Daily Liturgy and Scripture

The Sermon on the Mount is some of Jesus’s cornerstone teaching. It is not meant as some kind of checklist.. “be poor in Sprit, be pure in heart, etc.” but as an endorsement of the least among the people. This is why it is connected to having greater righteousness than the Pharisees (and notice that he said that the Law still stands). Having greater righteousness of the Pharisees is not about policing the Kingdom, it is about following the leader of that Kingdom.

Jesus begins his ministry by spending time in the desert, confronted by the devil. This was necessary because the time Jesus spent with the Father was the defining trait of the life he showed us. He was often slipping away to spend time in prayer and fellowship with the Father, and this enabled the rest of his work to have its impact.

Just as Joseph played an important role by guiding his family through dangerous times, so John also plays an important role by preparing the way for Jesus and then baptizing him. But why did Jesus need to be baptized? He had no sin to confess, and he didn’t need to accept himself as Saviour. Perhaps it was because just as he would eventually go before us in resurrection, now he goes before us in the baptism that brings all of us into the life of the Spirit. If we follow the path that Jesus set for us, we certainly can’t go wrong.

Joseph was more than a passive observer, sitting on the sidelines watching Mary raise the Son of God. He had dreams that kept his family safe, and that makes him a pretty important person in this story. And not only was the title family safe from murderous rulers, he was also causing prophecy to be fulfilled as he went.

It was important for Joseph to accept Jesus as his son. Not only because the child Jesus needed a father for practical reasons, but also to pass on the birthright of David. The genealogy we read yesterday would be a moot point without Joseph taking this measure. If you think back to the situation of Jacob and Esau where Esau gave away his own birthright for a bowl of beans, the passing of a family heritage was a pretty big deal in Bible times. By taking this step, Joseph, though not Jesus's biological father, included Jesus in his own family line, connected back to David.

Reading Jesus’s genealogy tells us two things. First, that he was indeed a real person, with real people in his family line. Second, it tells us that these people were not all saints. Looking through that list, there are prostitutes and scoundrels, nobles and villains. At the end of it, though, is Jesus. From plain people, all kinds of them, God can bring the greatest results. It’s fortunate that the work is not up to us, but remains God’s through the ages.

Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him, a mirror of the three denials of Peter at Jesus’s arrest. It was important for Peter to know that he was reinstated before his Lord. Much would be asked of him in the coming years, including the death to which Jesus was alluding. Indeed he was back in the good graces of Jesus, and never left.

Resurrection is the thing which finally proves, beyond a doubt, that Jesus was who he claimed to be. Not only that he himself was raised from the dead, but that he shows us our own future. It is also encouraging that, in this passage, he had compassion on Thomas. Even those slow to believe are not left behind.

That Jesus was laid in a tomb belonging to someone else is highly appropriate. His birth also occurred in a place other than his home, and he owned almost nothing. Jesus embraced worldly poverty because his wealth was truly in a Kingdom other than this world. Because of this, no follower of Jesus will ever think it’s too hard to follow Jesus because they don’t have enough money. Jesus’s house will not be bigger than our houses. The way is open to follow Jesus into a place only he can take us, and that is his Kingdom.

Pilate doggedly insists on calling Jesus, “king.” Of course he is right. It’s interesting, now, how the roles begin to reverse between the Roman state and the religious state in Jerusalem. Pilate calls Jesus a king, but the religious state insists on the deaths of not only Jesus, but the criminals with him. Pilate has tried to show mercy, but the religious state will show none. People are not perfect. We are not always doing the perfect will of God, not even if it is supposed to be our profession.