Month: March 2013

Red Letter Year: 3/13

Matthew 4:12-25

12 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he left Judea and returned to Galilee. 13 He went first to Nazareth, then left there and moved to Capernaum, beside the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This fulfilled what God said through the prophet Isaiah:

15 “In the land of Zebulun and of Naphtali, beside the sea, beyond the Jordan River, in Galilee where so many Gentiles live, 16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.”

17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

18 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living.19 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 20 And they left their nets at once and followed him.

21 A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. 22 They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.

23 Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. 24 News about him spread as far as Syria, and people soon began bringing to him all who were sick. And whatever their sickness or disease, or if they were demon possessed or epileptic or paralyzed—he healed them all. 25 Large crowds followed him wherever he went—people from Galilee, the Ten Towns, Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River.

Comments

Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the kingdom of heaven is near. Matthew is about to give us a lot more of Jesus’ teaching, but he begins with this as a summary statement. The Sermon on the Mount is an explanation of what it means to repent of our sins, what it means to turn to God, what it means to live with the Kingdom drawn so close. If you look back to Matt. 3.2 you will see that this is word-for-word what John said there, the message is the same as both (for Matthew) are the culmination and fulfillment of all God’s promises and prophecies to Israel. The command comes in two parts, repent of your sins and turn to God, but they describe one motion. Repenting literally means to turn away from, in turning the direction of your life from pointing to sin and self to pointing to Jesus, you have undergone the turning-away-and-toward action and are ready to live according to the Great Sermon that is about to begin, ready to live in the truth that the Kingdom is very close, ready to embrace the fullness of the calling, which is always a call to discipleship, always a call to follow and fish for humans. You don’t have to recite a specific prayer or swear allegiance to any certain creed, but you do have to take that first step, actually more of a basketball pivot, turning around, pointing your compass Jesus-north, and then commence following Jesus. And don’t be fooled, a lot of people who call themselves Christians and consider themselves “saved” have never done this. Jesus did not come to make converts, Jesus came to make disciples, followers, doers. And what do these followers do? Read verses 23 and 24 again. That’s what followers do.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Red Letter Year: 3/12

Matthew 4:1-11

Embed from Getty Images
 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. 2 For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.

3 During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say,‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, 6 and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say,

‘He will order his angels to protect you.
And they will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’”

7 Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”

8 Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”

10 “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

11 Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

Comments

Five things I want to draw your attention to here:

  1. The devil is real. That may not be a popular idea these days, but Scripture and all of Christian tradition and experience concur: we have an enemy who does just this sort of thing. Any time Christians get too comfortable with the idea that Satan is a myth bad things happen (e.g., German Christians didn’t much believe in Satan prior to WWII). It’s foolish to dismiss what Scripture clearly teaches. And dangerous.
  2. Satan chooses a very strategic moment to tempt Jesus. First, Jesus is weak from fasting 40 days. Second, this comes just after the significant spiritual experience of Jesus’ baptism. He has just gotten confirmation of who he is in God and he is weak and tired. Just the sort of moment the enemy will attack you and me as well.
  3. All of the temptations are attacks on Jesus’ identity and call. “If you are the Son of God… then do….” Trying to get Jesus to doubt his identity and/or act contrary to his calling.
  4. Jesus responds with Scripture each time. Jesus was a student of Scripture. In the second temptation, both Satan and Jesus use Scripture, but Jesus demonstrates that difficult passages should be interpreted in light of clearer passages. Satan uses “creative hermeneutics” (to say the least), but Jesus uses a clear and direct interpretation to cut through that nonsense.
  5. In each of his responses, Jesus responds from the perspective of an ordinary human. This doesn’t mean he is giving in on his identity, but at no point does he say, “No that doesn’t apply to me, I’m special.” In other words, the temptations he faces and the responses he gives are both common to all humans (Hebrews tells us Jesus was tempted just like us in all things, except without giving in). That means you might want to reread 2-4 above as they apply to you and me just as much as they applied to Jesus.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.