How can we recognize when we are focusing on little things that are of less importance and missing the more important matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness? Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 23:13-24 How can we recognize when we are focusing on little things that are of less importance and missing the more important matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness? Image by Sheldon Kennedy, provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti August 21, 2025 Matthew 23:13-24 (Part 1 of Matthew 23:13-36) Read Matthew 23:13-36 Jesus denounces the scribes and the Pharisees for their hypocrisy In Matthew 23:13-36, Jesus pronounces 7 woes upon the scribes and Pharisees. The word usually translated “woe” has a meaning that communicates sorrow as well as anger. Wiliam Barclay tells us, “There is righteous anger here, but it is the anger of the heart of love, broken by the stubborn blindness of men” (Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2 , p. 318). Jesus is speaking these stern words of judgment with a heavy heart. Part 1 Verses 13-14 It is not surprising that, of all the groups that opposed Jesus, Matthew retains this denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees, because those were the two groups that lived on after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and opposed the work of Christian communities such as Matthew’s that included both Jews and Gentiles. What is the first thing Jesus denounces the scribes and Pharisees for? In what ways do you think they were doing that? Are there ways that we might unintentionally block people from entering the kingdom of heaven or be an obstacle to other people’s faith? How should we act to avoid being an obstacle to other people’s faith? Sometimes, the problem is a desire to try to push everyone to conform to one for how to live the faith, so it may be helpful to try to avoid being controlling or judgmental. Instead of trying to corral or force people, we can seek to love them into the kingdom of heaven. Note: Most modern translations leave out verse 14, in which Jesus accuses the scribes and Pharisees of devouring widows’ houses. It is not in the oldest and most reliable manuscripts of Matthew, but it is in the corresponding passage in Mark; so it may have been added by a copyist who pulled it from Mark 12:40 rather than being in the original version of Matthew. Verse 15 What do the scribes and Pharisees do that leads to the second woe? Judaism is not today thought of as a proselytizing religion. However, in the 1 st century, before the destruction of Jerusalem, Jews encouraged Gentiles to join them as “god-fearers" – people who accepted the Jewish moral law and belief in one God – and Pharisees sought to convince them to convert fully to Judaism through circumcision and acceptance of the full Law with all its detailed rules regarding foods, etc. In Matthew’s time, Pharisees wanted Christians to embrace the whole Jewish Law; so verse 15 might have resonated even more for Matthew’s readers than for Jesus’s original audience. Every Christian denomination seeks converts. What’s wrong with what the Pharisees were doing? Barclay says it well: “The sin of the Pharisees was that they were not really seeking to lead men to God, they were seeking to lead men to Pharisaism” (Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2 , p. 321). In our time, how might Christians sometimes be more focused on converting people to their “side” or their flavor of Christianity than to God? How are we vulnerable to focusing more on winning people to our “party” – our part of the body of Christ or even our political party – than to God? One of the ways we see this happening in the United States is people putting politics before religion. Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University, author, and American Baptist pastor, says that between 2005 and 2020, political scientists observed a “pretty significant revolution” in people’s thinking. Previously, political scientists thought that “religion was the first lens and then politics lived downstream of religion” – i.e., that people chose their religion first and then decided how to vote based on their religious views. But now, he says, “we recognize that politics is the master identity, and . . . that people pick their religion [or denomination or local church] based on their politics. It’s not the other way around” (“ Faith and the Faithful in the 2024 Election ”). Given that our faith should be the primary guiding light for our worldview and everything else should come second to that, this finding is troubling. Verses 16-22 Recall from Matthew 5:33-37 (in the Sermon on the Mount) that Jews in Jesus’s time were casual about oaths, arguing that unless an oath directly invoked God it didn’t “count.” Here, Jesus may be quoting them, or he may be using exaggeration to show the foolishness of their hypocritical hair-splitting. What is the point of Jesus’s response to the Pharisees’ game-playing about which oaths “count” and must be honored? Jesus is pointing out that the things they say don’t “count” – the Temple, the altar – are more important than the things they say do count. Furthermore, in verses 20-21 he suggests that it all goes back to God, so all of it “counts.” Perhaps the real issue here is whether you should need to swear by anything in order to assure someone that you are telling the truth or will fulfill your word. When should people be able to count on your words being trustworthy? What does it say about us if we are focused on when we might be able to slip out of an oath based on a technicality? In Matthew 5:33-37, Jesus told his followers that they should never swear an oath by anything. Should you ever need to swear an oath, other than in a court of law or official document? Explain. Verses 23-24 Jews were directed in the Law of Moses to tithe from the produce they harvested (Lev. 27:30-32). Jesus indicates that the scribes and Pharisees are so zealous about collecting the whole tithe, or tithing of their entire gain, that they demand that people tithe even from their garden herbs (mint, dill, and cumin). If you have ever owned a basil plant, imagine if an advocate of tithing asked you to give to the church one-tenth of your “harvest” of basil, besides your tithe of your income. That’s what Jesus is criticizing here: they were trying to calculate the tithe down to the basil leaves, while ignoring more important matters. Is there anything wrong with tithing from even your smaller gains? In verse 23, what are the “weightier” matters of the Law that Jesus says they should be more focused on? Jesus identifies justice, mercy, and faithfulness as “weightier” matters than the tithing of mint. (The NABRE uses the word “judgment,” but “justice” may be a more appropriate translation that better captures the meaning of the word today.) What does it mean to practice “justice”? Justice means is to give to God what is due to God and to give to people what is due to them as people made in God’s image. What does that call us to do? What does it mean to practice “mercy”? One way to think about mercy in a modern context is to think about the use of discretion to balance the possible harshness of strict justice. Legal systems often ask judges to use discretion in deciding what is an appropriate way to deal with the circumstances of an individual case. What does it mean to practice “faithfulness”? (Note: Some translations say “faith” or “fidelity,” but in today’s language “faithfulness” probably better captures what Jesus is saying.) Why are justice, mercy, and faithfulness “weightier” than detailed tithing? Jesus does not reject tithing. He says that they should focus on the weightier matters “without neglecting the others” – i.e., without neglecting tithing. Does Jesus want us to tithe our mint and basil? How can we balance Matthew 22:21 – where Jesus tells us to “give back to God what is God’s” – with Jesus’s overall objection to the zeal with which the Pharisees focused on details? The Pharisees might say, “We haven’t neglected the weightier matters. We tithe of everything because of our faithfulness to God.” What point are they missing? In verse 24, Jesus refers to gnats and camels. Both are identified as “unclean” in the Law of Moses (Lev. 11:41-43 and Lev. 11:4), so Jews were supposed to avoid them. Pious Pharisees poured their drinks through a cloth to strain out any possible gnats. Jesus accuses them of straining the gnats out of their drinks while swallowing camels. What is the meaning of this metaphor? What are the “gnats” they we might become unnecessarily focused on in our day? In other words, what are the little things we might have a tendency to focus on that don’t really matter very much in the grand scheme of our faith, but that might draw our attention away from more important things? What are the “camels” – the big, important things – that we might be overlooking in our focus on gnats? This could be considered personally and also societally. Societally, we might fail to address weighty matters such as hunger, homelessness, racism, etc. Individually, we might fail to address issues such as paying fairly those who work for us, avoiding unkind or abusive words that hurt other people, doing our fair share of the chores, showing mercy to other people when they are not perfect, etc. You can probably add good examples of your own. Throughout this denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus repeatedly calls them “hypocrites” (see verses 13, 15, 23 ,25, 27, 29). What is a hypocrite? “Hypocrite” is actually a Greek word. That word was used to describe actors in the theatre. They play a part that is not who they really are, so they are pretending to be something they are not. The meaning of the word then expanded to the more general meaning we have for it today. How does their behavior make it appropriate to describe them as hypocrites? How are we at risk of falling into hypocrisy in our day? Take a step back and consider this: It is easy to become critical of the scribes and Pharisees and miss the ways we also put our focus in the wrong places. It is also possible to go to the other extreme and adopt a worldview that unconsciously says that no details matter – that anything goes. God calls us to find the balance that allows us to stay focused on justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matt. 23:23). What are the big things that you think matter most? What can you do to make sure you stay focused on those big things and don’t get distracted by little matters that aren’t as important? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew List Next

Paul continues to guide the young church at Thessalonica with wisdom that is still relevant to local churches and the whole Church today. Previous 2 Thess. List Next Introduction to 2 Thessalonians Paul continues to guide the young church at Thessalonica with wisdom that is still relevant to local churches and the whole Church today. Detail of an image by Lucia Macedo provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti March 10, 2025 Introduction A NOTE BEFORE WE BEGIN This study material can be very enriching either for small-group Bible Study or for personal study and growth. We will occasionally offer instructions that would be useful for a small-group study. Introductions for a Small-Group Bible Study If you are studying as a group, it is important to build community, beginning with ensuring that everyone knows everyone else’s name. If you are either (a) starting a new year, or (b) have several new members, begin with introductions. One way to do this would be to ask everyone in the group to answer these questions: Share with the group your name, your connection to the Church or the parish or this group, and why you are interested in studying the Bible with other people. When have you received a letter (or perhaps an email) that was especially important in your life? What was it about? This is a study of Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians. See the Introduction to 1 Thessalonians for the primary background information for this letter. Introduction to 2 Thessalonians After Paul wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians (known as 1 Thessalonians), something went wrong. We don’t know precisely what problem arose, but in 2 Thessalonians, Paul warns the Thessalonians (in 2 Thess. 2:2) not to become alarmed by a letter allegedly sent from him, claiming that the day of the Lord “is at hand” (NABRE) or “is already here” (NRSV) – i.e., that the Second Coming has already begun. (“The day of the Lord” was the term used in prophetic books of the Old Testament – Daniel, Isaiah, Joel, and others – for the miraculous time when God would bring victory for the Jews. Christians re-interpreted it as the day when Christ would return in power and glory.) Paul suggests in 1 Corinthians 16:21 and Galatians 6:11 that he ordinarily dictates his letters and someone else does the actual writing (the formal term for that person is an “amanuensis”). At the end of this letter (2 Thess. 3:17), Paul implies that he always signs his letters in a way that is distinctive and identifiable. He is suggesting that a forgery written in his name could be detected because it would be missing Paul’s genuine signature. It is also possible that Paul’s own words in his first letter were a source of the Thessalonians’ confusion. In 1 Thessalonians, he described the Lord’s coming as a sudden event, and they may have interpreted “sudden” to mean that it was imminent and they might have missed it. Most scholars believe this letter was written by Paul shortly after 1 Thessalonians, in which case it was probably written around AD 50 from Corinth. However, other possibilities have been suggested: Some say that it was written before 1 Thessalonians; some say it was written to some other church; and some suggest that it was written decades later by someone else using Paul’s name (which would be highly ironic given its claim that Paul’s authentic signature offers clear evidence that the letter was written by him). In this letter, Paul wants to clear up confusion about the Second Coming of Christ. He also wants to reinforce and expand on his teaching about the kind of orderly life that Christians should live. When has something you have said been misrepresented? What did you do about it? Do you have distinctive ways of writing or of using the signature block at the end of your emails, or distinctive ways of beginning or ending your emails or texts, that people might use as a guide to deciding whether a message is actually from you? How important to you are those signs of your individuality, and why? How is your individuality important in the body of Christ and in the kingdom of God? Take a step back and consider this: Paul is eager to guide the young church at Thessalonica – to support them in their faith, thank them for the love they show for one another, and encourage them in their endurance in the face of persecution. Paul has great concern for the church at Thessalonica. How do you demonstrate a concern for your own local church? In what ways do you support your fellow church members in their faith, participate in and bolster their love for one another, and encourage those who are facing difficulties? Bibliography See 2 Thessalonians - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/2-thessalonians/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous 2 Thess. List Next

Matthew does not support the idea that a sinner’s prayer is a simple ticket to heaven. In his Gospel, Jesus calls us to much more than that. Previous Christian Faith Articles Next Faith Versus Works: What Does the Gospel of Matthew Say Matthew does not support the idea that a sinner’s prayer is a simple ticket to heaven. In his Gospel, Jesus calls us to much more than that. Image by Brett Jordan, provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti September 5, 2025 I have been studying the Gospel of Matthew for 3 years, and I have discovered that the Gospel of Matthew does not support a popular version of “Christianity” that requires only “faith” and not “works” to go to heaven. I would like to unpack these misunderstood words. Jesus doesn’t talk much about “going to heaven,” but he talks a lot about what it means to be part of the kingdom of God. His gospel is much more challenging than just a simple call to faith. It's a call to action – to works. According to the Gospel of Matthew, what does God expect of those who want to enter the kingdom of heaven? There is nothing in the entire Gospel of Matthew that would support the idea that all you need to do to “go to heaven” is to say a few words or a “sinner’s prayer” to signal that you “believe,” and you will be saved. That simplistic and distorted version of Christianity cannot be found in the Gospel of Matthew. Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus describes an entire change of outlook and lifestyle that he expects to see in those who claim to follow him. He expects faith to be put into action. A sinner’s prayer might be a first step, but it is not the ultimate sign of a true believer in Jesus. Here are some of the things Jesus tells his followers to do: In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7), Jesus says: Be pure in spirit and pure of heart; be peacemakers, etc., from the Beatitudes; don’t speak angrily to others; don’t commit adultery; love your enemies; be perfect; don’t make a public show of your almsgiving, praying, and fasting; don’t serve money; put you trust in your heavenly Father; don’t judge others; do to others what you would like them to do to you; etc. In Matthew 16:24-28, Jesus says: Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. In Matthew 18:1-5, he says: Humble yourself like a child. In Matthew 22:34-40, he lays down two Great Commandments: to love God with your whole heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. In Matthew 25, he tells us to be responsible and fruitful with what God gives us; and to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, care for those who are sick or in prison, etc. If we aren’t doing these things, Jesus hasn’t given us any reason to think that we will be counted among the ”elect” (Matt. 24:31), enter into his kingdom (Matt. 25:34), and receive eternal life (Matt. 25:46). Faith is demonstrated by our actions Some may ask: Are you preaching that we are saved by our works? Absolutely not! We are saved by faith. But “faith” is not just a bunch of words that come out of our mouth. Jesus warns us in Matthew 7:21 that not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the ones who do the Father’s will. James says that even the demons believe that there is one God, but they shudder (James 2:18-19). Claiming to believe in Jesus is easy. Our calling is to not just make the claim but to actually live our lives for him. If we do that, it will show in our actions. If our actions do not back up our alleged faith, our claim that we are followers of Jesus is hollow. Grace is necessary Some may respond: That’s a high bar you are asking us to reach. Actually, it’s a high bar that Jesus is asking us to strive for. He wants nothing less than our whole selves. This forces us to confront a problem: We fall short of Jesus’s high bar. Yes, we do! Even if we try to live our lives according to his teachings, most of us reach a point where we realize that, while we may do many things right, we still fall short and don’t give our lives fully to him. But God doesn’t leave us there. When we fall short, we need to recall what Jesus said about who can be saved. Remember when he said it is harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle? The disciples responded, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus’s answer remains true today and applies to us: “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26, NABRE). That’s what gives us hope – not our pious words, not even our most impressive actions, but God’s grace. We are saved only by the grace of God. The grace of God reaches deep into our sinful souls to heal us. It reaches out to us even when we stray. Jesus showed God’s love by putting it into action – healing, teaching, and feeding people, and giving his life for us on the Cross. He told parables of God’s love. He described God as being like a shepherd who searches for the one stray sheep even when he already has the 99 (Matt. 18:10-14), like an employer who ensures that every worker receives enough to live on even if they don’t find their way to the master’s vineyard until late in the day (Matt. 20:1-16), like a king who invites everyone to his son’s wedding feast (Matt. 22:1-14). Jesus does not offer cheap grace But the grace Jesus offers is not cheap grace. We must never forget that we are being called to line up our will with God’s will and conform our actions with Jesus’s teachings and example – to give and serve, not just mouth the words. We must not think that merely professing a few verses of Scripture will open up an easy door to eternal life with Jesus. That’s not what Jesus teaches in the Gospel of Matthew. He says the road is narrow that leads to life (Matt. 7:13-14). Saying a few magic words doesn’t suddenly open the door for people who have no intention of living the life Jesus calls us to live. Jesus helps us be more than we think we can be But we are not on our own in trying to be like Jesus. He is with us. He has sent his Spirit to empower us and purify us (Matt. 3:16), and his Spirit lives in us and works in and through us (Matt. 10:20). He understands our nature and is not scared off when we fall short. On the contrary, he is right there beside us, continuing to love us and gently calling us to take up his yoke (Matt. 11:29-30) – to truly let him be the Lord and Master of our life. The more we do that – the more we put our faith into action and let him work his character into our lives – the easier it is to enter into his rest (Matt. 11:28-29). In summary, the Gospel of Matthew calls us to embrace the challenge of living fully for Jesus and loving everyone around us in concrete, tangible ways, with the assurance that he will help us be what we are called to be and that he will never give up on us. It’s not a call to faith versus works; it’s a call to faith exemplified by works, a call to believe in Jesus and put that faith into action doing the works of Jesus. Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Christian Faith Articles Next

Bibliography of major sources and additional sources used in this study of the Gospel of John. Previous Next John List John - Bibliography Bibliography of major sources and additional sources used in this study of the Gospel of John. Some of the resources on the author's bookshelf. Tom Faletti February 22, 2026 Major Sources Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament . Yale University Press, 1997. Bruce, F.F. The Gospel of John . Eerdmans, 1983. Ellis, David J. “John.” The International Bible Commentary: With the New International Version . F.F. Bruce, General Editor. Marshall Pickering/Zondervan, 1986. Flanagan, Neal M., O.S.M. The Gospel According to John and the Johannine Epistles . Collegeville Bible Commentary. The Liturgical Press, 1983. Fredrikson, Roger L. John . The Communicator’s Commentary (Mastering the New Testament) , Lloyd J. Ogilvie, general editor. Word Books, 1985. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The New Testament, Revised Standard Edition, Second Catholic Edition . Ignatius Press, 2010. Interlinear Bible. Bible Hub , https://biblehub.com/interlinear/ . The International Bible Commentary: With the New International Version . F.F. Bruce, General Editor. Marshall Pickering/Zondervan, 1986. Liddell, Henry George and Robert Scott . An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Founded Upon the Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899. Perseus Digital Library , Tufts University, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0058 . For the full Lexicon from 1940 available online, see A Greek-English Lexicon , Furman Classics Editions, http://folio2.furman.edu/lsj/ or A Greek-English Lexicon , Internet Archive , Volume I: https://archive.org/details/b31364949_0001/mode/2up and Volume II: https://archive.org/details/b31364949_0002/mode/2up . New American Bible, revised edition (NABRE) . Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2010. Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary . Edited by Raymond E. Brown, et al. Prentice Hall, 1990. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version: With the Apocrypha: An Ecumenical Study Bible . Eds. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins. 4th ed. Oxford University Press, 2010. New Revised Standard Version Bible , copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Perkins, Pheme. “The Gospel According to John.” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary . Edited by Raymond E. Brown, et al. Prentice Hall, 1990. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance . Bible Hub , https://biblehub.com/greek/21.htm . Vine, William E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary , 1940, StudyLight.org , https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/ved.html . Additional Sources Augustine. The Confessions . Circa AD 397-400. Translated by J.G. Pilkington. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series , Vol. 1. Edited by Philip Schaff. Christian Literature Publishing Co., Buffalo, NY, 1887. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. New Advent , https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1101.htm . Augustine. The Works of Saint Augustine: Sermons , Part III, Volume 6: Sermons 184-229Z. Translation and notes by Edmund Hill, O.P. Edited by John E. Rotelle, O.S.A. New City Press, New Rochelle, New York, 1993 (copyright Augustinian Heritage Institute). Wesley Scholar , https://wesleyscholar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Augustine-Sermons-184-229.pdf . Augustine. The Works of Saint Augustine: Sermons , Part III, Volume 7: Sermons 230-272B. Translation and notes by Edmund Hill, O.P. Edited by John E. Rotelle, O.S.A. New City Press, New Rochelle, New York, 1993 (copyright Augustinian Heritage Institute). Wesley Scholar , https://wesleyscholar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Augustine-Sermons-230-272.pdf . Barclay, William. The Gospel of John, Volume 1. 2 nd edition. The Daily Study Bible. The Saint Andrew Press, 1956. Note: All of the volumes in Barclay’s Daily Study Bible series can be viewed online at “William Barclay's Daily Study Bible,” Bible Portal , https://bibleportal.com/commentary/william-barclay . Barclay, William. The Gospel of John, Volume 2. 2 nd edition. The Daily Study Bible. The Saint Andrew Press, 1956. Note: All of the volumes in Barclay’s Daily Study Bible series can be viewed online at “William Barclay's Daily Study Bible,” Bible Portal , https://bibleportal.com/commentary/william-barclay . Biblical Archaeology Society. “The Bethesda Pool, Site of One of Jesus’ Miracles.” Bible History Daily. Biblical Archaeology Society , 29 July, 2025, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/jerusalem/the-bethesda-pool-site-of-one-of-jesus-miracles/ . Biblical Archaeology Society. “The Siloam Pool: Where Jesus Healed the Blind Man.” Bible History Daily. Biblical Archaeology Society , 1 July, 2025, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/the-siloam-pool-where-jesus-healed-the-blind-man/ . Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship . (Originally published in 1937 in German as Nachfolge .) English revised and unabridged edition, The Macmillan Company, 1963. Brown, Raymond E. The Community of the Beloved Disciple . Paulist Press, 1979. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2003. The Vatican , https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM . Christianity Today. “What Did Jesus Mean in John 6:54 Where He Says, ‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life ...’? Is He Referring to Communion?” Christianity Today , 2009, https://store.christianitytoday.com/blogs/articles/eternal-life . Cooke, Sam. “Jesus Gave Me Water.” Specialty Profiles: Sam Cooke With The Soul Stirrers, Universal Music Group, Specialty Records, Distributed by Concord, 1990. YouTube , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbcmMgEgn6U . Encyclopaedia Britannica (the editors of). “logos.” Britannica , https://www.britannica.com/topic/logos . Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History , Book III. New Advent , https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm . Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History . Book VI. New Advent , https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250106.htm . Francis, Pope. Spes Non Confundit (Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025) . The Vatican , 9 May 2024, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/bulls/documents/20240509_spes-non-confundit_bolla-giubileo2025.html . Hyman, David. “Bethany & Lazarus' tomb.” Israel with David Hyman , 20 Apr. 2023. YouTube , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP2txHymko8 . Irenaeus. Adversus Haereses ( Against Heresies ). Book III, Chapter 1. New Advent , https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103301.htm . Josephus, Flavius. Antiquities of the Jews . AD 93 or 94. Christian Classics Ethereal Library , https://www.ccel.org/ccel/josephus/complete.toc.html . Justin, the Martyr. First Apology . Circa AD 155-157. Translated by Cyril C. Richardson, Early Christian Fathers, Vol. 1 . The Westminster Press, 1953. Christian Classics Ethereal Library , https://www.ccel.org/ccel/richardson/fathers.x.ii.iii.html . McElwee, Joshua J. “Francis: Priests should 'have the smell' of their people.” National Catholic Reporter , 28 Mar. 2013, https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/francis-chronicles/francis-priests-should-have-smell-their-people . Sloyan, Gerard S. What Are They Saying About John?, Revised Edition . Paulist Press, 2006. Staples, Tim. “Are Catholics Cannibals?” Catholic Answers , 7 Nov. 2014, https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/are-catholics-cannibals . Steinmeyer, Nathan. “Rethinking the Pool of Siloam.” Bible History Daily. Biblical Archaeology Society , 15 Jan. 2024, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/rethinking-the-pool-of-siloam/ . Vaillancourt Murphy, Krisanne. “In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus signals His opposition to the death penalty.” Paragraphs 6-20 by Tom Faletti. Vatican News , 4 Apr. 2025, https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2025-04/catholic-mobilizing-network-death-penalty-gospel-reflection.html . The Vatican. “New Revision of Number 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the Death Penalty – Rescriptum ‘Ex Audientia SS.mi’” Vatican , 11 May 2018, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20180801_catechismo-penadimorte_en.html . Wasserman, Tommy. “Does the Woman Caught in Adultery Belong in the Bible?” Text & Canon Institute , 8 Feb. 2022, https://textandcanon.org/does-the-woman-caught-in-adultery-belong-in-the-bible/ . Copyright © 2026, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous John List Next

Jesus walks with two discouraged disciples and opens the Scriptures to them, and then they recognize him in the breaking of the bread. How can we see Jesus in the Scriptures and the breaking of the bread? Previous Next Luke List Luke 24:13-35 Jesus walks with two discouraged disciples and opens the Scriptures to them, and then they recognize him in the breaking of the bread. How can we see Jesus in the Scriptures and the breaking of the bread? (Michelangelo Merisi da) Caravaggio (1571-1610). The Supper at Emmaus . 1601. Cropped. The National Gallery, London, UK. Photo by Tom Faletti, 28 May 2025. Tom Faletti April 14, 2026 Luke 24:13-35 Jesus walks with two men on the road to Emmaus and breaks bread with them It is Easter Sunday. Angels have told the women at the empty tomb that Jesus is alive, and Peter has verified that the tomb is empty. Now, two disciples are walking 7 miles from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus. Verse 18 tells us that one of these disciples is named Cleopas. It is possible that this is the same man as the “Clopas” in John 19:25, but there is no way of knowing. An early tradition in the Church says that Clopas was the brother of Jesus’s adoptive father, Joseph. Verse 14 tells us that the two disciples are talking with each other about all the things that have happened, and verses 19-24 provide the specifics of their conversation. How do you think they feel about what has happened? A man joins them on the road and walks with them, but they do not recognize that it is Jesus (verses 15-16). Why do you think they don’t realize it is him? There are several possibilities. Jesus may have, in some supernatural way, prevented them from recognizing him. They may be sufficiently overcome with grief that they aren’t paying much attention to the details of this man walking with them. And Jesus’s resurrected body may look a bit different than his body previously looked, although it is still his body. What stands out to you in verses 19-24, in their summary of what has happened? Luke often points out the role of women in Jesus’s story. In verse 22, the disciples note that some women have delivered the message, proclaimed by angels, that Jesus is alive. But they clearly don’t believe it. How are the words and contributions of women often ignored or treated as less trustworthy in our day? Based on verse 19, what kind of person do they think Jesus is? In verse 21, they say that they had hoped Jesus would “redeem” Israel. What do you think that means to them? What do you think they had hoped would happen? They were probably envisioning that Jesus would bring political freedom from Roman oppression. But Jesus’s mission was to free all people from sin and death and fill them with his Spirit in order to empower them to live as members of God’s kingdom even in the midst of the political kingdoms of the world. Some scholars think that these disciples have lost faith or have given up on Jesus (verse 21), and that is why they are leaving Jerusalem while his whereabouts are still uncertain. Others think that is an unfair interpretation. If it is true, Jesus does not give up on them but comes after them. And they immediately return to Jerusalem once they recognize him. How might this be symbolic of our experience of repentance and renewed faith after times when we doubt? In verse 25, in most translations Jesus calls them “foolish.” However, the Greek word can mean “without thought” or “lacking in understanding” (Liddell and Scott, p. 145). Jesus is saying they haven’t thought things through the way they should have. What have they missed? How do we sometimes fail to think things through and properly understand what God has taught us? In verse 25, Jesus also says they are “slow of heart.” The Greek word for heart, kardia , was seen as the core of who a person is, the center of a person’s thoughts, will, and emotions. When Jesus says they have been slow of heart, what does he mean? How are we sometimes slow of heart: slow to respond with our whole being to the reality of who Jesus is and what he seeks to do in our lives? In verse 26, Jesus says that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer. That was not the expectation of the Jewish people in Jesus’s time. Christians see passages in the Old Testament that describe a man who suffers and apply them to Jesus (for example, Isaiah 50; Isaiah 53; Psalm 22). (Jews often interpret those passages as applying to the nation of Israel as a whole.) In verse 26, why does Jesus say that it was “necessary” for the Messiah to suffer? In verse 27, how do you think the disciples felt when Jesus opened up their understanding of the many passages in the Old Testament that refer to Jesus? How do you find Jesus in the Scriptures? Around AD 140, a Christian theologian named Marcion argued that the Christian canon (i.e., the Christian Bible) should not include any books from the Old Testament. This was rejected and the early Church excommunicated Marcion when he persisted. Why is the Old Testament so important to Christians? Do you feel like you have a good understanding of the Old Testament passages that refer to Jesus, or is that something you might want to explore further? If you think more is needed, what can you do about it? In verse 28, why do you think Jesus acted like he was going to travel further? In verse 29, the disciples say, “Stay with us.” Why do you think they are so eager to keep this traveler with them? Those words “Stay with us” might be good words for us to say to Jesus. How can we keep inviting Jesus to stay with us by the way we live? What does Jesus do in verse 30? What does it remind you of? What Jesus does here is what Jews would do at the beginning of a meal. However, it is also what Jesus did at the Last Supper (Luke 22:19). Compare Jesus’s actions in verse 30 with his actions at the Last Supper in Luke 22:19, where he also “took . . . said the blessing . . . broke . . . and gave.” Jesus chose to join the disciples at a meal, bless the bread, and break it and share it. In doing so, he linked his first appearance in Luke’s Gospel with the Last Supper. Since he also said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19), what he did at Emmaus is connected to what we call “Holy Communion” or “the Eucharist.” Why do you think Jesus chose to include Eucharistic imagery in his first appearance after his resurrection? Verse 31 tells us that when Jesus blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, it was then that their eyes were opened and they recognized him. Why do you think that was the moment they recognized him? There is a symbolic meaning when Luke says their eyes were opened (verse 31). How does the symbolism of their eyes being opened serve as a good image of what it means to come to faith in Jesus? How are our eyes “opened” when we gather for the breaking of the bread? None of this story would have happened if the disciples had not shown hospitality to a stranger. What does that say to us? At the Last Supper in Luke 22:16-18, Jesus says that he will not eat and drink with his disciples again until the Passover is fulfilled in the kingdom of God (22:16) or until the kingdom of God comes (22:18). How was that fulfilled? What do you think is the turning point or high point in this story: The disciples’ hospitality which brought Jesus to their table? Jesus’s implicit forgiveness of their unbelief? The breaking of the bread? The extended Bible lesson as they walked? Something else? What do you most need to take from this story and apply in your life today? In verse 32, the disciples say, “Were not our hearts burning within us” as he opened the Scriptures to them? What do they mean? How does your heart burn within you when you see new insights from the Scriptures? Jesus’s extended Bible Study with the disciples as they walk shows how important Bible Study is. Does your church put enough emphasis on helping people study the Bible? What more could be done? The disciples return to Jerusalem and receive great news from the apostles and other disciples who are gathered together: Jesus has appeared to Peter. None of the Gospels tell us about this meeting between Jesus and Peter. Why do you think Jesus made a separate appearance to Peter, and what do you think they talked about? Read Luke 22:32-34 , where Jesus says he will pray for Peter. What difference do you think that made? Do you think of Jesus praying for you? Do you think of his sacrifice on the Cross as a prayer offering for you? In what ways is Jesus bringing you before the Father even now? In Luke 22:32, Jesus tells Peter, “When you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Do you think they talked about that when Jesus appeared to Peter? How do you think Peter went about trying to fulfill that command? Take a step back and consider this: Most Christian denominations see images of both the Word of God and the sacrament of Holy Communion or the Eucharist in this story. The disciples learn from Jesus as he teaches from the Old Testament and then join him in the breaking of the bread. Our worship services include readings from the Bible (with a sermon exploring its implications for our lives) and a celebration of Holy Communion (whether daily, weekly, or quarterly, depending on the denomination). Why are both of those elements (word and sacrament) central to our worship services? How do you recognize Jesus in the Word of God? How do you recognize Jesus in the sacrament of Holy Communion? Bibliography See Luke - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/luke/bibliography . Copyright © 2026, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Next Luke List

Herod seeks to kill Jesus, which is why Jesus ends up as a refugee in Egypt, and then in Nazareth. Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 2:13-23 Herod seeks to kill Jesus, which is why Jesus ends up as a refugee in Egypt, and then in Nazareth. Image by NEOM, provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti February 13, 2024 Matthew 2:13-23 Jesus becomes a refugee, avoids a massacre, and ends up in Nazareth Matthew tells this part of the story to help us understand how Jesus could be the Messiah even though he grew up in Nazareth, not in Bethlehem. Why does Joseph take Jesus and Mary to Egypt? When the angel tells Joseph to “flee,” the Greek word for flee is pheuge , which is related to our English words “refuge” and “refugee.” It was common for Jews to hide out in Egypt if they were in trouble or in danger in Judea; there were Jewish communities in a number of Egyptian cities, so they would not have felt totally alone. Still, it was a long way from home. Jesus began his life as a refugee. Fortunately, Joseph and Mary did not have to convince a skeptical government that the family was worthy of asylum status. God was willing to become not only a human, not only a poor person, but a refugee. How does that help us understand the inherent dignity of refugees and the importance of being welcoming to them? The “fulfillment prophecy” that Matthew cites in verse 15 is not actually about Jesus or the Messiah. It was a statement from Hosea 11:1 about the fact that God called his “son,” the people of Israel, out of Egypt, long ago. Matthew repurposes it, perhaps to try to convince Jews that there is a huge amount of evidence in the Hebrew Scriptures pointing to Jesus. Matthew might also be thinking that Jesus’s experience of being brought out of oppression is a foreshadowing of our own experience of being brought out of oppression by Jesus. Matthew’s frequent use of these “fulfillment prophecies” leads some scholars to conclude that Matthew is picking out Old Testament prophecies and then creating stories to fit them. There is no evidence that he is doing that. Rather, it appears that he is organizing the stories he knows about Jesus and then searching the Old Testament to see if it has “prophecies” that might fit with those events. The stories come first; not the prophecies. When the wise men do not return to him, what does Herod do? Bethlehem was not a large town, so scholars think this would have been a slaughter of perhaps 20 or 30 children. While not large in number, all the children killed by Herod would have been deeply mourned by their mothers and fathers. Some scholars think the killing of the innocents is inspired by Pharaoh’s killing of the first-born sons of the Israelites before the exodus from Egypt, but again if Matthew created the story for that purpose he could easily have made the connection explicit and he did not. The “fulfillment prophecy” in verse 18 is from Jeremiah 31:15, where the original verse is about the Israelites being forced into exile by the Babylonians. It is followed by prophecies that the people will return from exile. Ramah was 5 miles north of Jerusalem, so it was 10 miles from Bethlehem. Rachel’s tomb was thought to be in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Matthew puts that all together and sees Jesus. Where do you think God was, as this was happening? God allows humans to do a lot of evil things, without intervening. Why do you think that is? God is guiding us to be people who as fully as possible reflect God’s image. If he intervened every time something bad happened, we would not be able to learn the lessons of our actions and would not grow to spiritual maturity. Also, we might stop trying to be our best selves, figuring that God will make things better if we mess up. Allowing us to do evil is the price that must be paid for giving us the chance to grow and mature and be great: to take on the mind of Jesus, to be the Body of Christ to the world, to live in the power of the Spirit. Jesus escapes from a tyrant by going to Egypt and then returning when the tyrant is gone. How does this connect with Moses’s escape, as an infant, from a pharaoh who was a tyrant in Egypt, and the Israelites’ later escape from a tyrant pharaoh in Egypt? The words “go . . . for those seeking the child’s life are dead” (2:20, NRSV) echo the Lord’s direction to Moses to go back to Egypt because the Pharaoh who wanted to kill him is dead (Exodus 4:19), setting up a possible linkage between Jesus and Moses: Jesus is the new Moses, leading his people out of oppression and giving them a new Law. When Herod dies, why doesn’t Joseph go back to Bethlehem? Joseph is afraid of Herod’s son Archelaus, who is given the southern territory including Jerusalem and Bethlehem by his father. Joseph had good reason to be afraid of Archelaus. Archelaus was so oppressive and hated so much by the Jews that he was eventually deposed from his position by Rome. Recall that Herod’s roots were in Idumea. Archelaus had roots in Idumea and Samaria, so he was even more suspect of not being a real Jew, and he treated the Jews so horribly that this suspicion was confirmed in the people’s minds. For example, Josephus tells us that in one of Archelaus's first official acts, 3,000 Pharisees were killed in response to an uprising protesting his father’s last act of oppression in Jerusalem. Joseph goes north to Galilee, to the town of Nazareth, a place far away from Jerusalem and not under Archelaus’s jurisdiction. Matthew’s final “fulfillment prophecy” in this chapter (verse 23) cannot be found in the Old Testament. Scholars have searched and never found anything that matches. So we don’t know what Matthew had in mind here. The closest thing is a prophecy before Samson is born that Samson will be a “nazirite” (Judges 13:5), but that is not the name of a place. Perhaps Matthew was inviting a connection to the nazirites, which were Israelites, including Samson and Samuel, who consecrated themselves to God, never drank alcohol, and never cut their hair, among other strict practices (Numbers 6). But the connection is flawed, since Jesus didn’t live an ascetic life and refrained from the demonstrations of human strength that Samson excelled at. Other scholars point to a possible word-play as Isaiah 11:1 talks of a “branch” arising from the stump of Jesse, and the Hebrew word for “branch” is netser , which sounds similar to the beginning of the name Nazareth. Since Jesus fulfilled in his own person some prophecies that were addressed to “Israel,” some scholars think this word-play hinting at the branch that arises from Israel is in Matthew’s mind. All of these are nice ideas, but we don’t know what Matthew had in mind; so this suggested quote remains a puzzle. Even if we don’t expect God to communicate to us nowadays through dreams, how is Joseph a role model for seeking guidance from God? When you figure out what God is asking you to do, do it! ; make yourself open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit; trust that God has a way forward for your life; take care of those around you; be aware of what is going on around you in the world, but don’t be paralyzed by it. Joseph settles his family in Nazareth. What do you know about Nazareth as a place to live and work? Joseph might have seen that he could find good work in the area of Nazareth, especially in Sepphoris, 5 miles away. This is explained in Raymond Brown’s one-volume biblical commentary: “Joseph, involved in the building trade, probably settled in in Nazareth, because he could find abundant work in neighboring Sepphoris, which Herod Antipas was rebuilding as his capital at that time” (Benedict T. Viviano, O.P., “The Gospel According to Matthew,” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary , par. 15, p. 636). Historians say that Sepphoris, though a Jewish city, did not join the Jewish rebellion against Roman rule in 66 A.D., suggesting that it took a more cosmopolitan rather than strictly Jewish approach to life under Roman occupation. How might this choice of a hometown have affected Jesus as he grew up? Although Nazareth was a small town, it was not a backwater. Besides being just 5 miles from Herod Antipas’s capital at Sepphoris, it was nestled in the fabric of trade routes to faraway places. It was only 15 miles away from the major international north-south Roman highway that ran through Israel along the Mediterranean coast from Syria to Egypt. Nazareth was also the crossroads of two smaller highways that served as trade routes, one starting at Ptolemais on the coast (modern-day Acre, Israel) and running southeast to Samaria, and the other running northeast through Nazareth to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, a city founded by Herod Antipas (see “Palestine in the time of Jesus, 4 B.C. - 30 A.D.: (including the period of Herod, 40 - 4 B.C.),” Library of Congress , https://www.loc.gov/item/2009579463/ ). As a result, Jesus, as a growing child and as a young man, would have been exposed to other cultures and a bigger world even while living in his Jewish village. This is all we get from Matthew for the “Christmas story” – very little compared to what we have from Luke. What important points about the background, birth, and infancy of Jesus are provided to us by Matthew? Jesus is Son of David, son of Abraham, Son of God due to his virgin birth, Emmanuel (“God with us”), perhaps a new Moses, born in Bethlehem, and raised in Nazareth. His birth story shows how the hand of God protects a little one so that he can grow up and save us, and the first people to recognize that this little one is great is a small group of Gentiles, a bit of foreshadowing that continues to play out as Matthew shows that the gospel is for Gentiles as well as Jews. How do you see the hand of God working subtly but decisively to bring good out of evil in these stories? How do you see the hand of God doing the same thing in your life? Do you think Matthew succeeds in making his point that Jesus fulfills the messianic prophecies even though he grew up in Nazareth, not Bethlehem? Explain. What can you take from this story of the wise men, Herod, Joseph, and Jesus to strengthen your faith or your approach to God? Take a step back and consider this: God could have chosen anywhere in the world for his Son to be born as a human. He could have selected a “chosen people” anywhere. He could have chosen any time in history for his coming. God chose this particular people, whose particular history placed them in this particular place in the world at this particular time. At this particular time, the Roman Empire made it easy to spread a message far and wide. Growing up in Nazareth would place Jesus among people who could both nurture him in the monotheistic culture of Judaism and also expose Him to the rest of the world, and living at a minor crossroads could help him tailor his message to speak to both Jews and Gentiles and prepare the way so that his followers could use their location in the midst of the Roman Empire to take the gospel ultimately “to the ends of the earth.” You also live at a particular time, in a particular place, among a particular people, at a crossroads of particular relationships and opportunities. God desires to work through you to share some piece of his good news with some particular people by your words and actions. How is God calling you to use the embedded realities, relationships, and crossroads of your life to bring his good news to others and make the world more like the kingdom of God that it was meant to be? What is God calling you to do next, where you are? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew List Next

Some men asked Jesus if would support the execution of a woman caught in adultery. Jesus’s response models mercy and does not support executing people. Can we embrace his approach? [John 7:53-8:11] Previous Next John List John 8:1-11 Some men asked Jesus if would support the execution of a woman caught in adultery. Jesus’s response models mercy and does not support executing people. Can we embrace his approach? Rembrandt (1606-1669). The Woman Taken in Adultery . 1644. Detail. The National Gallery, London, UK. Photo by Tom Faletti, 28 May 2025. Tom Faletti March 5, 2026 Read John 8:1-11 The men who asked Jesus if he would support the execution of a woman caught in adultery John 7:53-8:11 has a long history but does not appear in the earliest manuscripts we have today. It first appears in manuscripts we have that reach back to around AD 400. Some manuscripts have it in different places in the Gospel of John (for example, at the end) and some manuscripts place it after Luke 21:38, which has language very similar to John 7:53. However, the passage was well-known long before 400. The church historian Eusebius, writing in the early 300s, relates a similar story that he said was told by Papias (who died around AD 130 and knew the apostle John personally). The Didascalia Apostolorum , a book of teachings about the Christian life written in the 200s, refers to this story with specific details and Jesus’s words, and directs bishops to follow Jesus’s example of mercy. Augustine and Jerome, both of whom were leading theologians in the late 300s and early 400s, cited this story in arguments they made in defense of Christianity. They knew that it did not appear in some manuscripts, but they considered it part of Scripture. Augustine suggested that it might have been deleted from the original Gospel of John by men who were afraid their wives might commit adultery ( Wasserman ). Most modern scholars think that it was added to John’s Gospel and placed in its present position to connect with Jesus’s statement in John 8:15: “I judge no one.” They note that the style of its language is different from that of the rest of John’s Gospel. If it was added, it was probably circulating in the oral tradition in the early church before it was set down in writing and included in the Gospel. The way it presents Jesus is very authentic to Jesus’s style of deflecting attempts to trap him. The story is also appropriate to this chapter of John because by the end of this chapter the religious leaders are picking up stones to throw at Jesus (8:59). In John 7:53, we see that Jesus does not stay overnight in the city of Jerusalem. He crosses the Kidron River, just east of Jerusalem, and stays on the Mount of Olives, which is a mountain ridge (or high hill) across from the walled Old City on the other side of the Kidron Valley. Early in the morning, Jesus returns to the Temple area of the city. What is he doing in verse 2, when the next incident occurs? The scribes and Pharisees bring a woman to Jesus. What do they accuse her of, and what do they say the Law of Moses requires? They accuse her of adultery. In Deuteronomy 22:22-24, and also in Leviticus 20:10, the punishment for adultery is death for both the man and the woman. Verse 6 tells us that they are testing him to see if they can bring a charge against him. If he agrees with the Law of Moses, how could that lead to a charge against him? If he disagrees with the Law of Moses, how could that get him in trouble? If he agrees with the Law of Moses, the Pharisees could report him to the Roman authorities, because the Jews were not allowed to exercise capital punishment under Roman occupation. If he disagrees, they can say he is clearly not the Messiah since he is contradicting Moses. Jesus does not respond to their question. He bends down and writes on the ground. John does not tell us what he is writing. What do you think he is writing on the ground? Some scholars seen in verse 6 a reference to Jeremiah 17:13, which is sometimes translated to say that those who turn away from God shall be written in the earth because they have forsaken the Lord, who is the fountain of living water. Jesus just identified himself as the source of living water in the previous passage (7:38) and now is writing in the sand in response to people who have turned away from him. However, Jeremiah 17:13 is not entirely clear and some versions of the Bible translate it as saying that those who turn away from God shall be enrolled or recorded in the netherworld (rather than written in the earth). What does Jesus say in verse 7, when they keep challenging him? What do you think Jesus’s statement in verse 7 means? Jesus continues to write on the ground, and the scribes and Pharisees leave, one by one. Why do you think they leave? It is interesting that the elders are the first to leave. Are they wiser? Do they realize they are wrong to be trying to trap him (unlikely), or that they are wrong in their treatment of the woman? Do they realize that if Jesus says the woman should be stoned, they don’t want to risk the ire of the Romans by carrying out an execution in such a public place? One popular idea is that Jesus was writing in the sand the sins of the men, starting with the eldest – but that’s only speculation. The man who supposedly committed adultery with this woman was not brought to Jesus as the woman was. What does that suggest to you? In verse 10, what does Jesus ask the woman? In verse 11, Jesus says to the woman, “Go, and from now on, sin no more.” What is he telling her to do, and how can she take it to heart? Jesus also calls us to stop sinning. How can we do a better job of that? We may be more successful when we focus less on not sinning and more on staying in a continual relationship with Jesus where we are always walking in his light. He does not expect us to try to tough it out and resist sin by our own power, but to let him empower us to do right. Jesus neither condemns the woman nor condones adultery. How can we approach people with the same attitude as Jesus shows here? This Story is About the Death Penalty In this passage, the Pharisees and Jesus are talking about capital punishment. When Jesus talks about “throwing a stone,” he is talking about participating in an execution. In the Law of Moses, Deuteronomy 17:7 says that, when someone has committed a crime that is subject to the death penalty, the witnesses to the crime are the ones whose hands shall be raised first – i.e., the witnesses are the ones who are supposed to be the first to pick up a stone and cast it at the condemned person – and the rest of the people shall follow. When Jesus says, in verse 7, that the one who is without sin should be the first to throw a stone, he is not speaking metaphorically. He is responding to their question about capital punishment and speaking literally about the first steps in an execution. The Law said that the witnesses should throw the first stones to execute a person. Jesus says those without sin should throw the first stones to execute a person. When capital punishment is practiced in our day, we don’t stone people to death. How would Jesus say it if he was referring to capital punishment in our day? In modern terms, Jesus’s words are the equivalent of, “Let the one who is without sin inject the deadly drug, release the poisonous gas, fire the rifle, flip the switch, tie the noose and trip the trap door.” Jesus says, “Let the one who is without sin be the first to throw a stone” (verse 7). He also says, “Neither do I condemn you” (verse 11), which means: Neither do I condemn you to death . What does this suggest to us about Jesus’s view of capital punishment? How can we apply Jesus’s approach to the death penalty today? No one in our day is without sin, so the clear implication is that no one should be involved in executing another person. Many Christian groups also oppose the death penalty because they think only God should take a life (“Thou shalt not kill”). The Catholic Church argues that since every human being is made in the image of God and has an inherent dignity that cannot be taken away, the death penalty is never permissible ( The Vatican ). If we take this teaching about the death penalty to heart, how can we respond to capital punishment in our society in a manner consistent with Jesus’s approach? How can we be a voice for not killing? In “ In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus signals His opposition to the death penalty ,” Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy describes the work of Catholic Mobilizing Network in the United States. Think about the men who brought this woman to Jesus. The Gospels tells us about times when Pharisees picked up stones to try to stone Jesus. In the Acts of the Apostles, Stephen is stoned to death. Why do you think people are sometimes so focused on killing other people? Hopefully none of us is this focused on killing people. But we may still have condemning attitudes toward people we think are wrong or who cross us. What might be our ways of acting in judgment, where Jesus might want us to take a different approach? Take a step back and consider this: Christians sometimes describe Jesus’s approach to the woman caught in adultery as: “hate the sin, love the sinner.” This saying encourages us to draw a distinction between judging (and perhaps condemning) people and making judgments about their acts. The saying troubles me, however, because it still uses judgmental language to characterize the person. When we call someone a “sinner” in that way, we are suggesting that they are different from us: they, the sinners, commit that sin, but the rest of us don’t do that. It turns the person we are talking about into an “other” rather than one of “us.” That saying also highlights the fact that people are rather selective about what sins we should “hate” so much that we call the perpetrators of those sins “sinners.” People my use that phrase when they are talking about someone who commits a sexual sin. But what about other sins? James denounces wealthy people who withhold wages from their workers (James 5:4-5). Do we say we “hate the sin but love the sinner” when we are talking about wealthy corporate executives who enrich themselves but refuse to pay their workers a living wage? Do we use it for other forms of injustice? Do we use it for sins we commit; or only for sins that other people commit? The situations that lead us to use that phrase may reveal more about our biases and which sins we think are most egregious than it reveals about the gospel. St. Paul says that “even if a person is caught in some transgression, you who are spiritual should correct that one in a gentle spirit, looking to yourself, so that you also may not be tempted” (Gal. 6:1, NABRE). For that reason, I would rather say: “Speak honestly but graciously about sin, knowing that you too are not perfect, and love the person who commits a sin the way you would want to be loved when you sin.” Are there sins for which you choose to call the person who commits that sin a “sinner”? If so, which sins lead you to use that label? Are there ways that you use the words “sin” and “sinner” that might have the effect of putting other people in a category that is different, and perhaps lower, than yourself? Jesus told the woman not to sin any more but did not call her a sinner. How can we treat others with the same grace and gentleness and avoid putting them in categories we don’t use for ourselves? Bibliography See John - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/john/bibliography . Copyright © 2026, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous John List Next

Active in the timeline. Previous Next Table of Contents Where is God? - Part 2 Active in the timeline. Tom Faletti (to be continued) Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Table of Contents Next

Jesus cleanses the Temple, removing the sacrificial lambs he will one day take the place of. Where do we need his cleansing in the “temple” of our own life? [John 2:13-17; 2:18-25] Previous Next John List John 2:13-25 Jesus cleanses the Temple, removing the sacrificial lambs he will one day take the place of. Where do we need his cleansing in the “temple” of our own life? From Histoire Sainte , an incomplete set of hand-coloured lithographs depicting scenes from the Bible and the History of Christianity, published in Paris by Delagrave and printed by Becquet frères. Circa 1850-1880. The British Museum, London (see https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1981-U-56-134?selectedImageId=1097590001 ). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Histoire_Sainte_(BM_1981,U.56-134_60).jpg . Tom Faletti November 8, 2025 Read John 2:13-17 The cleansing of the Temple Why does Jesus go to Jerusalem? In John’s Gospel, Jesus spends much more time in Jerusalem than he does in the other Gospels. He goes from Bethany east of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing, to Galilee (where he grew up), where he starts gathering disciples, and now to Jerusalem for Passover. Passover was the annual spring religious feast celebrating God’s liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. It was marked by the sacrificing of lambs to commemorate how they were protected when the angel of death “passed over” the houses of the Israelites that had the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. In the Gospel of John, Jesus goes to Jerusalem 3 times for Passover, suggesting that his public ministry lasted more than 2 years, and perhaps longer. Luke tells us (Luke 2:41) that Jesus’s parents brought him to Passover in Jerusalem every year as a child, and presumably he continued that practice throughout his adult life. What does Jesus do in Jerusalem? John places the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, whereas the Synoptics place it at the end. The Gospels writers arranged their stories to achieve their theological purposes, not to tell the story in chronological order. In the Synoptics, this event is the precipitating factor that leads to the final murder plot against Jesus. For John, the precipitating factor is the raising of Lazarus. There are other, more minor differences that at a minimum suggest that the story was passed down orally in two slightly different forms from different eyewitnesses. Some scholars think he cleared the Temple twice, once at the beginning of his ministry and again at the end. What were the sheep, oxen, and doves used for, in the Temple? Oxen, sheep, and doves were sacrificed in the Temple. You could buy the appropriate animals for your sacrifice, so that you would not have to travel to Jerusalem with your own animals for sacrifice. Also, if you brought your own animal to the Temple, the authorities might reject it, saying it was blemished, and tell you to buy one of theirs. The Synoptic Gospels and secular historical accounts indicate that people were often fleeced by the merchants in the Temple. Why were there moneychangers in the Temple? (It’s understandable if you do not know the answer to this question.) The moneychangers were there to accept payment for the Temple tax that every adult male was obligated to pay annually. The Jewish leaders accepted only certain coins – for example, they did not accept Roman coins, which carried the image of Caesar – so you needed a moneychanger to exchange your money for the accepted coins. All of this business was conducted in the outer court of the Temple complex – the Court of the Gentiles – making it a noisy place not conducive to prayer. Jews could proceed into the courts that were closer to the Holy of Holies, but Gentiles had to stop here and could not proceed further in order to find a quiet place to pray. What reason does Jesus give in verse 16 for his action? Jesus does not want God’s house to be a marketplace. It had lost it sense of reverence as economic concerns overshadowed the primary purpose of the Temple as a place where people could interact with God. Jesus’s action reminds many scholars of the last verse of the book of Zechariah (Zech. 14:21), which prophesies that when the Lord comes there will no longer be merchants in the house of the Lord. What do you think Jesus wants God’s house to look like? How might economics, money, and market considerations affect how the Church as a whole and our local churches operate? How might those concerns interfere with our primary purposes as God’s people? John may have a deeper point in mind. Sheep and oxen were essential to the Temple’s role as a place of sacrifice. Therefore, what might be the deeper symbolism in driving them out of the Temple? What would it mean if there were no longer any sacrificial animals in the Temple? There could only be no animals if Temple sacrifice was no longer necessary. This could happen because Jesus is here and will sacrifice himself as the “Lamb of God,” as John the Baptist called him in 2:29 and 2:36. There may be even more to this, in the mind of John the evangelist. In the other Gospels, the Last Supper is on Passover night . But in John’s Gospel the Last Supper is on the night before Passover, and Jesus is dying on the Cross in his ultimate act of sacrifice just as the Passover lambs are being slaughtered in the Temple in preparation for that evening’s Passover meals. Jesus’s sacrifice will make the whole sacrificial system in the Temple unnecessary, which would obviate the need for merchants buying and selling animals for sacrifice. That would bring to fulfillment Zecharia’s prophecy that when the Lord comes there will no longer be merchants in the Temple. Verse 17 tells us that Jesus’s action reminds his disciples of Psalm 69:9 (69:10 in the NABRE), which talked about zeal for God’s house. They were struck by the zeal with which Jesus cleansed the Temple. Why do you think Jesus cleared the Temple? What is your reaction to what Jesus did? Read John 2:18-25 Jesus is challenged by the Jewish leaders In verse 18, John refers to “the Jews,” a phrase he will use repeatedly throughout his Gospel. Sometimes, he is just referring to the Jewish people generally (for example, in John 2:13: “The Passover of the Jews was near”). But other times, as in verse 18, he is referring specifically to the Jews who opposed Jesus: the leaders of the Jews in Jerusalem. John’s references to “the Jews” are never a general indictment of all Jews. John and Jesus and Jesus’s mother Mary and many people in John’s community were Jews. John was not speaking against all Jews. What was the reaction of the Jewish leaders to Jesus’s cleansing of the Temple? Why do they challenge him? What do they want? What “evidence” does he offer them? John often tells stories where someone misunderstands something Jesus says. What does Jesus mean by the “temple,” and what do the Jewish leaders think he means? Why do you think Jesus answers their challenge in this way? Note: If this confrontation seems premature, we need to remember that John is not necessarily telling us everything in chronological order. Where would you have been in this scene? (One of the disciples? One of the people challenging Jesus? A moneychanger or merchant? A Temple leader? A bystander? Or would you not even have been in the Temple?) Consider the person you just named in the previous question. How do you think they would have reacted to the clearing of the Temple and the discussion that followed? What does this story say to you? Saint Paul said that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, who resides in us (1 Cor. 6:19). Is there any part of the “temple” of your life that needs some cleansing by Jesus? What would he like to do? How do we let Jesus clear away the distractions so that we are proper temples of the Holy Spirit? Take a step back and consider this: Verse 23 tells us that Jesus did other signs while he was in Jerusalem that John does not tell us about, and many people began to believe in his name – but Jesus did not trust these apparent declarations of faith. The New Testament scholar Raymond Brown wrote that Jesus “did not trust their faith because it stopped at the miraculous aspect of the sign and did not perceive what was signified” (Brown, p. 341). In other words, they saw only the miraculous action and not the message or meaning to which the sign pointed. We are called to look for what God’s miraculous signs “signify” – the deeper messages they point to, the eternal truths that lie behind what God has done at the surface or physical level. The human tendency is to stop at the surface of what God has done and is doing. We can only reach our full calling when we go beyond the surface and embrace what the signs signify. How can we train ourselves to look for the deeper spiritual meaning behind what happens on the surface of our lives? Bibliography See John - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/john/bibliography . Copyright © 2026, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous John List Next

The chief priests decide that the only way to save their nation is to kill Jesus. It is easy to decide to use sinful means to achieve what we think are good ends. How can we avoid that trap? [John 11:45-54; 11:55-57] Previous Next John List John 11:45-57 The chief priests decide that the only way to save their nation is to kill Jesus. It is easy to decide to use sinful means to achieve what we think are good ends. How can we avoid that trap? Léonard Gaultier, (circa 1561 - 1641). The Chief Priests and Pharisees . Engraving. Circa 1576-1580. Cropped. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L%C3%A9onard_Gaultier,_The_Chief_Priests_and_Pharisees,_probably_c._1576-1580,_NGA_48165.jpg . Tom Faletti April 18, 2026 Read John 11:45-54 The Sanhedrin decides to kill Jesus Verse 47 says that the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the “council” or “Sanhedrin.” Sanhedrin is a Greek word meaning “coming together,” but in the time of Jesus it was also the name of the 71-member council in Jerusalem that served as the highest Jewish court. The Sanhedrin was more than just a court; it also had administrative functions, including the management of the Temple, and it had a police force to enforce its rulings. It included the chief priests, the elders of Jerusalem’s leading families, and leading members of groups such as the Pharisees and Sadducees, so it had representatives from both the aristocracy and the leading religious factions in the community. The Council now meets more formally, but at least some members of the Council have been working on a less formal basis to stop Jesus since chapter 7, when they sent guards to arrest him (7:32). Many members of the Council had reasons to oppose Jesus. The Pharisees objected to his unwillingness to submit to their microscopic applications of the Law. The Sadducees did not believe in life after death, so Jesus’s raising of Lazarus from the dead would have been particularly galling for them. And verse 48 expresses the concern of the chief priests and the leaders. According to verse 48, what do the leaders fear will happen if Jesus is not stopped? Why would they think that the Romans would destroy their nation if too many people followed Jesus? They might have thought that Jesus would foster a political rebellion. But even if they understood that this was not his goal, they still might have been concerned that the people might try to turn him into a political messiah anyway, and start a rebellion that would bring the Romans down on the whole nation. Ironically, in the end it was a rebellion by Jews who were not Christians that ultimately led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel. Note: Many Christians in the early church thought that the destruction of Jerusalem was a punishment of the Jews by God for their rejection of Jesus, but that implies a vindictiveness on God’s part that is not necessary: the leveling of Jerusalem by the Romans can be explained as a natural outcome of political cause and effect in a fallen world where tyrants seek total domination and rebels are willing to sacrifice their lives in pursuit of freedom. The high priest in Jerusalem was appointed by the Romans, and the Jewish historian Josephus tells us about Caiaphas. He was appointed by Pilate’s predecessor and served as high priest for 18 years, from AD 18 to 36. His father-in-law Annas had been the high priest from AD 6 to 15. In verses 49-50, Caiaphas offers a solution to the “problem” posed by Jesus. What does he suggest? When Caiaphas says that it is better for one man to die instead of the whole nation, he only means it in a political sense. John says in verse 51 that Caiaphas’s statement was prophetic in a religious sense. What does John mean? It is not clear what the “dispersed” or “scattered” children of God in verse 52 is referring to. It could be a reference to the Jewish diaspora scattered across the Roman Empire. It could be a reference to the “other sheep” in other folds that Jesus mentions in John 10:16, who are all meant to be part of Jesus’s one flock. In John 10:16, Jesus says he has other sheep in other folds. Here in 11:52, we have an image of Jesus gathering the scattered children of God together. In 17:20-26, Jesus prays for the people who will learn about him through the preaching of his disciples. What do you think God’s vision is for the vast flock of people that make up the Body of Christ? How does Caiaphas’s prophetic statement actually describe Jesus’s role in gathering God’s children together into one? In verse 53, what is the result of Caiaphas’s proposal to the Council? What do they decide to do? People often interpret the work of the Sanhedrin in very political terms: these men saw Jesus as a political threat to their positions, so they opposed him. What caution does that give us as we deal with the politics of our own societies? Some of the 71 members of the Council were probably focused on selfishly protecting their own political power, but others may have felt that it was their patriotic duty to do whatever was necessary to protect the nation. Patriotism is generally considered a good thing, but their patriotism led them to commit a terrible crime against Jesus. How do people in our nation face similar risks, and what can we do to make sure patriotism is used for good and does not lead to evil or sinful actions in our day? Verse 53 tells us that from that day on, the leaders of the Council planned to kill Jesus. They thought their only choice was to do something evil (kill a man) to avoid something more evil (the destruction of their nation). As Christians, how do we avoid the moral compromise of doing things that are evil to achieve what we think is good? Jesus withdraws from Jerusalem to Ephraim (verse 54), which was around 10-15 miles north of Jerusalem – a one-day journey on foot. Jesus spends some time with his disciples in Ephraim. What do you think he does with them there? Read John 11:55-57 Jesus leaves Jerusalem, and people wonder if he will return for Passover John tells us in verse 55 that Passover is approaching again. John identifies 3 separate Passovers that Jesus attended in Jerusalem (John 2:13; 6:4; and 11:55). This is one reason why scholars think Jesus’s public ministry lasted around 3 years. Why do people go to Jerusalem early, before the Passover (verse 55)? People go to Jerusalem early to purify themselves. The Old Testament required that people not be unclean at Passover (2 Chron. 30:1-3, 15-18). One of the common reasons why a person might be unclean is because they came into contact with a corpse. That is one of the causes of impurity specifically mentioned in the Old Testament (Num. 9:6-12). This may sound odd to us in the 21 st century, when the average person may have little contact with dead bodies. But there were no ambulances, first responders, or funeral homes in Jesus’s time. Everyone faced times when they had to move corpses and prepare and transport bodies for burial, so anyone could find themselves “unclean” as Passover approached. Verse 57 explains why Jesus decides to leave Jerusalem. What is he facing? John heightens the tension by describing the conversations people are having as Passover approaches (verse 56). What are the people doing and saying? They are looking for Jesus and discussing with each other whether he will come for Passover. The people in Jerusalem were wondering if Jesus would be there for Passover. We sometimes find ourselves wondering whether Jesus will be there for us when we face difficult times. How do you think he would answer? Take a step back and consider this: The Sanhedrin’s chief priests and political leaders were so afraid of the power of the Roman Empire that they could not see the power of God at work in their midst. We, too, sometimes become so focused on the powers that loom over our heads that we fail to see God, who has all power and is holding us in his hands. The powers of this world are temporary and fleeting – they will pass away. God is eternal and is always watching over us – and his love will persist as he continues to work in our lives forever. What earthly powers or challenges loom in your lives, and how do they appear to obscure the presence of God? How can you focus more fully on God and put your trust in him, even when you are facing challenges that demand your attention and seem to be unstoppable? Bibliography See John - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/john/bibliography . Copyright © 2026, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous John List Next

You will be judged in the same way you judge others. Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 7:1-6 You will be judged in the same way you judge others. Image by Chris Curry, provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti June 7, 2024 Matthew 7:1-6 Judge not, lest you be judged What is Jesus saying in this passage? What does v. 2 mean, in speaking about the “measure” you get? A “measure” is the method used to weigh or count the portions of something. In the supermarket, if you buy potatoes by the pound, a “pound” is the measure. If you buy mangos by the number of mangos, then the number of units (mangos) is the “measure.” Lettuce might be sold using either measure – by weight or by the number of heads. Jesus says that the measure you use for judgment is the measure that will be used to judge you. What are some of the things about which we tend to judge others, and what measure do we use to judge their guilt or innocence, or how good or bad their actions are? If we will be judged in the same way that we judge others (i.e., using the same measure we use), what does this tell us about making judgments about other people? What do you think is an appropriate measure for judging other people, or an appropriate way of approaching your judgments, if you know that you will face the same standard of judgment? Consider Galatians 6:7, which tells us that whatever we sow we will also reap. Although Paul is making a different point in that passage, how does the concept of sowing and reaping illuminate verse 2’s discussion of judging? God has built linkages into the natural world that provide useful analogies for the linkages he has built into the spiritual fabric of life. Just as we can’t sow grass seed and reap vegetables, so too we can’t sow judgmental attitudes and reap mercy. In many aspects of our lives, you get back what you give out. What is the meaning of Jesus’s image of the speck (or splinter) and the log (or beam) in verse 3? What might be some examples of the logs or beams in our own eyes that might make it hard for us to make sound judgments about what others do? What biases make it hard for people to judge other people accurately? How do you know when you have a “log” in your eye? How do you know when you have a blind spot that makes it hard to accurately judge what is going on around you? Someone else can tell you; you can try to put yourself in others’ shoes; you can immerse yourself in God’s Word and check your actions against God’s Word. One of my Bible Study members, Phyllis Hegstrom, told us that she asks her boss: What are my blind spots? How might that approach to our own behavior make us more effective followers of Jesus? Jesus tells us to take the log (or beam) out of our own eye first. How can we do that? How can we remove the things that make it hard for us to see clearly? In Matthew 5:38-42, Jesus tells us not to resist those who seek to do evil to us but to turn the other cheek, go two miles, etc. What are the traits of Christian character that Jesus is trying to foster both in that passage and here in Matthew 7:1-6? Verse 6 uses some metaphors that need to be unpacked: for example, what does a “pearl” stand for and what does a “dog” or “swine” stand for? Note: Dogs were mostly undomesticated scavengers in Jesus’s time. According to the Law, swine were unclean, so Jews were prohibited from eating or handling them. When you put it all together, what does verse 6 mean? What are the “pearls” we should be preserving? One interpretation of verse 6 is that the pearls are the deeper truths of our faith. If we follow that interpretation, what is Jesus saying about not giving the pearls to those who will trample them? Don’t try to convince others of the deeper truths of the faith if they have not accepted the more basic truths. In order to follow verse 6, we would need to make judgments about who falls into the metaphorical category of the “dogs” or “swine.” Doesn’t that require judging? Explain. Do you conclude from this passage that we should never judge, or only judge certain kinds of things (and if so, what)? Explain. How can we apply in our lives the principles Jesus is teaching us here about judging? Take a step back and consider this: Social psychologists working in the field of attribution theory explore how we decide why people do what they do. If someone does something we think is wrong (fails to show up for a meeting, says something unkind, etc.), how do we decide what the causes of their behavior might be? We might attribute their behavior to situational causes – to external factors that might explain their behavior. For example, we might say to ourselves: He must have had an unexpected crisis that kept him from coming; maybe someone in his family got sick. She must be having a bad day; maybe her boss chewed her out or her child did something wrong – that’s why she said what she said. Alternatively, we might attribute their behavior to dispositional causes – to internal factors in their personality or character. In this case, we might say to ourselves: He is unreliable; he doesn’t respect other people’s time and effort. She is a mean person and doesn’t appreciate the effect of her words on other people. We don’t usually know the whole story behind people’s actions. To be honest, we never know the whole story. But we make judgments. And arguably, judgments are sometimes necessary. If George routinely fails to show up for meetings that have been arranged with him, we need to recognize that and not assign essential tasks to him where a no-show would cause harm. The interesting thing is that we have attribution biases that distort our assessments. If we already have a positive view of a person, we are more likely to explain a false step as being caused by situational factors rather than signaling a flaw in their personality. If we think a person is similar to us, we are more likely to give them a pass rather than deciding that they have a bad character trait. The bias that is most relevant to Jesus’s words about judging others is the fundamental attribution error : the tendency to think that if we have done something wrong, it is because of something external that caused the problem; but if someone else has done something wrong, it is because of their own internal dispositions (Robert S. Feldman, Understanding Psychology , 14th edition, McGraw Hill Education, 2019, pp. 563-564). In other words, people have a tendency to think that the speck or log in the other person’s eye is caused by flaws in the other person’s character, while any speck in our own eye is only due to the external circumstances we face. This fundamental attribution error may be the biggest log of all in our eyes, because it signals an unconscious belief that we are better or less flawed than other people, and that other people are choosing to be bad while we are with good intentions just trying to make the best of a difficult world. Jesus calls us to stop thinking that we are better, or that we are doing better, than others. That is the fundamental log in our eyes. When someone does something that you perceive to be a slight or that hurts you in some way, are you more likely to attribute it to a flaw in their personality/character or to attribute it to external circumstances that made it difficult for them to do what you wanted them to do? Can you describe a time (or times) when you did that? When you do something that someone else perceives to be a slight or that hurts someone else in some way, are you more likely to make justifications for your action based on external circumstances or to do some soul-searching about whether this shows you need to work on your character? Can you describe a time (or times) when you did that? If you were talking with Jesus right now, what would he say to you about whether you treat others the way you treat yourself in terms of how you attribute motives to your behavior and others’ behavior? What steps can you take to adjust your thinking about other people, so that you are more merciful in the judgments you make about other people? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew List Next

Pray with confidence that God will respond as your Father. Previous Matthew List Next Matthew 7:7-11 Pray with confidence that God will respond as your Father. Image by Gustavo Sánchez, provided by Unsplash via Wix. Tom Faletti June 7, 2024 Matthew 7:7-11 Pray expectantly Overall, what is your initial impression of this passage? What is it saying? In verses 7-8, what is the attitude Jesus is calling us to have in prayer? The tense of the verbs in these verses is the present imperative active ( Interlinear Bible , https://biblehub.com/interlinear/matthew/7.htm ), which means that they would be better translated as: Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking; or continually ask, continually seek, continually knock. We don’t have this tense in English, so our translators settle for “ask, seek, knock,” but the tense in Greek means to continually do that thing. The Greek verbs that are used in verses 7-8 indicate that Jesus is not talking about asking just once. The verbs actually mean “keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.” How does that affect your understanding of this passage? What does this tell you? In verses 9-10, Jesus offers two images of what human parents would or would not do, and then uses them as analogies to God. What would human parents not do, and why? To an innocent and undiscerning child, a large stone might look like a small loaf of bread. A small fish might look like a snake or eel. If a child asked for bread or fish, a parent would not give them a stone or a snake; that would be malicious. Almost all parents love their children and would responding lovingly, not cruelly or callously. In verse 11, Jesus then compares the parents to God. What does he say about “your Father in heaven”? By describing our prayers as like a child seeking what he or she needs from a parent, Jesus is telling us about our relationship with God who is our Father. What does this tell us about how we can approach God in prayer? Jesus says even human parents, who are “evil” (NRSV) or “wicked” (NABRE), wouldn’t give their child a stone if they asked for bread. What is he trying to tell us by using that word “evil” or “wicked” to contrast us with God? God, who is all good, will not give us fake gifts or false gifts. God will only give us what is good, what is consistent with His perfect love. This means God will not always give us what we ask. Even when we ask for good things, God does not always give us what we ask for. How do you make sense of that reality in the context of this passage? It is often said that God answers our prayers in one of three ways: Yes, No, or Not Yet. If the answer is Yes, we receive the blessing and move forward. If the answer is No, we accept the answer and move on. If the answer is Not Yet, we wait patiently, continuing to pray and trust that God has our best interests at heart. God cannot always give us what we ask for, because sometimes what we ask for would not actually be what is best for us, and God would not give us a stone even if we thought it was good and asked for it. How have you experienced God answering your prayers with a Yes? How have you experienced God answering your prayers with a No? How have you experienced God answering your prayers with a Not Yet? There is a fourth way that God answers prayer. Sometimes, after praying for a period of time, we come to realize that what we truly want and need is not what we were asking for, but something else. In this case, God has answered our prayer by changing our heart and our desires. When our heart is aligned with God, it opens the door for God to work in new ways that might not previously been feasible. But that requires us to be willing to more forward according to God’s ways, not our ways. How have you experienced your requests to God changing as you kept asking God for something? There is a fifth way that God answers prayer: with a “Not That But This.” God sometimes gives us something that is a blessing but not the blessing we sought. As William Barclay says: “God will always answer our prayers, but He will answer them in His way, and His way will be the way of perfect wisdom and of perfect love” (Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 1 , pp. 275-276). A relevant quote that has been attributed to many people over the years is: “When one door closes another always opens, but we usually look so long, so intently, and so sorrowfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened” (quote investigator Garson O’Toole concludes that the source is unknown, although part may have come from Johann Paul Friedrich Richter). How have you experienced God answering a prayer not by giving you what you asked for but by opening a door to something else? Did you find it easy or hard to recognize that God was answering your prayer by giving you that alternative? The relationship we have with God, our Father, is far more important than anything we ask God to do. Are there ways that your prayer life might change if your prayers were consistently founded on the relationship you have with God as Father and not so much on what you want? How does this passage help you pray to God with confidence? Having looked at this entire passage in detail, what does it say to you? Take a step back and consider this: Sometimes what we ask for is not evil but misses the point. My grandfather, when he was in his 60s, told me that when he was young, he had asked God for three things: a beautiful wife, a beautiful car, and a big house. With his 8th-grade education and hard-scrabble upbringing, those probably seemed like big asks. But he was a hard worker, a sociable person who was good at understanding what other people wanted and how to bring people together, and a wise man about many things despite his meager formal education. He advanced in the steel mill from blue collar to white collar, then left to become a very successful insurance agent. He married early and eventually obtained a big house (relative to others in his community) and the fancy car he wanted. But he told me about his early prayer not boastfully but ruefully, as if to show the foolishness of the request. When he told me this, he was spending most of his time in one room of the big house, sitting next to the bed where his wife lay 23 hours a day. Her life had been sapped by chronic health problems, but she had all the time in the world to carp at him as he sat there. The fancy car mostly sat unused in the garage. People sometimes say: Be careful what you ask for. But that is too cryptic to catch the point. It isn’t what you ask for, but why, that matters. For whom are you asking, and to what end? For whom are you most earnest prayers delivered? To what end do you ask God to bless you? How would your prayers change, if you were only allowed to pray for things that you knew would help advance God's loving work in the world? Bibliography See Matthew - Bibliography at https://www.faithexplored.com/matthew/bibliography . Copyright © 2025, Tom Faletti (Faith Explored, www.faithexplored.com ). This material may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration, for nonprofit use, provided such reproductions are not sold and include this copyright notice or a similar acknowledgement that includes a reference to Faith Explored and www.faithexplored.com. See www.faithexplored.com for more materials like this. Previous Matthew List Next