Friday, February 15, 2008

Matthew, chapter 19

3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?" 4 And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, 5 and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHERAND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH'? 6 "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."
So if it's God who joins together couples then I'd like to know his criteria. And why he selects abusing husbands or cheating wives for some people ... And this also means then that women who get beaten by their alcoholic husbands are not allowed to divorce. Which is a rather new invention anyway since women didn't have that right in the past in the first place.
7 They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY?" 8 He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way."
Jesus, or rather the author, starts spinning and reinterpreting the old definitions made in the Torah in order to justify this new emerging form of Judaism, later called Christianity.
12 "For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it."
So being an eunuch is an ideal to strive for? Oh, well, thank you but no ...
23 And Jesus said to His disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 "Again I say to you, 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." 25 When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?" 26 And looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
What is this supposed to mean? That it's God anyway who will define later on who will enter Heaven and who won't on some rather arbitrary, vague criteria?
27 Then Peter said to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?" 28 And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."So there will be some sort of court room in the Heavens where the Apostles will sit as judges on thrones? Wow, that makes a lot of sense again. And it also shows that Jesus' world view was rather limited since he only referred to the twelve tribes of Israel and thus the Jews. No words of other people.29 "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life."
Yeah, because who cares about family?

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