Hen and Chicks - Matthew 23:37-39

"The Lament over Jerusalem"

 

37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.

 

38 "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!

 

39 "For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'"

 

The Timing of These Words

 

The timing with which Jesus uttered these three short sentences is very significant.

 

He said them right after an enormous diatribe against the Pharisees (Matthew 21-23), proclaiming their condemnation ... and right before His longest explanation of the coming judgment of the End Times (Matthew 24-25).  What's more, He condemned the Pharisees for murdering the prophets (23:34-35), and explained that the same will be committed against Christians during the Tribulation (24:9) - the exact same thing he accuses the residents of Jerusalem of in this passage.

 

So, far beyond serving only as a segue into talk of the End Times, this passage serves another function: It demonstrates God's incredible love, and His desire for everyone to come to repentance so He does not have to punish them, in the middle of two condemnation passages.

 

Jerusalem, Who Kills ...

 

The prophets God sent to the Israelites were for their own sake, to bring the Jews back into God's blessing - and they still killed them.  It communicates an incomprehensible amount of love that God would want to forgive them despite that evil sin.

 

But I'd like to put out there that it goes even deeper than that - that God is yearning for them to come back to Him because of that evil sin.  That is, I believe that our sin, and our misery that results from it, makes God so sad that the more sinful you become, the more God wants you to come to Him.

 

"I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."

- Luke 15:7

 

Hen and Chicks

 

Have you ever actually seen a hen gathering a chick under her wings?  It totally changes how to read this passage.  I couldn't find an image free for the public domain or with a usage release to post here, but I think it's important that you guys see what it actually looks like, so click this link to take you to a results page for a Google Images search for "hen chicks under wing" to see what I mean.

 

What's important about this is that you see that the chicken is blocking the chicks from harm with her own body.  Whatever is trying to eat the chicks will attack her, and she will bear all the suffering and pain.  She may die protecting her chicks.  Sound like Jesus?

 

But the Jews refused to accept His love.  So, He let their nation have what they wanted - knowing that one day, at the end of the world, they would finally learn from their suffering and see that they need Him.

 

Desolate

 

... which brings us to the part about leaving their house desolate.

 

The "house" referred to is the Temple.  God would no longer manifest Himself in the Temple, but would indwell believers instead (Mark 15:37-38, Ezekiel 36:27, Romans 8:11, 1 Corinthians 6:19).  On top of that, the Temple would be destroyed by the Romans 40 years later, and has not been rebuilt since.

 

But, here's the thing:  The time when

• The Jewish Temple will exist (be rebuilt / have been rebuilt) and be in use again (Revelation 11:1, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, Daniel 9:27)  and
• The Jews will say, "Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!" permanently (Revelation 7:9-10, 19:5-6)

coincides - at the very end.

 

Which is a topic we'll dive into with a lot more depth the next few weeks. :-)

Two Riddles - Matthew 22:23-40

Scripture #1

 

23 On that day some Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Jesus and questioned Him,

 

24 asking, "Teacher, Moses said, 'IF A MAN DIES HAVING NO CHILDREN, HIS BROTHER AS NEXT OF KIN SHALL MARRY HIS WIFE, AND RAISE UP CHILDREN FOR HIS BROTHER.'

 

25 "Now there were seven brothers with us; and the first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother;

 

16 so also the second, and the third, down to the seventh.

 

27 "Last of all, the woman died.

 

28 "In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be?  For they all had married her."

 

29 But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.

 

30 "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

 

31 "But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God:

 

32 'I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB'?  He is not the God of the dead but of the living."

 

33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

 

The Sadducees Join In

 

The Sadducees' question to Jesus was presented in a different way than the Pharisees challenged Him: Rather than trying to trap Him into angering some group or another with a controversial answer, they wanted to completely baffle Him - thereby not only demonstrating Him to be a fool (thus eliminating the "Jesus problem" that plagued all the Jewish religious elite), but also providing a significant victory for their side of the doctrinal argument they waged with the Pharisees by showing that belief in a resurrection is illogical.  It was a chance to take out two types of enemies at once.  But, once again, Jesus simply could be defeated.

 

Now, to us, the aspect of the Mosaic Law where a man was to marry his late brother's wife so their first child would count as his brother's descendant is not exactly commonplace.  But in terms of the Sadducees' challenge, it's no different that a situation we see as normal: A widow or widower marrying again after the death of the original spouse.  With the "weirdness" of marrying your brother's wife out of the way, it's easy to see why this scenario was an applicable objection to the concept of life after death.

 

But Jesus explained that after we die, we become like the angels.  Note the word like - we do not become angels when we die, no matter what the media and art portray.  Angels are separate created beings with distinctive appearances (see Ezekiel 1:1-28 and 10:20, and Isaiah 6:1-8), whereas our eternal, glorified bodies will be like Christ's (1 John 3:2); additionally, 1 Peter 1:10-12 reveals that God distinguishes between humans and angels in that he allows us to understand salvation on a deeper level (so, becoming an angel would be regressing).  However, we will be like angels in the sense that we will be outside of a social construct involving marriage and romance.  Our relationships with each other will change in eternity.

 



 

Jesus expanded into defending the very principle of life after death, not just refuting their example.  You see, God proclaimed Himself to be the God in the present tense of those 3 patriarchs long after they were all dead in Exodus 3 when He's speaking to Moses through the burning bush.  He did not say, "I WAS the God of..." He said "I AM the God of..."  Since "I AM" is an extremely common name of God used in the Old Testament (it's translated "Lord," so we don't see it spelled out a lot), Jesus used something that even the most uneducated Jew would have been familiar with to refute the Sadducees' lofty theological stance with one blow.

 

Some people claim that life after death was a new concept introduced in the New Testament, but this simply is not true.  For example, the Pharisees believed in a spiritual resurrection of the dead - that's why they fought with the Sadducees!  Here are just a couple of Old Testament examples pointing to life after death:

 

Psalm 23:6 "Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

 

Genesis 37:35: "... Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son..."

 

Would you like eternal life?  Click here to learn how to have it in English, or click here to learn in a different language.

 

Scripture #2

 

34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together.

 

35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him,

 

36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

 

37 And He said to him, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.'

 

38 "This is the great and foremost commandment.

 

39 "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'

 

40 "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

 

Last Ditch Effort

 

At least in Matthew's account, this is the last question the religious elite try to baffle Christ with.  This question wasn't one with a yes-or-no answer that would alienate some people either way; it was a very open-ended challenge that could mean it opened many people up to offense...or it could mean an epic fail for the Pharisees if Jesus's answer was wise.  The outcome, of course, was the latter.

 

Although it seems like an incredibly simple answer to us who have heard it dozens if not hundreds (if not thousands!) of times, the fact that literally every single command and every single prophetic message can be boiled down to Loving God and Loving Our Neighbors (which is, in itself, a mere manifestation of Loving God) is critical to our theology.  Here I share two particularly major ways it does:

• We Christians believe that we are under the "New Covenant," meaning we don't have a long list of rules to keep, but rather, as a response to God's grace, try to live our lives in a way that pleases Him (Hebrews 9:15, Romans 6).  Since God never changes and His Law is eternally holy (Hebrews 13:8, Matthew 5:17-18), the Old and New Covenants have to "mesh" somehow - and they do by the fact that Old Testament rules demonstrated an itemized way to live out the New Covenant principle during a specific time period God chose.
• We also believe that even those who have never heard the Gospel have the opportunity to recognize in their hearts that they are imperfect and cannot become perfect people on their own (Romans 1:20, Revelation 5:9 and 7:9).  In order for them to be able to try to follow God's standards (just as we do), it has to be able to be boiled down to such simple principles that anyone could think of, not seemingly-random manifestations given only to the Jews like don't eat lobster.

So, how can we live out:

• Loving God with all our heart?
• Loving God with all our soul?
• Loving God with all our mind?
• Loving our neighbors as ourselves?

Let's each mull over those questions today, and if you come up with an idea worth sharing, leave a comment. :-)  Or if you have something else to add to our discussion, feel free to speak up!

 

Image Credit: "The queen bee in a hive" by Bienenkoenigin_43a.jpg and B kimmel.  Wikipedia.  Used by permission.



The Bible's Summer Wedding - Matthew 22:1-14

Today we continue working through Matthew's multi-chapter account of Jesus's verbal assault on the Pharisees just before His death.  Missed our previous studies on this topic?  Here are the links for you:

Part 1, The Triumphal Entry and Fig Tree

Part 2, John's Authority and the Parable of the Two Sons

Part 3, The Parable of the Landowner

The Scripture

 

1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying,

 

2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.

 

3 "And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.

 

4 "Again he sent out other slaves saying, 'Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast." '

 

5 "But they paid no attention and went on their way, one to his own farm, another to his business,

 

6 and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them."

 

7 "But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.

 

8 "Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those were invited were not worthy.

 

9 'Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.'

 

10 "Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.

 

11 "But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes,

 

12 and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?'  And the man was speechless.

 

13 "Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

 

14 "For many are called, but few are chosen."

 

Thoughts on the Passage

 

We'll approach this chronologically today, rather than topically. :-)

 

The King is God the Father, and the son is God the Son, Jesus Christ.  This wedding feast, as we see in Revelation 19:7-9, is basically ultimate salvation - eternity rejoicing with God.

 

As we saw last time, the slaves Jesus referred to were specifically the Prophets, as far as the original audience (the Pharisees) were concerned, but for modern application, we can view these slaves as evangelists.

 

Those originally invited were the Jews - and the Pharisees exemplified what much of the Jewish nation did, which was rejecting true relationship with God and instead embracing legalistic ritualism.  Notice that both in the parable and especially in real history, God gave them multiple, multiple chances to accept His invitation.  And he even tried to woo them with all the things he would offer at His feast - all the blessings and special protection He offered the Jews.  That shouldn't even be necessary, because God is so incredible that His character alone is far more motivation than any of us should need to draw near to Him!  Yet, the Jews rejected Him, just as so many people do today.

 

I see the Jews' refusal to accept God's invitation as sort of like bragging to all your friends that you got invited to a really exclusive party, then never bothering to actually attend the party, but still continuing to brag about the fact that you were invited.  Absurd, right?  The Jews acted exactly as people do today - they preferred their "real" lives, comfortable, secure, and spending their time how they wanted to spend it.  When a prophet came to tell them the truth about their life, and today when a true Christian tells someone the truth about their life, the reaction is to lash out.  Depending on the culture, it can range from verbal rudeness to grave physical violence.

 

The fiery judgment the first group faced is the same as that which the second group does - eternity apart from God, in hell.  We know that this is a just punishment for even one "tiny" sin, yet God in His grace always gives numerous, numerous chances for repentance - as His repeated invitation in this parable symbolizes.

 

Because the original invitees rejected the offer, God burst open the guest list.  You see, originally, Gentiles could come into relationship with God (for example, Rahab), but the way to do so was to actually become a part of Israel.  But one of the many changes that came with the New Covenant is that all people, everywhere, can have relationship with God right where they are.  Being born into or assimilating into Jewish culture are no longer prerequisites to following God.  Furthermore, Jesus is making extra clear here what has always been His policy - that not just the "religious," but anyone with a heart for Him, no matter how terrible their past, is welcome to come follow Him.

 

And yet, this isn't some Universalist Unitarian type philosophy where everyone or even just the "good people" go to heaven - that is a lie.  Our wedding clothes are "putting on Christ" (Romans 13:14) - truly making an effort to live like Christ in order to try to become more like Him - because that, not getting out of hell, is the entire goal of salvation.  It has nothing to do with what good works we accomplish, but rather if our heart truly wishes to please God.  Today, there are plenty of unsaved people who call themselves Christians, too, just like there were plenty of Jews who were not really following God.  So, this part of Jesus's masterful storytelling serves to both establish a point that applies for all the rest of history, and to underscore the point He was making specifically about the Pharisees.

 

Finally, I'd like to touch on the passage's concluding line, "For many are called, but few are chosen."  If you've read this blog for very long, you know that I don't shy away from sharing my views on controversial theological/doctrinal topics. :-)  But predestination isn't one I like to talk much about, because I'm still in the middle of a years-long process of figuring out what I think about that based on what I see in Scripture.  Honestly, I think it's like the Trinity in that our human minds can never fully understand it this side of heaven.  But what I will say for this passage is that I don't think this verse is arguing for predestination...  Everyone is "called" (God gives all humans the opportunity to come to Him, as that is His ultimate desire), and those that are "chosen" (saved) are those who choose to "put on their wedding clothes" (accept Christ).  That's what I see here. :-)

 

Have you made that choice for yourself?  Click here to learn how to become a follower of Jesus.

 

Any questions or comments you'd like to add to our discussion?  Feel free to leave a comment below. :-)

 

Image Credit: "The Boyars' Wedding" by Konstantin Yegorovich Makovsky.  Wikipedia.  Public Domain in the United States.

Jesus's Parables Against the Pharisees - Matthew 21:33-46

Very Brief Recap

 

Remember, we're going through the part of Matthew's Gospel where Jesus spends a long time confronting the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and other religious elite.

 

Missed our previous posts on this war of words?  Here are Part 1 and Part 2.

 

Today, we'll look at Jesus's 2nd parable against the religious elite, both dissecting its meaning and looking for how to apply it to our own lives instead of just storing up head knowledge. :-)

This is a very link-happy post where I direct you to Scripture verses and passages, so if you're new around here, links appear hot pink if you're reading on the blog itself and blue if you're reading via e-mail subscription.  Be sure to check them out. :-)

 

The Scripture

 

33 "Listen to another parable.  There was a landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT AND DUG A WINE PRESS IN IT, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey.

 

34 "When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce.

 

35 "The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third.

 

36 "Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them.

 

37 "But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'

 

38 "But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.'

 

40 "Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?"

 

41 They said to Him, "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons."

 

42 Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, 'THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHEIF CORNER STONE; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES'?

 

43 "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.

 

44 "And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust."

 

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them.

 

46 When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because the considered Him to be a prophet.

 

The Symbols

 



Here's my take on them, anyway... :-)

 

The landowner is God.  God's always the easy one to figure out in parables like this - He's the guy in charge. :-)

 

The vine-growers are, in this case, both all of God's people, and specifically the religious leaders - the people who were given the commission to help God's people grow, but weren't doing their job.  In Matthew 15:14, Jesus called them "blind guides," and in Matthew 23:4, He says that they "tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders."  However, for applying this today (and looking in Isaiah 5, the origin of this parable), we should keep in mind that we all have a commission as "God's farmers," that is, to share His Gospel with the world, so we should view this in that light.  We all must produce fruit, we all have a responsibility.

 

The slaves here are the prophets (all the Old Testament ones, plus John the Baptist).  In our culture, the word "slave" is a very negative thing (as it should be), but in the Bible, it doesn't mean the same thing.  In the New Testament, we are referred to as bond-servants 24 times (a bond-servant was a voluntary slave who chose to serve a master they loved), and by my count, only as slaves 5 times (excepting the parables, which are symbolic so they don't count) - three times in Romans 6:16-19, and once each in 1 Corinthians 9:19 and Ephesians 6:6 ... and in all these cases, it is still presented as a matter of voluntary choice.  What's more, Galatians 4:7 is one of multiple verses that explicitly state that God views us as sons and daughters, not slaves.  So, then, being a "slave" is from our perspective - our willing choice to obey God, no matter what.  In the prophets' specific case, they were willing to say "yes" to God even to the point of dying brutal deaths.

 

The vineyard is a bit trickier to pin down.  It could be seen as the world (what we would call the missions field), or as God's people (for us, the Church).  For the Pharisees against whom this was spoken, their primary responsibility was to God's people (again, that's what is portrayed in Isaiah 5), but in modern times, God's followers' "vineyard" is both the Church and the world.  The landowner gave the vine-growers everything they needed to produce fruit in this vineyard (see verse 34), then went on a journey and left it in their hands - just like God gives us every possible way to come to Him, grow in Him, and follow His calling for our lives, but He ultimately leaves the choice of what to do with those gifts up to us.

 

What is this harvest time?  Elsewhere in the New Testament, it can refer to a final judgment scenario or bringing lost souls to Christ.  I don't think it's either of those here, but definitely related.  It seems to me that this is God calling His people to step out in faith in something, perform a good work He has planned for them, come back to Him after a time of rebellion - any of that.  Simply, God expecting fruit.  It makes sense, then, that the prophets would come to "demand" this when spiritual fruit wasn't being given to God.  Good motivation for us - let's serve God all the time so He doesn't have to send another of His followers to point out to us that we're not serving Him! ;-)

 

And finally, the last symbol is the landowner's son - Jesus.  That one's pretty obvious, but what I find interesting is the vine-growers' motivation: They wanted power they knew they weren't entitled to have.  The religious leaders could have seen that Jesus was Messiah far easier than anyone else since they were so familiar with the Scriptures, but I believe they refused to see that for this very reason - because the Messiah wanted to strip them of their wrongful power.

 

The Response

 

The response of the religious elite is disturbing.  They would have been familiar highly familiar with Isaiah 5, which Jesus was boldly alluding to and even directly quoting, and they knew in their hearts what justice would be for the vine-growers (see verse 41).

 

And yet, they were so blinded to their own wickedness that they couldn't see how it applied to them, so they proclaimed the judgment on themselves!

 

We need to constantly be aware of what's going on in our hearts, and ask God to reveal our sin to us, so we are not likewise this blind.

 

Corner Stone

 

For ancient buildings with stone foundations, the corner stone was the first stone laid in the ground, on which the entire house's measurements and alignments would depend - so it had to be flawless.  Jesus is here Himself the cornerstone (see Acts 4:10-12), but in this case, it also applies to the point He's been hammering into their heads and will continue to hammer: that the religious fakers who weren't really serving God did not truly possess the kingdom of God, because it belongs to we wretched sinners who repent and serve the Lord.  In God's eyes, it doesn't matter how badly we've screwed up, or what horrible people the world thinks we are because of those mistakes - when we ask His forgiveness and make Him our Lord, we become perfect stones in His sight, far more righteous than the religious elite who fast and maintain legalism - all because of Christ.

 

Let's look at verse 44 again:

 

And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.

 

Not as cryptic as it seems. :-)  Let's break it down very simply:

• Everyone will come into contact with the stone (that is, Christ) - but not in the same way.  Some (the saved) will choose to make their contact with Him here on Earth, but others (the unsaved) will refuse a relationship with Him, only to meet Him at the final judgment.
• The people the stone falls on are the unsaved (and in this specific case, the unsaved religious elite).  Christ will crush them in final judgment.
• We who fall on the stone are the ones who choose to bow to the True God.  We will be broken, too, not in judgment, but (1) as we willingly allow God to work in our hearts, removing our sin as we offer Him our "broken spirit" [see Psalm 66:10, Isaiah 48:10, Daniel 12:10, Zechariah 13:9, and Malachi 3:3]; and (2) as we suffer for our God at the hands of unsaved persecutors.

This is a tangent, but relevant:

 

If the devil were wise enough and would stand by in silence and let the gospel be preached, he would suffer less harm.  For when there is no battle for the gospel it rusts and it finds no cause and no occasion to show its vigor and power.  Therefore, nothing better can befall the gospel than that the world should fight it with force and cunning.

- Martin Luther

 

Powerless

 

Finally, at the very end of the chapter, the religious elite realized that they had been duped into condemning themselves, and have been publically ridiculed and denounced.  But Jesus was not done with them yet, and it was not quite the time when He chose to give His life - so we'll go further into this subject next study, as we start Matthew 22.  See you then. :-)

 

Questions for You

 

Is there anything you'd like to add to our discussion?  Maybe you saw something in the parable that I missed, or something really spoke to you that you'd like to expand on.  Or maybe you have a question.  Leave a comment to share. :-)

 

Image Credit

 

Image 1: "A Vineyard" photo taken by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii.  Wikipedia.  Public domain in the United States.

Jesus Versus the Religious Elite - Matthew 21: 23-32

What's Going on, Again?

Let's review the context of where we are in Matthew.  In our last study, we saw Jesus enter Jerusalem in a spectacle demonstration of His identity as Messiah, literally chase the hypocritical religious establishment out of the Temple, and use a fig tree as a way to teach His followers that the religious elite weren't truly in God's favor.  Obviously, all this behavior really angered the Jewish religious leaders, which ultimately led to their decision to murder Him.  Today, we see the confrontation continue...

You see, as we progress to this point in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus is becoming quite blatant in exposing the religious hypocrites for what they really are.  He will humiliate them, tell three parables defaming them, debate with them publicly, and then denounce and curse them.  We will look at the humiliation and first parable today.

But before we dive in, I'd like to remind you of one very important question: How do we apply these passages to our own lives today?  Clearly it's important, since such a large portion of Matthew's Gospel is devoted to it.  My viewpoint is that:

• These passages give us a clear picture of what hypocrites and wolves look like.  We can keep that picture in mind to prevent ourselves, our loved ones, and our church family from being hurt spiritually be such people.
• For some of us, these passages may bring to mind persecutors of sorts - the religious elite in our lives who may oppress, defame, or try to guilt trip us for not living the legalistic lifestyles they do.  We can find comfort in the fact that we are not alone.
• And, we should pay attention to what the religious elite are doing wrong in these passages, so we can be sure not to adopt such behavior ourselves!  We must be on constant guard against legalism and self-righteousness in our own lives.

The Wrong Question

 

23 When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?"

 

24 Jesus said to them, "I will go ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.

 

25 "The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?"  And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to us, 'Then why did you not believe him?'

 

26 "But if we say, 'From men,' we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet."

 

27 And answering Jesus, they said, "We do not know."  He also said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

 

The religious elite didn't really want to know where Jesus got His authority from; they just wanted to trap Him, because He would be in the same predicament - either answer would get Him in trouble.  If He said His authority came from men, His followers would stop following Him, since clearly He couldn't be Messiah or even a true prophet.  But if He said His authority came from God, they would have grounds to execute Him for blasphemy (except for the fact that it was true, of course).

 

Jesus was never afraid or unwilling to answer when people asked Him who He was because they genuinely wanted to know (see John 4 for one wonderful example of this).  But in this case, answering will bring no good.  So, He doesn't just evade the question; He challenges them to answer their own question, just applied to John the Baptist.  The mastery of this tactic is amazing - He isn't hiding His identity, and in fact, His move to hold His authority and superiority over them in this confrontation shoves His identity as Messiah in their faces!

 

We can also learn from this passage that although debate can be useful in some situations (like the Christian philosophers, historians, scientists, etc. who publicly debate atheists and other religions' leaders to bring audience members to Christ, or having a private "debate" with a loved one you're trying to bring to Christ) - but only if it can bring about good.  In situations like the one here (for example, if a cult member is trying to "prove" that you're wrong and you're too unfamiliar with their beliefs to have a chance at persuading them), refusing to engage is not the same as denying the Truth or chickening out - it's the wise thing to do!

 

There Are Two Types of People in the World...

 

28 "But what do you think?  A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go work today in the vineyard.'

 

29 "And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterward he regretted it and went.

 

30 "The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, 'I will, sir'; but he did not go.

 

31 "Which of the two did the will of his father?"  They said, "The first."  Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of heaven before you.

 

32 "For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him."

 

Let's break down the symbolic components really quick:

• The man or the father is God the Father.
• The vineyard the world, the "mission field," our callings, the good works prepared before us - however you want to look at it.
• The two sons are two types of people who have interacted with God:
• The first son is a sinner who comes to repentance.
• The second son is a person who seems religious but isn't truly following God.

So, we see that God doesn't care how bad our pasts are - He only cares what we do with the present.  A man who murdered and raped but repents and comes to Christ is a blameless saint in Christ's kingdom, but a legalist who lives cracker-jack-clean and is heavily involved in the local church and charities but never comes to have a personal relationship with God, instead relying on self-righteousness, is not honored by God.

 

The original point for the religious elite themselves was that they were claiming to be something they weren't, so truly had no authority over God's followers.  I love how Jesus tells them this so blatantly in the second person (you), don't you? :-)

 

But for us, I see it as a call to rely on grace, not our own works or self-righteousness, and to keep growing in Him and to finish strong!

 

Is there anything else you saw in these passages that you'd like to add to our discussion?  What about questions - something I didn't make clear or spend enough time on? :-)  Leave a comment below!

 

Learn how to accept Christ's forgiveness here.

Laborers in the Vineyard - Matthew 20:1-16

The Scripture

 

1 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

 

2 "When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.

 

3 "And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place;

 

4 and to those he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.'  And so they went.

 

5 "Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing.

 

6 "And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day long?'

 

7 "They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.'  He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too.'

 

8 "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.'

 

9 "When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.

 

10 "When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius.

 

11 "When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,

 

12 saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.'

 

13 "But he answered and said to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?

 

14 'Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.

 

15 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own?  Or is your eye envious because I am generous?'

 

16 "So the last shall be first, and the first last."

 

Recap/Intro

 

Last time we were in Matthew, the disciples asked Jesus how they would be rewarded for all they were giving up for Him.  He did not rebuke them, as their question was justified at that early stage when the Gospel had not yet fully come to light, and he promised them that because of their faith, they would receive salvation - eternal life.

 

In today's passage, Jesus continues teaching on that theme, this time explaining a dangerous extreme we can arrive at if we fall into the trap of thinking of heaven as a "reward" for works.

 

Symbolism

 

Let's start by identifying the symbols in this parable before dissecting meaning.

 

Who

 

The landowner: Christ

Hired laborers: Christians

Laborers not yet hired: The unsaved

 

Where

 

The market place: The world

The vineyard: More of a concept than a geographical location - the "missions field" - the world from the perspective of a Christian sharing the Gospel and living his/her life for God

 

What

 

The work: Sharing the Gospel, living our lives for God, etc.

The wages: Salvation

 

When

 

The hours: Different times in our life - e.g. when we're a child, young adult, and right before we die

Evening: The final judgment

 

Theology

 

First off, I think it's important to clarify something: The laborers hired at later hours are not Christians who decided to wait to get serious about their faith until later in their lives; those laborers are people who did not get saved until later in their lives.  This is important because, while we can never earn salvation through good works, the fact still remains that genuine faith in Christ will "yield fruit" (meaning there will be positive change as the Holy Spirit living in us makes us more like Christ).  I encourage you to read John 15:1-11 on this topic.

 

Now, that doesn't mean that a person cannot be genuinely saved but only called to "visible" work for the kingdom (like missions or ministry work) at a later point in their lives after they are more mature.  My point is simply that this passage is talking about people getting saved at different stages in their lives! :-)

 

Second, we also need to be aware that the "wages" talked about here is salvation itself.  We have talked last time and before about special designations like heavenly "crowns" that honor martyrs, for example - that's not what's going on here.  Besides, those extra designations are still completely, utterly undeserved in light of how sinful we are, so we'd have no right to complain about who God handed those out to even if that were the case.

 

Rather, the point is that none of us, even the hardest "workers" for God (recognized saints, martyrs, etc.) deserve salvation, so we have absolutely no right to complain when someone receives salvation and does less work for the kingdom - because even our own work is not nearly enough to deserve it!

 

I'm sure you are familiar with Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Eternal death (hell) is true wages - it is earned.  But eternal life (salvation) is not true wages - it cannot be earned.  It is absolutely, positively, only a gift from God that we do nothing to deserve, so we cannot think of others as "less deserving."  A serial killer doesn't deserve heaven, but neither do you and I!

 

If you have not yet received Christ's free gift of salvation from your sins, I offer you to opportunity to do so right now by clicking here.

 

In Our Lives

 

So far, we've stayed more in the realm of theology.  Let's expand this to include how we act in our daily lives.

 

First, we need to be ever conscious of how we treat others.  Any person we look down on for any reason (level of intelligence, appearance, personality, behavior, social class, nationality, whatever), whether Christian or non-Christian, is no more undeserving of Christ's forgiveness than we ourselves are.  Even if we "know" this in our minds, we also need to know it in our hearts - by putting it into action.  Look at Paul's example.

 

Second, also keep in mind that another believer may be called to a different type of "labor" than you, and that does not make them any less of a worker!  You may be called to do something flashy like leading worship at your church or smuggling Bibles into China, but if God is calling another believer to make cupcakes for people in the hospital, that makes them just as much a "laborer of the month" as you - they deserve respect for doing what God has asked them to do, instead of seeking something more in the public eye.  Unequal labor does not mean unequal laborers. 

 

Deathbed Conversions?

 

One final note - this passage brings up the topic of deathbed conversions.  A question people sometimes ask is, "If someone asks Christ's forgiveness right before they die, is it real?"  Well, it can be.

 

In today's passage, verse 6 tells us that someone hired at "the eleventh hour" (5 o'clock p.m. - at the end of the workday) is saved.  And the man on the cross next to Jesus came to faith as he was dying, and was promised salvation.

 

So, if a person isn't just doing a last-ditch effort thing on their deathbed, but genuinely regrets how they've lived and honestly wants Christ's forgiveness, yes, they can be saved.

 

Questions for You

 

What stage of life were you in when you came to Christ? 

 

And how has this impacted your view of others when you find out they believed when they were younger or older than you were?

 

Anything else you'd like to add to our discussion?  Or ask?

 

Image Citation

 

"Laborer in bib overalls digging the fire pit" by David Goehring.  Wikipedia.  Used by permission.



Forgieveness - Pass It On! - Matthew 18:21-35

The Scripture Passage

 

21 Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?  Up to seven times?"

 

22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

 

23 "For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.

 

24 "When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.

 

25 "But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.

 

26 "So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.'

 

27 "And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave the debt.

 

28 "But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, 'Pay back what you owe.'

 

29 "So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you.'

 

30 "But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed.

 

31 "So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened.

 

32 "Then summoning him, his lord said to him, 'You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

 

33 'Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?'

 

34 "And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him.

 

35 "My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart."

 

The Real World Outside the Parable

 



You might remember from the last time we were in Matthew that the context for today's passage is that Jesus just finished instructing the disciples on how to correct another believer regarding their sin in a godly manner.

 

The focus of that seemed to be predominantly on sins against God, so Peter brings up another side of this issue: What are we to do when another believer somehow sins against or offends us?

 

It's fantastic that Peter's asking that question here, because far too often, if there are two possible answers and we know we won't like one of them, we don't ask so that we can "justifiably" go on doing what we want to do.  But tricking ourselves in this way doesn't make it right.  Let's look at Jesus's response to Peter...

 

The inclusion and repetition of the number seven is significant.  In the Bible, seven is the number of completion or perfection, so when Peter asks if he should forgive his brother seven times, he's basically saying, "Am I supposed to forgive him over and over again?"  But Jesus takes it a step further with his seventy times seven, saying we are to forgive beyond even that - beyond reason, no matter what.  There ought to be no limit whatsoever, whether that be number of offenses or the specific type of deed, to what we are willing to forgive. 

 

This does not mean we need to continue allowing ourselves to be taken advantage of or stay in abusive situations, but it does mean that we need to genuinely forgive them from our hearts.  This may seem like an absolutely impossible task, yes - but nothing is impossible with God.  The most effective way - and, in many cases, the only way - to fully forgive someone is to pray that God will soften your heart and fill you with love for that person.  He has an endless supply of love and forgiveness, and if you ask him to enable you to share the same with others, He will not refuse you.

 

Finally, are we to forgive everyone, or only other beleivers?  Well, Peter's question is clearly about other beleivers (evidenced by his use of the word "brother").  But in Jesus's parable, it's not precisely clear if the "fellow slave" is a fellow believer or a fellow human being.  However, I point to Romans 5:8b: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  God was willing to forgive us long before we came to him - so we should extend forgiveness to other believers, too.  Matthew 6:14-15 and Mark 11:25 are examples of commands to forgive that do not make any distinction between believers and unbelievers as the recipients of our forgiveness.  Furthermore, Luke 6:27 and 1 Peter 3:9 speak about loving our vilest enemies, and forgiveness is obviously a key part of that.  Also notice that there is absolutely no stipulation provided about only having to forgive someone if they say they're sorry or change their ways.  As recipients of God's ultimate forgiveness, we are to forgive anyone of anything at any time, over and over again - no exceptions.

 

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

- Ephesians 4:32

 

Inside the Parable

 

Let's start the fun with a little math (that's probably the first time I've said that in my life!).  This slave owed his master 10,000 talents.  A talent was equal to more than 15 years worth of pay for a common laborer.  I looked up modern numbers for the U.S., and discovered that a person working full-time for minimum wage will make about $15,000 in a year.  Multiply that by 15 to get a talent, or $225,000.  Multiply that by 10,000, and you discover that the slave in the story owed what we would now call $2,250,000,000.00!  The point of this enormous number is that it is HUGE, utterly impossible to pay back!  This is just like our sin against God - there is no possible way for we ourselves to make restitution for it.

 

To understand this parable, it also helps to know that in that time period, temporary slavery was one standard way of paying your debts.  If it got to the point where you had a huge debt and it was clear you couldn't pay it back, you, your family, and everything you owned was sold, because you were basically viewed as a thief.  In some cases, the monetary value from selling the people and their property did not equal the debt they owed, so the method was partially for monetary justice, but also largely for moral justice - punishment for wrong-doers.  In just the same way, we do not even come close to being worth the price paid to cover our eternal debt.  And that is the evidence of how deeply He loves us!  It reminds me of the opening stanza of the old hymn "How Deep the Father's Love for Us":

 

How deep the Father's love for us,

How vast beyond all measure

That He should give His only Son

And make a wretch His treasure.

 

Now, the slave in the parable begs for a chance to repay his master (even though such a sum would be impossible).  We know that we cannot possibly repay Christ for what He did for us, but when we make Him our Savior and the Lord of our lives, we are making a promise to genuinely try to live for Him.  But, it's not our effort that frees us from sin, but God's forgiveness - Christ taking that debt on Himself.

 

Let's look at what the fellow slave owed the slave.  Denarii is plural of denarius, equal to one day's wages for a laborer.  So, to get a number comparable to the math we did above, we take minimum wage ($7.25) times the number of hours worked in a day (8) times 100 (since he owed a hundred denarii), and we arrive at a debt of $5,800.  Considering that the first slave owed two and a quarter billion dollars, the second amount barely registers as a speck...it's about 0.000003% of what he owed!

 

The first slave's hypocrisy and selfishness is evident in him demanding payment after his debt had been forgiven.  And, in our case, since we've sworn to try to live for Christ, not forgiving others is going back on our promise!

 

I want to clarify that that forgiving other does not "earn" us salvation, and neither does a believer trying but struggling to forgive someone mean they're going to hell.  Both of those would be a doctrine of works, where we pay our own debt.  Rather, Christ has paid it for us, and Christ alone is able to pay it!  But, remember that the purpose of salvation is not just to avoid hell, but to become like Christ.  If we are genuine in that desire when we accept Christ, He will steadily change our hearts to become more like Him.  So, refusing to try to forgive others does not "cost" us our salvation, but it is a piece of evidence that we have a hard heart toward God, meaning either we are only "baby Christians" who still have much to grow spiritually, or that we are not at all sincere in our desire to please God.  That latter place is a scary place to be - as verses 33-35 show.

 

 

If you have not yet accepted God's forgiveness, do so today!  Click here to learn how in English, or here to learn how in another language.

 

Questions for You

 

What stories do you have of struggling to forgive someone?  What happened after you forgave them?  Has someone forgiven you of something you did to them, and how did that make you feel?

 

Anything else you'd like to add to our study, or questions you'd like to ask?

 

Image Credits

 

All images courtesy of Sweet Publishing.  Used by permission.



He Values Us, and We Must Value Others- Matthew 18:1-14

And the Award Goes to...

 

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

 

2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,

 

3 and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

 

4 "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

 

5 "And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;"

 

The disciples had a tendency to ask questions about who was greatest or held the highest rank quite frequently.  Jesus later gave a more succinct answer, which He demonstrated here: "So the last shall be first, and the first last."  It is those who humble themselves before the Lord and are willing to forego worldly status who are most honored in God's kingdom - not those who are concerned with rank, like the disciples were doing here.  They had the 100% wrong focus (status, instead of Christ and His will), so Jesus humbled them with a vivid image: He took a human of the absolute lowest station in Jewish society at the time (a child), and told them to emulate him.

 

What does it mean to be like a child?  It's all about humility.  A well-behaved child will view himself and his wishes as not on the same plain as those of his parents and elders, and he will strive to please his parents.  In the same way, we are to submit wholly to God's will, seek to please Him with all of our hearts, and submit to those around us out of love.  Humble is a verb, not just an adjective - it's a choice we make, not a trait we're born with.

 

So, in verse 5, Jesus isn't only talking about literal children; He's talking about other believers, even (perhaps especially) those believers who are of lowly station by worldly standards.  James 2:1-12 deals with this issue in a powerful way, as the letter's original recipients were showing favoritism toward richer Christians and not welcoming poor Christians.  We can please God by humbling ourselves spiritually, and one way of doing this is to humble ourselves to help and associate with those who are humble in the worldly sense.

 

The Tempters

 

6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

 

7 "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks!  For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to the man through whom the stumbling block comes!

 

8 "If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire.

 

9 "If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you.  It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.

 

10 "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven."

 

Normally when Christians talk about temptation, it is stated or implied that the source of the temptation is the demonic realm.  But this passage focuses on the two other sources of temptation we know to exist: the world (made up of other people) and our own flesh.  Also bear in mind that here again, "child" doesn't mean just a literal child, but any believer.

 

When we stumble another believer - through what we say to them (such as prompting them to anger against another), how we dress, how we act around them (such as consuming alcohol if we know they're a recovering alcoholic), etc. - it is a very, very serious issue.  That fact shouldn't be glossed over.  But at the same time, I don't think those verses (6-7) are actually a warning against believers' behavior (although there are other passages such as Romans 14 that deal with that issue).  Instead, these verses take the form of a curse against the world (similar to Matthew 11:20-24), and we also know that a believer tripping up another believer certainly does not incur eternal damnation.  So, the take-away from these verses for us believers is that the causing others to stumble is serious...but don't let the verses freak you out, either. :-)

 

It's also important to note that one of the reasons we humans fear humbling ourselves so much is that we think it will make us vulnerable - but in verses 6-7 and 10, it is abundantly clear that Jesus is very protective of us and has specific measures in place to protect us.  We need not fear surrendering to God.

 

Moving on to verses 8-9, note that they are not advocating for salvation through works - we do not "earn" salvation by living holy lives.  Trying to live as God wants us to as a response to His love is the evidence of genuine faith and repentance, yes, but it is an inherent reaction to the means (Christ's forgiveness), not the means themselves of obtaining forgiveness.  However, if we continue to allow sin to rule our lives and make no effort to break free of that and replace them with Christ as the Lord of our lives, that sin can very easily become our new god - and, as a consequence, we can fall away from the faith.  (Please note that struggling with sin and living in sin are two separate concepts.)  That is the warning here: We need to treat the sin in our lives seriously, and be active in turning our lives over to Christ.

 

Now, random body parts do not actually cause us to sin.  If they did, yes, it would certainly be worth it to sever them from our bodies to draw us closer to Christ, but Jesus was telling a sort of mini-parable here.  The hand, foot, and eye mentioned are whatever it is in your life that is a source of temptation to sin.  This could be a TV show, song, book, relationship, lifestyle, habit, hobby, etc.  And whatever it is, we need to make the conscious decision that Christ is more important than that, and give it up for Him.

 

Finally, in verse 10, Jesus pulled his points together by reiterating that we need to love those who the world sees as lowly.  The word despise means to consider as worthless - but we know that everyone has worth to God.  Therefore, one of the body parts we need to sever is our sense of worldly rank or social status.

 

Chasing Sheep

 

11 ["For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.]

 

12 "What do you think?  If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying?

 

13 "If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.

 

14 "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish."

 





Diving into this parable, let's clear something up right away: The shepherd abandoning the ninety-nine doesn't mean anything, it's just a part of the story - God never abandons us.  It's just a storytelling devise to portray just how much He values us.  We need to value the lowly because He values the lowly - and, from the standpoint of His Holiness, we are the lowly!  And yet, He is willing to put effort into drawing us to repentance, and He forgives us no matter how many times we stray (evidenced by how He rejoices when one returns to Him).

 

Now, this passage also brings up the issue of "once saved, always saved."  If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know that my stance is that, yes, it is possible to lose your salvation (by willingly living in sin and stopping making any effort to have a genuine relationship with God).  See Hebrews 10:26-31 and Romans 11:17-24.  That pops up with this passage because the shepherd desires all the runaway sheep to return to Him, but only "finds" some of them (i.e. only some return to Him).  But the wonderful news is this: "It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish."  This powerful statement is echoed in 2 Peter 3:9, and we know that absolutely nothing besides our own decision to run can rip us from the arms of God.  And if we run, but then come back to Him, He still loves us with all His heart.

 

Questions for You

 

Have there been times in your life when you have, or have not, extended God's love to someone who is of lowly station by the world's standards?

 

What "body parts" (entertainment, relationships, activities, etc.) have you severed from your life for Christ?

 

Has there been a time in your life when you abandoned your faith, only to return?

 

Anything else you'd like to add about today's passages, or questions you'd like to ask?

 

Giving Credit Where It's Due

 

Images 1 & 2: Courtesy of Sweet Publishing.  Used by permission.

 

Image 3: Suffolk Sheep Posing, by Jacquie Wingate.  Wikipedia.  Used by permission.