The scribes and Pharisees were Israel’s spiritual leaders, having “seated themselves in the chair of Moses,” a special seat in each synagogue from which the Old Testament scrolls were read. That is why Jesus told His audience to do all that the scribes and Pharisees told them to do. He was speaking only of those times when the scribes or Pharisees were publicly reading from the Law and Prophets.

It is good for all of us, but especially leaders, to examine ourselves in the light of Jesus’ denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees. Are we like them in any way? If so, we need to repent, because Jesus thrice affirmed in this chapter that unrepentant scribes and Pharisees go to hell (23:13, 15, 33).

What were some of the characteristics of the scribes and Pharisees?

Foremost, they were motivated by a desire for the praise of people. So they made themselves appear very religious in public by broadening their phylacteries, small leather boxes containing scripture texts worn on the forehead and left arm. It would be akin to our carrying a big Bible to church just to make people think we are really studious in Scripture. The Pharisees also lengthened the tassels on their garments for the sake of appearance. God had commanded the people of Israel to make tassels on the corners of their garments as reminders of His commandments (see Num. 15:38-40). So the Pharisees sent a subtle message with their longer tassels: “I’m really serious about keeping God’s commandments.” The trouble was, they were only serious about appearing to be serious about keeping God’s commandments.

The scribes and Pharisees also loved the public respect they received, and their common titles of Teacher, Father, and Leader were the proof. Jesus told His disciples not to call anyone but God their Father, and He also forbade the titles of Teacher or Leader. In that regard, many modern ministers follow the letter of the law, yet require those underneath them always to address them as Pastor, Reverend, Doctor, Bishop, or even Apostle. How is that any different from what the Pharisees did? And those letters that you often see behind their names are just like tail feathers on a peacock. Get ready, title-loving ministers, to ultimately be humbled to the same degree that you’ve exalted yourself, because Jesus promised it. The highest title in God’s kingdom is servant. There is no pyramid. We’re all brothers.

I must mention that modern ministers who proclaim a false grace gospel “shut off the kingdom of heaven from men” just as did the scribes and Pharisees.

The Pharisees were lovers of money (see Luke 16:14), thus they used their “ministries” to gain all they could, to the point of praying long prayers for gullible widows in order to dislodge some coins from some widows’ purses. Modern Pharisees teach their followers “prosperity principles” to the benefit of their own bank accounts.

The Pharisees were zealous missionaries because they wanted to be known as such. But their disciples became “twice the sons of hell” as they were.

The Pharisees were professional scripture-twisters, and they focused, for their own advantage, on what was of lesser importance in Scripture. Topics such as tithing (23:23), which resulted in more money in their pockets, were more frequently the focus of their sermons than were the “weightier provisions of the law” such as “justice and mercy and faithfulness.” (When was the last time one of those was a sermon topic at your church?)

Bible Jesus is not afraid to denounce false spiritual leaders publicly, even calling them derogatory names, while American Jesus “walks in love,” keeping quiet, not wanting to offend anyone.

Bible Jesus was not a Calvinist by the way, because He wanted to “gather Jerusalem’s children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” (23:37). But why didn’t He? Was it because the Father had not predestined salvation for those chicks whom the Son wanted to gather (setting Jesus against His Father, incidentally)? No, it was because those chicks were “unwilling.” Consequently, the wrath of Bible Jesus would fall upon Jerusalem some forty years later in the form of a Roman army.

We’re certainly not reading about American Jesus today. American Jesus is never angry. He’s full of love and patience for everyone. Not true, however, of Bible Jesus. What Matthew recorded was actually Jesus’ second cleansing of the Jerusalem temple, the first being three years earlier as recorded by John (see John 2:14-17). John describes a veritable stampede, with Jesus using a scourge of cords to zealously drive out people, doves, sheep and oxen, while pouring out coins and overturning tables. That is Bible Jesus.

Why, exactly, was Jesus so angry? It was not simply because there was buying and selling going on. God is not opposed to commerce, as long as it is fair and honest. Jesus was offended primarily because the temple was supposed to be a sacred sanctuary of prayer, not a market place. What the merchants and money changers were doing was dishonorable to God. It was sacrilegious. It also appears that the commerce being conducted was not honest in light of Jesus’ statement about the robbers’ den.

Bible Jesus also revealed Himself in today’s reading as being divine. When the chief priests and scribes complained that He didn’t restrain the praises of the children, He quoted from Psalm 8, where David wrote that God had prepared praise for Himself out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes. Jesus’ reply can only be considered a claim to be equal with God. For such claims He was ultimately crucified (see John 5:18; 10:33; 19:7; Mark 14:61-64).

Notice that in both the parable of the two sons and the parable of the vine-growers there is a consistent theme: God is looking for obedience. He’s not interested in insincere verbal professions of faith. He’s interested in a faith that is lived out in action. He is expecting to receive fruit from His vineyard, and judgment will fall upon those who don’t produce it. Tax collectors and prostitutes will be in heaven, according to Jesus, because they repented, producing fruit, while scribes and Pharisees, who all possessed “the assurance of salvation” but no fruit, would be denied entrance. This same idea may have also been the primary lesson behind Jesus’ cursing of the fruitless fig tree that we also read today. Fruitlessness invites God’s curse and destruction.

Of course, the incident of the withered fig tree carries a second lesson about faith in God. Some, however, have taken it to an extreme, teaching that our words have creative supernatural power, and that we can create good and bad circumstances in our lives by the words we speak. Notice, however, that it isn’t words by themselves that contain power, but faith-filled words. You cannot kill a fig tree or move a mountain by your words unless you believe what you say will happen. And the only way you could have faith for either is if God revealed it was His will for a certain fig tree to die or a certain mountain to move. Otherwise, all you could do is hope that your words would come to pass.

If you don’t believe me, try cursing one of your house plants and watch what happens. Once you do, you’ll no longer be troubled by the “confession police” who lurk in church lobbies ready to pounce on you for your “negative confessions that are bringing curses on your life!” If you read the Psalms of David, you’ll read many “negative confessions” that were simply factual statements describing His trials. He wasn’t creating negative circumstances with his words. But notice that he always ended his complaints with a confession of faith in God!

So the application of what Jesus said works in prayer that is based on God’s promises. When you have a promise, you can pray with faith, and speak faith-filled words that will bring the answer.

Finally, Bible Jesus also revealed Himself in our reading today as an unbreakable cornerstone—foolishly rejected by the builders—a huge stone that everyone should fear (21:42-44). If anyone tries to break it (falling upon it), he will be broken to pieces. And if this stone falls upon anyone, representing Jesus’ judgment on those who reject Him, they will be scattered like dust. That’s Bible Jesus.

If the parable of the wedding feast teaches us anything, it teaches us that it isn’t God who determines who will be in heaven, but rather, it is people themselves. The king in the parable sincerely invited scores of people to his son’s wedding feast, but they ignored his invitation. Only those who ultimately responded enjoyed the feast.

Amazingly, some who suppose that God predestines some to be saved (and thus predestines some to be damned) exploit Jesus’ words found at the end of this parable to support their strange doctrines, completely ignoring their context. “Many are called, but few are chosen,” they quip, “which means that many hear the call of the gospel, but only those who are predestined by God, the ‘chosen,’ are ultimately saved.” Yet the parable that precedes those words completely contradicts such an interpretation.

Notice that the king calls those who have already been invited to the wedding feast, telling them the feast is ready. They were a limited group, and they ignored the call. So the king destroyed them in his wrath and then sent his slaves to invite those who had not been previously invited, the “evil and good” (22:10). This can only represent the Jew’s general rejection of Christ, the Jewish holocaust of A.D. 70, and the salvation invitation being extended to all the Gentiles.

In the parable, the “chosen” are those who responded to the invitation. They are chosen because God, like the parable’s king, chose to welcome those who responded—even Gentiles, a horrific idea among the Jews of Jesus’ day who considered themselves to be solely “God’s chosen.” God’s choices, like all choices, are conditional. He has chosen to save all who repent and believe in Jesus. If you do that, you are among the chosen.

Wealthy wedding hosts in Christ’s day provided wedding garments for their guests, and so the man caught without a wedding garment had no excuse. He represents a person who attempts to enter God’s kingdom without something the King sees as vital. Perhaps the wedding clothes in the parable represent the same as the wedding clothes at the marriage feast of the Lamb spoken of in Revelation 19:7-9: “And it was given to [the bride] to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” Only the holy will inherit heaven, because only they are the true believers.

Pity the modern Sadducees who, like their ancient counterparts, are consumed with proving their pet doctrines, and whose faulty logic is obvious to everyone but themselves. They make the error of exalting a few scriptures at the expense of many others, and come to incorrect conclusions. Notice that Jesus answered the Sadducees with a balancing scripture they could have read themselves (22:29-32). Similarly, He sent the Pharisees to Scripture to help them understand what they did not, that the Christ was not only the son of David, but God in the flesh (22:41-46). Scripture is where we need to abide as well. Sometimes when I have scrutinized modern “Christian” teaching or practice in light of the Bible, I’ve been accused of “putting God in a box.” I take that as a compliment, since God has put Himself in a box—the Bible box!

The most important lesson today? The two greatest commandments are, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” and, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Those two summarize the moral and ethical teaching of the entire Old Testament. We have no evidence that those two commandments have been removed from the #1 and #2 position. Interestingly, the second-greatest commandment is only mentioned once in the Old Testament, but seven times in the New Testament. These two commandments should be continually emphasized by those who are making disciples, and obeying them ought to be the consuming daily goal of every true follower of Christ. Let’s guard ourselves from being sidetracked.

At first, it might seem unfair that the laborers who worked twelve hours were paid the same as those who worked only one hour. But several important facts need to be considered. First, those who worked all day were paid a fair wage, and a wage they agreed on before they began. They weren’t cheated and had no legitimate reason to gripe. Those who worked just one hour and received a full-day’s wage, however, had good reason to rejoice.

Jesus wasn’t teaching that the thief on the cross, who repented during the last hours of his wasted life, and the prophet Jeremiah, who faithfully served God under persecution for decades, will both receive the same reward in the end. Notice that the one-hour laborers only worked for the final hour of the day because no one hired them until then (20:7). They would have gladly worked a full day had they been given the chance. So we learn that God will reward us based upon how faithfully we take advantage of the opportunities He gives us. To whom much is given, much is required (Luke 12:48). Perhaps you have not been given the supernatural gifts that God gives to evangelists. Perhaps you don’t have the opportunity to speak to stadiums full of people. Yet you can receive the same reward in the end as any evangelist if you will be faithful with the gifts and opportunities to serve that God gives to you. That is what Jesus is teaching in the parable of the laborers.

As Jesus ascended from Jericho towards Jerusalem, the apostles believed that He was about to establish His kingdom there (see Luke 19:11), even though He plainly told them that He would die there (20:17-19). He had very recently promised the twelve that, when He would sit on His “glorious throne,” they would also “sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt.19:28). They apparently assumed that their exaltation was just a matter of days or hours away, and the mother of James and John was not satisfied that her two boys would be seated on two random thrones among twelve. She wanted them to be second and third in command under Jesus, helping Him rule over all of Israel! Opportunity was knocking for the ambitious!

It is quite possible that James and John put their mother up to her request (see Mark 10:35), which certainly revealed their spiritual state at that point. I’m amazed that Jesus didn’t explode with anger or weep with discouragement. Rather, He patiently taught the twelve about the upside-down order of His kingdom, where the great ones are not those who are served, but those who serve. Jesus certainly preached what He practiced, setting a perfect example by humbly dying for us, the ultimate act of service. The Servant-King never ceases to amaze and inspire us every day.

Pastors, be encouraged that even the Great Shepherd had to deal with strife in His little flock! After word leaked of James and John’s request to be their bosses, the 10 resented them. I’m sure they were glad that Jesus dealt with the problem immediately, a great lesson for all leaders to learn. Don’t avoid confrontation that is needful, as neglecting it only makes the inevitable worse.

Here’s some encouragement for those who need healing: Jesus opened the eyes of two blind beggars because they would not be discouraged by those who told them to be quiet, and because He “was moved with compassion” (Matt. 19:34). Has Jesus’ compassion waned since then? Certainly not. He cares about you! So just like those two beggars, don’t let anyone discourage you either!

In Jesus’ time, many Pharisees believed that it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just about any reason, all based on a very liberal interpretation of what was meant by the word “indecency” found in Deuteronomy 24:1-4. Among other things, finding a woman who was more attractive than your own wife could make her “indecent,” and so as you might imagine, sudden divorce followed by quick remarriage was commonplace. But that, of course, is really no different than adultery, as Jesus pointed out. What He said has no application, however, to a person who divorces prior to coming to Christ, and who remarries years later as a believer. Such a person is not “committing adultery” and is not “still married to their former spouse in God’s eyes,” in spite of what some would like us to believe.

Of course, God never intended for any marriage to end in divorce, thus He never intended that anyone would ever remarry. God hates divorce (see Mal 2:16). Divorce always involves sin. But God has not been surprised about any sins, including millions of divorces, and He made grace available under the Law of Moses as well as under the Law of Christ (see 1 Cor. 7:27-28) for those who divorce, just as He has made grace available for just about every other kind of sin. For example, under the Old Covenant, it was only unlawful for priests to marry divorced women. For all other men, marrying a divorced woman was lawful, an obvious concession of grace.

To ignore historical context, as well as everything else that God said in Scripture about divorce and remarriage, and to treat Matthew 19:3-9 as if it is all that God has said, results in a flawed understanding. This subject deserves more attention than I have space for in this daily devotional. I have, however, written much more extensively on it here if you care to read more.

Jesus’ encounter with the rich, young ruler certainly raises evangelical eyebrows, as it seems as if Jesus said that one must keep the commandments to enter heaven, and if one is rich, he must give liberally to the poor, ideas which are contrary to the false grace that is promoted by most evangelicals. Nevertheless, Jesus said what He said, and we simply need to face up to it. Many try to wiggle out of the obvious truth by telling us that Jesus only ever told one rich man to sell his possessions. The truth, however, is that Jesus told all His followers to sell their possessions and give to charity (see Luke 12:33). And what Jesus said in this particular passage has obvious application to all wealthy people, as He spoke twice of the challenges facing “a rich man,” not “that rich man” (19:23-24).

The reason, of course, that it is difficult for rich people to enter heaven is because God requires that they love their neighbor as themselves, which requires that they share with the poor. They, however, like the rich man in this story, don’t want to give up any of their possessions. They thus prove that they love money rather than God. And let us not fool ourselves that God only requires that we “relinquish our possessions in our hearts” but not in actuality, or that it is only our attitudes about our possessions that God is concerned about, and not our ownership of them. Actions reveal attitudes. Jesus plainly said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:34). If all that God required was an alleged “relinquishment in our hearts” and not any actual relinquishment, it would not be difficult for any rich person to enter heaven. Rich people who truly want to please God will find that He helps them do what would be impossible for them to do otherwise (19:26).

I can’t resist mentioning one thing more: Jesus’ words about all things being possible with God—which are often quoted by unscrupulous “ministers” to encourage people to trust God for more wealth—were actually spoken to encourage wealthy people to trust God to help them unload their possessions!

Children are generally not proud, but humble. Because God promises to resist and humble the proud, and because He promises to exalt and give grace to the humble (Luke 18:14; 1 Pet. 5:5), children serve as excellent examples of the kind of people who are going to heaven—and who are considered great in God’s eyes. There are no proud people on the way to heaven, because those who are truly saved have humbled themselves, acknowledged their sins, repented, and now live in submission to God, conscious of His grace.

Incidentally, it is from scriptures such as these that we derive the conviction that all children who die go to heaven. If children serve as God’s example of heaven-bound people, then it stands to reason that all of them are heaven-bound. They must all eventually reach an age, however, when they too must “be converted and become like children” (18:3) if they are to enter heaven. Obviously that would be when they are no longer children, but adults, the time that theologians refer to as “the age of accountability.”

According to Jesus, children can indeed believe in Him (18:6) and because God wants none of them to perish (18:14), anyone who causes a believing child to stumble, that is, to doubt or disbelieve in Him, faces dire consequences. Being tied to a millstone and tossed into the ocean is a precursor of what lies beyond death for such a person. Imagine quickly descending past the cold depth of 3,280 feet—where surface light no longer penetrates—and where the pressure of the water is 1,474 pounds per square inch. Not a pleasant experience.

True believers would never cause a believing child to stumble. But unbelievers and hypocrites are guilty of it all the time, as they set sinful examples before children and sow Satan’s lies in little minds. How tragic it is when, through their words or deeds, parents cause their own children to stumble into sin. What an awesome responsibility it is to raise children whose “angels in heaven continually behold the face of God” (18:10).

Perhaps the first two steps of church discipline that Jesus outlined in 18:15-17 can be followed in modern institutional churches, but everyone knows that the final step—when the entire church gets involved—is impossible. Jesus envisioned churches like those we find in the book of Acts—small groups that regularly met in houses. Only in those small settings is the third step possible, where everyone knows and loves both the offender and the offended. Notice that Jesus’ words about being in the midst of a gathering of just two or three persons (18:20) are found just three verses after His words about the church (18:17).

Some groups have certainly gone overboard attempting to follow Jesus’ instructions to treat unrepentant members as “Gentiles and tax-gathers,” forgetting that Jesus reached out to such folks with love and the gospel. Certainly those who shun members who refuse to submit to their man-made rules and traditions are greatly missing the mark, especially when their members continue to serve the Lord in other churches.

It is unlikely that Peter, after just hearing Jesus’ instruction about confronting offending brothers and excommunicating those who don’t repent, was wondering how many times he should forgive an unrepentant brother. Certainly mercy can be offered to anyone, but forgiveness can only be given to those who ask for it, because forgiveness is the erasing of a debt that results in restoration of the broken relationship. God offers mercy to all, but only forgives those who repent. He does not expect of us what He does not practice Himself.

In the parable of the unforgiving servant, notice that the first servant asked for forgiveness and received it. The second servant then asked the first servant for forgiveness and was refused. That angered his master and resulted in the reinstatement of the first servant’s formerly-forgiven debt and consequent punishment. Jesus promised the same for those of us who refuse to forgive a brother in Christ. I wish I could write more about this, and I have on our website here. If you have questions, take a look!

Jesus’ promise in Matthew 16:28 that some of His disciples would not taste death until they saw “the Son of Man coming in His kingdom” was fulfilled just six days later when He was transfigured before Peter, James and John. They saw Him as we one day will—in His glorified state—His face shining like the sun. Those three disciples were also blessed to see Moses, who had died about 1,500 years earlier, and Elijah, who never died, but was raptured 900 years earlier. Both were alive and doing well, and according to Luke’s Gospel, both were extremely interested in Jesus’ “departure which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31).

In the second-to-last verse of the Old Testament, God promised: “I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord” (Mal. 4:5). For this reason, the scribes were anticipating the return of Elijah prior to the coming of the Messiah (17:10), which was one of their excuses for rejecting Jesus as Messiah. They missed it on two counts. First, Elijah had already come, according to Jesus, in the form of John the Baptist, and as a forerunner of Jesus. Second, the Messiah would be coming to earth more than once, and His first appearance would not be at “the great and terrible day of the Lord” (Mal. 4:5). Interestingly, Jesus revealed that Elijah would also return more than once, and thus we can anticipate his return before Jesus’ second coming. I’m assuming that Elijah will not personally return, but that Elijah’s ministry will be embodied in a representative like John the Baptist. Jesus said that Elijah would “restore all things” (17:11), which although vague, certainly sounds encouraging.

Jesus had already given the twelve apostles authority to cast out demons (Matt. 10:1). So why did they fail to deliver this one young boy whose father entreated them? Clearly, their unbelief was the reason (17:17, 19-20). Once again we see the vital importance of faith. If the disciples had exercised the necessary faith, the boy would have been delivered. But they didn’t, so he was left in his demonized condition. I’m glad Jesus had faith! Whenever I read these kinds of stories it makes me wonder how many blessings we are living without because of our lack of faith. Help us, Lord!

We note that Jesus also mentioned that the particular kind of demon that oppressed the boy could only come out through prayer and fasting (17:21). A note in the margin of my Bible indicates that this verse is not found in many ancient manuscripts, which means that it’s questionable whether Jesus actually said those words. Regardless, Jesus’ statement about the necessity of prayer and fasting do not nullify what He said about the necessity of faith. If 17:21 contains authentic words of Jesus, then the reason for the apostle’s failure was not either lack of faith or lack of prayer and fasting. Rather, it was both. Therefore, prayer and fasting must be tools for increasing faith, which should not surprise us. Naturally, those who spend extended time in prayer—to the point of skipping meals—are going to have greater faith than those who don’t, just as those who spend extended time meditating in God’s Word will have more faith in God than those who don’t.

In any case, Jesus indicated that prayer and fasting was not necessary to be successful at casting out every kind of demon, but only for the particular kind that afflicted this boy. You don’t need to fast to gain personal victory over Satan’s attacks. But you absolutely must have faith to resist him (1 Pet. 5:8-9).

Think of the string of miracles needed for Peter to pay his and Jesus’ temple tax! Someone had to lose a certain coin in the Sea of Galilee, a fish had to get that coin stuck in its mouth, and that same fish had to be caught by Peter at a certain location and time! God wants us to pay our taxes, and He’ll help us do it!

Jesus is not only the Messiah, Son of God, and Savior. He is also “Mr. Metaphor.” It seems He hardly spoke a sentence that didn’t include at least one figurative word, and when He did, even His closest disciples sometimes misunderstood Him. People have been misunderstanding Him for 2,000 years, and it is often due to the error of interpreting literally what was meant to be understood figuratively. Today we read of such an instance.

“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (16:6). Only one word, leaven, was figurative, and the disciples should have realized that, as it would make little sense for Jesus to warn them about the Pharisees’ yeast. They began discussing, however, that they had forgotten to take bread with them! Let us learn a lesson from their error. And let us also realize that we, too, need to beware of false teaching that seems insignificant and harmless at first, but then permeates everything it touches, just like leaven. Every false doctrine that is poisoning the church around the world began as a single sermon.

One such global false doctrine has been spawned by a wrong interpretation of Jesus’ words to Peter in 16:18: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

Peter, or literally Petros in Greek, means “stone.” The word translated “rock” is petra, which means “large rock,” or “bedrock.” The rock of which Jesus spoke as being the future foundation of His church was not Peter, who, incidentally, Jesus was figuratively calling “Satan” just seconds later (16:23). Rather, the foundation rock of the church is God’s revelation that Jesus is the Son of God, the revelation that Peter believed and confessed. Everything in true Christianity is built upon that. When a person believes that Jesus is the Son of God, he repents, is born again, and becomes a member of Jesus’ church.

Jesus follows His rock metaphor with three more figurative expressions that, when interpreted literally, have resulted in some strange doctrines. The first of those three is Jesus’ statement about the gates of Hades not overpowering His church. Within their context, they simply tell us that the church is comprised of people who have believed that Jesus is the Son of God, and when they do, they escape their destiny in Hades/hell. Jesus’ words have nothing to do with the church “doing spiritual warfare” by “attacking the gates of the enemy” and so on.

Jesus next told Peter that He would give him “the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” another obvious metaphorical expression. His words simply indicated that Peter would have the means (the “keys”) for people to get into heaven. Surely this was fulfilled when Peter preached the gospel, effectively opening the way to heaven to believers and closing it to unbelievers. This interpretation is underscored by the fact that Jesus told Peter—in the third metaphorical expression—that whatever he would bind (also translated as “imprison”) on earth would be bound in heaven, and whatever he loosed on earth would be loosed in heaven. That is, Peter’s “keys to heaven” (the gospel) would work on the earth. Unfortunately, those “binding” and “loosing” words have not only been interpreted literally, but have been also imaginatively enhanced, so that we have folks verbally “binding” and “loosing” angels, demons, favor, circumstances, and thousands of other things, even though there isn’t a shred of evidence from the New Testament that anyone in the early church practiced such things.

There are still more metaphors in today’s reading, such as “take up your cross” (embrace inevitable suffering), “save your life by losing it for Jesus’ sake” (gain salvation by exchanging your personal agenda for Jesus’ agenda), and “gain the whole world and forfeit your soul” (pursue selfish gratification at the expense of salvation). These are followed, however, by a statement we should interpret literally: “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds” (16:27). Sobering words. We will reap as we have sown. Are you ready?

According to Jesus, honoring one’s father and mother could involve providing for their needs in their old age. Keep in mind that, even today, most people around the world depend on their children to take care of them in their old age, as saving money for retirement is impossible in poor nations. It was in this context that the Pharisees taught that one was not obligated to take care of his parents if he had given his money to God. (We can’t help but wonder if “giving to God” was the same as “giving to the Pharisees.”) So they invalidated God’s commandment for the sake of their tradition.

When leaders in the church today teach “as their doctrines the precepts of men” (15:9), it similarly reveals that their hearts are far away from God, as Jesus said (15:8). Love for God produces a love for His Word, and neither traditions, “new revelations,” or pop psychology (which all enamor large segments of the modern church) have any attraction to the lover of God. They are, in fact, repulsive to him, because they are actually an assault on the One whom they love so much.

Modern Pharisees, just like their ancient counterparts, are often fixated on their petty practices while ignoring what is truly important, and they are quick to separate themselves from anyone who is not similarly obsessed. While multitudes are starving and millions wait to hear the gospel for the first time, you’ll find them deriding those who don’t subscribe to their peculiarities. We read today that in Jesus’ time, the big concern of the Pharisees and scribes was that His disciples were defiling themselves by eating with unwashed hands, a rule not exactly found among the Ten Commandments!

The Syrophoenician woman who came to Jesus on behalf of her demon-possessed daughter was a descendant of the Canaanites, whom God had commanded the Israelites of Joshua’s day to exterminate, and for justifiable reasons. They had a reputation for idolatry, child sacrifice, gross sexual perversion, and a hardness of heart that put them beyond redemption. With such a legacy, it is quite possible that the descendants of those who survived were not exactly paragons of virtue, and Jesus’ treatment of the Syrophoenician woman seems to verify this. Many are troubled by His treatment of her, but don’t forget that the New Testament declares that “the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil” (1 Pet. 3:12). Jesus was God and played the part perfectly. He ignored the initial cries of the Syrophoencian, just as God ignores the prayers of unrepentant sinners.

What is missed by readers is how this desperate Syrophoenician woman was changed as she pursued her daughter’s deliverance. When Jesus completely ignored her at first, even as she kept shouting at Him, what message did that send to her? When His disciples asked that she be sent away, He declared that He was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel, another commentary on her unworthy status. She then came to Him and bowed before Him. He told her in so many words that she was an undeserving dog! She didn’t debate Him, but rather begged for crumbs, confessing Him as her master. Only then did Jesus grant her request and commend her for her great faith. She had been humbled and repented. (I’ve written more extensively on this story here.

Let us learn a lesson from this story about Jesus. His Word tells us, “The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous” (Prov. 15:29). The apostle John similarly penned, “Whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22; see also Prov. 28:9; Ps. 66:18). There is an undeniable relationship between holiness and answered prayer.

For the second time in Matthew’s Gospel we read of Jesus feeding thousands of hungry people. Take note they were not just physically hungry, but also very spiritually hungry. God meets the needs of those who seek Him.

Once again, evil had triumphed over good. Herodias, who had divorced Herod’s brother to marry him, and her dazzling dancing daughter, succeeding in silencing John by having him beheaded. When John’s friend, relative, and ministry associate, Jesus, learned of the tragic news, He “withdrew from there in a boat, to a lonely place by Himself” (14:13). If I’m reading that correctly, John’s death affected Jesus emotionally, and He reacted emotionally, needing some time to Himself. I wonder if He wondered why His all-powerful Father hadn’t prevented John’s martyrdom. Why, once again, had the bad guys succeeded when they could have been stopped? Had John’s life been preserved, would he not have been enabled to lead more people to repentance?

I think it is quite possible that Jesus, who obviously stripped Himself of omniscience when He took on human flesh, and who was tempted in every way as we have been tempted (Heb. 4:15), did not have the answers to those questions, just as we don’t have the answers to so many similar questions. Perhaps He could only trust, just as we must do at times. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard is this: When you face something that you don’t understand, fall back on what you do understand. Nothing can happen to us that changes the fact that Jesus died for us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:39).

Jesus’ retreat on the water was apparently short-lived, as He found a “great multitude” who had traveled from surrounding cities waiting for Him at a desolate spot along the shore. He “felt compassion for them, and healed their sick” (14:14). If you had been sick and had been among that multitude, Jesus would have felt compassion for you and healed you. If He would have healed you 2,000 years ago, why would He not heal you now? Has His compassion or power waned? No! Have faith! (And look for the same lesson in 14:34-36.)

Speaking of having faith, Jesus expected it of His disciples, and today we read a classic faith story. Surely God the Father knew that a contrary wind would descend on the Sea of Galilee the evening that the disciples would try to row to the other side. But He didn’t prevent their fateful trial. Troubles may come even when we are in the center of God’s perfect will. They are opportunities to trust Him and persevere.

Jesus sent the twelve on their crossing before evening (14:22-23), and He came walking to them on the water during the “fourth watch of the night” (14:25), between 3 and 6 AM. He apparently left them in their predicament to row against the wind for quite a few hours. Finally He came to them, walking on the water, a very unusual sight indeed.

I have never understood Peter’s logic when He said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water” (14:28). A ghost could have commanded him to come just as easily as Jesus! Good thing it was Jesus, and Peter proceeded to walk on the water—until he looked around and doubted. Keep in mind that Jesus didn’t say to Peter, “Walk part way and sink!” No, it was clearly Jesus’ will for Peter to stay on top of the water. No one can debate that it wasn’t Peter’s doubts that were the reason for his sinking. I wonder how Jesus would have reacted had He heard Peter, back in the boat, say to the other disciples, “Obviously it was God’s will that I only make it so far across the water.”

This is a good lesson for us to learn. God’s will does not always come to pass apart from our faith. We shouldn’t blame Him for failures that are actually the result of our own doubts. So trust Him and keep on trusting Him. I’m so glad that even when we doubt, however, God’s mercy is still there to rescue us, just as it was for Peter.