DEVOTIONS - MORE MATTHEW BLOG

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied.

The Pharisees had been questioning Jesus, trying to catch Him in something that they could use against Him. Jesus now turns the tables on them and asks them a question. Their reply that the Christ was to be the son of David was a good answer using all of the resources of the law that were written, but Jesus points out a little known Scripture that is the voice of David saying to the Christ, that He is his Lord! This would mean that the Christ was considered by David to be greater than he was, the greatest King of Israel ever, and the Christ was greater than he was. That would make the Christ, “God”.  Jesus points this out to the Pharisees and basically says, “what do you think about that?”

The Pharisees choose not to answer the question, because if they said that the Christ was not greater than David, they would be going against the scripture that Jesus had quoted. If they said that the Christ was greater than David, then they allowed that the Christ might be God Himself, which is what Jesus was proclaiming.
The Pharisees believed that Jesus claims to be the son of God were blasphemy, making God less than He was by claiming that a human was His son. With this scripture Jesus was showing them that He truly was the “Son of God” and the Christ!
As a result of this exchange, the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not ask Jesus any more questions.

What does Jesus humanity mean to you?

What does Jesus divinity mean to you?

Teacher what is the greatest commandment in the Law?

As we said before, Jesus was being tested by the Pharisees and the Sadducees in order that they might trap Him in something and have Him arrested. The Sadducees had asked a question, and now the Pharisees try again with their own question. What is the greatest commandment? Once again they thought that they had asked a question that would have Jesus in trouble no matter what He answered.

Jesus took His answers from the Old Testament which was a good idea since that is what the Pharisees knew and trusted. There were two places in the Old Testament that talked about the greatest Commandment. At one place it said that the greatest was “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, Soul and mind”.

Then in another place it says “Love your Neighbor as yourself”. Jesus was the first person to take these two and combine them into one phrase “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.”

When you put these two together the central thought is that “it is not about YOU”. Jesus is smart to say that the greatest commandment is to put yourself last. Someone recently said that the key word is J.O.Y. Jesus, Others and Yourself. If we keep this order in our life we are following in the way of Christ. Jesus meet the Pharisees at their own game when He quotes the Old Testament and yet gets this brand new idea into their thoughts. The Pharisees hated it, they were beaten again.

By Jesus definition, what kind of “lover” are you?

In what way do you want to grow right now in your life?

I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead but of the living. When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

The Sadducees were another sect of the Jews like the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the sect that lived by the laws of the Old Testament. They were like the “Bible lawyers”, they could argue right and wrong based on what the Old Testament books of Moses and the Prophets said. The Pharisees just wanted every Jew to keep the law perfectly. The Sadducees were the “socially elite” of the Jews the families that had stature in the community. Like many families in the church today these were the ones who enjoyed special seats in Church and had the leaders ask them what should happen and when and how things should be done. They wanted nothing to change in the Jewish system, because that would result in there lose of position and power. Jesus was a threat to both of these groups and they found themselves as allies in opposing the work of Jesus among the people.

The Pharisees had tried to trap Jesus first with their question on the taxes and now the Sadducees took a shot. The Pharisees believed that there was some kind of life after death, but the Sadducees believed that when you die you are done! They felt that the body stayed in the ground and that was the end of your existence, your heaven and hell were what you experienced here in this life. So the Sadducees asked Jesus a question about the resurrection of the dead. Their scenario had a women that was married 7 times and they wondered who would be her husband in the resurrection. Jesus clearly stated to them that they did not understand the type of life that we would have in the resurrection. We will not be reborn to a life just like here on earth, rather we will have a heavenly existence and there will be no marriage there. Then Jesus spoke to their unspoken question about whether the resurrection was real, when He said that God is a God of the living not the dead. God does not want to be worshipped by dead people but by live people!

What one question would you like to ask Jesus about life after death?

What hope does the resurrection of the dead give to you?

Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.

Jesus had made a direct attack on the leaders of the Jews and they knew that He was talking about them when He spoke in these parables, so they began to plot how they might have Jesus killed. They were used to using the laws of the church in order to accomplish their own evil plans and so they tried to trick Jesus into saying something that they could arrest Him for.

In this section they asked Jesus if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar? Some of the Jews said that to pay the tax to Caesar was to dishonor God. The Jews felt that to pay a tax was to admit that the Caesar had control over them and they did not want to be slaves to anyone except God. Jesus knew that they expected him to say that it was not right to pay the tax, but then they could turn him over to the Romans and tell them that he was a rebel. At the same time if Jesus said that they should pay the tax to Caesar then they could go to the Jews and tell them that Jesus was not being true to the Jewish nation, and he was not giving God all the honor that He was due.

Jesus’ answer is very crafty and He carefully gets himself around the problem. The rule was that you could not pay your temple tax, the tax that the Jews levied for the work of God, with any coin except the Jewish coin. You were not allowed to pay the Roman tax with any coin except the Roman coin. So Jesus says that we live under two rulers, the earthly ruler, who we owe an earthly tax, and we live under God and we owe Him a Heavenly coin. Jesus is saying here that to simply pay money to the temple is not what God wants, He wants us to give him our whole life. Caesar is content if we give him our money.

The Pharisees could not really find fault with this answer, since Jesus was still saying to honor God and yet he said that Caesar also was due his coin. They went away sad.

In your life what belongs to God? To Caesar?

How are you giving to each?

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “the kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.

It would seem that Matthew starts with these words, “Jesus spoke to them again in parables,” and then may have combined the thoughts from several parables into one story. Usually a parable would have only one intended meaning and this one seems to talk about three different things, so it may have been parts of three parables.

The illustration that Jesus uses is of a king that is having the wedding of his son. The king invited many guests who said that they would come and then as the time of the banquet arrived they begged off, so the king invited other people to take their place. This illustration seems to follow the lines of the previous verses as Jesus speaks about how the Jews have rejected God’s gracious gifts and so God will now offer them to the gentiles. That would be one parable.

Then in verses 5-7 the idea that the king was mad at the guests who stood him up, so he sent his armies and burned down the cities is inserted into the main story. It is hard to picture a guest killing the servants that came to bring them to a wedding, or a king on the eve of his son’s wedding sending out his armies. Also it would seem that the cities that he would be destroying would be the same city that his son was to be married in that next day! This sounds more like the parable from the verses before with the vineyard and the murderous tenants. The idea would be that Israel will pay for the fact that they have rejected Jesus and rejected God. This is seen when Jerusalem is destroyed and Israel once again enslaved.

Then in verses 11-14 there is a guest that comes to the wedding without the proper wedding attire. If this were still the same wedding spoken of in the first verses, his lack of wedding garments would be understandable since they were bringing people off of the street into the wedding feast to fill the hall, and the king could not possibly be mad at the man’s attire. Some have suggested that the king had sent the proper attire and the man chose not to wear it in favor of his own clothes. Whatever the case in this story those whom come and are not dressed properly will not be allowed to stay. We often think that this refers to the fact that we must all be clothed in the righteousness of Christ and not our own sinful life if we wish to sit at the wedding banquet of our Lord.

Do you feel that God has asked you to the banquet more than once?
Who often have you declined?

Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

In this parable Jesus is very blunt about how the Jews have treated the men chosen by God over the centuries. They have continually rejected God’s advances toward them and shown that rejection in how they have treated the prophets of God.

Originally God created the world and planned that all people in the world would have that special close family relationship with Him. Then man sinned and the whole world turned against God and followed the ways of the devil. So God wiped out the world with the flood and started over with Noah and thought once again He could have a close relationship with all men. However man continued to reject God and do exactly what he wanted rather than pursue a relationship with God. So God decided that He would pick one man and from his family he would create some people who would be His children here on earth and enjoy a special relationship with Him. God chose Abraham and the children of Israel were born. The idea was that everyone in the world would see them and how they were blessed and want to serve the same God that they served and then the whole world would come to have a great relationship with the creator God. But the children of Israel learned to live for themselves and not for God and they were not a great example for the world to follow, in fact they turned to other gods and as was stated before rejected all of God’s attempts to draw them back to Him.

So God came into the world Himself as Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. But the Jews rejected Him and in fact killed Him rather than turn again to God and the special relationship that He wanted to have with them. So now God is telling the people of Israel that from now on the relationship will be the key, not their family heritage. Those who believe in Jesus will have the special relationship, even if they were not Jewish to begin with.
So today the “children of God” are not the Jews, but all of those who believe that Jesus is their Savior and trust completely in Him for salvation. This is good news for us gentiles!

With whom do you identify in this story?

Have you ever felt as though you deserved to be a part of God’s family?

For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

Jesus tells a parable that illustrates the consequences of the Jews refusal to accept the authority of Jesus or of John the Baptist. The parable is the story about two brothers who were each asked by their father to go work in the field, one said no thank you but later went out to work. The other said that he would go and then did not go out and work at all.

It would seem that both sons were disobedient, but the one did in fact do what the father asked while the other did not! A father would certainly want a son that said yes and then did go out and work. The second choice would be a son that said no, but did go out and work. The last choice would be a son that said that he would work and then did not! Jesus is very pointed in applying this thought process to the Jews and their relationship with God the Father. God said over and over again in the Scripture that the desired relationship was that: “I will be your God and your will be my people”. The Jews had repeatedly said that they would serve only God the Father and that they would be His children. However, what Jesus was pointing out was that while their mouths said that they would serve God, their hearts were all about serving themselves. This is more like the second son, and Jesus says would be an unacceptable choice.

On the other hand the “sinners” who had started out with their backs turned toward God repented when they heard John the Baptist and Jesus and were now living for God with all their heart, soul and mind. What Jesus can’t understand is why the Jews had not turned back when they saw that the sinners were accepting Jesus, after all they were supposed to “know better” yet they had rejected God.
In effect, God had given the first opportunity to the Jews, but when they refused to truly live for God as they had promised, God was going to turn toward those who were willing to follow Christ whole-heartedly. Even though the world considered them to be “sinners.”

Which son’s story is most like your own?

How do you suppose the Jewish leaders felt about this parable?

Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”

The two sections before this one have dealt with the Jews lack of a close relationship with God the Father. In this section Jesus shows that because of that they have no authority to speak about the matters of the church.

Oddly enough it is the Jews who challenge Jesus authority to do and say the things that Jesus is doing and saying. Jesus responds that He wants to ask them a question. The question was basically, where did John the Baptist’s authority come from? When you first read this you are tempted to think that Jesus just used this question in order to be able to side step their question, but on further examination you realize that John’s authority came from God the same as Jesus authority. The Jews were not ready to acknowledge John’s authority and so Jesus knew that they would not be ready to accept His authority.

The Jewish leaders looked at John the Baptist and at Jesus and because of what they saw and heard, they were unable to accept their authority. Yet the regular people looked at John and Jesus and saw that they were men who “spoke with authority, not as the teachers of the law”. The teachers of the law were so set on what they  “knew” that they could not believe what they “saw”.

What is your relationship with Jesus based upon?

Did the Bible convince you to believe in Jesus?

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Matthew includes this story right after the events at the temple because Jesus is still talking about the fact that the Jews did not have any close relationship with God the Father. In the temple story, he pointed out that they were just going through the motions of worship and in this encounter with the fig tree Jesus is saying that while the nation of Israel looks like they have a living relationship with God, they really do not.

It was really just a little early in the year for the fig tree to be bearing fruit, but the tree that Jesus walked up too had the leaves and markings that said that it should have had fruit. Therefore Jesus curses the tree, or as is often translated, “predicts that this tree will never have fruit”. The tree immediately dries up and the disciples are amazed at what Jesus had done. Jesus simply showed the tree for what it was, an old dried up excuse for a tree with no fruit and no hope for fruit. The implication is that this is what Jesus sees when He looks at the Jewish nation. The Jews looked to the world like they should be very close to God and bearing all kinds of fruit when in fact they were not really close to God, it was only an outward show of religion.

The puzzling fact in this verse is Jesus’ statement about the power of faith, it is hard to get around His statement that if you believe you will have anything that you ask for in prayer. We know that we do not have a magic wand, and Jesus is not a Genie in a bottle, but we also know that in faith we have a great power! It would seem that if we believe, then our requests of God are focused on the type of things that are for the good of the Kingdom and He will grant them. We must always bow to God’s will, we pray that He would first of all do what He knows is best for us and for all of the world.

How is verse 22 an encouragement for your prayer life?
When have you seen God do something that seems impossible?

Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “’My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’

This section of the scripture is extremely interesting. As we first read it we are moved by the fact the Jesus is very angry and turns over the tables and shouts at people, in fact in another Gospel it talks of Him driving them out of the temple. This is especially interesting because the Jews were allowed to have the tables there right outside the “holy place” in order to help the people who came to make an offering get the correct elements for their offerings. They needed the temple coins and some came from far away and needed to buy a dove or a calf for their sacrifice. So why would Jesus call them robbers? Some have speculated that they were cheating people in their exchanges and that could be, but is seems to me that Jesus anger comes from a different place.

The Jews of that day had gotten their “forgiveness” down to a science. They knew just what they needed to pay for whatever sin that they had committed and they were quick to pay and “demand” God’s forgiveness. God had established the sacrificial system in order to remind the Jews that they needed to depend on God for everything and to come to Him with their desires, thanks and praise. The temple was to be a place where God would meet His people and they would have this exchange. Now they did not have the close relationship with God, they just “paid their debt” and demanded forgiveness, which God had always intended to be a gift. God would give the people everything that they needed for life and the people would respond with a sacrificial gift that was a reminder that God had given everything.

The forgiveness was not to be based on the sacrifice but on the “Grace of God.” Most of the Jews did not have a loving relationship with God they just came and went through the motions, they bought their gift, they gave it to God and they took home their forgiveness. Jesus says that this is “robbery”, they are stealing from God the forgiveness that He meant to give them as a gift! God wants their love, not their sacrifices.

Not much has changed if Jesus were to come to our church He would see basically the same thing. By nature we tend to make our relationship with God all about what we are doing for God and not about what God has already done in Jesus Christ.

When you see something wrong, are you more likely to act without thinking, or think without acting?

As you think about Jesus in the Temple what needs to change in your life?