Matthew 22:1-33 To live life well we must know the truth. Life and people throw questions at us that we need to be able to answer well. Towards the end of Jesus’ ministry, he is asked a series of questions. The first question is a political question where the Pharisees attempted to paint him into a corner by forcing him to acknowledge whether his allegiance was to Rome or his Jewish brethren. Yet ...  Read More

Matthew 21:23-46 Who has authority to go into your house if you are not there? Who has the authority to go into your fridge and take some food without asking? Authority determines what someone is allowed to do. One of the questions which the Pharisees wrestled with was whether Jesus had the authority to back up his claims. Was he a blasphemer or the Son of God? Jesus revealed his identity in a sub...  Read More

Matthew 20:29-21:22 Who is Jesus? The validity of our answer determines our eternal destiny. In Jesus’ day, most of the crowds failed to understand who Jesus was. The crowds proclaimed Jesus to be simply a prophet (a Muslim view of Jesus), the Pharisees thought he was a blasphemer (similar to atheists), and the crowds in Jericho thought he would not care about the plight of blind men (like deists ...  Read More

Matthew 20:1-28 What are the priorities of your home? One of my friends, who is a missionary in Taiwan, consistently tells his kids their family does things differently than other families. They have priorities and values that may not be shared by their neighbors, but their family does what they do because it expresses their values―particularly, a love for God. God’s family is also called to live ...  Read More

Matthew 19:13-30 If your wildest dreams came true, what would be different in your life? You might wish for a larger bank account, a bigger house, and more stuff, but would these things be helpful? Jesus’ interaction with the young man reveals that the things we value and desire might hinder our relationship with God. We are told the man walked away sad because his great wealth walled him off from...  Read More

Matthew 18:21-19:12 How easy is it for you to forgive someone? Jesus spends a lot of time communicating about the kingdom of God and in Matthew 18 he stresses one of the highest values of his kingdom is forgiveness. As you think about the various kingdoms of this world, I do not think that forgiveness would be a high value in any of them. Yet as citizens of God’s kingdom, we are to learn to be peo...  Read More

Matthew 18:1-20 Greatness in our culture is often marked by celebrity status. The number of likes you get or how many people retweet your thoughts becomes a signal of greatness. Jesus’ view is very different. He brings a young child in front of his disciples and proclaims this is where true greatness lies. Jesus’ metric of greatness is radically different than the world. He assigns greatness to th...  Read More

Matthew 17:10-27 Do you feel weak or powerful? Do you feel like you are able to accomplish your tasks today, or do you feel completely incompetent?The disciples had been ministering alongside Jesus and had seen great success, but suddenly, they were tasked with something they could not grasp how to accomplish. A man brought his demon possessed son to them, but they were unable to cast out the demo...  Read More

Matthew 16:13-17:9 In college one of my roommates, a nonbeliever, asked “Why does God let bad things happen to good people? If He has a plan, why does He let bad things happen to his ‘beloved’ children?” Before I realized what I was saying, I responded, “There is no such thing as a good person aside from Jesus. Jesus was perfect and He was killed in the most brutal way imaginable. Every person, no...  Read More

Matthew 15:29-16:12 In chapter 14, Jesus fed the crowd of 5,000 men plus additional women and children. At the end of chapter 15, only one chapter later, the disciples find themselves in a similar situation. Yet, once again they fail to understand how feeding such a massive amount of people is possible. They had failed to learn their lesson: with Jesus all things are possible. The God who fed the ...  Read More

Matthew 15:1-28 Are you an obedient person? The Pharisees would have claimed to be obedient people, but Jesus points out they are far from truly obedient to God. Jesus first points out that the Pharisees were not obeying God because they had created their own set of traditions rather than being committed to God’s commands. These man-made instructions allowed them to wiggle out of things like honor...  Read More

Matthew 14:13-36 How do you respond to people who interrupt your schedule? Do you respond with kindness and patience; or want them to just go away? Both responses are seen in today’s reading. Jesus had just learned that his relative John had been brutally beheaded and he wanted some alone time. Whether it is because of grief, feeling emotionally drained, or just feeling tired, we can all probably ...  Read More