Daily Bible Reading: Psalms 120-123 and Matthew 26

Psalm 120 – “I took my troubles to the Lord; I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer. Rescue me, O Lord, from liars and from all deceitful people” (120:1-2). David speaks of the people around him as people who hate peace. Just imagine what it would be like to be a ruler in these days with attacks coming from all sides and having to deal with them.

“I am tired of living among people who hate peace. I search for peace; but when I speak of peace, they want war” (120:6-7).

Psalm 121 – Famous words: “I look up to the mountains – does my help come from there? My help will come from the Lord who made heaven and earth” (121:1-2). The Lord is our protection and our refuge.

“The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night. The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life” (121:6-7).

Psalm 122 – “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’ And now here we are, standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem” (122:1-2). Jerusalem – a city restored and harmonious, a city where all the Jewish tribes come to give thanks and where the king sits to judge his people.

“May all who love this city prosper. O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces” (122:6-7)

Psalm 123 – “I lift my eyes to you, O God, enthroned in heaven” (123:1). We look up to the heavens to encounter the Lord. We beg for his mercy so that we may be comforted when we have been treated ill by others.

It is a little difficult to see ourselves in the roles mentioned in this psalm – “servants” with their eyes on their “master” or “slave girl[s]” watching their mistress, but we all have people we look to “to see us” and “empathize” with us.

Matthew 26 - Jesus predicts that he will be handed over in two days to be crucified. Jewish leaders consult about how to arrest and destroy him.  Meanwhile in Bethany, Jesus is staying with Simon the leper and a woman pours expensive ointment on him.  The disciples scold her for waste, but Jesus defends her. “The poor you will always have with you; but you will not always have me” (26:11).

Judas betrays him to the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver. Jesus and his disciples prepare to celebrate the Passover.  At dinner, Jesus tells them one of them will betray him and they are all disturbed. Judas even dares to deny it is he.

The last supper (26:26-46) is thought to have been held on a Thursday.  Seders were held on Friday evening, but Jesus perhaps knew he would be taken on Friday.  Essenes followed a solar calendar and always celebrated Passover on a Tuesday night. “From now on . . .I shall not drink wine until the day I drink the new wine with you in the Kingdom of my Father” (26:29).

Then they go to the Mount of Olives where Jesus predicts they will all “run away and leave me” (26:31). Peter assures Jesus “I will never leave you, even though all the rest do!” (26:33)  Oh, Peter, you are so like me – so sure of yourself, so wanting to be the one loyal one, the one dependable one – but you (and I) are so like the rest – so unpredictable.

Jesus goes off to pray and be alone with God. “Grief and anguish came over him, and he said to them, ‘The sorrow in my heart is so great that it almost crushes me. Stay here and keep watch with me” (26:37-38). I think we can all of us relate to this moment. We have all been “crushed” with sorrow in our lives. How comforting it is to know that the great God I love KNOWS my experience.  Jesus asks his friends to “keep watch” with him, but of course, for all their proclamations of love and loyalty, they go off and go to sleep while he is in the deepest pit of misery. This is his agony in the garden.  He prays three times while his disciples—Peter, James and John—sleep

Lord, that you should sorrow on my account is painful to me even now.  Forgive me for all the times I have denied you or slept when your Spirit called to me.

Daily Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 11 and Matthew 26:47-75

Deuteronomy 11 – The people must remember that these memories are theirs - the knowledge of the Lord’s “discipline” (Schocken 11:2 – what he did to the sons of Reuben during the rebellion of Korah) is theirs, not their children’s). I will add more about this rebellion, which for early Quakers, especially George Fox, had an importance that many do not understand.  So this is the challenge to the Jewish people is how to pass down the memory of what happened in the exodus and the devotion to the covenant that grew out of that.

From age to age, the love of the Lord’s precepts must be passed from parent to child, from one generation to another  (11:18-21). How can this be done?  The author suggests that they “take these words of [Moses] into [their] heart and soul.  Bind them on [their] wrist as a sign . . .”etc (11:18).

The living touch you cannot give to your children – alas, though it is our greatest treasure; but the rudiments and the example we can give by the depth of devotion we show.  We can pass along the memory passed down to us, the memory of men and women without number who did find their lives in the Lord. I recently read another writer who said this even better. God has no grandchildren; I read it in Richard Rohr, but I think the sentence has been out there for a while. I don’t know who first said it.

It is interesting to compare the passages here to the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31.  The depth of knowledge alluded to here is not really different from what is described there.  Both are talking about a knowledge that is “written on the heart;” the circumcision is meant to be a circumcision of the heart.  But the outward signs adopted for these inward realities (the outward circumcision, the outward tefillim and tablets, come over time to supplant the inward devotion that Moses is encouraging here.  So is the new covenant so new and different? Or is really—like most of the prophetic calls—mostly a cry from the heart to return to the reality intended from the beginning.

Moses sets before the people “a blessing and a curse,” a blessing if they obey and a curse if they do not.  The blessing is to be pronounced on Mt. Gerizim and the curse of Mt. Ebal, both in Samaria—there was a deep ravine between these mountains.  They “frame the important political and cultic center of Shechem (today Nablus).”

Matthew 26:47-75 - Judas arrives with a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests.  He kisses Jesus (49), and someone steps forward, laying hands on Jesus to arrest him.  One of Jesus’ disciples draws a sword and cuts off the man’s ear.  Jesus scolds him, saying “Put your sword back. . .for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”  Then he says he could escape through the Father’s power, but “then how would the scriptures be fulfilled which say that it must come to pass in this way?”(54).

·      Is this an absolute rule on use of the sword for self-defense, or is it not more complex than that.  Jesus seems to be renouncing violence to permit his own destiny to be fulfilled, not making a rule for everyone.  Twice here Jesus refers people (first his disciple, then the people around them) to the writings of the prophets, to their fulfillment (54 and 56).

He is taken to Caiaphas (high priest) where many leaders are assembled to try him (even though it is night).  Peter follows. Two witnesses come forward to recount some of Jesus’ words—that he said he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. Caiaphas directly asks him if he is the messiah, but unlike the response he gives in Mark, Jesus gives an indirect response (64)

·      There are aspects of the procedure here, which run against the rules followed by Jewish law—trial on a feast day, a night session, a verdict in the same session as when testimony is heard; but we’re not sure these rules were in force at this time.  Or the author could be combining elements of several sessions.

·      Also see Jer 7:14 where that prophet has God threaten destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and reminds them how He destroyed the sanctuary at Shiloh. In Jer 26:1-7, these words are repeated and it is clear they think Jeremiah is deserving of death for having said them.

They mock and slap Jesus (68).  Then we turn to Peter, who does just what Jesus predicted he would and denies his friend three times.

Daily Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 10 and Matthew 26:26-46

Deuteronomy 10 –Moses recounts how God told him to bring two new stone tablets and an ark of wood to place them in.  Aaron dies in Moserah and his son Eleazar succeeds him.  The tribe of Levi is set aside to carry the ark, to stand in God’s presence and serve him.  They give up their share of the inheritance of land (10:12-13). Moses passed forty days on the mountain doing all this, convincing the Lord not to destroy them.

So now, what does the Lord ask of His people in return for all He has done? Only this: to fear Him, to follow all His ways “exactly,” to love Him, to serve Him with all their hearts and souls, to keep the commandments and laws He has given them.  Moses encourages his people to circumcise their hearts [the Schocken editors say this reads “foreskin of your hearts” —the thick part of your hearts]. We need to circumcise the parts of us least amenable to obedience. And then Moses speaks of the character of this God: “He “has no favorites, accepts no bribes; [He] executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him.  So you too must. . .” (10:18-19).  The great love and reverence Moses has for God comes through in all his words.  He calls us to be just and merciful in response to the love and mercy shown to us by God. 

Matthew 26:26-46 - The last supper (26:26-46) is thought to have been held on a Thursday.  Seders were held on Friday evening, but Jesus perhaps knew he would be taken on Friday.  Essenes followed a solar calendar and always celebrated Passover on a Tuesday night. “From now on. . .I shall not drink wine until the day I drink the new wine with you in the Kingdom of my Father” (26:29).

Then they go to the Mount of Olives where Jesus predicts they will all “run away and leave me” (26:31). Peter assures Jesus “I will never leave you, even though all the rest do!” (26:33)  Oh, Peter, you are so like me – so sure of yourself, so wanting to be the one loyal one, the one dependable one – but you (and I) are so like the rest – so unpredictable. Jesus goes off to pray and be alone with God. “Grief and anguish came over him, and he said to them, ‘The sorrow in my heart is so great that it almost crushes me. Stay here and keep watch with me.’” (26:37-38). I think we can all of us relate to this moment. We have all been “crushed” with sorrow in our lives. How comforting it is to know that the great God I love KNOWS my experience.  Jesus asks his friends to “keep watch” with him, but of course, for all their proclamations of love and loyalty, they go off and go to sleep while he is in the deepest pit of misery. This is his agony in the garden.  He prays three times while his disciples—Peter, James and John—sleep.

Lord, that you should sorrow on my account is painful to me even now.  Forgive me for all the times I have denied you or slept when your Spirit called to me and I was asleep.