Skip to main content

What had Jesus helped Thacia understand about the coming of God's kingdom? Why does her explanation cause Daniel to get angry?

In Chapter 16, Thacia, Joel, and Daniel are discussing how Thacia will disguise herself as Joel in order for them to fulfill Rosh's assignment. Thacia mentions that she would feel ashamed to meet Jesus while she is disguised as Joel because she doesn't "want to face Jesus with a lie." Daniel responds by saying that in war, a lie is considered a weapon. Thacia disagrees, then asks Daniel and Joel what makes them so sure Jesus wants war. They assume that when Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, he is referring to an upcoming war. Thacia challenges their beliefs by mentioning that Jesus might mean that the kingdom of heaven will come some other way without fighting. Thacia goes on to say that Jesus has helped her see that they don't need to wait for God to care for them because he already does. Thacia tells them, "Jesus says that God sees into our hearts and loves us. If everyone understood that---every man and woman---" (Speare 178). The boys then ask her if that will rid them of the Romans, and she says, "Suppose---the Romans too could understand?" (Speare 178). Thacia also asks them why Jesus says that they must love their enemies. Daniel loses his temper and yells, "He is talking to men. A girl can't understand such things!" (Speare 178). Daniel becomes upset because he is a sworn enemy of Rome and hates them with a passion. He cannot accept the idea that God loves Romans, especially under the present circumstances. Galilee is under Roman occupation, and the Jews are their enemies. Daniel believes that the only way to restore the kingdom of heaven is through a violent uprising.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.