Chapter 19 begins with a teaching about divorce following a question posed by the Pharisees. Where as the laws and their interpretations allowed for it Jesus called for his followers to a higher understanding based on the story of creation and Adam and Eve becoming one not to be separated. And the disciples raise an age old question about is it better to not marry in the first place. Paul will raise that issue in his letters also and we will read those next month.
Then we have a marvelous story of one who almost became a disciple but just couldn't do it. In the story Jesus lifts up only certain ones of the ten commandments as rules to follow. Did you notice any patterns on the ones he recited? He also added the second half of what we know as the great commandment about loving our neighbors.And then Jesus posed the toughest challenge to him to go and sell all he possessed and give the money to the poor and come and follow. And he just couldn't do it. Jesus points out how difficult it will be for the rich to get into the kingdom of heaven, why it's light squeezing a camel through the eye of a needle. Of course the disciples exclaim that's impossible but Jesus responds with another quotable quote, "all things are possible for God."
The chapter ends with a familiar notion of the kingdom and how it is a role reversal from the way things are in this world. Just as Jesus had pointed out that the littlest child was the greatest in the kingdom, here he affirms that the first will be last and the last will be first.
In chapter 20 we find a parable that many find difficult not in understanding but accepting. The workers are all paid the same whether they were first or last whether they worked all day or just the last hour. Jesus affirms that they are all given the same in the end. Might this suggest that we all get to heaven whether we have been workers in the faith for decades or make a deathbed conversion? So if you are working hard in your faith journey hoping to get a better mansion in heaven, you will presumably be among the least and last. So work hard on the faith journey just for the sake of the journey not any reward you expect will come to you, live your faith for the living of it.
Then for a second time Jesus predicts his coming death. And then we read about the mother of James and John asking for a favor of Jesus. Elsewhere we will read that it was the brothers who ask, but here Jesus hears it from Mom. Note in the dialogue, Jesus responds to the sons and they actually reply not the mother. The request is for her boys to get to be number 1 and 2 in the kingdom. They want to be the greatest. Now as I watch the scoreboard as they got to go with Jesus up on the mountain of the transformation, they are probably 2 and 3 and what they really want is to edge out Peter! At any rate when the others hear about the request they become angry and Jesus uses it as a teachable moment about the first being last and the ones wanting to be great need to be the servants of all.
This chapter and section ends with a final healing story of two blind men who were crying out for help. Jesus gives them sight. Might it signal that through his teaching ministry Jesus was helping the disciples to see in a new light the way of the kingdom of heaven? They now are ready to enter Jerusalem and the final section of the gospel.
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