The Weekend Word
Matthew 10:34-42 & Matthew 11:1-3
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
- When I read this, I want my “warm fuzzy” Jesus – my buddy Jesus – my life coach Jesus.
- But in the end, only the cross builds the kingdom.
35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
- The cross trumps blood.
- The fuzzy Jesus is only good to build your own kingdom. Listen how many preachers will preach only a warm fuzzy Jesus and have the worship team sing only ‘Jesus is my girlfriend type songs.
- Only the cross builds the Jesus kingdom
36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
- You cannot allow your family to stand in the way of you becoming a disciple of Christ.
- It’s easy here in America. If you come from a non Christian family, they may look at you funny as if you are going through a new fad.
- But in some countries you have to face shunning or death.
- On the other side, we must remember that we are called to suffer, and this is huge … but we are not called to make others suffer.
37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
- Are you worthy? What does worthy mean?
- Does worthy depend on you or Jesus?
38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
- Not one of us is worthy.
- This is the whole point of Christianity – we are not worthy, we cannot make ourselves worthy
- Jesus had to die for us.
- What does it mean to “take up your cross”? I think it is used as a big ‘throw everything in it’ statement.
39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
- If you live for you – and all that that may entail – you will lose your eternal reward.
- If you give up all for Jesus, you will have life.
Rewards
40 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.
- Sounds simple – I just don’t know if we see it this clearly.
41 The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.
- Now this is where it gets a little tricky.
- Is this incentive to do good / right? Do right and get rewards?
- Is this a quid pro quo relationship?
- Do my good works earn me rewards?
- What were the role / purpose of a prophet? – to proclaim the good news
- What is the good news? To proclaim the “good rewards” procured for us in Jesus.
42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
- This is kind of like the description of the Sheep in Matt 25 – they just do and receive.
- What is the difference between a prophet’s reward and a righteous person’s reward?
- V. 42 = a disciples reward
- V. 40 the reward is me.
How do you receive Jesus? By how you treat others – again Matt 25.
Matthew 11:1-3
Messengers from John the Baptist
1 When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.
- Jesus instructs and then moves about. More like verbal instruction then life instruction.
- The question is – did the disciples go out as they were instructed?
- In which cities? The ones they came from or the ones they had visited?
2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples
- I don’t think Herod gave day passes or work furloughs.
- Matthew jumps ahead to ch 14 – but he must assume the hearers know the timing of events.
3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
- This is such an interesting passage – and can be taken 2 ways.
- Way #1
- John is in prison at this time – and he may have been reflecting back to what he preached and who he was thinking the Messiah would be – to free the oppressed – but hey, look, John is now in prison, he is the oppressed.
- “I am risking my neck for you? Am I wasting my time??
- Are you the one?
- John is in a long list of those who are blinded by how they would run things.
- It can’t be this way because if I ran this – well, it would be much different
- “I have been watching and this does not match my expectations – let me explain this to you Jesus!”
- Way #2
- John is asking for the benefit of his followers to prepare them for his upcoming death.
- Luther and the Early Fathers make the case that this is not a crisis of faith.
- A teacher does not always ask a question because he does not know the answer or to get an answer.
- But to put the thought in a person’s mind and heart, so that they will come to the answer that the teacher already knows.
- An inductive style of instruction – a question, a follow up question and then the light goes on.
- John has been filled with the spirit since he was in his mother’s womb.
Jesus is so cntrary to what we sometimes preached from the pupit.
1.) We hear that Jesus is the peace giver – but here he speaks of not bringing peace but the sword (non peace)
2.) Jesus created the family, marriage as such as the unit to carry on society – and here he speaks of destroying families.
3.) As I was speaking with someone yesterday, we think of Jesus being the one to reveal truth about the kingdom and to make everyone understand the kingdom – but as we will see in chapter 13 in the parables, Jesus uses the parables to hide truth from people – in this case the masses.
I like to tell people, and I will probably remind my class this morning – whenever you think you have Jesus figured out, take your understanding and turn it on it’s head as it is probably the opposite. 😉
it’s your two kingdom principle at work, MLD 🙂
Truths purposely hid from the wise?
coming off of reading this week’s prayer and thinking that, if ever there was a testament to the Holy Spirit at work within us, it is the fact that Clement’s declarations still resonate in our hearts after all these years of waiting (we are sensible and realistic people, no matter what the world says)…
from where i sit this morning….
Em, I don’t know where you pick any two kingdom theology here.
You ask “Truths purposely hid from the wise?” No, it seems to be kept hidden from the masses. Look who the parable is addressed to – “Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying:…”
Now the disciples seem to understand that Jesus’ parables were not understood by the crowd, so they asked – “The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
And Jesus’ reply seems to be pretty clear – he did not want them to understand. “He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.”
Sounds like Jesus has a purpose in leaving the masses standing on the outside looking in.
But to stay on topic of the actual text, why is Jesus bring division where there should be peace and harmony?
well, let’s drop the two kingdoms as we probably do have different definitions
as to using the term “wise”… well, the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God – Yes, i think we agree that He wasn’t ever much concerned with making sense to the world at large – beyond the basic message of salvation… we have a problem when we are at odds within the Family of Believers… a problem, not necessarily a condemnation – but…
i’m here to tell you we do walk a fine line with those who are not Believers… how to stand, to take the hits and accusations and hostility that tends to be subtle or condescending most of the time in this land, yet as you’ve observed in your lesson, it can escalate to real persecution and even death – death just because we are what we are
Do you really teach that we CAN live in peace and harmony with the world? or just that we should TRY to do so even though it’s not always going to happen?
most of what we call mixed messages are really resolved when we stop to consider who our Lord was addressing – or the problem being addressed – are they not?
just from where i sit this beautiful Sunday morning after the storm
Em, well I think it is clear that Jesus is addressing the disciples alone as he is sending them out into the world. He wants our message to be decisive.
He is making clear that his message must bring division and break up families or it is not being delivered properly.
Which is my point – the message we hear from many pulpits in pop American Christianity is the opposite – come to Jesus and life will be better, peaceful, fix your marriage fix your kids. Nope, like will be in turmoil with those folks.
“Do you really teach that we CAN live in peace and harmony with the world? or just that we should TRY to do so even though it’s not always going to happen?”
Well, now there is a 2 kingdom question 😉
To all – what about my question?
“What does it mean to “take up your cross”? I think it is used as a big ‘throw everything in it’ statement.
What does Jesus what us to do – and how do you know that? Also, this is before Jesus on the cross – does it have meaning to the disciples?
good teaching MLD – teach on… hope some good answers come back to you here
MLD,
“2.) Jesus created the family, marriage as such as the unit to carry on society – and here he speaks of destroying families.”
The families Jesus is destroying are family structures corrupted by the fall. Jesus still is in favor of families, but he is redeeming God’s original intent for the family.
“What does it mean to “take up your cross”? I think it is used as a big ‘throw everything in it’ statement.”
I’ll give you a clue: “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 🙂
Jean,
The 2nd half of the question how do we know that. The disciples didn’t know or understand that Jesus was going to the cross. Would it have an about saying? Now we could just leave it like of many Jesus’ sayings – unknown for their times ‘ all they would find out at their own persecution.
What about that those those who say “my cross to bear is, my husband or my kids or my well fill in the blank. This is the throw everything in saying.
I was asking was this a common saying for the cultural?
since no one else is responding right now… i never noticed this timing thing before, but now that i think on it, weren’t most condemned to crucifixion people required to carry their own cross to the hill?
maybe we all, or most, have crosses to bear as we pass through this world, Christian or not? hmmm
So last question. Done anyone have an opinion on my take on John the B in prison? Crisis Of faith or a teacher’s tool?
“So last question. Done anyone have an opinion on my take on John the B in prison?”
Crisis of faith.
Heretic 😉
It’s an odd placement of this story – 3 chapter before we hear the story of John the B be tossed into prison.
well, since faith doesn’t equal omniscience, couldn’t the man just have had a crisis of understanding?
Em – of course he could have but he did have some pretty spectacular events of his life intersecting with Jesus
Although you are asking us to speculate **again, which is your proclivity ( 🙂 ), there is good exegetical evidence to lump John in with the other Jews of his time who were expecting a messiah who would bring a more traditional reign:
“Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Very apocalyptic sounding.
I ask questions to stir up conversation – remember, I am a classroom teacher and do not have the luxury of a pulpit minister who just disseminates information from his mouth to the pewster’s ear. So my lessons are set up for this 2 way exchange.
John the B had the experience of leaping in the womb when first confronted with the savior and he did see the heavens open and God make the declaration of who Jesus was. That would hard to forget.
Since John the B knows he will die shortly he needs to prepare his disciple ahead to trust Just – perhaps in just telling them himself – he finds it to be more helpful to hear it from the horse’ mouth – Jesus … but I think I explain that in more detail in the next lesson. (I taught this probably a year ago and give them to Michael some weeks in advance that I would need to go back and look myself.)
MLD,
Your argument doesn’t hold up. This apparently happened after the transfiguration:
“And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’”
If the disciples didn’t get it, why wouldn’t John the B?
Doesn’t the Latin language term for your reasoning? Non-Sequitur?
The fact that some disciples didn’t get it does not mean that John the B did not get it.
But I could be off – it’s raining here today and we don’t know what to make of it. Some of my co workers are hiding under their desks 😉
Let’s take a survey…What are your favorite memories from your youth in your mother’s womb?
I don’t have much doubt that John was expecting a triumphant Messiah who would throw off Rome and keep guys like him from getting their heads lopped off.
Didn’t the disciples “get it?” They did not have have all the theology down pat but they did know Christ was Someone who could call fire down from heaven.
By “get it”, we are talking about the extent to which John the B or the disciples understood during Jesus’ ministry the nature of the coming kingdom.