October 4/5, 2014
Matthew 12-15
I’ve heard of frustrated pastors who have quipped, “They wouldn’t be satisfied if Jesus Christ was their pastor!” As it happens, it was the most religious of the Jewish groups that gave Jesus the most trouble. In these chapters, we begin to feel rumblings of discontent from the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, a premonition of that day when things will get ugly.
In Matthew 12, the Pharisees call Jesus out on various forms of Sabbath-breaking. Jesus answers, “I am Lord of the Sabbath” (12:8). They are so incensed that they begin to plot his demise (12:14). They accuse him of casting out demons by the prince of demons (12:24). They demand a sign (a miracle on cue) from Jesus, and Jesus says the Ninevites who repented under Jonah’s preaching will condemn them (12: 41). Even Jesus mother and brothers have doubts!
Matthew 13 highlights Jesus’ code language: teaching by telling stories or parables. Parables a fun to figure out, but Jesus had a reason for resorting to them: he spoke to them in parables, because “seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear” (13:13). The “they” are the Pharisees. Parables were Jesus way of circumventing the their displeasure! At the end even Nazareth, his home town, rejects Jesus.
Matthew 14 records two of Jesus’ most famous miracles, the feeding of the 5000 and walking on water, but begins with the martyrdom of John the Baptist. Here we have a foreshadowing of what awaits the Lord.
In Matthew 15, Jesus is pummeled again by the Pharisees’ questions and disapproval. Finally, he “gets outa Dodge” and heads for the Gentile country around Tyre and Sidon, where he finds faith in Gentile woman who needs a healing for her daughter. How refreshing, and how sad! Sometimes, we’re more likely to find faith outside the bounds of organized religion!
Your fellow pilgrim through the New Testament,
Pastor Gary
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