Bible Reading Challenge Blog

I hope your eyes didn’t start to glaze over.  This is a tough chapter.  Jesus reminds us that it isn’t easy being a disciple of Jesus.  When I visit people in the hospital inevitably at one point or another someone will tell me: “Getting old isn’t for sissies.”  Not probably the right thing to put in a blog, but being a disciples of Jesus Christ is not smooth sailing in any way.  Often we think that once we accept the Savior then things will get easier.  That is not what this Scripture tells us.

Most of us would consider family as the most important thing in our life.  Well, Jesus says something very different.  Our allegiance has to be to our Savior first and foremost.  If you look at vs. 16-39 it is all about family strife and how Jesus did not necessarily come into the world to provide peace and harmony.  Rather, because of Jesus many families will be divided.

I will never forget Hassim who was a part of our Young Adult and Student group in Russia.  He came to the program with a friend and he was curious what the group was all about.  We would get more than 100 young adults and we would have Bible Study, games, and give out food at the end because many of the students were struggling to make ends meet.  Hassim came to the group and gave his life to Christ.  The next morning we received a panicked phone call from his friend who told us that his family had kicked him out of the house and refused to let him back in and were threatening to kill him.  Becoming a disciple for Hassim meant giving everything up, literally.  

The chapter begins with the calling of the disciples but it contains and ends with the realization that becoming a disciple is dangerous business.  I wonder how safe we feel as  Christians.  I guess pretty safe which ought to give us pause and wonder if we are doing things right.

I’m sitting in the sanctuary and it is 7:30. I love this time of the week. I tend to be by myself and there is a quiet and a peacefulness in this sanctuary as I lift up my praises and petitions to the Lord. Every Tuesday from 7:30-8 I’m in here seeking the way of the Lord. Today I get to read Matthew 9 and think of how this chapter can touch all of your lives as it has touched mine. You will notice that this chapter, like the ones preceding it and all of Matthew for the most part, contains events in Jesus’ life that are repeated in other Gospels, especially Mark. As we go along this 90 Day Challenge you will find some redundancy that can be confusing.
An example is the paralytic man who was healed by Jesus and had his sins forgiven. But I thought his friends lowered him through a hole in the roof… That’s Mark chapter 2. Then this woman with the issue of blood, I thought they were in a crowd of people and Jesus says he felt some of his power leave him… That’s in Mark 5. The details of the stories can get mixed up, but the fact remains that our Savior has compassion on those with whom he comes into contact in Scripture.
A couple things I wanted to lift up. Jesus’ statement in vs.12 about a physician coming only to those who are sick, which in essence provided the backdrop to a justification for sinners and tax collectors hanging out with Jesus, is a verse that has impacted me for my entire life. In college I joined a fraternity.  A non-drinking brother is a bit of an oddity, but it provided a plethora of opportunities to witness and impact lives that even to this day remain.

Putting aside all comparisons, this verse cannot devolve into an excuse for us to be a participant and a primary actor in the type of living that would be frowned upon by our Savior. We are absolutely commanded not to run away from the world, but to be in it. While we are in the world we are required to be different, even while being present with those who do not know Christ and are in need of him. Jesus was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton. He and his disciples didn’t fast as regularly as some of the other disciples following other rabbis did. There was a lot a about which people could point their fingers at Jesus and say that he was not walking the walk. I like that about him.
Lastly, vs. 37 is an iconic statement that we have all heard at one time or another.  The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.  So what happens in a field where there is a full harvest and the laborers are few?  I’m assuming some of the crop spoils because no one is there to tend to it.  Isn’t that what happens to people who are in their life primed to have a relationship with Jesus, come to church, but no one in the church reaches out to the new person because we are so intent in keeping our own circles and only reaching out to those that we know.  That’s a problem.  People visit First Presbyterian on a regular basis and they need to know that they are not only welcome, but loved.  I have a vision of a church where if a new person steps into the sanctuary you have 10 people lined up to invite them over to their house for lunch.  It is what Jesus would have done, and it is a sign that we are not spectators but laborers.

Last evening for the first time in my life I was a participant in an ordination service.  Simeon Harrar was ordained into the position of Director of Youth at First Presbyterian of Lancaster and he asked me to do the sermon.  What a humbling experience.  The centurion in Matthew 8 who tells Jesus that he is not worthy to have Jesus to come into his house marks the approach and the attitude that we ought to have when we find ourselves in the presence of the Lord.  We are not worthy.  When our new officers were trained on Saturday they were told that if you find yourself overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy that is exactly where Jesus wants you to be.  We are inadequate, we are not worthy, we cannot contribute a single cubit to our span of life nor contribute a single bit to our salvation.  

When we went to Israel we were able to spend a significant amount of time in Capernaum and we visited what is thought to be Peter’s house.  There really is nothing so powerful as actually going to a site that you  know that Jesus walked and where he performed miracles.  We went to a location where we were told that it could have been someplace like this where Jesus sent the herd of swine into the sea.  If you notice the people were not appreciative to have a few demoniacs off  their hands because they were so focused on the profit loss of the pigs who went racing into the sea.  Isn’t that also the case with us sometimes.  We are so focused on that which we consider important in our lives that when Jesus performs a miracle we just might miss it because of our misguided tunnel vision.

We learn from Jesus today that he is able to calm the storm in our lives but only when we find ourselves throwing ourselves at the Lord crying out: Save us!  When we are humble enough to accept that we cannot contribute to his saving grace, then he is able to work with us.

The wise man built his house upon the rock.  The wise man built his house upon the rock.  When you read Matthew 7 it is hard not to keep that children’s song out of your mind.  Okay, it’s hard for me, because we sing it in chapel with the kids frequently on Friday mornings.  What a great lesson, to build your house, to build your life upon the rock of Jesus Christ, for all other things are just sinking sands.

Once again we find a plethora of familiar concepts.  Do not judge, unless you are prepared to be judged by the same judgment.  I have always thought that our interpretation of this Scripture has been skewed.  It does say: “Do not judge.”  That is not the end of the sentence.  Rather, the Lord tell us that if you judge you had better be prepared to be judged by the same standard.  Don’t try to take a speck of dust out of your neighbor’s eye if you haven’t already located the log in your own eye and taken it out.

Don’t criticize people because they are shallow or obtuse, when you yourself delight in speaking about the faults of others.  Don’t get angry at slothfulness and inefficiency, when you don’t necessarily spend the amount of time that you ought to in carrying out your own work.  

There are some great practical approaches to life in this chapter which includes the Golden Rule.  That’s right, if you want to know what the Golden Rule is you can find it in Matthew 7:12 – ” In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.”  what a great rule for life.

Just when you thought you could catch your breath after the very densely packed chapter 5, chapter 6 comes and takes your breath away.  Again, so much to go over, but not enough space.  What a great exercise to remind ourselves of what our Savior expects of us and really wants of us so that we can live our lives in the freedom He has set out for us.

Jesus begins by giving us directives on prayer.  It is not about others being able to see that we are able to pray well or that we have a certain type of faith.  In fact, Jesus tells us to go into our own rooms and pray there to the Father so that we are not in any way tempted to try to pray in a way that would only reflect that others are watching us.

As an example of how to pray our Savior gives us the Lord’s Prayer.  I remember a time in my life when some people who were important to me advised me that any prayer which was written and not spontaneous for some reason didn’t really count.  It wasn’t really speaking with our Father, they told me.  The Lord’s prayer is a direct contradiction to that stream of thought, in fact it completely debunks that notion.  When we are in the quiet of our room and don’t know how to pray, the Lord’s Prayer can serve as a great bridge to begin our conversation with our Savior.  If Jesus recommended it, I would guess it is probably a safe bet that it is a prayer that is worthwhile and is safe to use.

But there is a problem embedded in the Lord’s prayer and Jesus addresses it in vs.14-15.  Okay, it’s not really a problem, it is more like a problem for me and I would guess for you as well.  Read vs. 14-15 again and what do you hear?  “If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  Or from the Lord’s Prayer “Forgive us our debts (sins), as we also have forgiven our debtors (those who have sinned against us)”.  Do you see the problem.  The Greek word for debts is really sins so what I put in parenthesis is really a more literal interpretation than either debts or trespasses, and one that more accurately reflects what Jesus was saying.  How can Jesus’ forgiveness of our sins be impingent upon whether we forgive others or not?  Does that not doom us to a life of unforgiven sin for who can truly forgive others besides Christ himself?

I’m not going to give an answer to those questions, because they are real and they remain in some ways unanswered.  What we do know is that Jesus really, really, really requires us to forgive others whether they are forgiveable or not.  Jesus really, really, really, requires us to forgive others whether they are asking for that forgiveness or not.  Jesus really, really, really, requires us to forgive others whether they are sorry for what they did or not.  For when we do not forgive others we are the only ones who truly suffer.  Sometimes we think that when we don’t forgive others then we are punishing them and they are the ones who are at a loss.  That simply is not true.  On whomever we choose to hold back our forgiveness, they have then in some way weaseled their way into our minds.  They then hold the upper hand.  Once you forgive then you can move on and live the kind of life that God wants us to live.  In the words of Frozen, Let it go!

This chapter also contains the imperative to store up treasures in heaven and not on earth as well as reminding us that we cannot serve two masters, wealth and Jesus.  What an interesting juxtaposition.  I would never think of putting wealth up against Jesus, but we do all the time.  There is a post on Facebook that is going around now, I’m not sure if it is legitimate or not, I didn’t Scopes it yet (that is verb now isn’t it?).   In that post you find the last days of Steve Jobs and his commentary on wealth and the meaning of life.  He actually mentions God, if it really is Steve Jobs.  But Jesus here (Did I just put Steve Jobs and Jesus in the same sentence and almost use them equally?  That’s scary) in Matthew speaks at length about wealth especially from the perspective of worry.  What amount of our time do we worry about having our needs met?  Okay, from our perspective maybe it is less our needs met than our desires and our wants met.  If we only had to meet our needs then we would all probably be fine.

But that is the point of His words here isn’t it?  The biggest compliment on my lifestyle that I ever received was from an Amish worker who came to repair our roof and as he looked around the house he said: why do you and your wife choose to live so simply?  I would have paid him double.  An Amish man telling me that I live simply.  I love it!  But so much of simple living eliminates the worry that we build up.  Jesus’ last verse is classic here in Matthew 6: “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.  Today’s trouble is enough for today.”  I’ll leave you on that note.  Feel free to say Amen out loud in the quiet of your room.

How much time do you have? There are so many biblical truths tucked away in chapter 5 that it would take us years to get through them all, especially at the rate that I go through books of the Bible. Think about it, Jesus begins his teaching on what is called the classic sermon on the mount. If you have ever heard that term: Sermon on the Mount, then you can know that this is the chapter that people are referring to. It goes all the way through chapter 7. The teachings of Jesus in this setting have remained with us for millennia and continue to ring true today. He begins with the beatitudes: blessed are… I like to focus on the first one of the beatitudes. They are called beatitudes because each one of them begins with “blessed are” and the word beatitude means blessed. Here in Matthew he says blessed are the poor in spirit but in Luke 6:20 he doesn’t include spirit and just says blessed are the poor. These verses serve for me as the basis for my understanding of Jesus’ preference for the poor and preference for those who are the least of these. Jesus has a special place in his heart for those who are poor. Jesus has a special place in his heart for those who are destitute and persecuted. I say this with the full realization that I am not poor, I probably don’t fit any of the categories that Jesus lifts up as people whom he loves the most. That is a difficult realization to know that we are not the least of these and so what Jesus requires of us is so much more than what we think is required of us.
The abundance of resources and opportunities that we have living and growing up in the United Stated in comparison to those living in third world countries is astounding. We did not choose to be born into the families in which we were born, and neither did those who live in third world countries, and yet because we were then we are given those opportunities and faced with those possibilities that a small percentage of the world is able to enjoy. It is hard to understand this unless you have seen a third world reality where people live in such a different framme of mind than one in which we are used to living.
This chapter also contains the directive to be the salt of the earth, light of the world, Jesus as the one who fulfills the law, if you have something against a church member then you are not to take communion until you approach that member and ask for forgiveness (yes, if you read vs.21-26 that is exactly what it says), do not commit adultery and tear out your eye if it causes you to stumble (a real eye opener, no pun intended, for those who view porn as just another past time), Jesus’ teaching on divorce, prohibition against swearing, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, NOT, love your enemies.
That is a lot of material in such a short space. What you find is that in each of these prohibitions, teachings, and insights, Jesus takes the most strict interpretation possible. He allows for divorce but only on the grounds of adultery. Back in the 1st century the rabbis allowed for divorce if the husband woke up one morning and his wife wasn’t pleasing in his sight. Back then it was only the husband who could divorce, and when it happened then the woman would be left without any recourse and would be forced to prostitute herself. Jesus says no, this is not right, the only cause for divorce would be adultery. He limits what at one time was a free for all.
There are some who see Jesus as expanding the freedoms of what was being taught by the religious leaders. I think if you look at his life and see how he came to fulfill the law that he did not come to expand, but rather encouraged people to live in the freedoms that the law already provided. Don’t step outside of the laws of the Lord. Jesus was someone who said we have to get back to basics, not try to create things that God has not blessed or approved. It remains a good lesson for us today.

Let’s start with Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. As soon as he is proclaimed the Son of God he goes off by himself to prepare himself for the ministry that is to come. This is so crucial. Throughout Jesus’ life we see him withdraw from the crowds and go away, normally up a mountain, to pray and prepare. His public ministry which he is just about to start is bathed in prayer. Even out Savior doesn’t try to set out and do things without ascertaining the will of His Father and then pursuing the kingdom of God through that preparation. Notice that in each of the temptations: the desire for abundant provision, the quest for control, and the pursuit of power, Jesus responds to Satan with Scripture. Satan tries to lure Jesus once with Scripture for the second temptation, but it doesn’t work. Jesus was prepared and knew the Scriptures which provided him with the means to defend himself. What a great lesson for us.
Just a word on Satan, in the Greek it means literally adversary. I have addressed a couple times the development of the understanding of who Satan or the devil is and how John Milton’s book Paradise Lost has really been instrumental in our current understanding up and against the biblical approach. If you are interested in this topic then look up the times in Scripture that Satan or the devil is mentioned and I think that you will be surprised how few times it actually is.
Jesus not only survives the temptation but is then ministered to by angels. What a great way to get ready for what comes next!
Next in chapter 4 we find Jesus calling his disciples. Here he chooses fishermen who are busy at their trade. Simon and his brother Andrew are chosen, then other fishermen in James and John and promises that one day they will become fishers of men.
There is a parallel Scripture in Luke 5 that I encourage you to read because it matches this calling of the disciples with a miracle of Jesus by encouraging Peter to throw his net in a certain spot and sure enough he catches enough fish to fill two boats.
What we learn about Jesus here is that he took time to prepare himself for his ministry. Once that is done, then he chooses people to carry out the work that is before him. Jesus was not in any way a loner. Sure, he went off and prayed by himself, but he needed people around him to carry out His work. You see this especially in the Garden of Gethsemane when he tells his disciples to stay up with him just a little while longer.
I hope this day you see how you can prepare yourself in prayer and discipline for the work that God has laid out before you.

Today we are introduced to John Baptism, probably one of my favorite characters in all of Scripture. He is the one who isn’t concerned if his clothes match in the morning or if he is fitting into the crowd or not. He completely eschews the status quo, and still vs. 5 tell us that “the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan.” In spite of his distinctiveness, and his ability to raise rancor, remember his statement to the religious leaders – “you brood of vipers”, people still flocked to see him and be baptized by him. What a testimony to not feeling forced to fit into our culture or society. God is going to use us for His purposes even if we choose to be different from others.
If you want to learn more about John the Baptism I would encourage you to read this article: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/essenes.html
I’ve included a picture of John the Baptist, again by Caravaggio my favorite artist.

Just a couple notes about the painting that will be applicable to all of art history when you see John the Baptist. If you want to identify him you can always see the one carrying the staff with a cross at the top, throughout art history this is how John the Baptist is identified. Any time you see a painting with a guy carrying a staff with a cross at the top, that’s him. Also, the camel hair can give him away as well.
We find Jesus is also baptized by John in this Scripture. This is a pivotal moment in the life of Jesus, and arguably for John as well, as he is revealed to the world as: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus came to be baptized by John not to be forgiven of his sins but rather so that all righteousness could be fulfilled. This means that Jesus is able to be seen as the one in whom all of the prophecies of ages gone past have found their culmination in him. God has declared that humanity is righteous not because of our actions, but rather because of Jesus’ actions in his birth, life, death, and eventual resurrection. This is the fulfillment of righteousness for humanity that came about and was revealed at the baptism of our Savior.

This is the last of our reposts. Tomorrow you will get a brand new post, but for now, enjoy this post. I’m just sorry that we weren’t able to keep Erica Reinmiller’s comment on this post. It was very insightful and helpful to any who would have read it. Maybe, just maybe, she might be able to remember what she said and repost her comment.

I remain surprised and pleasantly interested in the fact that Matthew continues to focus on Joseph as the person who receives the insight and the messages from the Lord.  Remember in 1 it was Joseph who was approached by the angel, and not Mary.  Here twice we find Joseph taking the initiative and being warned in a dream to flee to Egypt and then again to settle in Nazareth.  Joseph does seem like a forgotten figure in Scripture, and often is portrayed as the one who is merely a pawn while everyone else dictates to him what ought to be happening.  Not so in Matthew, he is not only decisive, but also the one chosen by the Lord to receive the messages of what comes next.  Caravaggio’s depiction of the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt is a classic, with Joseph being the one holding the music for the angel Gabriel.

This chapter does contain a number of passages that need to be fleshed out, but our space is limited.  The family has transitioned from the manger and the holding pen to a house (vs. 11) where the wise men visit Jesus and offer him three gifts.  We do not know their names, any of them, and we do not know that there were three, although we do know that there were three gifts.  All interesting details that our culture and tradition has taken and developed it into something that is more than what Scripture allows.

So what do we learn about Jesus?  Well we certainly see that he is a survivor.  Even in the midst of the tragedy of the massacre commanded by Herod, the Lord has protected him and allowed him to carry out his purposes.  That is something that we can take away as well.  We must be survivors, and know with confidence that the Lord will protect us and keep us under his watchful gaze so that we can carry out His plans.  In this time of fear in which we live, we can easily devolve into people who are so afraid of what comes next that we do not take steps forward that might involve risk.  We miss the fact that sometimes it takes risk in order to carry out God’s plans.  The trip to Egypt was long and dangerous, but it was one that Joseph knew his family had to take.  The alternative was safer, was easier, just stay in Bethlehem until they could travel again.  But God had a plan and knew that Herod would send his mercenaries to slaughter all those who might be the same age as their son.  The family couldn’t know the reason why they were told to go to Egypt, they just went.  Security and safety in the Lord’s protection is not always what seems the safest, but is always what He tells us to do.

Well, we are back!  If you have been following along then you will notice this entry.  The only negative about the reboot is that we no longer have those wonderful comments that were made previously.  You’ll just have to make them again and we can go from there.  Enjoy the blog and I pray that you will grow from the challenge.

Happy New Year! I am so excited for these next 90 days. I can’t wait to share with you the Gospels and to be able to see what kind of insight God will be giving us in regards to what did we learn about Jesus and what did we learn about being a disciple maker.
As you were reading through chapter 1 I hope you didn’t get lost in the genealogy. With a lot of difficult Greek names it is easy to give up, but don’t. There is a lot of treasure in Matthew’s genealogy. A couple important things that you need to remember. It is crucial to Matthew that Jesus be seen as the Messiah, and so the anointed one who came directly from the throne of David. That is how he begins his Gospel message by mentioning the two most important patriarchs, Abraham and David, in regards to the message that he is trying to get across: Jesus is the Messiah.
Also in the genealogy we find some references to some painful history within the family. We all have some skeletons in the closet in our families, don’t we? What about a Rahab (vs. 5) who is in the lineage and is a prostitute who welcomed the Israelite soldiers into her home (Joshua 2:1). Or what about a relationship with Boaz and Ruth where he was not at first willing to carry through on his responsibilities (Ruth 2-3). Even worse than all of this is a son born from the fruit of an adulterous, maybe even forced, affair with Solomon born, as the text states, “by the wife of Uriah” (vs. 6).
The fact that Jesus is able to use this family with all of its quirks, and all of its sin that runs through it like a red thread, I hope is a relief as we look at the dysfunction of our own families and wonder how in the world is God ever going to use us? We can learn that Jesus is willing to use anyone for His purposes. Any single person is able to carry out God’s will, even if they are a result of sinful action, or even if they have committed egregious sin in their lives in the past. That is comforting to me.
From the genealogy we move to the birth of Jesus and the angel who announces the pregnancy of Mary to Joseph. He certainly was a righteous man. Different from the Gospel of Luke is Matthew in that Gabriel comes to Joseph in this passage, as opposed to Mary. It is a very different perspective from his viewpoint. Not only did he resolve to keep her and not cast her out, but Scripture says that after they were married he held back from marital relations until after Jesus was born. The emphasis on Joseph here is that even in the midst of a mess, you can still find one righteous person who will carry out God’s plan. Here, in the Christmas story, we actually have two, both Mary and Joseph.