As people listened to Jesus’ new and authoritative teaching and heard Him frequently debate the Pharisees and religious teachers, some may have thought He had come to introduce a brand new religion, abolishing the Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets. But nothing could be further from the truth. God was the author of the Old Testament, and Jesus, being God, certainly wouldn’t invalidate even one small part of it. There was no contradiction between Jesus’ teaching and the teaching found in the Old Testament. He wanted everyone to know that obeying God’s commandments was still of utmost importance and therefore said, “If you break the smallest commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:19).

Jesus wants our complete obedience, but from what we just read, He obviously wants us to know that we don’t have to be perfect to get into heaven. He said that people who break small commandments and even teach others to do the same can still make it into heaven. However, Jesus made it clear that our degree of obedience in this life will affect our standing in the next life. There will be people in heaven who are lesser and greater than others who are there. And, lest anyone thinks Jesus was saying that it doesn’t make any difference how people live their lives, He went on to say, “But I warn you—unless you obey God better than the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees do, you can’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven at all!” (Matthew 5:20).

Jesus disagreed very much with the way the Pharisees and religious teachers had interpreted and twisted what God had said in the Old Testament. Many of their interpretations of God’s laws allowed them to sin. They thought, for example, that they could be filled with hatred, anger and bitterness, and be embroiled in cursing, name-calling, strife and lawsuits with one another, but as long as they didn’t murder any of the people they hated, they figured they were OK. But Jesus explained that those kinds of people are going to hell just as much as any murderer! God expects much more of us than that, and all true heaven-bound Christians will do better than that. Jesus taught that if our relationships with others aren’t right, our relationship with God is not right . God expects us to love others, to be patient and kind, and to work toward reconciliation when we do have disagreements.

(Note: Parents should preview this paragraph before reading it to their children.) The Pharisees and religious teachers thought that as long as they kept clear of committing adultery, they were OK in God’s eyes, even if they were full of lust or sexually involved, short of adultery, with a person to whom they were not married. God, however, expects much more than that! Jesus explained that a person who imagines having a sexual relationship with a person to whom he is not married has sinned in God’s eyes. The one who continually dwells upon impure sexual thoughts or is involved sexually with someone with whom he is not married is in danger of hell—just as much as the person who constantly commits adultery.

This is serious stuff, and Jesus wanted to make His point unforgettable since it involved eternal consequences—heaven or hell. So He used a figure of speech we call a hyperbole , which is exaggerating to make a strong point. When your mother says, “I must have called you a thousand times to come home for dinner,” that’s a hyperbole.

Jesus said that if our eye or hand causes us to sin, we should cut them from our bodies, because it would be better to lose one part of our bodies than spend eternity in hell. We know, of course, that Jesus doesn’t actually want us to cut off any parts of our bodies to keep from sinning. What He meant was that we should remove from our lives whatever is causing us to stumble into sin. Of course, cutting off a hand or gouging out an eye will not stop a person from lusting or committing acts of immorality. The problem is with people’s hearts. However, once they repent of their sins, believe in Jesus and are born again, they will want to obey God from the inside. They will still be tempted to sin, but they will have the power not to give in to sin through the Holy Spirit within them.

Q. Was the point of Jesus’ sermon saying that people could earn their way to heaven if they are holy enough?

A. No. Jesus clearly taught at other times that people are saved by believing in Him and being born again. In the sermon we’ve begun reading, Jesus was speaking to people who already were His disciples (see Matthew 5:1), and was revealing the standards of holiness He has set for them. He didn’t want anyone who only held to the standards of the Pharisees to think they were actually saved. Jesus concluded this sermon by saying, “Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but they still won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). True believers in Jesus live obedient lives according to God’s standards.

Q. (For teens only) Regarding sex, people often ask, “How far can I go sexually with someone I’m not married to before I’m sinning?” Based on what we’ve read today, how do you think Jesus would respond to that question?

A. He might first ask us why we are asking such a question. Does our question reveal that we are like the Pharisees, looking for an excuse to gratify our sexual desires by using a person to whom we are not committed as a lifetime partner? Sex is a sacred experience designed by God to be enjoyed only within the marriage relationship. God also designed that sex would be a progressive thing, one thing leading to another. It begins with thinking about it, which leads to physical contact. Even when a man and woman are just kissing, their bodies are preparing for intercourse. If, according to Jesus, thinking about sex with a person with whom you are not married is a sin, then it is safe to say that doing the things that lead to more intimate sex is also a sin. Additionally, when you are kissing someone to whom you are not married, you are kissing someone who may well be someone else’s future husband or wife! For these reasons and others, most Bible-believing pastors strongly recommend to the single people that they avoid any and all sexual involvement with anyone to whom they are not engaged. Engagement, unlike marriage, is not a license for sex.

Application: God’s standards for holiness are high when compared to what human beings normally expect from themselves. But, thanks to God, it is possible for us to attain His standards once we are born again. Then the Holy Spirit changes us, and we are no longer captive to sinful living.

During His sermon on the mountainside, Jesus continued to explain the difference between God’s standard of holiness and the Pharisees’ and religious teachers’ standard of holiness. Today the first subject in our reading is divorce. Many of the religious teachers of Jesus’ day misinterpreted, for their own convenience, what Moses had said about divorce. The Law of Moses made provision for divorce only in cases when adultery had been committed. However, the divorce had to be done legally, and it was required that an official divorce certificate be given by the husband to his wife. Many of the religious teachers, however, twisted what the Law actually said, teaching that a man could divorce his wife for any reason, as long as he gave his wife a certificate. As a result, men were divorcing their wives for reasons other than adultery and thinking that they were OK in God’s eyes.

Jesus, however, said they were very guilty before God. In fact, they were triply guilty, because they were not only responsible for their own sin of divorcing their wives, but they were held accountable by God for the “adultery” of their divorced wives (who often had to remarry to survive) and the “adultery” of the men whom their divorced wives married! (I’ve put quotation marks around the word adultery because it was adultery only because the first man had no right to divorce his wife. Thus it was equivalent to his forcing her to have a sexual relationship with another man while he was still married to her.)

Next in His sermon on God’s standards of holiness was the subject of making vows, something else the Law of Moses spoke about which had been conveniently altered by the religious teachers of the day. They taught that if a person swore by the temple, the altar, or by heaven, he was not obligated to keep his vow, but if he swore by the gold of the temple, the offering on the altar, or God in heaven, he was obligated (see Matthew 23:16-22). Apparently there were other items by which a person could vow and not be obligated as well, such as the earth, Jerusalem and his own head (see Matthew 5:35-36). In short, the religious teachers had devised a way by which they could lie, supposedly without being guilty of sin.

Jesus said that God’s standard is much higher than that. People should say what they mean and mean what they say. When someone says, “I swear to God that I’m telling the truth,” he’s admitting that he’s usually a liar. Jesus said His followers should have no need to swear or make vows because they should always tell the truth. Their “yes” and “no” should be trustworthier than anyone else’s most convincing vow.

Next was the subject of revenge. The Law of Moses said that when a person is found guilty in court of injuring another person, his punishment should be equivalent to the harm he caused. If he knocked out someone’s tooth, in fairness and justice, his tooth should be knocked out. This was a commandment to insure that justice would be served in court cases.

However, once again, the religious teachers had twisted this scripture, making it into a commandment for getting personal revenge, something God’s Word forbids (see Deuteronomy 32:35). Obtaining due justice in court is one thing, but getting revenge is another. Additionally, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day had conveniently overlooked the fact that the Old Testament taught they should show kindness to their enemies (see Exodus 23:4-5; Proverbs 25:21-22). That was God’s standard of holiness, and Jesus endorsed it further by telling us to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile when we are dealing with evil people. God wants us to be merciful, not revengeful, when we are wronged.

Finally, we read one more God-given commandment that the religious teachers of Jesus’ day had changed to accommodate their hateful hearts. In the Old Testament, God had said, “Love your neighbor,” but the religious teachers had conveniently assumed that if God wanted them to love their neighbors, then He must have meant for them to hate their enemies. But, according to Jesus, that is not at all what God meant! Jesus would later teach in the story of the Good Samaritan that we should consider every person to be our neighbor. God wants us to love everyone , which includes our enemies. That is God’s standard for His children, a standard to which He Himself lives. He sends crop-growing sun and rain not only on good people, but also on evil people. We should follow His example, showing kindness to undeserving people. As Jesus said, if we only love people who love us, we are doing no more than wicked unbelievers. God’s standard of holiness is perfection, and that is what we should be striving for in our lives.

Q. When Jesus commanded us to turn the other cheek and go the second mile when dealing with evil people, does that mean He wants us to allow people to take advantage of us, allowing them to ruin our lives if they desire?

A. No. Notice that Jesus did not say that we should kill ourselves when someone slaps us on the cheek, give someone our house and furniture when they sue us for our shirt, or walk a thousand miles with a soldier who demands that we carry his gear for a mile. Jesus was simply telling us to be merciful, not revengeful, when dealing with selfish, evil people.

Q. Under Roman law, a Roman soldier could demand that any person carry his gear for one mile, and the Roman soldiers took advantage of that law whenever they could. What did that reveal about the average Roman soldier? What kind of effect do you think it had on a soldier when he forced a Christian to carry his gear, and that Christian gladly accepted and then carried his gear two miles?

Application: Too often, Christians are known for their snobbery or their doctrine. God wants us to be known for our love and servanthood. What do unbelievers think of when they think of you?

Many people came to Jesus seeking to be blessed, wanting to see a miracle or receive healing or deliverance. But Jesus didn’t come to earth simply to attract large crowds of curiosity seekers or provide temporary blessings. He came to “call sinners to turn from their sins” (Luke 5:32), so people would be eternally blessed. Although it’s certainly a blessing to see a miracle or be healed of a sickness, people who are blessed by God only to that degree will still spend eternity in hell when they die. Truly blessed people are those who are eternally blessed.

One day as the curious and blessing seekers were gathering, Jesus took the opportunity to explain what kind of people are eternally blessed of God. In short, they are people who have repented of their sins and have been born again. They are those who have made Jesus their Lord and are destined to spend eternity in God’s kingdom. They can be recognized by how they live their lives, and Jesus described them in the first portion of His sermon on the mountainside. These are the people who are eternally blessed. Let’s consider how Jesus described them.

First, Jesus said that the person who is eternally blessed of God is one who realizes his spiritual poverty apart from God (see Matthew 5:3). Before anyone can be saved, he must see his need for salvation and the impossibility of saving himself.

Second, Jesus said the person who is eternally blessed of God is one who mourns. What did He mean? Possibly Jesus was referring to the mourning a person experiences during the first stages of his repentance, when he realizes how he has offended God. Jesus taught that unless a person is sorrowful for his sins and repents, he would not get into heaven.

Perhaps Jesus was speaking of the sadness that all true Christians feel when they view the world around them, a world that is in rebellion against God and is so far from His original plan. One day those of us who mourn will be comforted, when God creates a new heaven and earth, a place where everyone will do God’s will.

Third, people who are truly and eternally blessed by God are those who are gentle and lowly. One version of the Bible uses the word humble to describe these blessed people. In order to be saved, a person has to humble himself, admitting his helplessness to save himself and depending solely on God’s mercy for salvation. True followers of Jesus continue on the path of humility throughout their lives, recognizing their own inadequacy and complete dependence upon God for everything. As Jesus said, one day “the whole earth will belong to them” (Matthew 5:5). Those humble followers of Jesus will one day be the only people who live on the earth, eternally blessed, because God will have condemned everyone who is proud.

Fourth, truly blessed people are those who long for everyone to be obedient to Jesus. True followers of Jesus hate all the disobedience that exists in the world, but they can look forward to the time, according to Jesus’ promise, when worldwide righteousness will be a reality. That will happen when Jesus rules the world.

Fifth, truly blessed people are merciful. Born-again people can’t help but show mercy to others, because they realize how much mercy God has shown them. They will one day experience the fullness of God’s mercy when they enter into God’s heavenly kingdom, knowing how unworthy they are of such blessings.

Sixth, truly blessed people have pure hearts. Jesus promised that they would one day see God! All true Christians will experience that indescribable blessing, so Jesus must have been describing another characteristic of all His true followers. They have repented in their hearts of wickedness and evil, and now their hearts’ desire is to obey their Lord. People who aren’t born again have impure hearts and are motivated by selfishness.

Seventh, people who are truly blessed of God are “peacemakers.” Jesus must have been describing another characteristic of all true believers, because He promised that the peacemakers would be called children of God, something that all true believers are. True Christians love people with the love God has deposited within them, and thus they hate discord and strife. They work to maintain harmony in their relationships. People who are full of hatred and are always involved in strife are not really saved. Paul wrote that people whose lifestyles are characterized by hostilities, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, divisions and envy will definitely not inherit the Kingdom of God (see Galatians 5:20-21).

Eighth, the truly blessed person is one who is persecuted because he lives for God. Once again, it’s clear Jesus must have been describing another characteristic of all His true followers, because He promised them that the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. Anyone who truly believes in Jesus will be persecuted. That doesn’t mean he will be put in jail or tortured, but it at least means that he will be hated and talked about by others. Jesus once said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you” (Luke 6:26, NASB). When we are persecuted, Jesus said we should be happy about it, because it indicates we’re among the blessed group of people who are going to heaven. Peter wrote, “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed , because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:14, NASB, emphasis added).

Finally, Jesus described His true followers as being the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world.” In Jesus’ time, salt was used primarily as a preservative—to keep foods from going rotten. If it weren’t for the followers of Jesus, the world would surely become completely rotten and everything about it would be evil. However, our job is not only to keep the world from going completely rotten, but to work to improve the world by letting our lights shine. We should bring the light of God’s truth to people who are living in the lies of darkness so that they can join us and be eternally blessed as well!

Q. Did you notice that most, if not all, of the blessings Jesus promised in today’s list are future blessings? And that those who will enjoy those future blessings might suffer some in this life? What does that tell you about God’s perspective of our present lives?

A. It tells us that this life is not as important as our future lives. Our present lives are temporary and will end someday, but our future lives will be eternal. Therefore, it is very wise to make temporary sacrifices in this life to enjoy eternal blessings in the next life. A well-known missionary once wrote, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Q. As you read through Jesus’ description of a truly blessed person, did you think about your own life? Was Jesus describing you?

Application: Although people who are not saved might think we’re foolish for following Christ, and even though we might suffer temporarily because of it, we know we’re truly blessed by God, because we will be citizens of God’s kingdom forever.

What a wrong idea the Pharisees held about keeping the Sabbath holy! They were hoping to catch Jesus healing someone on the Sabbath so they could bring charges against Him for breaking the fourth commandment. Their spiritual blindness is almost beyond our comprehension. No wonder that Mark wrote about Jesus’ reaction, “He looked around at them angrily, because he was deeply disturbed by their hard hearts” (Mark 3:5). Because they classified healing as doing work, they actually thought God would be displeased if Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath day! They didn’t know very much about God, did they?

Jesus exposed their hypocrisy by asking them what they would do if one of their sheep fell into a well on the Sabbath. Certainly they would work to pull it out, even on the Sabbath day. Jesus stated that a person is much more valuable than a sheep, and thus He was only doing for a man what they would do for their sheep. As Jesus so accurately pointed out, the Pharisees were actually claiming that it was wrong for Him to do good on the Sabbath!

Amazingly, even after Jesus exposed the error of their thinking and then instantly healed the man before their eyes, their reaction was not one of repentance. Rather, they called a meeting to discuss plans to kill the One God had sent to be their Savior.

Even though Jesus knew their plans, He was not afraid, but kept right on healing “all the sick among them” (Matthew 12:15). He knew He wouldn’t die until His Father decreed it was time. Knowing the truth and trusting in God will make us courageous, too.

Q. Jesus said that a person is much more valuable than a sheep. Can you think of any modern examples of people placing more value on animals than people?

A. When it is a federal crime to kill a whale or some endangered species but it is lawful to kill unborn babies, it reveals how mixed up people’s minds have become.

Q. Our reading today ends with Matthew quoting one of Isaiah’s prophecies that was fulfilled by Jesus. How can we be sure that Isaiah was speaking of Jesus and not someone else?

A. Because the entire prophecy fits Jesus perfectly. Jesus was God’s chosen servant. What God said through Isaiah about His servant being His beloved and that He was very pleased with Him also fits Jesus perfectly. The Father said of Jesus at His baptism, “This is my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with him” (Matthew 3:17). Also, just like the person Isaiah wrote of, we know that Jesus had God’s Spirit upon Him, because the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove at His baptism. Finally, we know that Isaiah’s prophecy which Matthew quoted could only apply to Jesus, because it could only be said that in “his name will be the hope of all the world” (Matthew 12:21). No other person of history could make a similar claim.

Part of what God said through Isaiah is yet to be fulfilled, but it will be fulfilled one day when Jesus rules the entire world. Then He will bring “full justice with his final victory.” Until that day, the world will be full of injustices.

Application: Praise God that He is not mixed up in His thinking as are the majority of people. Praise God that He has opened our eyes to see things His way, which is the only right way.

As time went on, Jesus’ fame spread far and wide. Curiosity seekers and spiritually hungry people journeyed as far as one hundred miles to see Him, which was quite a distance at a time when there were no cars, trains or airplanes. People had to walk or ride a donkey. But it was worth their effort to see the Son of God, especially for those who needed healing or deliverance from demons. Lots of those kinds of people sought Jesus. One day, there were numerous sick people trying to touch Jesus as He taught along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. So many of them were pressing their way through the crowd that Jesus instructed His disciples to have a boat ready—just in case He was forced into the water by the mob of people! Imagine what that must have been like!

We have to wonder why Jesus would need a boat in such a situation, when we know that on another occasion He walked on the water of the Sea of Galilee. The answer is that, although Jesus was the Son of God, when He became a man, He emptied Himself of some of the qualities that God possesses. For example, Jesus was no longer omnipresent (present everywhere), omniscient (all-knowing) or omnipotent (all-powerful). He didn’t know everything about everybody, and He couldn’t work a miracle at any time, but only as the Holy Spirit willed. That is why Jesus had to be anointed by the Holy Spirit before He began His ministry, and why He did no miracles until after He was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Although Jesus was God, in His ministry He operated as a man anointed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which operate as the Spirit wills (see 1 Corinthians 12:11; Hebrews 2:4). Therefore, we shouldn’t doubt Jesus’ deity when we read about Him relying on a boat to keep Him above water or asking questions to obtain knowledge.

Today we read about Jesus choosing twelve men to be apostles. The word apostle means “one who is sent,” and that is why Jesus chose His apostles—to send them out to preach the gospel. Jesus never could have, by Himself, preached the gospel to everyone who needed to hear it. These twelve men would be His helpers. Notice that there were two sets of brothers in the list: Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, and James and John, the sons of Zebedee. There were also three sets of people with the same name: Simon called Peter and Simon the Zealot, James son of Zebedee and James son of Alphaeus, and Judas son of James (here called Thaddaeus) and Judas Iscariot.

Q. Jesus gave authority to cast out demons to the twelve men He chose to be His apostles. Why do you think He did that?

A. To help them in their task of spreading the gospel. When people were delivered from demons by the apostles’ command, it would advertise their ministry and draw more people to hear the gospel.

Q. Why do you think Jesus nicknamed James and John the “sons of thunder”?

A. To be a “son of thunder” would mean to be the product of something powerful and loud that startles people and gets their attention. For example, you may have heard the expression, “son of a gun.” It’s not a compliment to call someone the offspring of something that kills. Jesus would never have given James and John a nickname that would have been a continual criticism, so it must have been either a compliment or an encouragement. Probably it was an encouragement that God would transform them both into powerful preachers who would startle people like thunder and arrest their attention.

Application: Just as Jesus chose twelve apostles to help Him reach more people with the gospel, so Jesus is still choosing people for the same task. Everyone who is a believer in Jesus is given some kind of ministry that contributes to the expansion of His kingdom.

The Pharisees were a sect of Jews who prided themselves in their holiness. They thought they were fully obeying God’s laws and were certain that God especially favored them because of it. Surely God, impressed by how they had kept their religious duties, would welcome them into His kingdom. But now they had a big problem, and His name was Jesus. He claimed to be an authority on spiritual matters, and His popularity as a religious teacher was rapidly growing as He traveled about teaching and healing. To the Pharisees’ alarm, Jesus’ teaching about holiness was much different from theirs. Some of those differences surfaced in today’s reading, as the Pharisees vainly tried to find fault with Jesus.

The first fault the Pharisees found in Jesus was that He and His disciples didn’t fast. When someone fasts, he stops eating food for a while for some religious purpose. Not eating for a day or two is not an easy thing to do, and the Pharisees prided themselves that they fasted often. They thought they were earning points from God for their self-sacrifice.

Of course, skipping meals is foolish and pointless unless it is something God wants a person to do. And if it is, you can be certain God has a good reason for wanting a person to fast, since He obviously created people with a need to eat food regularly in order to live! So why would God want someone to fast? Probably the most valid reason for fasting is to have more time to spend in God’s Word and prayer. This was especially true in ancient times, when the preparation of meals took much more time than it does today.

Jesus didn’t say that fasting was wrong. He only said that, because the Pharisees and religious leaders didn’t understand who He was, they were fasting during a time when it wasn’t necessary. The main reason to fast is to spend more time in prayer to God. But God was right in their midst! Why would they ever fast to try to get closer to God when they had direct access to Him in Jesus? Jesus said that people don’t fast during someone’s wedding simply because that is not an appropriate time to fast. It’s a time to celebrate. Likewise, it was now a time to celebrate and enjoy God’s presence! When Jesus returned to heaven, then they could intelligently resume their practice of fasting.

Then Jesus shared two illustrations that explained the heart of His problem with the Pharisees and religious leaders. Both illustrations present the folly of mixing new and old things.

Jesus said that people don’t tear a piece of cloth from a new piece of clothing in order to patch a hole in an old piece of clothing. If they did, the new clothing would be ruined, and the old clothing would look bad with a patch that didn’t match. The understanding of the Pharisees and religious teachers was like an old, worn-out garment that needed patching. But Jesus’ teaching was like new clothing. It would be foolish to try to take a small part of Jesus’ teaching and make it fit with the old ideas and traditions of the Pharisees. The only intelligent thing to do would be to simply discard the old, worn-out clothes and put on the new ones.

In His second illustration, Jesus mentioned wineskins. They were bottles made out of animal skins for the purpose of holding wine. Nobody would pour brand new wine into old wineskins, because as the grape juice fermented and released gas, the old, hard, inflexible wineskins would burst, and all the wine would be lost. People only put new wine into new wineskins that were more flexible and wouldn’t burst as the grape juice fermented. The Pharisees and religious leaders were like the old, hardened, inflexible wineskins and Jesus was like the new wine. It was impossible for them to accept His new teaching because they were so set in their ways. They were satisfied with just holding the same old wine, and were unable to receive anything new and fresh from God. In fact, they considered their old understanding of spiritual matters to be superior. How wrong they were!

The second fault the Pharisees found with Jesus was His disregard of the law of the Sabbath. God did say in the Old Testament that the Sabbath should be a day of rest, and, therefore, no one should work on the Sabbath. The Pharisees, however, had taken that law to the extreme, claiming that Jesus and His disciples were sinning when they prepared a low-budget meal by breaking off heads of wheat in a field. It would be like claiming that you sinned by working on the Sabbath if you exerted effort in pouring milk over a bowl of breakfast cereal!

Jesus responded to their criticism by proving from the Old Testament that God was not opposed to what He and His disciples were doing. Once David had broken the law, eating bread that was supposed to be eaten only by the priests. David normally would not have eaten that consecrated bread, but he did it out of necessity because there was nothing else to eat, and he and his companions needed nourishment. God certainly understood, and He wasn’t angry with David. The same was true concerning Jesus and His disciples. They needed to eat, and God wasn’t angry with what they were doing. He gave the law of the Sabbath because He loves people and doesn’t want them to work at their jobs seven days a week. He wants them to enjoy a day of rest. Picking a little grain to eat on the Sabbath is OK. Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

Beyond that, Jesus was God, and He is the One who gave the commandment about the Sabbath! So He certainly knew how to interpret His own law! Jesus’ claim to be “master even of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:5) was equivalent to claiming to be God. The one who gives the law is greater than the law he gives. God can do anything He wants to do on the Sabbath, because He doesn’t have to answer to anyone! On this occasion, Jesus acted like we would expect God to act, adding additional proof that He was who He claimed to be.

Q. Is it wrong to rake leaves in your yard or ride your bike up a steep hill on Sunday afternoon since God said the Sabbath should be a day of rest?

A. Only if you rake leaves for a living, and had raked leaves Monday through Saturday, then it might be wrong to rake leaves on Sunday! (And especially not if you are planning to jump in the pile of leaves you rake!) And only if you are a professional bike racer who had ridden his bike Monday through Saturday might it be wrong to ride your bike on a strenuous course on Sunday afternoon.

Additionally, the real Sabbath is not Sunday, but begins Friday evening and ends on Saturday evening! And the Sabbath commandment was not carried over into the New Covenant, proven by the fact that it is not found in any of the letters to the churches in the Bible.

Application: Aren’t you glad that your heart and mind are not closed, like the Pharisees’, to Jesus’ teaching? Some people’s minds are like concrete: thoroughly mixed and well set! Ask God today to open your mind and heart even more, and show you if you are like an old wineskin in any way.

Apparently Levi, also known as Matthew, had been touched by Jesus’ ministry in Capernaum. Perhaps he had listened as Jesus taught by the Sea of Galilee or heard the testimonies of people who had been healed. When Jesus called Matthew to be His disciple, he didn’t hesitate for a minute, but left everything behind to follow his new Lord.

What was so amazing about Matthew’s calling is that he was a very sinful man—at least until he met Jesus. Matthew was a tax collector, which meant that he worked for Rome, the country that occupied and controlled Israel at that time. The Israelites hated the Romans, and naturally they had no respect for any fellow Israelite who worked for them. Tax collectors were considered traitors by their countrymen.

Beyond that, tax collectors had a reputation for being very dishonest, forcing their fellow Israelites to pay more in taxes than Rome required and then keeping the extra money for themselves. In so doing, they became rich at the expense of their own neighbors. Thus, the only type of people who would have been Matthew’s friends were fellow tax collectors and other people of very low moral character. Those were the type of people who came to Matthew’s banquet.

Matthew, however, had become a disciple of Jesus, repenting of his sins, and as is the case of anyone who is a true follower of Jesus, he wanted his friends to meet Jesus also and be saved. That is the reason he held a banquet in Jesus’ honor. It was a low-key evangelistic meeting, and Jesus, who loves everyone, gladly accepted the invitation to spend some time eating with Matthew’s sinful friends.

Because He did, He was criticized by the Pharisees and religious teachers, who would never associate with such people. Jesus responded by informing them that the purpose of His coming was to “call sinners to turn from their sins” (Luke 5:32). In order to do that, He had to spend time with sinners, and that is exactly why He attended Matthew’s banquet. Jesus didn’t spend His time at that banquet talking about sports or the weather! He was telling sinners that they needed to repent and follow Him, just as their friend Matthew had!

Q. The Pharisees and religious teachers we read about today didn’t understand two important things. First, they thought holy people shouldn’t associate with sinful people. But just the opposite is true. If people are truly holy, they will associate with sinful people, because holy people are motivated by love to share Jesus with those who need to be saved.

That should give you a clue concerning the second thing about which the Pharisees and religious teachers were mistaken. What was it?

A. They thought they were holy, but actually they were themselves sinners who needed to be saved. Jesus referred to this fact when He said, “I have come to call sinners to turn from their sins, not to spend my time with those who think they are already good enough ” (Luke 5:32, emphasis added). Jesus was speaking of the Pharisees and religious teachers.

Q. What would you think if your pastor accepted an invitation to a party that was hosted by a newly-converted drug pusher for his drug pusher friends?

Application: Jesus in us loves evil and sinful people. Do we? Or are we like the Pharisees who considered themselves too holy to spend time with sinners?

Many people have wondered what God is like. They’ve looked at flowers, snowflakes, hummingbirds and rainbows and realized that God must be very smart and very powerful. The things He’s made are amazing! And when people eat a crisp apple, sit by a warm fire on a cold day, or listen to musical instruments, they realize that all those wonderful things are made possible by God, and so He must also be very kind.

But knowing God through what He’s made is somewhat like knowing an artist only through his paintings. How much more could you learn about that artist if you could actually meet him in person and be friends for a few years?

God wants us to know Him personally, and not just through what He has created. That is one reason that God sent Jesus to the earth. We read today, “No one has ever seen God. But his only Son, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart; he has told us about him” (John 1:18). Nobody knew God the Father better than Jesus. They had lived together forever! In the original language in which John wrote, he said something like, “Jesus and God the Father were bosom buddies!”

Not only did Jesus know more than anyone else about God the Father, He also acted more like God the Father than anyone else. Have you ever heard the expression, “Like father, like son”? That was certainly true concerning Jesus and His Father. Jesus once said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” (John 14:9). If we want to learn what God the Father is like, all we have to do is learn about Jesus. We read today, “Everything about [Jesus] represents God exactly” (Heb. 1:3). If God the Father had become a human being instead of Jesus, He would have said and done the same things.

Before Jesus came, there were only two ways to learn about God: through looking at His creation, and through studying the words of the people who wrote the Old Testament. Some of those people had experiences with God from which we can learn, and some of them (the prophets) actually spoke God’s words. But ever since Jesus came, we now have three ways to learn about God! As we study the life and ministry of Jesus in the weeks ahead, we’ll be learning about God, the creator of everything, a person with whom we’ll be friends forever. What could be more exciting than that?

Q. Perhaps your parents are like most parents: one is a little more strict than the other. If you have to get a spanking, you probably would prefer to get it from your mother, because she doesn’t spank quite as hard as your father! Do you think God the Father is more strict than Jesus is since He’s the Father?

A. No. Both the Father and Son are equally loving and equally strict. They become equally angry over the same things and care about you the same.

Application: Since God has put forth so much effort to help us to get to know Him, we should study His creation, His Word, and the life of Jesus so that He will become our closest friend.

Can you imagine what it would have been like to witness this miracle? Four men brought their paralyzed friend on a pallet to a house where they heard Jesus was staying. Upon arrival, they discovered that the house was jammed with people, and many others were standing outside looking in, blocking all the doors and windows. There was no way to get their friend close to Jesus.

But they would not be discouraged. The roofs of the houses in Capernaum were flat, and many of them had stairs that went from the outside of the house up to the roof. So they carried their paralyzed friend to the roof of the house, dug an opening through the clay, and then lowered him on his pallet by ropes right in front of Jesus. It must have taken a lot of time and effort to dig through the hardened clay roof and caused some commotion inside the house when the clay dust began falling from the ceiling. I wonder what the people inside were thinking as they coughed, wiped dust from their eyes, and watched a hole slowly form in the ceiling above their heads.

What was Jesus thinking then? He was thinking about the faith of the men who were going to so much trouble. The Bible says that it is “impossible to please God without faith” (Hebrews 11:6). Because of their faith, the paralyzed man was forgiven and completely healed within seconds. If they hadn’t believed, they would never have gone to so much trouble, and their friend would have remained unforgiven and paralyzed, even though it was obviously God’s will for the man to be forgiven and healed.

Why did Jesus first tell the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven? No one knows for sure, but perhaps the paralyzed man was coming to Jesus both for healing and forgiveness. Certainly being forgiven of sins is even more important than being healed. Or, perhaps the paralyzed man, because of all his sins, had doubts that he would be healed, so Jesus removed his doubts by assuring him of forgiveness. Or, possibly the man had become paralyzed as a direct result of some sin he had committed. In that case, Jesus took care of the cause before giving the cure.

Regardless, when Jesus told him that his sins were forgiven, it caused quite a stir among the religious teachers who were present. They knew that only God could forgive sins, so Jesus was claiming to be God! They thought He was guilty of blasphemy (saying something that was very offensive to God).

Jesus knew what the religious teachers were thinking, so He proved, right before their eyes, that He had the right to forgive sins, also proving His deity. Anyone could pretend to have the authority to forgive sins because there would be no visible result. But no one can convincingly pretend to have authority to heal paralysis, because the result would be plain for everyone to see. When Jesus instantly healed the paralyzed man, it proved He had authority to heal, and it gave credibility to His claim to be able to forgive sins.

To us, this is one more proof that Jesus was the Son of God. If an average sinful human being claimed to be able to forgive sins, we would know he was blaspheming. But when a virgin-born, sinless, miracle-working person forgives someone’s sins, it’s just one more proof of what we would already suspect: God had become a man!

Q. We read that Jesus actually saw the faith of the four men and their paralyzed friend. How can faith be seen?

A. By actions. The Bible says, “faith is dead without good deeds” (James 2:26). Many people say that they believe in Jesus, but only those who have corresponding actions really do. Sometimes, Christians say they believe certain promises in the Bible, but their contrary actions prove that they really don’t.

Q. Just like this man whom Jesus healed, our sins have been forgiven by Jesus. If we truly believe our sins are forgiven, we will act like forgiven people. How do forgiven people act?

A. At the minimum, they would be happy and grateful to God for their forgiveness, and would show their gratitude by obedience to God.

Application: There has never been another person in history like Jesus. Other people in history may have claimed to forgive sins, but their lives proved they were phony. Any honest person who examines the evidence will be convinced that Jesus was God in the form of a human being.

If you live in the United States or any other developed nation, you will probably never see a person with leprosy. It’s a horrible skin disease that actually eats away at the parts of the body it has infected. People who are afflicted with leprosy watch their fingers and toes slowly dissolve. Eventually, they die from the disease. To make matters worse, leprosy is easily spread to other people, so no one wants to be near a leper. When a person gets leprosy, he soon loses all his friends. In the Old Testament, God made a law that required all leprous people to cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” whenever they were in a public place where other people might be infected (see Leviticus 13:45).

The Greek word translated leprosy was used to describe various skin diseases in Jesus’ time, so it’s possible that this man whom Jesus healed was not suffering from the disease we refer to today as leprosy. However, there’s no doubt he had a very serious physical problem, and his situation was desperate. He fell on his knees before Jesus, begging to be healed. From the reports he had heard of others being healed, he knew Jesus was able to cure him. But he didn’t know if Jesus wanted to heal him. Jesus, however, was moved with pity for the distraught man, and assured him that He did want to heal him. A second later, the leprous man felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time: the touch of another person. As Jesus put His hand on him, instantly his leprosy was gone. Imagine how he felt as he looked at his new skin!

Some people think that Jesus healed people only to prove that He was the Son of God. Certainly Jesus’ healings did prove that. Because God the Father had given Him authority over all things, including disease, Jesus simply spoke and the leprous man was instantly healed. We read today, however, that Jesus was “moved with pity” over the leprous man’s situation. Jesus healed this man because He loved him, not just to prove that He was the Son of God.

For all Christians, this healing story, along with the many others in the Bible, affirms that God cares about our health and will one day give us brand new bodies that will not be subject to sickness and disease. For some Christians, like myself, the stories of people whom Jesus healed inspire us to trust that we don’t have to wait until heaven to experience physical healing. Jesus never told anyone who came to Him requesting healing, “Rejoice, because in heaven you’ll be healthy.” In every case, He healed sick people, often crediting their faith. When we remain ill, we often claim that it must not be God’s will for us to be healed, but more likely, our own lack of faith is to blame. Jesus said, “Anything is possible if a person believes” (Mark 9:23). Praise God that we can trust God for healing, and praise God that even if we fail to trust God for healing, He doesn’t condemn us.

According to the Old Testament law, the priests were responsible to determine whether or not people had leprosy. If a person thought he might have contracted the disease, he was supposed to be examined by a priest. If the priest declared him a leper, he had to obey the laws of leprosy, removing himself from contact with non-leprous society. Likewise, if a leprous person was healed, only a priest could make the official determination and allow the former leper reentry into normal society.

Jesus commanded this leper to obey that law and show himself to the priest, taking along the required offering, as a testimony of his healing. It was probably the first time that priest ever performed that part of his job, declaring a leper to be cleansed! I wonder if he had to look up the appropriate scriptures just to find out what he was supposed to do!

Q. Why did Jesus tell this man He healed not to talk to anyone on his way to the priest?

A. Because Jesus didn’t need any more advertising. If the former leper started spreading the news of what happened, Jesus knew He would soon be mobbed with people, and it would actually hinder His ministry. Sure enough, the man didn’t obey Jesus, telling everyone what had happened, and Jesus was then unable to publicly enter any nearby towns. Several days later, Jesus did sneak back into Capernaum where He had been living, but was soon discovered. Within a short time, the house where He was staying was crammed with people, inside and out (see Mark 2:1-4).

Q. Wouldn’t it be horrible never to be touched by anyone? Sometimes parents feel like they must have leprosy, because their kids never hug or kiss them (especially when their kids are with friends). Have you hugged your parents today?

Application: In one way, we were like this leper. We had a spiritual disease that prevented us from ever hoping to enter the society of heaven. But Jesus cleansed us! Now we can look forward to enjoying eternal life with the many others like us whom Jesus has cleansed of sin.