What Was the Crime?

Matthew 26:65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy.


65 τότε ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς διέρρηξεν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ λέγων· ἐβλασφήμησεν· τί ἔτι χρείαν ἔχομεν μαρτύρων; ἴδε νῦν ἠκούσατε τὴν βλασφημίαν·

(Note: I apologize for the long time between posts.  We were out of town for Thanksgiving.  Also, posting has been less frequent because of a memorization project I'm working on.)

If anyone wonders about whether Jesus claimed to be divine you don't need to look any further than the sham trial that the Jews put Him through.  We can debate some of the phrases He used until the cows come home.  We can wonder how He would have been understood in first-century Palestine.  But here we don't have to wonder.  The text tells us.  The high priest said that He was guilty of blasphemy.

Frankly, if He truly had blasphemed then He would have deserved death based on the Law.  If anyone claims to be God who is not God then He has blasphemed.  This is why the high priest could confidently say τί ἔτι χρείαν ἔχομεν μαρτύρων.  They did not need any further witnesses if the accused basically convicted himself.  But Jesus was not guilty of anything because He was God.

I tend to gloss through these parts of the gospel because they are quite painful to read.  The injustice done to my Lord disturbs me.  I hate seeing examples of injustice anyway, but when it comes to my Lord it is just intensified.  But I think that we need to slow down here a little bit because we get Christology from these passages too.  Jesus is God.  Let's worship Him accordingly, amen?

The Heart Matters

Matthew 23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.


23 Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν, γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι ὑποκριταί, ὅτι ἀποδεκατοῦτε τὸ ἡδύοσμον καὶ τὸ ἄνηθον καὶ τὸ κύμινον καὶ ἀφήκατε τὰ βαρύτερα τοῦ νόμου, τὴν κρίσιν καὶ τὸ ἔλεος καὶ τὴν πίστιν· ταῦτα [δὲ] ἔδει ποιῆσαι κἀκεῖνα μὴ ἀφιέναι.

Jesus is on a roll in this passage.  He has been proclaiming a variety of woes on the scribes and Pharisees.  This probably goes without saying, but the scribes and Pharisees were the serious religious players of the day.  Imagine someone proclaiming a woe on the Pope.  Or, in Protestant circles, imagine someone proclaiming a woe on Billy Graham.  This was simply unthinkable to the people who heard this.

Why did Jesus give them such harsh words?  He told them that they ἀφήκατε τὰ βαρύτερα τοῦ νόμου (of course, the verb is 2nd person plural, but you should get the idea).  Translating τὰ βαρύτερα as "weightier matters" is a bit of an interpretive decision, but it is necessary because Greek doesn't have a comparative sense like English does.  Very literally it would be something like, "you neglect the weighty things of the law."  But given the context in how Jesus lists what those matters are, I think that the comparative sense is certainly a valid translation.

When I read these woes my first instinct is to think about who else they apply to someone else.  But as I think more deeply I wonder how they apply to me.  Where am I obeying the superficial things, but neglecting the weightier matters?  Yes, I read my Bible daily, pray daily, memorize Scripture, tithe, etc.  The Pharisees did all that.  But does God have my heart?

I think He does, but this passage still gives me pause.  Is there more I could give Him?  I think so.  How about you?

Entering the Kingdom

Matthew 21:31 Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.


31 τίς ἐκ τῶν δύο ἐποίησεν τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πατρός; λέγουσιν· ὁ πρῶτος. λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι οἱ τελῶναι καὶ αἱ πόρναι προάγουσιν ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ. 32  ἦλθεν γὰρ Ἰωάννης πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐν ὁδῷ δικαιοσύνης, καὶ οὐκ ἐπιστεύσατε αὐτῷ, οἱ δὲ τελῶναι καὶ αἱ πόρναι ἐπίστευσαν αὐτῷ· ὑμεῖς δὲ ἰδόντες οὐδὲ μετεμελήθητε ὕστερον τοῦ πιστεῦσαι αὐτῷ.

This is the conclusion to a parable that I always find compelling.  Jesus is trying to make an illustration to the Pharisees about grace.  He tells them about two sons whose father owns a vineyard.  The father asks the first to work in the vineyard.  He initially refuses, but later changes his mind.  The second one initially says that he will, but then never does it.  Here is Jesus' conclusion.

The application of this for today should be obvious, but of course the blindness of the Pharisees afflicts us all to some degree.  I think that you can mesh this parable with that of the four soils.  How eager we can be when we first hear a teaching or a command!  But then what do we do with it?  Do we apply it and obey it?  Or do we ignore it?

Of course, whenever I read a parable I like to cast myself as one of the "good guys," meaning one of those who are painted in a good light.  But I know that is not always so.  It is much easier for me to read Scripture with an academic or even pastoral eye than a devotional one, particularly the gospels.  Yet here is where God uses His Word to transform us.  My prayer is that I would be broken and obedient.  May I never be one of those people who gives verbal assent, but puts no hands or feet to the application.

Forgiving

Matthew 18:34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers,until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."


34 καὶ ὀργισθεὶς ὁ κύριος αὐτοῦ παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν τοῖς βασανισταῖς ἕως οὗ ἀποδῷ πᾶν τὸ ὀφειλόμενον. 35  οὕτως καὶ ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ οὐράνιος ποιήσει ὑμῖν, ἐὰν μὴ ἀφῆτε ἕκαστος τῷ ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῶν καρδιῶν ὑμῶν.

This comes at the end of a parable Jesus told the disciples in response to a question Peter asked.  Peter thought he was being really spiritual by offering to forgive his brother seven times.  Then Jesus told him that he was to forgive his brother seventy-seven times.  In other words, Jesus was using hyperbole to say that we must forgive as many times as we are wronged.  Then He told this parable about a wicked servant who was forgiven an unpayable debt but would not forgive a much more minor one.

This one always gets me because I know how vindictive my heart can be.  I do not default to grace, even though I often try to remind myself of just how much I have been forgiven.  It's convicting because of the construct ἐὰν μὴ.  This can be translated "unless."  In other words, this verse makes it seem like our acceptance before God is contingent upon how we forgive.

However, I don't think we should interpret this as a works-based salvation, though it would be natural to do so.  Instead, we need to see this as the natural result of grace.  If we have truly been forgiven for our sins by a holy God then forgiving our brother will not be that big of a deal.  It is something that we will be able to do.  In fact, how could we not do it if we truly believe in God's grace?

How are you doing with this?

Don't Follow Men

Matthew 15:8 "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"



8 ὁ λαὸς οὗτος τοῖς χείλεσίν με τιμᾷ, ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἀπέχει ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ· 9  μάτην δὲ σέβονταί με διδάσκοντες διδασκαλίας ἐντάλματα ἀνθρώπων.

Every time I read through the gospels I am amazed at how Jesus' teaching applies so well to today.  In other words, people have not fundamentally changed.  Although the writers could not have imagined that we would communicate to each other with telephones, blogs, twitter, etc, what they wrote applies today as much as it did 2000 years ago because the human condition has not changed.

When I read this passage I immediately put my "team" mode on and think how great it is that Jesus is sticking it to the Pharisees again.  Way to call out those hypocrites!  I'm so glad that my heart is close to Jesus!  I'm glad that I don't follow the commandments of men.  After all, I have no real creed but the Bible, right?

This attitude is problematic for a couple of reasons.  One is that my heart is not as close to Jesus as I would like to think it is.  I realize how easily distracted I am by the world.  I give lip-service to Jesus, but I don't stay as close to Him as He commands.  I've addressed this in numerous posts and I'm sure I will again.  I know how easily my heart strays since it is an idol factory after all.

The other is that the idea of "no creed but the Bible" is impossible.  We say that, but ultimately we follow the traditions of men.  Suppose that we think church should only be on Sunday mornings at 11:00 AM with wooden pews.  That's fine, except pews did not exist in the first-century.  So we've already started following a tradition of men.  It's not a bad one, but it's naive to think that we don't.

Then there is how we read Scripture.  We're all informed by our lives.  We all bring certain prejudices to the text.  For example, when Luther read Galatians he saw it as a condemnation of the Catholic Church.  I suppose it can be used that way, but that's not what Paul had in mind since the Roman Catholic Church was not invented yet.  He read his situation into the text.  We may say that we don't want to do that, but we all do it to some degree.

This is not necessarily wrong as long as we don't change things to suit our moods.  That's what happens when we read a feminist understanding into 1 Timothy 2:12, for example.  We are all in a hermeneutical spiral.  Let's just be honest about it rather than pretending that we truly have "no creed but the Bible."  And let's obey this passage by not elevating those secondary matters above the clear teachings of Scripture, amen?

What is it Worth?

Matthew 13:44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.



44 Ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν θησαυρῷ κεκρυμμένῳ ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ, ὃν εὑρὼν ἄνθρωπος ἔκρυψεν, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς χαρᾶς αὐτοῦ ὑπάγει καὶ πωλεῖ πάντα ὅσα ἔχει καὶ ἀγοράζει τὸν ἀγρὸν ἐκεῖνον.

This is another of Jesus' parables about the kingdom of heaven.  He is trying to explain to His disciples what it is all about.  I think what we're supposed to get out of this is that it is something extremely valuable.  He does this with a parable that we can relate to very easily.

Let's suppose that you were given an offer where you could have fifty million dollars if you could come up with $150,000.  Obviously you would be skeptical of the offer because get rich schemes are too good to be true.  But then let's say that you got this offer from a source that you considered entirely trustworthy.

Looking around my house, I think I would do everything I could to come up with the money.  First, I'd mortgage my house as far as I could.  I'd sell both of our vehicles.  I'd sell my guitars, my pool table, our fine china, our TV, our computers, the Wii, the PS2 and all its games, and all our furniture.  I would do whatever it took to raise the money.

Why would I be so eager?  I would know that ultimately the payoff is much greater than the loss of stuff.  So it is also with the kingdom of heaven.  If there is something that we won't give up then we don't really understand what the kingdom of heaven is all about.  We may give lip-service to it, but really we don't believe the promise.

This is not to say that we have to become monks.  But if that is somehow God's call on our lives then we need to be ready for that.  Of course, discerning that call is another story, but the point is that we need to be willing to leave it all for the sake of the kingdom.

How about you?  Writing this is difficult as it convicts me.  I can come up with this nifty illustration, but am I living it?  Probably not as much as this parable would dictate.

How is Your Soil?

Matthew 13:23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."


23 ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν καλὴν γῆν σπαρείς, οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τὸν λόγον ἀκούων καὶ συνιείς, ὃς δὴ καρποφορεῖ καὶ ποιεῖ ὃ μὲν ἑκατόν, ὃ δὲ ἑξήκοντα, ὃ δὲ τριάκοντα.

I would maintain that this is one of Jesus' more misunderstood parables in the evangelical church.  It is very well-known, but I'm not sure that we get it because we read this through American eyes.  To us, we see three soils that are Christians and one that is not.  But I don't think that is what Jesus is getting at here.

You don't have to read very far in the gospels to see that Jesus sets the bar very, very high.  The expectation is that we will bear fruit.  In fact, He tells us that a tree that does not bear fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.  I think the same goes for the parable of the soils.  There are those who will just reject the gospel as seen in the first soil. There are those who will immediately receive the gospel with joy, but will reject it when trials come. And there are those who seem to receive the gospel, but they don't bother to remove the weeds in their lives and they cannot grow.

It is difficult for me to reconcile how the shallow soil and the thorny soil could indicate someone who is saved.  The Christian life is one that bears fruit.  We may not always bear a ton of fruit, but we should be bearing fruit.  Weeds may come in, but as we notice them we pull them.  We may sometime need deeper soil and fertilizer, so we spend more time in the Word, in prayer, in fellowship, etc.  We all go through some ups and downs, but the Christian life should be a fruit-bearing one.

How is yours?  Do you need to pull some weeds in the garden?  Do you need to put a few yards of topsoil down?  Or are you bearing fruit?

Too Smart?

Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;


25 Ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ καιρῷ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν· ἐξομολογοῦμαί σοι, πάτερ, κύριε τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῆς γῆς, ὅτι ἔκρυψας ταῦτα ἀπὸ σοφῶν καὶ συνετῶν καὶ ἀπεκάλυψας αὐτὰ νηπίοις·

Here Jesus is talking about how the people reacted to John the Baptist.  He notes how they are not satisfied with anything.  They think John is demon-possessed because he doesn't eat or drink like they do and lives an ascetic life.  They think Jesus is a glutton and a drunkard because He does eat and drink like they do and they think that a religious leader should be more restrained.  He then explains how John came to prepare the way for Him.

This verse is particularly poignant for me.  There was a time when I was sure that I was too smart to believe in God.  I figured that religion was just an emotional crutch for the weak.  It was invented to keep people in line.  After all, they needed something to hold on to and they weren't smart enough to see the folly of believing in an invisible God with no proof.  Of course, I have since changed my mind, but that's where I was in high school.

Jesus prays a remarkable prayer here.  He thanks the Father for hiding Himself from the wise of the world and revealing Himself to the νηπίοις.  That word refers to children that would be my son's age (3) or even younger.  Think toddlers.  I'm not sure that He means literally to the toddlers, but given the contrast and based on some other verses I think He means that those who would accept the gospel with a simple faith.

This of course is folly to the wise of our time just like it was 2000 years ago.  It's also folly to folks who say that the gospel is more than just good news.  At its heart that's all it is.  It is the good news that Jesus Christ came to earth fully God and fully man, lived a sinless life, and died as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.  We need to accept the gift.  Are you going to accept it or reject it?

Found Worthy

Matthew 10:38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.


38 καὶ ὃς οὐ λαμβάνει τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀκολουθεῖ ὀπίσω μου, οὐκ ἔστιν μου ἄξιος.

There is a trend started by men like Charles Finney and DL Moody to hold "revival meetings."  They are different in style today, but the underlying form is the same.  You get a bunch of people together, have them sit under a charismatic speaker, and get them to make a "decision for the Lord."  You then count up the incredible harvest and feel good about the work you're doing for the Lord.  Of course, some have perverted this for selfish gain, but I believe that in general the folks who have meetings like this mean well.

The problem is that "making a decision" is antithetical to the gospel proclaimed by Jesus.  In a few weeks we're going to get to the commission with which Jesus left the church.  There is nothing easy about any of this.  Becoming a Christian is easy in the sense that it is all about grace.  But it is difficult in the sense that we need to repent of our pasts and turn to the Lord.

There is no mystery in the Greek here either.  Jesus calls us to radical discipleship.  It is not a matter of simply filling out a card or raising a hand during a corporate prayer time.  No, Jesus is serious about this.  We are to follow Him with all we've got.

Where are you?  Are you playing games with the Lord?  Or are you pursuing Him with all you've got?  Understand that we will still do this imperfectly.  We will have times when we feel like we aren't even Christians. I am not saying that Jesus demands perfection.  However, He does demand that we take up our cross and follow Him.

Are You Sick?

Matthew 9:12 But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.


12 ὁ δὲ ἀκούσας εἶπεν· οὐ χρείαν ἔχουσιν οἱ ἰσχύοντες ἰατροῦ ἀλλ᾽ οἱ κακῶς ἔχοντες.

The Pharisees didn't like the company that Jesus kept.  It made no sense to them that He would associate with prostitutes and the hated tax-collectors.  After all, a good teacher would not do such things.  They certainly wouldn't.  Then Jesus hits them with this saying.  He did not come for ἔχουσιν οἱ ἰσχύοντες, which literally means having "strong" or "able," but He did come for οἱ κακῶς ἔχοντες, or the ones having badness.

This is a message that I think the American church needs to consider today.  I am all for the principles of Fundamentalism.  We should stick to the text, though of course we all have traditions that color our hermeneutics.  If the Bible says so then that should be enough for us.  These are good things about Fundamentalism.

But the bad is the isolationist tendencies.  In one sense, Jesus does set up an "us vs them" world.  However, He also makes it clear that we are to evangelize.  That's hard to do when we refuse to spend time with οἱ κακῶς ἔχοντες.  It's also hard when we think ourselves to be ἔχουσιν οἱ ἰσχύοντες.  Until we identify first as being sick or sinful we will never ἔχουσιν οἱ ἰσχύοντες.

Where are you?  Are you resting in your own righteousness?  Or are you resting in the care and ability of the Great Physician who came to heal the sick?  I urge you to repent of your self-sufficiency and rely solely on the work of Christ.

True Authority

Matthew 7:28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.



28 Καὶ ἐγένετο ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τοὺς λόγους τούτους, ἐξεπλήσσοντο οἱ ὄχλοι ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ· 29  ἦν γὰρ διδάσκων αὐτοὺς ὡς ἐξουσίαν ἔχων καὶ οὐχ ὡς οἱ γραμματεῖς αὐτῶν.

This is the end of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus has finished rocking the worlds of His hearers.  He took what they knew about the Law and intensified it.  He also made the point that salvation is not something that comes easily or universally.  It is a narrow door and only a few will walk through it, despite what they think.  In fact, there will be those who seemingly bear fruit, but He still does not know them.  These are difficult things to hear.

This passage really sums it all up though.  It tells us that the crowds ἐξεπλήσσοντο.  This is an imperfect passive.  Basically, what we get is that His teaching blew them away.  Why were they so surprised?  He taught ὡς ἐξουσίαν ἔχων.  The word ἔχων is a present active participle.  This gives us a sense that they realized that Jesus had authority as He spoke.  He was in the state of one having authority.

What does this mean?  It means that unlike those who simply regurgitated the Law back to them, He had the authority to change things a bit.  He explained that they had got it wrong all this time and that God really wanted their hearts, not just their behavior.  Adultery was not just a matter of the physical act, for example, but was also about the eyes and the heart.  Murder was not just the actual taking of another life, but it was also having hate in your heart.  And so on.

Who could do this?  Only God.  This is why they were so amazed.  They realized that they were in the presence of the Divine.  This shocked them, but that was what they needed to hear.

How about you?  If you know Jesus are you amazed at your relationship with the Divine?  Do you submit to His Word with the understanding that it has true authority?  Personally, as I read this passage I am stirred to prayerfully pursue more depth with the Lord.  He is God and He loves me.  I have a relationship with Him through Christ's life, death, burial, and resurrection.  How could I have any reaction but to ἐξεπλήσσοντο?