Bible Study Format: 5 min prayers, 10 min Catholic topic, 45 min main topic from the weeks listed below Week 1: Aug 2 – Gospel Week: Mary & Martha (Lk 10:38-42); Teach us to Pray (Lk 11:1-5,9-12); The Kingdom is like… (Mt 13…) Week 2: Aug 9 – Bible Week (Gen àRev): Joseph, Prime Minister of Egypt (Gen 43-50) Week 3: Aug 16 – Survey Topics Voted on by Members: We are currently on #2 Purgatory (final) à Next is Heaven I (Dante)
Ö 1) Jesus’ Greatest Parables 2) Hell, Purgatory, Heaven 3) Christian Comparisons 4) Great Women in the Bible 5) Why is there suffering? 6) World Religions 7) Book of Revelation 8) Major Councils/Crusades/Inquisitions
Week 4: Aug 23 or 31 – Open Mic Week (anything goes!): Here are pending questions: What is Grace? Is all justice good? What are the 4 highest forms of Charity? How should we be celebrating/honoring the Sabbath Sunday? What is the Heresy of the Good Serpent? Can we have elevator responses for the Crusades and Inquisitions? How are the Holy Spirit’s love and unity of the Trinity different, and how does that affect us? The knowledge of God is participatory – is that why nonbelievers have difficulty?
Upcoming Catholic Holy Days
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mon, August 15
Opening Prayer
that the example of your saints may spur us on to a better life,
so that we, who celebrate the memory of Saints Martha and Mary,
may also imitate without ceasing their faith and their example.
As you taught us to pray...
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
The Parable: The word “parable” (Greek parabolē) is used to translate the Hebrew māshāl, a designation covering a wide variety of literary forms such as axioms, proverbs, similitudes, and allegories. Although this holds generally true in the New Testament, the parable there primarily designates stories that are illustrative comparisons between Christian truths and events of everyday life. Everyday life in those days about agriculture – it was their source of income, life, and success. Oftentimes, Jesus’ parables had a strange element included that was quite different from the audience’s expectations, which not only sharpened the curiosity of the hearer but it concealed the key to understanding the parable.
Q: Who can think of some examples of this?
The 99 sheep (nobody really leaves the 99 sheep to go look for one; but God does! The Kingdom is like a mustard seed (so small and yet so powerful). The parable of the talents (it wasn’t really about money after all).
Mark states in 4:12 that Jesus speaks in parables so that the crowds may not understand, indicating it is a punishment for not having accepted his earlier, clear teachings. If they don’t accept his clear teachings, why should they understand his parables? Parables are figurative so they require reflection for understanding. If the Pharisees and scribes approach Jesus’ teachings with arrogance and suspicion, they will likely not see the deeper meaning and only come away with a wrong, or superficial, message.
One must wonder if this served Jesus’ overall timing in delaying his arrest and execution, given that the Temple spies were not completely sure what Jesus said, and couldn’t report anything sufficiently concrete to get the Romans to arrest him.
Since we will be talking about what Heaven is like after our next Purgatory session, I felt the “Kingdom parables” would be useful. Jesus says a number of times "The kingdom is like...", so let's dig deeper.
The Parable of the Weeds Among the Wheat – Matthew 13:24-52
Jesus proposed another parable to them.
“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.
When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.
The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’
He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’
Q: While everyone was asleep, the enemy sowed weeds. The audience would have been familiar with darnel, a poisonous weed that in its first stage of growth resembles wheat. What does this remind you of?
Evil doesn’t usually show up as evil; if it did, we would reject it outright or run away. Instead, like darnel, evil shows up looking like one of us. In fact the more successful evil is, the more handsome they are, beautiful, smooth-talking, sounding real good, using high talk about justice, appealing to your senses. Evil always comes dressed up for a date. ‘Wolves in sheep’s clothing,’ Jesus calls them in Matthew 7:15.
Q: What does the field represent?
The world.
Q: What does the harvest represent?
Judgment Day.
Q: Anything interesting come to mind when it says the Owner initially sowed good seed in his field?
God created humans good. Satan lured people into becoming weeds. But God offers a way for them to come back.
Q: What is the point of the Owner (God) not having the weeds pulled immediately?
1) Everyone has this lifetime to turn their life around.
2) Jesus is telling his servants/disciples/us not to uproot unbelievers. We must live together, set an example, win over as many as we can, and leave the final judgment to God.
Growth of Christianity – and false prophets…
The Apostles had a hard enough time with people just understanding the basics of Christianity, which was rooted in Judaism. Then after they’d leave a town, the people would inevitably – and understandably – comingle things from their favorite religions. Imagine if you were hooked on an idol like our Mary, and it was part of your daily life. Can you imagine someone telling you to let go of that? Like good luck charms or favorite teddy bears, people get attached. When you add false prophets coming to town, matters get even tougher. The reason the Church had councils, established doctrines, and established the Apostle’s Creed and Nicene Creed was to help put a stop to this problem.
Christianity took off like wildfire after Pentecost, which of course led to false prophets coming out of the woodwork. Christianity grew from about 50,000 by 150AD, to 200,000 in 200AD, 1 million in 250AD and 4 million by 300AD. This was while it was still an underground religion being persecuted, with about 750,000 Christians executed from 300 to 310AD alone.
Why did Christianity grow like this in spite of being illegal and under the threat of persecution?
1) It was based on love of your fellow man.
2) All people were equal in the eyes of God, no matter their financial status, country, or background (even sinners!).
3) The HS was behind it.
Why did this lead to false prophets?
· “Success has many fathers and failure is an orphan.”
· Humans are opportunists, always looking for a way to make a buck. They, too, make use of the talents God gave them.
· Religion often means power.
· People have always believed in God or gods, so new gods are not a hard sell.
By their fruits you will know them – Matthew 7:15-20
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves.
By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?
Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
So by their fruits you will know them.
Q: As usual, this message from Jesus isn’t only intended to help us discern other people’s falsities. How else might these instructions serve us, even today?
The book of James and church Fathers have also recommended all Christians use this approach in evaluating their own lives: a “fruit inspection,” so to speak, of our daily lives to help us uncover problems or patterns that need course correcting.
It is suggested we try this at the end of the day: start by looking over all that has happened that day, including how you felt and how you reacted to the situations that came up. Then look at the fruit that each event had borne. If you need assistance, they recommend we compare our fruit to the fruits of the Holy Spirit: for example, did our actions spring from, or bring about, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control”? (Galatians 5:22-23).
Or we can take our lead from James, himself. He simply says that if something comes from God, it leads to peace, gentleness, mercy, and good deeds (James 3:17).
Continuing from the first parables about “The kingdom of God is like…”
The Parable of the Mustard Seed – Matthew 13:31-32
He proposed another parable to them.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.’”
Q: What is the point of comparing the small mustard seed to the kingdom of God?
1) Ourselves. The kingdom starts small in us, and then if we give it some care, it grows far beyond our small efforts. The goodness of the kingdom in us attracts others.
2) Others. We only need to worry about planting the seeds, not the outcome. We don’t convert people; we just keep teeing it up.
3) The kingdom starts with humility. Greatness comes from selflessness. The mustard tree is the opposite image of the world.
The Parable of the Yeast – Matthew 13:33
He spoke to them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.”
Normally, a woman taking some yeast to make bread might produce enough for her family. However, “three measures” would be enough to feed 100, which would sound ridiculous to Jesus’ audience.
Q: What is Jesus’ point of the parable?
Jesus has compared the yeast to the kingdom. Like the mustard seed, a small quantity yeast produces far beyond seems logical.
Q: Jesus often told the crowds, “Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand.” What does he mean by “repent” and “at hand”?
Repent: To turn around and instead of walking away from God, walk towards Him. Whatever is primary is our God. If God is primary, the kingdom will be ours.
At hand: Close; near; about to happen.
Q: How is the kingdom near, or about to happen?
Since we haven’t chosen the kingdom, Jesus has brought the kingdom to us. He will walk us there. We enter the kingdom by walking with him in this life. Along the way, our lives will change and have meaning like never before. Jesus is the yeast.
When Jesus finishes his discourse on the Kingdom Parables, he suddenly says something odd about “treasurers new and old.”
Mt 13:51-52
“Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.”
And he replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.”
Q: What is Jesus talking about? Why is he suddenly instructing the scribes?
The scribes were the theologians of Jesus’ time. They knew Scripture backwards and forwards and were trained to interpret the Laws of Moses and the writings of what we call the “Old Testament.” A good scribe knows he must synthesize the older texts of Moses with the newer texts of the prophets.
Jesus has now turned his attention to the Pharisees and Scribes in his midst and tells them it is time for them to interpret all scripture in light of his teachings about the kingdom. How’s that for a challenge?
In fact, this is exactly how Christians have interpret Scripture ever since. We read the OT through the eyes of the NT since Jesus is the fulfillment of everything in the OT.
The scribes are thinking hard about Jesus’ statement
Kingdom…. Heaven
I had said at the beginning that it might be interesting to consider “The Kingdom is like…” parables since we were moving onto Heaven in our Topic in Week 3.
However, what we have been learning from these parables is that the kingdom Jesus is talking about is the one that begins here.
Why?
Because if we don’t learn how to get from here to there, then there’s not much value in learning about “there.”
Which brings us to the next passage about what a true disciple is.
The True Disciple – Matthew 7:21
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
Q: What about faith alone?
Catholics do not teach faith alone. Faith is absolutely a requirement – it is the door we must walk through to begin our journey. But then the purpose of this faith is to inform our thinking and our lives. It is on this “faith journey” that we learn, often by trial and error, to “do the will of my Father in heaven.”
Johnathan Roumie playing Jesus in The Chosen
Martha & Mary – Luke 10:38-42
As they continued their journey, he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.
But Martha, who was distracted about much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.”
The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”
Note that it's Martha's house. Jesus' stories are counter-cultural when it comes to women. Women in those days or in history are not generally decision-makers or principal characters, not even spoken to usually. But Jesus engages them routinely and treats them no different than when he engages men. Many women are followers of Jesus and some wealthier ones financially support the mission (Acts of the Apostles).
Q: This Gospel story speaks only about Jesus and women, which is again unique. Who can think of some other examples?
Mary was the key player the early Gospel chapters (infancy narratives), when Jesus was lost at twelve years old, at the Wedding at Cana, and she was at the cross and Pentecost. There was the hemorrhaging woman who was healed when she touched Jesus’ garment; Jesus engaging the woman at the well in Samaria; Martha and Mary (several times); Mary Magdalene (exorcised of demons and who becomes a disciple); the forgiven woman prostitute; the other women who remained at the cross (3 Marys and Salome); and women were the first to see Jesus resurrected (2 Marys, Salome, and Joanna).
Q: Once in Martha’s house, Mary sits at Jesus’ feet. What do these words mean and what is unusual about Mary doing this?
1) The terminology “to sit at the feet of” was used by disciples of great teachers or rabbis. Recall that Paul claimed to have learned at the feet of the great Gamaliel.
2) In first-century Judaism, it is remarkable that a woman would assume the posture of a disciple at the master’s feet, but again it reveals a characteristic attitude of Jesus toward women in the Gospels.
Martha is busy playing host, and she is clearly frustrated. We often think that this is just a matter of “Martha being too busy” and “Mary being contemplative.” Although that is definitely part of the story, Jesus is also questioning something else.
\
Q: Is Martha’s “service” vs Mary’s sitting/listening all that is being brought into question?
Upon a closer look, Jesus calls her "anxious." Anxious also means worry, but elsewhere Jesus tells his disciples not to be anxious about their lives but focus on God and the rest will come much easier. The prior verse also says Martha was "distracted," meaning drawn away from whatever Jesus had to say. How often do distractions keep us from what is important, especially time with God?
Martha invited Jesus into her house. How often is it that one has a guest of honor like this? Yet, by the way Martha interrupts Jesus and asks him to tell Mary to help is like saying, “Hey, I am doing all the work while Mary is sitting here doing nothing!”
Mary was doing much more than ‘nothing’! In fact, Martha would have been better off if she had stopped preparations for a while and listened to what Jesus had to say.
Q: “Mary chooses ‘the better portion.’" What does that actually mean?
Portion is not a zero sum response. It means the more important and/or the larger part. Our actions are of course very important but if they are not in partnership with God, then they will never avail us salvation, or even change us.
Closing Prayer
Dear Lord, thank you for being so welcoming and desirous of our fellowship.
Not only do we have access to you 24/7, it’s you who greets us every time.
We are never a bother, we are never “put on hold,” we never have to “take a number and wait.”
Lord Jesus, we need some help.
Like Martha tonight, we’re also the ones who get tired and frustrated.
So many distractions, never-ending demands, over-stimulation.
We live in a “Martha” world but we are in search of a Mary heart.
I think the problem isn’t so much the world I inhabit (bad though it is!), but the heart that inhabits me.
My “must get done list” never ends; but as you refresh and deepen my communion with you,
I’m certain I can live a calmer, gentler, kinder life, towards others and myself.
In the gospel, we hear you call to us and say, “Knock and the door will be open.”
To which we respond, OPEN, Lord Jesus!
And now, for good measure, we will ask your mother to intercede on our behalf so you don’t forget:
Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for our Mary hearts in this Martha world now and for the rest of our days. Amen.
Comments