Something Cool I learned Today

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. It has been a while (or like 6 months) since I have posted on here. Obviously nobody is checking this on a daily basis but I still feel as though I slacked off. I’ll work harder to try and get one of these in a week. Seems doable. Okay, onwards and upwards…

So this morning (and yes, it is still morning…actually much earlier than I’d prefer to be up) I was reading through Matthew. I have some “favorite” books of The Bible (not sure if that is kosher or not but it is truthful) and Luke would be my favorite Gospel and Acts my favorite book overall but Matthew is picking up steam. The main reason for this is The Beatitudes. The 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters of Matthew are probably the most pertinent consecutive run of 3 chapters in all of The Bible for people who are already followers of The Way. So if you have already jumped aboard the JC Express, these chapters really help us set our sights on some pattern of behavior that should demarcate the boundaries of how we should be living. So obviously I am going to write something cool about these chapters, right?

Nope. What actually struck me today was something I read just before you get to those chapters. It comes from Matthew 4.6. Matthew 4 is the chapter describing Satan’s efforts to tempt Jesus to make a decision, by playing to his human nature. Jesus is 100% human (and 100% divine), so he had emotions/pains/thoughts/struggles too, so when Satan tries to manipulate him after 40 days and nights of fasting, it would be forgivable if he were to have slipped up (in my eyes) but, of course, he doesn’t.

The first temptation was to turn rocks to bread and since JC was hungry, it makes sense to play into those pains if you are Satan. That doesn’t work though. So Satan moves to plan b, trying to get Jesus to “test” his Dad by jumping off the highest point of the temple and having angels save him. Satan says, “If you are the Son of God throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” (Which is a Psalm, 91.11-12)

So I was familiar with all of that but here is what I learned today: the Greek verb for  ”it is written” is gegraptai which is in the perfect tense. Now I am not sure how many of you remember your middle school lesson on verb tenses but the perfect tense is on that is both an action that occurred in the past but is continuing in the present. So when we read ”it is written” (which occurs throughout The Bible) we need to realize it is saying “it has been written and it still stands written;” it applies as much now as it did then. It is continuous.

That is a major point. Sometimes I think we, as Christians, like to say, “Oh that applied to back then, when it was written” to dodge some of the implications it has for us now. Now I am not saying we need to move closer to being Messianic Jews but I am saying that the points being made then still mean something now. And you know what the craziest part of all of this is, it wasn’t Jesus who used gegraptai in this instance, it was Satan. Which mean even he knows that The Word is still living and dynamic and consistent and as important as it was when it was first breathed into being.

I wonder how many of us take The Word as seriously as Satan does. I know I have to catch up. And if we aren’t going to take it as seriously as our adversary does, well, I can see why non-Christians don’t think much of it either.

With Agape [αγάπη]!

PS- For those interested here is a link to every time gegraptai is used in The Scriptures: http://concordance.biblos.com/gegraptai.htm (it will open a new window)

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