The ‘Dust-O-Meter’
That same day Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question: “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name.’ Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children, so his brother married the widow. But the second brother also died, and the third brother married her. This continued with all seven of them. Last of all, the woman also died. So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.” Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. [Matthew 22: 23-29 NLT]
Gospel Puzzler of the Week: Chris Mendez correctly identified Moses and Elijah as the two who appeared to Jesus during His transfiguration. Name the pairs of apostles that shared first names. Submit a ‘comment’ and share your answer.
So, how’s the AGPM reading challenge going? If you aren’t familiar with the challenge, it is rather simple. Read each of the 4 gospels in order and systematically – one per month – for 3 years. If you are on schedule that’s great, keep it up! Maybe consider ramping it up to a gospel chapter per day. There are 89 gospel chapters total. If you read a chapter per day, you’ll end up reading each of the gospels 4 times in a year – 12 times in three years. Remember ‘a chapter a day keeps the devil away’. If you’ve fallen behind in your gospel readings, that’s OK. Pick back up where you left off. Just don’t give it up, shema? Some reading is definitely better than no reading!
Let your gospel readings ‘push’ you into reading other books of the Bible if you aren’t already doing so. Jesus quoted from the TaNaKh (Tuh ‘Knock) frequently. The TNK is an acronym for the Jewish Bible - what we Christians call the Old Testament. The ‘T’ = Torah. The Torah includes the 5 books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy) – and covers the covenant and laws. ‘N’ = Neviim. Neviim is the Hebrew word for ‘prophets’ (Isaiah, Samuel, etc.). ‘K’ = Ketuvim. Ketuvim is Hebrew for ‘writings’ (Psalms, Proverbs, Ruth, Job, etc.). Jesus, as recorded in the gospels, quoted from the TNK frequently. He quoted from Deuteronomy (T), Isaiah (N), and Psalms (K) more than other books. A good example of this is during His temptation. He counters each of Satan’s 3 temptations by quoting from the Book of Deuteronomy. When you come across a footnote in your gospel readings, look to see what TNK scripture Jesus is quoting and turn to it for context.
So what’s a Dust-O-Meter you may be asking? There was an old saying in 1st century Israel, “ Let your house be a meeting place for the rabbis, and cover yourself in the dust of their feet, and drink in their words thirstily.” Religious Jews of Jesus’ day valued study of the TNK. Gifted teachers (rabbis) would travel from town to town with their disciples and teach. Some believe the phrase ‘cover yourself in the dust of their feet’ refers to the practice of disciples following so closely behind their rabbi as they walked from town to town – so as not to miss anything he said or did - that they literally became covered in the dust kicked up from his sandals. The ‘Dust-O-Meter’ is an artistic drawing of a semi-circle shaped meter with the far left side being ‘clean’ and the far right being ‘covered in dust’. I hang it up in my senior high class every so often and ask my students where they are on the meter in their walk with Rabbi Jesus. The keys to staying ‘dusty’ include gospel & other Bible readings, prayer, church/Sunday school/youth group meeting attendance, and service.
I pray that each of you is staying as ‘dusty’ as possible as you follow closely behind the Rabbi, this and every week.
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