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Top Ten Tuesday: Jesus Lays the Smack Down

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Fig Tree (credit)

I haven’t done much updating this time around, but I have stuck with the Bible in 90 Days reading schedule since November.  We just crossed (ha) from the Old Testament to the New Testament over the weekend. And can I just say that Jesus is CRACKING. ME. UP. I know! It sounds so strange on the surface but seriously, Jesus told ‘em like it was and boy howdy, sometimes I think he got pretty frustrated and it’s hilarious to read. Or maybe I’m just an overly sarcastic person and reading it that way. I don’t know, a few ladies in my reading group found one of them funny too so maybe you’ll agree. Read this and you decide.

I’ll say by introduction that in Matthew, we go through Jesus’ lineage, John the Baptist, Jesus’ birth, and His first teachings but it gets really interesting about Chapter 7 when we start seeing Him interact with the Pharisees and Sadducees, as well as his disciples. He doesn’t mince words.

1. He starts out easy on them in Matthew 7:5 "How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." I read that "You hypocrite" more like "You HYPOCRITE!" Can’t you feel his frustration at their hypocrisy? It’s a wonder He didn’t turn them into a pillar of salt that instant.

2. He does something similar in Matthew 22:29 when he says "You are in error because you do not know the Scripture or power of God." I find this funny because the Sadducees He was talking to certainly should have known the Scriptures but were incorrect in many of their beliefs. You know how when someone is lying and is getting everyone to believe them but then the one that knows the truth come in and says so and everyone’s like, "Oh". That’s what this is for me. Total smack-down.

3. Matthew 8:26 This is when Jesus and his disciples are on a boat and it’s about to capsize and Jesus is asleep downstairs. They go get him and his response? "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Basically I read that as "You guys are a bunch of scaredy cats!"

4. In Matthew 12:5 the Pharisees are trying to trap Jesus about doing good on the Sabbath. In the middle of his response, Jesus says, "Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?" I love that "or haven’t you read…" I just imagine a teacher saying, "You would know that if you’d done your homework!"

5. In Mark 7:9 the Pharisees ask why his disciples didn’t wash their hands since it broke tradition of the elders and Jesus response? "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions." Bam! I feel some neck rolling with that "fine way".

6. In Matthew 16, Jesus was trying to talk in code about the Pharisees being like yeast. The disciples do not get it in the least and start discussing how they didn’t have any bread so Jesus responds, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?…How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread?" I can just imagine some eye rolling about here. FUNNY.

7. Matthew 16:23 "Get behind me Satan" Mm-mm. Power!

8. In Matthew 17:17 a demon-possessed boy is brought to Jesus that the disciples could not heal. His response? "You unbelieving and perverse generation…How long shall I put up with you?" I imagine a great big sigh right here.

9. In Matthew 21:19 Jesus is walking by a fig tree and gets aggravated because there is no fruit on it "May you never bear fruit again!" Hmph! Take that, tree! The best part is the tree really does shrivel up and die.

10. This has to be my favorite. In Matthew 15:15 Peter asks Jesus to explain a parable and Jesus’ response is simply, "Are you still so dull?"

OK, maybe it’s my sarcastic sense of humor but, if you read those passages in context I find Jesus to be quite entertaining. You can’t get past "are you still so dull?" without a giggle. If nothing else, I love how he exerts so much truth and power to put them in their place. Then again, that probably means he has to be asking why I’m so dull on the regular.

So what’s your conclusion? Does Jesus hit your funny bone?

Read more Top Ten Tuesday posts at ohAmanda.com

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Date
February 7th, 2012

Author
Amy

Category
spiritual stuff, Top Ten

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8 to “Top Ten Tuesday: Jesus Lays the Smack Down”


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    Katrina says:
    February 7, 2012 at 9:04 am

    Crazy! We read the Bible the same way . . . I keep wondering if I would be one of the ones on the “got it” side or the “duh” side. I’m sad to say that a lot of the time I think that if I were really there, I would be questioning Jesus’ sanity. Many of His claims were just so, CRAZY! But then after the resurrection, hopefully I would have had an AHA! moment. spacer

    Reply
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      Amy says:
      February 7, 2012 at 9:11 am

      Whew, glad there is someone else reading the same way! Yes, I agree, it would be hard not to have an aha moment after the resurrection. Someone in our group just posted how there were dead people other than Jesus that were resurrected. Crazy stuff you can’t just ignore!

      Reply
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    Becky says:
    February 7, 2012 at 9:14 am

    I know I told you this in an email but it is how Pastor Livingston said “In Jesus’ day they couldn’t come to terms with a human being God and today we can’t come to terms with God being in human form.” So it is hard for me not think that Jesus had a sense of humor or rolled his eyes at the disciples or the Pharisees. spacer

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      Amy says:
      February 7, 2012 at 9:18 am

      Loved that quote you shared and glad you shared it here. It IS hard to believe he would roll his eyes and I’m not sure He actually did that. I just think He’s much more animated that how some people interpret it.

      Reply
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    Ally Garner says:
    February 7, 2012 at 11:47 am

    Haha! Can’t stop laughing over #5. I can totally see some neck rolling and an “Oh snap” in the background. I’ll ditto Katrina’s brilliant comment. I shudder to think which side my smarty-pants self would’ve been on during Jesus’ day.

    Also, #8 got me thinking – if Jesus called that generation unbelieving & perverse, what on earth must He say about our generation? I love this post, Amy! We don’t talk or think enough about how blunt Jesus was. He isn’t the fairy tale character so many (including myself) like to make Him out to be.

    Reply
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      Amy says:
      February 7, 2012 at 11:53 am

      Ally, I admit, I picked the version of that story out of Mark versus Matthew just because it was funnier to me. Who knows in what way he actually said them but you’re right, He was no fairy tale character in any case!

      Reply
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    Trina says:
    February 7, 2012 at 5:51 pm

    I loved this! My favorites were #5 and #6. I really like picturing Jesus do the neck roll. Hilarious. And I know he has a sense of humor spacer

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      Amy says:
      February 7, 2012 at 6:05 pm

      6 still cracks me up every time I read it!

      Reply


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