Matthew 22

Reading for February 5

Jesus teaches several lessons in the chapter. It seems like the Pharisees are trying very hard to trip Him up, but each time Jesus has the perfect response. I think there is a lot we can learn from Jesus in how to combat antagonist who want to challenge our beliefs or disprove the gospel.

 

First and most importantly we need to know our scriptures. If you don’t know what the bible says it’s very hard to convince someone of what it says or you might actually be mistaken yourself. “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (22:29).

 

Another tactic Jesus uses when someone asks him a question is to respond with his own question. This puts you in better control of the conversation. The Pharisees ask, “Tell us then… is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” – Jesus asks for a coin then poses this question.  “Whose portrait is this?” (22:17 & 20).  He gets the response he wants and so they walk away amazed. We have to remember to speak all of this in love and with compassion, especially to those who are earnestly seeking the truth.

Jesus responds to the Sadducees about marriage, and to the Pharisees about the Greatest Commandment. Here Jesus is quoting Deut. 6:5 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind… and love your neighbor as yourself.” If you look at the Ten Commandments you will see that they are divided into these two categories. The first four are about loving God and the next 6 are how to treat your neighbor (and parents). We see that relationships are important to God, first with Him and then with others. You can’t love God and fail to love your neighbor. You can’t love your neighbor and fail to love God. The two go hand in hand.

I invite you to add your comments.

Blessings

Pastor Kathy

 

Matthew 21
Reading for February 4

The Triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It always strikes me when I read this passage of how Jesus enters Jerusalem as a “hero”; an honored and glorified King and then before the week is over he is killed. This dramatic entry into Jerusalem fulfills yet another of the Old Testament prophecies. “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!  Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  Zechariah 9:9.

I wonder how many times we get all excited about a “mountain top” experience, close encounter with Jesus where we praise and glorify Him, where we promise to live a life that more closely resembles the life He wants us to live, and then before the week is over, we go back to our old bad habits, our old sinful nature and in effect “crucify” Jesus by our actions.

Jesus spends his last week teaching and preaching and trying to get in those last words before his death. You can almost feel the tension in his actions, the desperation to get across the words that we so need to hear. When Jesus enters the temple (which I’m sure he had done many times before and seen the money changers there) yet this time is different, this time he explodes into a rage throwing the cheaters, and thieves out of God’s house. A good lesson for us to remember that God’s house is a house of prayer. A place where we should never compromise the Word of God or to acquiesce, to concede to the culture around us. 

It is my prayer that we will stay true to God’s Word and not try to change the meaning in order to make it fit into a culture that is rapidly deteriorating into a moral-less society, where there is no more black and white, right or wrong and everything is becoming muddied or gray. A world where “politically incorrect” trumps Scripture. Where we only want to hear what our “itching ears” desire to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3)

This chapter has many other lessons to learn, please add your thoughts as well.

Blessings for the day!

Pastor Kathy