September 7th 2014, Pentecost 13, Matthew 18:15-20, Causing people to stumble,Binding and Loosing

Matthew draws together sayings on humility and greatness and the seriousness of causing little ones to sin. He has gathered together Jesus' teachings on membership in the kingdom of God - life under God's authority. It ends with "when Jesus had finished saying these things". When the gospels were written, the sayings and acts of Jesus would have been known off by heart. 

Membership of the kingdom of God belongs to those who are dependent on God's grace for their salvation. (not their reputation, their wonderful deeds) Within the fellowship of believers, it is essential not to lead such a person away from God.

  

For us, the lost people of God, the Beatitudes remind us that the humble are those who inherit the earth, they are the ones who recognize their poverty before God, mourn for their loss of divine standing, thirst for righteousness, and in this yearning are blessed with divine grace. They bear the fruit of faith: mercy, purity of heart, peacemakers, but persecuted. On the other hand there are those who think they are God's gift to humankind and "exalt themselves". Humility is not modesty, but relying on God for salvation. Matthew puts together three independent didactic sayings of Jesus. The sayings are about church discipline. 

The first saying is often treated as a method for dealing with a sister/brother who has hurt us - sinned against us. This is commonly used in Christian fellowships . A believer, a little one, has wavered in their faith, and as a result their standing before Christ needs to be restored. To this end the church  must bring the little ones face to face with what is right again.

"If a member of the church sins against you"-the sin is undefined, but given the instructions it must be serious, stronger than "should do something wrong", "against you. The context it is the consequence of skandalizw, of having a stumbling block placed before a person. The twn skandalwn is the cause of the stumbling or entrapment.

• causes of stumbling do a lot of damage
• the outcome for those who are the causes of the stumbling is dire

In ourworld stumbling blocks are inevitable, but this does not mean that a person has to promote or create them; woe to the person who does. 

Jesus' sayings have addressed those in a position to either welcome or trip- up the little ones who believe in him. 

It is better for you to be thrown into the fire of hell - the gehenna of fire. Gehenna comes from the Heb. ge-Hinnom, the valley of wailing, the rubbish tip outside of Jerusalem where corpses of the poor were dumped along with the rubbish. A stinking, constantly burning place. 

Back to our person who has been the object of stumbling blocks! Bring the problem to light, do it privately rather than publicly. Have it out with them. If they listen to you have won them over. If s/he doesn’t listen, take a few others, (as witnesses Deuteronomy 19:15 establishing the point that a person cannot be convicted on the evidence of just one person), to confront the problem, emphasizes the need to exhaust every possibility in the effort to win back the person. Then treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector as an outsider. This however does not mean treat him with contempt or cruelty.

  

In seeking to restore the brother or sister who has strayed from the faith, the Christian community seeks them out to restore them. Here the authority is given to the Christian community. The church is being given the authority to arbitrate on matters of God's will and declare a verdict on the matter (like Sharia Law). Members either confirm God's condemnation or forgiveness. Whatever you loose, abolish upon the earth, will have been loosed. 

 
The second saying is on the authority of the church.  Again, the saying can be understood in a number of ways. So, for example, the saying may give the idea that when two or more Christians believe in something in prayer, it will happen. But what about unanswered prayers? The saying may be teaching that when two or three meet in Jesus' name, God will be present, revealing God's will to them. The congregation can then pray, believing that it will be done for them. 

Jesus promises that he will be with his people, even when there are just two or three present, to the very end of the age, for ever!

  

Pentecost 11 2014, Matthew 16:13-20, "Who do you say that I am"

This week I met a man on the bus. he had loads of bags and I fell into the seat by him. He apologised for the bags. I said believe me bags are not a problem!
He laughed and we got talking. He was a doctor from Iraq. In 2003 he fled to Sweden. He had to establish his medical credentials and get his wife out of Bagdad. He now works every day God sends in a hospital in Stockholm to support his young family. He loves Stockholm and feels safe there. He was visiting an aunt in Birmingham. He loves Birmingham too and cities. He was horrified by recent events in Iraq but because of the trauma he has been through he cannot watch the news. He is an Iraqi, a doctor, a husband, an Arab, a Muslim, a dad, a niece, a man who has been through horrendous trauma.
This was his identity. The story in Matthew is about identity.

Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ is a turning point in the gospels and in Matthew.

The story in Matthew is set in Banais on the Israel Lebanese border or Caesarea Philippi as it was called then, rebuilt by Herod Philip and renamed as Caesarea. It is beautiful spot with fallen statues to Greek gods. 

Jesus has moved away from the crowds to teach his disciples to the district of Caesarea Philippi, at the base of Mount Hermon and some 50 kilometers North of Galilee, is a Gentile town. Jesus has moved into territory near this city. 

As they were walking, Jesus was reversing the normal practice of disciples asking rabbis questions."Who do people say that I am?" 

Neither the crowds, nor the religious authorities, had come to recognize Jesus as the messiah. Herod Antipas, thought he was John the Baptist risen from the dead. Many saw him as an Elijah figure, the promised prophet who precedes the Messiah (the one crying in the wilderness). Others saw him as a Jeremiah figure, a prophet of doom, while others saw him as a a common or garden prophet but not the Jewish messiah. It was a devalued assessment of Jesus' person. 

 "But what about you?" he says to them."You're the Christ" said Peter, the anointed one, the messiah-because he had caught a glimpse of this reality.  The Christ is the messiah, the anointed one, the coming one, as promised in the Old Testament."Son of the living God", the living one. It separates God from the other dead gods; Jesus pushes the disciples to voice their own understanding of who he was. Peter's confession probably expresses what all the disciples thought, that Jesus is the messiah, "the Christ", sent by God to save Israel. 

Jesus replied that Peter is the favoured one, son of Jonah in Aramaic bar-Jona. This is the only reference to Peter's full name. Possibly a shortened version of Johanan. The name is from the Akkadian word which means "terrorist", so Matthew is alluding to Peter's Zealot background.  Peter's understanding is still limited. He had not yet grasped the significance of a suffering messiah.  

You are Peter -petra/rock - usually a large stone. Elsewhere Jesus is the rock, but here Peter is the rock and Jesus is the builder and upon Peters confession of faith, Jesus will build his church.  In the Old Testament "the gates of Hades" refers to death, Job.17:16, Isa.38:10 etc. Jesus is saying that the church will stand against the powers of darkness. 

Whoever you bind-a Jewish technical term meaning forbid (loose = permit) hindered or restricted from entering the kingdom of heaven, excluded from membership. Jesus says that the teachers of the law hindered those who were seeking to enter the kingdom because of their false teaching.  

Through the power of the key, Peter, and consequently, all believers, can bind or loose though this has historically concentrated in a priestly or authorative role. The one who holds the keys of the kingdom has the power to open the gates of the kingdom, or to close them, ie. give permission for people to enter the kingdom, or exclude people from it. 

But Jesus wants this secret kept and keeps, a low profile with regard his messianic credentials to dampen popular political messianic aspirations, for those "with eyes to see". He warned the disciples that they should not mention this to anyone. Theres a time for secrets and a time for exposure. Kairos time. Gods time.

In the Old Testament the phrase the gates of Hades refers to death/evil (Job.17:16, Isa.38:10). Hades is the underworld or death. 

Peter is given the keys to the kingdom as a servant is given the keys to the house. The servant is the manager of God's house, having authority over his house. The giving of keys means the bestowing of authority, of power and  control. Keys are symbolic of who can go in and who can go out of a house.

Binding and Losing-meanings

1.A Jewish rabbinical sense where bind = forbid, hinder, restrict, and loose = permit.

2. A legal technical sense where bind = put in fetters, and loose = acquit. 

3.A theological sense describing the binding of Satan / demonic powers and of losing / releasing people from the bondage of evil.

4. An ecclesiastical sense, of retaining and forgiving sins usually exercised by a priest or authority figure

The church that Jesus tells Peter he is about to build, is a community gathered around the teachings of the Christ. It is not a building or an institution! 

We only give keys to those we trust. The keys to the house, the house of God and the mysteries of God. Two people have done this in my life and in  different ways I was their disciple. I must also pass the key on, pass the knowledge on. Who are you passing on the keys of Gods house to?

Who are you? What is your identity? What makes you who you are? How do others identify you? These are important questions for us all that make for psychological integrity.