January 15, 2009 (Matthew 15:32-16:4)

Today’s reading features the second of Jesus’ miraculous feedings. As a kid, this section of Scripture always confused me. Just one chapter earlier, Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. (14:13-21) Yet here—with fewer people—the disciples still ask “Where would we get enough food here in the wilderness for such a huge crowd?” (15:33)

I always thought of this as an example of how unbelievably dense Jesus’ apostles must have been. After watching one miraculous feeding of a multitude how they could they still not get it?

During my graduate studies, however, I learned something that helped make better sense of the apostles’ reaction. Apparently, the context for the feeding of the 5,000 was the land of Israel. Jesus was among His people—God’s people; But the setting for the feeding of the 4,000 is among Gentiles. These were folks who were “outside the camp” of Israel. If this distinction is correct, I think it’s a little easier to understand why the apostles reacted as they did. They may have been thinking: “Sure, God showed up to help us before, but that was because He was feeding the chosen nation…just like He did for Moses and our ancestors in the wilderness…but these guys are another story. Who knows if God even wants to bother with stirring up a miracle for them?”

After feeding the 5,000 Jews the apostles gathered up 12 baskets of leftovers. As I’m sure you’re aware, twelve was a number with significant meaning in Jewish tradition. It could be taken as symbolizing wholeness…completeness…the idea that Jesus represents all that Israel needs now and forevermore. Similarly, the seven baskets gathered after the feeding of the 4,000 communicates a similar message for Gentiles with a number that was of symbolic significance for them.

The notion that God might hear the prayers and bless the lives of those outside the “chosen circle” was one that Christ’s followers continued to struggle with for some time. For many it was incomprehensible that someone could be a follower of Jesus without first being a follower of Moses. In fact, this mindset was so entrenched, that God found it necessary to take the step of imparting the Holy Spirit to some Gentiles just to get the point across. (see Acts 10)

Christians today can fall prey to this same temptation to assume that God only works amongst us…that in order for the LORD’s merciful power to be unleashed upon a person’s life he/she must first become like us. Let us disabuse ourselves of the notion that God is constrained by our “boxes.” He is Sovereign of all. It is not our job to bring God to the rest of Creation so that He can start working there…it is to open our eyes to the work He is already doing, and join Him in it.

-- Justin

January 14, 2009 (Matthew 15:12-20)

Today’s reading deals with the fallout from Jesus’ “Korban controversy” (see post for Jan. 13, 2009). We begin with the apostles asking Jesus: “Do You realize You offended the Pharisees by what You just said?” (15:12)

In reading this, I cannot help but think of the church political squabbles I have observed (and, to my shame, participated in) over the years. The Pharisees thought they really were “the cat’s meow.” Not only that, the apostles put far more stock into the importance of the Pharisees than was warranted as well. The twelve fell prey to the same problem many of us do: they worried far too much about what other people thought.

In response to the apostles’ question, Jesus simply said, “Ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind.” (15:14) This has been a hard lesson for me to learn. I don’t want to ignore the Pharisees. I want to defeat them. Yet Jesus’ response is that they don’t need to be defeated because they are so totally irrelevant. Jesus had REAL enemies to deal with: Sin, Death, Satan, Evil, et. al. He couldn’t be bothered by mere human squabbles.

I don’t know about you, but when I look at the way I’ve responded to controversies throughout my life, there are more than a few people that I simply should have ignored…not because what they were doing wasn’t wrong, but because it didn’t matter. I claim to be a man of faith, yet when I look at how I’ve dealt with conflict, there’s not a lot of evidence that I have enough faith to trust that “every plant not planted by [the] heavenly Father will be uprooted.” (15:13) As we go through the rest of this week, let’s all try to have a little more faith in God…to remember who the truly dangerous enemies are…and expend our fighting energy accordingly.

-- Justin

January 13, 2009 (Matthew 15:1-11)

Today’s reading deals with a first-century practice known as Korban. Let me say at the outset, that I’m no expert on Korban. However, as I understand the practice, it was essentially a process whereby a Jew could donate something of value (e.g., land) to the Temple. So long as the person giving the land was alive, he was allowed to receive income from it. Upon the man’s death, however, it became the property of the Temple.

So, what’s the problem? Wouldn’t Jesus be supportive of folks giving things to God? Jesus’ problem was not with Korban per se, but with the way it was being used by some wealthy Jews to “weasel out” of the command to honor their parents.

What happened was that when one or both of a man’s elderly parents approached him seeking help because they could no longer support themselves, he would say: “Gosh…I’d really like to help you, but the land/money/etc. that I would have given to you, has already been given to God.” As if using God as a shield to justify their own selfishness wasn’t bad enough, these guys actually had the audacity to give Jesus a hard-time because His disciples didn’t follow their tradition about hand-washing!

It’s pretty easy to see the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in this instance; But I wonder how many times we play the Korban game ourselves. One simple example from my own fellowship (i.e., Churches of Christ) has been the debate over how to help orphans. Some of my brethren feel very strongly that the Bible forbids sending “collection plate money” to an orphanage. “The authorized way to help orphans is by taking them into our own homes,” they say. Fine and dandy…however, I have met more than one brother who holds such a view, yet has no orphans living in his home. Yet, He remains vehemently opposed to “church money” going to the orphanage.

It’s not too difficult to find abusers of Korban “out there.” However, I want us to take a closer look at our own lives and churches. Are we “by our traditions, [violating] the direct commandments of God?” (15:3) Our checkbooks and church financial statements probably offer the answer. How much money goes out to help others in need versus eating out? How much of our church budget is spent on local and/or international benevolence versus on the purchase, expansion, and upkeep of our own building?

Let us live in such a way that when Judgment comes, we will not have to hear the following words: You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote: These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.

-- Justin

For Everyone: The Blessing Video

January 7, 2009 (Matthew 13:24-25)

If the truth be told, I suspect that most of us join the church not primarily to be in fellowship with God; but to be in fellowship with people who we trust will love us, nurture us, and forgive us. It comes as a tremendous disappointment, then, when we first realize that the church is not all good, and that the Kingdom values do not always hold sway among those who name the name of Christ. When this happens, two reactions usually follow.

First, we become angry at the church…and not just at the people who may have hurt us. We get angry at everyone else for allowing them to hurt us—As if the entire congregation always knew 100% about what everyone else was doing and they had all placed their “stamp of approval” upon whatever we’re upset about.

Second, after our ire is good and riled up against God’s people, we turn it on Him as well. After all, if we can justify being mad at everyone in the church for the injustices they have allowed, then it only stands to reason that God (Who is the all-knowing head of the church) is to blame as well.

It is precisely at such times, that we need to be reminded of the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. Jesus tells the story of a farmer who sows his field. But during the night an enemy comes and sows weeds among the field, and no one realizes it until the plants have started to sprout. When they realize what has happened, the farm hands react in the same way I often do. They are angry…incensed…they want justice and they want it NOW! They ask the farmer, “Should we pull out the weeds?” (13:28) To their surprise, the farmer says “No. You’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.” (13:29-30)

We must learn that God’s patience and forbearance is not a sign that He doesn’t care about us, or about the evil that may well be present in His field. Rather, He is patient precisely because He cares so much. To unleash His judgment before the right time, could well destroy wheat along with the weeds; And God has made the decision that it is better to let a few weeds grow than to risk destroying a single stalk of wheat. So the next time you find yourself frustrated by the weeds among you, rather than focusing upon uprooting them, look for little wheat stalks nearby who are struggling just as much as you are. Nurture them. Love them. Water them. And most of all, make sure you do your part to get them as much “Son light” as possible.

-- Justin

For the Kids: Wheat and Weeds coloring sheet

January 6, 2009 (Matthew 13:10-23)

Today’s reading begins with the disciples asking Jesus “Why do You use parables when You talk to the people?” (13:10) After essentially saying, “I speak in parables so they WON’T understand…” (13:12-13) Jesus goes on, in verses 14 and 15, to say that this is yet another fulfillment of an ancient Isaian prophecy:

When you hear what I say,
You will not understand.
When you see what I do,
You will not comprehend.
For the hearts of these people are hardened,
And their ears cannot hear,
And they have closed their eyes—
So their eyes cannot see,
And their ears cannot hear,
And their hearts cannot understand,
And they cannot turn to Me and let Me heal them.

The thing that struck me as I read this was that Jesus is essentially saying it takes more than raw intellect to understand the will of God. Some of us come from Christian heritages that have placed a lot of emphasis upon rationality and thinking skills—perhaps too much, in fact. Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not advocating that we embrace irrationality as an alternative…but I am saying that we need to hear the words of Isaiah and Jesus. The people they spoke about hear the voice of God. They saw the actions of God. In the case of the first century people, they actually saw God enfleshed as a human being—and yet they still did not understand! They saw Him…but they didn’t see Him. They saw only what they wanted to see, and blinded themselves to reality. (Isaiah said “they have closed their eyes”)

This got me to wondering, “How often do I ‘close my eyes’ to what is right in front of me?” How much of God’s will for my life have I failed to understand, not because I haven’t read the Bible, or studied Greek & Hebrew, or read great theologians…but simply because my heart is hardened and I don’t WANT to understand? I suspect that has been the case quite often. I’m struggling to improve the situation every day, but it’s rather difficult to make a blind man see. It requires an act of God. I ask you to pray for me to embrace that action of God in my life…and I will do the same for you; And together, perhaps we will finally be able to turn and let Him heal us.

-- Justin

For Everyone: Give Me Your Eyes video

January 5, 2009 (Matthew 13:1-9)

From the perspective of a person who has spent the last twelve years of life deeply-engaged in ministry of one form or another, the Parable of the Sower has especial meaning and poignancy for me.

I have never yet been what would be popularly-considered “successful” as a minister. I’ve never landed the big name job. I’ve never had a group that quadrupled in size in a year. I’ve never had money start flowing into any ministry that I was responsible for heading. Not only have I never measured up to the typical standards of ministerial success, I have all too often been reminded of that fact (both by my critics and myself.) All of these facts have conspired to make me succumb to recurring bouts of mild depression. In my quiet moments, my mind is tortured by voices that whisper: “You’re a failure.” “You’ve wasted your life.” “I told you. You should have gone to med school.”

When these voices begin to croak now, I try to return my mind to Jesus’ parable. He told of a farmer whose desire to make things grow. He was so passionate in this desire that he left no ground untouched by his seed. He scattered seeds in the thorns, along the path, among the rocks, anywhere that his pitching arm could send them. After he had spread all the seed he had, the farmer sat down to watch what would happen. I wonder how the farmer must have felt when he first began to realize that at least 75% of his labor was completely in vain. His precious seeds were trampled, eaten, choked out, and starved to death. I suspect that he was disappointed…perhaps even grieving. Perhaps he regretted all the time he had “wasted” sowing seed upon such inhospitable ground. Perhaps he heard voices of his own: “If only I’d listened to my parents and become a carpenter…” Yet, in time, the farmer would have come to see that although most of the seeds he planted fell to the ground never to rise again…a minority was different. There were a few seeds that sprouted. I have to assume that these seeds didn’t look particularly “special” when they were still in the sack. They looked like all the other seeds. There was no way to predict that these would sprout while the others would fail. Yet here they were, a season later—young, and green, and reaching for the sunlight.

Jesus tells us that those few surviving plants went on to produce “thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” What the parable does not tell us, however, is whether the farmer lived long enough to see just how much his hardy survivors produced. Perhaps he did…perhaps not. Jesus leaves that part of the story unanswered. In a similar way, the spiritual fruit we bear may sometimes be evident to us…but other times it does not emerge until years after our death. The calling…the challenge for us…is to simply take joy in the act of sowing itself. In the act of trying to help things grow. As you go through this day, remember the words with which Jesus ended this parable: Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. (13:9)

-- Justin

For the Kids: On-Line "Parable of the Sower" Coloring Page
For Everyone: Picture 1 Picture 2 Mary Picked the Roses video

January 4, 2009 (Matthew 12:38-50)

…Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign… (Matt. 12:38) This passage used to bother me a lot. It seemed like Jesus was being inconsistent. Didn’t Gideon ask for a sign to make sure it was really God telling him to drive the foreigners from Israel? (Judges 6:11-17ff) And didn’t the apostle Thomas ask to see the nail-scarred hands of Jesus before he would believe in the resurrection? (John 20:24-25) Surely Jesus wouldn’t have declared them “evil and adulterous,” would He?

After thirty-one years of life, I think I’ve finally come to realize the difference between Gideon, Thomas, and the Pharisees of Matthew 12. Gideon had seen his nation repeatedly brutalized by foreigners. It was nearly impossible to believe that good days would ever return to Israel. Thomas had believed with every ounce of his heart that Jesus was, indeed, the Messiah of God; but then he had to watch as that Messiah was betrayed by a man Thomas thought of as a brother…was shamefully mocked and ridiculed before being put to a torturous death…and was finally buried in a borrowed grave. It must have seemed to Thomas that all the hope, light, and goodness had gone out of life forever.

In Gideon and Thomas we have men who desperately wanted to believe that God still cared…that He had not forgotten them. Yet they had been so demoralized it was almost impossible to believe. They NEEDED a sign. In the case of the Pharisees of Matthew 12:38, they merely WANTED a sign. They were not asking so that they could believe seemingly-impossible good news. Rather, they sought some excuse to avoid what they considered bad news from Jesus (i.e., that THEY needed to repent)

Re-read the response Jesus gave them, and see if you do not also detect a difference between a miracle given to strengthening hope, and a miracle demanded in a vain attempt to forestall repentance:

…the only sign I will give…is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on Judgment Day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now Someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.

My word to you who feel that you must have a sign from God simply to be able to make it through another day is this: Don’t lose heart. If you’re right, God will provide the sign that you need. If you’re wrong, God will use even this “dark night” of your soul to shape you in His image. In either event, the Lord loves you and He has not forgotten you. My word to you who would simply demand a sign to reinforce what you already know in to be true, but do not wish to be true is simply to repeat the warning that Jesus gave: The people of Nineveh will stand up against [you] on Judgment Day and condemn [you], for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah…

-- Justin