Understanding Jesus through Suffering

I was given up by my biological parents to an orphanage because I was the result of an illicit affair between a married man and his young housekeeper. I do not know my biological mother, a Chinese college student, and I do not know my biological father, a middle-aged Filipino businessman. But I do know that I did not deserve to be born in such a world in which I was unwanted. The only place where I was wanted was in an orphanage. But like the baby Moses, set loose in the Nile in his little reed boat, God’s providence led me to a kind woman doing God’s work. The orphanage was a Catholic orphanage, and my first caretaker was a little Chinese nun. The woman whom I call my mother attended mass next door; one day, dropping off some clothes to the poor nuns, she entered the nursery where I was. Seven months after I was born into suffering, I was adopted, and I thank God everyday that I was there in that little, poor, Catholic orphanage so that my parents – not my blood parents but, to me, my real parents – could find me and take me home.

What does this little story about my beginnings have to do with the Bible class and, specifically, this topic about understanding Christ through suffering in the Gospel of Matthew?

It is precisely because I have suffered that I can understand the Gospel, and, thus understand Jesus’ role in the Gospel. As the Bible class has read this past semester, I see Israel as an outcast nation, oppressed and suffering, who ask, “Why am I suffering?” Jesus’ arrival and ministry answer this problematic question. As Reverend Peter Gomes says in his book, The Good Book, “The early Christians seemed to understand that suffering does not come despite one’s faith, but rather because of it. In this world virtue and suffering are not opposites, as we find it so convenient to believe; suffering is the consequence of, not the opposite of, virtue.”[1] Suffering, in other words, is the hallmark of faith, such that suffering serves to remind the faithful to turn to God. In such a schema of suffering, faith in Jesus and understanding Jesus are one and the same.

I propose to analyze the Matthew Gospel in its entirety, discussing how people in the Gospel understood or misunderstood Jesus’ teachings. I will suggest that with suffering comes knowledge, or understanding, of Jesus’ role as the Son of God and of a person’s role as a disciple of Jesus. The paper will follow the order of the Gospel as outlined in The International Bible Commentary[2], with emphasis on the apostles, misunderstanding Jesus, even up to the Passion. I will suggest that suffering people, like the physically sick, the possessed, and the dying, have an insight of who Jesus is, unlike non-suffering, powerful people, like the Pharisees and the Roman court. Suffering – physically and spiritually -- is an intricate part of being a Christian but, like Job and his friends, the traditional assumption is that suffering occurs because the sufferer must have done something wrong or that God must be cold and arbitrary to a righteous, innocent person. Such a notion of suffering, however, is too simple for the mysterious, loving figure of the Suffering Servant, and, with Jesus, comes the notion of suffering not in spite of Jesus’ love but for the sake of His love. In other words, Jesus brings meaning to the suffering, and the sufferer, turning to Jesus, finds solace and understanding because He Himself suffered.

Jesus’ origins intricately link him not only as Jewish but as all of Israel, both men and women of Israel. His genealogy is a brief history of Israel, “in a pattern covering three periods of Israel’s history.”[3] Among the many men listed in the genealogy, there are five women mentioned: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba as “the wife of Uriah” (Mt 1:6), and Mary. This is extraordinary since listing women is “a rare occurrence in genealogies”[4] because, in the ancient world, women have little legal, and therefore little genealogical, standing. In seeing these women, however, one realizes that these women suffer for the sake of God and help others in their suffering: Tamar remedying her childlessness for the sake of her dead husband; Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, hiding the Israelite spies at the risk of herself; Ruth, a Moabite, staying with her mother-in-law, even to the extent of leaving her own homeland; Bathsheba, making the best of a bad situation with David; and Mary, who bears a child not fathered by her husband, an irregularity deserving divorce according to the Law. All of these women do not deserve the sufferings they endure, but they bear their sufferings for the sake of God and, in doing so, become “the instrument through whom the divine purpose is achieved.”[5] Jesus, the last person listed in the genealogy after Mary, becomes the fulfillment of these women’s example of innocent suffering.

Mary’s husband Joseph becomes included in Mary’s suffering because he does not understand the origin of her pregnancy at first. “Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly.” (Mt.1:19) His righteousness, or faith, in his suffering opens him to God’s revelation, as seen in the angel’s dream. Thus, through suffering – agonizing over Mary’s pregnancy in which he is not the father – Joseph comes to know Mary’s son, “Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Mt. 1.21)

The Magi and King Herod give contrasting reactions to Jesus’ birth. The Magi, Gentiles from the East, look for Jesus because they have seen “his star at its rising”[6] The suffering the Magi endure is a spiritual one: They realize that there is a lack within themselves, perhaps in their Zoroastrian religion, and they seek the one who will complete their spiritual understanding, who will fill that lack within themselves. In contrast, Herod, the current Jewish king, sees Jesus as a competitor to his own rule. While the Magi sees Jesus with homage and joy because Jesus fulfills them, Herod sees Jesus with fear, even though he too suffers spiritually, i.e., he too is lacking spiritually. The difference is that the Magi acknowledge their suffering, while Herod refuses to acknowledge his to the extent of trying the destroy Jesus.

John the Baptist, just like Joseph is a righteous man “according to the Law”[7] As a prophet, an Elijah, of Jesus, John prepares Jesus’ way through his suffering: wearing rough clothes, living in the desert, eating locusts and wild honey. From this suffering comes knowledge of the Messiah, for “strength in suffering is the most effective teacher”[8] and, as a result, John is able to teach, i.e., preach and baptize, in preparation for Jesus. Thus, when Jesus arrives to be baptized, John immediately responds, “ ‘I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?’” (Mt. 3:14)

After his baptism, Jesus goes to the desert to be tested. Devils in the Gospel inherently recognize the divine because their spiritual suffering is always so acute. Thus, the devil in the desert who tempts Jesus three times calls him “Son of God” (Mt. 4:3).[9] For the human Jesus, the testing – or suffering -- in the desert also serves as an opportunity to know himself as Son of God and as fulfillment of Suffering Israel, whom God “tested their heart so that they might learn what their ancestors did not know”[10]. As Gomes says, “When we suffer, we are more apt to learn.”[11] In the desert, the temptation of Jesus in the desert is both a learning experience and preparation for his teaching.

The proclamation of the Good News in word is the first result of Jesus’ temptation in the desert. It begins with the Sermon on the Mount, which speaks of faithful sufferers, culminating with the blessedness of martyrs (Mt. 5:11) and ends with the reaction of Jesus’ listeners, who “were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes” (Mt. 7:28-29). Jesus’ teaching stresses the recognition of inner failing, or suffering, in order to open oneself up to communion with other sufferers and, also, with communion with God; in suffering, one inherently becomes dependent on somebody else because one realizes that one alone cannot make the suffering go away. This interdependence is love, and “though vulnerable, is the only power that can overcome evil.”[12] Says Leske, “This [God’s] kingdom brings about a covenant relationship with God and one another – something that reached beyond the boundaries of gender, status, or nation”[13] To the crowds, cowed with the burden of the scribes’ complicated exegesis of the Law, this teaching of love and relationship is radically different.

The proclamation of the Good News in deed gives a series of miracles, especially healings, and the calling of disciples. What is noteworthy in all of the healings is that all of the afflicted people come to Jesus with their faith in him. The suffering of the faithful prepares them to see Jesus as a healer without any doubts of Jesus’ power: the leper and the centurion call him “Lord” (Mt. 8:2, 8:8), an official kneels before him (Mt. 9:18), and a hemorrhaging women touches his tassel, knowing that she will be healed (Mt. 9:21). Jesus says to the two blind men, whom he heals, “ ‘ Let it be done for you according to your faith.’” (Mt. 9:29). These sufferers understand who Jesus is, and with this understanding that can only arrive with suffering, they are faithful. In contrast to these sufferers’ faith, the disciples show “little faith” when they become fearful of the storm at sea (Mt. 8:26). Because of their little faith, they do not understand when Jesus calms the storm.

The central message of this section is the Apostolic Discourse, in which Jesus warns his disciples that they will suffer because of him. “ ‘ You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. ...Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake with find it.” (Mt. 10:22, 39) In other words, because Jesus suffers, his disciples, in imitation of Jesus, will suffer. But, as mentioned before, there is power in such suffering. Says Leske, “suffering becomes ‘witnessing’ because it constitutes a source of divinely inspired speech.”[14] As Farmer and Kereszty point out, “Christ himself suffers and triumphs over death in the martyr and thus the martyr reveals the power and glory of Christ in his suffering.”[15] But these disciples are still the disciples of the storm at sea, and they will have to suffer much in order to understand, as we will see in the Passion Narrative.

In this section, Jesus encounters people who misunderstand his teaching, even to the extent that, like Herod, some people begin to oppose him and his message. John in prison even doubts who Jesus is (Mt. 11:3) because his ministry is so unlike what John expected.[16] This belying of righteous follower’s expectations is the same as Jesus’ disciples “little faith.” What these followers need to realize is that their expectations are incomplete, and that they should let them go and trust Jesus. “This generation” of the religious leaders – the Pharisees and Sadducees – also misunderstand Jesus because he does not fit the political Messiah of their expectation, their own rules, like “self-willed children”.[17] Like the towns Jesus reproaches, this misunderstanding stems from their refusal to acknowledge that they misunderstand, a refusal which is their unrepentance. Like self-willed children, the Pharisees do not understand that the spirit of the Law, a Law that they say they uphold, stresses love and compassion above all else. With their arguing over whether it is lawful to pick grain and heal a man on the Sabbath and a demand for a sign from Jesus, the Pharisees do not acknowledge that they are spiritually lacking. “Here the Pharisees have come face to face with the kingdom. This is a call to them to open their eyes to the reality of Jesus’ mission and to work with him rather than against him.”[18] But, they don’t. Like Herod, the Pharisees only see Jesus as a political threat and competitor to their power base, not realizing that, spiritually, they are powerless. They refuse to see their spiritual suffering; they refuse to understand and believe.

Jesus begins to speak in parables because, when he speaks clearly, his listeners misunderstand, as seen in the Pharisees’ response to his teaching. “ ‘ This is why I speak to them in parables, because ‘they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.’” (Mt. 13:13) But the faithful will understand the parables: “Whoever has ears ought to hear” (Mt. 13:9). The parables, spoken with agricultural and fishing imagery, are relatively easy to understand, which is the purpose of parables in general: to illustrate in easy, storytelling terms a complicated issue or teaching. What is interesting is that Jesus still has to explain the meaning of these parables to his disciples; for example, they say, “ ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.’”(Mt. 13:39). Even though they are his disciples, they have much to learn, in spite of the fact that they say that they understand (Mt. 13:52).

By now, many people have seen Jesus’ works and heard his teachings. Some have rejected him, in spite of the evidence of the truth. At his hometown of Nazareth, “he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith” (Mt. 13:58), i.e., they will not give up their preconceived knowledge that Jesus is merely the son of Mary and Joseph. Herod the tetrarch thinks he is the resurrected John the Baptist, equating one teacher with another (Mt. 14:2).

The disciples continue not fully to understand Jesus when they point out their lack of food in the miracle of the loaves and fishes (Mt.14:17). Their continuing lack of understanding is even more evident when they see Jesus walk on water – “When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. ‘It is a ghost,’ they said, and they cried out in fear.” (Mt. 14:26). When Peter recognizes Jesus, he follows Jesus’ command to walk on water; but, overcome by fear, he begins to sink (Mt. 14:30). This “fear” is doubt in their faith, a mistrust that Jesus will really be there to save them. But as seen in Jesus’ response (he pulls up Peter), this spiritual suffering, the momentary doubt, brings further knowledge of Jesus’ role as the Messiah because they immediately turn to Jesus for help. Says Leske:

This episode of faltering is symbolic of Peter’s denial of Jesus in the Passion story (Matt.26:69-75); at the same time it represents any Christian’s way of walking to Christ amidst a storm: we are supported by the Lord’s power and sink on account of our own shaken faith. The reader is expected to identify with Peter, crying out: “Lord, save me!” (8:25; Ps 69:1-3). Jesus, reaching out and taking him by the hand, saves him. “You of little faith” is a common phrase in Matthew (6:30-33; 8:26; 16:8, 17:20) that Jesus uses of his disciples who have not yet learned to trust implicitly in the power of God’s reign and in the presence of that power in Jesus. “Doubt,” a word found only here and in 28:17, means “hesitate.” The emphasis is on the need for an unwavering faith in the Lord’s power to save. The disciples show their adoration and wonder with the exclamation: “Truly you are the Son of God,” ...deepening their vision of the divine character of this Son who has authority even over the sea and the wind.[19]

Thus, even doubt can be a burden to be offered to God in one’s faithful suffering.

As Jesus continues to heal and feed the suffering, because of their faith (Mt. 14:36, 15:28, 15:36), the Pharisees and Sadducees continue to misunderstand Jesus (15:2, 16:1). In the middle of unflagging faith and understanding and outright disbelief and misunderstanding are the disciples. For example, when Peter, as representative of the disciples, says, “ ‘Explain [this] parable to us’” Jesus replies, “ ‘Are even you still without understanding?’” (Mt. 15:15-16). Also, when the disciples do not understand what Jesus means by the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, Jesus asks, “ ‘Do you not yet understand’” (Mt. 16:9)?

In spite of Peter’s failings – or most likely, because of Peter’s failings, which he acknowledges -- it is Peter who recognizes that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus reveals to Peter that this knowledge comes from God the Father (Mt. 16:17), and Peter could only have been open to this knowledge because of his suffering through his doubt and misunderstanding, as seen in the previous sections, which prepared Peter to receive this knowledge as faith. In receiving this knowledge, Peter becomes the Rock, i.e., “Peter is given the responsibility of a servant who will look after the master’s household in tune with the master’s wishes”[20] But this is a knowledge that is very difficult to process. When Jesus predicts his Passion, Peter cannot understand that such a horrible thing will happen to the Messiah (Mt. 16:22). Peter may be able to identify Jesus accurately, but he does not fully comprehend what that identity means, which is not only the Messiah, but the Messiah as Suffering Servant. Says Leske, “To be a follower of Jesus means to surrender oneself totally to God and be ready to follow Jesus in every aspect of the Servant role, even to carrying a cross.”[21] The fact that Peter, and the other disciples, do not realize this underscores the suffering that they yet need to endure in order to understand.

In this sermon, Jesus stresses that everybody is equal in the kingdom of heaven because everybody is a child of God. “ ‘Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven’” (Mt. 18:1). As children of God, the faithful rely on God and, in communion with God, they rely on each other. Thus, forgiveness of sins becomes very important because God forgives all children of God who repent.

On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus continues to proclaim the Good News in words and deeds, and people who listen to him continue to understand and accept him in faith or misunderstand and reject him in disbelief. The unbelieving Pharisees try to trick him in regards to the Mosaic law of divorce, which Jesus adroitly explains, “ ‘ Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ....Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.’” (Mt. 19:8,12). Jesus has accurately diagnosed the Pharisees problem – hardness of heart – but they refuse to accept this diagnosis. Also, Jesus corrects a rich young man’s – and subsequently, the disciples’ -- misunderstanding of achieving salvation through following the commandments; “this young man has failed to see that both this life and life eternal are the gracious gifts of the God who is good. ....Jesus answers that salvation is possible only with God. It is impossible for people to earn their own way into the kingdom.”[22] Jesus further clarifies this idea with the parable of the vineyard. But the disciples still do not fully understand the truth of Jesus’ teaching, as seen in James and John claiming that they are ready to drink the cup of suffering (Mt. 20:22). In contrast, the faith, and thus understanding, of the two blind men on the roadside (Mt. 20-28), is deeper than the fair-weather faith of James and John.

The gap between the joyful response of the faithful and the smoldering response of the unfaithful grows wider with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Most of the people are neither afflicted nor suffering, so both responses are too simplistic in their respective understanding.[23] The crowds seeing Jesus treat him like the Davidic Messiah, arriving to claim the political throne (Mt. 21:1-11), but even they misunderstand who Jesus truly is, saying that “ ‘This is Jesus, the prophet’” (Mt. 21:11). Upon cleansing the temple, the chief priests and scribes are indignant, seeing Jesus “as having violated both Temple and Torah.”[24] The disciples are stymied when Jesus curses a fig tree (Mt. 21:20), not understanding that the fruitless fig tree represents faithless temple or person.[25] When the chief priests and elders question Jesus’ authority, “they are afraid to answer in front of the crowds” of the origin of John’s authority – they are afraid to confront the truth.[26] Jesus tells three parables regarding what will happen to those who believe and what will happen to those who do not believe. Instead of learning from these parables – realizing that they suffer spiritually -- the scribes and elders take offense, continuing to harden their hearts.

The Pharisees and Sadducees, like Herod, see Jesus as a threat to their earthly power, and they attempt to discredit Jesus before the crowds. They ask Jesus three questions in an attempt to entrap Jesus, and, like Jesus passing the three temptations in the desert, he answers them in such a way as to encourage learning of his ministry. In answering the Pharisees’ question about paying taxes to Caesar “ ‘Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God’” (Mt. 22:21), Jesus is teaching about the difference between the temporal and spiritual orders. But the Pharisees do not understand; they are dumbfounded (Mt. 22:22). In answering the Sadducees’ question about the belief in the resurrection, Jesus shows “their understanding of resurrection to be inadequate.”[27] Again, the Sadducees respond with silence. In answering the Pharisees final question of what is the greatest commandment, Jesus’ answer, which stresses love for God and love for each other, belies all their rigid understanding of the law.[28] When Jesus turns the tables and questions the Pharisees of whose son is the Messiah, their reply, “David,” is a dry, shallow, literal answer which demonstrates to Jesus that the Pharisees and Sadducees fail as religious leaders.[29]

Before his Passion, Jesus tells in the language of the apocalypse of what the future and the final judgement will be. The main message is that the faithful will be persecuted by the wicked, but they will be punished for their actions and the faithful will be rewarded on the Final Judgment. But because nobody will know when the Final Judgment will occur, the faithful must remain vigilant, just like the parables of the virgins and the servants.

The Passion Narrative is particularly poignant because nobody understands Jesus in this final hour of his life. His disciples misunderstand him because their understanding is still too simplistic, i.e., they think Jesus is the political Davidic Messiah; and his enemies misunderstand him because their hearts are hardened, i.e., they refuse Jesus as the Messiah. Only Jesus and His Father know the pain Jesus must endure to fulfill his role as Suffering Servant, and one can only imagine the agonizing loneliness the very human Jesus must have felt. When the woman at Bethany anoints Jesus with oil, the disciples reprimand her for wasting the expensive oil, not realizing that she prefigures Jesus’ burial (Mt. 26:6-12). At the Last Supper, Jesus reveals that one will betray him (Mt. 26:21) and that the disciples will desert him, especially Peter, who will deny him three times (Mt. 26:31-34). Their protestations demonstrate their simplicity in understanding what will be happening to Jesus. In the garden, Jesus suffers alone, while his disciples sleep (Mt 26:45), and he awakens them when Judas and the chief priests come to arrest him. Before the Sanhedrin, Jesus remains silent because the priests would misunderstand what he would say, and when he does speak, the high priest – who was just waiting for an excuse to condemn Jesus – proclaims that he blasphemes (Mt. 26:65). “Meanwhile Peter, previously bold in his confidence of his faithfulness to Jesus, now succumbs to fearful denial”[30] Up to this point, Peter has not fully realized how deep his sins were and thus how deep his suffering must be in order to realign himself to God. After his third denial, and the crowing of the cock for a third time, Peter finally understands. Similarly, Judas finally realizes the darkness of his sins; but instead of repenting and looking to God for hope, he despairs and hangs himself (Mt. 27:5). Pilate questions Jesus as an objective observer – he neither believes nor disbelieves – and yet he recognizes the uniqueness of Jesus: “the governor was greatly amazed” (Mt. 27:14). Even Pilate’s wife recognizes Jesus as innocent (Mt. 27:19). But wanting to prevent a riot, Pilate frees Barrabas and condemns Jesus; in the eyes of Pilate, the soldiers who mock him, the people who revile him as he hung on the cross, and the criminals on either side of him, Jesus is just merely a man, a troublemaker, who could not even save himself from this terrible suffering (Mt. 27:15-44). The deep misunderstanding continues even when Jesus cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and the bystanders purposely misunderstand him, saying that “Eli” is “Elijah” (Mt. 46-47). Only with the death of Jesus, with the end of his own suffering for the sake of all of the sinners, including his enemies, does understanding break through this narrative about lone suffering: a centurion and his men, witnessing Jesus’ death and the miracles that surrounds his death, exclaim, “ ‘ Truly, this was the Son of God!’” (Mt. 27:54) The fact that Gentiles, not Jews, exclaim this point that Jesus’ role as Suffering Servant and mission to redeem mankind has indeed expanded beyond Israel. Just like the Magi first witnessing Jesus’ birth, the Romans witness his death and believe. Also, the fact that the other witnesses to his death are women (Mt. 27:55) points to the suffering women who prefigure Jesus in his genealogy. In contrast to these witnesses, the Pharisees and the chief priests make sure that there is a guard over Jesus’ tomb, to prevent what they think will be a deception of Jesus’ resurrection. (Mt. 62-65) Even unto Jesus’ death – and even with evidence of his true resurrection (Mt. 28:12) -- they still refuse to understand.

The arrest, trial, and death of Jesus has traumatized the disciples, shaking their faith but not destroying it. In their suffering, which is the “linking of Christ’s suffering,”[31] they open themselves to the knowledge of Jesus as the Resurrected Christ. The angel before the empty tomb reveals the resurrection to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, who were among the women who witnessed Jesus’ death, and, soon after, Jesus himself appears before them (Mt. 28:1-10). After appearing before the women, Jesus appears before the eleven disciples in Galilee; just like the disciples in the boat in the storm, they both worship and doubt Jesus. But, as mentioned earlier, even doubt can be a burden to be offered to God in one’s faithful suffering. In response to his disciples’ faithful suffering, Jesus commissions them to “ ‘make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.’” (Mt. 16-20) These disciples are no longer students; they know all they need to know. They are now teachers, knowledgeable of “the redemptive power of innocent suffering”[32] and that Christ “does not save us from suffering, but is with us in and through suffering.”[33]

Thus, as seen various people’s responses to Jesus’ life and teaching in the Gospel of Matthew, knowledge, or understanding, of Jesus’ role as the Son of God and of a person’s role as a disciple of Jesus comes with suffering, which is a participation in Jesus’ own suffering. Suffering melts the hardened heart, reminds the person that he is not self-sufficient, and reorients him back to God such that he is open to God’s grace to him. In reminding that person that he is not self-sufficient, suffering also reorients him back to his fellow neighbors and enemies such that he becomes aware that he is not alone. Although free will allows the sufferer to refuse to turn to others and God for help – as seen in Judas Iscariot – suffering is not something to endure alone. Says Gomes, “it is not really possible to suffer alone.”[34] On reflecting upon my own infant experience of suffering, suffering is meaningful and communal because Jesus has made suffering meaningful and communal. In suffering, we are all children of God, and as such, we are all children of joy.

Bibliography

Farmer, William R. And Kereszty, Roch. Peter & Paul in the Church of Rome: The Ecumenical Potential of a Forgotten Perspective. New York: Paulist Press, 1990.

Gomes, Peter J. The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart. New York: Avon Books, 1996.

Leske, Adrian. “Matthew.” The International Bible Commentary. Ed. William R. Farmer. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1998. 1253-1330.

[1] Gomes, The Good Book, 220.

[2] Leske, “Matthew,” The International Bible Commentary, 1254.

[3] Ibid, 1259.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid, 1260.

[6] Ibid, 1262.

[7] Ibid, 1265.

[8] Farmer and Kerszty, Peter & Paul in the Church of Rome, 72.

[9] We will find more examples of demons automatically recognizing Jesus as the Son of God later in the Gospel.

[10] Leske, 1267.

[11] Gomes, 218.

[12] Leske, 1275.

[13] Ibid, 1282.

[14] Ibid, 1289.

[15] Farmer and Kereszty, 89.

[16] Leske, 1291.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ibid, 1295.

[19] Ibid, 1300.

[20] Ibid, 1304.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Ibid, 1309.

[23] Jesus does cure the blind and lame before he enters the temple, (Mt. 21:14) but these healings are very brief in the overall narrative of this section.

[24] Leske, 1312.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Ibid, 1313.

[27] Ibid, 1314.

[28] Ibid, 1315.

[29] Ibid.

[30] Ibid, 1325.

[31] Farmer and Kerszty, 16.

[32] Ibid, 16.

[33] Gomes, 229.

[34] Ibid, 217.