Matthew 12

Matthew 12 is a chapter full of red letters and therefore full of Truth.  Take time to read this chapter.

In Matthew 12 I saw three things that I would like to highlight.

1) Jesus instructs us to ditch religion when religion forgets its purpose.

Sidebar- this is not a Church blasting post.  I love the Church because Jesus has chosen it as His bride, so I will not bash her.

In this chapter the Pharisees are trying to find something wrong with Jesus and they find two things.  First, Jesus' disciples pick grain to eat on the Sabbath.  Second, Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath.  Keeping the Sabbath holy is one of the Ten Commandments, it's kind of a big deal.  However, the super-religious people added all sorts of weird rules to this commandment.  Jesus and His disciples broke those rules.  Jesus' response to having broke those rules was simple.  "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."  (Hosea 6:6)

Jesus is saying is a nutshell, "Religion goes too far when it forget the point."

This is not Jesus saying, "All religious aspects of living for God are wrong." In fact religion can be a valuable tool for many to be more Christ-like, but don't ever practice religion without love.

2) Jesus is coming to rob Satan!

The Pharisees accuse Jesus of being Beelzebub, the prince of demons, because He can command demons to leave people.  Jesus then uses logic to debunk that idea.  He says, "A house divided against itself cannot stand" (Yes, Lincoln did not come up with that).  Meaning, why would Satan attack his own troops?  Rather, consider this- Verse 29, "how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man?  Then he can rob his house."

We are owned by Satan when we are in sin.  One reason Jesus came to earth was to tie up Satan and rob him!  Jesus wants to steal you and me from Satan's possession.  How cool is that?  Jesus is not some hippie wimp.  No, He's a buff Satan robbing Lord.

3) I can be Jesus' brother.

Verse 50, "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

Wow!  The Lord of Heaven and Earth wants to be my brother!  Doing the will of the Father is not about a bunch of rules and religion, no it's about becoming a relative of the Son.  I think it's worth it.

So don't let religion turn into something it's not supposed to be, remember that Jesus has come to steal you from Satan and that He wants to welcome you into his family.  He desires mercy, not sacrifice.  So show mercy today.