Christ’s preparation for the end is already beginning.

Peter has confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. The disciples are figuring out who he really is. Jesus is telling them what’s coming too – that he must go up to Jerusalem, and the religious leaders will put him to death, and he will be resurrected. He’s challenged them and their level of commitment with talk of them being willing to give up their lives.

That’s what leads up to the story of the Transfiguration in Matthew 17. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain to be witnesses to a secret. Right before them, Jesus is completely changed – his face shines like the sun, and his clothes become as white as light. Suddenly there’s two other people present – Moses the law-giver, and Elijah the prophet. They begin to talk – and it’s not just a friendly chat; Luke says that they were discussing what would happen in Jerusalem, and about Jesus’ “departure” that would happen there. They’re talking about his death.

True to form, Peter inserts his foot in his mouth. I don’t know exactly why he offers to build tents for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, but it’s clear he wants to do something. There must be some reason Jesus has brought them here. Peter says, “it is good that we are here”, as he offers to make the three tents (from what?).

Then they are witnesses to something even greater than seeing Moses and Elijah. God interrupts Peter (“while he was still speaking…”) and stops him mid-sentence. Similar to the scene at Jesus’ baptism, a bright cloud moves in overhead, and God speaks from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Terrified, the disciples fall on their faces. Jesus comes to them though, touches them, and tells them to get up, and not be afraid. Once again, it is just the four of them.

There are reasons for them being there. I can only guess at why Jesus was having this conversation with Moses and Elijah, beyond the topic of conversation: his death. I can only guess why Jesus wanted Peter, James, and John to witness it. There’s several things that we can see about what they witnessed, though, and it had a profound effect on them – if you want proof of that, spend a minute reading 2 Peter 1.

They saw Jesus less like the poor preacher with no place to lay his head, and more like he really was; holy and glorified. That day, they saw the Law, the Prophets, and the Salvation of Man all incarnate on the mountain, three people who represented God’s plan for man through time. They saw that the talk of Jesus’ death was real, and they also saw that life after death was real, as Moses who died and Elijah who had been taken up centuries ago where there with them. They heard God himself acknowledge Jesus as Son, and his pleasure in His son. They truly became his inner circle that day.

Just as the event of Jesus’ baptism was a scene in which God acknowledged and approved his son as he embarked on his ministry, this is the event in which God acknowledged and approved of his son as he begins the path to the end of that ministry – to his death in Jerusalem.

As they come down the mountainside, Jesus tells his inner circle that this event must remain a secret till after his death happens. They discuss “Elijah”, and the role that John the Baptist played. That he would suffer as John suffered.

Immediately after this mountaintop experience, Jesus is quickly immersed back into healing, dealing with disciples without enough faith to do what he’d given them the authority to do, even paying temple taxes to those he owes nothing to, simply to avoid offense. He’s really the Savior on the mountaintop. He’s also the healer, the teacher, and the man too.

What takeaways are there for me in this chapter?

One is to share the awe at who Jesus really is. It’s sometimes hard, reading familiar stories, to really stop and put myself into the scene; to imagine what the disciples saw and heard, and what it means about what he is. This is definitely a story that’s worth some quiet meditative time.

Another is realizing how much like Peter I am. He wanted to serve and didn’t know what to do. He wanted to do, do something, do anything… when what was really required was for him to listen to the Son.

Another is to recognize what applies to me in what Jesus said to the disciples when he came down from the mountain. So little faith was required for them to do incredible things, but even that amount of faith was lacking. Given who he is and what he is capable of, just a little faith on my part is all that is needed to do what he wants me to do, what he’s asked me to do, and what he’ll empower me to do.

Listen. Have faith. Then do.

Do you ever feel that your spiritual life is like a roller coaster? One minute things seem so clear, and the next you feel totally out of touch with God?

Peter and the other disciples experienced the same thing on their faith journey. We see it clearly in Matthew 16, and Jesus tells us why.

The Pharisees are asking for a sign again. This time, they’ve come with the Sadducees. I wonder if this indicates just how serious the Pharisees are in their plot to kill him – while the Scribes and the Pharisees saw eye-to-eye on a lot of things, the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not; their theology was quite different and they struggled with each other for power. Now they’ve teamed up to come and test Jesus – this is the first time Matthew has recorded the Sadducees challenging Jesus too.

They ask Jesus for a sign from heaven; again asking him to prove who he is. Jesus wastes little time on them, and his reply is much like the one he gave the Pharisees in Matthew 12. You can interpret the signs of the skies – what the weather is going to be like from how the sky looks. You can’t interpret the signs of the times, though. There are plenty of signs all around you, and you miss them. I’m not going to give you any sign except “the sign of Jonah” – his resurrection.

He leaves out all the “signs” he’s already provided, that are far more convincing than the “signs of the times”. The things that he told John’s disciples, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. ” They knew scripture, and should have recognized the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words. They should have recognized the power displayed and taken that as their sign. But as Jesus has already told the disciples, some are not able or willing to understand; they’re blind guides. Jesus reserves his “signs” for those in need; he heals, he raises the dead, but he’s not giving “signs” to prove himself to those that wouldn’t believe anyway.

Jesus and his disciples leave, but this encounter remains on his mind. As the disciples fret about having not brought bread along on the journey to eat, Jesus tells them to “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” – to be careful of their teaching and their attitudes. They think he’s talking about them having no bread to eat. He’s trying to warn them of just what a polluting influence these leaders are, but they are completely focused on the lack of bread, and miss the point completely. This, after having seen how Jesus can provide, as he did when he fed the 5000 and later, the 4000. “How is it you fail to understand?”, Jesus asks.

Matthew next recounts Peter’s great confession. Jesus asks the disciples to tell him who the people think he is. It appears the general consensus is that he’s a prophet – either John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or some other prophet. Then Jesus moves from the safe question to a harder one: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter, ever the first to answer, ever the spokesman for the group, gives the answer. He’s more than a prophet. He’s the Christ. He’s the Son of God.

Jesus’ response is reminiscent of the discussion he had with the disciples in Matthew 13: while there are many that are unwilling and unable to understand Jesus and his teaching, “the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you…blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear” (Matthew 13: 11,16). Jesus tells Peter that he is blessed because God has shown this to him; this isn’t something he just figured out using his own intellect. This faith, this confession springing from the kingdom heart, this God-given spiritual insight expressed by Peter (the name, given to him by Jesus, means “stone”) is the Rock, the foundation on which the Church will be built. I can just see big, rough Peter beaming from ear-to-ear at Christ’s words.

Then Matthew tells us that Jesus has decided it is time to let the disciples know what’s going to happen to him – that he will go to Jerusalem and will be killed by the religious leaders, and then be raised from the dead. Once again, Peter is the one who reacts. This time, he takes Jesus aside and rebukes him – “This shall never happen to you”! This certainly isn’t what Peter wants. It isn’t something he can imagine happening to the Christ. It’s something that doesn’t fit in with his understanding. The problem is, none of this is up to what Peter wants, Peter imagines, or Peter understands.

Jesus tells him, “Get behind me, Satan!”. Wow, that’s strong. “You are a stumbling block to me”.

In three stories, we’ve gone from the disciples not understanding what Jesus was telling them about the Pharisees and Sadducees and not trusting in Jesus to provide for them, to Peter’s great confession based on God-given insight – the foundation of Christ’s church to come, to Peter being a stumbling block being used by the enemy, a hindrance to Christ. How can somebody go through all those extremes? How can somebody blessed with the ability to see and understand spiritual things so clearly in one moment completely miss the boat in the next?

Jesus gives the answer to that. “You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

How much is my spiritual life like that? When my focus is on me, my plans, and leaning on my own understanding, I miss the boat. When I fix my eyes on Jesus, empty myself, and follow him, everything is clear.

The prescription is a hard one:

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die”. Putting self to death, putting our desires to death, putting our plans to death, and yes, sometimes literally losing one’s life.

The roller-coaster faith ride I’m on indicates I still have some dying to do.

It seems the “big guns” of the religious leaders have decided to pay Jesus a visit – the Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem have come up to Galilee to see him. Similar to the confrontation we saw in Chapter 12, these Pharisees immediately confront Jesus with his disciples’ behavior. This time, it is their failure to follow the tradition of ritual hand washing before eating. “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?”

My mother taught me to wash the grime off my hands before eating for health reasons, but what the Pharisees were complaining about was different. It was a ritual washing of the hands for spiritual uncleanness, but it wasn’t commanded in the Law – its source was rabbinical tradition. There were rules in the Law to wash when something specific had happened to make one unclean – like touching a diseased person or coming in contact with a dead body. The religious teachers had added their own rules on top of the Law to take it a step further, and require people to wash before meals just in case they had done something to become spiritually unclean without knowing it.

Jesus doesn’t answer their question. He returns a question – one that has a more serious charge: “Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition”? Jesus gives an example. The Law was serious when it commanded us to honor our father and mother. Breaking that command was punishable by death. The religious leaders had a teaching that one could declare what he had as devoted to God and given over to Him, which doesn’t sound bad. What they also allowed, though, was for their teaching about devoting things to God to allow a person to shirk their responsibility of taking care of their parents by declaring their belongings as devoted to God, thus denying their parents the use of it. Jesus said that they used their teaching and tradition to “void the word of God” – to supersede his Law.

That’s definitely not what God intended. It’s definitely not the heart of mercy he wanted. To Jesus, it’s another example of play-acting at religion – he calls them hypocrites, and quotes a prophecy of Isaiah that describes them.

These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.

You can say all kinds of things that sound good, but the heart is what God cares about. When the worship is heart-less words based on human rules, the worship is worthless and futile – it isn’t a worship that pleases God.

Jesus turns from the Pharisees and scribes to the people to teach them the essential principle here, and the one we should understand: Spiritual uncleanness is measured by what is in the heart. The heart, not the hands is where uncleanness resides; the inside, not the outside. The Pharisees and scribes were focused on ritual and external appearances while God saw the heart. From the heart comes the things that people say and do – which can be all kinds of evil. No, he says, it’s not what goes in the mouth that makes a person spiritually unclean; it’s what comes out of the mouth, coming from the heart. Like what is coming out of the Pharisees now.

At their questioning, Jesus explains the teaching further to the disciples, warning them that the Pharisees are “blind guides” leading the blind and to ignore them and describing them as weeds to be rooted up (like the parable of the tares in Matthew 13). Then they leave the area.

They go to Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile region. There, a Canaanite woman came asking for Jesus to heal her demon-possessed daughter. He ignored her. She cried out after Jesus and the disciples so persistently that the disciples begged Jesus to send her away. He refused. She knelt and pleaded for help, and he called her a dog, a term the Jews commonly used with Gentiles.

I don’t understand this. I’ve heard people explain that Jesus was just testing how strong her faith was. I’ve heard some people claim that Jesus was teaching the disciples something here, to get them past their dislike of the Gentiles. I have no better explanation than these, but honestly it bothers me.

What doesn’t bother me is the woman. She is incredible. Despite being a Canaanite from a Gentile region, she refers to him as “Lord, Son of David”, a term for the Messiah. Driven by her concern for her daughter and her faith that he can do something about it, she asks for his mercy. When he ignores her she persists. When he refuses her, she kneels in humility. When he refers to her as a dog, her reaction isn’t anger; she doesn’t challenge him; she simply asks for the smallest crumb from the table.

The reaction is a far cry from what Jesus got from the most important religious leaders of the nation of God’s people. They’re prideful, focused on position and appearance and show, and unable to understand and believe. She’s humble, submissive, transparent, and full of faith.

Jesus marvels, “O woman, great is your faith!” He instantly heals her daughter.

Two encounters with Jesus.

One with a group of God’s chosen people, the ones who should have recognized who he was from scripture, from prophesy, from his heart, from the teaching that mirrored what God had told them for centuries, and from the power displayed. Instead, they rejected him, criticized him, were concerned only with themselves and their traditions.

The second with a Gentile that shouldn’t have known or understood a thing, and yet called him the Messiah and approached him faithfully and humbly, relying on him to take care of her need.

Which was blessed by Jesus, and which were condemned? Which was “clean”, and which was “unclean”? Which was closer to the kingdom?

Which am I more like?

Big things are possible with God.

Most of us really believe that. He’s done marvelous things. Creating the world, parting the Red Sea, sending fire out of the sky, raising the dead, Cecil B. DeMille and Charlton Heston kind of stuff.

But what about when he works on us? And through us? How much do you expect that he can do then? If that’s a struggle for you, Matthew Chapter 14 has some great lessons.

John the Baptist is dead. Jesus’ cousin, whose birth was a miracle announced by angels. One who was prophesied about himself, grown up to be a prophet, and more than a prophet. The one that started a revival of repentance. The one that prepared the way for the Christ. The one that baptized Jesus and testified to who he was.

He was executed for confronting the sin between King Herod and his brother’s wife, Herodias. The King had wanted to put him to death before, but feared the people’s reaction,  but Herodias had no such fear; only a grudge strong enough to get her to contrive to back the King into a corner, to force him into a position to kill John – through her daughter.

His disciples, true to the end, come and take the body and bury it, and then go to tell Jesus.

Matthew says that when Jesus heard this, he withdrew to a desolate place by himself. Jesus’ desire on hearing the news was to get away, be by himself. Actually, given what we see him do later, it seems likely that he wanted to spend time with his Father, time in prayer. He was probably mourning and grieving John’s death, and having seen the same kind of opposition to his ministry that John had experienced, thinking about what would happen to him as well.

He didn’t get much time to himself, however – the only time he got was in the boat ride across the lake. The ever-present crowds followed him and interrupted his time alone; they met him as soon as he stepped out of the boat. How easy it would have been for him to have been irritated or angry, to have refused them and sent them away. As always happened when Jesus saw the people in need, he had compassion. Instead of his quiet time alone, he spent the rest of the day healing their sick.

As the day drew to a close, recognizing that they were out in the middle of nowhere and night was approaching, the disciples encourage him to send the crowd away so that the people could make it to the surrounding villages to get food. That’s good. They’re thinking of the people.

Jesus’ answer surprises them, though: “They need not go away; you give them something to eat”.

The disciples’ response is unsurprising. They’re out in the middle of nowhere. Pretty much anyone who had food had probably eaten it. They’re not prepared with money or food to provide for these crowds. Between them all, they come up with enough food for a couple, or at best a family. Not food for a crowd.

Their answer to Jesus is, “we have only five loaves here and two fish”.  ”We have only…”. Except that isn’t all they have. They have Jesus.

If you’re wondering why Jesus told them to do this, whether it was a test, whether he did this intentionally to set up a teaching moment, you’re not alone.

Jesus tells them to bring what they have to him. After a blessing offered up to heaven, he breaks the bread and gives it to the disciples, and tells them to give it out to the crowd. They give one piece, and then another, and another, and another…. by the end every single person – more than 5000 men plus all the women and children – has had their fill (they were “satisfied”) and there’s enough left over for each of the twelve disciples to have their own full basket of pieces of bread. There’s always leftovers at Jesus’ table.

After this, Jesus sends away first the disciples (in a boat, across the lake), and then the crowd. Now he’ll finally get his time to himself. He climbs the mountain and begins to pray, and prays through the night.

The disciples, meanwhile, have run into trouble. The wind is blowing against them, and they’re making slow progress across the lake, despite some of them being experienced with navigating these waters as fishermen. They’ve rowed all night, and gotten a long way from land, but the waves are beating against them. It’s 3am or later, and as they’re battling the wind and the waves, they see a strange sight.

Jesus has left his place of prayer, and made his way across the lake to catch up with them. But not in a boat. He’s literally walking across the top of the water – the sea that the disciples can barely navigate in a boat. The disciples’ first reaction is not, “look – there’s Jesus!”. It’s one of fear and terror, with the assumption that this figure on the water must be a ghost. I suppose we shouldn’t be too hard on them; this definitely isn’t something any of them have seen before.

Jesus calls out to them, and tries to allay their fears: “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid”.

No matter how many times I read this story, I chuckle at Peter. He’s the one who answers Jesus: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water”. Why that answer? I really can’t figure it out. The one I’ve settled on probably isn’t true, but it makes me chuckle every time. I think of gung-ho Peter essentially thinking to himself, “That’s so cool – I have got to try that!”. What a man’s man.

Now whether that’s really what goes through Peter’s head or not, it is an expression of faith that at that moment. Seeing Jesus on the water, he believes that Jesus can bring him out there too. That faith is there – at Jesus’ command, he steps out of the boat.

But when he gets on the water – the choppy, wavy water – and heads toward Jesus, the doubt starts to set in. As the wind blows against him, the fear starts to surge, just as the seas are. As the fear and doubt toss about in his head, he begins to sink.

Sometimes we’re a little tough on Peter as we teach this passage. Notice, though, what he doesn’t do. He doesn’t turn around and head back to the boat. Experienced as he was on the water, he doesn’t attempt to swim. Instead, he cries out to Jesus for help: “Lord, save me!”. He knows where to turn, and who to trust. Not himself, but Jesus.

Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and takes hold of him. What Jesus says next, I imagine not as a stern rebuke, but a gentle question that teaches: “Why did you doubt?”

Matthew’s telling of the story goes from there, to them getting back in the boat. I like to picture the part that he leaves out: Peter and Jesus walking back across the water, hand in hand, back to where Peter began.

When they do step back into the boat, the winds stop. The sea grows calm (sound familiar?). The disciples reaction last time Jesus calmed a storm was to ask “What kind of man is this?”. This time they know. Their reaction? “Truly you are the Son of God“.

I need to pay attention to what Jesus did in what was likely a time of sorrow, grief, concern over his ministry, and concern over what was coming for him: he made sure to get off by himself and spend hours with his Father in prayer. Even if he couldn’t get away from the interruptions immediately, no matter what it took, he was going to spend that time.

For Jesus, people in need were never an interruption. They were his mission, they were what he was here for. I’m supposed to see people like that too (but often don’t).

How often, when faced with a challenge, is my attitude one that says, “I don’t have enough”? Especially when it comes to doing what God wants me to do? Jesus’ answer, just as it was with the disciples in the story of the five loaves and two fish, is “Bring it to me”. He’ll provide more than enough. There’s always leftovers at the Lord’s table.

So many times, when I’ve seen the wondrous things Jesus can do (like the disciples seeing him walk on water), I doubt whether he can do wondrous things with me too.  Even if I step out, it’s so easy to doubt, fear, and falter. As with Peter, that’s the time to call out to Him, and take his hand and his calm.

“Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

Truly, he is the Son of God.

Today’s Reading: Matthew Chapter 11

The story is of two men, called by God to great ministry, but experiencing rejection and obstacles. One, in a literal prison and a prison of doubt. One facing the doubt of others and and the same opposition, but able to continue on. Instead of just focusing on the incredible things that Jesus does, Matthew shares the difficulties of Jesus’ ministry with us too. What can we learn?

Matthew first told us about opposition to Jesus in Chapter 9. In Chapter 10, Jesus warned the disciples he sent out of the rejection and opposition they would face. In Chapter 11, as Jesus continues to teach and preach on his own – separated from the Twelve – we see him dealing with the rejection and opposition he’s facing.

We learned in Chapter 4 that John the Baptist had been arrested. Now from prison John – the one that likely grew up hearing of the miracle of his cousin’s birth, who prepared the way for Jesus, who told of what he would do, who baptized him in the Jordan and saw and heard what happened afterward – has sent his disciples to ask Jesus whether he truly is “the one who is to come, or shall we look for another”. Alone and in prison, doubt has begun to set in. Why? Perhaps even John didn’t know exactly what to expect from the Christ when he came, and was looking for something else from Jesus. Perhaps the speed with which things were happening weren’t what John expected. Perhaps John just expected Jesus to do something about his imprisonment. Whatever the reason, the doubt was there, along with a sense of urgency to make sure the Messiah was proclaimed. So he sends his disciples to ask.

It would be easy to be upset, angry, disappointed or defensive with their question. Jesus doesn’t show any of those reactions. His answer was simple, and one John would understand. Jesus tells John’s disciples to return to him and tell him what they heard and saw. The healing. People raised from the dead. The good news being preached. He uses language that is nearly identical to prophesies in Isaiah that John would recognize. This could only be the work of the Messiah, and John would realize that. Jesus adds that there is a blessing for those that remain faithful – who don’t fall away and aren’t offended by him.

He goes on to talk about John to the crowds, who must have heard this exchange. He praises John to them; he testifies to the fact that John was a prophet and more. John was also one that had been prophesied about – he was the one to prepare the way. Yet, Jesus says, there are those that are greater. Those that are a part of the kingdom that both John and Jesus had preached about – those that accepted their teaching.

Sadly, not everyone has. Jesus begins to talk about the rejection and opposition that he’s encountered. From the time that John came on the scene, that opposition has grown stronger, more forceful. There are those that had designs to appropriate the movement, to twist it, to stop it – by any means necessary.

Jesus notes that whatever he and John would say or do would be objectionable to those people – when John arrived, living in the wilderness, denying himself, dressing oddly and eating whatever was at hand, they said he had a demon. When Jesus, in contrast, would spend time at table eating and drinking with those he ministered to, he was criticized for that. They’re focused on appearances, and how much these two men of God differ from what they expect – while Jesus says that what would be wise would be to focus on the outcome, the deeds – much like what he told John’s disciples to look to as proof of who he was.

Even many of those that had seen his greatest miracles as evidence of Jesus’ power had rejected him and refused his message, and Jesus speaks about the judgement that they would be under for doing so.

And yet, Jesus still prays, Jesus still invites, Jesus still extends comfort to those that need it. Jesus thanks God for how He is working in the lives of simple people. The leaders and privileged would reject him, and cause many more to do so as well. There were still simple, child-like souls that would respond to the message and know the Father through the Son. He extends the invitation to them – those that are carrying heavy burdens, to come to him who has a light, easy burden and extends the offer of rest. It’s one of the most beautiful statements in scripture:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Mt 11:28 – 30

What “prison” is generating doubts in me? When have I faced rejection and opposition in my attempts to answer my calling? What burdens am I struggling to carry on my own? Who adds to the weight of those burdens? Whatever the answers are to those questions, Jesus still says, “come learn of me, come to me, I will give you rest”.

And I need to offer the testimony of who he is and what he did to those that doubt, without defensiveness or anger. I need to persevere through any rejection or opposition for his sake. I need to continue to offer that invitation of hope to others who need it.

Today’s Reading: Matthew Chapter 10

In the last several chapters, we’ve seen how Jesus has gone about his ministry, teaching, preaching, and healing.

Chapter 9 closed with Jesus looking around, seeing all the people that were in need, and having compassion on them. He encouraged the disciples to pray that God would provide workers to send out into these fields ripe for harvest.

Now Jesus prepares to send his disciples out into those fields. The kingdom heart compels one to action.

He conveys authority on them to do what they’re about to do, he gives them instructions about what to do and how to do it, he warns them about what they will encounter, and he provides some promises and comfort to them as well.

I find myself wondering as I read this passage, about how much of what Jesus said applies only to the apostles in their specific situation and how much applies to us. He gave the apostles the authority to drive out spirits and heal every disease. He limited their mission specifically to the lost children of Israel. Those were things, I think, that applied just to the Twelve. Certainly other things he told them – the need to preach, the need to be wary, some of the risks in sharing the gospel, and more – apply to all of us. There’s some I’m just not sure about. Will the Spirit of the Father speak through us and tell us exactly what we need to say when we’re in danger or on the spot? Things to wrestle with as you read this passage.

The Instructions
As Jesus sends the Twelve out, he does tell them to go just to “the lost sheep of Israel” – not to the Gentiles or the Samaritans. I’m not sure why that is; Jesus has already dealt with the Gentile centurion, praised his faith, and made comments that hint at the truth that Gentiles will be a part of the Kingdom. Were the disciples just not ready for that?

Their tasks are to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” – the same teaching that John the Baptist and Jesus had been teaching. They are to heal, cast out demons, even raise people from the dead – things he had given them specific authority to do.

He tells them as they go, not to take any kind of monetary recompense for what they’re doing, and he tells them, essentially, to only take the clothes on their back – not even to pack a change of clothes. They are allowed to let people house and feed them – “the worker is worth his keep”. They are, in fact, to seek out “worthy” people to do this, and in return to bless the homes of the people who do, and “let their peace rest on it”. If they are rejected in a home or a town, however, Jesus tells them to withdraw their peace, shake the dust off their feet, and move on. He promises, though, that God will deal with them.

The Warnings
After acknowledging that they won’t be welcome everywhere, Jesus goes further and warns the disciples that the consequences of their mission can be more dire. He likens his sending them out to sending sheep among wolves – they will be prey for some. He tells them to be “shrewd as snakes, and innocent as doves” – they need to have their eyes open, and be wise to the motives and plots that others may have for them, but not stoop to their level, and to be harmless to those they encounter.

He predicts persecution for them because of him (reminiscent of the last beatitude) – that if men call Jesus Beelzebul, they’ll do at least as bad (or worse) to the disciples. He tells them that they’ll be hauled into court, flogged in the synagogues, betrayed by those they’re closest to, and hated – all because of him.

I think it is interesting that Jesus quotes a passage from Micah as he speaks to the disciples, and the context of that quote. When Jesus says, “I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against his mother…”, etc., he’s quoting a passage that would have been familiar to the Jews. It comes from the prophet Micah, who lived and preached at the same time as Isaiah in the Divided Kingdom. He warned the people of Judah about the judgement that was coming in Chapters 6 and 7 of Micah; that God had done all kinds of good things for them, but they had turned their backs on God and so he was going to give them over to ruin. Then, he begins to lament the state of things in the land – that all the righteous were gone, their leaders (religious and political) were corrupt, and that no one could be trusted – don’t trust your neighbors, your friends, even your family – that “a man’s enemies are the members of his own household”. The only one to put trust in, says Micah, is God.

I’ve often been uncomfortable with Jesus saying something that sounds like he came for the purpose of bringing a sword and family division, especially after all we’ve read in the previous four chapters about the kingdom heart of peace and mercy. After reading Micah, it’s clear he’s making a different point. As Jesus has told them to be wise to what will happen, and predicted persecution, even from members of their own families, Jesus gets them to recall this passage from Micah. Yes, in way Jesus is bringing this on them. In a world full of sin, strife, unrighteousness, and that even in religious circles doesn’t understand what God really wants for them, a person who shows the kingdom heart, confronts hypocrisy, and preaches repentance will be subject to persecution, even from family and friends. In the end, as with Micah, the only choice is to turn to the one and only God.

Jesus tells them they’ll have to make that kind of decision. To be worthy, they must choose Jesus over family, friends, comfort, and everything else – even their lives.

The Comfort
Through the warnings, Jesus offers promises and comfort for those that choose him, however. He says that God will give them the words to say when they’re accused. That they don’t have to be afraid. That everything will be shown to them. That God is aware of what is happening to them. Most importantly, that he’ll acknowledge them before his Father in heaven, and that in losing their life, they’ll gain his Life.

There’s a promise for those that did receive them well too – that they will receive the same reward the disciples do.

Application
As I said earlier, I do struggle with how much of the specifics of this passage applied only to the apostles, and what applies to all of Christ’s followers. The general message is clear, though: the kingdom heart that cares about people is compelled to action, and called to action. To preach the good news of the kingdom. To bring the healing they can to those in need. To choose Jesus over everything else – even to the point of persecution and death, if necessary. I think if all of that is true, we can also count on the fact that we don’t have to be afraid, that God is aware of what is happening and cares, and that the reward is Life with a capital “L” from the One that gives abundant life.

Key Verses:
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (v. 16)

“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (v. 32-33)

“Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (v. 38-39)

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” – v.36

What a great verse to sum up how Jesus saw the people he encountered, and how he reacted to them!

Jesus continues his ministry much as we’ve seen – briefly in Chapter 4 and more in depth in Chapter 8. This chapter repeats what Chapter 4 said about what Jesus was doing – moving from place to place, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease. As we said in Chapter 4,

Teaching, preaching, and healing. Really, this was about people, ministering to them, and taking care of their needs. He taught the ones that knew God, he preached to those that needed to know the good news, and he healed those who were hurting. Seems to be a great model for us as well – a focus on people and meeting their needs. Teaching, encouraging, strengthening those who know him. Preaching the good news of the Kingdom to those that don’t. Bringing healing to those that are hurting.

We see some incredible examples of that in this Chapter:

• Healing a paralytic, brought to Jesus by his friends out of their faith that Jesus could and would take care of him.
• Being seen and sharing the table with “tax collectors” and sinners
• Restoring life – yes, raising the dead! – to a little girl whose father, in pain for his loss, turned to Jesus for help, trusting that just a touch of Jesus’ hand could do the impossible
• Gently dealing with a woman who’d been bleeding for twelve years who touched him (making him unclean) in the hope of healing. “Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well”.
• Restoring sight to two blind men, who begged him for his mercy and confessed their belief in him.
• Casting out a demon that had left a man mute, restoring his speech.

Throughout these experiences, the people in need showed their faith in him to do the impossible. Throughout, the crowds marveled at what he was able to do and spread the word – “they were afraid, and they glorified God” (v. 8), “the report of this went through all that district” (v 26), “they went away and spread his fame through all that district” (v 31),  ”the crowds marveled, saying, ‘Never was anything like this seen in Israel’” (v. 33).

For the first time, we also see those who challenge Jesus, oppose him, speak slanderous things about him. Those that want the same old wine in old wineskins, or at least for the new wine to fit the old packaging. It’s typically the religious leaders.  When Jesus heals the paralytic and tells him his sins are forgiven, the scribes accuse him of blasphemy. The Pharisees, when they see him eating with Matthew and the other  ’tax collectors and sinners’, complain to Jesus’ disciples about the company he’s keeping.  When Jesus casts the demon out of the man who was unable to speak, they can’t deny what he’s done, but say that he’s done it using the power of the “prince of demons”.

Jesus, both in what he’s doing – teaching, preaching, healing, dealing with people’s needs in a compassionate and caring way – and in what he teaches, continues to show us what the “good news of the kingdom” really is – people over rules, traditions, perception, appearances, or anything else – especially those people who are ignored or even trampled on by those who have everything and who hold power.  No matter what the leaders say or think about him in the process, he goes on teaching, preaching and healing. He tells those leaders, the disciples, the crowds around him, that he’s not here for the people who think they have it all together; he’s here for those that are in need. They’re the ones that need to learn the lesson – God desires us to extend mercy to others more than he desires our “religion”:

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

Yes, the ones that inserted the chapter breaks in our modern Bible picked a good place to end this chapter, as Jesus says the words that began this post. He had compassion for those in need; they were harassed and helpless like sheep. He was, and is, the shepherd that cares about those sheep that no one else cares about. He is the physician that cares about those that need care.

He wants that from us too. He told his disciples that there were plenty of people out there with the same kind of need, ripe for the harvest, and asked the disciples to pray for their Lord to send more workers – more people that care like he did, more people to teach and preach and bring healing. He still desires that, and desires for us to be the ones that are the answer to that prayer.