Please remember that, when it comes to the readings, quality reading will serve you better than quantity. Concentrating on Chapters 21-23 is just fine if you don't have time for all 14 chapters.
Monday, January 19, 2026
The Gospel of Matthew (Chapter 14-28)
Please remember that, when it comes to the readings, quality reading will serve you better than quantity. Concentrating on Chapters 21-23 is just fine if you don't have time for all 14 chapters.
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The most notable passage within these chapters is "The Greatest Commandment" Matthew 22:32-40. This may be one of the most quotable verses in the entire bible, "You shall love your nieghbor as yourself". There is a reason that this is so. Not only does this teaching ring true across time, but it was a wink to the audience of Matthew as well. Jesus was given a trick question (what law is the greatest) ; devout Jews of the time were to hold all laws equal. The reason this particular teaching stands out to those who don't think they need the bible is that it calls on the religious leaders of the time to love in ways they were not. Not only was Jesus demonstrating a crucial aspect of truth, but he was calling out those who claimed God's favor (ironic he asked them to love because they eventually persecuted and killed him). The entire reason behind the question was that a scribe was impressed with Jesus's way of conducting himself with love and dignity through controversy. The reason I find this endearing is that not only was it asking these prominent religious people to love other jews, but also Gentiles and Jesus himself (whom they came to hate).
ReplyDeleteThe quote that stuck out to me that really showed how Matthew shows that the gospel is for the people who don't think that need the gospel is this quote from Matthew 23: 27-28 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead peoples bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
ReplyDeleteThis one stuck out to me because he is talking about how they are pretending to be good people and you can see that on the outside but on the inside they aren't good people at all and sometimes that can be true with us here and people we know. I think how he talks about what's on the inside and outside is how it relates to the theme of the gospel is for who think they don't need it because they see themselves as good people when they look in the mirror but deep down inside they aren't and they truly do need it.
The parable of the marriage feast always stands out to me when I read it, because it shows how all of the people who would have been the obvious attendants actually did not come, and it was the nobodies who became the guests.
ReplyDeleteIn the same passage, Jesus shows that sinners can't just come to God and be happy knowing they get a free pass into the kingdom of God. Those who came to take what they could get, but still continued in their sinful lives (rags) were cast out, but those who properly dressed to attend the feast were welcomed regardless of status or former behaviors.
The parable probably riled up the Pharisees and Sadducees quite a bit, because they would have seen that the example of the first group of people invited who didn't come, could be alluding to them. It probably didn't make them very happy, considering how much they wanted to be thought of as the most righteous among the people.
When Jesus begins his Seven woes to the Scribes and Pharisees a phrase stuck out to me, verse 3, "For they preach, but do not practice." This passage is quickly followed in Jesus' introduction by "The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
ReplyDeleteThese passages were notable to me as they plainly call the Pharisees out at being hypocrites, not practicing what they preach. Though they did follow the externality of the law, inwardly they followed their pride. And, even more so did they intentionally exalt themselves, which Jesus points out does exactly the opposite of what the Pharisees and Scribes were in pursuit of. This flips their idea of exalting themselves to be exalted on it's head. Even when Jesus says the most humble would be exalted, though this might be a comfort to those very people, I do think this is still pointed toward those living in their pride as the entire goal of pride is to think of oneself as better than their neighbor. For the Pharisees to see these sinners as exalted because of their low state would be quite shocking.
35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 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. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
ReplyDeleteI love the simplicity Jesus gives here, everything commanded normally comes back to these two commands. In comparison to the religious elites, they used the law for their own good or would lack the inward posture of the outward actions. They were able to keep some of the laws on their own power, but did they love? If you miss that then you miss the whole point God is getting at. Jesus is completely flipping it on it's head.
A good passage that represents the idea that Matthew is a gospel for those who think they don't need a gospel is the passage about the Triumphant Entry/Palm Sunday. I like the verses because it shows Jesus' humility: he's riding in not on a great stallion, but on a humble donkey. But the main reason why it shows that Matthew is a gospel for those who think they don't need one is because verses four through five tells us about a prophecy that is being fulfilled. This would mean a lot more to a learned jew who might think that he doesn't need the gospel and that Jesus was merely a prophet instead of the Messiah. Matthew shows those people that Jesus is the Messiah by pointing out all of the prophecies about the Messiah that Jesus fulfilled, like this one.
ReplyDeleteCollin DeLeeuw.
ReplyDeleteThe passage that really stood out to me was Matthew 22 12-14"12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.14 "For many are invited, but few are chosen.”"
This really stuck out to me because it is talking about the kingdom of heaven. Many people think that they are going to heaven but this passage says no. This ties into Matthew because it shows that you have to believe in order to get into heaven. This is for the non believers because it shows what happens to those that don't believe. I also am a fan of how it lays it out in a more human example the way that people are chosen for heaven.