This week in the Gospel of Mathew, Jesus teaches about his second coming and the final judgment. It is like one of those moments when the teacher stops mid-lecture and says, "listen up, this is important, and it will be on the test."

Most of us have a sense of God's presence. We have a sense of what pleases the Lord and what offends him. We know that we should pray and seek him. Most of us actually think of the Lord fairly often. Those are all little nudges. Maybe this week it is time to lean in and make a response.

This week in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells a story about maidens, lamps, and a bridegroom. The meaning of some parables just seems obvious. I don't think this is one of them.

This week in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches the beatitudes. It is the "blessed are they . . ." part of the Sermon on the Mount. Basically, he takes everything people thought they knew about what it means to be blessed and turns it on its head.

This week in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus lays out exactly what it means to be a Christian, and it is super simple. But simple seldom means easy

This week in Matthew 22:15-22, we hear Jesus say the famous line, "repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." Sounds awesome. But what does it mean?

This week in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells another parable. This time about a wedding feast. Make sure to Break out your fancy duds because at this wedding, if you don't come dressed for the event, you leave in chains.

In this week's reading from Matthew, Jesus tells the parable of a landowner and his tenets. And let's just say, these tenets were about the worst tenants you could get. Spoiler Alert. Sometimes we are the terrible tenants.

This week in the Gospel of Matthew, we learn that if you say you will do something God asks you too, you had better do it. We also learn that if you refuse to do it. . . yeah, it is still a good idea to do it anyway.

The Cross was not justice. Jesus was crucified for our sins. He died for crimes he never committed. There is no justice in that—only mercy. If we, who claim to be his followers, miss that incredibly important point, we are in some pretty serious trouble. And here is the thing about mercy. If you deserve it, it isn't mercy. If you earned it, it was not mercy. Mercy is not fair. And thank goodness it is not.