"Immediately"
I've always thought that the calling of Andrew and Peter, James and John was a strange story, but recently I read something somewhere that made a lot of sense to me. Twice, Matthew tells us that the brothers left their nets "immediately," i.e., when Jesus calls, they respond totally: they don't hedge their bets or halfway follow him. What's Matthew trying to tell us?
Either we follow Jesus, or we don't: there is no place for a half-hearted discipleship.3
Jesus says, "Follow me." In response, what do you need to "immediately" leave, drop, or do today?
Today's Scripture
There Is No Shortcut Through Suffering
The essence of the devil's testing of Jesus in the Wilderness in Matthew 4 is about suffering. The crucial question: is there a shortcut through suffering for Jesus?
Jesus and the devil are in agreement: Jesus will reign in the end. The question is, can he receive his glory without going through suffering? Look carefully and see that the temptations are all about a shortcut through suffering: food instead of fasting, safety instead of danger, the crown without the cross.
The temptation for Jesus to avoid suffering must have been nearly irresistible.
Nearly irresistible, but not ultimately so. Jesus resists. He knows that, for whatever reason, there is no shortcut through suffering in this life. For whatever reason, the cross comes before the crown.
I wish I could tell you that it is possible to live life without difficulty, but that would be a lie. The good news, though, is that there is nothing unusual about your difficulties--everyone has trials. The even better news is that God redeems all that he allows, and that our "present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).
So, there's no shortcut through suffering. It's just one foot in front of the other. But, be hopeful: the Lord has something amazing planned at the end.
Today's Scripture
Which Jesus?
I just read today's reading to my 8 year-old son, and this is what he said:
"I don't think John the Baptist did a good job telling the people about who Jesus would be because Jesus didn't come with fire...he was gracious to the people, and John kinda gave people the wrong idea."
Is that right? John is certainly a fiery fellow. See how he addresses the Pharisees (a conservative Jewish group who believed that the Jews needed to come back to the Torah and be obedient) and the Sadducees (the ruling group of priests who collaborated with the Romans):
"You brood of vipers....
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
John the Baptist, Matthew 3:11-12
That image of a wrathful judge doesn't fit with our typical picture of Jesus, meek and mild. And, in Matthew's Gospel Jesus does seem gracious and kind in many situations. In that way, my son was right.
But on the other hand, there are elements of the wrathful judge in Matthew's description of Jesus. (To cite one example among many, see the famous parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.)
As we read Matthew's Gospel, we'll see that Jesus doesn't fit preconceived notions, in his time or in our own. Yes, he is gracious and merciful (particularly towards the weak and downtrodden), but he is also forthright and condemning (particularly towards the religious and arrogant).
Jesus doesn't conform to our expectations, and that's the point:
We don't fit Jesus into what we already think. Rather, we need to fit what we think into Jesus. That's much harder, and much more important.
Today's Scripture
Herod Was Right
Today's reading contains the evil story of the Slaughter of the Innocents in Bethlehem, in which King Herod orders all little boys in Bethlehem's vicinity two years-old and younger to be murdered. Matthew then quotes from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah (who was himself alluding to the Book of Genesis):
"Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
'A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.'"Matthew 2:17-18
It's a miserable story, an Herod was an evil man. But he was right.
Herod wasn't right because he had those boys murdered; Herod was right because he rightly understood that this Jesus is a threat to all dictators and demons. Even today, the Chinese totalitarians are using the vast resources of their hellish surveillance state to stamp out peaceful followers of Jesus. Why? Because if Jesus is the true King, then the powers of this world will be held to account; if Jesus is the true King, then one day his Kingdom will come fully, on earth as it already is in heaven.
Don't be fooled: all the rival powers are mere pretenders, and will one day be finally overthrown.
What would it look like for you to worship the true King today?
Today's Scripture
By Another Route
"They returned to their country by another route."
Matthew 2:12b
I think the Magi are among the most interesting characters in the Bible. Probably some kind of Persian or Babylonian stargazers--"wise men"--they saw something in the heavens so compelling that they left their homes and temples and libraries miles away to the East, and journeyed toward Bethlehem. And when they got there, what did they see?
Whatever it was, it changed them. I love how T.S. Eliot imagines them on their return home:
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.from "The Journey of the Magi," by T.S. Eliot
Matthew is more matter-of-fact: "They returned to their country by another route." See, here's the truth: encounters with Jesus are always like that. You can't meet Jesus and continue on as before, unchanged.
What different route or path do you need to take today?
Today's Scripture
The Quiet Divorce
"Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, but before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly”
Matthew 1:18-19
I’ve always found that to be a quietly moving line: “And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.” That decision of Joseph’s was a small, selfless act of kindness on which the fate of the world turned.
Don’t underestimate the importance of a small, unnoticed act of selfless kindness today. Who knows what hangs in the balance?
Today's Scripture
Jewish Jesus
The first page of the New Testament--which is the first page of Matthew's Gospel--begins with what seems the most boring way possible: a genealogy (!). The problem is (and I mean no offense) that we are too illiterate to know the stories behind the names. Matthew's first readers were probably Jewish, and to them each name was a hyperlink to an amazing story from their history. (To cite just one example, read the truly scandalous story about Tamar, mentioned in Matthew 1:3 as one of the foremothers of Jesus.) What this genealogy does is something very important: it shows that Jesus came from a particular people in a particular part of the world. Jesus was Jewish, a son of Abraham, an Israelite.This point cannot be overstated: God chose one particular family to be his means to save the world, and when the time was right, God came as a baby in a particular manger in Bethlehem. God uses the ordinary realities of everyday life as part of his ultimate plan.This means that God wants to use your ordinary decisions today as part of his plan. Either you can be working with God, or against him. Which will it be today?
Today's Scripture
Additional Resources
I wrote about this passage in August 2018. Also, the Bible Project has a truly excellent post on Matthew's Genealogy.