New Testament. [St. Matthew]

 Let us glance briefly  at the land , people, religion, and politics of Palestine in Jesus time. The land consisted three main sections: Galilee in the north ( Jesus home province)),  Samaria in the middle  (the land of the Samaria), and Judea in the south. ( Where Jerusalem was located). The Samaritans, of mixed  Israelites and Gentile, had their own Temple and accepted only the Five books Moses as scripture. The Israelites lived  mainly in Judea and Galilee. The national  center of religious worship, except for the Samaritans was the Temple in Jerusalem. A vast number of priests carried on the animal sacrifices. The country people would come up to Jerusalem for the major festivals, usually on Passover. The synagogue often had especially qualified "rabbis," or teachers, to preach and comment on the readings. Opposed to the priests and the Sadducees were the (i.e. Hasidim the "pious ones" ). and the Pharisees. The Hasidim were interested mainly in retaining the purity of Judaistic religion both inward and outwardly. They were non-political and unworldly, and resisted assimilation
 to Greek ways. The Pharisees preached the new apocalyptic doctrines of imminent advent of the Messianic redemption and judgment and the resurrection of the dead. But they insisted on living in accord with traditional law. They emphasized the oral, unwritten law,  They created the Talmud and the form of Judaism which survived the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
They accepted Roman rule as an abominable necessity imposed by God.  The Zelotes were militant party who advocated armed resistance to Roman rule. Their motto was : ' No God but Yahweh! They seized the town and the armory  near Nazareth, in A.D. 6.
  The Essenes, at the opposite, extreme were non-violent who lived apart  in monastic communities
 practicing celibacy and communism, praying and undergoing purifying baths.
 From the viewpoint of the historian of religions, Christianity begins with the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan.  Mark  actually begins his narrative with this event. But just as John signals the religious meaning of these events by his prologue about the words made flesh ( see John 1:1-18), so Matthew heralds the early Christian conviction that Jesus was the Christ by a genealogy that traces Jesus back to David and Abraham, an account of a Virgin Birth., and stories of marvelous events in Jesus infancy (see Matthew 1-2).
Texts are summoned up from the Old Testament as prophecies of what has come to pass. The use of the Old Testament texts as proofs indicates how early Christian community viewed Jesus and how it argued for its faith. The story of the flight of Jesus family to Egypt has overtones of the story of Moses and the Exodus- "out of Egypt have I called my son" ( Matt: 2:13-15). The key sentence in Matthew's prologue  is verse 21 of chapter 1. And "she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus:"  the Gospel accounts of Jesus baptism in the Jordan River (chap 3) tell us of the "call"
 of a religious personage a familiar event in the old Testament. After the call Jesus meets temptation and successfully resists. Writings over thousand of years have been fascinated by this image of the Devil tempting Jesus and have tried to interpret its meaning. One thing is certain: utter  adherence to God, is protection against the powers of evil, within and without us. Jesus responds to the Devil, rejecting, in turn, the idolatries of belly filling, wonder working, and worldly power. Jesus prefaces each answer with the words " It is written that ...," referring to Deuteronomy 8;3; 6:16; 6:13.
 No religious writings in history have ever had the universal appeal of the New Testament Gospels.
 They possess clarity, simplicity, and religious vision. The essentials of the ministry and destiny of Jesus of Nazareth. told with the directness and force, and have made the news of Jesus known to the whole world. Through these master pieces, they have express faith, spread faith of the early Christian Church, that god had revealed himself in the life, teaching, death of Jesus of Nazareth. That God was uniquely incarnate in this man.
 The togetherness of history and eternity, of human and divine comes from this faith in the incarnate God. The idea of a suffering God to the Greeks "foolishness." and a contradiction, for many schools of philosophy. In Jesus humiliation and this death, as well as the resurrection is the story of the gospels for the Christian faith. When we look for the "Hope", end time divine intervention, better known as " Eschatological", can be found in Daniel and Revelation. This  "Hope" Christians talk about is the return of the "anointed one (Messiah) with the angels, collecting the faithful at the end of the age, a last judgment, and finally a kingdom of Heaven on earth.
 Not all who sound religious are really godly people. They may refer to me as 'Lord' but still won't get to Heaven. For the decisive question is whether they obey my Father in Heaven. At the judgment many will tell me "( in that day)" 'Lord we told others about you and used your name to cast out demons and to do other great miracles'. But I will reply" you have never been mine. Go away  "I never knew you." Your deeds are evil. all who listen to my instructions and follow them are wise, like a man who builds his house on solid rock. Though the rains come in torrents and the floods rise and the storm winds beat against his house, it won't collapse, for it is built on a rock.
 But those who hear my instructions and ignore them are foolish, like a man who builds his house on sand.  For when the rains and the floods come, and storms beat against the house, it  will fall with a mighty crash. The crowds were amazed at Jesus sermons, for he taught as one who had great authority, and not as their Jewish leaders, (scribes). ( Matt7:21-27, 28-29).
 We are not to give lip service.
 In a remarkable passage, Jesus asks from his followers the same kind of absolute devotion that God demanded from Abraham. The obligation to adhere to him transcends all ties of kinship. His followers must endure suffering and give up their lives in order to save them.
  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth, but a sword.
I have come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in law against her mother-in law. and a man's foes shall be they of his own house. He that loveth his father or his mother more than me, is not worthy of me. An he who does not pick-up his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me.
  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. )10:34-39; also 12:46-50).