Category Archives: Scripture

Lacking Oil

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This coming Sunday is the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time. Our gospel is the parable of the Ten Virgins. It was not that five slept and five stayed awake: v. 5 says explicitly that they all slept and all had to be awakened by the midnight shout. The problem goes back to the preparations they had made before going to sleep. At the core of the problem is that they lacked oil for their lamps. While the parable itself offers no allegorical identification for the oil, we do know that oil is a rich and multifaceted symbol in both the Old and New Testaments. Its symbolic use carries various meanings and significance in different contexts. Here are some of the key ways in which oil is symbolically used in both the Old and New Testaments: Continue reading →

Parthenos and a locked door

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This coming Sunday is the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time. Our gospel is the parable of the Ten Virgins. “…the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.” (Mt 25:1) As best we can know the scene is part of the procession returning to the bridegroom’s home. This story mentions only two parties, the bridegroom and the ten girls. The precise role of the young women in the ceremonies is not clear but most scholars assume that  Hellenistic-Roman marriage customs also apply in Jewish circles at the time, and thus the young women are servants from the bridegroom’s house, awaiting the return of the bridegroom with his bride. Continue reading →

Weddings

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This coming Sunday is the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time. Our gospel is the parable of the Ten Virgins. The gospel reading begins: “Jesus told his disciples this parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven will be like…’” and then goes on to place the parable in the midst of a first century wedding celebration. Both of Matther’s use of a wedding celebration setting are a part of the overarching message about the Kingdom of Heaven. Continue reading →

The Future and Judgment

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This coming Sunday is the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Lectionary Cycle A. Our gospel is the parable of the Ten Virgins.

The gospel readings for the 29th through 31st Sundays in Lectionary Cycle A all describe a series of confrontations between Jesus and religious authorities of Jerusalem, namely the scribes and Pharisees. The reading for the 31st Sunday ends with Jesus warning the disciples to not become hypocrites like the scribes and Pharisees (Mt 23:12). It would seem like one more verse would have been a capstone to the warning: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites” (v.13) Continue reading →

Humility and Humanity

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This coming Sunday is the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. This has been a series of posts critiquing the scribes and Pharisees and admonishing the disciples to take another path and follow Jesus as the authoritative teacher of the Law. 11 The greatest among you must be your servant.  12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.  Continue reading →

Admonitions

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This coming Sunday is the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. In the previous posts we considered the three critiques of the scribes and Pharisees. At this point the conversation seems fully directed to Jesus’ disciples.

8 As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. 10 Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you must be your servant.  12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. 

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The stringent path

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This coming Sunday is the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. In the previous post we considered the first of the three critiques of the scribes and Pharisees: they teach but they don’t practice what they preach. In this post we move to the second: They burden others while failing to act themselves.

4 They tie up heavy burdens (hard to carry) and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. 

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Critique of the Scribes and Pharisees

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This coming Sunday is the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. In Matthew’s timeline it is (still) Tuesday of Holy Week and Jesus is still in Temple precincts. The audience continues to be the crowds gathered around the man from Galilee, but the conversation will soon pivot to the disciples – in each case a critique and warning. Jesus’ critique of the scribes and Pharisees will have three elements Continue reading →

Setting the scene

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This coming Sunday is the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lectionary Cycle A. For several Sundays we have been in the midst of confrontations between Jesus and the Jerusalem leadership. On the 29th Sunday, we moved into a section of Matthew’s gospel that comprises a series of controversies between Jesus and the religious authorities of Jerusalem.

  • “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” (asked by Pharisees and Herodians: 22:17);
  • “In the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be?” (asked by Sadducees; v. 27);
  • “which commandment in the law is the greatest” (asked by a lawyer; v.34; the core of the Gospel for the 30th Sunday, Year A)

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