revisiting the gospels

A friend has been writing a series of radical posts about a gospel aesthetic. I'm not sure quite what to think of them. It occured to me today that in order to make any sense of them it would be necessary to carefully read though all four gospels, trying to approach them with fresh eyes. So today I started in Matthew -- just three chapters in, I have three pages of truly haphazard notes.

• Matthew starts out by giving the geneaology of this guy he says is the Messiah, no initial questions asked. The geneaology is necessary for his Jewish audience. This guy, Jesus -- his grandfathers were kings. Good kings and bad kings. Then, their kingdom collapsed and they were nobodies again. He's from a line of some successes and a whole lot of failures. And his name is Jesus, an everyday schmo name. Legally, he's a son of David, but not biologically.
• Jesus' step-father, Joseph, just has to deal with the public ridicule that his wife had an affair even before they were married. Joseph will get no lifelong revere or reward.
• This baby, the angels in Joseph's weird dreams say, will save his people from their sins. Who are his people? Matthew does not say what Mary knows, if anything, about her child. Joseph is running the show. Does the couple realize how huge this is, that he will save people from sins? How do they expect him to save them?
• They will call this helpless baby "God with us." What do they expect from having God with them? Do they expect to win every battle, or have God live like them? God was not living with them before.
• The Jews expect this king to mean victory and change.
• How do you raise the savior of his people? Do you tell your friends? Are you extra protective? How do you raise the Messiah with normal brothers and sisters? Do you ask the Messiah to take the trash out?
• Matthew speaks nothing of the circumstances of the night of Jesus' birth -- he was just born in Bethlehem. Joseph did what he was told.
• The Jews are waiting for this Messiah for 700 years or more. There's no fanfare -- it can't be him. A bunch of foreigners figured it out before his own people.
• Do Mary and Joseph keep quiet about this divine baby? Do they doubt it? Can they see it in him? Do they put on airs? Are they nervous wrecks? Did they ever drop him? What do they expect?
• Learned men are following stars to find kings. Why do they care about the King of the Jews?
• They're following this star that allegedly leads them to one particular home in this village. Farfetched, yes?
• If the silly "wise men" hadn't gone to Herod and all this, Jesus could have grown up peacefully in Bethlehem. How would the world be different?
• These foreign wise men are bowing down to this crudely diapered baby and giving it gold and incense. They have to give it wealth. They have to give a "king" wealth. Whatever happened to the gifts? Did they save it for his education? What does an infant king need most?
• Everyone's acting on dreams and stars.
• "We have this baby at a really bad time and foreigners are coming to give it gold and bow down while it's crying and what are the neighbors thinking and now angels are telling me in dreams to move to Egypt in the middle of the night."
• This pagan ruler of the kingdom is issuing orders to kill all the baby boys in the village. Is he scared about little babies? Do Mary and Joseph have survivor's guilt? Does Jesus?
• The neighbors don't understand what's going on. Some dignitaries come visit Mary and Joseph and the next day they're gone in the middle of the night and then Herod says all the little boys have to be killed. And Baby Jesus got out just in time.
• "So, why'd you move to Egypt?"
• "We're ramping across the world because of this little boy and some crazy dreams."
• This wild man living in the desert, living a radically simple life, says the rule of God is coming. God himself will be the new king.
• People are coming out of the cities to see this man in the desert and admitting to him they've sinned and want to stop sinning and then he pushes them underwater. How long will it be until God becomes king? What is this baptism? What does it mean?
• John begins the speaking in symbols. He tells the Pharisees to "produce fruit in keeping with repentance." What's fruit? How do they produce it? Is it in the Law of Moses?
• Every tree that doesn't produce fruit will get thrown in the fire. Who said? What's his authority? He's a crazy man. Is he telling them how to produce fruit? Sacrifices and birth don't count for anything anymore.
• How does John know these things? Why should anyone believe him?
• When people are sorry for what they've done (did they have to be sorry before?) AND willing to change, John will wash them with water. But, John says, soon someone will wash them with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Will they get burned up when they're washed with fire? That will be something to see. What's this Holy Spirit? What does it look like?
• This one guy is in the crowd and gets baptized. When he's done, the Holy Spirit comes down in this dove on him and a voice breaks out of heaven and says this guy is his son. (The first time in millenia all three parts of the trinity are together.) Do the others notice this voice and dove or just Jesus? What do they think about this? Do they know they've seen a miracle? Do they tell their friends? What do they expect? Are they disappointed with the son of God?

Well, there's a huge host of notes and questions. It all seems so farfetched. I know I wouldn't have believed John till Jesus came along and I saw the dove and heard the voice. And believing this baby was a king? The very son of God?