Red Letter Year: 5/2

Matthew 18:1-14

18 About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”

2 Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. 3 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. 5 And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. 6 But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 What sorrow awaits the world, because it tempts people to sin. Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting. 8 So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. 10 Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father. 

12 If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! 14 In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.”

Comments

The disciples were concerned with status. Jesus sets as their example a person of no status at all (a child) and commands the disciples to repent of their status-seeking posture and forsake the quest for status. Jesus makes clear that seeking after status is harmful to people, worse than maiming. Then Jesus gives another example of a person with no status (a shepherd) and stresses that the one who matters most to the Father is the one who is lost. Pastors and other church leaders have so much to learn from this passage. 

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: 5/1

Matthew 17:14-27

14 They came to the crowd and a man came up to him, knelt and said, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into fire or into water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they did not have the power to heal him.”

17 Jesus answered, “What an unbelieving and misguided generation. How long am I going to be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, it came out of him, and the boy was healed right then.

19 Then the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?”

20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. I am telling you the truth, if you have faith like a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

22 They gathered in Galilee and Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be handed over to the people. 23 They will kill him and he will be raised on the third day.” And the disciples were very upset.

24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-coin tax came to Peter and asked him, “Does your teacher not pay the two-coin tax?”

25 He said, “Yes.” As he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first: “What do you think, Simon? The kings of the earth, who do they take tolls and taxes from? From their sons or from others?”

26 When he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. 27 But, so as not to offend them, go to the sea, cast a line, and take the first fish you catch. Open its mouth and you will find a four-coin piece. Take and give that to them for me and you.”

Comments

We have all heard revivalists and faith healers pass off blame for a lack of healing on the sick person for not having enough faith. Some pastors go so far as to do little else besides drumming up positive thinking among people, all in an effort to raise a person’s faith to a level that will overcome their hardships. But this is not quite what Jesus says here and the difference is important. He does cite a lack of faith, not on the part of the boy or even his dad, but a lack of faith among his own disciples, the ones trying to cast out the demon. When was the last time you heard a pastor or speaker take the blame for a lack of healing: “Sorry folks, I just don’t have it tonight. My faith is down.” I don’t think that happens very often. But that is the clear implication here. The dad says in v.16 they did not have the power – the word there comes from dunamis (where we get dynamic, dynamo) and is also used for the Holy Spirit’s empowerment. That power comes to the one who believes in the Spirit’s power, the one who trusts that God will really do things like heal people and deliver them from demons. It’s not up to the sick or demonized person to believe, it’s up to those who would bring in the kingdom of God in power. Thankfully, God often gives us little exercises to grow us in faith and trust. They often involve something we are proficient at (Peter was a fisherman) used in a new way that reveals the “random” miraculous power of God. Be ready for those moments. Take the risk they bring and see what happens. Pretty soon you will be moving mountains.