Saturday, February 21, 2015
Today’s Scripture: Matthew 13:24-53
"Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes." And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old." When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place. (Matt. 13:51-53)
“Many people think of Jesus as our Savior, as the one who will get us into heaven. So the question often is “Have I accepted Jesus as my Savior?” But we never ask the question “Have I accepted Jesus as my teacher?” ― Dallas Willard, Living in Christ's Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God
In His parables Jesus spoke of the kingdom in many different ways. He said that the kingdom is like a farmer (Matt. 13:24), a seed (Matt. 13:31), a yeast (Matt. 13:33), a treasure (Matt. 13:44), a pearl merchant (Matt. 13:45), a fishnet (Matt. 13:47), an employer (Matt. 20:1), a king inviting people to a marriage feast (Matt. 22:2), and ten young women (Matt. 25:1). He spoke also of the glad tidings of the kingdom (Luke 8:1) and of the mystery of the kingdom of God (Mark 4:11).
Have you understood this? Jesus asked this question of his disciples and Jesus asks us this question also. Are we starting to “get it?” Are we starting to grasp the kingdom of God for and in our lives? Jesus asks us are we understanding his parables, he tells us the kingdom is “like” something, or can be compared to something. Jesus wants us to understand his parables so that we will begin to live out those parables in our daily lives. Jesus is trying to teach us, which is primary activities with his disciples then and now.
We recall Jesus’ first parable in Matthew 13 about the Sower and the Seed and the emphasis on the good soil. People are to be like good soil who “hear the Word of God, understand it, and bear much fruit, a hundred, sixty, and thirty fold.” Jesus wants us to understand the Word of God and also to bear much fruit as a consequence.
They (the disciples) said yes, to Jesus’ question, "Have you understood all this?" This is the answer that Jesus wanted two thousand years ago and this is the answer that Jesus wants from us today. Who teaches you? Whose disciple are you? You are somebody’s disciple. You learned how to live from somebody else. There are no exceptions to this rule, for human beings are just the kind of creatures that have to learn and keep learning from others how to live. Jesus wants us to understand the parables about the kingdom and teach us as his disciple so we can live within the kingdom.
Every disciple who has been trained for the kingdom is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. In the kingdom of Jesus, there are things from the old and things from the new. For example, from the thousands of pages and paragraphs called the
Old Testament, Jesus found two lines: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul” (Deut. 6:4) and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18).” These commandments were old, but also were totally new. Jesus took something that was very familiar and old and transformed these Old Testament teachings to become new. Jesus took the old Bible verses that the Jews had memorized and transformed them into a new faith.
Similarly with us today, we bring something old that can become something new. That is, we all know the stories about Jesus, Bible verses about Christ, traditions about our religious heritage, and have memories of our faith. We have studied the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and God takes this “old information” and these “old values” and these “old traditions” and transforms them into something new. As we are studying the life, teachings and parables of Jesus through his Word, it may be that these “old familiar stories” are becoming new to us. As we study the old familiar stories, we may find that our hearts and minds are being opened in a new and fuller way to God’s kingdom, to God’s rule of our daily lives.
Our faith is not just about some Godly promise we will get into heaven when this life ends, it is primarily about living our lives in the here and now. How do we become better human beings? How do we live as the people God created us to be as a creation that was made good? We are to become Jesus’ disciples and let him teach us the ways of the kingdom.
As a disciple of Jesus I am with him, by choice and by grace, learning from him how to live in the kingdom of God. For a disciple of Jesus is not necessarily one devoted to doing specifically religious things, as that is usually understood. I am learning from Jesus as his disciple how to lead my life, my whole life, my real life. The teachings of Jesus in the Gospels show us how to live the kingdom life we have been given through the time, place, family, neighbors, talents, and opportunities that are currently ours at this time and place.
“Someone once said that Stephen Austin didn't like preachers at all. He swore that "one preacher could stir up more trouble than a dozen horse thieves." Matthew's Gospel reminds us that it is the role of a disciple of Jesus to stir up trouble by playing an active, resistant role in the struggle of good and evil, by resisting the ways of the world and its power bases – economic, religious, nationalistic, politic, military – which are most often in direct opposition to the ways of the Kingdom of God and the way of discipleship.” ― Megan McKenna, And Morning Came: Scriptures of the Resurrection
Today’s Lectionary Readings
Morning: Psalms 43; 149
Evening: Psalms 31; 143
Deut. 7:17–26
Titus 3:1–15
John 1:43–51
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