The other day I was on a website that had a brightly colored blinking banner that said something like "YOU'RE OUR 1,000,000 VISITOR, CLICK ON THIS TO COLLECT YOUR SWEET PRIZE." I of course, being the realist that I am, immediately clicked on the link and followed all of the directions to receive this prize. I'm not sure what happened - but for some reason I couldn't find out how to collect my prize. So I spend the next 5 hours on hold with customer service asking for money, and have sent at least 5 emails... it seems like more of a long shot now but I have high hopes.
These types of scams are nothing new, even before the Internet was a thing I can remember my parents and grandparents getting mail saying that they were contenders for $10,000. When we see things like this we know it's too good to be true; that there must be some catch. However, I know way to many Christians who read the Bible and believe things that may seem a little to good be true, without reading any of the fine print. "Give me all of the blessings with none of the consequences please!" Let me give you an example of two parallel verses from the gospels.
Matthew 7: 7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Luke 11: 9"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
11"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
When you look at these two verses, which both give an account of a particular teaching of Jesus, you notice that one says that God will give goods gifts, while the other says that He will give the Holy Spirit. Did one of these men write it down wrong? No. They both say the same thing, just differently. If Luke says the Holy Spirit, and Matthew says good gifts, isn't it possible that the good gifts Matthew mentions are in fact the gifts of the Holy Spirit? I think they are. Some people like to think the Matthew version gives them license to ask for nice things, I don't. Don't get me wrong, God does want to and has blessed us, me in particular - this doesn't mean I should be praying for a nicer house or golf clubs.
Whether or not you disagree with me about this particular example is not the point; the point is that we shouldn't just be reading (or listening to) the Bible, we should be studying, and actually trying to understand it's truth.
Maybe if we all really studied the Word of God, we could live our lives without the disspointment that comes when we feel like God has failed us. After all haven't we read somewhere that God can't fail?
...and BOOM goes Prosperity Gospel.
ReplyDeleteI obviously agree with your overarching message here and perhaps even with your interpretation of the Mathean Text (though I would go about it differently). Furthermore you pointed out that whether or not we agree with your particular example is ultimately besides the point... and thats true.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, if you will allow me I want to take issue with your methodology here. The Synoptic Authors share much of the same source material with each other as well as a few of the same Jesus Narratives with John. However, each of these authors presents a unique and different depiction of Christ and His teachings. These differences are sometimes as small as Luke taking a saying of Jesus found in Mark and Mathew and changing a few words so that it refers to the poor or socially outcast or sometimes as large as John having Christ explicitly deny that he would ever ask God to save him from the Crucifixion (12:27) (this in contrast to the Christ's Agony in Gethsemane found in the synoptics).
Here is my point, each of these authors are using the Jesus narratives to deliver their own unique message apart from the others. The early church actually had a synthesized account of the four gospels called the diatessaron, but rejected it as they believed the four unique voices and perspectives presented in the Gospels were important to maintain. For this reason I don't think its instructive to interpret one Gospel through the lens of another as by doing so we forfeit the unique message of the first interpreted author. Just like if you and I both tell the same story in our respective blogs it would not be useful to interpret my blog by reading your use of the story and assuming I am making the same point with it.
Any thoughts?
Ian