Tag: Matthew

“Getting” The Begetting

Leave a comment

As part of one of my New Year’s Resolutions, I’ve begun reading through the New Testament. The other day I discovered something about the genealogy of Jesus which I thought was rather interesting. Matthew’s Gospel begins thus:

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, … and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam,  …Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, … Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

To our modern minds, this list seems rather dull, but to a First Century Jew it is tremendously exciting and important. If you want to know the man, you learn about his family. Anyway, Matthew’s list is about begetting! How can that not be exciting?! 😉

Read more

Sunday Lectionary: Grapes of wrath

Leave a comment

Sorry it’s a bit late this week – I had two big posts that I wanted to write at the weekend and I kinda ran out of time… :-/

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: October 2nd, 2011

Last week we heard Jesus’ parable of the two sons and the vineyard. The Readings this week also focus around the image of the vineyard…

The bold refrain of the psalm this week is “The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel”. In our First Reading this image of the vineyard is used to describe how God gave Israel every possible blessing, yet all these graces were scorned. For this, Israel will have to pay the price. Yet, in our Gospel we hear how, through the rejection of Christ, the Gentiles come to have a share in God’s Kingdom.

For this week’s Readings I would suggest reading the Psalm first since it clearly establishes the metaphor of the vineyard and explains Israel’s exodus in those terms. I would then move on to the First Reading to hear how this metaphor is also used to describe God’s coming judgement. Next, I would read the Gospel as it shows how Jesus uses this familiar image to predicts His own death. I would optionally conclude with the Second Reading.

Read more