We'll just take one example, shall we? "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away..." No way! Better yet, "Whoever does not hate his father and mother is not worthy of me." What? Huh?
And like any good Bible readers (and good former Protestants, I might say) we might remind ourselves that context is king, idioms, yada, yada, etc. Even then, a ton of what Jesus says sounds like a press conference on an airplane back from Manila. [You just could not stop yourself, could you?--ed.] No.
In any case, there is a mixture of missing context and hidden mysticism that helps to make sense of Jesus in the Gospels. Let's explore a few of those things.
1. Missing Jew-Gentile background/the economy of salvation: This might be the biggest one. We can read the Old Testament many times even, but it's much different to live within it, to breathe in the air of the covenant, to see the judgment and mercy fall upon the people, your people. In any case, everything Jesus said presupposes this context. The right posture then and now is to realize that Israel was in exile, both literally by the Babylonians, and spiritually, because they had been chastised by those events, and had yet to experience the abundance prophesied by Jeremiah and others, both material, and spiritual, via communion with God. The people who missed the boat (Pharisees and Sadducees) essentially wanted to disregard all this. They believed that if they simply made the best of it--exalting the Law of Moses and excluding the unsavory parts of the prophets, or collaborating with their conquerors--they could make a workable life. Leave it to God to send a prophet to mess all that up. And He will.
2. Jesus is a prophet: That's not all He is, of course. But Jesus is not less. Prophets say crazy things, for two reasons, essentially: 1. To tell us the future, and/or the present, and 2. to give us God's perspective of whatever is happening, or going to happen. It's easier to understand once we have the whole picture, which, depending on where you are sitting, is not obvious.
3. The New Covenant is more glorious, but it's harder. ("You have heard it said...but I say to you...") We're plucking our eyes out and throwing them away (metaphorically) if we have to because in Christ, there is no real uncertainty about who we are, and what we do. There's no one left to wait for (except Him, again), and God expects those who see the whole glorious plan not to behave as though we're in the book of Genesis, chapter 4. On the other hand, Jesus says, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." I think the only way he can say this is because he knows how much mercy he is giving through the Church. In the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, we can draw as close to Christ as we desire! Anything we need pardon for, He is ready and willing to forgive. Any grace we need to do what He commands, we may have. We have only to ask. But we know when that last judgment falls, we'd better be ready.
If it's still crazy, you could always ask Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you whatever is necessary for you to understand. P.S. John's Gospel, while direct in its appeal, is easily the deepest, strangest one. Just bear that in mind.
And like any good Bible readers (and good former Protestants, I might say) we might remind ourselves that context is king, idioms, yada, yada, etc. Even then, a ton of what Jesus says sounds like a press conference on an airplane back from Manila. [You just could not stop yourself, could you?--ed.] No.
In any case, there is a mixture of missing context and hidden mysticism that helps to make sense of Jesus in the Gospels. Let's explore a few of those things.
1. Missing Jew-Gentile background/the economy of salvation: This might be the biggest one. We can read the Old Testament many times even, but it's much different to live within it, to breathe in the air of the covenant, to see the judgment and mercy fall upon the people, your people. In any case, everything Jesus said presupposes this context. The right posture then and now is to realize that Israel was in exile, both literally by the Babylonians, and spiritually, because they had been chastised by those events, and had yet to experience the abundance prophesied by Jeremiah and others, both material, and spiritual, via communion with God. The people who missed the boat (Pharisees and Sadducees) essentially wanted to disregard all this. They believed that if they simply made the best of it--exalting the Law of Moses and excluding the unsavory parts of the prophets, or collaborating with their conquerors--they could make a workable life. Leave it to God to send a prophet to mess all that up. And He will.
2. Jesus is a prophet: That's not all He is, of course. But Jesus is not less. Prophets say crazy things, for two reasons, essentially: 1. To tell us the future, and/or the present, and 2. to give us God's perspective of whatever is happening, or going to happen. It's easier to understand once we have the whole picture, which, depending on where you are sitting, is not obvious.
3. The New Covenant is more glorious, but it's harder. ("You have heard it said...but I say to you...") We're plucking our eyes out and throwing them away (metaphorically) if we have to because in Christ, there is no real uncertainty about who we are, and what we do. There's no one left to wait for (except Him, again), and God expects those who see the whole glorious plan not to behave as though we're in the book of Genesis, chapter 4. On the other hand, Jesus says, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." I think the only way he can say this is because he knows how much mercy he is giving through the Church. In the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, we can draw as close to Christ as we desire! Anything we need pardon for, He is ready and willing to forgive. Any grace we need to do what He commands, we may have. We have only to ask. But we know when that last judgment falls, we'd better be ready.
If it's still crazy, you could always ask Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you whatever is necessary for you to understand. P.S. John's Gospel, while direct in its appeal, is easily the deepest, strangest one. Just bear that in mind.
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