Matthew 13:53-14:36
“♫Oh, What A Beautiful Morning♫”…(click for audio, visit website if you are reading this by email) I hope this sunrise finds you well, and that your day is blessed.
{To all my email subscribers: Please note that due to current technological restraints, the many helpful links I provide are not delivered via email so in order to get the full experience you must visit the site. God Bless!}
Today’s reading recounts Christ’s rejection in his hometown, the death of John the Baptist, Jesus feeding the 5,000, Jesus walking on water and healing many. Here are some humble notes:
John was imprisoned because he rightly pointed out that Herod, who was one part of a tetrarch (a group of four rulers) was involved in a web of incest. Firstly, Herodias was married to her Uncle Phillip, who was the brother of Herod; furthermore, Herod, also her uncle, stole her away from Phillip. John was outraged that a leader of Israel would be involved in such open sin, and confronted him on it. He was promptly imprisoned.
JM notes that Josephus. a famous Jewish Historian, writes that Salome (the daughter of Herodias and Phillip who danced for King Herod and asked for the head of John the Baptist) married yet another son of Herod the Great, weaving an even more tangled web of incest in the family.
In 14:6 “You give them something to eat”, he knew they didn’t have enough food to feed the 5,000. JM notes that He said this so that they would plainly state the obvious (i.e. we don’t have enough food) so that the miracle He was about to perform would be more clear to them.
