then through the fog there is this beautiful moment when peter seems to get it (with the assistance of the Lord). and we have Jesus telling us how the church is going to be setup. i think christians need to be reminded of this every day. we don't have gates of defense. we are on the offensive - storming the gates of hades.
little side note. in the greek peter's name petras which means stone or pebble. what Jesus says is your name is petras and on this petra i will build my church. petra is a large stone or bolder. Jesus was not building his church on peter but on something that was a large unmovable bolder. what in this passage would he be referring to?
also, our english does a bad job of translating it but the greek reads, "... and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven."
although, that's not what sticks out to me as i read chapter 16. see, i just found out that two of my friends... friends that have been married longer than i've been alive... friends that have been christians longer than i have (but not as long as i've been alive)... friends that i love... friends that i look up to in the faith are calling it quits. they're not calling it quits on Jesus... just each other. and as i understand it, it's the wife that is calling it quits and leaving her husband. she says that she has no scriptural justification for leaving. she just wants to. i am more shocked at this marriage ending than i was when my own dad left my mom. these people have worked in multiple churches, been missionaries, went to bible college after retiring from their first job, and living lives that scream dedication and obedience. and now this.
how do you stand before Jesus and say, "i will die for you. i just can't stay married for you."? how do you look at those who have been martyred... who have had their eyes gouged out with hot picks... who were skinned alive... who were beaten within an inch of their lives over and over again... who were raped... who were set on fire... who were thrown to the lions... all for their obedience to Jesus... how do you say to them that you just couldn't be married for one more day?
i don't understand.
i also don't understand myself. not that this lessens the divorce, (because i'm still very much shocked and ticked) but how often am i disobedient? how can i stand before Jesus and say, "i'm fine picking up my cross except when it comes to _______________."?
v24-27 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
"For whoever wishes to save his life will lost it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
"For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angles, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS."
2 comments:
To be completly honest, the book of Matthew sometimes makes me not like Jesus very much. He gets testy and angry with his disciples so much. He uses these metaphors like in chapter 16 with the yeast, and then, when his disciples don't understand, he has to call them out first before he explains. And then when Peter, although he seems to be too much of an eager beaver and kind of lack a filter between his brain and mouth, gets upset over the thought of losing his friend and Lord, Jesus yells at him too. However, this summer kind of made me see the Matthew's Jesus in a new light. I was telling a friend about my struggle to really understand what Jesus says or even really like him at all, and my friend said "Well Nikki I guess he didn't come to be liked." So I thought about that for a while. Beyond and besides this, over the summer, there were a series of events for me that left me really struggling for answers and questioning what God was doing with me. I finally got so exhausted and so frustrated that all I could do was yell at God and ask Him why I had no strength, physically, emotionally, spiritually, anything, left. I realized, through this event that God was using this to kick my knees out from under me to make me rely fully on him for all my energy, telling me that He wants me to know that I need him for absolutly everything. It's like what Dean was saying about the book of Hosea-- God is jealous for us, angry for us, turning our heads, saying please understand what I have put right in front of your face! Same with Jesus in this passage, I think. I think, now, Jesus' anger toward his disciples was an anger for them, a "please, I love you, turn and look and understand."
not to comment on everything you wrote... but i will say that i have noticed this time through matthew that he does seem more direct and blunt. i hadn't really thought that before. but ever since the sermon on the mount... which i've always thought was pretty blunt.
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