Week 2
summary:
In this week's readings we see Jesus performing miracles as
He heals and teaches. And as He goes
about His mission, we see Jesus “rocking the boat,” especially with the
religious leaders. He teaches about what
the Law really means which is frequently different than the way the religious
leaders interpreted it and attempted to enforce it. And as He “rocks the boat,” the religious
leaders are already out to trap and “destroy” Him.
Jesus' ministry gets started as He continues healing. He also has started to make some people mad
as: 1) He openly says that He “forgives
sins,” something only God can do; 2) as
He is seen eating with sinners; 3) as He teaches differently regarding fasting
and the Sabbath laws. In other words,
Jesus is bringing something new that contradicts what the religious leaders of
the day were communicating. Note: the Sabbath was the 7th day of the
week set aside for rest and worship. For
Jews, the Sabbath was sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. For the Jews, no work could be done on the
Sabbath. For Christians, we typically
celebrate this day of rest and worship on Sundays. We celebrate this day of rest and worship on
the 7th day to remember that God created in 6 days and He rested on
the 7th day.
The healing that occurred on the Sabbath in this passage
caused the leaders to want to kill Jesus.
(The question is whether healing someone on the Sabbath, the day of rest
and worship, violated God's law.) In
addition, Jesus in this passage calls God His “father.”
Jesus is clearly claiming to be God in this passage. However, in Jewish law, testimony about
oneself was not valid. So Jesus
indicates (starting in verse 31) that there are others who testify about His
identity for Him: 1) John the Baptist; 2) God the Father; 3) the Scriptures; 4) Moses.
In the passage from Matthew, Jesus raises the issues that
the Jewish leaders might be able to quote the law but they really don't
understand the spirit of the law. Jesus
quotes Hosea 6:6, a verse from the Old Testament Scripture that the Jewish
people of that time would have known.
Several times in the gospels (Mark 3 being an example),
Jesus warns people (and demons) not to reveal His true identity, at least not
yet. Jesus wanted to make sure that
people did not think He was a Messiah that had come to conquer. As Messiah, Jesus came to be a suffering
servant.
C.S. Lewis said that Jesus could not be just a good moral
teacher. Because of what Jesus said, you
would either have to believe Him to be a lunatic (crazy), a liar, or Lord. In Mark 3:21, Mark tells us that even Jesus'
own family thought Him to be a lunatic (crazy).
We all have to decide for ourselves:
is Jesus a lunatic or a liar; and if He is neither, then He deserves to
be Lord of our life.
Matthew 5-7 is what we call the Sermon on the Mount. (We read yesterday Luke's version of this
event which is called the Sermon on the Plain and is basically the same
teaching.) There are various
interpretations of what this teaching means.
However we can safely assume that Jesus wants us to follow this
teaching. He tells us to “...be perfect...”
and also says ...to put His words into practice – if we do, we will build our
house on solid rock. We don't start out
our Christian life doing what Jesus teaches here. But He calls us to continually move in that
direction – toward Christlikeness.
(Jesus teaches what He did, does and always will do! Jesus says in Matthew 5:17 that He has come
to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.)
The good news is that when we fail to be “perfect,” we can run back to
Jesus for His grace. In other words,
this continues to underscore the point that we NEED saving. And Jesus is our Savior!
Jesus continues teaching that there is a difference between
the letter of the Law and the spirit of the Law when He says “...you have heard
that it was said...but I say to you...”
And all of this boils down to loving God and loving neighbor.
In Luke 7, John the Baptist asks if Jesus is the one who is
prophesied to come (i.e., the Savior referenced in the Old Testament). Jesus tells John's disciples to go report to
John what has been seen (the blind can see, the lame can walk, the skin
diseases have been healed, …). Jesus is
referring to Isaiah 35 and referring to what will happen as God's Kingdom
comes. Isaiah 35 is talking about
transformation and concludes by saying that there will be something like a Holy
Highway that only those ransomed by the Lord will travel.
Why did Jesus perform the
miracles He did? We get a clue in
Matthew 11 starting in verse 20. Jesus'
main reason for His miracles is so that people would change their hearts and
lives. We refer to that as
transformation and transformation is part of our mission as Christ's
church. The transformation Jesus was
talking about was not of unbelievers so-to-speak, but He was speaking about His
own people. We don't get to see the
miracles of Jesus first-hand, but we have the opportunity to read about
them. This can happen to us as we study
God's Word. Our hearts and lives can
change – we can be transformed.
Day 7: rest
