St. Matthew, Chapter 21, verse:19c; The Tree of Nothing withers.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Jesus curses a fig tree) Part 4. 

It is amazing to see the truth that is in Christ Jesus.  He is man incarnate.  He was born of the flesh of Mary.  He is descended from heaven and brought forth from the love of God the Father, first born of all the living.  Yet in his state of union with the Father and common among men he feels hunger.  He fills pain and thirst, love and passion, mercy and forgiveness.  He is Lord and Savior of all mankind. 

He comes upon a tree that has no purpose.  It does not bear fruit.  It does not have seeds that bear fruit.  It only has leaves.  What purpose does it serve man or God?  Christ sees this tree, without compassion, curses it that the tree will not have fruit now or forever.  And this is our sign:  And immediately the fig tree withered up. 

What would we do if Christ told us that we would not bear fruit henceforth and forever?  Would we wither up and die?  Would we cease to exist?  Thankfully, Christ values us a more than the tree.  Thankfully, we are that which he loves that the father created.  Thankfully, we are that which he sees as good in mankind as well as the evil.  Thankfully, we will not be judged as one.  Thankfully, we are that which his passion is so great for us that he gave up that which he was in order to save that which he loves in us from damnation.

The tree of nothing withered up.  For many years mankind withered and died due to the transgression of one.  Yet through the passion of one we are saved.  Through the love of one we are transformed.  And through the mercy and forgiveness of one we are born again into the spirit that was ours from the beginning.  We are given a new life.  We are brought back to life.  We are infused with the spirit of the Advocate, for those who seek to know.  We are brought out of the darkness into the light and taken to our home.

Thank you Christ Jesus for loving us.  Thank you God our Father for forgiving us.  Thank you Christ Jesus for your mercy and your compassion.  Thank you God our Father for the spirit that you have given us.  Thanks be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage nd then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ .   The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in.

St Matthew Chapter 1, Joseph's Dilemma and the Virgin birth of Christ.

In St Matthew Chaper 1 there are 4 paragraphs.  They are:  The Genealogy of Christ, Abraham to David; David to the Babylonian captivity; Babylonian captivity to Joseph; and the Virgin Birth. 

St. MATTHEW, one of the twelve Apostles, is the author of the first Gospel. He was
the son of Alpheus and was called to be an Apostle while sitting in the tax-collector's place at Capharnaum. Before his conversion he was a publican, i.e., a tax-collector by profession. He is to be identified with the "Levi " of Mark and Luke. Christ called him to become a disciple, and later an Apostle. After the Holy Spirit had come down upon the Apostles on Pentecost, MATTHEW preached the Gospel in Judea. He wrote his Gospel to prove to his readers that Christ was the Messias foretold by God In the Old Testament.

His apostolic activity was at first restricted to the communities of Palestine. His Gospel was written to fill a sorely felt want for his fellow-countrymen. For believers it served as a token of his regard and as an encouragement in the trial to come, especially the danger of falling back to Judaism. For the unbelievers it was designed to convince them that the Messias had come in the Person of Jesus, our Lord, in whom all the promises of the messianic kingdom embracing all people had been fulfilled in a spiritual rather than in a carnal way: "My kingdom is not of this world." His Gospel, then, answered, the question put by the disciples of St. JOHN the Baptist, "Art thou he who is to come, or shall we look for another?"

I needed to include some reference for St Matthew because it will come to bear in later chapters and in the other gospels. 


In this first chapter what grabs me is, after the long display of Christ's genealogy the next paragraph begins with: " Now the origin of Christ was in this wise."  It is kind of a funny way of saying how Christ began.  Mary was found to be with child before she and Joseph had come together.  I think of some of the racy shows on TV today, Jerry Springer, and Maury, where women come on the show and they are pregnant or have had children by other men.  How there husbands discover this fact and the hurt and pain that they feel.  I can almost imagine how Joseph felt in that, with all the joy and expectation of his marriage to Mary, to discover that she is with child, and to hear that she declares that she has not been with another man , but this is the handywork of God.  Every jewish female child and woman knew that the Messiah was coming and that he had to be born of woman. 


Despite all this Joseph was a just man.  How far have we come from the justice of his day.  Joseph did not want to see Mary taken by the angry crowds and stoned to death.  He loved her and therefore wanted to hide her from the law of the crowds and the angry mob that would want to stone her.  His heart must have been deeply hurt and his anguish over this matter concerned him greatly.  So he did not wish to lash out in anger and to strike back in hurt.  How stark is the disparity in their time from ours today.  That a man would not have sex with his wife before he marries her and yet still wait nine months before he knew her, is highly unlikely today.  How was it possible then??


And then the angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph in a dream bringing clarity to his confusion and peace to his troubled heart.  How many of us have had an angel speak to us in a dream?  And so it was.  And in this wise is the origin of Christ .