The Lord of Mercy—Matthew 12:1-8
Jesus Christ rules all things for God’s glory and the well-being of his people. This includes the Sabbath.
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
Jesus and his disciples were walking along through the fields of grain on the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. We don’t know what they were talking about -- Jesus’ miracles? The coming of the kingdom of God? The righteousness of the kingdom? The disciples were hungry, and they started to snack.
Powerful Savior of the Weak—Matthew 11:20-30
Jesus is a powerful Savior of weak people. Many people who saw his power at work failed to recognize it. The people who seemed the wisest missed it, but little children saw it, because only God could make people see who Jesus really was. Likewise, only Jesus can make people see who his Father is.
In these verses, we see Jesus' power, his revelation, and his rest: the power he wields, his revelation of God, and the rest that he gives.
There are two sides to his power. First is the mercy of his power.
The One Who Is to Come—Matthew 11:1-19
Jesus fulfilled, not people's expectations, but God's promises of a Savior. Even the great John the Baptist was confused by Jesus. The majority of Jesus' generation were still further from the mark in their evaluation of the Son of Man.
"Now," Matthew tells us, "when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, 'Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?'"
Christ the Center of Conflict—Matthew 10:34-11:1
With these verses, Jesus brings to a close his instructions to the twelve disciples as he sends them out to proclaim the kingdom of heaven. He continues to hammer home his main theme: that his people must be willing to face suffering, and must trust that God will reward them in the end. He promises conflict for the whole earth, eternal life for his faithful followers, and his own presence to those who receive his ambassadors.
Jesus, Magnet for Trouble—and Shield—Matthew 10:24-33
This passage shows us that Jesus gets us into trouble with people, and out of trouble with God.
Maybe you had a childhood friend who was a magnet for trouble, and you found yourself getting into trouble too whenever you hung out with him. Jesus is a little bit like that. He's a magnet for trouble--the closer we get to him, the more people seem to have a problem with us. It isn't always like that, but it often is, and Jesus wouldn't have us be surprised by this.
A Mission through the Grave—Matthew 10:16-23
For Christians, it matters a lot what period of history we live in. Jesus Christ has died for us, risen from the grave, and sent us on a mission to teach the world about him. That defines the life we live.
This passage (Matthew 10:16-23) is about a different time. Jesus hadn't died, he hadn't risen, and he hadn't sent his disciples to tell the world about those things, which hadn't happened. But he was still sending them out on a mission, and it was a tough one.
The Lord of the Harvest—Matthew 9:35-10:15
In this passage, Jesus sends his disciples on a mission. Christians, we are also on a mission. It isn't exactly the same as the mission of the twelve disciples in this passage, but we can learn a lot from studying their mission. If you were an officer in the army, you would want to learn from the battles fought before you. For instance, Americans who fought in North Africa in World War II learned that with more advanced weapons, soldiers in WWII were firing far more rounds per day than soldiers in World War I. This meant that in later campaigns in Italy and in Western Europe, they would stockpile more ammunition. An officer at D-Day would be foolish to ignore lessons learned in Tunisia, and we Christians today would be foolish to ignore what we can learn from this mission of the twelve disciples.
A Poor and Silent Savior—Proverbs 10:11-22
Everyone can think of a superpower they would like: invisibility, teleportation, immense strength, bullet-proof skin. Like many, I would choose to fly.
These powers are only found in the comic books, but there are some real life superpowers. Proverbs 10:11-22 focuses on two of them: money and speech. You can get a lot with money, if you have enough of it. And sometimes, what you can't get with money, you can get with persuasion, with rhetoric, with the ability to speak well. But these powers, like the powers in the comic books, can be misused too. Sinful people are prone to do more harm the more power they have.
Laughable, Demonic, or the Savior of the World—Matthew 9:18-34
While some found him laughable and others called him demonic, Jesus proved that he is the Savior of the world.
The passage right before this ends with Jesus' point that new wine is for new wineskins, because if you put new wine into old wineskins, the skins will burst. What happens next is a rapid-fire demonstration of Jesus' "new wine": the power of the kingdom of heaven which he brings to earth to save people from their problems.
Matthew 9:9-17—From Sin to Celebration
In this passage, we learn that Jesus came to heal sick sinners and turn our sorrow into celebration.
In the last chapter, Jesus gave some stern warnings to a couple of men who said they wanted to be his disciples. But now he walks up to a tax collector, a Jew who worked for the oppressing Romans, a man who would be thought of as a traitor, and he tells him, "Follow me." And the next thing you know, Jesus is kicking back and dining with a bunch of tax collectors and notorious sinners.
The Forgiveness of God—Matthew 9:2-8
In Matthew 8:18-22, we saw that followers of Jesus lose comforts and connections. But in 8:23-27, we saw that his followers gain true safety, and in 8:28-9:1, we saw that they gain real forgiveness. Now we see another thing that followers of Jesus gain: the forgiveness of God.
Real Freedom—Matthew 8:28-9:1
We’ve seen that followers of Jesus lose comforts. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
And we’ve seen that followers of Jesus lose connections, even dear ones: “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
But we’ve also seen that followers of Jesus gain true safety. He calmed a storm with a word. What can he not do? If you’re with him, even if the waves look rough, you are truly safe.
And now, in these verses, we see that followers of Jesus gain real freedom.
True Safety—Matthew 8:18-27
In this passage, Jesus puts a magnifying glass over the fine print of the gospel. A credit card company or a pharmaceutical company might put interest rates or side effects in fine print to keep you from reading, but Jesus wants you to know the sacrifices you have to make to be his disciple. There are two things he says you will lose: comforts and connections. If what matters most to you are the comforts and connections you had before you met Jesus, then you aren't ready to follow him.
Then why should anyone follow Jesus? This passage and the ones after it give us three reasons. Yes, you will lose comforts and connections, but you will gain true safety, real freedom, and divine forgiveness. This passage focuses on safety: Followers of Jesus lose comforts and connection, but gain true safety.
A Kingdom for Outcasts—Matthew 8:1-17
In these verses, Jesus gives Galilee another taste of heaven, cleansing a leper, healing a Roman centurion's sick servant, healing Peter's mother-in-law so thoroughly that she gets up and starts to do housework, and healing and casting out demons from a whole crowd of others.
What was the good of this taste of heaven, you might ask, if things just went back to being how they used to be? Galilee today isn't heaven on earth. All those sick people got sick again, and they are all dead. What was the point?
A Rock-Solid Foundation—Matthew 7:21-29
This passage teaches us that Jesus is a king who rejects his flatterers, a king who upholds his followers, and a king whose word is law. He is a king who saves, a rock-solid foundation for everyone who does what he tells them to do.
A Hard Road with a Good Leader—Matthew 7:13-20
"Repent and believe," Jesus said, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." That's good news: you can be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. It's good, but that doesn't mean it's easy. In fact, the way to heaven is a hard road -- but it's a road we travel with a good leader, Christ himself.
Not Judges but Children—Matthew 7:1-12
I have thought of a good birthday present for my children. Not just my children -- I think almost any child would find a use for this. A gavel. Most children, in my experience, think they are judges. All they lack is the gear. I include myself in this. I remember passing judgment on my siblings quite regularly. It was not enough to play the lawyer, accusing them to my parents. I was quite happy to name their crimes and fix their sentences myself.
Christians can be the same. We sometimes think that Christ has appointed us as judges of our neighbors, that it is our job to peer over the hedge and pass sentence on the folks next door, or to glance around the pews and rank our brethren for their holiness.
A Savior from Worry—Matthew 6:19-34
People spend their lives chasing wealth and running from want. The wealthiest people can still think of things they don't have. The poorest people can still think of things they can lose. No matter how far people get from want, and how much wealth they attain, they stay trapped in the zone between the two. That zone is called worry.
But there is a place that is free from worry, and it is called the kingdom of heaven.
How Jesus’s People Find Reward—Matthew 6:1-18
In this passage, Jesus teaches us how to get rewarded for our righteousness.
Does that sound rather mercenary? Would it be better to do what is right without any thought of reward? I think of my two-year-old, who is learning to dress herself. When she puts on her clothes by herself, she comes to us, and she wants us to throw our hands in the air and say, "I'm so surprised!" and give her a big hug. Would it be better for her to say, "No need for a hug. I am diligent simply for diligence's sake"? Hardly. I'm glad she wants us to be pleased with her. And it's equally proper that we should want God to be pleased with us.
Remember Jesus Christ, Risen from the Dead—2 Timothy 2:8-9
Since the first days of the church, Christians have gathered every Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. These two verses, 2 Timothy 2:8-9, give us a chance to meditate on that resurrection. I want to draw attention to the four phrases of verse 8: (1) Remember Jesus Christ, (2) risen from the dead, (3) the offspring of David, (4) as preached in my gospel. If you understand what is meant by these short phrases, you know what you need to know to be a Christian. You could start reading this article as an unbeliever and finish it as a believer.
But Paul wrote this for a believer, for Timothy, a pastor Paul himself trained. And he thought Timothy needed to be reminded to remember these things.