Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Word


Matthew 10: 34-37 [New International Version]

"34 Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

35 For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law –

36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

37 Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

1 comment:

  1. Commentary:

    Verse 34: Here Jesus accurately predicted the outcome of his ministry. Verse 34 is one quote attributed to Jesus that I think everyone can agree was correct: Jesus did not bring peace to the earth. Just the opposite. How many innocent people have been brutalized and slaughtered in the name of Christianity and conflict with it? How many people continue to justify their ignorance, brutality and neglect by relying on the Christian Bible? Just look at the "War on Terror"; the Inquisition; violence and against women, children and people of color; et cetera.



    I suspect the majority of death row inmates in the United States consider themselves religious or very religious. I generally suspect that where we find more religion, we will find more violence. And where we find more violence, we will find more religion. There are certainly a lot of good religious people, including many people in my own family. But do we need books of nonsense about eternal life in paradise with our dead ancestors to be good people and to do good things while we’re alive?




    Verses 35-36: Here we see Jesus telling us why he came to Earth: to turn family members against each other.




    Verse 37: One of my personal favorites. You must love Jesus - a carpenter and faith-healer who lived 2,000 years ago who you have never seen, heard or met - more than you love your own parents or children. If you do not, you are unworthy of Jesus, and you know what that means: being burned alive forever! Generally speaking, God/Jesus’s insistence that we love him/them, plus his/their threats of torture and slaughter if we don’t – doesn’t it seem narcissistic, insecure and crazy? Like a nursery rhyme gone horribly wrong… or maybe like a crazy mythology that developed thousands of years ago among violent, superstitious cavemen...

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