Jesus According to Matthew

I have been a Christian most of my life, and like many Christians, I was raised to diligently read my Bible and pray. Unfortunately, this sometimes leads to two challenges. First, I often am so familiar with a passage that I start to day-dream while reading it. Second, I usually use some kind of Bible-reading program which chops books up into pieces. Having a disciplined approach to reading the Bible can be a very good thing, but sometimes it causes us to miss the forest for the trees.

So to combat this tendency, I decided to read through the gospels as if they were stories – no chapters or verses or study Bible footnotes. In fact, some publishers are producing entire Bibles formatted this way (see here for an example)!

I started reading Matthew, and was completely surprised! Matthew begins by explaining the backstory – the genealogy of Jesus, John the Baptist, the calling of the 12 apostles – and then immediately launches into the sermon on the mount. The first real picture Matthew gives of Jesus is about his teaching – and it is the longest unbroken teaching of Jesus on record.

What makes this even more impactful is the content of Jesus sermon. It is all about the Hebrew law, and how it just isn’t sufficient to establish righteousness. In fact, he completely contradicts the Mosaic law, by which his audience thought they could be right with God! The law establishes lex talionis – the idea that a punishment should be commensurate with a crime. If someone assaults you and puts out your eye, their eye should be put out in punishment. But Jesus says, no, instead you should suffer harm without returning evil. These are hard sayings! Jesus even says that we are supposed to be perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect! Obviously we aren’t perfect, but thanks be to God that we have Christ’s perfection. When God looks at us, he doesn’t see our sin, he sees the righteousness of Jesus. That, my friends, is good news.


~John

Persecuted; Not Abandoned

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. – 2 Cor. 4:7-9 NIV 

Paul is probably known as the greatest missionary ever. He was a stalwart preacher of the good news of God’s grace, and even though he faced worse trials than we are likely to, he persevered. And when talking about his own ministry, he points out that the power of the gospel is supernatural – its success certainly did not come from Paul’s own physical prowess! Unlike the Roman emperors of the time, Paul did not spread his proclamation at the point of a sword.

But we might think that this is a fool’s errand. After all, force is the one thing this world understands. Even the government uses force to ensure compliance with laws and regulations. When your kid is being picked on by a bully, you tell your kid to stand up to the bully; not to be a victim. But what happens to the person who refuses to use coercion or force? They get beat up.

But here is the amazing thing – Paul didn’t mind being persecuted! By the power of God’s Holy Spirit, he was able to endure and even overcome these persecutions. He writes, “We are hard-pressed, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; beaten, but not destroyed.”

This is the comfort that God gives us – the promised Comforter who holds us up even through the toughest trials. The world is an unforgiving place, but the mercy and hope of God have overcome the world. So let us rejoice together, that God holds us up even through the darkest times.


~John

OUR GOD IS AWESOME!

OUR GOD IS AWESOME! OUR GOD IS REAL! OUR GOD PROVIDES! WE ARE COMING TO AMERICA! GOD IS AMAZING!
~Mike