The Prodigal Thief

 Continued from the prior class.

So after the Last Supper, where did everyone go? To the Garden. Yes, the Garden of...G-E-S-T-H Gesthemane! Yes. And what did Jesus do? He prayed. And what did Jesus ask the Apostles do? To pray too. Yes, to watch and pray. And what did Jesus pray for? He didn't want to die. Yes. "He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will." And what was God's answer to this prayer? No? Right; God said No. I remind myself when I pray for something that if God could tell Jesus No, he can tell me No.

Then Jesus went to check on the apostles; guess what they were doing. Sleeping? Yes! "...he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour?"  Then he went to pray some more; "again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy." Guess how many times he found them sleeping? 3 times!  Yes! Tell me, doing or saying something 3 times makes or breaks a...contract! Yes! So the apostles showed they'd rather snooze than pray with Jesus. Does anyone know what Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is? No? Who knows what this gold thing is [I draw a monstrance]...yes? It's what they put Communion in. Yes, it's called a monstrance; not like monster, but like demonstrate. It means to show. This center part is glass so it shows Jesus in the Eucharist. Some parishes have what's called an Adoration chapel; usually about the size of a dining room. It's open 24 hours a day, and has a monstrance placed on a little altar. People sign up for an hour at a time to watch and pray in these chapels with Jesus, partly because the apostles were too sleepy on that Thursday night. If anyone in your family does Adoration, you might go with them sometime; it's very peaceful, and the hour passes quicker than you might think. You can help make up for the snoozing apostles.

Right after Jesus found them sleeping for the third time, he was arrested and taken to the chief priests of the Temple, who wanted the Romans to get rid of Jesus. The High Priest said "tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." Remind me, Christ is Greek for...Messiah! Yes, the Anointed One. "Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." Jesus is quoting Daniel again about himself: sitting beside God the Father, coming down from heaven. It's like Jesus saying he's God. The high priest goes nuts! "Then the high priest tore his robes, and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment?" They answered, "He deserves death."

So they took him to the Roman governor...P-O-N- Pontius Pilate, yes. But Pilate didn't think Jesus was a threat to Rome. He sent Jesus to King Herod, the son of the King Herod who killed all the babies when Jesus was born.  Herod was the King of Judea, the King of the Jews, but he was outranked by Pilate. Herod didn't have a problem with Jesus either, and sent him back to Pilate. Pilate was ready to release Jesus, but the priests said no. What did Pilate do to Jesus, hoping the priests would feel sorry for him and agree that he could be let go? He whipped him! Yes. But what did the priests and the crowd yell for to happen to Jesus? Crucify him! Yes. Now what day is this? Thursday? That was the night before. Friday? Yes, and the next day is...Saturday. In Hebrew please...the Sabbath. And this is a special Sabbath...the Lamb business...Passover!  Yes! "Now at the [Passover] feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted.  And they had then a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas." What's notorious? Bad?  Yes...famously bad. "So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ?" For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up." What's envy mean? Jealous? Yes. The priests were jealous that people followed Jesus, and thought he was the Messiah; and that he knew the Scriptures better than they did; and that he seemed righteous when he knocked over the tables earlier in the week. Jesus aggravated them and they were fed up. But Pilate didn't want to do what was right, which would have been...to let Jesus go! Yes. He wanted to do what was convenient. So he let the crowd choose between Jesus and Barabbas and they chose...Barabbas! Yes. And what did Pilate do to show it wasn't his problem? He washed his hands? Yes. He wanted to show that his hands were clean of this dirty business; he said, "I am innocent of this righteous man's blood;" but he was the person in charge, not the crowd; he wasn't innocent.

Now when Jesus was arrested on Thursday night, what did the apostles do? Run away! Yes, they were all scared. Later that night some people recognized Peter as a friend of Jesus. What did Peter say? He wasn't Jesus's friend. Yes...how many times did he say that? Three times!  Yes, so he's breaking...a contract!  Yes...what contract? Umm, to be Jesus's friend?  Yes, to be his disciple, his follower; Peter had told Jesus at the Last Supper he'd stick with him and even die for him. But Peter, whose name means...Rock, yes, ran off and even told people he didn't know who Jesus was. Some Rock.

About noon on Friday the Roman soldiers took Jesus up to a hill called Golgotha to be crucified between two thieves. While he was hanging there people made fun of him: "Hey Jesus, if you're the Messiah, why don't you get yourself offa that cross; why don't you get Elijah to come save you? Huh? Huh? C'mon Son of God, get down off the cross and we'll believe in ya!" Just terrible how mean people were to him. Jesus was treated like the Suffering Servant that Isaiah had prophesied. And "One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "...this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." The second man is called the Good Thief...why? 'Cause he told Jesus he was sorry? Yes, genius! He repented of his sins and had a...change...of heart! Yes! "And [Jesus] said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." I like to imagine the Good Thief and Jesus on their crosses: hot, sweaty, thirsty, dirty, bloody, big nails hammered into them, flies buzzing around their heads. And how happy they would both be: the Good Thief repents, and Jesus forgives him. I bet for a few minutes they were as happy as the Prodigal Son and his Daddy.

Then Jesus saw his mother Mary with the youngest apostle, John. John was pretty brave to be with Jesus; he was the only apostle there. Because Jesus didn't have any brothers or sisters, who would take care of his mom when he died? Didn't he get John to do it? Yes, what did Jesus say? Umm...behold your mother? Yes, and to Mary he said...behold your son? Yes, good. Then Jesus said he was thirsty...tell me. They gave him some wine in a sponge? Yes, how'd they get it up to his mouth? On a spear? Close, but no. A stick? Yes.

At about 3 o'clock Jesus died. "Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away." If tomorrow is the Passover feast what's being prepared today? The food? Yes which includes...lambs? Yes, so what's the first step with the lambs? To cook them! Before that. To kill them? Yes. And John the Baptist called Jesus...the Lamb of God, yes and at the same time that the Old Covenant lambs are being killed, the New Covenant Lamb...is being killed too! Yes. And when Jewish people had an Old Covenant priest kill and offer up a lamb for their sins, what would happen? They'd be forgiven? Yes; sacrificing the lamb atones for the sins. And how about when the New Covenant Lamb was sacrificed on the cross? Our sins are forgiven? Almost; the sins are atoned for. We still have to ask for forgiveness, though. Trick question: who offers sacrifices for sinners? Priests. Yes; trickier question: who offered up the New Covenant Lamb? Well, the Romans killed him. Yes, but as Jesus said, they didn't know what they were doing; when was Jesus's body and blood offered to God, not killed? Umm, at the Last Supper? Yes. So who was the priest? Jesus? Yes. But how can he do that? Do what? Be the priest if he gets killed. Well, what we understand is that Jesus is the priest and the victim. That way we have a perfect priest and and a perfect victim to atone for all sins forever. But they're the same person. It's different from sacrificing an animal.

Back to the story: the Jews don't want these crucified guys "hanging around" on Passover, it's not dignified. They ask the Romans to break their legs so they'll hurry up and die before Passover starts. "So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him; but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs." I think the soldiers beat the thieves' shinbones like you'd hit a baseball with a bat, just as hard as you can until they were broken like toothpicks. Ewww, gross! No kidding. But Jesus looked dead so they didn't break his legs. That way he'd be a perfect lamb; God wouldn't accept lambs that were sick, mangy or had broken legs. Then what did a soldier do to be sure Jesus was dead? Stick a spear in him?  Yes; and what came out? Blood and water!  Yes, genius, you remembered the water. Does anyone remember what Moses and Levite priests used to sprinkle blood and water on people? It was a bunch of sticks. Yes, remember what kind of sticks? H-Y-S- Hyssop!  Yes. John's gospel says a hyssop stick was used to raise the wine-soaked sponge up to Jesus's mouth. So there's hyssop, blood and water when Jesus is sacrificed. That's like those Old Testament rituals when a priest would kill a bird over a pot of water, and use hyssop to sprinkle that mixture on people or homes, like so: "take the...hyssop...along with the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times." John's Gospel is careful to show these same things at the crucifixion so people will know Jesus's sacrifice connects to the old way of sacrificing. Trick question: how do we get sprinkled with the blood of the New Covenant Lamb? When do get sprinkled with anything? At Mass we get sprinkled sometimes. Yes. Any other time water gets on us? At baptism?  Yes. In both those cases we're sprinkled with water, but the blood is included in the water because...what came out of Jesus? Blood and water! Yes. So if we're sprinkled with the water, it includes...the blood. Yes; the blood of the...Lamb! Yes.

Later on Friday Jesus was taken down and placed in a tomb: "After this Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus...asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. So he came and took away his body. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there."

Class continues in the next post.

Melchizedek Redux

 

Remember from last week that Jesus had come to Jerusalem a few days before Passover. Now it's Thursday evening and Jesus wants to have dinner with his friends the apostles. "Now the feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death ...Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the passover lamb had to be sacrificed. The disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?" He said, "Go into the city to a certain one, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples." And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.  When it was evening, he sat at table with the twelve disciples."    Tell me please, at the first Passover, what did people eat? A lamb. Yes, and...umm, some bread? Yes, what's called unleavened bread. Does anyone know what leavening is? No? How about yeast? No? Yeast or leavening is what makes bread fluffy. If you don't put yeast in bread dough, you get very flat bread. But you can eat sooner, because it can take more than 2 hours for leavened dough to rise and fluff up. At the first Passover, Moses told the Israelites to make unleavened bread and eat quickly, so that when Pharaoh decided to let them leave Egypt, they'd be ready to go. Tell me what pita bread is. It's flat round bread. Yes, it has just a little yeast and it doesn't rise for very long before it's baked. Can anybody think of some other round flat bread? No? How about at Mass? Oh, communion bread!  Yes; it's unleavened bread, too.

So what do you expect Jesus and the apostles to eat at this dinner? Lamb and bread! Yes, unleavened bread. "Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples...." There's the bread. And Jesus said, "This is my body which is given up for you." What? Why would Jesus say the bread was his body? So we would have Communion? Yes. But right then the apostles didn't know that. Remember after Jesus fed the crowds and they wanted more miracle food the next day he said some strange things that upset people...about eating weird stuff...drinking weird stuff...oh, eat my flesh and drink my blood! Yes! Nobody understood Jesus; how could anybody eat Jesus? But then at the Last Supper he says the bread is his body. Would the apostles know how eat Jesus now? Yes, they'd eat the bread! Yes, the bread he turned into his body. Then he said, "Do this in remembrance of me." What did Jesus just do? Change the bread? Yes, into...his body. Yes. So what should they do to remember Jesus? Change the bread? Yes. How can they do that? Jesus would work the miracle through them; they would have his authority. When do we still remember this? At Mass. Yes. And listen again: "This is my body which is given up for you." What's Jesus mean that his body is given up for them? If say, soldiers give up, what happens? They surrender. Yes. Is Jesus going to surrender himself to anybody soon? The Roman soldiers? Yes; and what will happen to Jesus? He'll be crucified. Yes, he'll be sacrificed for our sins. So when Jesus says his body is given up for them he's making a little prophecy, because nobody's arrested him just yet. And the apostles don't know why he'd give his body up for them anyway. But we know he'll be sacrificed. So, did Jesus sacrifice himself? Yes. Oh, he killed himself at the Last Supper? Ha, no! Right; who did kill Jesus? The soldiers. Yes. Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice at the Last Supper, but didn't do the actual sacrificing, the killing. That happened the next day, which would be...Good Friday? Yes. Why do we say it's Good? Because it was good for us.

"And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you." Y'all and the apostles have already figured out how to eat Jesus's flesh; how will they drink his blood? By drinking the wine? Yes, by drinking the wine Jesus changed into...blood.Yes. Do y'all think at the Last Supper Jesus's body and blood looked like a hunk of meat and a cup of blood? No it just looked like bread and wine. Yes; the apostles still needed faith, just like we do on Sundays.

Now Jesus and his friends were observing Passover, which began with Moses in Egypt; what have they eaten so far? Bread? Yes, anything else? Well they drank some wine. Yes; what are they supposed to eat at a Passover dinner? A Lamb! Yes, sacrificing and eating lambs were signs of the Covenant God made with the Israelites. Tell me about the sign of the lamb's blood at the first Passover. They splashed it on their houses! Yes. But Jesus says drinking his blood, not splashing it, is the sign of a new covenant. And right about now the apostles are thinking: what new covenant? Isn't this a Passover meal like people have eaten for centuries? But maybe the apostles remember one of Jeremiah's prophecies that we looked at a couple of months ago: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD...." See how important marriage is? "I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." It's like a romance between God and his people. Do my wife and I have a bunch of rules on paper? No. Why not? Because if you love somebody you don't need rules.  Yes. Boys never answer that question, but the girls always get it right. Boys, pay attention to what the girls say. Anyway, I imagine the apostles thinking, "Wow, is Jesus talking about that new covenant that Jeremiah prophesied?  I wonder how that's gonna work?" Somebody tell me how it's gonna work. No takers...what do we expect the apostles to eat that they haven't eaten? A lamb. Yes. Tell me what John the Baptist called Jesus...Jesus was coming to be baptized...behold the Banana of God...Behold the Lamb of God! Yes, who takes away...the sins of the world. There ya go! So if Jesus is a Lamb, what kind of Lamb...a Christmas Lamb....Little Bo Peep's Lamb...a Passover Lamb! Yes. How are the Apostles going to eat this Lamb? What's the bread? Jesus. What's the Lamb? Jesus. So if you eat the bread you...eat the Lamb! Yes. This is a new covenant meal; but it's like the old one, too.

Now who was it that made that Passover covenant with God? Moses. Yes. Moses was a very big deal for Jews: he got their ancestors out of Egypt, brought them the 10 Commandments, set up the Ark and Meeting Tent, got them to the Promised Land. So why would anybody dump that covenant and listen to Jesus talk about a new covenant? 'cause Jeremiah said there'd be a new one? Ooh, good guess, but Jeremiah isn't as big a deal as Moses. He doesn't outrank Moses.

Now tell me yet again what they have at this Final Din-Din? The Last Supper. Yes...what did they have? Bread and wine. Yes. And thinking way back this year, y'all may remember this guy [on the board] M-e-l-c-h-i-z...Melchizedek! Yes. Tell me. He was a priest? Yes. A king and a priest. What did Melchizedek bring out to Abraham...chips and dip? Umm, bread and wine? Yes. We don't know exactly how Melchizedek offered up the bread and wine, but Genesis said he was a priest. And Abraham gave him a tenth of the stuff he had just won in a battle. Sort of like the way we give money on Sunday to support the Church. So if Melchizedek blesses Abraham, and then Abraham makes an offering to Melchizedek, who ranks higher? Melchizedek? Yes, why? Well...Abraham had to give him stuff. Yes. And because Melchizedek outranks Abraham, he also outranks Abraham's descendants, like Isaac and Moses. So when Jesus offers bread and wine like Melchizedek, he's showing that his new covenant outranks Moses' covenant.

When Jesus offered the same things that Melchizedek did, I bet the apostles were thinking, "is this like Melchizedek?" And then "does it matter?" because they didn't figure things out right away, and Jesus had given them a lot to think about.

After supper was over did they go out bowling? They went to pray! Yes, in...a...bowling alley? Was it the Garden of Eden? No, good guess; another Garden, the Garden of Gethsemane. But time's up, we'll start here next week.

Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

Wow, y'all are getting good. Class over!

Daughters & Prayers

Thanks all you prayin' machines.

Today Francie and her eye were examined by 7 doctors. Short answer: the infection 'etched' her cornea, but the rest of the eyeball suffered no permanent damage. She couldn't see through it at all yesterday, but today can distinguish light from dark; and gross motion. Tentative prognosis: the cornea may self-repair enough be workable. If not, she may get a cornea transplant.

Coulda been worse.

My daughter is very ill, please pray for her.

Daughter Francesca has an eye infection which threatens her sight in that eye, as soon as a hospital can be found that can treat it she'll be headed there. Thanks for your prayers.

Update 1am Monday : got her into a hospital 100 miles away. She's on an IV, infection is under control, but vision in the eye is probably lost. Better luck next time.

Just Do It

Y'all remember last week Jesus drove the Temple staff crazy right in front of the Temple! Imagine someone coming into your house and yelling at your parents...who would stand for that? The scribes & priests got so fed up with Jesus that they wanted him dead. Tell me again, who ran Judea? Caesar? Yes, and who did Caesar put in charge of Judea? He washed his hands at Jesus's trial...Pontius Pilate! Yes, the Roman Governor, who had the power to sentence criminals to death. So the priests told Pilate that Jesus wasn't just a religion problem, but a political problem, too. Crowds of people thought Jesus was the Messiah, a new King like David; that would make Jesus a rebel. So after knocking over tables in the Temple Court and chewing out Pharisees, Jesus had only a few more days to live.

In these last days Jesus was still busy telling parables; let's look at a couple of them. Remember when I read parables, imagine ya'll are in ancient Jerusalem listening to Jesus tell 'em.

"What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterward he repented and went.  And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir,' but did not go.  Which of the two did the will of his father?" The first one! Yes, that's easy. Jesus isn't too interested in what people say they believe, he's interested in what their faith makes them...do!  Yes, because Jesus expects us to act...in...faith! Yes. Then Jesus told the chief priests and Pharisees, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you." I bet their heads were about to explode! Tax collectors and prostitutes weren't part of decent society...but they're going to heaven first? Jesus means that people like the Prodigal Son who repent of huge sins will do better than people like his older brother, who won't repent of their small sins. Then Jesus says, "John the Baptist told everyone to repent; and humble sinners did repent. But y'all are too proud." And without repentance, there's no...forgiveness?  Yes. And no forgiveness means...hair on fire...pitchfork in the butt...Hell! That's it!

Tonight my favorite Sacrament is Marriage, because it figures in this next parable. "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son..." OK, this is a parable, so tell me who the King is...God? More specifically...God the Father. Yes...and the son is...Jesus. Yes. The father "sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast; but they would not come." OK, now this half of the class is Chosen People, Sons of Abraham; the other half are non-Jews, what we call Gentiles. Which group is invited to the wedding feast? Chosen People! Yes, but they didn't come. This doesn't mean every last person didn't come; it just means a lot of them didn't, even though they were God's family.

"Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.' But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them." Now, who might one of these messengers be, whose message the Pharisees ignored? Jesus? Good guess, but who is the son in this story? Jesus. Yes, so he can't do two parts.  Who was the messenger who came before Jesus...his head got cut off...it was put on a plate...John the Baptist? Yes. "The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the highways, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.'  Which group is this? Us! Yes, the Gentiles, people not part of God's Covenant. And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. "But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment..." Who has been to a wedding feast, what we call nowadays a reception...lots of y'all...tell me about it. It's fun and there's good food. And? People dance and there's music. Yes, a great time. And how do people dress...like they're gonna cut the grass? No they dress nice! Why? Because it's special! Yes...I mean, why do people dress nicely when they attend something special? You just have to dress special if you're going to something special. Yes, that's how we show with our bodies that our minds and souls believe it's special. Daughter, if I came to your wedding in a t-shirt & flip-flops, how would you feel? I wouldn't like it. But suppose I said I know this is your special day, and I'm so glad I came, but I don't like wearing a suit and tie, they're not comfortable like jeans. I wouldn't care. Right. You wouldn't want someone to behave badly at your wedding. But clothes aren't the same as behaving. Well, in some ways, it's a kind of behavior. How you act, smell, sound, and look are all parts of behavior. 

And the king says to this guy who had no wedding garment, "Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?" I love that: "how did you get in here?" The king can tell just by looking that the man doesn't have respect for the king, and how wonderful the feast is.  "Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth." What's the outer darkness? Hell?  Yes. Now what banquet is the parable about? We have it on Sundays....Mass! Yes. But something is missing from this wedding feast...we have the groom...we have the father of the groom...there's no bride! Yes! Who or what is the bride...who is Jesus's bride? Jesus didn't get married. Yes, you are right. But this is a heavenly, spiritual marriage; like when Isaiah said Israel's husband was God.  Jesus's bride is the Church. He loves the Church like I love my wife; well, actually it's the other way around. And that's why we call the Church "she," like a ship. Do priests get married? No. Right: they imitate Christ, who had no bride on Earth. But who is Jesus's heavenly bride? The Church.  So if priests imitate Christ, they marry...the Church too? Yes. How can she have a thousand husbands? It's not identical to an earthly marriage. By the way, speaking of spiritual marriage, whom do nuns marry? Nobody. I said spiritually. Ummm, the Church? Is the Church a bride? Yes. Do women marry brides? No. So do nuns marry the Church? No. Women marry...men. Yes; so nuns marry...ummm, Jesus? Yes. Priests give themselves to the Church and nuns give themselves to Jesus; and my wife and I give ourselves to each other. It's all very romantic.

Here's our last parable from chapter 25 of Matthew's gospel: "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne." That's Jesus quoting Daniel again.  "Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left." So the sheep go to...heaven, and the goats...to Hell. Yes. And he says to the sheep, "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'  Once again, Jesus wants to know what you do, not just what you claim to believe.

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?  And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.'

When Jesus says "the righteous" in this way does he mean people who are really, truly righteous? No, people who just think they're righteous. Yes; people who think they aren't bad enough to need to repent, and do good works. And in this parable, how does Jesus expect us to take care of him? By taking care of other people? Yes, because Jesus is in all of us.

[I pull out a picture book about this person:]

 Who's this? Mother Teresa. Yes, nice to see some of y'all know who she is; tell me about her. She takes care of sick people. Yes, she used to; she died a few years ago...the Church may make her a saint in your lifetimes. [I show some pictures in the book] She lived in India, where very poor sick people may lie on the sidewalk until they die. She made it her business to take care of as many of them as she could. She had been a schoolteacher, but one day on a train, Jesus spoke to her. He asked her to love him by loving the least of his children, just like Jesus said in this parable. So her life permanently changed at that moment.

Who's Jay Leno? He has a TV show! Yes, the Tonight Show. About 30 years ago, I saw Mother Teresa on the Tonight Show. In her photographs she always looked grumpy, but I was surprised to see how lively and happy she was in real life. I couldn't understand why she was happy, since she spent all her time dealing with scabby, smelly, sick, dying people. But she said she saw Jesus in all those people; and she was happy to do stuff for Jesus. She was just doing what Jesus said to do in the parable. Anyway, for years after watching her on TV, I felt guilty about not doing anything for anybody like Mother Teresa did. One day I told my priest I liked Mother Teresa's example, but I never saw sick people lying on the sidewalk in Greenville. So he started me going to the hospital to visit sick people and bring them Communion. At first it was odd: I can't stand the hospital, didn't know any of the patients, and felt unworthy of bringing them communion. But after a couple of months I got used to it, and learned to see Jesus in those people...no kidding. Now y'all remember Moses' stick and Jesus's cloak with the tassels, were those things magic? No, they were just...well, God's power went through them. Yes; they were media, like the TV that mediated Mother Teresa into my house. Well, over the next few years of going to visit the sick, I realized I was being a medium for God's grace; there were times when dying people were so happy to see me, but it wasn't me in particular. I think it was God coming through me to them...like so:

One time I went to see a woman, who of course was a total stranger. I knocked & walked into a dimly-lit room. There was a very old, thin woman in the bed, the skinniest thing you've ever seen. She wasn't moving, but her eyes were open. Her daughter, a grownup like me, was trying to feed her some yogurt; and her two daughters, about your age, were there too. The old woman's daughter was stressing out and getting frustrated because her dying mom wouldn't eat any yogurt, but she was supposed to. And the two granddaughters were worried and stressed because their mom and grandmother were stressed. The whole room was unhappy. I told the daughter I was there to bring her mom Communion if she could receive it; sometimes people are too dehydrated to receive Communion. The daughter said her mom would want to, but she was too dry, couldn't swallow, and wouldn't eat any yogurt, which would moisten her mouth and throat. I said, do you mind if I try? She said sure, go ahead, and sat in a chair, just exhausted from taking care of her two girls and her mother. I took the cup and spoon. As I got closer to grandma, I saw she was so dehydrated that her lips were cracked and had little scabs on them. I said to her, "Hey darlin', I'm here to bring you Communion if you'd like to receive." She looked right into my eyes and nodded just the littlest bit; she was worn out, too. "OK...do you want to try some yogurt? It'll help you to swallow." Another little nod, kept looking right in my eyes. "OK...here you go, just a little bit...there. Was that too much? OK...another one...let me know when you've had enough...another one, good..." And it went like that 'til she ate the whole container. Then, "Do you think you can swallow a little bit of Communion?" Yes. "Would you like to sip some water from a straw to help it go down?" Yes. "OK darlin'...the Body of Christ...Amen...here's the water...is that enough? There ya go." We just looked at each other the whole time, and all the tension left the room. I swear she was smiling with her eyes the biggest smile I've ever seen. I could feel God's love flowing out me and into her, and from her into me. We were both seeing Jesus in each other. It was incredible. I said, "I'll see ya next week," and kissed her on the forehead. When I came back the next week she was gone. Yes? How come she got to have communion right after eating? Because the rules are different when you are seriously sick.

This is a good example of what can happen if you try to see Jesus in everyone, especially "the least" of his children. Not only can you be a medium of Jesus's love to a stranger, but surprise, they can channel Jesus's grace right into you as well. It's amazing what great things happen when a sinner like me lets God use him. And if it weren't for this parable and Mother Teresa, I don't know if I would ever have visited a single sick stranger.

That was our last parable; Jesus is going to be arrested soon. But before the soldiers come for him, he and his Apostles eat the Final Dinner. The Last Supper? Oh yeah, that's it. We'll cover that next.

House of Prayer, Den of Thieves

This post is linked to RAnn's Sunday Snippets

Y'all remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about Jesus and the children [Mk 10]? Yes. We covered that a little out of order to compare those kids going straight to Jesus to the boy with the loaves and fishes only getting access to the Apostles. Remind me please, who brought those kids to Jesus? Their parents. Yes, the parents knew Jesus was some kind of prophet, miracle-worker, maybe even the Messiah. What'd the parents want? They wanted Jesus to bless the kids. Yes, by...laying his hands on them!  Yes! Did Jesus tell the kids, "Hey now, your parents put you up to this; y'all come back when you have some faith of your own, and then I'll bless ya." No, he just blessed them! Yes, because the parents wanted it for their children; the parents had faith. It's the same with Baptism: do babies know anything about Jesus? No. Right. Babies don't know anything; but their parents do. Babies are Baptized because of their parents' faith.

Shortly after blessing the kids, Jesus started on a journey, probably to Jerusalem. "And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus says,"You know the commandments: 'Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness"...which means? Don't lie! Yes..."Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother." What's defraud? Tricking someone out of his money. Jesus is sort of teasing him, like saying, "What's the matter? Don't you know the 10 Commandments?" And the man says "Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth." And Jesus, looking upon him loved him..." Why do you think Jesus loved him? Because he wanted to be good?  Yes! And because he felt like observing the 10 Commandments wasn't enough...there was more he should be doing, but he couldn't say what.  Jesus said to him, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." Uh-oh...I don't know if I could do that.  Following Jesus means more than checking off the 10 Commandments every day. "At that saying [the rich man] went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions."  Jesus didn't let people stop with the 10 Commandments, he had two more: love your...neighbor? Yes, as yourself; and love your...? No guesses? Jesus told us to turn the other cheek if someone hits us, and to love...our enemies!  Yes! I think those two are tougher than the first Ten. And Jesus said, "Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." And they were exceedingly astonished..." Tell me, in Jesus's day, how could you tell if God had super-blessed someone? They were rich? Yes, God blessed people with lots of kids and goodies. And if God didn't bless you, you might wind up with a son who was blind from birth. But now Jesus says being rich is more of a problem than a blessing. But if it's hard for the rich, who enjoy God's favor, to get to heaven, what chance do the poor Apostles have? They said to him, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For men it is impossible, but not for God; for all things are possible with God." Jesus means that whether someone is rich or poor, he still can't get to heaven on his own; we all have to trust in God. Now y'all may remember Peter had a mother-in-law, which means...he was married? Yes. And I know how much I miss my wife if I don't see her at lunch every day. But Peter had to leave home to follow Jesus all around the Judean countryside for a couple of years now. Peter said to Jesus, "We have given up everything and followed you." I think Peter's reminding Jesus that he didn't just give up being a fisherman, which would make him poor, but he gave up being with his wife and family, which is even worse! Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold...and in the age to come, eternal life." Jesus is telling Peter he knows what Peter has sacrificed. People like Peter, who trust in God and let go of whatever they have to to follow Jesus, will have eternal life, which is what the rich man was looking for at the start of the story. The rich man was afraid to completely trust in God. He also wanted to trust in his stuff; but that may keep him out of heaven. I know how he feels; I like to trust in stuff too.

Shortly after this episode, Jesus enters Jerusalem during the time of Passover, as we saw last week. One of the first things he does in Jerusalem is to go aggravate the scribes and priests at the Temple. Tell me about it. He went in and knocked over the tables and whipped people! Yes! "The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables." Now Jesus didn't go into the holy part of the Temple where only priests could go; he was in the outer court where people could come in to make their Passover offerings. If they came from far away they might have to change their money to pay a Temple tax and buy animals for sacrifice. Imagine cows peeing and pooping and farting in front of our church: smelly, noisy, and completely irreverent. "And he...said to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?" What's that mean? That people should be respectful? Yes. Then he says "But you have made it a den of thieves." Tell me about it. They shouldn't steal people's money? Yes, maybe the moneychangers were taking advantage of poor people who didn't know what a fair deal would be; defrauding them. That's how most of the people who heard Jesus would understand what he said. But the scribes and Pharisees and priests understood Jesus even more, which made them decide that they had to get rid of Jesus, and soon.

Let's see...who can read this [on the board]: NTHNG. Nothing? Yes, good! Keep going if you can...NTHNGBT. Nothing but? Yes again...this is harder...NTHNGBTCNSNNTS. Umm...nothing but consonants? Yes, genius! Very good. Sometimes grownups can't figure that out. In Jesus's day, the Scriptures were written in Hebrew. The Hebrew alphabet didn't have vowels, and there were no spaces between the words, or punctuation, or lower case letters, or paragraphs. A book in the Bible was one long stream of consonants on a scroll. What's a scroll? A rolled-up book? Yes, one long page rolled up. Reading was hard to do, and the only people who could read well were Pharisees, and scribes, who could also write. They made a living out of reading, studying, and memorizing the Scriptures. They knew them very well; all of the important parts from memory, much better than the average person, even the Apostles. So when they heard Jesus say "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations" they knew right away he was quoting Isaiah. And when he said "den of thieves" they remembered Jeremiah had said it first. We covered both of these quotes a couple months ago during our prophet classes; let's see what Jesus was telling the scribes, Pharisees, and other Temple staff.

First off, Jesus quotes Isaiah. But when the scribes hear "house of prayer," they don't just think about those words, but the whole passage. Isaiah prophesied that someday God's House would be for all people, not just Jews: "Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath, and taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people." So Jesus reminds the scribes and Pharisees that being Chosen won't matter if God will accept all people into his Covenant.

Then Jesus quoted Jeremiah while standing in the Temple Court, where Jeremiah had stood when he chewed out the Temple staff centuries before; Jesus was showing he had the same authority as Jeremiah. When he said "den of thieves" the Pharisees recalled the whole passage, part of which is: "Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of thieves to you?" Now I don't think the Temple staff of Jesus's day were doing all the bad stuff Jeremiah's talking about, but Jesus's point is they were just as unfaithful in their own way. And then they'd remember the next thing Jeremiah said: "Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel." Tell me about Shiloh and the Ark. They took the Ark to a battle and everybody died, and they lost the Ark. Yes, and when they got the Ark back, did they return it to Shiloh? No? Right. God abandoned Shiloh; God and his Ark never dwelled there again.

Now these two prophecies together are completely insulting to the Temple staff. Jesus, speaking through Isaiah and Jeremiah, prophesies that being a Jew won't matter much, and that non-Jews may be dearer to God than Chosen People. Then he compares them to adulterers and worshipers of Baal, the baby-eating false god. And finally he says that this place, the beautiful Temple in Jerusalem, will be abandoned by God just as Shiloh was: that God won't live there anymore.

As fast as the scribes and priests figure all this out, they are livid! What's livid? Real mad? Yes, you might say killing mad.

Then "...the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them." Healing is how Jesus shows his authority to prophesy. "But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant; and they sought a way to destroy him; for they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching." When people say "Hosanna to the Son of David!" to Jesus, who do they think he is? The Messiah? Yes, and a Son of David Messiah would be a...king? Yes. So how would Caesar like for the Jews to get themselves a new king like David? He wouldn't like it. So what would he do? Have a war?  Yes. And the Temple staff don't want a war: the Romans would go crazy and kill half the country. So they have both a political reason and a religious reason to get rid of Jesus.

Y'all remind me what Jesus did in Jerusalem when he was 12. He was teaching the grownups? Yes, at the camel store? Ha, no, at the Temple! Yes he was discussing the Scriptures with the teachers there (probably scribes and Levites), and they were impressed with his knowledge. I like to imagine that on the day that Jesus quoted Isaiah and Jeremiah, some of the older men at the Temple would have remembered Jesus when he was a smart kid 20 Passovers ago.

Class over!

[Much of the groundwork for this class is elaborated on here. Anyone teaching this would want to get a bigger picture than what I cover with the kids in this post,]

Res Ipsa Loquitur 2

This post is linked to RAnn's Sunday Snippets

Here is a short (5 minute) recorded bit from the February 20 class: Barney & St. Augustine

I posted on the topic a couple of years ago: Barney & St. Augustine.

Interesting to see how the live version compares to the old written version.


For more live classes, click on the Res Ipsa Loquitur label at lower right.