Joey Bocook- Post 2

A. Time Commitment
- 1.5 hours in group, half hour of response
B. Class This Week
- This week I attended a Bible Study at Bella Café sponsored by Brookhaven Wesleyan Church. We studied Matthew 9, when Jesus called Matthew and said, “Come, follow me.” Our question in this story was, “Did Matthew really know what Jesus meant when Jesus said that?” “Did Matthew know Jesus?” The problem that we came too was that some things must be inferred from the writings in the Bible. Pastor Joe explained that the writers of the New Testament might not have understood fully, what happened first hand, but that when they wrote it down they did. This is how their theological framework came about in their writing. We examined, in parallel, the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We found that it was derived from a story of an old lady and three bears and was told to children so that they would stay away from the woods. Fast forward to our time, we have a cute story where the little girl lives happily ever after. The difference between that story and the Gospel is that the Gospel is truth. It is true. No doubt. What we were charged with to do for next week was to re-read Matthew chapter nine and find if there are any indication of time lapses. Because, what if before Jesus called Matthew, he had stayed in Nazareth for an extended period of time, met Matthew and then decided to call him? That is what next week will entail. The group was not very talkative. Six other people attended, including Pastor Joe’s wife. I felt as if I was the only one willing to speak up and share my opinion. But that is okay, because I like to do it.
C. Questions Raised This Week
1. Is it fair to say that, if Matthew decided to drop everything and follow Jesus then he knew exactly what Jesus meant by saying, “Come, follow me?”
2. Is it okay to read between the lines, so to speak, and draw our own conclusions? Or should we stick to learning from just the words on the pages?