John Scott

I once worked in a treatment facility for adolescent addicts. Some of our clients would be placed in treatment by their parents, and they’d angrily fight the treatment program for weeks before beginning to work on the issues they needed to deal with. The smartest of our clients, though, would very quickly settle into the routine and begin to act like everything was wonderful – that they’d seen the light. They’d decided the quickest way to get out and get back to their drugs was to play along – to say all the right things, even if they didn’t mean it, and try to convince us they were “well” and could go home.

The psychologist who was the clinical director of the unit had two phrases he’d use as he talked to those teens that seemed to make an overnight change. He’d ask them, “is it live, or is it Memorex?”. Referencing a popular commercial at the time that demonstrated how hard it was to tell the difference between a real singer and a recording on Memorex cassette tapes, he was asking them, “are you real, or are you pretending?”. In the end, we couldn’t tell for sure just from what they said, so that’s when his second phrase would be used: “that’s OK, I’ll listen to the words, but trust the behavior”.

When it came to the Pharisees, Jesus could have asked the same two phrases.

In Chapters 21 and 22, the religious leaders have challenged Jesus’ authority to do what he’s doing, and have attempted to discredit him among the people so that they can have him arrested without having to fear the crowds. Jesus, in turn, told three parables that illustrated how they would lose their place to others because of their unbelief, their refusal to give God his due, and because they ignored the invitation of God. As they attempted to “trap him in his words” and discredit him, he deftly handled each question and escaped their traps, eventually silencing them all. In the end, his authority is displayed and his credibility is enhanced, while the religious leaders’ credibility is diminished in the eyes of the crowd looking on.

Now Jesus turns to that crowd, and proceeds to describe exactly what is wrong with the mentality of their religious leaders. Just as Matthew’s telling of Jesus’ ministry begins with a sermon that listed blessings and promises for those with the kingdom heart, in this discourse Jesus has a list of woes directed to the teachers of the law and Pharisees for their hearts are lacking. Nothing here is new – each of the shortcomings that Jesus lists here has been raised before, but his condemnation of their practices has now reached a climax.

He begins with a summary of the things that are wrong with the religious leaders. They are hypocrites that don’t practice what they preach. They are of no help to those they burden down with their teaching and rules. Their primary concern is with religious show – play-acting their religion. The exalt themselves and are most concerned with their position and the honor paid them by others. By contrast, Jesus tells the disciples and the crowd that from them, he wants obedience and humility.

The woes – things of great sorrow or distress – expand on these themes, reaching a crescendo at the end where Jesus describes the judgement they are subject to. Repeatedly, Jesus describes their spiritual blindness and calls out their hypocrisy, and names it for what it is.

• Rather than helping people find the kingdom, they are obstacles to people entering the kingdom.
• Rather than helping people to a better spiritual condition, they make their condition even worse.
• Their rules and interpretations make no sense. They’re not people of integrity, whose word can be trusted; they make up ways to get around being people of their word.
• They lack justice, mercy, and faithfulness – core conditions of the kingdom heart. Instead, they focus on minor things of little importance.
• They focus on external appearances – looking the part – while inside their hearts are greedy, self-indulgent, and wicked.
• They say one thing, but their behavior doesn’t match. They condemn others’ past practices, and hold themselves up as different, when in reality they behave as badly, or worse.
• They are deaf to intervention of God through his prophets, sages, and teachers. They are a murderous people.

Jesus’ condemnation of this kind of behavior could hardly be stronger. He calls them “hypocrites”, “blind guides”, “snakes”, and the “brood of vipers” – language reminiscent of John the Baptist. Little was more offensive to these Jews that a dead body and the uncleanness associated with a corpse, and yet Jesus says that on the inside that’s what they were like. These were not things they were used to hearing, and Jesus is saying this in front of the crowd.

Yet, at the same time, Jesus’ tone is one of sorrow and regret that this is the situation. As the passage ends, he laments the condition of Jerusalem, its leaders, and its people. He makes it clear that he and his Father wished it otherwise, and had made every effort to reach them.

Was it live, or was it Memorex? Sadly, it was largely the latter. As Jesus “watched the behavior”, he had at least seven major complaints of the religious leaders of the day. Question is, how many of those things would he find in his church today? He might use different examples. He might word things a little differently for us. But would he pronounce any woes as he watched our behavior?

Life is full of stories of someone who had it all, only to lose what they had. The stories play out in newspaper and magazine articles, novels, TV shows, movies… and real life, all around us.

The story of the brilliant student who loses the scholarship due to plagiarism and cheating, neither of which were necessary given the brains she has. The movie star admired by so many who loses it all because of his drug use and the subsequent insane behavior. The politician with a career that seemed unstoppable, who loses it all over an affair. The college sports hero with so much potential who ends up in jail, career ended, after a rage-filled explosion leaves another student dead.

The point we’ve reached in Matthew may contain the saddest of those “lose everything” stories, and what is lost is so much more important than a scholarship, a career, or a reputation. What has been a theme throughout Matthew climaxes in Matthew 21-23 as Jesus reaches Jerusalem and deals with the religious leaders there.

The story of the fig tree in Matthew 21 is full of symbolism. The tree exists to provide fruit. That is its purpose. It displays the signs of having fruit, even though it isn’t the season. The fruit on the tree normally precedes the leaves, or at least accompanies them. Jesus, hungry, sees the fig tree in the distance, covered with leaves, but on approaching it to gather fruit to eat, finds it barren of fruit. It’s a classic case of false advertising. It’s failed to live up to its purpose. It’s useless. Jesus declares that that tree will never bear fruit again, and immediately it withers away, roots and all.

The Pharisees, Sadducees, priests, scribes and teachers of the Law were in a unique position in Jesus’ day. Many of them came from influential families. Many of them had wealth. More importantly, they were schooled in the Law. Ardent students of God’s Word, they knew every nuance of the Law and the Prophets. They had the respect of the people, and the power to influence all they came in contact with. That sat in Moses’ seat. They were the top rung in their society, and that society was one chosen by God. Children of Abraham, heirs of the promise.

As we’ve seen through Matthew, however, there is much that is wrong with this group of leaders. John the Baptist and Jesus both accuse them of hypocrisy, “play-acting” their religion. They do things for show. They ignore the intent of God’s law in favor of their own, more restrictive rules. Tradition had become more important than mercy.They’ve become a stumbling block to the people they are there to serve. They are blind guides, leading the blind. They fight with each other constantly over minor, meaningless, nuances of the Law.

There’s still hope, though. There was much that was wrong with all the people of God. Their hearts were far from him. That’s why God sent John the Baptist, to prepare the way for the Messiah by preaching the need for a changed heart, for repentance. The time was right for Jesus’ to come at that specific moment, preaching the good news of the kingdom, teaching in their synagogues, and healing the sick. The crowds flocked to both of them. The Jordan River saw a steady stream of people coming to be immersed with a baptism of repentance. Jesus taught about the heart that God desired, and touched lives as only the Messiah could.

These leaders, of all people, should have been the first to discern who John was, and the validity of his message. They should have been the first to tear their clothes, cut to the quick by his teaching. They should have led the people down into the water. They should have recognized the prophesies fulfilled in Jesus, and acknowledged him as Messiah.

But they didn’t. They didn’t believe John, not after hearing his message, and not even after seeing the impact he had on “sinners”. They didn’t accept Christ, not even after seeing his power over the both the natural world and the spiritual world. They saw the healing, but instead of rejoicing at the life saved, they criticized that it was done on the Sabbath. They saw the demons cast out, but attributed it to Beelzebub. They ignored the message of Life, and plotted to kill him.

They will lose everything as a result. They had the kingdom in their grasp, but will lose it because they refused to believe, to those they call “sinners” who did believe. They refuse to give God the glory, honor, and praise he is due, the fruit of a repentant heart He’s looking for, and so they will lose the kingdom to others who will give God his due. They’ve ignored his invitation, and so they will be destroyed to make way for others to take their place at the table.

In the parable of the banquet, there’s a warning that they aren’t the only ones that will lose everything, though. Even some of the ones who do come to the wedding feast will lose their place. Ones that don’t come to the Lord’s table with the kingdom heart.

Many of us have much in common with the advantages the religious leaders had. We, too, are heirs of the promise, through the offer of adoption as sons. We know scripture, we follow the rules, we punch our ticket in the church building each Sunday. We have position. We live in a society that allows us the freedom to worship without fear. Our society is full of wealth and material possessions. The list goes on.

How much of the time is our “religion” more play-acting than heart-changing? How often do we fail to give the Father his due? How much of our time is spent pointing out the speck in our neighbor’s eye while ignoring the log in our own? How much time is spent complaining about others’ behavior and practices, forcing our rules and traditions on them instead of fixing our eyes on Jesus and extending mercy? How many children have turned their backs to his church because of what they see in us?

There’s still hope, though. What will you do with the good news of the kingdom Jesus taught?

Chapters 21 and 22 of Matthew are pretty well inseparable. Given that, I’m taking a different approach the next couple of days, focusing on the text of these two chapters together today and offering some related thoughts tomorrow.

Jesus has arrived at Jerusalem, and the last week of his life. He arrives not like a conquering king, but instead riding a young donkey procured by the disciples at his direction. The manner of his arrival is humble – much like he’s been teaching his disciples to be – but it’s also a fulfillment of prophecy. The reaction of the people is no less grand for the manner of his arrival, however. They lay their cloaks and tree branches along the road for him, and shout praises as they follow him into the city. Their shouts mirror scripture and declare him as the Son of David – the Messiah. Hosanna (Save, we pray!) in the highest! The whole city is abuzz. Those who know of him, praise him; those who don’t are told that he is Jesus, the prophet.

After his arrival in Jerusalem, the natural place for him to be is in the temple. Defiled by those that exchange money for temple currency at exorbitant rates and by those that then sell sacrificial animals at inflated prices to enrich themselves and the family of the high priest, the temple must first be cleansed. Jesus drives them out, and begins to teach and heal there.

Jesus is doing wonderful things, miraculous things; but those that are supposed to be leading the people in spiritual things are not joining the people in rejoicing at what is happening. As they see what is happening and hear the children shouting praises, they ask Jesus if he can hear what the children say – in essence, asking him to quiet them. Jesus had told the disciples they they needed to become like humble children; here we see the opposites held up against each other. The religious leaders, concerned for their position, are indignant and critical, while the children shout praises about him.

The religious leaders should have been the ones that could discern who Jesus was, and should have rejoiced and led the people in embracing God’s son, and God’s plan. Instead, they’re like the fig tree Jesus saw as he left Jerusalem for the night and returned the next day. It showed the signs of being in fruit, having leaves on it, but it was barren of fruit and useless. They too, showed plenty of outward signs of religiosity, but without any real fruit, worthy only of destruction.

When Jesus returns to Jerusalem, they confront him. They want to know the source of his authority for what he’s been doing – this parade into the city, taking it on himself to cleanse the temple, the teaching he’s doing, the healing. Jesus agrees to answer their question if they’ll answer his question about John’s ministry. They pull off to the side and discuss the question among themselves. In the discussion and the answer, we see their hearts. They can’t answer that what John did was from God, because they rejected John’s teaching. They can’t answer that it was from men, because the crowd, who is listening, will react, and they fear the crowd. They evade giving a real answer: “We don’t know”. Their lack of transparency, their scheming, their lying all show the state of their hearts.

Jesus then tells three parables. They all have the same basic point, and they’re directed at the religious leaders. The leaders have challenged the praise he received, and they’ve challenged his authority. They’re deceptive and scheming.

The first (the Parable of the Two Sons) illustrates that while they say that they will do God’s will, they don’t. As they did with John the Baptist, they refuse to respond and believe. Jesus says the kingdom will be taken from them and given to those that will do the Father’s will. The kingdom belongs to those who respond and believe.

The second (the Parable of the Tenants) illustrates how they refuse to give God what he is due, and destroy those God sends to ask for it.  God will  destroy those who don’t, and turn the kingdom over to those who will. They kingdom belongs to those who will give God the fruits due to him.

The third parable, in Chapter 22 (the Parable of the Wedding Feast), illustrates how they’ve deliberately ignored the invitation of God, and persecuted those he sent to extend the invitation. God will destroy those who ignore the invitation, as well as those that answer the invitation but come unprepared and inappropriately before him. He takes their place and offers it those that will accept. The kingdom belongs to those that answer the invitation.

Jesus’ message is clear, and they understand that it is directed at them. He is saying despite putting on a show of how they follow God, they refuse to respond and believe, despite the message of the prophets, despite the message delivered by John, despite Jesus’ own teaching and miracles. They refuse to believe. They refuse to give God what he is due. They refuse to answer the invitation. They persecute and kill those that have called them to believe, to repent, to respond. Their fathers did it to the prophets, and they’ve done it to John, and they’re about to do it to him. The result will be that they will lose their place. Others that do respond will take their place. Those they disdain, like tax collectors, prostitutes, soon even the Gentiles – anyone who responds with the heart that God desires will have a place in the kingdom in place of them.

Their reaction, predictably, is to want to have Jesus arrested. They fear the reaction of the people, however. The people believe Jesus to be a prophet. They need to discredit Jesus before they can do anything.

That’s exactly what they set out to do. They plot “how to entangle him in his words” (22:15).  Three successive traps are laid out for Jesus, and by an unlikely alliance of leaders who are normally at odds with each other – the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, and the teachers of the Law.

The first trap is led by a group of the Pharisees disciples working with Herod’s spies. They ask Jesus about paying taxes to Caesar. If he says that the taxes should be paid, the people will be upset. If he says they shouldn’t, he can be arrested for treason. His answer, which gives both the government and God their due, causes the ones setting the trap to marvel, and they go on their way.

The second trap is set by the Sadducees. Not believing in the resurrection, they pose a ridiculously complicated hypothetical scenario for him to unravel. His answer, which shows how little they understand about both God’s Word and his power, completely silences the Sadducees and astonishes the crowd watching these challenges laid before him.

The third, posed by one of the lawyers aligned with the Pharisees, asks Jesus to weigh in on the arguments they have about the greatest of the commandments. Jesus’ response, in keeping with what he has taught before, is that the greatest commandments are to love God with everything we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves – that all the law depends on those two commands. The reaction isn’t recorded in Matthew, but elsewhere we see that the lawyer agrees with Jesus, and leaves.

Jesus then poses his own question to the Pharisees. They’ve attempted to discredit him and trap him three times. Instead, their traps have served to enhance his credibility and establish his authority. With one question he silences them. They are unable to “answer him a word”, and they stop trying to trap him.

We’ve completed four weeks of Project 51. Four weeks of reading a chapter of the New Testament each weekday. These first four weeks’ readings have all come from Matthew.

Each of those weekdays, I’ve recorded my thoughts of what we’ve read here, in this online journal of sorts, in this blog. 20 posts on the text (plus a few others). 473 views of those posts. That part of this has been exhausting.

The reading hasn’t been. I’ve always loved the Word of God. I’ve never loved it any more than I have these four weeks. At one chapter a day, there’s been a great opportunity to dig deeply into it. Reading it multiple times. Reading it alone, and again with the family. Talking about it in Bible classes, small groups, hearing it in sermons, sharing online via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, here.

If you haven’t committed to this journey, I hope you’ll start. Just pick up where we are right now. All the links you need are in the sidebar.

I’m grateful for those of you that have come here, those that have subscribed by email and RSS, and especially those that have commented.

“my heart stands in awe of Your word”
- Psalm 119:161 NKJV

In Chapter 18, the disciples asked, “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”, and Jesus taught them that they needed to be like children, to humble themselves like children – to be unconcerned with position, place, or power.  In Chapter 19, he repeated this teaching. The chapter ended with the disciples asking Jesus about the reward they will receive, and him confirming that they do have one coming, along with everyone else who has given up family and farms and things important to them for his sake. The last sentence turns the discussion of the reward upside down though, as Jesus tells them, “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first”.

The chapter break interrupts this conversation. Chapter 20 is a continuation of the same discussion, and the pretty much whole chapter is about this whole notion of being “first”.

Yes, disciples, you’re in on the “ground floor” of this kingdom thing. The first to give up everything and jump on board. You have a great reward coming – Jesus tells them that they’ll sit on 12 thrones and judge the nations of Israel, and that everyone who has given up for him will receive a hundred times as much plus eternal life. At the same time, Jesus has told them not to be concerned with position – it isn’t about who is “greatest in the kingdom”.

He tells them a parable. It’s about a man who owns a vineyard and needs workers. He gets some from the market place early in the morning. As he goes through the day, though, he keeps finding more workers, and hires them all… four other times through the day – roughly 9am, 12 noon, 3pm and 5pm he brings more workers back to work. As night falls, he has them all paid. The workers who came last get paid first, and all of them get paid the same amount. The first workers are irritated that the ones who only worked an hour got paid the same thing as the ones that worked all day.

In the story, the landowner tells them that this isn’t unfair, because they received what they were promised. That he can do what he wants with what is his, and he is generous. They have no reason to be jealous.

It isn’t how long they worked that determined their reward, it is the generosity of the one that owns the vineyard.

Jesus’ simple comment to the disciples at the end is to repeat, “So the last will be first and the first will be last”. This is what the kingdom is like. Your reward isn’t based on you being first, you working the hardest, or anything else you do. It is based on the generosity – the grace – of the one who owns everything. God can do what he wants with what is his.

Matthew’s narrative then changes to a completely different scene, but what is told is still in keeping with the theme. They’re heading now for Jerusalem. The place where Jesus will die. This is the road to the end. Just as he’s told them before, he stops and tells them now about what will happen in Jerusalem, but in more detail than he has told before. It tells us for sure, that Jesus did have foresight into exactly what was going to happen to him, as he tells the disciples not just that he is going to die. He gives them the whole outline of what will happen. He will be betrayed. It’s the chief priests and scribes that will orchestrate what will happen. They will condemn him to death, and then turn him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him, flog him, and then crucify him. And then he will be raised from the dead on the third day.

The one who is God With Us, who was there in the beginning, The First, will be the last, out of the generosity and grace of the Father, for our sake. For those who don’t deserve it.

Then the mother of James and John comes to Jesus, kneels at his feet, and asks that her sons get to sit at Jesus’ right and left sides in the kingdom. She’s asking for them to have the place of greatest honor – to be first. The disciples get to sit on three thrones; she wants her sons to have the best thrones. I don’t know if the sons put her up to this. Maybe it was just the love of a mother wanting the best for her boys, especially after all they’d given up for Jesus. It makes the other disciples angry, and understandably so, though I wonder how much of their indignation was due to them wanting to have the “greatest” positions themselves.

Jesus directs his reply directly at James and John, which seems to indicate that they had prompted their mother to make this request. You don’t know what you’re asking, he tells them.  He asks, “are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” Jesus has told them what he’s going to go through. He asks now if they are willing to go through the same thing. The cup of sorrow, the cup of pain, the cup of death. I’m not sure they understand the question. They say they are able, and Jesus tells them they will drink the same cup… but that it isn’t up to him to grant their wish. The Father (like in the story of the vineyard) gets to decide.

Jesus once again tries to teach them the lesson about being first, about “position” in the kingdom. They can see a great example of a desire for position and power run amok in the Roman rulers they have. Jesus uses that as an example of just what he doesn’t want them to be like. Instead:

…whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus is, of course, the perfect example of what the kingdom heart is supposed to be like. Being in the very nature God, he did not consider  equality with God something to hold onto. Instead, he emptied himself and took on human likeness, making himself the servant. The First became last.

Position, prestige, and power are not what the kingdom is about. The servant heart, grateful for the gracious gift of God, is what Jesus seeks of members of the kingdom.

I’m glad we don’t still struggle with that the way the disciples did.

After Jesus leaves Galilee and comes to Judea, the Pharisees came up to ask him a question. The text specifically says it was a test. It seems like a loaded question: “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” The Law did allow for a man to divorce his wife, and the rules for when that could happen were pretty vague (see Deut. 24). Religious leaders disagreed about when that really was OK. Jesus is being asked to choose sides. The Pharisees thrived on these kinds of doctrinal, rule-based arguments. Jesus did not.

His answer is very much in keeping with what he’s taught all through Matthew, and especially in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said over and over in that sermon, “You have heard it is written… but I tell you” – emphasizing that he’s looking for something that goes beyond the letter of the law, and instead is focused on a much tougher standard: a heart that is in concert with God’s heart. Similarly, in this situation Jesus doesn’t answer them specifically with what the Law says. Instead, he goes back to God’s original intent and desire. God created man and woman to be together, to leave behind father and mother for each other, to hold fast to each other, and to become one. So this is easy for Jesus: don’t separate what God has put together.

That’s not enough for the Pharisees. The Law gave permission to divorce. They ask him why. Jesus’ answer is surprising to me. He tells them that in the Law, Moses allowed that because of their “hard hearts”, but that wasn’t the way it was in the beginning – it wasn’t God’s intent and desire. This really seems strange to me – it sounds to me like he’s saying that God allowed something that he wasn’t happy with. As I ponder on this, I realize that this isn’t the only time this has happened. The first example that comes to my mind is when the Israelites asked for a King. God’s design was that he would be their one and only King. They wanted to be like their neighbors, though, and have a powerful, earthly King. God, through his prophet, warned them of what that would mean. It saddened them that they were rejecting him this way. He could have said no. Instead, he granted their wish, knowing that it would end up badly for them.

There’s an important lesson here, and one that gives insight into why Jesus’ teaching is so different, and sometimes very difficult. “Lawful” doesn’t necessarily mean “Good”. What is “allowed” doesn’t necessarily equal “best”. Jesus calls us to something better (and harder) than what’s “allowed”. He calls us to come back to the heart of God and what his intent was for us all along. “You’ve heard it was written… but I say….”

Jesus does go ahead and give the Pharisees a rule, since that is what they’re looking for. Taking things further than the Law, in keeping with God’s intent, Jesus tells them not to divorce. If a man divorces a woman for any reason other than sexual immorality and then marries someone else, it’s adultery, a sin.

The disciples don’t get it. They remain fixed on what they’ve always known and always thought – their culture, their history, their practice. Their reaction: if that’s the case, it’s better not to marry, and stay celibate. Here’s another doctrinal issue, one that people still argue about. Jesus’ reaction is pretty non-committal. For some people, that’s not such a bad idea… but it’s not for everyone. “Not everyone can receive this saying but only those to whom it is given…Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”

Matthew next relates a story of some children being brought to Jesus. What the people want is for him to lay hands on them and pray. Despite what Jesus had to say about children in Chapter 18, the disciples “rebuked the people” – they try to stop them. They don’t get it. I’ve heard people guess at their motive – they’re trying to keep Jesus from being bothered, they think children (who had no real status in that day) should be seen and not heard, and not worth Jesus’ time – but whatever their reason, it doesn’t matter to Jesus. He told them in Chapter 18 that they need to be like children, and that whoever receives a little child is receiving him. He echos that here: “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven”. I believe that a child is the closest thing on earth to the people God originally intended us to be before the fall. Jesus loves to have the children with him, and wanted his disciples to be like them. He did as the people asked, and “laid his hands on them” before moving on to another place.

Next in Matthew’s account comes another question for Jesus. This one seems genuine; it doesn’t seem to be a test for Jesus… but ends up being a test for the man. “Teacher,” he asks, “what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”.

The goal is good, but his idea of how to get there is a bit off. What good deed must I do? How can I earn my way in by my goodness, the things I do? Just tell me, and I’ll do it. We learn a few sentences further into the story that he was a man with a lot of possessions – a successful man, a rich man. It’s likely that hard work had gotten him there, and he though eternal life could be earned the same way.

His understanding may have been incorrect, and Jesus challenges his thinking. He challenges this whole notion of being good enough: there is only One who is good. Only God is good enough. Then Jesus runs with the notion for a moment. How do you enter eternal life? Follow the commandments.

The man asks which ones. Jesus runs off a list of five of the ten commandments – the five that have to do with how we treat others. He tops it off with God’s command that sums up all the Law as it relates to other people: love your neighbor as yourself. So much of Jesus’ teaching has focused on our relationships with each other as a concrete way of living out our relationship with God, and so it is here.

The man replies – a little too quickly, I think – that he’s kept all those commands. Really? OK, it’s easy enough to say you haven’t murdered anyone or committed adultery, but you’ve never been dishonest? You’ve truly loved your neighbor as yourself, no exceptions? That’s his response, though, and he follows it with, “what more do I lack?” Is there anything else?

Think back to the times we’ve seen Jesus call someone as we’ve gone through Matthew. Peter and Andrew were called to leave their nets behind, and they immediately did so. James and John were called to leave the boat and their father, and they did so. Matthew was called to leave the tax collector’s table and follow Jesus, and he immediately did so. Others have talked of following Jesus, but asked to take care of other business, and Jesus’ answer was to let the dead bury their dead, come and follow me. The call requires sacrifice and immediate response. Nothing can come before Jesus.

Keeping with those examples, Jesus issues a call to the man in the story. His personal call of sacrifice. What else should you do? Sell what you own and give to the poor (now that’s loving your neighbor!). That’s how you’ll get treasure in heaven. Come, follow me.

It was more than that man was willing to sacrifice. Doing good things was something he could handle, but this was asking too much. He left in sorrow.

In the Sermon on the Mount in Chapter 6, Jesus said our focus can’t be on earthly treasures, but on “treasures in heaven”. Either our possessions or God will be our master – we can’t serve them both. This man is living proof of those truths, and Jesus continues to teach the disciples after the man leaves about the difficulty for a rich man to enter heaven.

Once again, the disciples don’t get it. In their culture, to be rich was a sign of God’s favor. If those people can’t make it into the kingdom, who can? No one can, on their merits. “There’s only one who is good”. “With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”.

There’s much the disciples didn’t “get”, three things just in this chapter. They did, however, make the sacrifice to answer his call. Peter asks, having given up everything, what their outcome will be. Jesus confirms that there truly will be a great reward for that. For them specifically, a throne judging the twelve tribes of Israel. For anyone who has sacrificed, given up what was important to them to answer his call, they “will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life”.

There is so much to apply from this chapter. Jesus’ call for us today is the same as it was when he was in Judea. First, we have to leave our preconceptions behind; our understanding based on our culture, how we were raised, even sometimes our “religion” isn’t sufficient. Our call is not to live by what is “allowed” – we have a higher calling. A calling to have the kingdom heart, led to please God. A child-like heart, a humble heart. Jesus’ calling requires that he comes first, before anything else. How we treat others is major mark of how serious we take his calling.

“Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

The disciples’ question prompts Jesus to spend some time teaching them (and us) a lot about how we’re to live with each other in the kingdom.

Who’s the greatest? Might as well stop right there. To even enter the kingdom, you have to change and become like a child. That conjures up all kinds of qualities that Jesus may be looking for to enter the kingdom: their innocence, their pure hearts, their easy faith and love, and the list goes on. Jesus, though, calls out one quality specifically, and it alone.

The greatest in the kingdom, says Jesus, is the one who humbles himself like a child. In the same way Jesus “humbled himself“, throwing off his position to take on our nature for our sake, Jesus says the disciples need to humble themselves and become like a child, with no position and no power. The disciples are looking for the top position in the kingdom; Christ is looking for those that will give up any desire for position and power, pride or pretense.

He’s also looking for his followers to avoid sin, and doing anything that causes others to stumble. He starts this part of the conversation still talking about children – to receive one of them is the same as receiving him, but to cause one of them to sin – well, it would be better for that person to tie a large millstone around his neck and be drowned in the sea. Jesus broadens the teaching though. He echos his teaching from the Sermon on the Mount; remove anything that causes you to sin – it would be better for you to have eternal life without it than to perish in hell with it. Definitely don’t be the source of temptation and sin to the world around you.

No, God’s will is that no one should perish, and definitely not because of anything we’d do. Jesus uses an example of a shepherd who leaves 99 of his sheep to go and find one that is lost. His love drives him to see that not even one of his “little ones” should perish.

When there is sin in our relationships, Jesus tells what to do about it. Going to the person in private to deal with it – to reconcile if at all possible. If that’s unsuccessful taking one or two others along. If that fails, taking it before the church. If that fails, sadly, having nothing more to do with the person. God is a part of that decision, Jesus is among those that follow this model, and what the believers do will be binding.

Peter then asks how often he should forgive. Is he trying to find the limits on how often he’s supposed to go through all those steps of reconciliation Jesus described? Peter believes he’s being gracious, in offering to forgive seven times – the teachers of his day said just three. Jesus tells him that the answer, essentially, is to do it as many times as it takes. Not seven times, but seventy times seven if that’s what it takes.

He tells a story that both illustrates, and teaches further. In the parable, the king forgives a large debt from a servant,who in turn won’t forgive a tiny one for another servant. The result is the loss of his forgiveness, and being called to full account. As in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches that our forgiveness depends on how we forgive others. We’re to forgive as freely as the King does. We’re to deliver the same mercy we’ve received from others – freely and totally. If not, we lose that forgiveness and mercy ourselves.

Who is the greatest? That’s not the motive or the desire in the kingdom. Instead, what marks great-ness in the kingdom is the childlike humility that gives up position and honor. It’s  the avoidance of sin and anything that might cause others to sin, caring about the loss of even one just as God does. It’s seeking reconciliation over and over even when the other person is the one at fault. Forgiving as freely and as often as the Father.

One last thought. There is a time for turning away from a brother who refuses to repent and reconcile. Jesus wraps his teaching on when to do that in a discussion that starts by emphasizing humility, avoiding anything that would offend others, and love for the lost, and finishes by emphasizing extreme forgiveness. It seems that any thought of dealing with an unrepentant sinner has to be completely wrapped up in humility, avoiding offense, love, and extreme forgiveness too.

Christ’s preparation for the end is already beginning.

Peter has confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. The disciples are figuring out who he really is. Jesus is telling them what’s coming too – that he must go up to Jerusalem, and the religious leaders will put him to death, and he will be resurrected. He’s challenged them and their level of commitment with talk of them being willing to give up their lives.

That’s what leads up to the story of the Transfiguration in Matthew 17. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain to be witnesses to a secret. Right before them, Jesus is completely changed – his face shines like the sun, and his clothes become as white as light. Suddenly there’s two other people present – Moses the law-giver, and Elijah the prophet. They begin to talk – and it’s not just a friendly chat; Luke says that they were discussing what would happen in Jerusalem, and about Jesus’ “departure” that would happen there. They’re talking about his death.

True to form, Peter inserts his foot in his mouth. I don’t know exactly why he offers to build tents for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, but it’s clear he wants to do something. There must be some reason Jesus has brought them here. Peter says, “it is good that we are here”, as he offers to make the three tents (from what?).

Then they are witnesses to something even greater than seeing Moses and Elijah. God interrupts Peter (“while he was still speaking…”) and stops him mid-sentence. Similar to the scene at Jesus’ baptism, a bright cloud moves in overhead, and God speaks from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Terrified, the disciples fall on their faces. Jesus comes to them though, touches them, and tells them to get up, and not be afraid. Once again, it is just the four of them.

There are reasons for them being there. I can only guess at why Jesus was having this conversation with Moses and Elijah, beyond the topic of conversation: his death. I can only guess why Jesus wanted Peter, James, and John to witness it. There’s several things that we can see about what they witnessed, though, and it had a profound effect on them – if you want proof of that, spend a minute reading 2 Peter 1.

They saw Jesus less like the poor preacher with no place to lay his head, and more like he really was; holy and glorified. That day, they saw the Law, the Prophets, and the Salvation of Man all incarnate on the mountain, three people who represented God’s plan for man through time. They saw that the talk of Jesus’ death was real, and they also saw that life after death was real, as Moses who died and Elijah who had been taken up centuries ago where there with them. They heard God himself acknowledge Jesus as Son, and his pleasure in His son. They truly became his inner circle that day.

Just as the event of Jesus’ baptism was a scene in which God acknowledged and approved his son as he embarked on his ministry, this is the event in which God acknowledged and approved of his son as he begins the path to the end of that ministry – to his death in Jerusalem.

As they come down the mountainside, Jesus tells his inner circle that this event must remain a secret till after his death happens. They discuss “Elijah”, and the role that John the Baptist played. That he would suffer as John suffered.

Immediately after this mountaintop experience, Jesus is quickly immersed back into healing, dealing with disciples without enough faith to do what he’d given them the authority to do, even paying temple taxes to those he owes nothing to, simply to avoid offense. He’s really the Savior on the mountaintop. He’s also the healer, the teacher, and the man too.

What takeaways are there for me in this chapter?

One is to share the awe at who Jesus really is. It’s sometimes hard, reading familiar stories, to really stop and put myself into the scene; to imagine what the disciples saw and heard, and what it means about what he is. This is definitely a story that’s worth some quiet meditative time.

Another is realizing how much like Peter I am. He wanted to serve and didn’t know what to do. He wanted to do, do something, do anything… when what was really required was for him to listen to the Son.

Another is to recognize what applies to me in what Jesus said to the disciples when he came down from the mountain. So little faith was required for them to do incredible things, but even that amount of faith was lacking. Given who he is and what he is capable of, just a little faith on my part is all that is needed to do what he wants me to do, what he’s asked me to do, and what he’ll empower me to do.

Listen. Have faith. Then do.

Do you ever feel that your spiritual life is like a roller coaster? One minute things seem so clear, and the next you feel totally out of touch with God?

Peter and the other disciples experienced the same thing on their faith journey. We see it clearly in Matthew 16, and Jesus tells us why.

The Pharisees are asking for a sign again. This time, they’ve come with the Sadducees. I wonder if this indicates just how serious the Pharisees are in their plot to kill him – while the Scribes and the Pharisees saw eye-to-eye on a lot of things, the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not; their theology was quite different and they struggled with each other for power. Now they’ve teamed up to come and test Jesus – this is the first time Matthew has recorded the Sadducees challenging Jesus too.

They ask Jesus for a sign from heaven; again asking him to prove who he is. Jesus wastes little time on them, and his reply is much like the one he gave the Pharisees in Matthew 12. You can interpret the signs of the skies – what the weather is going to be like from how the sky looks. You can’t interpret the signs of the times, though. There are plenty of signs all around you, and you miss them. I’m not going to give you any sign except “the sign of Jonah” – his resurrection.

He leaves out all the “signs” he’s already provided, that are far more convincing than the “signs of the times”. The things that he told John’s disciples, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. ” They knew scripture, and should have recognized the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words. They should have recognized the power displayed and taken that as their sign. But as Jesus has already told the disciples, some are not able or willing to understand; they’re blind guides. Jesus reserves his “signs” for those in need; he heals, he raises the dead, but he’s not giving “signs” to prove himself to those that wouldn’t believe anyway.

Jesus and his disciples leave, but this encounter remains on his mind. As the disciples fret about having not brought bread along on the journey to eat, Jesus tells them to “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” – to be careful of their teaching and their attitudes. They think he’s talking about them having no bread to eat. He’s trying to warn them of just what a polluting influence these leaders are, but they are completely focused on the lack of bread, and miss the point completely. This, after having seen how Jesus can provide, as he did when he fed the 5000 and later, the 4000. “How is it you fail to understand?”, Jesus asks.

Matthew next recounts Peter’s great confession. Jesus asks the disciples to tell him who the people think he is. It appears the general consensus is that he’s a prophet – either John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or some other prophet. Then Jesus moves from the safe question to a harder one: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter, ever the first to answer, ever the spokesman for the group, gives the answer. He’s more than a prophet. He’s the Christ. He’s the Son of God.

Jesus’ response is reminiscent of the discussion he had with the disciples in Matthew 13: while there are many that are unwilling and unable to understand Jesus and his teaching, “the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you…blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear” (Matthew 13: 11,16). Jesus tells Peter that he is blessed because God has shown this to him; this isn’t something he just figured out using his own intellect. This faith, this confession springing from the kingdom heart, this God-given spiritual insight expressed by Peter (the name, given to him by Jesus, means “stone”) is the Rock, the foundation on which the Church will be built. I can just see big, rough Peter beaming from ear-to-ear at Christ’s words.

Then Matthew tells us that Jesus has decided it is time to let the disciples know what’s going to happen to him – that he will go to Jerusalem and will be killed by the religious leaders, and then be raised from the dead. Once again, Peter is the one who reacts. This time, he takes Jesus aside and rebukes him – “This shall never happen to you”! This certainly isn’t what Peter wants. It isn’t something he can imagine happening to the Christ. It’s something that doesn’t fit in with his understanding. The problem is, none of this is up to what Peter wants, Peter imagines, or Peter understands.

Jesus tells him, “Get behind me, Satan!”. Wow, that’s strong. “You are a stumbling block to me”.

In three stories, we’ve gone from the disciples not understanding what Jesus was telling them about the Pharisees and Sadducees and not trusting in Jesus to provide for them, to Peter’s great confession based on God-given insight – the foundation of Christ’s church to come, to Peter being a stumbling block being used by the enemy, a hindrance to Christ. How can somebody go through all those extremes? How can somebody blessed with the ability to see and understand spiritual things so clearly in one moment completely miss the boat in the next?

Jesus gives the answer to that. “You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

How much is my spiritual life like that? When my focus is on me, my plans, and leaning on my own understanding, I miss the boat. When I fix my eyes on Jesus, empty myself, and follow him, everything is clear.

The prescription is a hard one:

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die”. Putting self to death, putting our desires to death, putting our plans to death, and yes, sometimes literally losing one’s life.

The roller-coaster faith ride I’m on indicates I still have some dying to do.

It seems the “big guns” of the religious leaders have decided to pay Jesus a visit – the Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem have come up to Galilee to see him. Similar to the confrontation we saw in Chapter 12, these Pharisees immediately confront Jesus with his disciples’ behavior. This time, it is their failure to follow the tradition of ritual hand washing before eating. “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?”

My mother taught me to wash the grime off my hands before eating for health reasons, but what the Pharisees were complaining about was different. It was a ritual washing of the hands for spiritual uncleanness, but it wasn’t commanded in the Law – its source was rabbinical tradition. There were rules in the Law to wash when something specific had happened to make one unclean – like touching a diseased person or coming in contact with a dead body. The religious teachers had added their own rules on top of the Law to take it a step further, and require people to wash before meals just in case they had done something to become spiritually unclean without knowing it.

Jesus doesn’t answer their question. He returns a question – one that has a more serious charge: “Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition”? Jesus gives an example. The Law was serious when it commanded us to honor our father and mother. Breaking that command was punishable by death. The religious leaders had a teaching that one could declare what he had as devoted to God and given over to Him, which doesn’t sound bad. What they also allowed, though, was for their teaching about devoting things to God to allow a person to shirk their responsibility of taking care of their parents by declaring their belongings as devoted to God, thus denying their parents the use of it. Jesus said that they used their teaching and tradition to “void the word of God” – to supersede his Law.

That’s definitely not what God intended. It’s definitely not the heart of mercy he wanted. To Jesus, it’s another example of play-acting at religion – he calls them hypocrites, and quotes a prophecy of Isaiah that describes them.

These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.

You can say all kinds of things that sound good, but the heart is what God cares about. When the worship is heart-less words based on human rules, the worship is worthless and futile – it isn’t a worship that pleases God.

Jesus turns from the Pharisees and scribes to the people to teach them the essential principle here, and the one we should understand: Spiritual uncleanness is measured by what is in the heart. The heart, not the hands is where uncleanness resides; the inside, not the outside. The Pharisees and scribes were focused on ritual and external appearances while God saw the heart. From the heart comes the things that people say and do – which can be all kinds of evil. No, he says, it’s not what goes in the mouth that makes a person spiritually unclean; it’s what comes out of the mouth, coming from the heart. Like what is coming out of the Pharisees now.

At their questioning, Jesus explains the teaching further to the disciples, warning them that the Pharisees are “blind guides” leading the blind and to ignore them and describing them as weeds to be rooted up (like the parable of the tares in Matthew 13). Then they leave the area.

They go to Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile region. There, a Canaanite woman came asking for Jesus to heal her demon-possessed daughter. He ignored her. She cried out after Jesus and the disciples so persistently that the disciples begged Jesus to send her away. He refused. She knelt and pleaded for help, and he called her a dog, a term the Jews commonly used with Gentiles.

I don’t understand this. I’ve heard people explain that Jesus was just testing how strong her faith was. I’ve heard some people claim that Jesus was teaching the disciples something here, to get them past their dislike of the Gentiles. I have no better explanation than these, but honestly it bothers me.

What doesn’t bother me is the woman. She is incredible. Despite being a Canaanite from a Gentile region, she refers to him as “Lord, Son of David”, a term for the Messiah. Driven by her concern for her daughter and her faith that he can do something about it, she asks for his mercy. When he ignores her she persists. When he refuses her, she kneels in humility. When he refers to her as a dog, her reaction isn’t anger; she doesn’t challenge him; she simply asks for the smallest crumb from the table.

The reaction is a far cry from what Jesus got from the most important religious leaders of the nation of God’s people. They’re prideful, focused on position and appearance and show, and unable to understand and believe. She’s humble, submissive, transparent, and full of faith.

Jesus marvels, “O woman, great is your faith!” He instantly heals her daughter.

Two encounters with Jesus.

One with a group of God’s chosen people, the ones who should have recognized who he was from scripture, from prophesy, from his heart, from the teaching that mirrored what God had told them for centuries, and from the power displayed. Instead, they rejected him, criticized him, were concerned only with themselves and their traditions.

The second with a Gentile that shouldn’t have known or understood a thing, and yet called him the Messiah and approached him faithfully and humbly, relying on him to take care of her need.

Which was blessed by Jesus, and which were condemned? Which was “clean”, and which was “unclean”? Which was closer to the kingdom?

Which am I more like?

MSNBC on the healing power of honey, especially as a cough suppressant:

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbc-news/46068529#46068529

A 10-month study of healthy honey bees by University of California, San Francisco scientists has identified four new viruses that infect bees… In addition to viruses, the research revealed six species each of bacteria and fungi, four types of mites and a parasitic fly called a phorid, which had not been seen in honey bees outside California.

Read more at the link.

Scientists have found numerous examples of a new phenomenon – bees “entombing” or sealing up hive cells full of pollen to put them out of use, and protect the rest of the hive from their contents. The pollen stored in the sealed-up cells has been found to contain dramatically higher levels of pesticides and other potentially harmful chemicals than the pollen stored in neighbouring cells, which is used to feed growing young bees.

Honeybees entomb hives to protect against pesticides, say scientists | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

We’ve updated our website, and it now includes:

• New Products – after a year of researching, experimenting, and testing on ourselves and friends, we’re launching a new line of homemade from-scratch soaps, most of which feature honey and beeswax in the recipes.
• Links to our Etsy store, where you can select and pay for our products online. If you don’t see what you’re looking for in the Etsy store, let us know and we’ll make you a fresh batch.
• Our blog posts mirrored on the website

… and more. Let us know what you think!

From my brother in Memphis – bad design in plastic frames is helping the small hive beetles by providing them with a place to hide:

From the LA Times:

The origin of insects found in clay beehives in the Jordan Valley, the oldest known commercial beekeeping facility in the world, suggests extensive trading and complicated agriculture 3,000 years ago.

Israel is referred to repeatedly in the Bible — 17 times, in fact — as the “land of milk and honey,” but until three years ago, archaeologists had discovered little firm evidence that beekeeping was ever practiced there. Many scholars, in fact, assumed “honey” referred to a nectar from dates or other fruits.

Then, three years ago, researchers found a 3,000-year-old apiary in the Iron Age city of Tel Rehov in the Jordan Valley, the oldest known commercial beekeeping facility in the world, suggesting that the word “honey” likely referred to the real thing.

Read more

via Catch The Buzz:

From the General Meeting Of Microbiology, San Diego, CA, May 25, 2010

New research from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) identifies a new potential cause for “Colony Collapse Disorder” in honeybees. A group of pathogens including a fungus and family of viruses may be working together to cause the decline. Scientists report their results today at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego.

“There might be a synergism between two very different pathogens,” says Jay Evans of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, a researcher on the study. “When they show up together there is a significant correlation with colony decline.”

Beginning in October 2006, some beekeepers began reporting losses of 30-90 percent of their hives. Although colony losses are not unexpected during winter weather, the magnitude of loss suffered by some beekeepers was highly unusual.

“Domesticated honey bees face numerous pests and pathogens, tempting hypotheses that colony collapses arise from exposure to new or resurgent pathogens,” says Evans.

To better understand the cause of these collapses, in early 2007 Evans and his colleagues collected bees from both healthy and declining colonies across the country but primarily from California and Florida where most of the commercial pollination activity takes place. They have screened these samples and similar samples from each year since then for both known and novel pathogens.

They found a slightly higher incidence of a fungal pathogen known as Nosema ceranae in sick colonies, but it was not statistically significant until they began pairing it with other pathogens.

“Levels of the fungus were slightly higher in sick colonies, but the presence of that fungus and 2 or 3 RNA viruses from the family Dicistroviridae is a pretty strong predictor of collapse,” says Evans.

Nosema are transferred between bees via the fecal-oral route. When a bee initially ingests the microbes and they get to the mid-gut, they harpoon themselves into the gut wall and live inside the epithelial cells there. Evans believes that the slightly higher numbers of the fungus somehow compromise the gut wall and allow the viruses to overwhelm the bees. In colonies with higher Nosema numbers they found virus levels to be 2-3 times greater than healthy colonies.

While this is a working theory and they are still in the discovery phase looking for new pathogens, Evans and his colleagues are also actively looking for a way to boost bee defenses against Nosema.

“A way to protect against Nosema might be the key for now,” says Evans.

From CNN:

Swarms of bees hampered rescue efforts at the scene of a fatal wreck in Minnesota on Monday after they escaped from the damaged tractor-trailer that was hauling them, state highway patrol said.

Another report said the truck was carrying something like 7,000 hives. That’s a lot of angry bees….

On May 1, Jackson TN experienced almost 15″ of rain and extensive flooding. The Forked Deer river flooded and backed up the surrounding creeks, including Harris Creek, which flows near our property. Harris Creek diverted across our land, and washed our bee hives away. A total loss.