In Matthew 18, Jesus takes his disciples to the school of patience and forgiveness. Disciples are to love children and have a childlike heart of love and faith. They are to care for the wandering ones. They are to protect the children from sin in their lives and from the influence of sin in the church. All of this requires a heart continually filled with forgiveness. This will be the text for the sermon on Sunday, February 14. Valentine’s Day is a good day to talk about forgiveness.
In Matthew 19 the relationship[ theme continues with questions about marriage. This space cannot contain an exhaustive discussion, but let it suffice to say that one school of interpretation made divorce very easy; another makes divorce difficult and, hopefully, rare. Jesus comes down on the side of a great respect for the covenant promise of marriage. He also teaches that singleness is a fact of life for some and a blessed choice for others. In that world in which only the married with children are considered truly blessed, Jesus expands the circle of blessing to include the single.
After the discussion of marriage, Matthew lets us ask the question: “Who is closer to the heart of God, the child or the rich man?” The disciples do not value children. They think Jesus is too busy or too important to be bothered by children. Not so!
The rich man is just the kind of man most people would want to have as a follower, a backer, an investor. He would be a man with connections. Money is power. To the Jews, wealth indicates blessing. But…given the choice between keeping the law and his money or giving up his money to follow Jesus, the man decides to remain rich in this world and let the Treasure of heaven walk away. Sad, really. Jesus assures his disciples that those who give up everything to follow him will be blessed beyond measure in the sharing fellowship of the kingdom
Not only is there a promise of blessing inherent in following Jesus, but in Matthew 20 Jesus promises that the promise of blessing doesn’t depend on years of service. Jesus will be generous and gracious to those who come to him first and those who come last.
For the third time in Matthew, Jesus predicts his death. This sweet, good, strong man does only good and yet predicts that the holy men of the day will put him to death. However, the good One killed by the holy ones will live again!
James and John and their mother aspire to greatness in this new order of things that Jesus is bringing into the world. Mom wants cabinet level appointments for her boys. She cannot be blamed for having hardly a clue about what she is asking. In a world in which power gives privilege, it makes sense to ask for position. In a kingdom in which sacrifice and service are honored, one must carefully consider the cost of leadership: “…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Perhaps mom’s request was granted: James is the first apostle to die for his faith; John is the one who serves and suffers in this world longest.
At the end of Matthew 20, two blind men at Jericho seek a mercy blessing from the Lord, the Son of David. Jesus loves them, has compassion and heals them. The blind men follow Jesus up the road to Jerusalem. Horror and glory are waiting there.
1 comment:
I'm so happy to see these posts! Thank you so much!
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