Matthew 23 is INTENSE!

Matthew 21-23

I am repeatedly amazed by how "cheeky" "blunt" "bold" Jesus truly was.  I am also completely amazed at the current state of Christians and our churches when I read Matthew 23.

"Everything they do is done for men to see.  They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place on honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'  But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.  And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ.  The greatest among you will be your servant.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.  Woe to you teachers of the low and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces.  You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to." Matthew 23:2-13

Am I missing something here?  Or if I were to apply this today, could I say that anyone who is a Pastor, Father, Priest or in any kind of "preaching" or "teaching" position is in danger- woe to them?  Any man with a title, woe to them?  I can easily perceive a preacher of any sort being this way, but perhaps they are saved by their servant hearts?  I should hope so.  They are all in the same position really, but when I see for example a Lutheran or Catholic pastor or priest I wonder how they feel in those robes.

This honestly made me giggle:

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cumin.  But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness.  You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  You blind guides!  You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel." Matthew 23:23-25

Jesus was not a lame duck.  The guy had some serious gonads.  He was quite the radical, which is why I find it so funny yet sad that there are some extremely legalistic individuals out there that are considering themselves Christian.  He said himself that "prostitutes and tax collectors" are going to be the first to enter the kingdom.  Matthew 23:28-32.

It is moments like these where I realize how incredibly important it is to regularly read scripture in order to know God and have a relationship with him.  You can learn so much about him by reading these accounts.  I am so thankful for his word.  And I am thankful he put this reading project on my heart.

God vs Tradition

Matthew 15:1-9

¹ Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, ² “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
 ³ Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴ For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ ⁵ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ ⁶ he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. ⁷ You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
   ⁸ “‘These people honor me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me.
⁹ They worship me in vain;
   their teachings are but rules taught by men.’

Jesus sure one-ups the Pharisees and teachers of the law here, doesn't he?  "Why don't you listen to our teacher's doctrines?" they ask.

"Why don't you listen to God's?" Jesus replies. 

It's quite easy to become so enveloped by a system of doctrines or traditions that what God really desires - justice, mercy, and faithfulness - get thrown by the wayside.  After all, it's much easier, isn't it? 

For instance:  It's much easier to wear the robe you've always worn and stand up on a platform and recite the same words, week-in and week-out...than it is to face the uncertainty and ugliness that might ensue from "When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation" (1 Cor. 14:26).  It's much easier to sit in a chair or pew and passively listen to someone/some people perform up on stage, than it is to genuinely listen to, care about, grieve with, rejoice with, pray with, or love the person sitting right next to you in the same row.  It's much easier to think, "This is the way I've always experienced things, so it must be what God wants.  Maybe we just need to tweak the system a bit and make it relevant," rather than critically evaluate even your own sacred cow in light of scripture.

If you haven't caught on already, what I'm getting at in the above paragraph is this:  Could the institutional church (be it Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Wesleyan, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, etc.) be one of those sacred cows?  Could it be one of the traditions that is so nice and easy to cling to, and that many will vehemently defend...even if it leads to dishonoring God?  Have we devoted the "help" that could be used for our brothers and sisters in need, to the building of $20 million palaces that lay dormant most of the week?

I hope we take Jesus seriously when he says that it's bad to nullify the word of God for the sake of our traditions.  I hope we can distance ourselves enough from our traditions so that we can evaluate them in light of what God desires for his kids.  He loved us enough to die for us, maybe we could at least do that for him?

What do you think?

Are you with Him or against Him?

Matthew 11-13

My thoughts today are scattered, so bear with me!  They may not even go anywhere in particular, but I would still like to share them with you.

'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.'  Matthew 11:17

How can a man or woman know Yahweh and not repent?  How can his life remain the same?  Why does this happen?

"Woe to you, Korazin!  Woe to you, Bethsaida!  If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.  But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgement than for you.  And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies?  No, you will go down to the depths.  If miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.  But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgement than for you." Matthew 11:21-24

Is it laziness?  Is it lack of faith?  Stubbornness?  Is it too much work to change, turn away, repent, follow him?  Read further and Yahweh encourages us:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  Matthew 11:28-29 

I don't know about you, but I could sure use some rest.  When I am fixated on Jesus, and his purpose for my life I do feel at peace.  When I am fixated on my problems or my vain or selfish wants/desires then I feel incredibly burdened.  I begin to question God- i.e. Why does my life suck right now?  Why aren't you blessing me?  When are you going to DO something to bring me rest? 

The Pharisees did not turn to him because they were happy with their rules, regulations, and basic control over the people and their religion.  When you read Matthew 12:22-24 the Pharisees denounce Jesus and healing he brought to a blind and mute man on the Sabbath (this was one of their laws he had broken).  They accuse him of using the power of the devil to heal and basically call him a demon.  How is this different than people who accuse God for the world's problems?  For war, conflict, abuse and disease?  It is easier to shift blame onto God for these evil things than it is to look to ourselves to make change. 

What Kind of Man is This?

(Matthew 8-10)

He can:

heal lepers
heal a Roman soldier's son without seeing him physically
heal one of his best friend's mother
have control over the weather
cast out demons
forgive sins (and heal paralysis)
dine with and forgive tax collectors
raise a child from the dead
heal a woman who has been plagued with a blood disease for 12 years
restore sight to the blind
make a mute person speak

How many people do you know that can do all of those things...as well as give his followers the authority to do the very same things? Wouldn't you be absolutely amazed if you had seen those things happen?

Pretty incredible stuff, huh? His name is Jesus of Nazareth, aka Jesus the Christ (Messiah), aka your Lord and Savior, if you get to know him.

One thing to remember, though: He doesn't settle for 2nd place. Either you place him in your priority list as first and foremost, king of kings, lord of lords, or you tell him to take a hike. No middle ground with this guy. He wants your all...and he deserves it too.

HELP! I can't stop worrying!

Today's reading (Mathew 4-7) is packed FULL of good stuff.  You could spend weeks going through it, analyzing it, and picking it apart.  However, Matthew 6:25-34 really speaks to me today.  I am such a worrier, and it is not from God.  I have been told that to worry is to sin.  How could I have put my entire trust in God when I worry about money, my relationships, my material possessions, my family, and ironically my relationship with God himself?  Worrying gets me thinking in broad cyclical patterns and sets my mind racing about things that I need not give a second thought to.  Sometimes worrying can even distort reality; every situation can begin to look hopeless.  Jesus promises that he cares for us, and that we need only to focus on him and his Kingdom.   We are to put our hope in Him.  So today (and every day, but it is really a one day at a time kind of deal) I choose not to worry about all of these things, count my blessings and give thanks to Yahweh for the love and care he has for me and my brothers and sisters.

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?    ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Yahweh Saves His People

Matthew 1:20-23

“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

I've been dialoguing with a couple of very friendly Jehovah's witnesses lately, going back and forth about the divinity of Jesus. In their eyes, he's God's chief angel, not really God Himself. I'm not sure how they get around these verses, though.

Joseph was to give the Holy Spirit-born child the name "Jesus," the Greek form of the Hebrew name, Joshua, which means, "Yahweh saves." Yahweh does save, but the angel says that Jesus is the one that is going to be saving his people from their sins. 2+2 = 4, right? Jesus = God = God himself saving his people from their sins. God does it all, right on down from the Holy Spirit impregnation.

Then to top it off, Matthew includes a little Old Testament scripture to back up what the angel had just said, namely that God promised he would come and be with his people. It's an amazing and somewhat paradoxical thing...that God would come in human form and walk among us, but it makes more sense to me than sending an angel to do what God repeatedly said he was going to do Himself.

"²¹ Declare what is to be, present it—
let them take counsel together.
Who foretold this long ago,
who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, Yahweh?
And there is no God apart from me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
there is none but me.

²² “Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other.
²³ By myself I have sworn,
my mouth has uttered in all integrity
a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.
²⁴ They will say of me, ‘In Yahweh alone
are deliverance and strength.’”
All who have raged against him
will come to him and be put to shame.
²⁵ But all the descendants of Israel
will find deliverance in Yahweh
and will make their boast in him." (Isaiah 45:21-25)

Let's Start at the Beginning...Well Sort of

I don't claim to be super smart, intuitive or very learned, but I do have a passion for Christ Jesus my Lord and Savior.  I am not the authority on scripture, not even close.  In fact, when you get me into a small group of believers I am usually the one asking all the questions and sometimes sitting there with a confused look on my face.  What I DO know is that there aren't many people who have actually read the Bible in it's entirety, not even the people who go to church every Sunday and and been doing so for years.  How on Earth can there be so many passionate Christians, yet so little reading of God's Word?  When I look back on my own experience with reading the Bible, I recall opening it up to Genesis 1, and a few chapters later falling asleep.  I never really made it to the "good news" until years after I became a Christian.   And after I finally did read and study the Bible in it's entirety I really had to ask myself: Could I really have considered myself a Christian without even reading about Christ Jesus at all?!  So gather your friends, Christians and non-Christians alike, put your thinking caps on, and let's get started.  We will begin with the New Testament in a few days.  Matthew Ch 1-3.