Matthew 28:12 · World English Bible
Matthew 28:12 Meaning When They Were Assembled with the Elders
When they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave a large amount of silver to the soldiers,
What does Matthew 28:12 mean?
This is the ego gathering itself to purchase a story, because a mind committed to separation would rather buy a lie than let a threatening truth stand. The counsel taken here is the endless private conference of guilt deciding how to cover itself, and the money is the price it is always willing to pay to keep its version of reality intact.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Matthew 28:12 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
This is the ego gathering itself to purchase a story, because a mind committed to separation would rather buy a lie than let a threatening truth stand. The counsel taken here is the endless private conference of guilt deciding how to cover itself, and the money is the price it is always willing to pay to keep its version of reality intact.
Yet a truth cannot be bought off; it can only be denied, and denial costs the mind its peace. A mind can watch this bargaining in itself and understand that every attempt to pay reality away is really an attack on its own knowing, and that no sum ever silences what is simply so.
Elders: the settled authority of the ego in the mind, the entrenched beliefs that convene to protect separation. Soldiers: the parts of the mind hired to enforce a chosen story, the guarding thoughts paid to say what fear needs said. Large money: the high price guilt will pay to keep its account of things, the cost the mind accepts to avoid a truth it fears.
Christian Psychology lensGo deeper in the app
Christian Psychology lens
Live Matthew 28:12 today
- When you catch yourself rehearsing the same defense in your head on the drive home, stop and ask what you would have to admit if the argument lost. Sit with that answer for a minute before you reach for the next justification.
- In the next conversation where you can feel you are wrong but still talking, say so out loud before you have a graceful exit. "Actually, I think you're right" costs almost nothing and ends the whole expensive project.
- Under pressure at work, when the instinct is to shape the story before anyone else does, give the plain version instead. The energy you would have spent managing it is the real price you were about to pay.
What are you spending to keep a story you already know isn't true?
The same truth in other traditions
Tao Te Ching
Those who struggle to defend their position have already lost touch with what is simply true. What is real needs no advocate, and the louder the defense the thinner the ground.
Stoicism · Epictetus
He said the hardest work is not learning something new but giving up the opinion we are attached to. The mind will spend almost anything to avoid admitting it was wrong.
Zen
The teachers warn against the long inner debate that keeps you from looking directly. Every clever argument you build is another wall between you and the plain fact.
Free · No account needed
Read all of Matthew 28 through 17 lenses
Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.
Get Lensightful on the App Store