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 27-28.

    One of the mysteries of the Gospel for me has always been, why did Judas betray Jesus? Some have suggested that Judas was trying to force Jesus to start the revolution against Rome that he was convinced the Messiah would lead. If that is true, it would explain Judas’ actions when he realized that Jesus was going to be crucified. Judas may have thought he was just forcing a friend to do something that friend was reluctant to do. Then, because he did not understand any more than the rest of the disciples that Jesus would rise from the dead, he concluded that Jesus was NOT the Messiah. Judas could not live with himself after his loss of faith. Judas did not want to live in a world where God did not do things the way he thought He should. I want to say that I do not want to live in a world where God always does things the way I think He should.

    Every time I read this I see a new reference to Psalm 22. There is the reference to Psalms 22:18 when the soldiers gamble for His clothing. Then there is the reference I never noticed before when the religious leaders mocked Jesus by saying, “He trusted God, so let God rescue him now…” This brings to mind Psalm 22:8

“Is this the one who relies on the Lord?
Then let the Lord save him!
If the Lord loves him so much,
let the Lord rescue him!”

There may be more such references, but the key one which ties them all together is when Jesus cries out the first line of Psalms 22 shortly before dying, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” While this was indeed a cry of despair, I believe it was also a declaration of faith and hope. In Psalm 22, the same voice which starts out crying out in despair and which catalogs all of its reasons for despair, finishes the psalm by declaring that he would praise God in the assembly and that God does not ignore those who cry to Him for help. I believe that when Matthew wrote about Jesus giving the disciples the Great Commission he considered himself to be mirroring the end of Psalm 22:

His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born.
They will hear about everything he has done.

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 25-26.

    The passage begins with two parables about being prepared for the Kingdom of God. The first, the parable of the bridesmaids, reminds us that we must continue to serve God until He calls us home. We cannot do good and then rest on our laurels. The second, the parable of the three servants, reminds us that God has given us things, talents, gifts, material possessions, in order to serve Him. We must put what He has given us to good use in order to further His purposes. Finally in this series, Jesus gives an account of Judgement Day involving sheep and goats. In this he tells us what sorts of actions the first two were talking about: feeding the poor, providing water to the thirsty, offering hospitality to strangers, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, visiting those in prison.

    However, almost immediately after that we have the story of the woman anointing Jesus’ feet with perfume. I am not completely sure of the meaning of this incident, but its message contains a lesson that providing a little luxury to those who serve God is not wrong. That not every ounce of our energy and resources must be spent relieving the suffering of the poor. An element in my believing that I am missing something is the fact that Matthew juxtaposes this incident with Judas selling out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. I think that there is more to it than this, but Matthew is telling us that we can become too obsessed with money, even when we intend to do good things with the money.

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 23-24.

    I think we often miss Jesus’ true intent when we read His condemnation of the Pharisees and other religious leaders. We tend to read it as directed at someone else, not ourselves. The fact of the matter is that His words are directed at us, because right in the middle of condemning the Pharisees and other religious leaders He gives His followers direct instructions. He condemns the Pharisees and sets them up in direct contrast to how we should behave. They do things for show and set themselves up as above the common man. They seek to be called teacher and desire fancy titles. But Jesus tells us that we should not let anyone address us with a title which elevates us above themselves. We are all equal, nothing more than servants of God. If we want to be important, we must seek to honor others above ourselves.
    Related to this Jesus warns us against setting up and following rules designed to let us get around the rules. Rules that let me deceive people by taking an oath that “doesn’t count”, while those in the know would know to make me take an oath which does. Rules which allow me to declare myself righteous by giving a percentage of my wealth to charity while obtaining more by taking advantage of the poor and unfortunate. God will not honor such loopholes. If you are looking for the loopholes in God’s commands, you have missed the point and will pay the price.

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 21-22.

    When Jesus entered Jerusalem for His final Passover before His crucifixion, He symbolically declared Himself the Messiah by riding in on the back of a donkey. Jesus rode in as a King at peace, a King whose battles were over. He did not ride into Jerusalem as a king going to war, but as a King declaring peaceful intentions. However, the first thing He did when He got into Jerusalem was go into the Temple and drive out the merchants exploiting those who came to worship God. This juxtaposition shows us that Jesus’ call to peace was not a call to lay down and submit. The following day the religious leaders challenged Jesus’ authority to do what He had done. It appears to me that they were challenging both His authority to chase the merchants out of the Temple and to conduct the parade He had led into the city the previous day. We can learn a lot from the way Jesus answered their question. If Jesus had answered their question by saying that He had been given authority by God to do as He had done, they would have accused Him of blasphemy. Instead of answering the question on their terms, He re-framed the question by asking them by what authority John the Baptist preached, that of God, or of man. The religious leaders unwillingness to answer Jesus’ question made it clear that they intended to use His answer to their question against Him, no matter what answer He gave.

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 18-20.

    At the beginning and near the end of today’s passage Jesus discusses what it takes to be great in the Kingdom of Heaven, what it takes to be a godly leader. I do not think that I can fully express what Jesus meant when He said that we needed to become like little children in order to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. However, He specifically talks about being as humble as a little child. At least part of what Jesus is talking about is the way that children tend to view all adults as more important, more worthy of respect than themselves. There is more to it than that, but, in light of what Jesus says about what it takes to be a godly leader, that is the core.
    In the secular world, leaders tell others what to do in order to accomplish things which serve the interests of the leader. In the Kingdom of Heaven, leaders direct others to do things which further the interests of those who the leader is directing. Yes, the godly leader will direct people to do God’s will, but the godly leader will seek how he can make you better able to perform your ministry, not how you can make him more effective at his ministry. The true leader will seek how he can help others do their jobs better and more efficiently.

    I want to tie together two of Jesus’ teachings which we often separate. The first is Jesus’ teaching on how to deal with those who sin within the Church Body. This teaching is especially important to follow if you are the victim of that sin (or feel that you are). The second is Jesus’ teaching on how often we should forgive those who have sinned against us. Jesus tells us that if a brother or sister has sinned, especially if it is against us, we should go to them privately and discuss it with them. If we cannot resolve the issue privately, we should take a couple of witnesses with us. Now, sometime back it struck me that this means we should go to them for dialogue to discuss what happened. Perhaps we misunderstood and the person had not committed the sin we thought that they had. Then if when we talk to them they fail to show us how we had misunderstood the situation and fail to understand that they had done wrong, we bring in neutral third parties to hear both of our sides to the story. Then, if we cannot resolve the dispute, we take it to the entire Church. Even at this point, people should not prejudge who is in the wrong. When we think we have been wronged we should be willing to forgive, again and again. An important part of that is recognizing that we may have been the one in the wrong (if for no other reason than that we supposed the other person had sinned when they had not). No matter what wrong others have done to us, it does not add up to the wrong we have done, nor does it justify us doing that wrong. Our goal when we confront another sinner should be repentance and reconciliation. And that repentance should be both ours and theirs.

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.

    At the beginning of today’s passage the Pharisees confront Jesus because His disciples do not follow their traditional interpretation of how to follow the Law of Moses. When Jesus replied to their confrontation over keeping the Sabbath, He told them that their traditions went too far because they did not understand the purpose of the Law. This time He is less gentle. He tells them that they have developed their traditions as a way to get around the Law. Following the traditions had become more important to them than following God’s Law. There is value in traditions, but we must never allow tradition to prevent us from doing God’s will.

    As with the previous passages I have read in Matthew this year today’s passage is dense in lessons for us. I am not sure how to transition into what I want to write about the Transfiguration. What I have to say is not particularly original, but I think it is important. The experience comes shortly after Peter, on behalf of all of the disciples, acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God. It also occurred after Jesus started teaching His disciples that He would need to die. It was a high point for those present. However, like all such experiences in this life, it did not last. I believe it energized Jesus for the hard part of His ministry, which was about to begin, and provided Peter, James, and John an experience to look back on when they truly began their ministries. Experiences such as the transfiguration are wonderful, but any attempt to make them last will rob them of their meaning.

    When Jesus came down from the mountain where He was transfigured, He was met by a father whose son was demon possessed. The disciples who had not joined Jesus on the mountain had been unable to drive the demon out of the boy, but Jesus was able to do so easily. When the disciples later asked Jesus why they were unable to do os, Jesus told them it was because they lacked faith. Then He told them that if their faith was as big as, but no bigger, a mustard seed they could tell a mountain to move and it would do so. I have come to believe that there are two aspects to the faith Jesus is talking about here. The first part, which most people understand, is that we must believe that God is able to do what ask and that He will do so. The second part is that we need to believe that what we are asking for advances God’s will. It seems to me that we often overlook what this second part means. If we believe that it is God’s will that this mountain move from where it is to some other place, we will not wait until God miraculously moves it. We will grab whatever tools we can obtain and start moving it, even if those tools are nothing but shovels. Sometimes God will miraculously move the mountain, but sometimes He will provide us with the tools to do so.

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 13-14.

    I usually focus on Jesus’ parables when I read this passage, but today I want to focus on Jesus’ explanation of why He taught with parables. There are actually two parts to that explanation, one explicit and one which I only just realized (although thinking about it, I believe that I have heard it touched upon before). Jesus tells us that He taught in parables because so many people look, but do not see, and hear, but do not listen. And that leads me to the part I just realized. Jesus did not teach in parables to hide the truth He was teaching. He spoke in parables because even the people who were not really listening would often remember the parable. Then later when things had happened in their life which made them receptive to His message, the Holy Spirit could use the parable to reveal God’s truth to them.
    When Jesus talked about looking but not seeing, and hearing but not listening, He was making a comment about how we, all too often, go through life. We look at the people around us, but we do not see what they are going through. We hear what they say, but we do not listen to what they mean. Oh yes, when Jesus said this He was talking about seeing what God is doing and listening to what God is saying, but if we truly see what God is doing and listen to what He is saying we will do the same for the people around us. The reverse is also true. The less we see what the people around us are going through and listen to what they mean, the less we will be able to see what God is doing or understand what He is saying.

    At the beginning I kind of implied that I was not going to talk about the parables today. However, I want to touch upon the parable of the yeast. Jesus’ point was that a very small amount of an ingredient, if it is the right ingredient, can have a large impact on how a recipe turns out. A typical bread recipe calls for 1/4 ounce of yeast to 6 cups of flower. Six cups of flour weigh more than 25 ounces, which is more than 100 times the amount of yeast. I make mead (which is essentially honey wine). In the process, only a small amount of yeast is necessary to ferment a large amount of liquid. The thing is that in many ways the hardest part of making mead is keeping everything clean, because it takes only a small amount of bacteria to ruin the batch. So, the lesson here is that a small number of people can make a huge difference in society for good or bad.
    So, if we strive to make a difference in society, and Jesus teaches that we should, how do we make sure that we make a positive difference and not a negative one? The account of what Peter did when Jesus walked on the water gives us the answer (although not from within the metaphor of yeast). When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water, he wanted to do the same in order to go to Jesus. As long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus he was able to walk on the water. As soon as he began to look at other things, he began to sink. As soon as he lost his focus on going to where Jesus was, he stopped being able to walk on water. As soon as we stop focusing on Jesus and doing what He wants us to do, we stop being a positive influence on those around us.