It is amazing how we humans like to rank and rate things. If you’re not first your last… We want to have the best products if possible. If not the best, we certainly don’t want the worst.
The Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day were not strangers to the ranking and rating game. They had greater and lesser prophets. They were also interested in ranking the commandments. One day as others were trying to trip Jesus up in something he might say, an expert in the law joined in.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew22:36–40NIV
According to Jesus, the greatest commandment is to love God. Quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, Jesus points us to something very important. God is not interested in us simply keeping rules or the law. God wants us to love him with all our heart, soul, and mind… essentially all that we are.
Next Jesus ranks loving our neighbor the way we would love ourselves as the second greatest commandment. Not just the neighbor that lives next door, but anyone that we may encounter in life as was pointed out in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We are to love those who God loves (that’s everybody) the way we love ourselves.
These two commandments are so important that Jesus said everything else in scripture hangs on them. That seems to put them far and ahead of the big ten and the hundreds of other commandments in scripture.
If we want to please God, we must love him with all that we are, and love others as much as we love ourselves. Nothing else is more important.
Prayer: Dear loving God, help me to love you and those you love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Reading through the Bible, we see many warnings about wandering from the faith. They are in both the Old and New Testaments. In Hebrews 3, we see a warning about wandering from the faith from the Old Testament example of the Israelites that were led through the wilderness for forty years.
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways’; As I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ” Hebrews3:7–11NASB1995
I have said on many occasions that allowing sin to remain in our lives is dangerous. The Holy Spirit continually shows us the sin in our lives that is separating us from God. We either deal with the sin and continue in right relation with God or we choose to keep the sin and ignore the Holy Spirit. That is how we harden our hearts against God.
It is a slippery slope when we choose not to deal with sin because it allows other sins to take root in our lives. Once this begins to happen, we accelerate the hardening of our heart against God. It becomes more and more difficult to hear God speaking to us. This puts us in a dangerous condition where we can actually deny our faith in God.
The author of Hebrews gives us clear warning and we would do well to, not only listen but examine our lives to see if we are cherishing sin over God.
“Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end…” Hebrews3:12–14NASB1995
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for the incredible sacrifice you made to make me right with God! Help me to listen to your Spirit and continually confess and turn from sins that harden my heart against you. Amen.
It is easier for us to identify with people like us. When we are around other people, we gravitate to those like us. We look, consciously or subconsciously, for those who look like us. We try to identify people we have something in common with.
I went to a meeting once with people from across the state. One of the first people I spoke to was a guy with a motorcycle helmet. I like riding motorcycles and was curious about his bike I passed in the parking lot.
The author of Hebrews chapter two points out how Jesus identified with us. “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same…” Hebrews 2:14 NASB1995
Reading that line made me think of Joan Osborne’s song, (What If God Was) One of Us. The lyric in the song that stands out in my mind is…“What if God was one of us. Just a slob like one of us. Just a stranger on the bus. Trying to make His way home.”
Jesus became one of us. He looked like us. He ate and drank like we do. He laughed and cried. He taught us how to understand the Father.
Hebrews 2:14 also tells us that he died like we do. “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,” Not only did he identify with us by dying for us, but he also took the power of death away from the devil.
“Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Hebrews2:17NASB1995 We are attracted to Christ because the Holy Spirit draws us to him. We are also attracted to him because in every way, he became like us.
The chapter concludes, “For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” Hebrews2:18NASB1995 He even allowed himself to be tempted like us.
A few chapters over we read that Jesus sympathizes with our weakness because he himself was tempted in all things. “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews4:15NASB1995
Jesus made it easy for us to identify with him. In every way he was one of us. He was also tempted like we are so that he sympathizes with us and helps us when we are tempted!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for being so much like me, yet without sin. Lord help me to identify with you so much that I become just like you. Amen
21:33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.
21:34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce.
21:35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.
21:36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way.
21:37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.
21:38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’
21:39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him
21:40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
21:41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?
21:43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.
21:44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
21:45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them.
21:46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
As we think about this scripture, let’s consider the context it is in. The Pharisees and religious leaders are questioning Jesus’ authority because of his overturning the tables of the moneychangers and driving out those selling animals in the temple. The religious leaders ask him who gave him the authority to do this. He responds by saying he will answer them if they answer him. He asks them, “The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?” Recognizing that either answer would be bad for them, they refuse to answer. Jesus also refuses to answer their question about authority directly but instead tells a series of parables.
It is interesting to consider when Matthew’s gospel was written. Some scholars date it around 50 AD. Others date it after 70 AD which was a very significant year. In 70 AD Jerusalem was destroyed along with the temple. If Matthew was writing his gospel to a largely Jewish audience after the destruction of the temple, then the destruction pronounced on the tenants would have seemed to come to fulfillment.
At the end of the parable of the wicked tenants Matthew tells us, “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them.” That is a pretty big piece of the puzzle to help us understand the meaning of the parable. The landowner is God. The tenants are the religious leaders who are in charge of the religious system that developed around God’s covenant relationship with the nation of Israel. The servants sent to collect some of the harvest were prophets sent to Israel. The son that was sent and killed is Jesus. The new tenants are those, who by faith in Jesus Christ, have entered into the New Covenant with God made possible through Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection.
If the religious leaders were the tenants, the harvest they were responsible for was the love the Israelites had for God. God has a covenant relationship with Israel. We know of covenant relationships today. The most common one to all of us is marriage. The goal of marriage is not to keep the rules of the person you are entering into the covenant with, but to love them completely for the rest of your life. That is what God wanted from the tenants. He gave them everything. The produce he was wanting to collect from them was relationship, love, and honor by keeping the law from their heart and teaching his people, Israel, to do the same.
What he got was a religious system overseen by leaders, who according to Jesus, hypocritically kept the law when people were watching but found ways around it when it was beneficial for them. In Matthew 12:40 Jesus characterized them as those who, “…devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”
In this scripture we also hear about the Spiritual Rock the builders reject. We saw a foreshadowing of it in Exodus, and Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10 that rock is Christ. “They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” That is another big piece of the puzzle in understanding this parable.
Jesus refers to himself as the stone the builders rejected when he quotes Psalm 118. Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
We should hear the warning in Jesus’ reference to himself as the cornerstone that was rejected by the builders. Everyone in the world will encounter Jesus, the stone the builders rejected. They will either fall on him and have their spiritual pride shattered or they will reject him and be crushed to dust.
The religious leaders who were identified as the wicked tenants were caught up in a system of keeping the law. Relationship with God had devolved into a religious system. In their spiritual pride they could keep the letter of the law in public but spurn it in private and justify their infractions as somehow still keeping the law. They devoured widows’ houses and for show said long prayers…
No one in the world has reason for spiritual pride. We are who we are because of Jesus Christ. We did not call ourselves to him. We did not merit his grace by our good deeds. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We have to beware of letting spiritual pride take root in our lives.
The vineyard has been passed to new tenants under the New Covenant. The parable does not tell us if the new tenants do a better job of giving the landowner his share of the harvest. Don’t let spiritual pride ruin your relationship with God. Don’t let spiritual pride spoil the harvest of love God expects from you.
Prayer:
Loving God, help me to love you with all my heart, soul, and mind… with all that I am. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
When I turned 40, I realized I was getting older. I started noticing more and more gray hairs and wrinkles. I had a few more aches and pains, particularly in my lower back. Around that time, I decided I needed to eat better and get in shape. I started trying to run… jogging was really more accurate. I bought some exercise equipment. However, if you know me, you can tell by looking at my jelly donut physique that I didn’t get too far with it.
I do still aim to be healthy. In addition to my goal of getting in shape, I eat healthier and take more supplements now than I ever have in my life. I listen to people who tell me how to eat healthy and stay in shape too. Those people are in shape and healthy, but I have noticed one thing. None of them have reversed aging through exercise and good nutrition. They are all getting older too.
The Apostle Paul is writing to Timothy with advice for life and ministry in 1 Timothy 4. He talks about apostasy and avoiding “godless myths and old wives’ tales.” He also tells Timothy, “…physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1 Timothy4:8NIV
That is good advice for me, now in my 50’s. Exercise and good nutrition are important for me to make the most of my time in this world. I should try to be as healthy as I can for myself, my family, and my friends. However, even better results come from pursuing godliness. It benefits me in this world and carries over into the world to come.
Workout and eat healthy, but don’t forget the more important and eternal efforts in becoming godly like Jesus Christ our Lord!
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for our amazing human bodies! Lord, help me as I seek health and godliness for this world and the world to come. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
16:13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
16:14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
16:15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16:16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
16:17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.
16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
16:20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Instead of outright telling the disciples who he was, he asks them who the people believe the Son of Man to be. There is significance in using the title Son of Man. It was the title Jesus most often uses to identify himself in Matthew’s gospel.
Son of Man comes from Daniel 7:13-14, “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Daniel 7:13-14 NIV
Jesus using Son of Man to describe himself was identifying himself with all that was expected of the Messiah, or Christ in Daniel 7:13-14. In using the title, he is hinting that he is the Messiah without outright saying it.
The responses of the disciples indicate that there were many different beliefs about who Jesus was. Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod. John was such a powerful presence that perhaps people thought he would reappear. In Matthew chapter 14, Herod thought that Jesus might be a resurrected John. The miracle working prophet Elijah was expected to reappear “before the great and terrible day of the LORD.” Jesus was well known for the miracles he worked. The prophet Jeremiah was remembered for his opposition to the religious leaders in Jerusalem and predicting the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Jesus was consistently being challenged by the religious leaders and often called them out for their hypocrisy.
After hearing what the masses thought, Jesus then asks the disciples the all-important question. To the disciples, who have spent more time with him in his ministry than anyone, he poses the question, “But who do you say that I am?” It is no longer a question about who the crowds understand Jesus to be. It is the Rabbi asking his most dedicated followers who they believe he is. I can imagine the glances around the room as the disciples wait for someone else to be the first to answer the question.
Peter and the other disciples were constantly with Jesus. They saw more of his miracles than anyone else. They learned more of his teachings. Through these experiences with Jesus, and his personal conversations with him, Peter came to know who Jesus is. When Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was, Peter spoke up.
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Essentially, what Peter was saying was, from my experience with you, my experience of the miracles you’ve performed, my understanding of your teachings, and my conversations with you, I know, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus affirms Peter for his answer and then sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. Later, the disciples were going to receive the Great Commission… “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 NIV It seems strange to hear them told not to tell anyone who Jesus was, but at that moment it was not part of God’s plan. Now it is.
We can easily relate to the disciples as they considered and reported who the crowds thought Jesus was. There are many misconceptions about Jesus today. Some will say he was a good moral teacher or rabbi. Some will say he was a revolutionary who upset the religious leaders and the people in power of his day. Some will say that Jesus did not even exist.
We Christians are followers of Jesus Christ. We study his teachings. We talk to him in prayer. We experience his miraculous power as he answers our prayers. We experience communion with Jesus through the in-dwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. We have a more intimate experience with Jesus than the disciples did because of our constant connection through the Holy Spirit.
Our experiences with Jesus wil help us to know him. We, like Peter, boldly affirm he is God’s Messiah because we know him. With that knowledge, we can be his witnesses and dispel the misconceptions about who he is.
It matters what you believe and say about Jesus because there are so many people around us who don’t know Jesus. They have no idea who he is. We, like the disciples, have received the Great Commission. We are to be witnesses for Jesus. What we believe about him… who he is and what he came to do… will dictate what our witness will be.
You come to know who Jesus is through your experience with him. Through the Holy Spirit, you were drawn into a relationship with him. You experience his power, presence, and peace as you call out to him in prayers of faith. Who do you say Jesus is? There are crowds of confused people all around you who need you to introduce them to “…the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son Jesus to be the Messiah. Help me to be your witness to who he really is, as I come to know him more and more. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Thinking About and Being a Child of God 