Category Archives: Matthew

¹⁹ Here, show me the coin used for the tax.” When they handed him a Roman coin, ²⁰ he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”

²¹ “Caesar’s,” they replied.

“Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

Matthew 22:19-21

Dear God, I want to zoom in on the last seven words of this passage this morning: “…give to God what belongs to God.” We normally focus on the part about giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s because it’s Jesus being a bit sassy and condescending to the Pharisees, but what of mine is yours?

Of course the answer is, “All of it,” but that’s too easy. What is Jesus calling me to give to you/him/your Holy Spirit?

• Time: This is the first thing that came to mind. If I’m not talking about my money, then I’m talking about my time, right? And that’s true. I do need to be willing to give a portion of my time to you. Or should it be all of my time? Is there any of the time that is okay to reserve for myself? Is 10% of my time enough? Should it be 30%? Should it be half? If I’m honest, even though I volunteer at a lot of things and I spend time in prayer to you, the idea of even dedicating 10% of my time to you would seem daunting. If you count all day, then that would be 2.4 hours per day. If you count my waking hours, that would be 1.7 hours per day. Do I spend an hour and forty-five minutes each day dedicated to you in some way? Either praying, serving, or learning about you? Depending on the day, there are some that hit that number, but it’s not consistent. And I don’t think it adds up to 12 hours per week.
• Money: I know Uncle Sam gets his part in my taxes, and, honestly, I’m glad to pay them. I remember about 30 years ago when my wife and I added up our taxes, and I told her, “You know, if that’s what we have to pay for the right and ability to live in this country then I’m happy to pay it.” But what about your part of my money? Actually, I feel pretty good about this one. We are willing to give of our money–both informally to individuals in need as well as formally to the church and parachurch organizations. I’m going to go on to the next.
• Talent: This is different than time. It’s using the gifts you’ve given me to help others. I don’t want to enumerate those gifts here because it can be read publicly, and I don’t want to slip into vanity (which is a great temptation for me). But there are some things that I am good at. And I take some opportunities to use them, but I also let a lot of opportunities pass me by. Help me to be more mindful and willing to pursue the opportunities you have for me to serve your Kingdom.
• Worship and Discipleship: This kind of falls into time, but it’s more specific. I have so much worship to give. I can give it to idols or I can give it to you. I can also try to split it, but as soon as I do that I’ve given it to the idol and left you. No man can have two masters (Matthew 6:24). So I am sure I owe you more focus than I’ve given. In fact, I think part of your recent call to me to engage in more times of silence is you pointing that out to me.
• My marriage: I’m incredibly grateful for this marriage. Help my mindset to be more about doing what it takes to take care of your daughter as your son-in-law and less and less about what’s in it for me. If my focus on this marriage is taking what I can get out of it, then I am not giving to you what is yours. She is yours, and I need to give her to you and release her from myself as much as possible.
• My children: Much like my marriage, my entire focus needs to be on them, their joy, their peace, their love, and then healing any of the wounds they have. To be about offering their paths to you instead of trying to get anything for myself out of them.
• My work: Now, I’m starting to get on a role. I didn’t think I’d start coming up with things this easily, but of course my work would be part of what I have. I’ve been unemployed two different times in my life, and it occurred to me how amazing it can be to have someone be willing to pay you money in exchange for your time and effort. And then there are the relationships I have with my coworkers. Am I representing you? Am I blessing them? Am I given them an environment in which they feel safe with me and able willing to embrace you, your love, and your forgiveness? And are we using the resources you’ve given us to bless the community? To bless the volunteers? To bless the donors?
• My friends: Am I more about using them for what they can do for me, or do I care more about them and love them than I do myself?
• My community: You’ve given me a place to live. A small sphere of influence and an ability to affect change. Am I living up to the responsibility you have for me to actually affect that change, or will I meekly just watch the world go by and do nothing?

Okay, Uncle Sam gets some of my money, but there is so much that needs to go back to you. Father, help me to do better. Help me to be one step better today. I have a couple of things happening later today. Give me eyes to see everything you have given to me, and show me how to give it all back to you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees met together to plot how to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. ¹⁶ They sent some of their disciples, along with the supporters of Herod, to meet with him. “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You teach the way of God truthfully. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. ¹⁷ Now tell us what you think about this: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸ But Jesus knew their evil motives. “You hypocrites!” he said. “Why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹ Here, show me the coin used for the tax.” When they handed him a Roman coin,^{[a] 20} he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”

²¹ “Caesar’s,” they replied.

“Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

²² His reply amazed them, and they went away.

²³ That same day Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question: ²⁴ “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name.’^{[b] 25} Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children, so his brother married the widow. ²⁶ But the second brother also died, and the third brother married her. This continued with all seven of them. ²⁷ Last of all, the woman also died. ²⁸ So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.”

²⁹ Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. ³⁰ For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven.

³¹ “But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said,^{[c] 32} ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’^[d] So he is the God of the living, not the dead.”

³³ When the crowds heard him, they were astounded at his teaching.

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

³⁷ Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’^{[e] 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[f] 40} The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

⁴¹ Then, surrounded by the Pharisees, Jesus asked them a question: ⁴² “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

They replied, “He is the son of David.”

⁴³ Jesus responded, “Then why does David, speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit, call the Messiah ‘my Lord’? For David said,

⁴⁴ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit in the place of honor at my right hand
until I humble your enemies beneath your feet.’^[g]

⁴⁵ Since David called the Messiah ‘my Lord,’ how can the Messiah be his son?”

⁴⁶ No one could answer him. And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Matthew 22:15-46

Dear God, the thing that struck me about this story this morning is something I’ve noticed in some of my observations about some people in our community and the world. There’s just so much anger! And behind the anger is fear. Fear of losing control. Power. Position. Influence. Security. Certainty.

I was on Facebook earlier this week and I saw someone taking random figurative shots at our local Chick-fil-A. Service was slow. Food was not good and overpriced. While I disagree with the person (and I tried to politely make a positive post about my experience at Chick-fil-A) I was more struck at the why behind their criticism. Someone had posted asking about why they had a flag pole out front with no flag. A reasonable question. This person decided to leaveabout how to apporachin their negative, unsolicited comment. I thought about their anger. I felt bad for them. I didn’t pray for them. I probably should now.

I see these Pharisees and Sadducees and their fear. Who Jesus was and what he represented was alarming to them. He had the potential to take away their power, position, influence, security, and certainty. But wouldn’t it have foiled the whole plan if they had realized who Jesus was and endorsed him?

Father, I want to respond to the people and situations around me out of love. I prayed yesterday about being convicted on how to approach someone in town for whom I have criticism. I want to do it in a loving, constructive way. I don’t want to be accusatory. I don’t think this person is evil. I think he loves people and wants to do good work. At least that’s the supposition I’m working from. So fill me with love. Fill me with joy. Holy Spirit, fill me with your peace.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

22 Jesus also told them other parables. He said, ² “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. ³ When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!

⁴ “So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ ⁵ But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. ⁶ Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them.

⁷ “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. ⁸ And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. ⁹ Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ ¹⁰ So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. ¹² ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. ¹³ Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴ “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Matthew 22:1-14

Dear God, this is one of the many parables Jesus taught that indicates there will be a sorting one day. He doesn’t definitively define a “cut line,” but it’s hard to read this parable, the parable of the sheep and the goats, Lazarus and the rich man, and others and not see that we aren’t all with you in the new earth. How could we be?

I’m not going to pretend to know where the cut line is. And any answer I come up with would be no better than partially correct. So I won’t try. But I also won’t just accept the idea that everyone gets to be with you in the afterlife. So what does that mean for those who are and those who aren’t? All of us will experience something. I know what I hope it will be (even for those who are not with you). But there’s no way for me to understand you and all your ways, so there’s no way I’ll even get close to knowing what’s next. I don’t even know what will happen one minute from now.

So what’s the point of this story? Why did Jesus tell it? First, he was setting up that Gentiles are in this too. The way he tells it, they weren’t at the beginning, which is surprising. Especially given the stories of people you loved before Abram came along. Then looking at the Gentiles you loved after your covenant with Abram/Abraham. I’m looking at you, Hagar. I’m looking at you Naaman. I’m looking at you, widow who helped Elijah. Second, he was letting the current Israelite leaders know you are disappionted and frustrated with them. Finally, he added a tag to the end of the story about this one man who thought he’d get into the banquet with no effort at all.

Father, I’m about to go to a church and represent our nonprofit. Help me to more interested in every person I talk to than I am in how they can help our nonprofit. Help me to discern if being involved with us would be a blessing for them. In fact, each person I meet today, help me to love and encourag them to love you more. Help me to point them to you. Help me to experience you for myself. Help me to make myself presentable for your banquet. Not really through any actions I take or things I achieve, but through a heart that is submitted to you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

²³ “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. ²⁴ Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!

Matthew 23:23-26

Dear God, it feels like there are things that so many people neglect, including me. I think our media (whether liberal or conservative) has taken the place of your voice within our churches. I met a young woman recently who was looking for a church. She wanted one that would be tolerant of LGBTQ+ people. I told her of a couple of local churches that would be more tolerant than others, but then I also recommended a church that I appreciate because it is probably the most diverse church in town regarding age, gender, and race. It happens to be Assemblies of God, but I encouraged her to check it out. One thing I told her was that she won’t agree with everything there, but there is probably no church where she will agree with everything. I don’t agree with everything from any denomination. And that doesn’t make me right and them wrong. I could very well be wrong. So I encouraged her to find a group of believers who worshipped you and then go from there.

Too many of us are more influenced by the news we read from our “trusted” news source than we are by your still small voice, the voices of your ministers on this earth, or even the teachings of Jesus or from the Bible. The news has told us how to feel, so there are some churches that have decided that part of the virtue signaling as to whether or not we are in line with that church’s ideology is whether or not we believe in climate change. Or whether healthcare in our country should be reformed. Really? Those are the things that are non-negotiable? Or we’ve been told that we have to be tolerant of every life style and never say anything judgmental. And while I do believe in what Paul says in Romans 14 about accepting someone who is weak in faith and giving them some latitude to figure out the path that you have for them, I think there is also a role for relationship and you using us in each other’s lives to guide all of us, including me, to the narrow path.

Father, my point in all of this is that the Pharisees Jesus is addressing had lost their vision of what it means to love and serve you and their neighbors. They were so focused on the dos and don’ts that they lost track of the get tos and opportunities to love and serve. Help me to see the get tos and the opportunities to love and serve today.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

²¹ Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. ²² And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.” ²³ But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.” ²⁴ But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” ²⁵ But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” ²⁶ And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁷ But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” ²⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.

Matthew 15:21-28

Dear God, this was the New Testament reading in church today. The first thing I noticed that I don’t think I have before is that the woman was a Canaanite. It made me think back to Genesis 9:25 when Noah cursed Ham’s youngest son Canaan because of what Ham did to him when he was passed out drunk:

²⁵ So he said, “Cursed be Canaan;
A servant of servants
He shall be to his brothers.”

It was a few years ago that I noticed how weird it was that Noah took his anger out on Ham by attacking his youngest son with a curse. So not, here we are, thousands and thousands of years later. Is this woman truly a descendant of Canaan or is that just what Jewish people called Gentiles? This is from the New American Standard (1995). The New Living Translation just calls her a Gentile. Maybe that’s why I haven’t noticed it before. Because of all of the kingdoms that had come and gone over the millennia since Noah, I’m assuming there was not real blood line back to Canaan for this woman. I looked it up and I could not really find a definitive answer, so I’m just going to go with the idea that she was not just a Gentile but a racially profiled despised Gentile.

What was Jesus doing here. Was he testing her only or was there any part of him learning in this process? That sounds like heresy to even ask that question. Like I might get struck down. Of course, the teaching would be that he was just testing her faith. As if to say, “Don’t just come here to use me for your daughter. I’m not just a miracle man. I’m someone you need to worship.” And that’s what I’m going with.

Interruption: I just looked it up a little further. In Mark 7, we get the same story. She’s described as a Syrophoenician, a woman from the Syrian coastal region of the Roman Empire (in this case, in Tyre). So she was definitely looked down upon and there was definite prejudice against her. Of course, Jesus wouldn’t have prejudice, but he would want to make sure her heart was pure. He would also want all of the prejudiced people around her to see her heart.

All of this is to say that I work with and am friends with people who are racially profiled every day, and it breaks my heart. I wish I knew what to do. Would that I could shield them with my big, tall, male whiteness! If only I could have them stand behind me all the time and shield them from the racism they experience. I have Hispanic friends who are citizens who experience bigotry on an almost daily basis. We have clients at are clinic who do not feel safe in their own homes, vehicles, or anywhere in the community. What am I to do?

Father, I’m really asking the question. What am I to do? Help me know what to do. Help me know what to do if I encounter racism, cruelty, and injustice directly. Help me to know how to address it abstractly and through advocacy. Help me to use prayer, service, persuasion, and suffering to move this needle on behalf of my friends and neighbors. Grant me the serenity, the courage, and the wisdom.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

18 About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”

² Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. ³ Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. ⁴ So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

⁵ “And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. ⁶ But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.

⁷ “What sorrow awaits the world, because it tempts people to sin. Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting. ⁸ So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

¹⁰ “Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father.

¹² “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? ¹³ And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! ¹⁴ In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.

Matthew 18:1-14

Dear God, when I first read this passage this morning, it made me wonder where this question came from. Why did they ask about a heavenly pecking order?

I went back to chapter 17 and found that this story was preceded by the Transfiguration as well as the church leaders challenging Peter about Jesus paying the church tax. I wonder if this story has more to do with the Transfiguration. Were they wondering why it was Moses and Elijah and not Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David, Isaiah, etc.? I mean, Moses and Elijah are as big as it gets, I suppose, but Elisha was pretty great too and seemingly had less failures. I guess they were trying to make sense of it all.

Then there’s the way Jesus turns this question away from who is greatest and starts focusing on the treachery of causing others to sin–especially children. By teaching bad things. Offering bad options. Luring into bad actions. Then he makes this odd connection between the angels of the children and your presence.

Father, help me to be a source of truth and wholesomeness to the children in m life. Help me to teach well about your and who you are. Help me to respect all. When I’m sharing tonight with the men from Christian Men’s Life Skills, I pray that you will be with each of us. Guide us. Love us. Draw each of us closer to yourself.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen