baptation notes

We might  suggest that the same three temptations Jesus faced in Chapter 4 were

 repeated,
              recast and
                            remixed throughout the rest of the gospel, at different points in Jesus' life...

 -------------

-the baptism of Jesus  (chapter 3) and the temptations (chapter 4) should be read together as one literary unit or paragraph 

Especially helpful is the suggestion by Donald Kraybill ("The Upside Down Kingdom") and Ray Van Der Laan  that throughout  his earthly life, Jesus was revisited by remixes of the original three temptations ("testations" ) of the devil"in chapter 4.

Kraybill provocatively proffers the following taxonomy of the temptations; suggesting that any later temptation Jesus faced (or we face) is at heart in one of these three spheres:

1=  Bread into stones: Economic 

2=Jump from temple and test God:Religious 

 3=Own all kingdoms: Political; 

Henri Nouwen ("in the Name of Jesus" )breaks it down this way:

1=  Bread into stones:  temptation to be relevant

 2=Jump from temple and test God:   temptation to be spectacular  

3=Own all kingdoms: Political;   temptation to be rule over

So, it may be useful to plot out various temptations along your life timeline, and ask which of Jesus' temptation are each is  tied to.

SO..if every temptation can be filed under one of the three categories:

Economic    Religious   Political..

or
Relevant    Spectacular   Rule over

..under which does  any temptation (sexual etc) occur?

How might virtually all temptations (the three Jesus faced, or others you could name) be fundamentally economic?  Kraybill, you'll remember, calls the bread temptation "economic," but how might any/all others temptations trace to this root?
HINT: We noted that he term economics comes from the Ancient Greekοἰκονομία (oikonomia, "management of a household, administration") from οἶκος (oikos, "house") + νόμος (nomos, "custom" or "law"), hence "rules of the house(hold)".^[1
 




Note  that the baptism of Jesus  (chapter 3) and the temptations (chapter 4) should be read together as one literary unit or paragraph ( a "coupling" or "particularization") as two items connected.

Remember how important repeated words are..in this case,  "SON":

GENERALIZATION/PARTICULARIZATION

-The segue is direct..."Then after his baptism, Jesus was led by the Spirit  into the desert for temptation by the devil."  (Matt. 4:1)



-In light of that, ask In what other ways do the baptism and temptation connect?
How does baptism prepare for temptation?



NOTE:





The devil's text ,

"IF 
you are the son of God.."

might better be translated
(according to the Greek word used) as:

"SINCE   
you are the son of God.."

What difference might it make?  Is the devil wondering/questioning asking Jesus if he is son of God?  Or is he assuming it; he and Jesus both know that he is...and thus "Since you are the Son of God, what kind of ways can I tempt you to use/abuse that Sonship?"
--
Van Der lann, in "Jesus Our Desert – The Three Temptations") proposes that the three "temptations" Jesus met in Matthew 4 were the same three  that show up  (repackaged, revisited) throughout Jesus' timeline on earth...right up to, and especially including the cross (as in, not avoiding it) .Several examples:

·                     Jesus put God ahead of family ("Who are my brothers and sisters?"  "Whoever loves father and mother more than me cannot be my disciple."-Matthew 12:46-48...in fact, how many ways can you find in that whole chapter  where Jesus re-encounters versions of one of the testations?

·                     When people reported Herod wanted to kill him, he was not concerned (Luke 13)

·                     When people wanted to make him king by force, he walked away  (John 6:15)

·                     When the crowds were hungry, the disciples  wanted Jesus to feed them.  He refused (Feeding of the Multitude)

·                     The "get behind me, Satan" comment to Peter when Peter suggested Jesus should bypass the cross (Matthew 18)

·                     "go ahead and use Your power; the cross is going to hurt" 

 

 The  Van Der Laan video offered lots of help on how the Testations of Jesus are related to/equated to/hyperlinked to the Testations of Israel in Exodus, Numbers. Deuteronomy.  It is no accident that all three testations of Jesus were found in different form in the OT, as well as the Scriptures Jesus used to counter the testations.

Though it is obvious who "The Son (of God)" is in Matthew (Jesus), unless we know the literary/historical background, we miss that in the Old Testament, that phrase is used for Israel/God's people.   (see  Exodus 4:22-23 and especially the way Matt 2:15 quotes Hosea 11:1)

Now we realize that God tested/the devil tempted the first "SON" in a similar way.
Jesus the Son succeeds (in 40 days) in "reversing the curse" that Israel the Son inherited by not passing it (in 40 years).


Jesus is not only (in a sense) the
New Moses,
 but (in a sense) the New Israel
 (for help on that important point, see this  article,
and this).  




VanDer Laan suggested that the heart of Jesus' "success" was consistently  and persistently keeping the "Shema,"   and not caving into a (mis)use of power.  This is the "binder" of the testations: Love God and neighbor.Thus

Q).Who is Jesus in Matthew?

A.) The One who, unlike Israel, passed the wilderness testations by loving God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength....and refusing to give into using "right-handed"  (a la Capon) power.

VanderLaan prefers to translate "tests" instead of "temptations."
You have seen that I have coined the word "testations"  It would seen that in Scripture that God tests, and the devil tempts...and sometimes both are going on simultaneously. 


HERE are some helpful questions you might think about if you want to pursue this topic::

·                     1)What were the three temptations of Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11, Compare any ways Mark's account,  Mark 1:12-13  and  Luke's account, Luke 4:1-13 differ, and suggest any reasons why.

·                     2)How does Nouewen summarize the three temptations(1=to be relevant  2=to be spectacular 3=to rule over). H?  How do you (use your own words)?

·                     3)How do the three temptations connect to the historical and literary world of the Hebrew ("Old')Testament?

·                     4)How do the three temptations connect to the contemporary world of Jesus and the disciples?

·                     5)List and discuss several possible ways that versions of the three temptations reoccur and are revisited  throughout Jesus' life in Matthew's gospel?  (How is Jesus tested/tempted elswhere in Matthew, and how are the temptations versions of a similar one (two, or three) that he faced in the original temptation passage?  (see Kraybill, p. 34)

·                     6)What are the three core temptations you face, and how have they revisited you  throughout your timeline?  How would you categorize them using Nouwen's categories?  Using the three categories of the "Shema"  (heart/mind/might) a la  Vander Laan'?  Using Kraybill's three categories (1=Economic 2=Religious  3=Political; see chapters 1-4 of "Upside Down Kingdom")

·                     7)What have you learned about passing these tests/resiisting these temptations?

·                     8)What does all of this  (the Matt 4 Scripture, and testing/tempting) have to do with the Kingdom?

·                     9)Discuss how the passages that deal with Jesus not being immune to temptation( Hebrews 2:17-18, Hebrews 4:14-16,  and Hebrews 5:7-9) affect your views of  "Who is Jesus?" and of Jesus' divinity and humanity.

"I Led You Like a Bride"

It's one thing to see communion as a wedding, but
did you ever think of the Ten Commandments as a wedding?
Answer that question  (One word "Yes" or "No" is fine) as question C.  You can post below in the comments section (If you don't have one of the indicated accounts, just choose "anonymous" (but be sure to post your  first or last name  or initials in the answer).  You can also back on Moodle if you have trouble

Want to know more? 
You might want to watch this, it's also by Ray Van Der Laan, and depending on your teacher, you may see it in your cohort Bible class (It's really engaging, and definitely a student favorite).. He takes you to the top of the mountain to re-enact the giving of the Ten Commandments, and makes the case that they too are a wedding!

Definitely not required to watch..just wanted to tip you off to the thesis.

picture two won

grades at FPU

grades at fpu

The answer is a C grade.

From FPU handbook:

A=Superior. The student has demonstrated a quality of work and accomplishment far beyond the formal requirements and shown originality of thought and mastery of material.

B=Above Average.

The student’s achievement exceeds the usual accomplishment, showing a clear

indication of initiative and grasp of subject.

C=Average. The student has met the formal requirements and has demonstrated good comprehension of the subject and reasonable ability to handle ideas.

D=Below Average. The student’s accomplishment leaves much to be desired.Minimum requirements have been met but were inadequate.

the one thing

The answer:



 the name (and often) picture of the pastor or priest is in almost every real church ad, but is never in ads students make after reading what the Bible says about church.






That should be a (probably literal) mike-drop moment!

Jeremy Myers:

"there is not a single passage in Scripture which commands or even provides an example of the current popular pattern of gathering in a building on a certain day of the week to listen to one person stand up and talk about the Bible for thirty or forty minutes.
It is just not there."  -Jeremy Myers, full article link

Now, before reading any further, guess how many times the word "pastor" shows up in the whole Bible..  That is your question B: guess how many times the word "pastor" shows up in the whole Bible..
Make a note of your answer, then  scroll down quite a bit to see the answer to question B, and to see question C.

read below.














The  word "pastor" shows up a total of ZERO times in the whole Bible.

Huh?

The plural version, "pastors" shows up only once, as pastors are mentioned, in passing, in the Ephesians text you read for the church assignment.  Note "pastors" is mentioned only in the context of other "leaders": apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers:

  Ephesians 4: 11-13 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,  until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.

All American pastors know that  the Bible knows nothing of a weekly meeting where a pastor leads the service, is usually the main one speaking, and  preaches a sermon, but we are all afraid to admit it.

You know it, because you just did the research yourself.

The pastor is nowhere commanded in the Bible to be the main speaker in a church meeting, or to preach a sermon.  Remember in the Corinthians scripture you read that every time the church gathers "one person has a song, one has a tongue, one has a revelation."  It never seemed to occur to them that one person was up front (there was no "up front"), and be the only one speaking.  Everyone got to share..Wiki-style, open-source style.  Can you imagine if you "interrupted" the sermon at church this weekend?  Has that every happened?  It was just normative church in the Bible days.

SOOO..question  C for your Moodle forum:
  question C:

Why do you think  this shift  (from the Bible days where pastors were only a small part of the leadership to our day...at least here in the West...pastors and priests and sermons seem to be very central to church) has happened, and what might it mean?

Christus Victor in the Matrix

  Read this and watch the movie excerpts, and respond to the questions at bottom  of page  (in red) by answering them back on Moodle.

Be sure your answers show you read and watched, and didn't just use posts by other students.

Enjoy.

--

Even if you have never seen the Matrix films before, it is an adventure to watch Jesus/Bible connections.  Even people who who have seen the main (first) film in the trilogy, the idea that the Jesus story is there at all, is sometimes new news.

On one level, the story is about a group of people who realize the world is fake, a computer-generated simulation called the Matrix, and they have escaped it, and help others to escape to Zion (Bible language for heavenly

city).   Their leader is Neo, who has unique abilities to save them.  Besides the clue that Neo dies and resurrects, there are many other hints that it can also be a Christian allegory.

It seems clear, though, that Neo (Keanu Reeves) is a Christ figure.

And that he...and the others...all represent one main person in the Jesus/Bible story, but also two or more characters:

• The name Neo  means "New," is an anagram  (rearrange the letters) for "One" (Messiah is "The One" in Hebrew) and "Eon" (Greek word in Bible for Kingdom Age").  Neo is also known as Thomas Andserson ("Thomas: is a "doubting Thomas" and "Anderson" literally means "Son of Man, " which is what Jesus calls himself.  So he is Christ, but also a disciple.
• Morpheus is always saying about Neo that "He is The One."  That is exactly what John the Baptist said about Jesus, you'll remember.  Morpheus, in lesser ways, is also a Peter (leader of the disciples) figure.  Sometimes God the Father. Also Lazarus, who Jesus raised. from the dead
• Trinity represents...well, the Holy Trinity, but also at times she is  The Holy Spirit, and sometimes the Marys.
• "Cypher" is the devil (Note; Lu-Cyher) in a way, but also clearly Judas (he betrays Neo for money).

Tons of Jesus and Bible connections throughout the first movie.  Numbers are often symbolic. Note, here above  is the plaque on the wall that Neo walks by.  I bet you know what Bible verse to look up when you see it.

Agent Smith is a devil figure,  Look at his license plate.  You'll know to look up Isaiah 54:16, which says "I, the Lord, have created the smith for the day of destruction.: No accident.

 Watch the trailer:
Here below are some scenes from the first part of the first movie (we watched these in class week 2),
  They may seem confusing if you're new the the movie. That's OK; look for similarities to the Jesus story, particularly how Jesus encounters his call and is baptized. Even look for a temptation/testation.   Think who the characters might represent:

--
Here is the final scene of the first film.  Neo has just died and resurrected.  Then he makes a phone call.   Compare what he says to "The Great Commission" in Matthew 28:18-20.  If you watch carefully you;'ll even see him ascend to the skies as Jesus did.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christus Victor
Here below are some scenes from the end of the third film, ":Matrix Revolutions,"  Here watch for Christus Victor.    Clue: Neo goes to die in enemy territory.
 Watch for lots of crosses (kudos if you find a snake tattoo that turns into a cross).  Fascinating whose voice speaks when Neo dies, and what he says "It is done"  (Jesus said this when he died).  Note that at the same time Neo is dying, in another realm he is duking it out with the devil and demons (This is kind of what the early church taught about Jesus death.  Look for a cross over Neo's head at 1:26 in the first clip:



--

Here's some video on Christian connections.  OPTTIONAL> Watch, and if interested, more parts on YouTube: Here is a link to some resources on The Matrix to pursue the Christian connections.
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After reading the above, watching the excerpts, and looking  at least one of the resources linked:

a)What connections do you see to Jesus, or any Bible stories?
b)How is the movie also a very different than the Bible version of Jesus?
c)Talk about the connections to Jesus' death and Christus Victor you saw.
d)Had you ever known about these connections?  What do you think/feel about all this.
e)The best you can, tell the story of the Matrix in a paragraph.
f)Why do you think so many mainstream films pick up on the Jesus story, and have Christ figures?

Option A: :The Gods Aren't Angry

If you choose this  A option, watch the video, and post your answers to the questions on Moodle.  Your answers should show that you watched the whole video, and that you didn't just use ideas from other students' posts.

"The Gods Aren't Angry"  by Rob Bell. video   

1)Short summary or  review: mention what caught your attention
2)Say something about Abraham and altars
3)What is the "culmination of the ages" and the
"reconciliation of all ages" and how does this make you think of what we've learned about the Kingdom?
4)What is the speaker's view of the atonement (the death of Jesus), and what it was meant to accomplish?
5)What does the speaker suggest is the role of  a ritual?
6) Say something about Jesus and the temple
7)Which of the many stories he told about people  (in the second half of the video, starting with the two girls who cut themselves) did you appreciate most or relate to, and why? 


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