Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Jesus has said before that he did not come to destroy the law, but today there is a group of religious leaders who want to use the law to destroy him. They pull out an absolute, and ask Jesus to make an absolute decision. What he does is tell them how their absolute has worked out in life. Certainly, God did not intend for anything but the purity of his standard. Concessions were made. This doesn't change the need for the law, but it does create a way for people to continue living together. If any of us were God, we could live in the absolutes. As it is, we all need a lot of grace.

It's not easy being a Christian. So often, the new nature we have received from Christ grates up against our old nature, rearing its ugly head at the worst times. It's easy to forget that we have been forgiven much, but this is central to our identity in Christ. We are forgiven, and it is the nature of Christ to pass along that forgiveness to others. 

When Jesus challenges us to have faith like little children, I think he assigns the other parts of this discourse to us if we do that. Just like the Israelites in the wilderness, he provides for us. Like Peter and the temple tax, he provides the resources. If our faith is like that of a little child, we can put our faith in him to provide the rest. Judgement on those who lead them away. God's relentless pursuit to bring them back. Pairing himself with his childlike followers for those who welcome them. And in the end, those with childlike faith will be ever before the Father.

Why was this moment where Jesus talked to the prophets of old so necessary? This could be a really long writing if we're going to answer all of that question. Here's one piece of that picture: because Moses and Elijah represented to law and the prophets, and Jesus represented the fulfillment of both. When the apostles look up after being knocked to the ground, they see only him. This didn't mean that the law and the prophets disappear when Jesus shows up. It means that his life brings them to fruition. His example shows what they look like in action, not just rules to point to our wrongs or hopeful things to happen in the future. It was all coming true in Jesus.

Poor Peter. He gets things so right, and then turns around to get things so wrong. At one time, he confesses the Messiah. In the next scene, he is reprimanding Jesus for getting so morbid and talking about the cross. These two things probably didn't happen at the same time, but it's a really great snapshot of what it must mean to be an apostle. Like Peter, we certainly must remember the Lordship of the Messiah. That's not the whole story, though. Like Peter, we must remember that the Messiah's Lordship comes in a way we wouldn't probably have suspected: humility and crucifixion. The two cannot be separated.

So much conflict over bread. Jesus has a good point, though. These guys had literally picked up the leftovers of Jesus' bread miracles, so it's reasonable that they should start catching on at some point.

What is the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees? We're fortunate to have the Passover section in today's reading from Exodus, that gives us a little extra insight into the Hebrew view of yeast. It was purposely omitted during this festival, even banished. This commemorated the delivery of the Lord, and there's not cheating in that observance.

Yeast is the stuff of excess. Bread would taste good without it, but it adds that extra puff and enriches the experience. Such was also the case with the Pharisees and Sadducees. They had the law, the law was given by God and was good on its own. In their hands, though, it was puffed and made something more than it had to be. That's why we needed God in the flesh to get us back on course and into the Kingdom.

Jesus seems harsh in his responses to this woman from the region of Tyre and Sidon. Why would he say such things? To come to that conclusion, though, we have to assume that those scathing comments are aimed at her. I don't think they are. I think they're aimed at the knuckleheads who had the gall to criticize her for, "all her begging." Remember that Jesus wasn't just there to perform miracles, his greater mission was (and is) to make disciples. When he says these things, I think he's winding his disciples up in their furor against her. At the end, when he declares her to have great faith, I imagine that was a bit of a moment of sudden silence from his followers. They had been wrong. They had embarrassed themselves, and Jesus allowed their callous hearts to be put on display. Hopefully, that was formative in making them better disciples.

A bit of imagination today. This isn't suggested by the text, it's a pure stretch of imagination. Picture the hillside, filled with people. Thousands of people. Is it really possible that, out of thousands of people who had been walking a great distance to meet Jesus, only one child brought food? It's possible. Or is it the case that, out of those thousands, everyone refused to share until Jesus broke the bread and fish? And what if the total of what people shared equaled the amount that was left over...because Jesus always has enough, but he wants us to take part in what he's doing?

It's a total feat of imagination, but it's fun to think of. Especially when we get to Peter walking on the water. He put out the effort, and Jesus held him up. Then pulled him up. Certainly, Jesus was on the lookout for people to join his Kingdom work. He's already doing that work, and our call is nothing less than being at his side.

Jesus wasn't popular everywhere. His message was often divisive, and he claimed no less. But this instance in his own hometown shows that people are at one moment impressed, and at the next moment demystified because they figure out he's just the carpenter's son. You can almost hear the grind of their voices, trying to tear him back down to a size where the person they see makes sense in the context of the person they already knew. Let this be a lesson to us: the Gospel isn't always popular, but it's needed. Whether or not it's accepted should be left in God's hands.

The parable of the wheat and the weeds is a call to some pretty incredible trust in God. When we see evil, it may become our first reaction to judge it ourselves. While we want to pull out the weeds, Jesus says that doing so can cause harm to the seeds of the Kingdom that are also growing. Final judgement is the Lord's, and that's the way it should be.