Day 43: Matthew 27:15-31

“...and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.” - Matthew 27:29-30

Every day when I go through the One Year Bible reading plan, I try to read through the New Testament portion two or three times. Doing this helps me get a good grasp on the passage, and it allows me to spend a comparable amount of time between the Old and New Testament readings.

But today? Today was a different story. I went through it once and then really hesitated to go through it a second or third time. I was angry. I was feeling upset. I was hearing the crowd say, "Let him be crucified!" Chills of horror.

Jesus' journey to the cross both enrages me and encourages me. It makes me fiery mad, because Jesus was unjustly tortured and mocked. It inspires me because I know He did it out of His love and urgency to rescue all humanity from themselves.

I think I was also emotional as I read, because I HATE being mocked. I believe the reason I despise it so much is that it is an act of devaluation. For someone to be treated as less than human is the ultimate form of injustice. And when we are talking about the King of kings being mocked, we know it is wrong; but we know we needed it to make us right.

The following quote refocuses me on just how passionate Jesus was when it came to His rescue plan:

"As they now led him to be crucified, little did they know that this seemingly powerless victim was about to reveal his true kingly status in a liberating mission involving his suffering and death." - Chouinard, L. (1997). Matthew (Mt 27:30–31)

Day 42: Matthew 26:69-75, 27:1-14

“Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ They said, ‘What is that to us? See to it yourself.”' - Matthew 27:3-4 ESV

When this Scripture says that Judas "changed his mind," it is one word in the original language - metamelomai. You may have guessed it, but the word is closely related to the word used most often for repentance in the New Testament - metanoeo. Metamelomai means that Judas felt the pull of repentance; he just didn't let it take its full course.

Can you relate to this?

We have all seen people get genuinely convicted about something they've done, only to fall back into something even worse. Maybe we've seen this in our own lives from time to time. I've always noticed that what we do in the early moments of this feeling of repentance is so crucial to whether or not we will see lasting change.

May we let repentance have its full effect on us, and may we pray that the same is true for others.

Let's step into the best life possible.

SIDE NOTE: Praying through John 16:8 is so helpful as we meditate on this.

Day 41: Matthew 26:47-67

“Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” - Matthew 26:53 ESV

We don't hear a lot of teaching about the night hours that led up to Jesus' crucifixion. Sure, we know Jesus was in the Garden, sweating blood; but we don't really dig into the time when He was falsely accused during the cloak of night.

Let's make one thing clear: Jesus was not apprehended because of the mob's force. He was forthright with his words above. The arrest was actually a surrender.

The powers that were at his disposal would boggle our minds like they did when Elisha's servant got a glimpse of heaven's armies in 2 Kings 6:17: “'Then Elisha prayed, ‘O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.’ And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw that the hills were full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

What unseen angelic hosts surrounded Jesus as he was captured in the Garden?

Our Savior surrendered.

It would be a painful night of spitting, slapping, bleeding, mocking, sorrow, and intense pain even before He made it to the cross.

And He did it for you. He did it for me. It was the only way. The quote from Craig Keener below amplifies this thought:

"Jesus was voluntarily doing the Father’s will (26:39, 42), and the Father still would have granted him twelve legions of angels (one for himself and each disciple) had he asked; but the Father had called him to face death for the very ones who had just abandoned him. In Matthew’s world angels will assist at the end (cf. 13:41–42; 16:27; 24:30–31), but in the present time dependence on them for deliverance without God’s permission would yield to Satan’s test (cf. 4:5–7)." - Keener, C. S. (2009). The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (p. 643)

We do not serve a Savior who was apprehended because He was weak; instead, it was a display of His strength.

Day 40: Matthew 26:14-46

“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” - Matthew 26:41 ESV

Jesus is on the cusp of suffering unimaginable torture, not only because the Romans were activated to do so but also due to the sins of you and me. The grief associated with something this massive was too much, even for Jesus. He cried for another way, just as any of us would have done.

Jesus took his top three, the three who seemed to be the most volatile. Even these three, firey as they were, He found to be asleep. Even with heavy sorrow, Jesus still sees an opportunity to tell these three what it will take to make it through the next season they are about to walk through.

It will take watching.

It will require praying.

The temptation is too heavy otherwise.

To watch is to be alert.

To pray is to not rely on our own strength.

What is there in your life right now that is causing you to be distracted from the discipline of prayer? Though it may often seem optional, it is not. It is essential to us becoming the people God desires.

"The weakness of the flesh is a permanent problem of Christian discipleship, which calls for constant vigilance and for the prayer which Jesus has already prescribed in 6:13." - France, R. T. (1985). Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 378)

Day 39: Matthew 25:31-46, 26:1-13

“But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.’” - Matthew 26:10 ESV

I am a practical thinker. I got it from my dad. He could almost be compared to a miser. Always looking for a cost-efficient way to do something, never replacing anything unless it absolutely needs it. Yet when it comes to generosity, my dad isn't like that. I tried to pin him down once by asking what percentage he and Mom give to the church from their income (I know, super personal question). He actually said he had started at 10% when they got married and climbed from there and wasn't quite sure what it was now.

My Dad? The miser? With unbridled generosity? Mind blown.

All of us, if we are honest, cringe a little bit (or a lot) when we see what this woman (Mary of Bethany) did to prepare Jesus for his burial. This ointment that she used is identified by Mark and John as “nard,” an extremely expensive luxury that was imported from India (used especially for anointing the dead).

With this extravagant gift, many believe she was also declaring to everyone that she believed that this man was the Messiah.

How about our generosity? Does it clip the bare minimum, or would others question our sanity to learn how much we are giving?

We will regret many things in this life, but being generous toward God is not one of them.

I'll let H.D.M. Spence close us today with these powerful words: "A work that proved her zeal, reverence, and faith. Mary had always been devout, contemplative, loving. She had learned much at the grave of Lazarus; she was full of gratitude at the wonderful restoration of her brother’s life; she had often heard Christ speak of his decease, and knew that it was close at hand, realizing that which the chosen apostles were still slow to believe; so she was minded to make this costly offering. And Christ saw her motive, and graciously accepted it.” - Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Ed.). (1909). St. Matthew (Vol. 2, p. 516)

Day 38: Matthew 25:1-30

“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” - Matthew‬ ‭25:21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

We have two parables from Jesus in our reading today.

Don’t you feel a little sorry for the five virgins that didn’t come prepared and the one slave who, out of fear, buried his talent? We may feel this way because all of us have had moments where we didn’t take our faith in Jesus as seriously as we should’ve.

Another thing that you may have noticed was that there were firm boundaries in place between the five prepared virgins and the unprepared ones, and the two slaves who invested and the one who buried. Though you and I can spend hours sowing Gospel seeds into others’ lives, ultimately, it is their decision to take a step of faith. It is on them to take it from admiring Jesus to believing in Him.

If we do genuinely follow Jesus, we will naturally throw ourselves into being prepared for His coming. We will be making investments with what He has already invested in us.

This is the second day in a row we’ve talked about preparedness. Jesus doesn't want us to miss this one.

We are also reminded in our reading that God intends to double down on his investment in those who are properly using the gifts He's given them.

"God pours more into a full vessel but not into an empty one." - Keener, C. S. (2009). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 600)

Day 37: Matthew 24:29-51

“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” - Matthew‬ ‭24:44‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The Greek word used here for “ready” (hetoimos) can also be translated as “prepared.”

Most of us are really good at preparing for guests when we know the time they are coming. Just this morning, we were racing all over our house to prepare for a visit from family. If they had shown up last night, we would have been like 😳.

Jesus wants us prepared for when he returns, and we aren’t given a time, day, or year. Because of a lack of a timetable, we often lose any urgency we had in the beginning.

How can we stay ready, prepared, and awake?

1 Peter 1:13 is a verse we should think about a lot: “So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.”

Isn’t it cool to think about the action that will take place when Jesus returns?

In the meantime, may we keep active in our care for others and our worship of the One who will come again: Jesus. Otherwise, we will find ourselves on the outside of His protective love at the end of time.

"One must therefore be vigilant and ever ready to avoid the risk of being caught up in the consuming judgment of God." - Chouinard, L. (1997). Matthew (Mt 24:43–44)

Day 36: Matthew 24:1-28

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” - Matthew 24:14 ESV

In our reading for today, Jesus predicts in detail what will later happen to Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70 at the Romans' hands. The tricky part in Matthew 24 is trying to decipher when Jesus is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and when He's talking about His second coming at the end of time.

I lean toward the dividing line being between today's reading and tomorrow's. It is fun to study and reflect upon. Either way, we see that Christianity (from the outset) was intended to be taken to all people.

R.T. France does a great job describing this idea: "The world is oikoumenē, lit. ‘the inhabited area,’ a standard term originally for the Greek world (as opposed to barbarians), then for the Roman Empire, and subsequently for the whole of the then known world; it is thus not so much a geographical term which must include every area and community now known to be on earth, but rather an indication of the universal offer of the gospel to all nations, i.e., outside the confines of the Jewish community." *

At any rate, we can be confident in this one thing: Jesus knows the future like he knows our present and our past. He is constantly seeing time (as we know it) as a landscape. He truly is what John records in Revelation 22:13: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."

Do you think you can trust Jesus with your future that you keep worrying about? If we haven't realized it yet, there is so much in this world that is outside of our control. We would do well to entrust our future to the One who can take control.

*France, R. T. (1985). Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 342)

Day 35: Matthew 23:13-39

“So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” - ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭23:28‬ ‭ESV‬‬

There are really two things at play in this life:

1) Who we are.

2) What we do.

Jesus calls these religious “leaders” hypocrites. Matthew uses the Greek word hypokritēs; it can also be translated as “pretenders.”

What they were doing was coming from a place of fraudulence. This should be one of our greatest fears as Christians. It is the danger that what we are doing becomes more and more distant from who we are becoming.

Want to be a more devoted follower of Jesus? Want transformation to take place in your life? Let God do what He has always wanted to accomplish. Allow Him to transform you internally so that your obedience to Him can flow freely.

Pursue first.

Walk by faith second.

Be amazed at what God can do in your life today and every day from here on out.

SIDE NOTE ABOUT THE WHITEWASHED TOMBS:

“Tombs were whitewashed regularly at festival time to ensure that passers-by did not inadvertently touch them and so become defiled (Mishnah Shekalim 1:1; cf. Ma‘aser Sheni 5:1). This custom is generally assumed to be the background to Jesus’ words, but that whitewashing was not a mark of beauty but rather a warning of uncleanness, repulsive rather than attractive.” - France, R. T. (1985). Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 332). InterVarsity Press.

Day 34: Matthew 22:34-46, 23:1-12

“The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” - Matthew‬ ‭23:11-12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Matthew seems to spend so much time focusing on greatness. From slaves to children, he challenges us on how we view ourselves and each other. He uses the Greek word tapeinoo here for “humbled” and “humbles.” It can also be translated as “to lower or decrease in size.”

If we view ourselves as having more value than someone else, we will always hesitate to serve them. I mean, isn’t the goal of this life to become so successful that you can have other people do the hard work for you?

Jesus would say no. He not only said this with His mouth, but He also said it with His life.

Jesus was never above stooping down low. Aren’t you glad this was the case? He touched the unclean. He washed feet. He spoke with rejected women. He chose those no one else wanted to choose.

Paul said it well when he wrote: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich,” and "being found in human form, he humbled (tapeinoo) himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (2 Corinthians 8:9, Philippians 2:8)

Jesus' humility made room for his incredible love, which gave us the greatest example of servant-leadership the world has ever seen.

Has your pride stunted your ability to grow in love and as a leader? Choose humility and let's see what God will do next through you.