Matthew 5.38-48 (Beatitudes) for RCL Epiphany 8A

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The RCL text for Epiphany 8A is Matthew 5.38-48, part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. 

This is my translation which stays close to the Greek but perhaps gives a different tone.

Matthew 5.38-48 mgvhoffman

³⁸ “You’ve heard that it was said,

‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’

³⁹ But I’m telling you not to retaliate against an evil person.

Rather, should anyone slap you on your right cheek,

turn the other to them as well.

⁴⁰ And as for the one who wants to sue you and take your undergarment?

Give them your outer garment as well.

⁴¹ And should anyone force you to go one mile?

Go on with them for two.

⁴² As for the one asking you for something?

Give it to them.

And the one who wants to borrow from you?

Don’t turn them away.

⁴³ You’ve heard that it was said,

‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

⁴⁴ But I’m telling you, love your enemies and pray for the ones persecuting you,

⁴⁵ so that you become children of your heavenly Father,

because the sun, God causes it to rise on the evil and the good,

and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous.

⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?

⁴⁷ And if you greet only your siblings, what are you doing more than others?

Don’t even the Gentile do the same?

⁴⁸ So then, as for you, you are to be perfectly whole, just as your heavenly Father is perfectly whole.”

• For an explanation of my choices, HERE is a guide comparing translations and highlighting grammatical and lexical issues.

Matthew 20.1-16 Translations and Notes - RCL Year A Lectionary 25/ 17th Sunday After Pentecost

Image generated by DALL-E with prompt "a 3D rendering of migrant workers and a boss in a grape vineyard"

Matthew 20.1-16 is the RCL Year A assigned reading for Lectionary 25/ 17th Sunday After Pentecost. It's the parable usually called "Laborers in the Vineyard." When I teach this parable, I label as "All in a Day's Wage" or "The Line Forms at the Rear."

It's a well-told story, and I try to capture more of the conversational tone in my translation. (Cf. link below.) I think that one of the challenges of the parable for modern hearers is that we want fairness, not equality. This parable is closer to Marx's "From each according to ability, to each according to need." It also is a dramatization of the Lord's Prayer petition, "Give us today our daily bread." 

One more thing... The closing to the parable is the well-known, "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." I suspect that most people picture this as a vertical / hierarchical kind of reversal. I think that's problematic, because it means there will be an endless cycle of reversals. Think instead of a vertical / hierarchical order being changed into a horizontal equality. I.e., it really means that the first will be the same as the last and the last the same as the first. That's what I think God's dominion looks like.

Here's the link to the downloadable file. My translation is on the last 2 pages.

• Matthew 20.1-16 translations and notes and MGVH translation

Matthew 16.21-28 Translations and Notes - RCL Year A Lectionary 22/ 14th Sunday After Pentecost

Image generated by DALL-E 2 with prompt: "Depict someone standing behind Jesus in the style of Georgia O'Keefe"

Matthew 16.21-28 is the RCL Year A assigned reading for Lectionary 22/ 14th Sunday After Pentecost. It's a shame that the RCL splits up 16.13-28 over two Sundays, since vv13-20 are needed to appreciate what happens in vv21-28. (Cf. page 10 of my downloadable PDF below for a way to introduce the text and set the context.)

Matthew makes some interesting changes to his source in Mark 8.27-9.1, but where Peter's status had been elevated in Matthew 16.16-19, Matthew does preserve Jesus rebuke to him in 16.23: "Get behind me, you satan!" The Son of Man / Child of Humanity has more status (his angels, not the Father's angels) in 16.27, and Matthew also adds a typical Matthean concern about the judgment of peoples' actions.

Here is a PDF you can download with translations, notes, and introduction

• Matthew 16.21-28 mgvh translation and notes

A couple other resources I recommend checking:

• WorkingPreacher 
• GoTell 

Matthew 13.1-23 Translations and Notes - RCL Year A Lectionary 15 / 7th Sunday After Pentecost

Image available under a CC-BY license from OpenBible.Info

Matthew 13.1-23 is the RCL Year A assigned reading for Lectionary 15 / 7th Sunday After Pentecost. Actually, it's only vv1-9 and 18-23. This is such a disservice to the text, since vv10-17 are the critical center explaining what's going on. Preacher, I recommend you read all of vv1-23 and shorten your sermon if you have to. 

Attached here is my translation of the text. There is a lot going on in the Greek that escapes notice in the English, so after my translation I have included some notes. 

Tldr: I hope no one preaches a sermon encouraging people to be “good soil.” (How is that even possible? I can only picture dumping manure on the soil to enrich it! Can a person choose what soil to be?) The people are the plants, and Matthew’s version of this parable both accounts for the rejection of Jesus’ message and the encouragement to be and the promise of being extravagantly productive followers of Jesus.

My translation and notes: Matthew 13.1-23 mgvh notes