Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 23-24.

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I want to start by noting that the Greek word Matthew uses when he writes that Jesus called the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites can also be translated as “actors”.  When I learned that it gave me an insight into what being a hypocrite means in a way I had not previously understood.  At first, I wished that the translators had used the word “actors” instead of hypocrite because we associate hypocrite with having inconsistency between what we do and what we say we believe.  However, I realized that if the translators had used the word “actors” instead of “hypocrites” many people would have thought that acting in plays and videos was wrong.  When Jesus calls the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites He is not condemning them for discrepancies between what they say they believe and what they do.  He condemns them for acting so as to appear righteous in public, but privately behaving differently.  The sin of hypocrisy is not failing to live up to the standard which you proclaim.  Hypocrisy is doing things to make it look like you live up to the standard you preach without actually trying to live up to it.  I want to repeat that it is not hypocritical to fail to live up to the standard you preach.  Hypocrisy is condemning others for failing to live up to a standard which you fail to maintain.  Jesus actually points out a great example of hypocrisy when He points out how the scribes and Pharisees make a big production out of tithing from the harvest of their herbs, in order to make it seem like they are detailed oriented in keeping the Law, while at the same time using the system to take advantage of the poor and powerless.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 21-22.

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I love all of Jesus’ interactions in today’s passage so much that I wasn’t sure where to start.  However, Jesus’ reaction when the chief priests asked Him what authority He had to do the things He had done, particularly I believe clearing the merchants out of the temple.  He responded by asking them whether John’s baptism came from heaven or from man.  This was a test which revealed their insincerity.  We need to pay attention to what Jesus did here.  Previously when He was asked similar questions Jesus had given answers for the sake of His disciples and of the crowds.  This time Jesus answered differently so as to show the crowds that those asking were insincere in their question.  The people had seen what Jesus did and wished that they had the guts to do similarly.  The religious leaders had asked Jesus this question in order to make Him seem like either a megalomaniac or just a rabble rouser trying to stir up trouble.  Their unwillingness to answer Jesus’ question revealed that no matter how He answered their question, they would not accept His answer.  In the same way today, we need to recognize that many of those who ask us to provide evidence for Jesus being God will not accept our answer no matter what we say.  Before we try to answer those who ask for evidence for Jesus’ resurrection, or for the existence of God, we need to ask them what evidence they will accept.  If the answer is that they will not accept any evidence for those things, we should not spend time trying to provide it.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 18-20.

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Today’s passage begins with the disciples asking Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus called a child and told them that unless we turn and become like children, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven and in order to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven we must humble ourselves like the child He had put in the middle of a group of adults.  Later in today’s passage we have another example of Jesus’ interaction with children.  There some parents brought some children to Jesus for Him to lay His hands on them and pray over them.  The disciples rebuked the parents for taking up Jesus’ time, but Jesus called for the children to be brought to Him.  This is a lesson about the importance of teaching children about God, but also about taking time to pay attention to children.

Right after that second teaching by Jesus about the importance of children we have another teaching about entering the kingdom of heaven.  A man came up to Jesus asking what good deed he must do in order to have eternal life.  Jesus tells him to keep the commandments.  The man pushes to know which commandments and Jesus answers by listing a few, which the man immediately claims to have kept.  However, he clearly still feels like he is lacking something.  Jesus tells him that if he feels like he needs to do more he should sell all of his possessions, give the proceeds to the poor, and come, follow Jesus.  Giving all he has to the poor will be to store up treasure in heaven, but in order to get to heaven he would need to follow Jesus.  The man went away, unwilling to give up his wealth.  Jesus points out that it is so hard for a wealthy man to enter heaven that it is humanly impossible.  His disciples realize that if it is hard for the wealthy, it is even harder for those who are not wealthy.  Jesus tells them that it is indeed impossible for anyone to enter heaven on their own merits.  It is only by the grace of God that anyone can enter heaven.

Because God has done so much for us, let us, like little children, give all that we have to helping others.  Just as God saw us and gave His Son for us, let us see others and do what little we can for them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 15-17.

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OK, I have some thoughts about how a couple of things in this passage fit together.  First, after Peter declared that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus told him that He would build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.  Actually, He said that the gates of the land of the dead would not stand against it.  I have often heard people interpret this as saying that the Church can withstand whatever attack Satan sends against it.  While I believe it is true that the Church can indeed withstand any attack Satan sends against it, I don’t think that’s what Jesus meant here.  I mean the thing about gates is that one does not have a gate to attack, one has a gate to defend.  So, Jesus says here that the Church will be on the offensive, it will be conquering for the kingdom of God, and not even death will be able to stand against it.  A little later in the passage Jesus tells us that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross.  We must deny our worldly desires and allow our physical bodies to be killed, if that is what it takes, in order to show God’s love in this world.  We shall not fear death because Jesus has already conquered death.  Death is not the end for us, but just the beginning.  Finally, Jesus tells us that we need to increase our faith, and that as we exercise our faith it will grow.  With just a small amount of faith, faith the size of a mustard seed, we can tell a mountain to move and it will move.  I have long looked at that and thought that part of what Jesus is saying is that if we believe a mountain needs to move in order for God’s will to be accomplished, we will begin the work of moving it.  And if we begin the work of moving it, trusting that God desires it moved, others will join in with us to do so…and sometimes once we start, the mountain itself will just get up and move.  The key fact being that we begin acting in faith that the mountain will get out of our way while we do God’s will.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 13-14.

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I want to start by looking at what Jesus says when His disciples asked Him why He spoke to the crowds in parables.  He tells them that they have been given the ability to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but it has not been given to the crowds.  I understand Jesus to mean that His disciples had chosen to follow Jesus because they wanted to learn what He had to teach.  I want to remind you that when the passage speaks of the disciples here it is not referring to just the Twelve.  The crowds followed because they wanted to see His miracles of healing, to them Jesus was entertainment.  They saw what Jesus was doing and heard what He was saying, but they did not try to understand and put it into practice.  Even if they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, they were just waiting for Him to do “his thing”.  I want to note that Jesus was not exactly talking about all of the crowds.  He was talking about those who refused to take Jesus seriously.  Those who say things like, “How can you believe that is true?”  Or, like those today who insist that Jesus could not possibly have risen from the dead.  Those who believe He lived, had twelve disciples, and died on a cross, but reject the idea that He rose from the dead.  They hear what we say about what Jesus’ taught and why we follow Him, but they do not understand.  They see how Christians treat others, but they do not actually perceive it.  Instead, they perceive what they are told about what Christians do by those who hate them and believe such things to be true, even if they have never seen it themselves.  Or, if they have seen Christians in action, they refuse to accept the idea that their motives are what they say that they are.  They have closed their eyes so that they do not see because they do wish to not change.  Those who allow themselves to hear and understand, and to see and perceive will understand that they need healing.  Then they will turn to God and He will heal them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 10-12.

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Jesus sent His Apostles out as  sheep among wolves, and I think what He says there applies to us as well.  We are to be wise as serpents, but as innocent as doves.  That is, we should be aware of the tricks and deceit which liars and cheats use, but not use any of them.  We should be honest and straightforward, not attempting to bring anyone to Christ through dishonest means.  Whatever we learn from Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, we should publicly proclaim.  Jesus taught nothing which should be kept hidden from those outside.  Further as we face the persecution which Jesus tells us is coming, we should not fear those who administer it, because God values us more than we can imagine.  If we stand up for Christ in the face of persecution, Jesus will stand up for us before our Father in Heaven.  When we are challenged for what we believe, we need not fear to speak because God will give us the words to speak.  I want to harken back to what Jesus said in yesterday’s passage about not throwing pearls before pigs because that applies to when we choose to speak.  From today’s passage, we learn that we should not fear to speak when we are compelled to do so, but Jesus’ teaching about throwing pearls before pigs shows that there are times when we should not speak.  As to how we know the difference, that is where being wise as serpents comes in.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 5-6.

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Last year when I covered this passage I focused on the fact that Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount by sitting down.  I think that this should change the way we look at Jesus’ ministry.  We picture Jesus going around and preaching to large crowds.  Yet here, when a large crowd gathered, Jesus sat down and spoke to his disciples.  Which brings up another point, when we read “disciples” in the Gospels we think of the Twelve, but in Acts on Pentecost there were about 120 disciples gathered.  So, most of the time when the Gospels talk about Jesus’ disciples they are referring to a group which was 120 strong after His resurrection (I believe the number went up and down over the course of His ministry).  So, the model of Jesus’ ministry, which we should follow, is generally teaching to a group of around 100, while sometimes taking a smaller group of about twelve aside for more advanced teaching, but only occasionally preaching to large crowds.

I want to talk about what I think may have happened here.  Jesus sat down and His disciples gathered around Him.  He taught them a few things, such as the Beatitudes, then the disciples went out and explained what He had just taught to members of the crowd, while Jesus healed some of the sick among them.  Once they had gone over the teaching with members of the crowd, the disciples gathered around Jesus again and He taught them another bit to teach to others.  Or, perhaps Jesus did not break this up into pieces but instead taught the whole thing to His disciples before they dispersed among the crowd teaching groups within the crowd.  In either case, think about it.  It only took me a little over ten minutes to read this passage.  A crowd which gathered to hear Jesus preach was going to want to spend more than ten minutes with Him. Also, what better way for the disciples to learn what Jesus was teaching then to immediately go and teach it others in small groups.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 1-4.

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I want to start by taking note that in his genealogy of Christ, Matthew mentions each of the women who the Old Testament talks about who are in His genealogy.  In fact, he mentions that Judah had two sons by Tamar, even though only one of them was part of Jesus’ genealogy.  Another interesting point is that while Matthew mentions Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth by name, he refers to Bathsheba as the wife of Uriah.  He does not do that to downplay Bathsheba in favor of her first husband.  Rather, he highlights all of David’s sin, not just his adulterous affair with Bathsheba.  The next thing I want to note is verse 25 in chapter one.  The wording seems odd if Joseph and Mary never consummated their marriage.  The phrase could say, “he took his wife, but he knew her not.  And he called the son she bore Jesus.”  Saying that Joseph “knew her not until she had given birth to a son” suggests to me that he did so after Jesus was born.

Finally I want to touch on the fact that Joseph decided to take Mary, his wife, and Jesus, his son (Jesus was Joseph’s son because Joseph was by this point raising Him as his adopted son) to Nazareth rather than returning to Bethlehem.  Matthew casually mentions that a key motivating factor in Joseph going to Nazareth was that he learned that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod.  What is not mentioned is that Archelaus had slaughtered a large number of Jews shortly before Joseph left Egypt, something he would have likely heard about during his trip back (I want to note that Archelaus was an Idumean, not a Jew).  Unlike his father Herod, Archelaus was never king, and Matthew’s wording seems to indicate that he was aware of this distinction.  The important point here is that  some of the people Matthew was writing to would have known about what Archelaus had done and the fact that he was never king.  Which means that Matthew did not need to explain the significance of Joseph being afraid of Archelaus.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.