UA-NT-10 Essay on Matthew 21-23

The story of the King of Israel, the Child from Bethlehem, the Son of David, comes to his entry into Jerusalem in the style of an entering king. Jesus begins this time in Jerusalem in a crowd. In a week he will walk out of a Jerusalem tomb alone. He will conquer death and sin to establish the Kingdom of heaven.

Chapters 21-24 contain the teaching of Jesus during the few days before his death. We are stunned that he is so vulnerable and open. In these teaching, we get to see the spectrum of the opposition to him. He also are reminded of the sweet, powerful wisdom embedded in his teaching.

To begin his temple teaching, Jesus drives out those who are selling and changing money in the temple. The special mention of those selling doves indicates that some were taking advantage of the poor. The hope of God is that the temple will be a house of prayer. That is probably what the Father wants of us now.

Jesus attracts those who need him and those who think they don’t need him. He heals the blind and the lame, welcomes the praise of children, and deals with the indignant spiritual leaders. The fig tree becomes the metaphor for spiritual leaders. Their time to bear fruit for God is about over.

Don’t miss the call of Jesus for his people to pray in faith, “…believing you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

When Jesus enters the temple courts, the priests and elders confront him about his authority. Since they are unwilling to say what they believed about the ministry of John, the Baptist, Jesus knows it is pointless to discuss his authority with them.

Jesus does follow their question with three parables that point to the tragic misunderstanding of the spiritual leaders. They say they will obey God, but they don’t. They claim to be workers in the vineyard of God, but they live every day challenging God’s authority and ownership. They reject and kill his servants. The leaders are like those invited to the wedding banquet of the king’s son. They refuse to come. They despise the generous invitation.

In each of the stories, those thought to be on the margins of righteousness are invited to blessing. Those who decide to work for the master are blessed. The vineyard is opened to those willing to respect the owner. The wedding banquet guest list contains the names of the riff-raff. Things are upside down. The religious leaders are rejecting the Stone who will be the foundation for all things.

The Pharisees and Herodians try to trap Jesus with the taxes question. Jesus says, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar and to God what is God’s.”

The Sadducees don’t fare any better with their marriage question. Jesus says there is no marriage in heaven. Then Jesus tags them for their unbelief regarding the resurrection. If God speaks of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the present tense, there is no past tense in the lives of the faithful.

The Pharisees make another run at Jesus with their greatest commandment question. Jesus knows what they know. There are only the two matters of loving God and loving people.

Psalms 110 is one of the favorite texts of the early church. Jesus refers to it here as he asks the Pharisees to unravel the riddle in the text. The Son of David is David’s Lord. How can that be?

The many teachings in Matthew 21 and 22 lead to a focused teaching in Matthew 23 about the nature of the religious leaders and the woes that come to them because of their legalism. They don’t practice what they preach. They made loads for others without offering to help them in any way. The leaders like honor, ceremony and titles. They are so unlike Jesus, the Servant, who calls others to service.

The number of seven woes indicates that the religious leaders are perfectly woeful. They block the entrance to the kingdom. They make converts that are as perverse as they are. They have rules for swearing that make lying possible. They are serious about the trivial and thoughtless about the important — they measure out a tithe of mint and ignore the cries for justice. They clean the outside of their dishes and leave their hearts filthy. They are like pretty tombs filled with rottenness. They are proud of the tombs they build to honor God’s servants while holding the very attitudes that called for the deaths of those servants. These woeful ones will be the ones who persecute Jesus and his followers in the days to come. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…”

UA-NT-10 Essay on Matthew 18-20

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.

UA-NT-10 Essay on Matthew 15-17

Jesus troubles Jewish society. Tradition stabilizes the society. Jesus and his disciples do not abide by all the little rules. Jesus points out that they violate the spirit of the law in the way they keep it, dishonoring their parents while claiming to honor God. The danger of law keeping is that the lips are tempted to profess what the heart no longer feels. Religion turns empty and hollow. Jesus didn’t come to defend that kind of emptiness.

He came to delight in real faith—the kind he finds in the Canaanite woman. She is persistent, believing, and clever. Jesus delights in her. He is happy to give her the scraps. He has been serving big, juicy portions of the love of God to the Jews. Now some of them are weary of him, suspicious of Him. Jesus is willing for her to get what they don’t want.

We read last week about the feeding of the 5000. The feeding of the 4000 is much like it. Jesus is compassionate and powerful. The disciples are witnesses of his love and grace.

In chapter sixteen, we see the increasing distance between those with eyes who cannot see and those with eyes who can see. The Pharisees and Sadducees come wanting Jesus to show them a sign from heaven. Where have they been? Jesus has fed more than 9000 people. He has healed many. Many demons are out of a place to live. They want to see a trick. Nothing will be a sign producing faith in them. Jesus says they will receive the sign of Jonah. He leaves them to think about that.

As he moves away from the doctors of unbelief, he warns his disciples about the yeast, the influence, of the Pharisees. It has to be comedy that Matthew tells us that the disciples misunderstood the words of Jesus and thought he was worried about their not having enough bread. Jesus wonders if they remember the 5000 and the 4000. If one remembers the provision of Jesus to others in the past, one will never wonder if Jesus will provide in the present. We hear this as a call to put worry aside and follow Jesus.

When Jesus gets to the northern boundary of Galilee, he gathers with his disciples at the headwaters of the Jordan at Caesarea Philippi, the home of the temple of Pan. In this pagan place, Jesus asks his disciples who they believe he is. Peter gives the great confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus begins with that confession to reveal his destination of sacrifice in Jerusalem. Peter doesn’t want Jesus to talk about death and tragedy, but Jesus assures all of the disciples that not only is his life a life meant for sacrifice, but so are their lives meant to be denied to the world, committed to God and given on their crosses for the world.

Less than a week after Jesus received the confession from his apostles, his heavenly Father affirms him in the Transfiguration. As Jesus is turning from successful ministry toward increasing opposition and rejection, those in heaven and earth who believe in him speak up. Jesus predicts his death again. We can almost see the torches in the distance. We can almost hear the shrill soprano of the whip whistling through the air toward his back.

Matthew reminds us that we are often powerless because our faith is weak. More faith; more power. We need to think about this equation.

UA-NT-10 Essay on Matthew 13 and 14

Matthew 13 contains the third discourse of Jesus—the kingdom parables. Jesus teaches from a boat floating just away from the bank of the Sea of Galilee. The people are gathered on the shore. What a great setting for lessons about the kingdom!

Jesus begins with a teaching to all gathered. He tells the story of the sower who sows seed over the ground. The seed falls into productive and unproductive soils. At the end of the parable Jesus says, “Whoever has ears, let them hear.” Actually Jesus has just done to that audience exactly what the sower had done in his story.

Jesus tells the disciples that he speaks often in parables to separate the discerning from the undiscerning. Some people can hear the words and never make out the sense of what he says. Calloused hearts cannot hear. Those who cannot hear will never turn to Jesus.

Jesus carefully explains the parable of the sower. Jesus has reasonable expectations about the impact of his teaching. Some won’t hear; some respond a bit and fall away; some take his word in deeply and bear much fruit. That is the way it is still.

The parables of the weeds and the net tell us that the children of the kingdom of heaven will live in the world with those caught in evil kingdoms until the end of all things. God does not pull up the unrighteous weeds as they come up. It would be too disruptive. So we will see people who don’t care about God do pretty well in this world. But we will know that judgment does come indeed. The harvesters come; the net is lifted out on to the bank.

The parables of the mustard seed and the yeast remind us of the power of small beginnings in the kingdom of heaven. Little seeds can become great trees. A baby born in Bethlehem can be the Savior of the world. Twelve committed apostles can take good news to the world.

The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl focus on the preciousness of the kingdom. Nothing in the world is like the invitation of the kingdom of heaven. Nothing in the world compares to walking with Jesus. The parable teaches us to give up every lesser thing to possess — to be possessed by — the kingdom of heaven.

And sure enough, at the end of chapter 13, the people in Nazareth show that they are bad soil, bad fish, willing to let the pearl of the kingdom and the Prince of heaven pass through their lives: “And they took offense at him.”

Matthew 14 opens with the death of John, the Baptist. Not every great person gets to die a noble death. One of the greatest men who ever lived dies from the vengeance of a bitter woman. Jesus hears the news and wants to get away, perhaps to mourn John’s passing, but the people pursue him.

Jesus will not send the crowd away to get food. He asks his disciples to feed the people — 5000 men, plus women and children. They cannot feed them with only the five loaves and two fish found in the crowd. Even they didn’t bring lunch for themselves. Jesus did the four things Henry Nouwen notes that Jesus does so often: he took the bread, blessed the bread, broke the bread and gave the bread. Nouwen notes that Jesus does the same thing to his followers as he gives them in service to the world. We are taken, blessed, broken and given.

After feeding the thousands, Jesus returned to his desire for solitude and prayer. He sends the disciples on in a boat to cross the sea. If Jesus could not, would not do his ministry without solitude and prayer, how would we ever think we could serve the kingdom without solitude and prayer?

Jesus walked out across the lake to meet his disciples. Peter wanted to come to him on the water. Jesus had invited Peter to follow him. Jesus had given Peter and the others authority to preach and heal in his name. Having offered Peter so much of himself, Jesus invited Peter to meet him on the lake. Peter did walk on the water. He sank when he was distracted by the wind, but while he focused on Jesus, he walked. The lesson is not hard for us to hear if we have ears.

In the boat there is worship and confession. Sweet. Jesus is dry. Peter is wet. All are joyful.

UA-NT-10 Essay on Matthew 11 and 12

Jesus is not acting like John, the Baptist thought he would, “Are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else? Jesus is not acting like the Pharisees thought he would, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.” They complain about the disciples of Jesus, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” Even his mother and brothers may be disappointed in him when he says, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” We are so accustomed to who Jesus is that we forget the offense of his life. We think that following Jesus is following an insider, a company man, a conformist—hardly!

Jesus tells the disciples of John to go back and tell John that good news is being preached against a background of God’s miraculous presence. Jesus endorses the life of John, but says that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John, the Baptist. Jesus loves the life of John, but Jesus will not live the life of the reclusive prophet. Jesus lives in the towns, comes to dinner, joins the people. It is fine for John, the Baptist to be the voice crying in the wilderness; Immanuel, God with us, has to come to town.

The cry against Korazin and Bethsaida is scary. The fact is that miracles and the voice of the Christ cannot coerce belief and repentance. Some can look Jesus squarely in the eye and say, “No, thank you.” So, for those, Jesus promises judgment. For those who are weary and heavy laden, he promises rest. Interesting choices: judgment or rest. We choose rest.

When Jesus will not protect the Sabbath from the spirit of love and compassion, the Pharisees decide they should kill him. This is the first cold breeze off the chilly hearts of the Pharisees in Matthew. The plot will now turn more toward confrontation, leading to the cross.

The second servant song from Isaiah sings the beauty of Jesus in our ears: “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not put out, till he leads justice to victory. In his name the nations will put their hope.” Isaiah 42:1-4 Does it get any better than this?

We listen as the Pharisees attribute the work of Jesus to the devils. It is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit to attribute the ministry of Jesus to unholy spirits. A word spoken against the Son of Man can be forgiven; a word spoken against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven. We must be careful how we marginalize the miraculous in the ministry of Jesus. It is the work of the Holy Spirit.

We almost hold our breath when the Pharisees and teachers of the law come to Jesus and ask for a miraculous sign. Where have they been? Or is it true that one of the problems with miracle and unbelief is that unbelief always wants to see another miracle. Instead of responding, “My Lord and My God,” unbelief says, “Do it again.” Jesus says for these folks only the sign of Jonah will be for them. Three days in the belly of a fish sounds like the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

The problem with these religious do-gooders is that cleaning the heart perpetually means they have a clean – sort of —, but empty heart. The evil keeps pouring back in. They are never clean, never pure. The better way is to seek and do the will of the Father in heaven, becoming the very family of Jesus.

UA-NT-10 Essay on Matthew 8-10

Jesus ends his sermon on the mount and descends into real life. The people he meets are suffering or aware of suffering. Jesus is not the detached lecturer on spiritual matters. He is willing to heal the leper. He does speak an authoritative, healing word for the centurion’s servant. He overthrows the power of demons, heals the paralyzed, blind and mute. When confronted with a woman suffering for years in blood, the One who helped form, not only the male body, but also the female body, heals her. He walks into the presence of death, pronounces death as harmless as sleep and wakes the little girl. Jesus is not only Lord over sickness, demons and death; he is Lord over creation, who can speak a storm into serenity. Jesus is the one who takes up our infirmities and carries our diseases.

This Jesus acts in the power of the kingdom of heaven. He also invites people to follow him by the authority of the rule of heaven. He asks people to think less about their homes and their pillows than they think of following him. He calls Matthew from his tax collecting because Jesus loves to call and save sinners like Matthew. These folks who decide to follow Jesus get to think with Jesus about the harvest of souls, reaching out to those who are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Chapter 10 is the second discourse of Jesus in Matthew. There are five discourses. Some think there are five because Moses has five books in the Old Testament, and Jesus is the New Moses offering his five books. Matthew 10 contains the marching orders for the twelve apostles as they go out to do ministry in the name of Jesus in the power of the kingdom. It is amazing that Jesus is willing to share his message and his power with ones who don’t exactly know who he is. They are given authority over disease and demons. They are told what to do when people like them and when they don’t. They are told the Spirit of the Father will speak through them in times of trial.

The feeling we get at the end of this second discourse is that following Jesus can be hard, dangerous, risky and more. Of the twelve called to be apostles, only John died of natural causes. This chapter is like the drug side effect disclosure statements we read and hear—the truth about what could actual happen if we follow Jesus. The good news is that Jesus says, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.”

By now in our reading, we are seeing Jesus in all his power and glory. His teaching and his actions are consistent with his coming as God with us.

UA-NT-10 Essay on Matthew 4-7

The wilderness filled with temptation seems an odd first stop for Jesus to make on his road to ministry, but the words are certain: Jesus was “led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (4:1). Is there some way that weathering an onslaught of temptation well in one arena prepares one for ministry to people in another? So it seems. Could it be our times of testing and temptation are meant to prepare us for greater service?

Jesus doesn’t want bread; he wants the word of God. He is in the wilderness to pass the test before the Father, not test the Father. He has no desire for the glory of the nations if he has to give up glorifying the Father. Satan is unsuccessful.

With the wilderness behind him Jesus turns toward the business of saving us all. He calls fishermen to fish for people. The good news of the kingdom is heard in his words and seen in his miracles. Word and miracle are the marks of Jesus’ ministry through the end of the book of Acts. And now?

Jesus gathers his disciples around him on the mountain to teach the new way of the kingdom. The new way blesses those who suffer and those thought soft by the world. People who are salt and light mark the new way. The new way is deeper in the heart than the way of the law. The new way is not about public display, but private devotion. The new way is not measured by dollars and cents, but by the pursuit of the kingdom and life without grinding worry. The new way moves past judgment. The new way asks, seeks and knocks for God’s blessing. The new way is narrow, only as wide as the Christ we follow. The fruit of the good is good. The house of the wise one is on the rock. This new way of the kingdom comes with authority. It is Immanuel who teaches—God with us.

Reading the Sermon on the Mount usually makes us feel that we are in over our heads and will never live up to the demands of the kingdom. The word of God, the grace of God and the Spirit of God help us live closer and closer to the standard of the sermon.