Matt. 6:24-34 Don’t Worry

Taking a peak at the verses coming before this text, we heard that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also; and the eye is the lamp of the body. When our eyes are good, when we see God’s reign in us as our greatest treasure, our whole body will be full of light. Light is synonymous with understanding and Jesus is the light. If the eyes are bad, seeing the riches of the world as our treasure, one lives in great darkness, or fear of what is ahead. This sets up the teaching that one cannot serve two masters. We can serve God or we can serve mammon (excess beyond what we need daily). One participant said this text reminded him of Dr. Wayne Dyer’s book, Your Erroneous Zones, written in the 1970’s (?). He said there are two emotions that do us no good, worry and guilt. Worry comes because we fear what will happen in the future. Imagination causes us to think of worst case scenarios and the vast majority of times, what we imagine doesn’t occur. Guilt is about the past, which usually cannot be changed. Although, sometimes we can make efforts to correct our mistakes. If we cannot correct them, forgiving ourselves is the only way to move forward. Worry comes because we fear the unknown. If we know the worst is coming, at least we know what to prepare for, and we don’t worry - there’s some action we can take to get ready for it. Entering the unknown is what brings fear, and this is where faith is required. Those who do not trust Jesus’ words that our Father in heaven watches over us like the birds and lilies of the field, will go ahead and worry. This sounds simple, but we all fail at entering the unknown will no fear. The way to approach worry is constant prayer, and focusing on the work of the day. Get out of the future that is unknown, and into today. Get busy. Help someone else. One person was concerned about her parents in another state. She prayed, and then she helped a neighbor, which got her mind away from what her parents might need tomorrow. If we use our hands to help someone in need in our neighborhood or in our church, we are being the answer to someone else’s prayer for their family or friends. God knows our needs. We need to realize we are God’s answers to the prayers of others. Luther’s focus on this text was concerning possessing riches or riches possessing you. If you can give it away, you are lord. If you cannot give riches away in service to your neighbor, you are enslaved to them. He says this is why God gives us the poor, to help us be master over our possessions. His other point is that anxiety and overindulgence are the fruits/proof of unbelief. Blessings in Christ - PWM

Matthew 5:20-26 The Intent of the Law is Relationship

We started our discussion looking a few verses back so we understood where this text originated. Jesus was saying that he did not come to destroy or overthrow the law, but to show us how to follow it properly. Rob Bell confirms this in his book, Velvet Elvis, with an explanation of Jewish terminology about a rabbi telling a student who interpreted the law improperly that he has abolished the law. If the rabbi thought the student had understood God’s intention for the teaching, he would say ‘you have fulfilled Torah.’ So Jesus wasn’t getting rid of Torah, he was showing how to carry it out perfectly, down to the smallest component of it. In our text Jesus is teaching that some rabbi may have interpreted ‘thou shall not murder’ one way, but he interprets it another way. And he obviously disagrees with how the Pharisees have been following it.

Luther says that the way the religious leaders were following the law of ‘not murdering’ was by using a literal approach. You had to kill someone with your own hands to break this law. That’s why the chief priests thought they were not breaking the law when they turned Jesus over to be crucified. They weren’t killing him personally. The Romans were murdering Jesus.

Jesus said it’s not about the physical act of murder, it’s what brings a person to the point of wanting to harm another person – anger. And it appears there are three levels of anger described. One is anger without a cause. The next is to the point of calling someone ‘empty-headed,’ holding a contemptuous feeling for them – this made you subject to being sued for libel before the Sanhedrin. This might refer to a more religious connotation since it involved the religious council where one Jewish sect (or Christian denomination) distained another because they didn’t believe the same things. And the worst level was to call someone a ‘fool’, which meant you were accusing someone of hating knowledge (Prov. 1:22) and correction of any kind (12:1), who are quick to quarrel (20:3) and give full vent to their anger (29:11), who are complacent (1:32) and who trust in themselves (28:26) rather than God. (Ps. 14:1).

So what’s the intent of the commandment “do not murder?” Do not let your emotions get stirred up against anyone that makes you want to see harm come to them. Is this possible? According to Luther, not unless you are born again and have help. If you’re born again? That would mean there’s a lot of baptized people who aren’t ‘born again.’

In the next section, Jesus talks about not giving your gift at the altar until you have reconciled your anger/unpeace with your brother. Luther uses this as evidence that we can only honor or show love for God through loving our neighbor. Don’t think your gifts of time, talents, possessions do much to impress God if you are not at peace with your brother or sister. The intent of the law is to draw people into peaceful relationship with each other, and to live in disharmony with your neighbor is to be unreconciled to God.

All this shows that obedience to the law is something we cannot achieve – without help of the Spirit. And the law is focused on bringing people together, in relationship, rather than to separate groups from each other. Unfortunately, the law is used today to divide and build walls between people rather than to teach them what it means to love each other. How terribly we fail at interpreting the law the way Jesus did. Lord, have mercy. Blessings - PWM

Matthew 4:1-11 Three Kinds of Temptations

One of the themes of Matthew’s gospel is to show Jesus as the new Moses. One of the parallels shown in this story is to see that as Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights before receiving the Ten Commandments and giving them to the people (Exodus 34:27), Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness before he brought a new law to the people – the law of love. We have not received any command to fast as a spiritual discipline. We are led by the Spirit to try to bring our bodies under greater discipline through fasting. And to be led into the wilderness is to be led into a place where we feel alone and forsaken. This is when we weakest. The first temptation Satan brings to us deals with cares for the body, our physical needs. How can we believe God is good if God isn’t giving us food to eat, or clothes, or shelter? Poverty is one way that Satan tries to convince us that God doesn’t care for us. Satan says to Jesus, “Here, look at what I have to offer you – nice clothes, cars, toys, etc.” Jesus sees that what the world has to offer is like stones. What the world offers is not able to satisfy our deepest hunger and thirst for God. Luther points out that avarice is a fruit of the unbelief that God will provide for us. We hoard and collect everything we can for fear that God won’t provide for us later. On another line of thought, our discussion brought up the idea that the stones might be a metaphor for the tablets of stone of the Ten Commandments. We think if we ‘consume’ and incorporate the commandments more perfectly that our own effort can lead us to life. Jesus said following the commandments will help us to eternal life, but he is the true Bread from heaven that nourishes and feeds our souls. The word that nourishes us, according to Luther, is the word that God is good. Hunger and want for bodily needs tempt us not to believe in God’s goodness or provision. In the second temptation, Satan holds before Jesus the illusion that there is more that he needs, but in fact, it’s something Jesus already had. Jesus didn’t have to invent a new way of getting down from the pinnacle of the Temple. Luther’s answer is so practical, it’s humorous. Why not just take the stairway that is already in place? We have been given the ways to walk in God’s will – the commandments – and we don’t have to come up with new and better ways that depend on our effort. Sometimes we think we have to make impossible leaps of faith in order to please God. Not so. We are not to tempt God by asking God to do exceptional things when we do stupid things without divine direction to do so. In spiritual matters, God has given us Jesus Christ to be the way that nourishes our souls. Luther also points out that Satan only quotes part of the passage, and doesn’t finish it (Ps. 91:13-16). It sounds like what goes on today when people use pieces of Scripture that fortify their own agenda and fail to speak the lines that follow. Like not quoting Proverbs 6:16-19 when talking about abominations before God; or leaving the characteristics of verse 10 in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 when talking about who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Look up the Greek meaning of those words. The third temptation Jesus faced was that of temporal honor and power. He could have had it, no doubt. For us, our prosperity makes us think we are special, chosen by God, and better than those who are poor. It’s like the Jewish thought in the Old Testament that God blesses you if you are good, and curses you if you are not good. People in the Bible thought those who were sick or lame or had bad things happen to them were being punished by God. It’s the mentality that says, “God was punishing America in the 9-11 attack for the decline in our morality.” Or that aids is God’s punishment for homosexuality. Our prosperity of health, friends, possessions, position and power, lead us to believe we are better than others - God loves us more and we must have done something to deserve it. For Luther, poverty and prosperity are the first and third ways our faith can be tempted in outward ways: pain & pleasure, fortune & misfortune; while the second is the greatest temptation that attacks the doctrine of faith in the soul, a spiritual matter. Trust is what we need, not extra effort. Peace - PWM

Matthew 2:1-12 A Star in the East

How in the world does the story of the Magi coming to see Jesus relate to the present day? Who comes today to seek Jesus in Bethlehem? Maybe when people see the rising of the star of Christ, a person or a nation who truly follow the teaching and way of Jesus, this attracts them to come and worship him. When we let our light shine, displaying a bright example of love and mercy, healing and comfort, people come and discover him in the house of bread (beth = house + lehem = bread), which is the Christian church. Luther said that the oral preaching of the gospel is the star/light that leads people to Jesus, and it remains over him alone. The truth teaches the pure grace of God and pure faith instead of the law.

Luther identified Herod as being the first non-Judah leader of Israel, fulfilling the prophecy that would bring Shiloh, the messiah (Gen. 49:10). Luther placed the pope in Herod’s shoes as one attempting to destroy the Christ child through requiring obedience to church doctrine and teaching over faith in Christ alone. Who is Herod today? Herod reminded me of Judas Iscariot, anyone who pretends they love and worship Jesus by kissing him on the cheek, but then they turn around and betray him by lifting the law higher than him. Who lifts the law higher than Christ today? Who acts like they want to worship him, when in fact they want to silence him for their own benefit?

Brother Martin credited the ability of the Magi to recognize the messiah in a humble, insignificant child to faith that goes beyond reason or natural intelligence. He says ‘nature wants to feel and be certain before it believes; whereas grace believes before she perceives.

Back to the star as the gospel: we noticed that verse 10 says when the Magi saw the star, they were overjoyed. They were overjoyed before they saw the baby? The star attracted them. The good news drew them to where he was laid, gave them joy, and then they met him personally.

Luther mentions that the gospel teaches salvation is by faith alone. Adding other requirements to it is to weaken faith’s power and risks losing it in favor of works. We can be joyful in knowing that obedience and works are not the route to find him. When we finally meet him, obedience and works become our offering to him.

When they got to the house (not the stable? not the manger?), they worshiped him and gave him their gifts. And then, as always, God finds a way to warn us so we don’t go back to the Herodian (self-serving) way of thinking.

This is one of Luther’s sermons in which he refers to the scriptures as “the swaddling clothes and manger (#36) in which he was wrapped and laid; that is, the writings of the prophets and the law; in these he is wrapped, they contain him, they speak only of him and bear witness of him; they are his sure sign”… Blessings - PWM