Simple Yet All-Encompassing

 This year I've resolved to read a chapter of the Gospels every day and make at least one observation in my journal.  I will read each Gospel about five times and I expect to be refined by spending a year intimately in the life of Jesus.

I finished the book of Matthew for the first time this year the other day.  As I reflected on the book I felt as though I could offer a brief, insufficient summary of the teachings of Jesus.  I, as any good son of a preacher, came up with three highlights that summarize His teachings.  And as the son of a preacher, I have a bonus point as well.

Jesus' teaching in Matthew can be described as simple yet all-encompassing.

1) The Golden Rule

"So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 7:12

Simple.  It doesn't get much more simple than this.  This is as simple as the class rule in the first grade, yet it's all-encompassing.  

See, Jesus just taught about asking the Father and trusting that He gives good gifts to His children.  Then, the first word of verse 12 is "So".  Jesus connected the generous nature of the Father to the Golden Rule. That word "So" means that I must measure "do unto others" with what I want my Heavenly Father to do unto me as well as what I want my spouse or co-worker to do unto me.  We often think of the Golden Rule as the just be nice rule.  Jesus is saying to be nice, but He's also saying to be as extravagant and gracious to others as you would have them be extravagant to you.  

2) The Great Commandment

"'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? And He said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 22:36-40

Jesus uses these two summations of the Law and the Prophets and expects us to use these two rules as the filter through which we view all the precepts of Scripture and how we weigh all our actions.  These two rules are simple and expansive.  There isn't an area of life that wouldn't be improved by asking: "Am I loving God?  Am I loving my neighbor as myself?" 

Simple, yet all-encompassing.  Jesus' answer to the lawyer in this passage is simple, yet so much harder than following scores of laws that don't require me to love.

3) Lose Your Life

"Then Jesus told His disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 16:24-25

Jesus teaches death as the gateway to life and that death to self must come prior to physical death.  This teaching tells me that the Golden Rule isn't about being fair and equal.  This informs me that loving my neighbor as myself looks more like preferring my neighbor to myself than it does inviting them over for dinner in hopes that they will invite me back.  Christians are to be people that esteem, prefer and honor others even above their fleshy selves (Romans 12:10).

Following Jesus takes at least a denial of oneself and at most fatal, life-giving obedience.

Some will tell me that they don't believe in all that Son of God talk or the resurrection. They'll say that they aren't Christian but they do follow the teachings of Jesus.  To that I reply that I wouldn't do that.  I can't read the Sermon on the Mount and think that Jesus' simple, weighty teaching is something I could follow if He weren't the empowering, risen God that He is.  Jesus' teaching in Matthew is good, simple and demanding.

4) Jesus Can't Just Be Our Teacher

I'd not noticed this until reading Matthew 26 this time around.  At the Passover meal with His disciples Jesus predicted that one of them would betray Him.  Each replied "Is it I, Lord?"  Each, that is, but one.  Judas the betrayer said, "Is it I, Rabbi?"

Matthew subtly demonstrates that Jesus can't just be our rabbi, our teacher.  Jesus must be our Lord, our master.  Judas had an interest in Jesus the professor, but not Jesus the King.  When we come to Jesus' teachings we can't come to them as we would a helpful book.  We can't pick and choose which to implement in our routines and which to ignore or modify.  When we come to the teachings of Jesus we must read them as royal proclamations from our sovereign master.  

I encourage you to read the book of Matthew and read it to see what your Lord has for you today. 

Epiphany: Wise Men & Fools

 Epiphany, the Christian holiday commemorating the visit of the magi or wise men to Jesus, is on Friday the 6th of January.  The story of this visit is found in Matthew chapter 2.  Please take a moment to read this short story.

In this famous story we find three characters that I want to examine: King Herod, the religiously educated and the wise men.  I find, and I think you will find, their reactions to the news of Jesus to be incredible interesting and convicting.

1) King Herod was Angry.

When Herod heard there was a king of the Jews born he was troubled and his unease was contagious to all the people (2:3).  Herod did not want to relinquish his throne, even though he was a mere puppet king.  Herod heard news of another king and acted like Pig the Pug from one of my kid's favorite storybooks.  Some of you may be ready to exonerate the king because wiping out threats to their throne is just some thing kings do.  That's right.  Kings never took kindly to those wanting their job.  But Herod knew he wasn't simply opposing a king.  He was fighting against the Christ, the Messiah, the promised King from the line of David.

"... he inquired of them (religiously educated folks) where the Christ was to be born." Matthew 2:4

Herod understood that it was the Christ that the magi were looking for and he hated the idea of even the prophesied King usurping his rule.  Herod tried trickery and then even the mass murder of infants and toddlers (2:16-18) to keep the Christ from taking his precious puppet throne perched nicely under the rule of Caesar.

See, some people hear about the Lord Jesus and want nothing to do with Him.  They don't want a King because they would be lord of their own lives.  They hate omnipotence infringing upon their supposed sovereignty.

2) The Religiously Educated were Curiously Uncurious.

This group befuddles me.  The king tells them there are wise men searching for the Christ.  With deadly intent and complete seriousness this king demands to know where the Christ was to be born.  The religiously educated then give the correct answer from the words of the prophet Micah: Bethlehem of Judea.

"And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel." Matthew 2:6

And what do these religiously educated fools do?  They exit the story!  Can you imagine this?  The people who spend their lives studying the Scriptures, the very Scriptures saturated with God's covenant promise to send an heir of David to rule and reign and save Israel from all oppression and make the world right and good again, these men don't give a darn that the words of the Law and the Prophets might have come to fruition in their lifetime after 400 years of prophetic silence!  They didn't need to be immediate believers, but not one of them is recorded as being curious enough to hitch a ride with these men from the east to investigate.  It's ludicrous. 

See, some people can be full of head knowledge and so full of heart apathy.  Apathy kept them from seeing what angels long to see and the prophets both major and minor would have died to have seen (1 Peter 1:10-12).  Some people could win Bible trivia and lose their soul.  Will you?

3) The Wise Men.

The wise men were full of longing.  These men of uncertain number from the east traveled to Israel.  They had a holy curiosity that made them search out this child.  They had a steadfast conviction that impelled them to journey.  

This irresistible pull led them to the place where the young child was as they followed the star.  Upon the end of their search they "rejoiced exceedingly with great joy" (2:10).  When they saw Jesus they rightly worshipped Him.  They rightly gave the famous gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.  I don't know if these men, who are seemingly uneducated according to the Scriptures, fully understood what they were doing, but like the sailors with Jonah they quickly got the right idea.

See, when some people's journey ends in front of the Christ there is a right reaction: Joy, worship and homage.  The joy was so much that this awkward phrase "rejoiced exceedingly with great joy" is needed to describe what bubbled out of them after their journey ended at the right place in front of the right person.  When we rightly understand Jesus is King we can't help but experience joy, we can't help but worship and we can't help but want to give the homage we feel He is due.  

How will you react to Jesus the King?  Will the idea of being usurped as the boss of your life enrage you?  Will you know it all but fail to be moved off your butt?  Or will you joyfully worship when you realize a king, the King, has come to rule?

Have you had an epiphany regarding Epiphany?  The epiphany is the revealing of Jesus as King.  Has Christ been revealed to you as King of kings and what is your reaction to that enlightening today?