Category Archives: Matthew

²⁴ Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. ²⁵ But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. ²⁶ When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.

²⁷ “The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’

²⁸ “‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed.

“‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked.

²⁹ “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. ³⁰ 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.’”

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³⁶ Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. His disciples said, “Please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field.”

³⁷ Jesus replied, “The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. ³⁹ The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.

⁴⁰ “Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴² And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!

Matthew 13:24-29, 36-43

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Dear God, I did a journal on this parable a couple of weeks ago, but it has stuck with me. Second chances.

I was just at a prayer meeting or two of our local schools. I feel badly about not continuing on to two more. I don’t have a good excuse except I didn’t want to. That’s really bad. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I can be so lazy and selfish. Tonight, I was hot and tired and I just didn’t want to persevere. There’s really no excuse. I pray that my lack of participation will not impact the high school and middle school, which were the two stops I missed. I guess I feel like Peter. Always getting out of the boat, but going down immediately.

I was thinking about this passage as I sat down to pray because one of the things that kept coming to me while I was at the elementary school and alternative high school was the idea of how so many of the children are walking in every day with difficult circumstances. They might be living with alternative relatives because their parents are not available for one reason or another. They migh be living among drugs and alcohol abuse. They might be struggling with drugs and alcohol abuse. There might be domestic violence. Homelessness. The list goes beyond what I could spend two hours typing here. It’s tragic. And then they are expected to come to school, behave, and learn. And the staff is expected to take the students and expertly deal with every scenario they face. I think about the school voucher program and how, in the end, it will take the kids out of the school with solid families and backgrounds and, ultimately, make the school a worse place for everyone and leave those with atypical background farther behind.

Where does this parable come in. Because these kids can be considered the wheat. Let me rephrase. They might look like wheat today, but they can still grow up to be wheat in your kingdom. There’s no way we can know now. The temptation is to cast them and their families aside. Throw them into the fire now. But we can’t know what they will be and how they will turn out. We can’t know who is going to overcome their circumstances and which seeds that might look like wheat now will actually turn out to be weeds. No, we won’t know until the harvest. Until then, we must do our best to nourish everyone and see how it all comes out.

Father, again, I repent for leaving not continuing on with the last two prayer meetings at the middle and high schools. I should have pressed on and gone. I have not excuse. Please don’t let it in any way diminish the power you will exhibit in the lives of the children and staff at the schools. And I pray for your Spirit to move through the schools. Love the children. Give them light. Give them hope. Inspire the youth ministers and children’s ministers to know how to reach out. Young Life. FCA. Head pastors. Help us know how to help the parents/guardians too. Let us come together as a Christian community and know how to love our children into being incredible wheat for your Kingdom.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

²¹ Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. ²² A Gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.”

²³ But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us with all her begging.”

²⁴ Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.”

²⁵ But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!”

²⁶ Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁷ She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their masters’ table.”

²⁸ “Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.

Matthew 15:21-28

Dear God, I was talking a day or two ago about how not everyone in the Bible, including Jesus, was always presenting the absolute truth. For example, Jesus deceiving his brothers about going to the Festival of Tabernacles, or Jesus hiding his identity from the two disciples on their way home to Emmaus after the resurrection. This story feels like another example. He knew he wasn’t just there for the children of Israel. He’d said as much. Was he just testing her? Was he trying to make sure she was there for the Jewish Messiah and not just a miracle worker? I don’t know why, exactly, he picked this path, but it makes for a great story that Matthew recorded for us here.

And then there is the woman. She was a mom with a sick daughter. But you used this pain in her life and made it count. She’d have never gone to Jesus or believed in Jesus otherwise. Her daughter’s illness was probably one of the low points of her life, but you didn’t let it be wasted. You used it to drive her into Jesus’s presence. And maybe you used it to show Jesus in a little bit deeper of a way how Gentiles were part of this too (although I think he already knew that).

Father, there is pain in my life. There is pain in the lives of friends and relatives right now. Some of it has been addressed. Some of it is being addressed. And some of it is being shoved away and ignored in hopes that it will go away on its own. For the relative in rehab, I pray that this pain will be counting for their sake and the sake of their relationship with you. For the friends who are pregnant, I pray that they will find themselves worshipping you in a new way. I pray for the relatives who are estranged from other relatives, I pray that you will shed your light on their situations and you will bring healing through your grace. I pray that this pain will be the catalyst to bring them closer to you. For every struggle today, Father, don’t let them be wasted.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

¹⁸ “Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds: ¹⁹ The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. ²⁰ The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. ²¹ But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. ²² The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. ²³ The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

Matthew 13:18-23

Dear God, it’s funny that this is the gospel reading today because I accidentally read it last night at the graduation ceremony. It was one of the more surreal moments I’ve ever had public speaking. I’m assuming it was of the Holy Spirit. I intended to read the parable of the wheat and the weeds, which happens to be right after these verses, but when I was copying and pasting the scripture into my outline from which I read I accidentally copied the parable of the sower instead. So I started reading the passage from my notes and, in real time, I realized I was reading the wrong passage. I could go with it and ask the Holy Spirit to just speak through me with this passage instead, or I could stop everything, tell them I was reading the wrong passage, and then gotten the right passage on my phone. I decided to go with the wrong passage and trust that those were the words the people in the crowd needed to hear. I think it went okay.

Father, I want to pray for the men and their families. This is day one their post-Christian Men’s Life Skills class experience. And they have decisions to make today. Their loved ones have decisions to make today. I pray that they will lean into their “floor,” do the work that is healthy for them to do, and find a way to draw closer to you today. I pray for forgiveness between them and their families. I guess I pray for repentance too. I pray for humility. I pray for a servant’s heart. I pray that they will find the narrow path and have the courage to walk it. I pray the same for myself. Help me to find the narrow path today. Help Megan to find it too. And help me to get exactly what you need me to have from this unconventional vacation I’m taking this next week.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴ “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”

¹⁵ Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷ Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. ¹⁸ Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. ¹⁹ And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”

²⁰ Then he sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Matthew 16:13-20

Dear God, I just had this thought while reading this passage this morning. According to our modern-day mission philosophy, we should be working every moment of every day to “save” every person on this planet that we can, yet Jesus seemingly spent his first 30 years on earth not really reaching out to anyone, and then he spent most of his public ministry obscuring the fact that he was the Messiah. Now, I understand that he couldn’t be completely inflammatory about himself being the Messiah or it would get the Pharisees to kill him sooner than he planned, but it’s still interesting that there was something of a cloak of secrecy about this.

I got to be with a group of eight men last night who have graduated (or are about to graduate) from the Christian Men’s Life Skills class. It was a lot of fun. Eleven weeks ago, we started with 24 men. Two have been re-arrested (I don’t know if they are out), two more left after the eight-week minimum, and a couple couldn’t come last night, but let’s say we are moving forward with 10 who intend to do this, and six end up walking this path together long-term. The men last night were talking about their changed lives. They were talking about their wives seeing the changes in them. They talked about the changes they see in each other and even a couple of guys who weren’t there. It was cool. But it reminds me that the path is narrow and difficult to walk and few will find it (Matthew 7:13-14).

Father, help me to continue to find the narrow path today. Help me to walk with these men on this path. And I’ll admit I’ve been feeling very selfish lately. Yes, I need a vacation, which I’ll get next week, but it feels beyond that. It feels like I’ve picked my ways to serve, but I’ve picked some pretty comfortable ways. I’ve thought of needs that I’ve ignored. They sounded too hard to help. So, Holy Spirit, move me and convict me when I need to be convicted. Show me what you would have me to do today.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

Parable of the Mustard Seed

²⁴ Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. ²⁵ But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. ²⁶ When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.

²⁷ “The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’

²⁸ “‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed.

“‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked.

²⁹ “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. ³⁰ 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.’”

Parable of the Mustard Seed

³¹ Here is another illustration Jesus used: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. ³² It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.”

Parable of the Yeast

³³ Jesus also used this illustration: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”

³⁴ Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. ³⁵ This fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet:

“I will speak to you in parables.
    I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world.”

Parable of the Wheat and Weeds Explained

³⁶ Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. His disciples said, “Please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field.”

³⁷ Jesus replied, “The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. ³⁹ The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.

⁴⁰ “Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴² And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!

Matthew 13:24-43

Dear God, I’m so grateful Jesus gave us this parable of the wheat and the weeds. It low-key explains so much about how you call the church to work. It would have been so easy for this parable to not be there and then for Christians to justify going around and “getting rid of” (whatever that might mean, up to and including death) people who weren’t righteous enough for our standard. For example, the Spanish Inquisition, which ran almost 400 years. But Jesus was clear about this. Tearing out the weeds now while we are on this side of life could destroy us as well. In fact, who’s to say I wouldn’t be on the other side of someon else’s cut line? Who’s to say that I am not holy enough and don’t live up to the standard someone decides to set? What if my life it too weedy?

That’s the part that people (including me) miss when they try to set a standard for others to live up to? What if I am on the wrong side of the cut line I have laid out? I remember years ago when a donor didn’t think they were getting enough preferential treatment from our organization because they gave a certain amount of money each year. They gave about $3,000. I never told them this, but I wondered at the time, “What if your $3,000 isn’t considered to be a large gift here? What if I set the standard for preferential treatment at $5,000?” At the same time, there was a couple who would send $7 as a memorial donation every time a friend would die. It was the sweetest thing. I imagined the wife sitting down and writing her $7 check to mail in. I imagined them balancing the checkbook and seeing they had made two $7 donations that month for $14. How big of a percentage was that? Was that a moderen-day example of the widow’s mite? (Mark 12:41-44)

Father, I still have a lot to learn. I have parts of my life that are weedy. In the grand scheme of your world church and body, I could be so much better and holy. I almost skipped church this morning because I don’t want to go. Then I was lying in bed and I wondered if I wasn’t just incredibly ungrateful for a couple of the amazing things you’ve done for me lately. And that you’ve done for our community? Why am I not wanting to get there and really worship you? Because I’m selfish. Because I’m ungrateful. That’s why. I’m sorry, Father. I’m about to leave now to join my wife and a few hundred other people to worship you. I give you my heart, Father.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen