Matthew 15

In Matthew 15 we encounter cranky Jesus.

In verse 14, in regards to the Pharisees Jesus said "Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit."

In verse 16 Jesus said to his disciples "Are you still so dull?" Another translation has Jesus saying "Are you willfully being stupid?"

In verse 24 Jesus tells a Canaanite woman that he was sent only for the "lost sheep of Israel" and then in verse 26 calls her a dog. She replies "Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table."

And cranky Jesus disappears. He is replaced with nice Jesus, who grants her request.

Jesus said he came for the lost sheep of Israel, but they are the ones who argue and bicker with him. They are the ones that he calls blind. Then there are the disciples... the ones that Jesus calls stupid. These are the lost sheep.

The problem with the lost sheep is that they don't believe they are lost. It's hard to believe in a savior when one doesn't need saving. They are blinded by their own pride and self-righteousness.

Pride and self-righteousness makes Jesus cranky.

But the Canaanite woman has no pride, she is not self-righteous. When Jesus calls her a dog she accepts it... She does everything but bark... And Jesus praises her faith.

Am I blind? Am I stupid? Do I make Jesus cranky? Yes, yes and yes.

Maybe I need to learn to bark.

Matthew 14

Jesus hears that John the Baptist has been killed and he is looking for a place to mourn. Then 5,000 people surround him, each looking for something from him.

Jesus feeds them. It's a miracle how many he feeds with so little, but that's not what I am thinking about today.

This past week I was with a family that lost a loved one. There was sadness and there was laughter. There was love and there was food.

Sometimes it's not about what we are eating but who we are eating it with. Food tastes so much better when it is eaten in the presence of our loved ones.

Jesus could have sent the people away, but he didn't. He found comfort in the crowd, in the relationships. He needed to be around them, to hear their stories, to laugh with them and to cry with them.

Thanksgiving is great; we set aside a whole day to eat with those whom we hold dear... We re-connect and catch-up.

Those relationships are the treasure of our lives.

Matthew 13

Jesus has been traveling around teaching and healing. He has been all over Judea and has gained quite a following. In chapter 13 he finally heads back home, where he is not greeted with any acclaim.

Instead the people say "Isn't this the carpenter's son?"

In essence they were saying "We know you, we know who your father is and you are nothing special."

Sometimes the thing that we are looking for is right under our noses. It's so close we can't even see it. Have you ever looked all around for your keys or phone only to realize that they are in your hand?

I feel bad for the people that knew Jesus as a kid. That were so close to him that they could not grasp the enormity of his life and death. He was too close to them.

Maybe, for those people that don't believe, Jesus is too close to them. Maybe they can't see that love, grace and forgiveness are all around them. Maybe they are looking for a burning bush when God is holding their hand.

If God is love, then God is close.

Closer than we can imagine.

Matthew 12

Sometimes I feel bad for the Pharisees. It's like they never had a chance. My professor, Dr. Powell says that they are like Storm Troopers, they are flat characters that are just in the story to be a villain. You can't like them. (Other than their sweet uniform, which apparently doesn't protect them from anything.)

In Matthew 12 Jesus does everything he can to instigate them. He has his disciples pick grain to eat and he heals a man's hand, both which were against the law. The law that the Pharisees took very seriously Jesus just makes a mockery of.

Then some of them come to Jesus, maybe they are ready to believe that he is the Messiah, so they say "Teacher. we want to see a sign from you."

And Jesus said "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign!" He calls them wicked and adulterous after he breaks their laws. They simply can not win.

Am I sympathetic to the Pharisees? Yes and no.

They certainly did all they could to kill Jesus because he challenged their authority and place of honor within their society. This was not the first, nor the last time in history that humans have killed to protect their way of life.

But I am sympathetic to them because the laws they were following were passed down from their ancestors as being laws given from God. (Which I believe they were.) They were doing what they thought God wanted them to do.

They were just focused on the wrong things. Again, not the first, nor the last time in the history of the church that her leaders have fallen into that trap.

Leading a church is a lot of work. Things come up every day that I didn't even know that I didn't know. It's easy to forget why we exist.

Jesus never lost his focus. His focus was love, love that led him to the cross to die for the sins of all.

Even the Storm Troopers.

Lord, help us all to be more like Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 11

Verse 19 "The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard'..."

One of my professors had an interesting thought about this verse, one that I'd like to share. (Thanks Dr. Powell!)

Jesus must have been chubby!

If I were to call someone fat and they were skinny then I would look like an idiot. But the Pharisees call Jesus a glutton, meaning he ate too much. The Pharisees would not say that about him if he was as skinny as all the paintings show, they would look stupid. So, Jesus must have been chubby.

And he must have enjoyed to drink. For the same reason they would not call him a drunkard if it was not obvious that he drank wine.

So, what does this all mean?

Jesus was human; he did not have the perfect body, he looked like an average dude.

An important message for all of us, it's love that changes the world, not looks.

Matthew 10

Verse 42 "And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is known to be my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly be rewarded."

It's easy to say that only those who believe in Jesus will go to heaven, there are many verses in the bible that lead us to believe that. So we spend our time and energy trying to get people to believe in Jesus... so they too can go to heaven. But Jesus seems to think bigger than we do.

He tells his discples that anyone who shows you the slightest sign of compassion will be rewarded. Rewarded with what? What else did Jesus come for but to give eternal life?

Does that mean that we should become universalists and believe that every person goes to heaven because they are nice at some point in their lives?

No. It means that every one that has ever gone to heaven has gone there because of Jesus.

Who gets in and who is left out is up to him. Maybe, just maybe he is better at grace than us. Maybe he thinks bigger than we do.

Maybe we should stop worrying about heaven and start worrying about those who don't have any water to drink.

Matthew 9

Verse 13 "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."

I have recently purchased The Message, which is a paraphrase of the bible. (It's hard for me to put my old bible on the shelf, we have been through so much together, but it's time.) The Messagae translates verse 13 as "I'm after mercy, not religion."

Mercy instead of religion?

Later on in the chapter some Pharisees witness Jesus healing and claim that his power must be coming from the devil.

That's what happens when we make religion our main focus. God could be standing right in front of us and we think it is the devil.

Religion has a way of blinding us to the truth, if that religion is focused on the wrong things.

For the Pharisees, they had power because of their position in their religion. They had honor, influence and privileges that normal people didn't have. They constructed a theology that protected their way of life. Their religion was about them.

Religion should be about us... but that's only half the equation. Religion should be about us God too. Religion comes from what God has done for us and what God is doing through us.

God has shown mercy for us on the cross and God wants to show mercy to the world through us.

Religion should not be more complicated than that.

Matthew 8

A Centurion comes up to Jesus asking for a miracle. A Centurion is a Roman... and Jesus said "Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith."

Then Jesus gets in a boat with his disciples and there is a storm. They freak out and wake him up and he said to them "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?"

The Centurion, who never met Jesus or heard him speak, but just heard of him, has total faith in Jesus. The disciples, who are with Jesus every day, doubt and are afraid.

Faith was the last place you'd expect it... and so was doubt.

The good news is that we can be disciples and still doubt. The better news is that God is working where we least expect it.

Matthew 7

Verse 1 - 3 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged... Why do you look at the speck of saw dust in someone else's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"

I think that Christians are really good at reading the bible with a highlighter in one hand and a black sharpie in the other. This, of all the verses in the bible, seems to be the one that is most often blacked out. Many Christians do not want to acknowledge that this verse in the bible.

Why?

Because it is fun to judge. It is fun to have something that other people don't, it's fun to be forgiven while others aren't. So we make signs and buy billboards that tell people that they are going to hell as if it is our decision to make.

I've seen signs that condemn gay and pro-choice people. I've seen signs that condemn soldiers. I've seen signs that condemn anyone that doesn't adhere to the 10 commandments. I have seen signs that condemn people for making signs.

These signs condemn every person on the earth... because we all fit in on someone's sign.

The truth is that grace is not just for you or me, it is for everyone. Jesus didn't just die for believers, he died because "God so loved the world."

The world is a big place... it's full of all kinds of people; fornicators, homosexuals, pro-choice people, pro-life people, Democrats, Republicans, people on welfare, people with jobs, citizens, immigrants, people with health insurance, people without health insurance, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and more... and God loves them all.

And whether you like it or not, it's up to God where they go when they die.

So burn your stupid sign and open your heart.

Matthew 6

Matthew 6 has one of the most comforting verses in all the bible... Jesus said "Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"

Everyday our world gives us a new reason to worry...

Stocks go down, then up, then down.

There is always a new disease that's going to destroy civilization. (Swine flu, Bird flu...)

What if ______ has nuclear weapons?

Global warming.

The price of gas.

The value of our homes.

Teachers are being laid off at our kid's schools.

Is our company going to out source?

The list could go on and on for days. It's normal and natural to worry... I worry about a lot of things.

But what good does it do? My blood pressure goes up and I get tension headaches... how does that help?

I think instead I am going to adopt a new policy. I am going to ask God what He is worried about and how I might work to ease His mind.

I have a feeling that if we were a little more worried about the things God is worried about, then we would have a lot less to worry about in our own lives.

We would see the world in a new way.

Take it away Johnny and Willie.

Matthew 5

In Matthew 5 we have the sermon on the mount, which includes the Beatitudes, Jesus' teaching on murder, adultery, divorce, turning the other cheek and love for our enemies.

Jesus starts with Beatitudes, in it he basically says turns the world upside down. He says that poor will be given the Kingdom, He says those who mourn will comforted, and the meek will inherit the Kingdom. Well, he doesn't turn the world upside so much as to say that the when the Kingdom of God comes, things will be completely different from the way they are now. He preaches good news.

Then he preaches bad news. He says that if you are angry with your brother or sister that you have committed murder, when we lust after someone we have committed adultery and we are not to return violence with violence but instead love our enemies. He finishes the chapter by saying "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Jesus wants us to do what is not possible... we know it's not possible and so does he. But have we really tried to be perfect? Or has our theology of grace given us an excuse to live without discipline? I have made no effort to love my enemy... I don't even have enemies, just people I don't get along with. I just delete them as a facebook friend and move on.

Which is why Jesus turned the world upside down on a Friday morning. He took the violence of humankind without fighting back. He forgave as he was dying.

He was perfect because we can't be.

I couldn't resist:

Matthew 4

Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan. The devil tempts Jesus on a number of levels.

First he tempts Jesus by pointing out his human need to eat something. Is there a better way to control people than to control their food? I was able to train my dog to sit because I controlled his food. I personally make decisions with my stomach all the time. When I visit a new city I am mostly interested in what the best restaurants are. Food is power.

Second he tempts Jesus by taking him to the top of the temple and encourages him to jump off and test God. I think that this is one of the temptations that many people are struggling with today. God has promised us so much with grace and eternal life. If I am forgiven than what does it matter if I ___________ ?

Finally Satan tempts Jesus by offering all the kingdoms of the world... he tempts his ego. What I find interesting here is what Jesus doesn't say. He doesn't say to Satan that it is not his to give. I find myself wondering if Satan has more control over this world than we know.

Jesus is able to overcome all 3 temptations. I probably would have eaten the bread and taken the kingdoms. (I would have no interest in jumping off a building though)

That's why I worship Jesus... he can do what I can not.

And he did it because I can not.