Bible Reading Challenge Blog

The kingdom of heaven is Jesus’ favorite theme upon which to teach.  He addresses the issue of when he is going to be coming back again and what we need to do in order to be prepared when he comes back again.  In the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids we have those who are ready for the second coming of Christ and they bring along extra supplies just in case he delays.  The constant theme that we hear over and over again is that we just simply do not know when he is coming, but he is coming, and we have to be ready.  We can’t go off and live our own lives that are devoid of Jesus’ influence and think that we are going to be ready when he comes back again.

The parable of the reproduced talents is also one of my favorites because it does emphasize how we have to work with what God has given us.  It raises the point that each of us is given something different from those around us.  If we do not risk for the sake of the kingdom of God then Jesus will find us lacking.  There are some really harsh and strong words in this parable, but words that should not shock us, but rather motivate us.

The final parable of the sheep and goats emphasizes more what we do while we are on this earth and the ways in which we use our resources for our neighbors around us.  We never stress that we will be judged in any way upon our actions here on this earth because we recognize that we can never work hard enough or do enough in order to justify our salvation on our works.  But this parable should give us pause.  If we have no regard for the least of these, then Jesus will have no regard for us.  Those are strong words because our Savior wants us to be strong in the way in which we follow him.

Let’s talk a little about parables.  Jesus’ disciples ask him why he insists on teaching in parables back in Matthew 13.  Do you remember the parable of the sower?  Jesus answers that he teaches in parables because he wants to reveal the kingdom of heaven to some, but hide it from others.  There are those who are so intent on their own welfare and their own life that what happens around them and to their neighbor seems insignificant to them.  To them is hidden the lessons from these parables.  Stories are powerful mediums in which to hide the truths of God.  God desires us to know that He is coming back again, and wants us to be ready.  But He also does not tell us exactly when that will be so that we will always be ready.

This is probably the most difficult chapter of Matthew to understand.  So stay with me, as we plod our way through it.  I actually hope you don’t feel that it is plodding, but rather discovering truths that before had remained hidden.  The operative verses in this passage are found in vss. 36, 42, 44.  Reread them and see if you get a sense for what Jesus is saying.  Jesus is saying that the last days are coming, and in fact today we are closer to the last days than we were yesterday.  Tomorrow we will be even a day closer than we were today.  But, and this is key, we do not know when that day is coming.  We cannot predict that day, we cannot line up historical events that are happening in our day or that have happened in the past and try to say that we are this close because we can predict the days in Scripture.  According to Matthew, we cannot predict.

What we do know is that Jesus is coming back.  Before he comes back there will be suffering and difficulty and false teachers and false prophets.  There will be people who come and try to lead Jesus’ disciples away from the truths of Scripture, these truths that focus upon a relationship between God and neighbor.  There will be those who say that the only thing that matters is a relationship with Jesus and how we treat people on this earth doesn’t really matter.  There will be those who say that the more finances you give to the church then the more God will bless you financially, and that is the goal, isn’t it, to be secure financially?  Matthew says don’t listen to any of these people.  These messages don’t change everything, in fact, they don’t change anything.

Above you will find the wailing wall.  This wall is the last remaining wall of the grounds of the temple in Jerusalem.  Chapter 24 begins with Jesus coming out of the temple.  It could have been at this exit where Jesus departed the temple, we just don’t know (you may notice some familiar faces, or at least backs in this picture).  But it is called the wailing wall because this wall reminds the people of Israel that the promises that God has made will not come about until the temple is rebuilt within this wall.  If you look at the right side of the picture just above the wall you will see the top of a mosque which is situated within the temple grounds.  For the people of Israel this is also something about which to wail.

The verses that I gave you previously reminds us that Jesus commands us to be vigilant and always ready because we can never know when He will be coming back again.  It is a great lesson for us whenever we slip into complacency.  There needs to be a constant sense of urgency in our faith walk, for who knows, just right now the Lord might call us away.

The verse which really defines what Jesus says in this entire chapter is vs. 3.  The religious leaders did not practice what they preached.  As a pastor looking outside of my office window at the 3 feet of snow, I wonder in what ways do I fall short so that Jesus might, just might, call me a hypocrite.  I am sure there are many areas of my life that are found wanting.  But this chapter is by far the harshest criticism of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day.  At the new members class we had one couple who said that they loved the church because it just seemed like a perfect place to raise a family.  There were no identifiable issues with which we were dealing.  I told them to give us a few weeks and you will find out that we are like every other church in many ways.

The hypocrisy that Jesus is especially speaking out against is when the leaders of the church set up more laws and more requirements to heaven than what Scripture allows.  We do not follow a set of rules, but rather a risen Savior.  Jesus tells the religious leaders not to focus on profit and benefiting from what the people bring in to them so that they can profit from it.  The religious leaders focus on how they were able to profit the most from the sacrifices of the people.  I guess the only parallel for today would be how do religious leaders profit from weddings, or baptisms, or funerals?  Or maybe we stress the numbers that attend so much that we tell people false theologies built around feeling good so that they will keep on coming.  

Maybe as you are reading this you can say that these verses are not addressed to you because you are not in a paid position of leadership in the church.  In some ways you are right, Jesus is not calling you a hypocrite.  But I would encourage you to identify ways in which the church and its leaders can be held more accountable so that there would never come a day at First Presbyterian where Jesus would say: make sure you listen to what they teach and follow it, but don’t do what they do.  That would be the worst kind of criticism possible.  We, pastors, need to be held accountable and you, the members, are the only who are able to do that.

In yesterday’s reading we found included the very important passage of Jesus opening up salvation not just to the people of Israel, but to all who would call him Lord and Savior.  The first parable for today continues that theme.  The wedding banquet is another name for the kingdom of God.  The guests who were first invited were those who were the children of Abraham, but they refused to respond to the invitation offered by the Lord.  They even went so far as to kill the servants, which we said yesterday refers to the prophets who brought warnings and the Word of God to the people.  So the king says fling open the doors, let anyone enter into the kingdom of God.  Just so that we are all aware, that act of flinging open the doors is what allows us to have a personal relationship with Jesus.  As far as the poor guy without a wedding robe on, not sure what to make of him.  Maybe, just maybe, he came along for the ride and didn’t really understand that this was a wedding after all.  Maybe he didn’t understand that this was an (maybe his only) opportunity to have a time with the Lord of all creation.

There are a few other classic teachings in this Scripture.  The “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” is an absolute classic.  Especially as we come up to tax season we find ourselves having to figure out exactly how much do we owe Caesar.  It is important to note that Jesus requires us to perform our civic duties, especially paying our taxes.  There is no wiggle room to be able to say that Jesus didn’t really mean that we have to do that which the government requires in this regard.  I know some would like to be isolationists in regards to the government, but Jesus is consistent on this issue.  

Then we have the greatest commandment which is twofold.  Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.  You will notice the vertical relationship between us and God and the importance of that relationship.  Equally important is to love your neighbor as yourself.  That horizontal relationship is not in any way secondary to the first.  The problem is how do we judge whether we have a solid love of the Lord our God?  There is no measuring stick.  But we do have a measuring stick in regards to our neighbor.  Do we love our neighbor as ourselves?  Are we in the mindset that if there is a single person who is hungry, or without clothes, or without shelter that it actually affects us.  It is so much easier to focus on the spiritual and let aside the pragmatic challenges that face us daily.  As Jesus said: You will have the poor with you always.”  That is true, and so we must always consider the poor to be our neighbor and our priority.  This would be a great time to reread the book of James as a little extra homework for you.  It fits hand in glove with this Scripture.

You have made it through all the way until the last week of Jesus’ life.  Didn’t that just fly by?  It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of the first Gospel on our challenge.  The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, what we call Palm Sunday, begins our Holy Week.  It was like any other week in Jesus’ life, except it ends with the culmination of his death and ultimate resurrection.  Holy Week simply means the last week of Jesus’ life, and this Scripture marks the beginning of that week.

Palm Sunday in Matthew is the most curious of any of the Gospels.  Do you notice how many animals the Gospel writer has Jesus ride into Jerusalem?  It is hard enough to keep one donkey on track, much less a donkey and a colt of a donkey.  Don’t get hung up on the detail, the point is that a king riding into a city in peace would be riding a donkey and not a war horse.  Look at Zechariah 9:9-10 where you see a king who is ushering peace into the world would be riding a donkey.  Instead of riding to conquer, Jesus rode to bring in peace.

Admittedly that peace is short lived as Jesus is shown driving out the money changers from the temple.  This verse is used more than any other as a proof text that Jesus was willing to use force, even violence.  It is a terrible example as a proof text.  The driving out of the money changers, even with whips, was not an act of violence.  The whips were used to drive out the animals that were making the temple unclean.  The overturning of the tables was done in an effort to highlight the strange straying from the temple as a place of worship to a place of commerce.  Jesus was not thinking, now I get to give people of the 21st century a justification for the use of force.  If we are that desperate to justify force, then maybe we should pay more attention to Jesus saying we should turn the other cheek or forgive 70×7.  

The parable of the wicked tenants is not one of my favorites, but it does show very clearly the purpose of Jesus coming into this world.  It also presents to the leaders of the temple of that day a very real harbinger of God taking away their place of privilege and giving it to those who would follow Jesus.  The moral of the parable is that God sent his servants, who would be the prophets and specifically John the Baptist, to  let people know that the kingdom of God is at hand and that they are to be gathering fruit.  We are to be bringing people to a closer relationship with Jesus, that is gathering fruit.

But instead of responding to those who came before Jesus, we turned our backs on the prophets, and killed John the Baptist.  So God our Father decided to send His only Son, His beloved, Jesus, and we treated Jesus the same way that we treated those who came before him.  We tortured him and killed him on a cross.  Ultimately we thought we could save ourselves, that’s what the words of tenants refer to when they say: “let us kill him and get his inheritance” as if the works of our hands could in any way win us a place before God.

So God decided that the tenants who had originally been caretakers of his vineyard would be replaced by those who were loyal to him.  Many see this as the expansion of the Gospel from the exclusive emphasis on the people of Israel to now include gentiles and those who do not come from the Jewish background.  The end result is that now all who are loyal to Jesus Christ are able to claim the kingdom as they work for the Father.  

This desire to try to live our lives as independent beings has been tested throughout history.  Before WWII humanism was taking root to the point where people thought that maybe, just maybe, we had reached the point where humans were able to live alongside each other and figure things out on their own.  The outbreak of the war drove many people to desperation not only because of the massive scale of deaths, but because of their disillusionment in the ability of humans to make things right by themselves. 

Currently there is a wave of secular humanism that is searching for community and meaning among gatherings of people focused on, well, people.  A book by a good friend of mine who is a leading voice in secular humanism is entitled Grace Without God.  The title is disturbing, but it also reflects the belief in many “noners”, people who have no religious affiliation, that people are able to achieve meaning and community even without the presence of the belief in God.  It does remind me of the tenants, who may not be wicked in the 21st century, but certainly are desperately searching for meaning in a society that fails to provide them meaning and a church that institutionally has systematically disillusioned.  I hope that people are able to plug into churches and meet people who are disciples of Jesus Christ without an agenda, and so turn their hearts back to a living Jesus.

One word about this painting.  It is by Giotto and it is significantly earlier than the Baroque period which was when Caravaggio was around.  I love the bottom right hand corner where you see people literally disrobing in order to place their clothes in the pathway of Jesus.  The little people in the trees are also pretty entertaining.  All of this artwork has been impactful for me in different times in my life.  I remember seeing this fresco in Padova when I was studying in Rome and my calling to the ministry seemed to come back to life even stronger.  The Lord uses many different mediums to call us back to Him.

This parable ranks in the top three of my favorite parables.  It is such a great teaching tool.  I use it to show that God is not fair.  That’s right, God is not fair.  If God were fair none of us would have a chance to even get a glimpse of the kingdom of God.  Because God is not fair, we are all given the free gift of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ.  Fairness in our world means that we get what we deserve.  With God, we get what we don’t deserve.  The free grace offered to us is not anything that we worked for, or anything that we can say in the least bit that we had it coming to us.  Instead, it is grace, it is a gift that we received just because God is good.

Think about the parable and what it means that someone who worked 1 hour got a full day wage, and he was paid first, and someone who worked the normal 12 hour work day received the same full day wage.  The latter received what was agreed upon, what was fair.  The former received way more than he deserved.  When we compare what we receive it is then that we grumble.  When we look around us and see what others have, it is then that we become unhappy.  When we focus on the gifts and the blessings that God gives to us and not be caught up with what others have, then we are satisfied.  I praise God every day that He is not fair.  If He were fair we would all be in a world of hurt.

Today is Snowmageddon, as I affectionately like to call it.  Our puppy had her first venture out in the snow.  Her first venture she hated, she turned around and came back in.  But her second time out we couldn’t get her back in, she loved it!  The snow was over her head and she was jumping all around the yard like a rabbit.  It was such a fun sight to see.  I pray that this journey of the 90 Day Challenge is one where maybe you entered with a little trepidation, unsure if this was really what you were cut out to do.  Now that we are three weeks into it, I pray that you are enthusiastically looking forward to the next day to see what lessons God just might place upon your heart.

The end of this chapter contains a caveat on what it means to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  It is all predicated on our willingness to be servants to others.  “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”  If we would only set our sights on using this as our calling card then our lives would be so much more significant and satisfying.  If we knew that when we left our houses we were on the lookout on how can we be servants to others, I guess it would change our perspective permanently.  The world tells us to leave our houses looking for opportunities to get ahead.  What if we instead looked for opportunities to get other people ahead.   

The teaching on divorce is one that many would rather stay away from.  Interestingly enough, Matthew 19 begins more on a theme about marriage than he does about divorce.  Jesus states very clearly his understanding of what marriage is supposed to look like.  Look at verses 4-5: “the one who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.”  Jesus’ view of marriage according to our standards is the most traditional one could find.

His view on divorce was even more strict in his day than it would be today.  Back in the 1st century a Jewish man could divorce his wife if he woke up one day and found her displeasing.  He could write her a certificate of divorce, she would have to leave the safety and the security of the house, she would have no income, she would be shamed and shunned by her family as a divorced woman, and more than likely she would need to prostitute herself in order to survive.  Jesus saw an injustice in what was happening in the 1st century and told the religious leaders: “You are not to divorce for any reason except for adultery.”

It is a hard teaching, but it is a sound teaching.  It is a teaching which applies for us today.  Divorce leaves its scars on all who are in its wake.  No one is left unaffected, and no family today is immune from divorce.  No family.  His disciples rightly say that it must be better to not marry at all. Even Paul states that it is better to be a servant of God unfettered by the marital bond.  But not everyone, in fact very few, are capable of being “eunuchs” for the Lord.  It was certainly not my calling, and I am quite grateful to the Lord that he blessed me with the calling of being in a marriage relationship and provided the perfect partner, Stacy my wife, for that calling.

Jesus then launches into a blessing of the children followed by the very famous warning for those who are rich.  “It is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”  He commands the rich young ruler to sell all of his possessions.  There are some difficult teachings in this chapter that don’t necessarily make us merry.  The teaching on divorce is personal to many of us.  The teaching on wealth is personal to all of us.  Jesus didn’t shy away from personal teachings.  Thanks be to God for that.  Now if only we would take it personally.

There are quite a few extremes in these verses, but before we get to those, let’s talk about the children.  Jesus speaks about the importance of children and their upbringing in the faith from vs. 1 all the way through vs. 14.  In vs. 2 he physically puts a child in front of those who are near him and says “unless you change…”  The emphasis was on us changing so that we could “become humble”.  The humility of knowing that you don’t know is what Jesus underlines.  This trait is found in children.  One of my favorite times of the week is chapel time with the children.  They do not know the Bible stories and are always so excited to act them out.  They love to learn, they love to be together, and it is absolutely contagious.

Jesus not only recommends our changing to be more like children, but has his harshest words for those who just might lead children astray.  Kids who are caught in the crossfire of a divorce often find themselves with scars that are difficult to heal.  Jesus uses the image of the lost sheep to describe a child who has strayed and gone from the faith and the effort that Jesus is willing to undergo in order to bring him/her back to the fold.  As vs. 14 states: “So it is not the will of my Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.”

Jesus switches gears at vs.15 and addresses conflict within the church.  If we are upset with a member of the church we can’t let it simmer, we have to approach them directly, one on one (vs.15).  If that doesn’t help, and to be honest probably 95% of the time it does help, then you ask someone to go with you.  I would guess that this would help probably 100% of the time.  But we often skip the first step of going by ourselves because we feel like we need a little more support so we immediately skip to the second step.  That isn’t what Scripture tells us, in fact, if we do skip the first step, then we are actually going against Scripture and causing the other person to feel defensive and so we force them to act negatively.

Hand in glove with this verse is Jesus’ admonishment to forgive people an infinite amount of times.  Anytime a member of the church sins against you, it is our responsibility to forgive them an infinite amount of times.  Now, that does not mean that we take the liberty of not approaching them and sharing with them our concern.  It is absolutely crucial that none of these steps are missed.  We must approach a member with whom we feel we are at odds, and we must forgive them.  We can’t think that if we forgive them then we don’t have to approach them, that is not how it works.

We learn that Jesus wants us to be reconciled with each other and that children have a special place in Jesus heart.  These are key understandings to our relationship with our Savior, even if they are unrelated.

If you know your Baroque art then you know the image below is not from Caravaggio, but rather from Raphael.  It is a depiction of the transfiguration which is the story that we find at the beginning of Matthew 17.  As soon as you walk into St. Peter’s along the left hand side about halfway down you will see this painting.  It has always taken away my breath.  It is the full depiction of Matthew 17.  Look at it closely.   From the top to the bottom you see the chapter played out.  You find Jesus in his white arraignment, transfigured, on the top of the mountain with Elijah and Moses on his sides.  Peter, James, and John are prostate under the three figures and I’m guessing it is right after God says: “Listen to him!”  

Don’t you love Peter?  He is such a go-getter.  I’ve got a great idea, let’s make three booths so that we can keep you here forever.  We often have great ideas and jump way ahead of where God wants to go and eventually find ourselves in a bit of a pickle wondering why God didn’t help us out.  Well, maybe we wanted the safety of God in our booth so that we could let Him in and out as we pleased.  That’s not the way the Holy Spirit works.

Do you notice who else made the painting.  We find the man who wants his son healed, and brings him to Jesus before the whole crowd and we find ourselves in a place where they are not able to heal him.  You can see them trying to heal him and pointing at him, and then pointing at Jesus like, there, he’s the one who can do it, because we can’t.  I love this painting.  It is all of Matthew 17 wrapped into one painting.

Okay, what about the Scripture?  The Transfiguration is a portion of Scripture which reveals to the disciples the true person of Jesus.  He is the embodiment of God and the fulfillment of Scripture.  Elijah represents the one who will return to pave the way for the Messiah.  John the Baptist played that role.  He announced the coming of Jesus.  Moses represents the giver of the law and Jesus is the one who came and was a testimony and the fulfillment of the law.

It is a great Scripture which really shows who Jesus was.  And then you have the fish with a coin in his mouth.  It does seem a bit random, but it works because it shows that Jesus and his disciples were not completely removed from the world.  Even in the Scripture where Jesus says render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s is a testimony to Jesus telling his disciples to remain in the world, even while being distinct.   

It has been a while since I included a Caravaggio painting, but this one is one of my favorites.  You find the scene of the Apostle Peter being crucified upside down, so that he would not undergo the same death as his Savior Jesus.  We don’t read about this in Scripture, but it is alluded to in John 21:18-19 very vaguely.

But back to our Scripture, we find here the verses that have been a point of contention between Reformed or Protestant theology and Roman Catholic theology.  Read again what Jesus says to Peter in vs.18-19 of this chapter.  It is interesting to note that Peter enjoys in this one chapter the best of days and the worst of days.  

The best of days comes from answering correctly that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.  Jesus rewards him with a wonderful accolade and lays out before him what the church is going to be like.  As Protestants we say that the foundation upon which the church is built is the rock of the statement of Peter which is that Jesus is Messiah.  But the word play that Jesus uses can be used to interpret his statement differently.  Look at those verses one more time.  The word for Peter in Greek is petros.  So in vs. 18 you could read: “You are petros (or the rock) and on this petros (or Peter) I will build my church.”  The Roman church has interpret this to mean throughout the ages that it is upon Peter and those who apostolically descended from him upon whom Jesus built his church.  From the persepctive of the Roman church this Scripture provides the justification for the role of the Pope which as Protestants we don’t follow.  It is a difference of interpretation that has shaped both churches dramatically along the lines of authority being vested within the church and the tradition or authority being vested solely upon the Words of Scripture and the person of Jesus Christ.  

I don’t want to belabor the point but it is not just upon this rock which strikes us as Protestants as a problematic Scripture, but what Jesus says next.  “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  You can always pick out Peter in any work of art because he is the one with the keys.  It is from this Scripture that art history has attributed to Peter the role of key master.  So when we talk about confession in light of theses verses it causes our Protestant hair on the back of our neck to stand on end.  But what is a good explanation for these words by Jesus?  Is there some truth to Jesus giving Peter a certain opportunity that no other person on earth had before or has had since?  I have struggled to come to terms with these verses and have my own understanding of what Jesus meant in these verses.  Let’s see if you can follow.

Like all Scripture we have to be able to take it within the context of what is happening in the life of Jesus.  We know that Jesus knew that Peter would indeed be the Apostle who would be the leader when the church would explode across the land.  The church would be built upon the foundation of  the truth that Jesus is Messiah and it is in that truth upon which it is founded.  Peter knew that truth and the only hope the church would have would be that this truth of who Jesus was would be dispersed throughout the land.  Peter had the opportunity to either allow that foundation to be spread or to bring it to a crashing close.  Of course salvation was not in his hands, but the furthering of the Gospel was intricately woven into the desire and the opportunities that Peter chose to take or not.  I can’t believe that Peter ever had the power to forgive sins or not.  But I can believe that he had opportunities to spread the Gospel, which he took.  By reaching out with the Gospel he affected the lives of thousands and so in turn helped by providing them a glimpse into heaven which they could embrace and call as their own.  

Those were the best of days for Peter, but the worst of days soon follow.  Peter’s denial of who Jesus is begins in these verses.  He doesn’t understand the necessity of Jesus’ suffering and so tries to protect him and discourage him from being a half empty type of person.  Jesus, you will never suffer if I can help it.  That’s really nice Peter, but you don’t get it.  I have to suffer in order for you to have eternal life.  Okay, Jesus was a little more direct and little more caustic than what I just portrayed him as saying: “Get behind me Satan.”  Not much room for error in those words.