Lecture 23 Notes

The Problem of Evil

I.    Introduction to Dostoevsky
II.   The Importance of Free Will: The Free Will Defense
III.  The Nature of Freedom: The Gospel of Matthew

I.    Introduction to Dostoevsky

• The story is prefaced with a catalogue of evils in the world, especially focused on the suffering of children.  Why does God allow it?

II.   The Importance of Free Will: The Free Will Defense

III.   The Nature of Freedom: The Gospel of Matthew

A.   Introduction to the Gospel

• This Gospel does not purport to be a sophisticated theological treatment.  The theology of the gospel, as well as the portrait of Jesus presented are not what you would get in a good theology class.
  
• Our purpose is to present the gospel as read by Dostoevsky; the producer of "Jesus of Montreal".  Today, we have two objectives:
  

1. To re-familiarize you with important gospel episodes.
   
2. To show the kind of freedom that God gives humanity through the ethical teachings of Jesus.  This is exactly the kind of freedom called into question by the film and the story.
   

• Core Idea: people are free to direct own lives so long as they love.  This is New Law of Love brought by Jesus.  The New Law of gospel supercedes the Old Law of the Old Covenant.  This is a "Supercessionist" reading of the gospel.
  

B.    Important Gospel Episodes as Recounted by Matthew

• The Infancy narratives tell us where Jesus grew up: Nazareth.
  
• We don’t know what Jesus did until the public ministry begins.
  
• John the Baptist is taken by many to be the messiah.  But he says, "but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear"  (Matt. 3:11, KJV)
  
• Satan comes to Jesus in the desert, tempts Jesus three times.
  
• Call of the disciples (Matt. 4:18ff.); including a tax collector (Matt. 10:3).
  
• Teaching the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1-12).
  
• Jesus draws crowds everywhere, including sinners (Matt. 9:10-11).
  
• Jesus is moved with pity: feeds, cures, raises dead (Matt. 9:18ff.).
  
• Matthew depicts time Jesus spends eating, story-telling and talking with disciples.
  
• The triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Matt. 21:5ff.): "the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David" (KJV).
  
• Jesus cleanses the temple (Matt. 21:12); is anointed with oil (Matt. 26:7).
  
• Jesus's run-ins with Pharisees increase in drama as the end nears.
• The Passion, Death and Resurrection.  Jesus is silent before Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate.  There are women at the foot of the cross and at the tomb.  The tomb is given by Joseph of Arimethea, a member of Sandhedrin.
  

C.    The Nature of Freedom: What are We Free From?

• Consider Jesus's encounters with the Pharisees and Saducees:
  

1. Early in gospel, they reproach Jesus because the disciples pluck grain, Jesus cures on the sabbath (Matt. 12:1ff.) and the disciples neglect to wash their hands before eating (Matt. 15:2).
   
2. Later encounters are more tense: they question Jesus about: his authority (Matt. 21:23), paying taxes (Matt. 22:17), the greatest commandment (Matt. 22:36), and whose son is the Christ (Matt. 22:42).  This line of questioning culminates in the great denunciations of chapter 23.

• The Pharisees represent the Old Law.  This is the Law given to the people of Israel by Moses in the Old Covenant.  Keeping the Law maintains people’s relationship with God.
  

1. The most prominent parts of the Old Law are the Ten Commandments.
   
2. But it includes much else--it regulates every aspect of Jewish life.  See Leviticus: "Burnt Offering", "Grain Offering", "Law Concerning Leprosy", "Trespass Offering", "Offering w/ Restitution", "Peace Offering", Rituals after Childbirth, Laws Regulating Conduct of Priests, Laws about Feasts, Property Ownership, and Ritual Washing.  There are also 47 long verses of dietary laws.
   
3. It’s in the name of these laws that Pharisees rebuke Jesus.

• How does Jesus reply?
  

1. Stop Worrying!  "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-30, KJV)
   
2. In response to the charge that Jesus worked on the sabbath by curing, Jesus says: "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27, KJV) and "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?  Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?  Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?  And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matt. 6:25-34, KJV)

• What of the Old Law?  Jesus says the following:
  

1. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. 6:33, KJV)
   
2. "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matt. 6:20-21, KJV)
   
3. "But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak" (Matt. 10:19, KJV)
   
4. "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." (Matt. 21:22, KJV)
   
5. "But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.  But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.  And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.  When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?" (Matt. 22:37-40, KJV)
   
6. "Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." (Matt. 19:21, KJV)

• The New Law brings freedom from rigid, ancient strictures.  Is it good for us?  How many of us can follow it?
  

Note: the movie "Jesus of Montreal" is required watching to accompany "The Grand Inquisitor".