Tag Archives: Gospel of Matthew

Remaining Humble Enough to Allow the Word to Change Us

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Photo Credit: Emlyn

Photo Credit: Emlyn

Scripture Reference: Matthew 21:28-32

Jesus never satisfied idle curiosity, but He was always very receptive to the questions of the sincere truth seekers. He was hostile towards hypocrisy, while being tender and merciful towards sinners, readily answering their questions.

For the most part, the religious leaders rejected Him and His teachings. They attempted to brush Him aside as either insignificant or a crazed madman. However, as time went on and Jesus grew in popularity among the crowds, they could no longer ignore Him. In fact, they soon felt threatened by His power and authority. They questioned His authority to His face, tried to trick Him with sly questions and spied on Him every opportunity they had.

It was shortly after they questioned His authority that He started to address them quite directly through a series of parables. They got the  reference to themselves in these stories and wanted all the more to get rid of Him. One of those parables was the parable of the two sons.

He starts to relate the parable, interestingly enough, by asking them a question: “What do you think?” It will be their own words, eventually, which will condemn them. A father, He says, had two sons. He asked the one to be of service to him, but the son refused. However, he later repented of his disobedience and did as the father asked. The father asked the second son the same question, and this good boy said yes immediately. But, he never got around to fulfilling his promise to his father. So, asks Jesus, who was ultimately obedient to the father? “First son,” was their reply.

It was the one who appeared resolute in his disobedience who eventually did as his father requested. And Jesus then shows them how this relates to them. The first son signified the ‘sinners’ they looked down upon. The second son were representative of them –the religious leaders –who with their ramrod stiff religious rectitude rejected the way of life John the Baptist came to show them. John did not do religion like they did it and they refused to see that he was sent by God. They did not believe him. Even after they saw the preaching of John resulting in the changed lives of those very sinners they sneered at, they still refused to see the work of God in action. They still refused to believe.

So, says Jesus, those who think they are better than others because of their own religious works; those who think that God can work through no one but through their church; those who think that rites and rituals are more important than changed lives lived out daily as a testimony to the power of God, these are the ones who may think they will enter the kingdom of God. But these are the ones who will be left out in the dark, and those very people they looked down on, they are the ones who will be welcomed in His kingdom. Why? Because they never came to Him resting on their own merits, but remained humble enough to allow the word to change them.

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Greatness is Measured by Serving, not by Being Served

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Photo Credit: kumarnm

Photo Credit: kumarnm

Scripture Reference: Matthew 20:20-28

Prior to this incident, Jesus shared with His disciples the trials awaiting Him in Jerusalem. He told them how He will be killed by the church leaders and comforted them by sharing also His ultimate victory over death.

Recognizing that Jesus will be lifted up to a high position following these events, it appears that the mother of the sons of Zebedee saw in these words an opportunity to promote her sons to a level above the rest of the disciples. A desire to be better and higher than others is a sin rooted in pride.

She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”

Jesus put the truth to her plainly saying she has no idea what she is asking for. There can be no glory without pain. As humans we want all the glory but none of the pain required to achieve it. He refers to it as drinking a cup. It reminds me of drinking bad tasting medicine. It’s terrible, but the only way to achieve your goal of getting better.

The most arrogant among men have had no experience of this cup. They never knew the Cross and what a price He paid to achieve what we now enjoy under His grace. If they did know the Cross, there would be no room for pride and arrogance in their hearts as the closer we come to Christ, the more we are humbled by what He endured on our behalf.

There are few things that cause as much trouble between brothers and sisters than grandiose ideas of personal greatness. The rest of the disciples were indignant when they heard this request. James summed it up perfectly when put his finger on what causes quarrels between believers. He speaks also of selfish ambition and calls it the ‘wisdom’ of the world, which really is no wisdom at all, but folly.

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. (James 4:1-3 NLT)

But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.  For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. (James 3:14-16 NLT)

The world teaches us that greatness is measured by the number of people serving us. Jesus teaches us that greatness is measured by the number of people we serve. It is humility, not pride, that makes us great in the sight of God. Jesus was our perfect example in humility, as He was in everything else required of us.

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,  and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 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.

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Never Look Down on Children

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Daisy GirlScripture Reference: Matthew 19:13-15

Jesus teaches us by example that we should never look down on children or prevent them from coming freely to Him. In this interaction it is clear that it angers Him when people reject children and keep them from Him.

The fact that the parents brought their children to Jesus is a sign that they esteemed Him highly. The disciples, however, considered the children a nuisance and an interruption in the already busy schedule of Jesus. But He did not look at children that way. His response to the actions of His disciples makes that very clear. He is never too busy for the little ones.

Perhaps they thought it was beneath the dignity of their Master to make time for little children. They probably thought they were doing Jesus a favor by keeping the children away from Him, but Jesus changed their thinking. Their response reflects how little they knew of Jesus at this stage in their journey with Him. He says children are examples worth following, not interruptions to be sidelined. Children are trusting; they are willing to learn; they gladly accept a gift without questions asked and they don’t complicate life unnecessarily.

There are many churches today who preach these words of Jesus, “Let the children come to me,” and yet frown upon children as nuisances in their gatherings. A preacher with the heart of Christ will not disdain children, but welcome them. It is tragic that in many churches children are made to feel like they are in the way. This teaching of Christ is of course something that needs to be adhered to in all facets of life, at home, at school, wherever we find the lively voices of children.

I read the following quote this past week:

Children are not things to be molded, but persons to be unfolded.

Sometimes parents want to force children to be people whom they want them to be, instead of assisting in the unfolding of the person God created their children to be. As parents it is very tempting to want to see our unfulfilled dreams realized in the lives of our children, but this is wrong as those may not be the dreams of the child and we will stifle the unfolding of the beautiful, uniquely talented person God created that child to be.

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The Greatest Are The Ones Least Concerned With Being Great

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Pure

Scripture Reference: Matthew 18:1-5

 

I suppose it was just a matter of time before the question would arise among the disciples of Jesus: “Who is the greatest among us?” In other words, who follows Jesus better than the others. Who pleases Him the most. There has to be ranks here. We can’t be equal, can we?

 

Jesus however, showed them that they had everything turned upside down. The greatest in the kingdom of God is not the one who is most concerned about being the greatest, but the one who is least concerned about status and position. To bring His point across more clearly, He takes a little child who was nearby and calling the little one closer to Him, He says: “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

 

Jesus says that unless we trust God unconditionally as a child is unconditionally trusting, we will never even enter the kingdom, never mind be great. Without faith it is impossible to please God. In His meeting with Nicodemus, Jesus took this principle one step further and said we should really start from the beginning –we should be born again to enter the Kingdom of God. We have to come to God as one who knows nothing and be willing to renounce our own knowledge, be emptied of self so that God can fill us with Him through His Spirit.

 

“As a little child” means so much more but, for one, Jesus is here teaching us that our goal should be sincere humility, not being the greatest. The one who comes to God full of his own goodness and with a long list of reminders of the good things he has done is not coming as a child.

 

Humility will keep us occupied with serving God and serving others, not with becoming great. This pleases God and therefore He says that the greatest in His kingdom are the very ones who are least concerned with being great.

 

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.  (Matthew 18:1-5)

 

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Apart from the Grace of God

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English: Morning mist on Lake Mapourika, New Z...

Morning mist on Lake Mapourika, New Zealand. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Scripture Reference: Psalm 36:1-4

David was disturbed by his observations  of the ways of the wicked. He lists their characteristics in this portion of Psalm 36. We may be tempted to think that this don’t apply to us, but then I remember Paul who quoted the first verse of this psalm as he explained that we have all sinned. We have all fallen short of the glory of God.

What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. (Romans 3:9)

So, in fact, when David describes the wicked, he is in fact describing all of us apart from the grace of God. Paul also wrote that all these things (in the Scriptures) have been written as warnings for us, and so it is beneficial for our spiritual growth to know the kind of things that would displease God. Some of these things are listed in this psalm. David felt compelled to share it and I believe we should not disregard it:

I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked. 

Here is his list:

  • They have no fear of God: Since the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, they have already disqualified themselves from becoming wise and have instead become fools, given to foolish thoughts, words and actions. Their minds are darkened, even if they profess to be wise. “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:21-22)
  • They have an over-inflated view of themselves: They do not consider themselves with sober judgement. “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” (Romans 12:3). They continually flatter themselves –to the extent that they cannot hate or detect their own sinfulness. Their self-importance keeps them from being truly thankful because they have a sense of entitlement and they do not recognize that everything they have is a gift from God.
  • The words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful: Out of the overflow of the mouth the heart speaks. “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.” (Matthew 15:18). We can easily determine what lives in someone’s heart by listening closely to their words. More importantly, we can examine our own words to get an idea of what truly lives in our hearts. There really is no such thing as a slip of the tongue. What comes out of our mouths have been living in our hearts all along.
  • They fail to act wisely or do good: The problem with their lack of wisdom comes from their lack of fearing the Lord and since all good gifts come down from the Father of the heavenly lights, all good deeds we do are done by God. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10). Apart from Him we can do nothing of eternal value.
  • They lie in bed at night thinking of bad things to do to others: Their desire to harm others robs them of sleep.
  • They are committed to their sin: Just like good people are committed to a good cause, so these people are committed to a wrong and twisted course. They go to great lengths to achieve their selfish goals.
  • They embrace the wrong: Instead of rejecting the wrong, they embrace it generously.

These would have been some of the characteristics of every single human being (Romans 3:23) had it not been for this:

We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. (Romans 3:22-24 NLT)

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Having Trouble with Forgiveness?

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Forgiveness lesson from flowers

Photo credit: juliejordanscott

Scripture Reference: Matthew 18:21-35

Before sharing this parable, Jesus gave His followers instructions on how to handle situations in which we are offended by our brothers and sisters. He taught us to go first to the person in question and sort it out with him instead of running to everyone else and spreading discord in the process. The parable of the unmerciful servant ties in with these words concerning those who sin against us. Unless we forgive those who offend and hurt us from the heart, the Lord will not forgive us.

Since God has shown us undeserved kindness by forgiving our sins, it is expected of us to show that same kindness to others. We didn’t do anything to earn this forgiveness. Yes, it is true that repentance comes before forgiveness, but even that repentance is the work of the Holy Spirit of God on our hearts.

If we look at this parable, we will see that the servant begged for mercy not because he didn’t repay his debt (in other words, not because of his wrong action), but because he feared the consequences of not paying his debt. In this case he faced being sold into slavery along with his wife and children until the debt could be repaid.

He owed a huge sum of money. It is calculated that he owed his master about 20 years’ wages. He knew how hard, if not impossible, it will be to repay this debt so he fell down before his master and asked that his master will be patient with him since he wanted to repay the debt. The master had mercy on the servant. He didn’t say, “Okay, you can pay me back whenever you can.” He wrote off the man’s debt completely. So, here this servant went from being in danger of having himself and his entire family sold into slavery to not owing a cent.  He was free to go.

As he left there a free man being just freed from a huge burden of debt, he ran into a fellow servant who owed him the equivalent of a day’s wages. One would imagine that, being so relieved because of the great mercy that had just been shown him, he would extend the same towards his fellow servant who owed him much less. However, the exact opposite happens. Not only does he demand the money back immediately, but he chokes his debtor attempting to harm him physically. The man pleads the same thing that he had just moments before pleaded before his master: “Be patient with me and I will pay it back.”

Although these same words moved his master to have pity on him, it has no effect on the pardoned man. He refused to accept the man’s plea and had him thrown in prison until he could repay the debt.  The forgiveness he had received from his master had no effect on him. There were some servants who witnessed both these events, the man forgiven and the forgiven man refusing to forgive in turn. Outraged by the servant’s attitude, they reported this to the master. He was called back to the master who was angered at his unforgiving heart. His master withdrew the previous pardon and the man was thrown in jail where he was tortured until he could repay every cent of the 20 years’ wages he owed.

Jesus says this is how it works in the Kingdom of heaven. Our guilt against God is huge, but He has forgiven us. And yet, we have trouble forgiving others who have committed lesser offenses against us than we have committed against God. Like the unmerciful servant was thrown in prison for his lack of paying it forward, so God will treat anyone who has received forgiveness and cannot forgive others from the heart.

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Jesus is not referring to lip-service forgiveness here. It has to be sincere. It has to come from our hearts. We have to let go, which includes no longer talking about it to everyone in order to belittle that person in the sight of others. This parable is an important compass to keep before us when we have trouble forgiving others.

May the Lord have mercy on us and enable us to show mercy to others like we have received mercy from our Lord. Being forgiven means God no longer counts our sins against us. This is an immeasurable blessing but with it comes a huge responsibility because the Lord expects of us to do the same for others who offend us.

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Jesus Puts our Focus on the Right Things

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Sea of Galilee near Tabgha

Sea of Galilee near Tabgha (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Scripture Reference: Matthew 15:29-39

Jesus went to the Sea of Galilee where many people came to Him. They brought the sick and disabled to Him, putting them at His feet. He healed those brought to Him.

The people were in awe as they saw with their own eyes how the mute started speaking, the crippled limbs made well, the paralyzed walking and the blind people receiving their sight. They had enough insight to recognize these things as a gift from God and praised Him accordingly.

After 3 days of this, Jesus called His disciples closer and told them that He is concerned about the people who have been there with Him for 3 days. By this time they had no more food left to eat. He didn’t want to send them back as hungry as they were because He didn’t want them to collapse from hunger along the way.

The disciples didn’t know how they were going to solve this dilemma. They didn’t have nearly enough to feed all the people before they left. They were in a remote place and there were no shops nearby from where they could buy food.

Jesus shifted their focus from what they did not have (no shops, not enough food) to what they did have. “How many loaves do you have?” They only had 7 loaves of bread and a few small fish. With that, He told the crowd to sit down. He gave thanks for what they did have. He broke the bread, gave them to the disciples who in turn served the people and everyone ate and was satisfied.

Amazing things can happen when we take our eyes off what we don’t have and focus on what we do have, thank God for it and share it with others in need. Not only were everyone satisfied, but there were seven basketfuls of leftovers. The number of people counted there were 4000 men excluding women and children.

It is natural for us to want to focus on what we don’t have. We look around us and see how far we fall short. But Jesus takes our eyes away from what we don’t have and puts our focus on the right things. Instead of looking around and measuring our shortcomings, He teaches us to look up for it is in God that we will find no limits –no limits in resources, no limits in strength and power and no limits to His great love and mercy.

“Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.” Hebrews 12:1b-2a NLT

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The Danger of Familiarity

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Blyde River Canyon

Blyde River Canyon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Scripture Reference: Matthew 13:53-58

As Jesus moved from town to town, people were amazed at His understanding and His teachings, except when He went to His home town. As He was teaching people in the synagogue, they were initially in awe of His wisdom, but that soon changed. Familiarity can be a dangerous thing.

Even as they expressed their amazement, they started to question His abilities. How could it be that He is anything special? He is just the carpenter’s son. He grew up in front of them. They knew His mother and His siblings. These all appeared normal. How is it that He has wisdom and miraculous powers? What makes Him so special? Who does He think He is? Their amazement turned to offense.

Suddenly, the very things that were given so that they could put their faith in Him became the source of offense and they turned their backs on Immanuel. They brushed Him aside because they looked at what was familiar about Him and rejected the possibility that God could be operating through someone they knew so well.

Jesus took it in His stride. He didn’t seem to be taken by surprise by their sudden change of heart. He knew what lives in the human heart and wasn’t swayed by the approval of men.

Many began to trust in him. But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew human nature.  No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like. (John 2:23b-25).

Jesus knows how we  sometimes allow our emotions to rule us. The day came when these same people who were ooh-ing and aah-ing at His wisdom shouted, “Crucify Him!” He knew how people can become blind followers of the latest religious trends without their hearts being engaged in what they are doing.  That’s the danger of being a slave to our fickle emotions.

Furthermore, Jesus used this negative situation to teach His disciples a valuable lesson in preparation of their own ministry.  “A prophet is not without honour except in his hometown and in his own home.” He is preparing them to expect that they will be least received among the people who saw them grow up and who lived in the same house as them. Familiarity breeds contempt. When people figure they know you well, they will refuse to believe that God could be doing something new in you.

Familiarity often causes people to stumble and miss God’s action right under their noses. Not only do they lose the opportunity to be a part of what God is doing around them, but they miss the opportunity to be a part of what God can do in them. Look at what happened in Jesus’ home town. Because of their lack of faith, Jesus did not do many miracles there. Many people were robbed of healing and restoration because they looked at what they thought they had all figured out. They dismissed the idea that God could be operating through someone they knew since His childhood. Because of their off-handed dismissal of Jesus they also missed the miraculous.

My prayer is that this will serve as a warning not to look down on those whom we think we  ”know well.” May we not fall into the same trap as the people did in Jesus’ home town. Let’s look beyond what we deem familiar and look to an all powerful God who knows best and chooses whom He wants to.

Think of David. His own family never considered him worthy of being anointed King of Israel. They didn’t even invite him to the line-up. They left him in the fields. His own brother called him conceited when he inquired about Goliath and told him to go back to his few sheep. Ironically it is this “conceited” fellow that God called a man after His own heart. May a “know-it-all” attitude not lead us to condemn those whom God has chosen. By opening our hearts to God’s action in people (even the ones we know), we are opening our hearts to the miraculous.

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Focus on What’s Truly Important to God

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Two Cherries

Scripture Reference: Matthew 15:1-20 The self-righteous church leaders of Jesus’ day inadvertently presented Him with golden opportunities to correct distorted thinking. In this portion, Jesus discusses how important it is to focus on what’s truly important to God.We are prone to … Continue reading →

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