New Testament Reflection And Analysis

When I was initially given my class schedule, I was not excited for New Testament Literature and Theology. To be honest, an early morning Bible class is not exactly what excites me. Since my father is a Father, and my mother is a children 's ministry director, my upbringing was steeped in biblical teaching. Not that I expected to know everything, however, many of the “Ha, I bet you didn’t know that fact!” facts I was confident my education would 've left me sufficiently prepared. This lead me to dread waking up at 8:30 for a class where I assumed the extent of what I would learn would be small details. However, in a surprising turn of events, I enjoyed this class. The way the lectures were presented was engaging, and the content was intellectually …show more content…
In a rush to write down something, anything, I put the best I could remember from that segment: ‘“Don’t be an ass’ - Professor Birge, 2016.” While this became somewhat of a joke, it was not said without purpose and is the essence of how Christian people should behave with each other. In class, we discussed that this came strongly from the Community Discourse in Matthew. We talked about how people frequently put themselves first, and how this self-focused heart attitude is the opposite how the Kingdom of Heaven will be. One of the main points of Chapter 8 of Simply Jesus is talking about how our hearts will be transformed away from this heart attitude when God makes his kingdom present on Earth. In Simply Jesus by N.T. Wright, the author, states, “When God becomes king, on earth as in heaven, he will provide a cure for hardness of heart… Transformed lives, healed from the inside out, are to be the order of the day when God becomes king.” (Wright 214.4) While we are in the “Now and not yet” of the kingdom, we must recognize how we represent the Kingdom of Heaven to the people around us by not “being an ass,” as when God makes it real on earth our hearts will be transformed into a Christlike …show more content…
As is often the case in the Bible and Aloe Blacc songs, love is the answer. “In love,” writes Wright, “The person who is loving is simultaneously affirming the Otherness of that which is loved and their own deep involvement with that Other” (Wright p. 173) Through love, we validate the “otherness” of the ass. This concept applies to both the undesirable parts of the church, and a person who is being hard to love. In one of my favorite “Birgisms,” “Humility is loving someone even when they 're being a jackass.” If the greatest commandment is to love your neighbor, then in the context of this reference, humility is the greatest