In this section of Matthew's gospel we see Christ as the King of heaven, who is rejected by His own people. Jesus is moving relentlessly toward the hour of His suffering and death. The hostility of the Jewish leaders is growing. Every event and conversation in these tense, final days affords the Lord one more opportunity to shine the light of God's truth into the world's darkness. He contrasts legalistic religion with the grace and truth of God, the values of earth with the realities of heaven.
Most of the people we read about in Matthew's gospel wanted Jesus on their own terms. They would not bow to a King who was not of their liking, even though He was the Son of God. They wanted Jesus to destroy Rome but not their cherished sins or their hypocritical, superficial religion. But He would not deliver them on their terms, and they would not be delivered on His. He was not a Messiah who came to offer a panacea of external peace in the world but to offer the infinitely greater blessing of internal peace with God.
Many people today are open to Jesus who they think will give them wealth, health, success, happiness, and the worldly things they want. Like the multitude at the triumphal entry, they will loudly acclaim Jesus as long as they believe He will satisfy their selfish desires. But like the same multitude a few days later, they will reject and denounce Him when He does not deliver as expected.
Questions/Things to Consider:
- In Matthew 19:21, when Jesus told the man who said he had kept all of the commandments since youth..."If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."...what was the core of what Jesus was exposing to/in this man?
- In Matthew 19:24, Jesus says "...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." By the world's standards, we are all wealthy in the U.S. What does this passage say about us?
- In Matthew 20:37 Jesus describes the greatest command as..."You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."...how can a person know when/if he or she is being obedient to this?
* Notes taken from "Matthew: The Coming of the King," John MacArthur, 2007
2 comments:
In Matthew 19:21, when Jesus told the man who said he had kept all of the commandments since youth..."If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."...what was the core of what Jesus was exposing to/in this man?
I think he was trying to show the rich young ruler that he had deceived himself into thinking he was perfect. It's easy for us to deceive ourselves the same way until someone starts talking about specifics, especially when it comes to sins of omission like this one Jesus points out, where we have not done something we were supposed to do. This of course is the first step in becoming a Christian, realizing how short we fall in achieving God's standards. Only then can we come to Jesus as a hopeless sinner asking for forgiveness, which is the only way we can come to Him at all. Jesus was starting the rich young ruler down that path and hopefully after thinking about it he came back with the true understanding of his sin and his need for Jesus.
As a side note, do we not find ourselves often with the attitude of the rich young ruler? We want from God a checklist of tasks that He wants us to do, and we think that would be much simpler than how it is. As in this story, God wants our attitudes to be right and our actions to flow from that, and we, like the rich young ruler, want to go straight to the actions and be done with it.
In Matthew 19:24, Jesus says "...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." By the world's standards, we are all wealthy in the U.S. What does this passage say about us?
I think it may say the same thing about us that is also true about the non-wealthy. Jesus never says it is any easier for the poor man to get into the Kingdom, and I believe it is equally impossible for both apart of Christ. It is the false sense of self-suficiency that keeps us from knowing our need for Jesus. I may be showing just how spoiled I am in saying this, but I'm not sure if a person is more prone to feel self-sufficient because they are wealthy because there are other kinds of trials that can bring them to their knees and reveal their need for a Savior besides financial. And In some ways the poor may even be at a disadvantage because they may still be under the illusion that lack of money is their problem. The rich have everything they need and find themselves still empty, which leads them to look for something else.
In Matthew 20:37 Jesus describes the greatest command as..."You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."...how can a person know when/if he or she is being obedient to this?
It may be easier to know when we are failing to be obedient than to look for proof that we are complying. Like the rich young ruler, we can always find plenty of proof, taken out of context, that we love God. It is when we look in the areas that show evidence of the contrary that we understand our degree of obedience. Psalm 139:23-24 says Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way. One example of a test to use, 1 John 4:20-21says the person who claims to love God whom has never seen, but hates his brother whom he has seen is a liar. So if we are harboring hatred towards another person, this is a sure sign that we are not loving God.
Great thoughts, Sam!
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