Posts from January 2020

Matthew 23 is a divine excoriation of the religious and political power brokers of Jesus’ day. One of the things I find particularly interesting is Jesus’ opening statement in verse 3, “There whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say, and do not do.” Jesus then goes on to detail many of the scribes and Pharisees grievous hypocrisies. These serve as a warning for us today. In…

“No shoes, no shirt, no service.” Signs with these words were commonplace in the days of my youth (I am a child of the 70s and 80s). The message was clear, certain clothes were required if customers expected to be served. Our reading today contains the parable of the wedding feast. In this story, a king has made great preparations for his son’s wedding, inviting many, only to be rebuffed by the original invitees. Undeterred, the king sends his servants…

One thing that strikes me about the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day is their incredible lack of fortitude. Twice in our reading today (v 26, 46), and repeatedly throughout the biblical record, it is said of them that they desired to say or do a certain thing (usually arrest or kill Jesus), but did not because they “feared the multitude.” These remind me of the feckless and fickle politicians of our day with their opinion polls, straw polls, tracking polls,…

Here I am 50+ years old, a preacher of the gospel for more than half of that time, and still discovering some of the simplest messages in the Scriptures. I have always considered the parable of the laborers as a lesson of the equity of reward for all who obey the gospel, i.e., those who obey late in life receive the same reward as those who served the Lord all their lives. But I think I missed the main point.…

Disregard for the sanctity of marriage is nothing new. It was a problem in the days of Jesus as evidenced in Matthew 19:1-12. Four centuries prior it was a problem for Israel (Mal 2:13-16), and more than 1000 years before that, Moses had to address the problem in the giving of the law (Deut 24). Though never mentioned in Scripture prior to Moses’ Law, we can assume that such was also the case in the previous millennia when the world…

While Matthew 7:1 is the go-to text for the biblically illiterate everywhere, and only the first two words at that, fewer texts are more abused among shallow thinking Christians than Matthew 18:20. Ten times out of nine (yes, you read that correctly), this verse is used in reference to the worship of God. One line of thought is to comfort those who of necessity must worship in extremely small groups. However, the far greater use of the text is by…

One of the most well-known statements in all of Scripture is found in Matthew 16:16, where Peter made what is often called “the good confession.” Much could be said of the religious error and confusion about Jesus’ response in verse 18, but I want to focus on the verses that follow, specifically verses 21-23. Following Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, Jesus began to teach them about His suffering and death which would be accomplished in Jerusalem. Rebuked by…

In yet another baseless attack against the Lord and His disciples (cf Matt 12:1ff), the Pharisees confront Jesus about defilement by eating with unwashed hands. Unlike the first attack, wherein the Pharisees accused Jesus based on their adherence to hedges created around the Law, this matter was admittedly one based solely upon human tradition (v 2). Rather than dealing head on with their error, Jesus first points out their own lack of adherence to the Law in the matter of…

Herod murdered John the Baptist at some point between Matthew 11 and Matthew 14. To me, this makes Jesus’ statements of comfort to John in chapter 11 even more poignant. Shortly following John’s death, word came to Herod of the great deeds and miracles associated with Jesus’ ministry. Though John had worked no miracle (John 10:41), Herod believed that Jesus was an incarnation of John, empowered by God to perform miracles. For what purpose and to what end Herod feared…

Matthew 13 introduces us to Jesus’ first use of parables as narrative teaching.  The word “parable” is a transliterative form of the Greek paraballo, a compound word joining para(beside) with ballo(to throw). You may recall learning about the Spanish bola, a rope with weighted balls at the end which was thrown at the legs of animals to tangle its legs together. In like fashion, a parable is a fictional narrative “thrown” with the intent of joining a spiritual meaning in…