Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Jesus didn't have much patience for those who inflicted rules on others while showing no love. The spirit of the law was to help the people learn God's heart, not merely follow the rigor or a set of laws. Jesus put breath into that law and showed them a new way, and the face of God himself was their guiding light.

The resurrection of Jesus means more than God’s power shown in the Son, it means our own future. Jesus is the pattern of the resurrection that will come true for all things, and we are included in that if we are part of his body. He is risen indeed!

Jesus laid a full day in the grave, which also happened to be the Jewish Sabbath. This was God’s rest day from the beginning of creation, so it is fitting that life was being brought back to God’s Son as the Sabbath is meant to bring life to us.

The arrest and trial of Jesus is full of irony. His accusers seem to acknowledge who Jesus is, and Jesus seems content to let them do the talking. He is walking a prophetic road now, completing the work that he came to do. We want to rush ahead to the resurrection, but this is an important moment too. Jesus is doing more than just walking to the gallows, he's showing the humility and love of God.

Jesus's washing of his disciples feet was highly unusual. The job was usually reserved for the lowest servants, and would certainly not have been performed by someone in authority. Jesus is redefining authority in his Kingdom. Not that he sought power, but that he came to serve.

Is Jesus abandoning the earthly family he was born into? Of course not. Later, at the cross, caring for his mother is right at the front of his mind. But he is giving those in his Kingdom a new kind of family, a bond that comes though him and binds us together in a Spirit of love.

(Sorry I'm late... I messed up my scheduling!) What was the difference between being close to Jesus and being just outside his inner circle? Time with Jesus himself. The disciples didn’t have any special skills that made them superheroes, but they did have the benefit of more time in the presence of Jesus. With that increased amount of time witnessing what the Word looks like when it is given life, they had a special insight into the teachings of Jesus.

There’s a big difference between Jesus’s approach to the Sabbath and that of the religious leaders who used the law to control others. Jesus got to the heart of the law, which was to bring the life God intended to man, but just get better at avoiding error. That life was none other than Jesus himself, and those who tried his way found it a much less oppressive path.

Matthew seems like a pretty logical choice if you’re looking for disciples. He knew the government, and he knew how to keep books. But was that the reason Jesus chose him as a disciple? It’s fun to think that maybe the reason Jesus picked him was because Matthew had a crowd of friends around him that weren’t particularly interested in religion. That’s the kind of people Jesus wanted to talk to, and Matthew certainly knew how to bring them in.

What kind of king doesn't want a big audience? The kind that comes to show what God looks like among humanity, and that's exactly what Jesus was. He didn't want to fill arenas so he could be heard talking (and there weren't microphones anyway!), but he was interested in building the Kingdom in people, one person at at time.