Messengers from John the Baptist
John in prison hears about Jesus and asks his disciples if he is the prophesied one. Jesus says to tell him what they see and hear and says he is the one. He says there is no one on earth better than John the Baptist, but everyone in heaven is better than him.
ok, so everyone in heaven is awesome, got it.
"the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force"
Wait what? what does he mean by the kingdom of heaven? It clearly means something different than what I think it means. Who is invading heaven? What is going on here?
Jesus then calls this generation children
I think anyway, honestly, I have had trouble understanding this whole passage. Just the feel of the way it was written, it seems like there is a whole subtext I am missing or something.
Woe to Unrepentant Cities
Jesus complains that the cities he has been working in have not repented.
Come to Me, and I Will Give You Rest
Jesus declared "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children"
Why is it a good thing to hide things from the wise?
Jesus says if you have a large burden come to me and I will give you rest.
I had a conversation about this on reddit about the kingdom of heaven thing.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/ot2ea/matthew_11v12_from_the_days_of_john_the_baptist/
The kingdom of heaven is not referring to a place but rather the rule of a king. Specifically it is referring to God trying to rule over Earth rather than heaven being the place some go when they die. The reason there is violence I guess is because some people don't want to be ruled by God.
Why is John called Elijah? He denies it himself in John 1:21.
ReplyDeleteI also don't like how he condemns whole cities whom reject his teachings. 21-24.
On the plus side, he was pretty dead on in verse about "wise men" rejecting him. I guess he hasn't revealed himself to me. (Not that I am wise or anything).