Welcome back to the Bible blog series. There were 300 years between Malachai and Matthew, so I’ve enjoyed a short break from posting. However, as I have finished Revelation (the last book of the Bible), I thought I’d better get cracking again!

So welcome to Matthew, the first of the four books which write about Jesus’ life. Initially thought to be the first Gospel written, which is why it comes first in the New Testament, but now it is more commonly believed that the author of Matthew had a copy of Mark in front of them as they were writing, which is why there is so much overlap.

I have been know, on occasion, to say “I don’t like Jesus’ tone”, especially in John. But in this series, I have been reading the ESV version of the Bible, because that was the one already available on my Kindle. The ESV doesn’t give Jesus a particualrly warm tone either, especially not in Matthew’s Gospel.

That being said, I did notice lots of mentions of children and families throughout. This is a theme I hadn’t particularly noticed before. That might make sense given that Matthew begins with a great big long genealogy going from Abraham all the way down to Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Counting up, I can see 25 times when families, family relationships or children are mentioned. Matthew is the family focused gospel.

When I used to do some teaching for people who were offering for ministry, I did a session in the Bible. At the end, I reminded them that the Bible is the book that we read, and the book that reads us. What I mean by that is it speaks into and impacts upon our lives as we live them. It’s a two way thing. I experienced this when coming towards the end of Matthew’s Gospel this time.

Back in April, I did jury service. I was assigned to a case and as we came to the end of the evidence, I went home and read the next bit of the Bible (I have been working through it from cover to cover, if you remember). This day happened to be Jesus’ crucifixion, where it mentions spitting, smacking and Jesus dying, where he suffocated on the cross. The case I was on involved details of smacking, spitting and choking. In a time when I was hearing about something so horrible, it was powerful, and sad, to come home and read about the same things happening to Jesus, just by picking up the Bible and continuing on from the night before.

My favourite verse was exceptionally hard to choose. At one point, I got it down to my top 14 verses! So how to choose when so many stories and quotes and moments in this Godpel mean such a lot to me? Verses that speak to me now, or lessons that I learned long ago? Things that make me laugh because they are so human, or passages that speak so powerfully of the divine? The tentative beginning of this story, or the glorious end?

Eventually, I’ve settled on Matthew 6.34: “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Although my own battle with anxiety is, thankfully, more of a steady conversation rather than a full blown war nowadays, this verse continues to blow gently around my heart and soul. It is the birds mentioned earlier on in this passage that are on my ordination stole. ‘Look at the birds! They don’t worry, neither should you’.

Sleep: I fell asleep twice reading Matthew! Aidan at least 4 times.

With thanks to Elsemargriet on Pixabay for the photo.