Reflection Paper #3 - Matthew Reading

Anthony Schoen


Religion 120-05

February 17, 2010

Reflection Paper 3

When reading the The Gospel According to Matthew several main points really stood out to me. What is really odd to me is that the information that made the biggest impact was information I have known for most of my life, but always seems to cause me to think twice about my lifestyle.

When I read chapter 7 of the Gospel of Matthew almost the entire chapter made me think about my relationship with God. The most significant point was that you cannot wait until your Day of Judgment and plea ‘Lord, Lord’ and expect for him to allow you eternal life. Many people feel that they know of him, and that because of this knowledge they will have external life awaiting them in heaven. This unfortunately is completely wrong. We need to live life while we are on earth with the knowledge of him and devote our every decision to be perfect just as our Almighty father is. If we live as he would, then when we arrive at our Day of Judgment, we will be recognized as being known by God.

This is a terrifying thought, but also is a relief to me. Living life with the knowledge that God has eternal love for all is something I can always fall back on when I feel alone in the world. He is the one being that you can talk and feel as though he is always listening, even when there is not an immediate response.

God’s love for all is also displayed in much of chapter 8 in Matthew. Jesus heals anyone who has strong faith, little faith, or none at all. He healed those with leprosy, and had no hesitation in touching them. This is astounding because of the belief in those days that you are unclean if you were to touch a leper. He also healed a non-Jew officer of the Roman army. This individual was in control of hundreds of soldiers, and when he approached Jesus, he was accepted and was helped without any wavering. The most utterly remarkable point of this parable is the fact that Jesus had enough reverence to respect ritual rights by not entering the house of a Gentile and healing the sick man from a far. This also shows the extraordinary powers of Jesus. The final main healing in this chapter was that of a woman that Jesus was not asked to help. He is so remarkably loving that he had the desire to help someone who did not even ask.

In daily life, I struggle helping those I do not know. In my studies in philosophy we have discussed the views of Immanuel Kant and how we should not perform favors for strangers because the chance of having the favor returned is slim-to-none. We are better off helping out a neighbor or a family member. At first I found this belief a justifiable one, but when I see that Jesus can help someone whom he has no idea if they have faith in him or not, then I should at least be able to treat strangers with respect and how I would expect and want to be treated. This was also stated in the chapter 7 of Matthew.

Overall the reading in The Gospel According to Matthew really made me think about many things in my life, and how I should be acting and treating others around me. This reading has made the most significant impact on me, over any of the other readings.