St. Matthew, Chapters 1-12

Reading the Bible made me realize how glad I am that we're reading it in English class, because it's a really important text and left alone there's no way I would have been to force myself to read it.

St. Matthew talks about Jesus, his birth, his life, and it seems to be starting to lead up to his death. One thing I find strange is that though you always hear about the birth of baby Jesus, and all the stories of how he cured all those people, in the actual Bibles those stories basically take up half a page. I guess as far as the world is concerned, it's really quality, not quantity, that matters.

One thing I found interesting was the difference between how Jesus and God dealt with the devil. In Job, when the Satan told God to do something in order to test Job, He did it, whereas when Jesus was told to do something to test his faith in God, he refused, replying, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God," (4:7). Of course, if I were religious I would probably have a lot more faith in God than in a human, but I found it nice that Jesus didn't feel the need to torture God to test his faith.

Jesus reminds a bit of Robin Hood in the way he gets his disciples. They both just walk around, meet random people, ask them to become their followers, and the men, "straightaway left their [insert what they left], and followed him." (4:20, 4:22). Jesus also insists that people who don't do so means they aren't worthy of being his disciple ("He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." 10:37). I find it strange that people could just pick up and leave like that, not caring about their family and not feeling any need to say goodbye to their friends. I guess it's true that men are much less attached to their home and hearth than women.

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." (5:38-39)

When I read this, I wanted to point out to Jesus that his father was the one who said that, and yet in 12:31 he says that anyone who goes against the word of God will never be forgiven. But I still like the saying, even though I myself don't follow it. It's a good, though slightly idealistic, idea.

Jesus is also going around healing everyone, making the blind able to see, the dumb able to talk, the lepers cleansed of their sickness, and making the dead come back to life. For some reason, though, that seems to annoy the Pharisees, "[who] went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him." (12:14) Is this the beginning of the end of Jesus Christ?

I have to say, I like Jesus a lot more than I like God. Jesus is so pacific, so kind and forgiven, whereas God says things like, "If I don't like someone, I'll curse his ancestors for millenniums." I have much more confidence in my chances of getting into Heaven knowing that Jesus is up there.