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.
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