Click here for the reading schedule for 2023 to see today’s reading, with links to the text and video of the reading.
To see my past posts on today’s reading or anything else, see the right-hand margin or click here.
Matt. 14
This chapter starts with Herod thinking that Jesus must be John the Baptist risen from the dead, because of the powerful works Jesus is doing; it then goes into the story of how John the Baptist died — Herod had imprisoned him because he had stood up to Herod and told him it was not lawful for him to marry his (still-living) brother’s wife. Herod’s wife / sister-in-law was mad at JtB and had her daughter dance seductively for Herod at his birthday party; Herod promised her whatever she wanted, and she asked for JtB’s head. Herod didn’t want to do it, but he had said it in front of witnesses and didn’t want to go back on his word.
Next we have the story of the feeding of the 5,000 men (plus women and children) from five loaves and two fishes, and this is followed by the story of Jesus walking on the water.
As a prelude, Jesus sends the disciples away by ship, so He is alone on land. In the night, the waves become boisterous, and Jesus walks across the water to the boat. At first, the disciples think it’s a spirit (or ghost), but Jesus identifies Himself, and with Jesus’s permission, Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking on the water towards Jesus. However, Peter then gets scared because of the wind and waves, and begins to sink, but Jesus rescues him, and they get on board the ship. As soon as they do, the wind stops blowing, and the people in the ship worship Jesus, recognizing that He truly is the Son of God. When they get back to land, Jesus heals many people.
Mark 6
Here Jesus is said to go back to “His own country”, and He taught in the synagogue on the sabbath, and the people were amazed, but they also were offended, apparently because He was a lowly carpenter, and well-known, with Jesus saying that “a prophet is not without honor but in his own country”, and thus He healed few people there.
Then, Jesus sends out the Twelve, two by two, giving them instructions (which we’ve seen in other gospels), such as not to take extra provisions or money, but to be provided for by the people. Their obedience also shows that they trust Him. The Apostles go out and preach and cast out devils and heal the sick.
As in the chapter above, King Herod hears about Jesus, and thinks He’s John the Baptist risen from the dead. We get the same story but with more details here (which is apparently what Mark likes to do — though he’s the shortest of the gospels, when he does include the same story as the other gospels, it’s usually longer and more detailed).
Next, we’re told that the Apostles come back, and Jesus has them go to a deserted place so they can rest, because “there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat”. However, the people see them leave on a ship, and run around the shoreline to the other side and meet them there, with them being “as sheep not having a shepherd”. Since they were in a deserted place, they had no food, which is why Jesus had to feed them with five loaves and two fishes. As in the above chapter, this account is followed by Jesus walking on water, and then Him healing many people.
John 5
There are many things in the gospel of John that are not in the other gospels, including the events of John 5. At a Jewish feast, Jesus went to Jerusalem where on the Sabbath, he healed a man who had been infirm for 38 years. This took place at the pool of Bethesda, which had 5 porches. Of course, the Jews chastised the man for carrying his bedding on the Sabbath. The man told them that the one who healed him also had told him to “take up his bed and walk”, so the Jews were mad at Jesus for breaking the Sabbath.
A couple of things about the text so far:
- v2 says, “there IS at Jerusalem” — present tense — which makes it sound like Jerusalem was still standing when John wrote the gospel, despite many people thinking it was written after A.D. 70.
- V4 explains about an angel “troubling the water” with the first person into the water afterwards would be healed, but this verse is not in the earliest manuscripts. Very likely it was an explanatory note from a sermon or something, explaining why a bunch of sick people were hanging around a pool.
- Bible skeptics doubted that this pool ever existed and thought it was completely made up, but it has since been found (unlike anything similar to this in the BOM).
- The man didn’t seek out Jesus because he knew Jesus could work miracles; rather, Jesus sought out the man – the man didn’t even know His name!
It is important to know this chapter well, if you’re going to have any interactions with Mormons about the King Follett Discourse, since JS drew many of his claims about the nature of Heavenly Father and Jesus from this chapter.
V31 has Jesus saying, “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.” This might sound like it’s saying Jesus is a liar, but it’s not. This is in the context of the requirement that there be 2-3 witnesses to establish facts as true, so this is just saying that Jesus is only one witness. Drawing in v37, in which Jesus identifies the Father as another witness, completely undoes any claims of Modalism (and thus also shows the BOM to have a false understanding of God), since modalism says that Jesus is the Father. If Jesus is the Father, then that’s only one witness, and not the required “2-3 witnesses”.
John 6
This chapter begins with telling the story of the feeding of the 5,000, with a few additional details not mentioned in the other gospels — it’s near the time of Passover (which explains why there was a lot of grass for the people to sit on, since it was springtime), and Jesus asks Philip where to buy bread (which alone isn’t remarkable, but the other gospels indicate that this took place near Philip’s hometown; if this story were just made up, the pseudepigraphal writer would likely have picked one of the “top three” disciples rather than the rather insignificant Philip). The end of the passage also has the men trying to make Jesus a king, by force if necessary, because of the miracle.
Next follows the account of Jesus walking on water, then continuing to discuss the miracle of the loaves and fishes, because Jesus says that the people are coming to Him and following Him not because of the miracles, but because their stomachs were filled. Jesus turns this into a teaching on working for the imperishable food that only Jesus can give. The people ask what is this food, and Jesus says it’s to believe on Him; the people then ask for a sign like manna, and Jesus points out that it was actually God (not Moses) who had given them the bread, then Jesus says that He Himself is that bread, and that people must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have eternal life. This of course sounds like cannibalism, which the Jews roundly rejected, but we understand it in our day to be spiritual or metaphorical (though Roman Catholics and perhaps some others believe that the bread and wine taken during Eucharist / the Lord’s Supper / Communion transform into the literal body and blood of Jesus).
Many of the disciples left after this, and Jesus asked the Twelve if they would also go away, with Peter saying, “to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life”. I highlight this because many Mormons (and Jehovah’s Witnesses and perhaps other similar people) who are unhappy with their religious organizations and want to leave, are sometimes asked, “where will you go?”, implying that there is no other organization that is closer to “the truth” than themselves. But these people can and should go to Jesus — a person, not a place or organization.
Click here for all my posts on this curriculum and here for the MRM posts on the NT Come, Follow Me curriculum for 2023;
click here for the 2023 CFM curriculum at LDS.org, and here is the 2019 NT CFM curriculum.
The 2019 version included Matt. 15 and Mark 7 in addition to the four above chapters, but the two versions should be mostly aligned. Indeed, the first section is identical in both, with it encouraging the reader to be like Peter stepping out on faith. The second section is likewise nearly identical, talking about the “sacred” “relationship between Heavenly Father and each of His children”. The only difference is the last sentence which changes from “How can strengthening your relationship with Heavenly Father increase your willingness to seek and obey His will?” to the more subtle, “What are you inspired to do to strengthen your relationship with your Heavenly Father?“
The next section is on the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes, but it makes it all about the reader. It’s not bad in and of itself to apply Bible passages to oneself, but there is something a bit bothersome to me about the focus — as if it’s self-centered rather than Christ-centered. As with previous sections, this is almost identical, except the last part changes from “How might [God] magnify your efforts as you serve in the Church“, to “How has He magnified your efforts as you have served Him?” There is also a different LDS quote, but the thrust is the same — God can use your little efforts to accomplish great things.
The next section again takes Peter’s experience of walking on water and has the reader apply it to himself, by asking several questions for the reader’s self-reflection (identical in both versions).
The final section (aside from various family activities the curriculum suggests) is quite different in the two versions, though it teaches the same thing. Both point out that Jesus’s followers didn’t like what Jesus said about being the “bread of life”, and both say they found that (i.e., Jesus being the bread of life) to be “a hard saying”. I disagree. I think the context indicates that what they specifically thought was hard was what sounded like cannibalism to them, not that He was offering “a spiritual kind of nourishment”. Both versions also end, “What are some ‘words of eternal life’ (John 6:68) that help you stay committed to following the Savior?” This sounds good, but since the LDS Church puts itself in the place of Jesus, when they say “follow the Savior” they mean, “obey the LDS leaders” and “remain LDS”. This becomes apparent if you read the link to the sermon from Russell Ballard which says that some people “struggle to understand a specific Church policy or teaching. Others find concerns in our history or in the imperfections of some members and leaders, past and present”, etc. As I said above, the question isn’t “where” but “to whom” people can go. The correct answer is “go to Jesus” not some organization.
TOYBOM: The One Year Book of Mormon 