Dust of the Master

Note: This Dust of the Master is a revised and updated version of an article from three years ago. Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2.

Note: This Dust of the Master is a revised and updated version of an article from three years ago. Click here to read Part 1.

Note: This Dust of the Master is a revised and updated version of an article from 2013.

No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins. (Mark 2:21-22) 

On two different accounts Yeshua makes the statement that he is “the light of the world.” John records these two accounts just one chapter apart from each other. The first time, Yeshua tells us:

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12)

His second statement is in a different context, but has the same implication as the previous one:

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.” (Luke 10:33–35)

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. (Luke 10:30–32)

In response to a question asking “Who is my neighbor?” Yeshua told the following parable:

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. (Luke 10:30–32)

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. (Matthew 23:27)

What did Yeshua mean when he criticized the scribes and Pharisees saying they were “like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness”? Why did he use the imagery of whitewashed tombs? How would his listeners have understood this?

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19:24–26)

Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. (Matthew 13:10–13)