I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 15-17.

    When I first read this, I really wanted to write about what Jesus said about following human traditions, but it did not seem to come together. Then I started typing. There is a very human tendency to look for loopholes in the rules. Jesus tells us that God will judge us by the intent of His rules, not by the loophole we think we have found. When we choose to live according to what God desires rather than take advantage of the loopholes people have created to allow themselves to gain from giving us an out from the responsibilities God has given us we will offend those people. Jesus tells us not to be bothered by offending the self-righteous. This particular instruction applies to both the religiously self-righteous and to the politically correct self-righteous. However, while we do not need to worry about offending the self-righteous, what we say reflects what we genuinely feel and believe in our hearts.

    I just want to touch briefly on the story about the Gentile woman near Tyre and Sidon. This story illustrates what Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-8. The woman kept asking and she received that for which she asked. That makes her a model for us to follow.
    Now I want to go to Jesus’ response to Peter when he declared that Jesus was the Christ and when Peter rebuked Him for talking about His death. Jesus said that the Church would not be overcome by the gates of Hades (or Hell, or the Grave). I have often heard this interpreted as meaning that the Church (and we as members of it) will be able to stand up to any attacks Satan may throw at us. There is one problem with this: gates don’t attack, they defend. That means that the Church is intended to be on offense. It is out job as followers of Christ to take the battle to Hades, not to stand on defense and wait to be attacked. Which brings me to what Jesus said in response to Peter’s rebuke. We need to take up our cross, that is we need to embrace our death and our fears, in order to follow Jesus. It is by following Jesus into that which we fear that we will defeat that which we fear. If we willingly give up our lives, if we willingly face our fears to serve God, we will find life and joy. If, on the other hand, we fail to follow God’s call in order to save our lives and to avoid our fears, we will lose our lives and experience that which we fear. These two message go together. If we take up our cross and face down death and our fears to follow Christ, they will prove to be no obstacle at all.