DULL?
by Dale on Feb.19, 2010, under Gospel
.Matthew.15.16.
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New International Version (©1984)
“Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them.
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New Living Translation (©2007)
“Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked.
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The Latest EbenDale Translation (©2010)
“You just don’t get it, do you?” Jesus asked.
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Ever tell a joke and nobody laughs?
Give instructions and people just stare at you like zombies?
Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples asks the 64 thousand dollar question, “Hey, JC. What are you talking about?”
People who knew Jesus best weren’t making the connection.
He told them a story…and they didn’t get it. He had to explain it to them….
Here we are, ~2000 years later and assume we know everything… we could be more careful with our assumptions.
If we have a religious tradition that makes only reverent and honorable interpretations of what Jesus said, but doesn’t teach what Jesus taught, with the same verve as to make the same kind of challenges to our traditions…are we really getting it? Really?
I’m not inspired much by conspiracy theories, so WHAT IF…
→ …the core message of Jesus has been unintentionally misunderstood? …or even intentionally distorted?
→ …only part of the message of Jesus has been passed along all these years while other parts have been ignored?
It wouldn’t be the first time someone thought they understood something only to discover they really didn’t, really!
Have you really understood what Jesus did that made people mad enough to have him, not just killed or snuffed-out, but publicly crucified?
What if the core message of Jesus was not as plainly stated as it seems? We already know that Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples asked for further explanation…. When did we get so close that now we can think we understand it all?
I’ve begun working on a series of Bible Studies for Sunday mornings that ask the supra-thinkable question:
Is there possibly more to what
Jesus said than what we’ve
always thought he was saying?
Some theologians have gone as far as to say there is a message within the message…a “secret” message that could really change the way we think about Jesus, the Church…and especially the Kingdom of God. Really!
I pursued what initially appears to have been a similar course of study more than twenty years ago called “A Third Look” as a way of seeing the gospel through the eyes of oppressed, third-world Liberation Theology and want to return to a similar kind of re:exploration of Jesus’ Gospel for our 21st century sensitivities.
