Matthew 19 - Part 3

 

Read Matthew 19

We come to a familiar story.  A rich man came to see Jesus.  He sought him out.  He had questions.  He wanted to know what he must do to obtain eternal life. 

We skip for now the part about good teacher or what good things and proceed to the man’s question.  What must I do to receive eternal life?

Jesus noted simply to obey the commandments.

You might think that this would have been cause for celebration as the young man surely thought he had been checking the blocks all of his life, but he asked a follow-up question.  Which ones?

We should take this question as sincere.  After all, surely some of the commandments applied only to the priest or only to those in agriculture, right?

Jesus fired off some quick commandments that applied to this man, and surely to us all.

Don’t murder.

Don’t commit adultery.

Don’t steal.

Do honor your father and mother.

And love your neighbor as much as your love yourself.

The man surely was pleased by the answer that Jesus gave him.  I’ve done all of these since I was a kid, but he had yet another question.

What do I still lack?

The man might have been hoping that Jesus would say that he had checked all the blocks and would see him in heaven when his time on earth was completed.  Jesus gave a different answer.

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

If you want to be perfect, if you want to be complete, if you truly want to please God, then…

There appears to be a basic threshold for entering eternal life and there appears to be something more—living completely to please God and bring glory to his name.  Some may be content to just escape the flames of hell but others will want to be perfect, complete, given over completely to God’s glory.

Jesus wrapped up this section noting that many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first.  It is as if there is an inverse relationship to treasures we claim in this world and those stored up in the world to come.

Back to the rich man.  Jesus gave him some stout direction, direction that in Mark’s gospel are preceded by the words, and he looked at him and loved him.

Give up all the things that you have placed ahead of God.  Sell everything that you have and give the proceeds to the poor.  If you really are concerned about eternity, then open a big account there. 

This was surely not what this very rich man wanted to hear.  Jesus charged him to turn away from his god of wealth for the one true God.  That was a tough trade.  We don’t get the rest of the story.  All we know is that this rich man went away sad.

There is more that we could discuss about this rich young man, but we turn now to the disciples.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

The disciples were overwhelmed but not speechless.

Who then can be saved?

Think about their question.  It was as if the words of Jesus about a rich person applied to them.  They did not consider themselves poor.  OK, they didn’t have as much as the rich guy who just walked away sad, but they were not poor.  They had houses, and some had families, and others had real property.  Some left businesses that sustained them if not just outright profitable.  The disciples considered themselves in this category of having some earthly wealth.

Sometimes we read this section and think it applies to other people.  We are surely not rich.  This applies to those people that we read about because they have so much money.  It would be easier for a camel to make its way through the eye of a needle than for those people to enter into eternal life.

But the disciples were making application to themselves. Peter chimed in.  Remember that Peter had a wife and house and even a mother-in-law. 

Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”

Would the disciples follow Jesus for the rest of their lives and come to a dead-end?  Would they be disqualified because they had material possessions?  Were they too wealthy to enter into eternal life?

Jesus told them yes, you own too much to enter into the eternal life that God wants you to enjoy.  On your own, you will miss the boat, but with God—and only with God—will you come to know life.

Stop judging eternal things by temporal metrics.  Did the disciples not remember the feeding of the 5000 and the 4000, the healing of so many, the faith of those from whom we expect little or no faith, walking on water in a storm, and the demons who were sent packing?  Quit keeping score as the world does.

Stop judging eternal things by temporal metrics. 

Remember the counsel that you received earlier. 

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Jesus reminded his followers that his Father in heaven desires to bless them.  He desires to bless us and that includes with things of material worth.  We must never let these things own us or control us, but God wants to bless us.  He wants to bless us more when we give up the things of this world for the ways of his kingdom.

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.  And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

There are specific promises for the disciples and promises for all who have left material things in this world for the eternal things of the kingdom of heaven.  The heavenly return is staggering—one hundred times what was given up.  God is very generous.

God loves to bless you.  He wants to bless you with so much that your only choice is to bless others.  We can bless others materially and we can bless others with mercy.  We are provisioned to bless others.

We say that you can’t out give God.  Some can say this from personal experience.

So as far as our wealth goes, we should ask a question that we don’t find spelled out here but that applies so well.

Are we rich towards God?

Will we take what we have and use it to produce good fruit for God and his kingdom?  We will freely give that which already belongs to God and in so doing bring glory to God?

When we think of what we have, what we have given up, what is subject to moth and rust, and what is stored safely in eternity, it comes down to a simple question.

Are we rich towards God?

We should not be worried about who among us can be saved.  We know the answer.  The answer came from God the Father full of grace and truth and we know him as our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.  He desires none to perish. Our hope and our salvation are completely in him.

We know who can be saved!  We are commissioned by Christ Jesus himself to take this message of salvation to the world.  The question that we should dwell upon and act upon is this.

Are we rich towards God?

I pray that the answer is and always will be yes.  Let’s be rich towards God.

Let’s make this an affirmation.  I am rich towards God.

As we continue in this New Year seeking to do the things of God, let’s love mercy and let’s be rich towards God.

Amen.

 

Matthew 19 - Part 2

 

Read Matthew 19

How many times do you wonder if the disciples were the most forgetful people on the planet?  Jesus fed 5000 men plus women and children and when faced with a similar situation, the disciples are at a loss as to how to feed a crowd of 4000.

Jesus had just taught his disciples that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, they must become like a child.  He illustrated his teaching with a child who was nearby, and yet when Jesus moved on to Judea and the children wanted to come to Jesus, his disciples tried to stop them.

Had they forgotten so easily?

Jesus said let them come.  Do not get in their way. Pay attention.  These children understand the kingdom of heaven better than you.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Amen.

Matthew 19 - Part 1

 Read Matthew 19

Jesus headed back to the region of Judea.  It didn’t matter where he went, there were always people coming to him, and that included the Pharisees.  In this case, some Pharisees wanted to test Jesus.

They asked him:

“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

This hardly seems like a test.  It sounds like a legitimate question, but consider where we have been before only a few short chapters ago. 

John the Baptist had been imprisoned and eventually was beheaded by Herod.  What landed John in prison?  He was critical of Herod who took his brother’s wife as his own.  Essentially, he divorced his brother from his wife and made her his own wife.

This is stuff of Hollywood and soap operas and First Century Judea, but ever so relevant to the question of the Pharisees. 

Should Jesus just say no to any and all divorce, that would put him in opposition to Herod and perhaps that would render an expedient solution to this Jesus problem.  Herod already thought that Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected, so it was uncertain if Herod would imprison him and kill him again, but it was worth promoting the controversy to the maximum extent possible.

Jesus noted that divorce was never in the original plan. 

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?  So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

But, but, but Moses said we could divorce our wives.

Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.  I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

This should have sounded familiar as Jesus addressed the topic during the Sermon on the Mount.

This time, prompted by the Pharisees, Jesus noted the condition of the human heart.  Your hearts became hardened. 

Marriage is tough.  It is impossible with a hardened heart. 

The disciples decided to chime in with a declaration of their own.  Note that they were not asking a question but assessing the teaching and declaring this to be an obvious truth.

The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”

Jesus might have surprised his disciples.  He said, you’re right, with a slight qualification.  If you can give up your romantic, sexual, and physical needs and live only for God, then that is exactly what you should do. 

If you can…

As we know, most cannot or will not set aside what was originally given to us to propagate the species.  We start with the best intentions in marriage but our corrupted human hearts make the journey difficult.

If you can forgo marriage and give your life to God alone, then do it.  If not, then you had best seek a partner who will put God first and Jesus in the center of your marriage.

Here is a challenge for only a few.  If you can live only for God, then live only for him and forsake union with a husband or wife.  It’s not for everybody, but if it is for you, do not be encumbered in marital relationship when you were made only for relationship with God.

Amen.

Matthew 18 - Part 5

 

Read Matthew 18

Read the message about this parable from 2017.

Peter wanted to know how many times he should forgive someone.  Seven seemed like a good guess.  Jesus replied, not 7 but 77.  Some translations might say 7 times 70, that’s 490 times.  That’s a lot of forgiveness.

And so, Jesus told the story of a man who owed his king 10,000 talents.  That’s a bunch of money.  There was no way he could repay that now but the debt had been called.

The man pleaded that he would not be sold to pay for the debt.  The king had mercy on him and forgave the debt.  Now that’s some mercy right there!

The man went on his way and came across a man who owed him a hundred silver coins and he demanded payment.  The man could not pay and he pleaded for more time to repay.

The man who had been forgiven so much would forgive nothing.  He had the man who owed him put into prison until he could pay.  His fellow servants found out about this and reported it to the king.

The king was furious.  He said, I canceled all of your debt and you couldn’t show just a little bit of mercy on your fellow servant?  OK, two can play this game.  He handed this man over to the jailers to be tortured until he could repay what he owed.

Realize that there are many strategies for getting out of debt, but getting tortured doesn’t reduce the sum owed.  It’s a no-win scenario.

Now we can look at this parable and think justice was done.  It was but the king desired mercy more than justice. 

Jesus told this parable to help Peter and us understand what it will be like at the end of the age.  We can never pay what we owe God but God desires mercy more than justice or sacrifice or any perfunctory payment.  He desires mercy.

He delivers mercy.  He wants to see mercy operating within us so much more than compliance, mindless obedience, ritual, or anything else that misses the divine heart of God.

When we are at a loss as to what we should do, find the way that includes love and mercy.

When we are struggling to please God, find the way governed by mercy.

When the world is going absolutely crazy around us, find a time and place to practice mercy.

Consider how Jesus called us to come to him as a child, not as a judge or master of ritual, but as a child.  Come to him as a completely accepting child.  Accept love.  Accept forgiveness.  Accept others with the same love and mercy that you received.

Grant forgiveness.  Be known by your love and mercy.  Be an example of mercy to your fellow servants.  Do not lead anyone astray by your lack of compassion and mercy.  Speak the truth to your fellow servants in Christ, even about uncomfortable subjects, but do it in a spirit of love.

Practice mercy.

We did a little warm up at the beginning of the service.  Let’s do it again.

Seek justice.

Love mercy.

Walk humbly with your God.

Think about these two words:  love mercy.  What if we not only tried to practice mercy, but we loved mercy.  We loved being merciful.

What if our new nature—our Christ nature—loved mercy.  What if we did what Jesus instructed the Pharisees to do.  Learn what this means.  I desire mercy not sacrifice.

The child does not know bitterness or contempt or hate or coveting.  The child accepts the love of a parent without questioning.  But our human hearts have been corrupted by sin.  Left to our own desires we seek to gratify ourselves more than others, more than God.

To enter the kingdom of heaven we must become like a child again.  We don’t come seeking to balance the scales that can never be balanced.  We owe more than we can pay.  We owe more than we can imagine.  Our only recourse is mercy.  Without mercy, we are toast.

But mercy is not our first nature.  We want what is owed to us by others.  What others owe becomes our focus.  It gets in the way of putting God first.  It blinds us to what God has done for us and we see only what we desire from others.

We have received mercy beyond our comprehension.  We must deliver mercy to the best of our ability.  We must remember that while we were God’s enemies, Christ died for us.

Let’s say our words from Micah again.

Seek justice.

Love mercy.

Walk humbly with your God.

Christ came full of grace and truth.  We have received more than mercy.  We have received favor.  How can we ever deliver condemnation? How can we look upon another with disdain?  How can we see others through eyes of contempt?

Our M.O. must be mercy.  As we begin this New Year, consider all the old things that you hold on to because someone wronged you.  So long as you hold on to these things, you are not prepared to deliver mercy.  You want justice from your own unique perspective.

It makes for a good action movie with plenty of violence, payback, and revenge, but it also makes for a terrible likeness of Christ Jesus whom others should see in us.

As we set upon this New Year, I asked us to set as our goal to do the things of God.  Let’s put practice mercy near the top of that list of the things of God.

Seek justice.

Love mercy.

Walk humbly with your God.

Amen!

Matthew 18 - Part 4

 

Read Matthew 18

Jesus answered Cain’s question:  Am I my brother’s keeper?

And the answer is, yes.  We serve God, honor God, love God and each other but we are in this together.  We look out for one another.  We share burdens.  We encourage each other.

And here is one that we overlook again and again.  We confront each other as an act of love.  Many will read this section and skip straight to the end.  Where 2 or 3 are gathered…

We like that part.  We like to skip over the part about confronting our brothers and sisters when they go astray, but did we just not read about the man who goes after the 1 and leaves the 99 in the open country?  Do you suddenly decide to right off the 1 because it might be a difficult conversation?

Be private.  Be gentle.  Bring help if needed.  Garner the support of the entire body if you must, but don’t write off the person who has strayed.  Remember he or she is still of value to you Father in heaven, who loves them very much.

Christian up and do your part.

OBTW—when 2 or 3 gather in his name, Jesus is in your presence so it’s not you judging your brother.  You are bringing the Truth to them.  The church has been given power and authority in this age.  Use it to fulfill the will of the Father.

Amen.

Matthew 18 - Part 3

 

Read Matthew 18

Jesus continued to use the children to teach about heaven.  Don’t despise them.  In fact, when the angels in heaven look upon their faces, they see the face of the Father.

There is some unique syntax here that survives most translations.

See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

Notice the words their angels in heaven.  You expect that Jesus doesn’t botch his syntax and that the proper syntax has survived multiple translations.  So, when Jesus said their angels in heaven, he meant their angels.

These little ones have angels assigned to them.  We think of angels in general.  Jesus notes that these children have angels specific to them.  Think on these two things before you look down upon a child.

1 – The angels see the face of God the Father on each child.

2 – Each child has angels assigned to look out for them.

Now Jesus relates a parable that we know best from Luke 15  If a man owns 100 sheep and one goes missing, will he not leave the 99 in the open country and go look for the one sheep?

Yes, he will and he will rejoice like crazy when he finds it.  Jesus said that his Father in heaven is just as passionate about these little children.  He is not willing that any should perish.

This is a little different from the story in Luke in that it focuses on the children, which could also be those who have only recently come to believe.  But the passion of the Father abides in both.

Don’t discount the kids or the new believers.  God desires none to perish.

Amen.

 

Matthew 18 - Part 2

 

Read Matthew 18

Jesus continued talking about children and becoming like children to get into the kingdom of heaven.  Then he warned against getting the way of these innocents, either children or those newborn in the kingdom of heaven.

You would be better off just to keep your mouth shut than to lead astray one who had come to the kingdom as a child.  There are plenty of ways to sin in this world, but Jesus noted that leading a child or one who has come to God like a child astray should come with a very vivid image.

That image is one of a huge millstone tied to your neck.  The stone is thrown into the depths of the sea.  You follow behind. There is nothing you can do except choke and drown.  This isn’t waterboarding where you feel like you are drowning.  You are drowning anchored to this huge stone and you can’t find your diving knife.

Nails scraped across a chalkboard—something the dry erase generation missed altogether, being eaten alive by rats—again those who watched Willard, Ben, or 1984 understand this best, and being thrown into the sea with a huge stone tied to your neck all fall into the category of things that I don’t ever want to experience.

James counseled those who read his letter that few should set upon the course of being a teacher.  Living a life of deliberate instruction in a world demanding immediacy is too challenging for most. The temptation to insert our own views into God’s word is too much for most.

Jesus noted that people would stumble.  It happened.  It continues to happen.  Until Jesus reigns upon the earth and sin’s exile is complete, we should expect men to stumble.

That is not cause for despair.  We confess and God is faithful and just to forgive, but leading others astray is cause for despair.  That’s not falling short.  That’s getting in league with the enemy.  God sent his Son to atone for the sins of humankind while we as a people were God’s enemies.

We do not want to reclaim that status.  This is life and death, heaven and hell, life and damnation stuff.  It’s big time and if your eye or your hand causes you to stumble, it would be better that you pluck it out or cut it off and show up for heaven slightly disabled than to miss the boat altogether.

Yes, this is surely hyperbole, but the underlying truth survives even if it is literal.  Getting to heaven missing a hand or an eye is better than being in the picture of health in hell.

Do your best to live a good life.  Take extra steps to make sure that you don’t lead others astray.

Amen.