has passed on a platter and crowds of Jerusalem under Rome look for a Messiah and King.

A prophet seven centuries earlier had cursed a fig tree on their behalf echoing the hearts of this Passover procession with Palms – our Palm Sunday multitude.

Habakkuk 1: NKJV

O Lord, how long shall I cry,
And You will not hear?

Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he?

O, faithless fig tree, dear dried up vine; do you believe that you alone have cried out to the Lord for mercy?

Habakkuk 3:

O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.

A Hymn of Faith
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17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the deer's;
    he makes me tread on my high places.
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A second look at a triumphal entry

¹⁷Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
¹⁸Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Matthew 21:
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”

11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

To be continued…
July 9, 2017