Our chapters this week start with Pharisees coming from Jerusalem to confront Jesus on the Law of Moses (ch.15) and ends with Jesus entering Jerusalem in triumphant fashion to ultimately fulfill the Law of Moses (ch.21). Obviously a lot happens in between as well.
Ch.15 - This chapter is all about food. The Pharisees sound a lot like my grandmother. "Did you wash your hands? Did you just run the water or did you use soap? Did you sing Happy Birthday Song to make sure you sanitized enough?" Of course their reasoning is not so much about sanitation as about a ritual washing. Jesus changes the focus - do you care more about the outside or the inside (washing your hands vs. washing your heart). What do you think God focuses on? You then have Jesus' encounter with a Canaanite woman. She asks for crumbs from Israel's spiritual table (perhaps she knows her life does not make her worthy to even approach Jesus). Again, this discourse is not so much about physical food, but about spiritual food. Finally, the chapter ends with Jesus showing us the intimate connection between faith, food, and life - the feeding of the 4,000 (notice how the text counts the men but does not count the additional women and children). Perhaps we should call this the feeding of the 10,000!
Ch.16 - I'm a beer brewer and therefore I know that yeast is a powerful little organism. It makes things alive and helps them become something new. A slurry plus yeast becomes beer. Grape juice plus yeast becomes wine. Dough plus yeast becomes fast-rising bread. Jesus here talks about the difference between the leaven of the Jewish elite and the leaven that comes from the Kingdom of Heaven. Either one can take over your spiritual life and transform it.
Option 1: The Sadducees were the ruling elite. They were the priestly class of Jewish leaders, and therefore ran the temple and the sacrificial system. They cared more about ceremony and rituals than other Jewish groups. They also tended to ignore parts of the Hebrew Bible and were known at that time to have loose theology. Their group tended to deny the existence of eternal life.
The Pharisees were a reaction to the priestly class. They started the synagogues because they believed the priests had ignored the Hebrew Bible and needed to return to strict, Biblical teaching. They tended to be very law-oriented.
Although the Sanhedrin was made up of both Pharisees and Sadducees, they rarely partner together - they don't see eye to eye. But here we see them partnering together to trap Jesus. This kind of yeast is subversive, damaging, and hateful.
Option 2: Jesus is providing an entirely different perspective on success and happiness. The new kingdom is breaking in - if you want to inhabit God's story, this is who you must follow. Christ is the foundation (see Peter's confession). Christ promises that nothing will overcome the church, not the powers of doubt, deception, or even death. This option requires God's grace and forgiveness - without them, this option is not possible.
Ch.17 - This chapter opens with the transfiguration. Focus on the words of v.5 - "This is my beloved Son. With Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him." This voice echoes the voice that spoke at Jesus' Baptism. It is also an echo of what God said though Moses during his final sermon on the mount. God promises that although Moses would not enter the promised land, He would send His people another Prophet. Moses' last wish was that the people would listen to this new prophet when He came.
The chapter finishes with questions on paying taxes (I'm sure a very relevant topic in America today). Watch Jesus' approach with Peter. He sends him to do his former worldly task (fishing) to pay his worldly duty (finds a 4-drachma coin to pay his taxes).
Ch.18 - The wisdom of our world would tell us that the shepherd should forget that one missing sheep and chalk it up to a loss because that one sheep would not be worth the time he'd spend chasing it down. The arithmetic of heaven's value works differently. In God's economy, each soul has its own value apart from the others.
Focus also on Jesus' response to forgiveness in v.22 - it mirrors the story of Lamech (Adam and Eve's great-great-great-great grandson) in Genesis. He tells his two wives that because he killed a young man that had wounded him, he would be avenged 77 times. In Jesus' Kingdom, through forgiveness we reverse and inverse Lamech's plan. As Christians, Jesus suggests that we should forgive others' transgressions (70x7) more readily than the world would avenge them (77).
Ch.19 - The Pharisees all but grinned to themselves - divorce - the one topic that puts every religious teacher in a tangle. Also, Moses himself seemed to contradict the true teaching on the sanctity of marriage. What do you believe Jesus is saying, and how does this impact the place of marriage in our society?
Ch.20 - The part of the Gospel that is so welcoming to outsiders is also the part that is so offensive to current believers - God gives us all grace. The parable that starts this chapter shows us the tension. God is free to lavish his grace on anyone he pleases. If you feel jealous that someone has a nicer husband or wife, or that your brother works no harder than you and earns substantially more, or because your classmate has the intelligence of a sponge - then God's generosity will indeed undo all you have come to know and expect. Grace is scandalous because it is not fair or deserved!
Ch.21 - Palm Sunday - what does this mean for you?
- Pastor Jim
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