The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,

‘One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,

so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,

‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’”

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him. (Matthew 4:1-11)

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I don’t know if God was testing Adam and Eve when he placed them in the garden and warned them not to eat from that special tree.

We  do say in the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation,” don’t we?  Does that mean that God puts temptation in our way? 

I have never thought so, but the story of the garden, and our ancestors, Adam and Eve could lead us to think that way.

The thing is that the snake made it sound like disobeying God was not such a bad thing to do. And so, first Eve, then Adam forgot what God had told them, and ate the fruit they had been told not to eat.  

Before, it hadn’t seemed like such a bad thing to do, but immediately afterward, they knew they had done wrong.

It is always worse afterwards, isn’t it?

God had told them, “ If you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then you will surely die.”

And in a very important way, they did die. 

God is all good, and as such, cannot live with sin, so when they sinned, they removed themselves from God, and they were as good as dead as far as God was concerned. 

And everyone who came after them.

It’s not that God didn’t try.   He gave the law to His people  so they would know when they were doing wrong.  He sent leaders, prophets, priests, to show them the error of their ways.

But to no avail. 

Oh sure there were some good people, but it seemed that mostly people pretended to be good,  going to the temple and making their offerings, but when they got out of temple, they would cheat, lie,  put people down, destroy people’s reputations by gossiping, and so on.

So it was like God said, “Look, I  want my lost people back. Prophets and teachers, and kings and leaders haven’t helped bring them back, so I am going to take drastic action and go down there Myself, to show people  how they really should live.”

And he came to earth in the person of Jesus.

But He knew that to convince people how to live right, Jesus would have to be human in every way except one – he wouldn’t give in to temptation. He would not sin.

But nobody told poor old Satan.

So Satan sees this lovely man. Upright, handsome, clear eyed, confident, radiating goodness, and he has just got to try and corrupt him. 

You see Satan doesn’t bother tempting those who have already fallen. No need.  They are already his. He goes after the pure and the innocent, and the righteous.

And so he went after Jesus.

“Hey,” he said, “You shouldn’t be starving like that. It isn’t  right. Don’t you know you have the power to turn those stones into bread?  Just do it.  Eat!”

The devil thought he had it made with this one, because Jesus had starved for forty days.

But Jesus was a bit too clever for him. “Man can’t live on bread alone,” he told Satan,  “ Man needs spiritual food too. He needs the word of God.”

So the devil decided to tempt Jesus to use his powers in another way. He took him to the highest part of the temple and said, “You know, if you were to jump off, the angels would catch you.   It says so in Scripture.  So it can’t be wrong, now can it?

“Imagine how the people will flock to follow you when they see what you can do.   You would be famous instantly.”

Jesus showed what he thought about people who misused scripture to get their own way. He told Satan, “Scripture also tells us not to test God.”

Satan was not to be beaten. He would offer the big prize here. The bonanza. The giant jackpot.  The fifty million dollar prize.

He took Jesus to a high mountain, a mountain so high that from the peak of this mountain, you could look in all directions and see many countries, many kingdoms.  

He said, “You know, if you would only bow down to me, then I would make you king of all these countries. 

“You wouldn’t have to put up with people who spoke against you. I know how to look  after such people.  You wouldn’t have to be beaten and humiliated. We could beat and humiliate anybody who even thought about doing that.

“You wouldn’t have to die on a cross. What an end that would be for the Son of God.

“ Painful, humiliating, oooooH, awful.

“You could have it easy.

“ I would take care of everything.”

See,  temptation always makes things look easy, doesn’t it?

But as tempting  as Satan made everything sound, and it sounded a lot easier than what faced Jesus at this point, Jesus knew that God’s way, as hard as it may appear to be, is the only way.  The right way. 

It may seem hard but it is the only  way to peace, and love, and compassion, and caring, and loving, and most important of all to  salvation.

Because God’s way is to save us. Not to enslave us. He wants to keep us safe; to take us in his arms like a parent takes a child, and care for and protect us.

But the other way always looks easier.

I am reminded  of a story about a young man who was walking along the cliff edge, and he saw the gulls flying onto a ledge where they had nested, below. He looked over the edge and  the nest was right there below him.  He could almost touch it.

On an impulse he decided to climb down and take a couple of eggs from the nest.

It looked easy.

He got down on his knees. turned around, and lowered himself over the edge.  He easily found the first foothold.   He  groped with his other foot and found another deep crevice to hook his foot into. He lowered himself carefully, he was a good climber, and it seemed that his hands found ridges or crevices so readily that he laughed to himself at how simple a climb it was turning out to be.  

He was soon quite close to the ledge that held the nest, although it did seem a bit further away than he has thought at first, but never mind, this was easy. He went further down.

At last, he was almost on the ledge. But to get there meant he had to let go of his  handhold and drop a couple of feet or so. It was risky, but he figured he could do it.

He let himself go, and his heart stopped for a minute as he fell, and landed on the ledge. He bent his knees to cushion the impact, and although he wobbled a bit as he landed, he flattened himself against the rock face, and landed safely.

After catching his breath, he reached down and took a couple of eggs. They were warm, and one had  a little feather stuck to it. He slipped them into his shirt pocket for safety.

The tide had come in as he had made his way down, and the water beat against the rocks below. Good job he was going up not down, he thought.  

He looked for the handholds he needed, and a low ledge for a foothold to start his climb.

But the wall he stood against, unlike the craggy area where he had begun his descent,  was quite smooth, there didn’t seem to be any cracks or crevices  where he might get a hand or foot hold. He checked the wall above him, and to his right and left, and couldn’t see any way he might start his climb back.

After a few minutes, it hit him like a punch in the stomach. There was no way up or down. He was trapped. He stood there helplessly, knowing that when his legs got tired and he could no longer stand, he would fall to his death.

He yelled for someone to save him, but his voice was swept away by the wind, and lost in the shrieking of the seabirds.  He thought he heard a mocking tone in their voices.

That’s how it is with temptation. It is always easier to get there than it is to get back.

You’ve only had three drinks. You can drive OK. You are a good driver.

But you can’t bring back a person killed in an automobile accident.

You can tell the boss something not quite true about that guy who works across from you. You could do his job much better then he can.

But when that man’s family falls apart over him having lost his job, there is nothing you can do to put things right.

It’s easier for a teenager to lie to mom or dad  and say, “I was over at Brittany’s place,” than to tell the truth about where you have really been.

But now you have started to lie to your parents, you will  have to continue doing so. You are trapped.

It’s easier to take that funny blue pill, or the smoke, or the drink, than to risk the derision of your friends.   But where will your friends be when you get ill from doing stuff that makes you sick.

It’s easy to slip into an illicit relationship.  If two people are set on doing wrong, then what’s to stop them?

But oh the lies that will have to be told, and the double life led, after that first illegal kiss.

Satan is good with the soft sell, but he is nowhere to be found when you have to face the consequence of what you have done. Because there are always consequences.

Father, lead us not into temptation.

Rather, Father, give us such a confidence in your love, and such  a sureness about what is right, that temptation can never win us over.

We always want to be safe with you.

Amen.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” (Mt.17.1-9.)

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About eighty years ago, my aunt Lizzie was awakened from her sleep by the sound of her husband urgently calling out her name, “Oh Lizzie!” “Oh Lizzie!”

What was unusual about that, was that her husband, my uncle Dick, wasn’t in the house. He was away fighting in the war.

She felt a real unease at this, but dismissed it as a dream, or something, and tried to go back to sleep.

Soon afterward, a telegram arrived to tell her that Dick had been killed  in Tobruk, when a shell hit the truck he was riding in with other soldiers.  It seemed to her that he had called out to her at that moment he had died.

He was a thousand miles away, and yet she heard his cry.

It’s a strange story, isn’t it?   It’s the sort of thing that we half believe, or dismiss as coincidence, or just as something that cannot be explained.

There are lots of stories, just as strange. You may have heard some yourself. 

We have one today, told in the Gospel from Matthew, the story of what happened to Jesus on the mountain as seen by Peter James and John.

Matthew tells us that there on the mountain, the disciples saw Jesus completely changed. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

They also heard the voice of God telling them, “This is my own dear Son and I am pleased with him. Listen to what he says.”

A strange story, and hard to explain. Hard to believe.

But in the second letter of Peter we have his recollection of the event, and he says, “We didn’t make this up, as some say, but we saw the greatness of Jesus with our own eyes.”

Then there is a similar story in the Old Testament account of Moses. He  also went up a mountain to meet with God, and when he returned his face shone so full of the glory of God that people were afraid, and he had to wear a veil until it had worn off.

Is God telling us that He will make our countenances shine with His glory? Not really.  I think we are being told that God loves us so much that he will actually intervene, in this world, He will show Himself in some way, to encourage us in our pilgrimage.

And I think the way we need to be encouraged in our pilgrimage these days is to know that the one we follow – Jesus the Christ – is real, and has been real and will continue to be real.

We have experienced the birth stories of Jesus, and we have heard how when he was taken into the temple; two holy people there, Simeon and Anna, were moved by the Spirit of God to tell us that Jesus the baby would become Jesus the Messiah.

We were there at his baptism by John in the River Jordan, when the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove rested on the head of Jesus, and the voice of God was heard saying words similar to those we heard today, “This is my Son,  with whom I am well pleased.”

And now we have the Gospel story of Jesus being singled out again as the One true Son of God.   

And if we find it hard to believe, then we can hear the words of Peter, one of those there at the time,  who tells us it is not a story made up to fool people.

We have the stories of those who saw Jesus after his death and resurrection – hundreds saw him – and the evidence of his great power in the millions of those who have found their lives transformed – transfigured if you like – once they have allowed Jesus into their hearts.

Because having Jesus in your heart is a means of undergoing transformation every bit as wonderful as that seen by the disciples on the mountain that day.

Dark lives, with dark secrets, have been filled with light by the love of Jesus.

Timid men and women have been inspired to great achievement by letting Jesus into their hearts.

People have faced and overcome great danger, through their belief in Jesus. 

Transformation!!

Have you experienced that transformation?   And if you haven’t, do you wonder why?  

And are you open to it?   Really open?  

What do you do here in church?

Do you listen attentively to the prayers?  Or does your mind wander?

Do you hold each name that you hear in the prayer requests, in your heart, and ask God’s love and healing on them?   Or do you roll your eyes  at the length of the list?

Do you join wholeheartedly in praising him during the hymns, or do you sing so quietly that your neighbour doesn’t even hear you? 

Do you enter into the prayers, or do you allow them to go over your head?

Do you look up to God or look down at your watch?

Have you enjoyed  worship and praise, or do you tolerate it?

You see if we are only half-hearted in making this weekly connection to God, then we can hardly expect to feel some great transformative sensation, can we?

The question arises: Do you really want to be transformed?

Be careful before you answer because it’s a dangerous thing to be transformed. 

Transformation in Jesus might mean that you have to find new friends. 

Transformation in Jesus might mean that you have to find a new code for living.

Transformation in Jesus will  open your eyes to how you have lived so far, and you may be driven to make great changes to live your new transformed life.  

Transformation in Jesus may mean forgiving people you refused to forgive previously; smiling at people you have pointedly ignored before now; apologizing to those you have hurt in the past; mending fences with those you have fallen out with; loving those you have previously hated.

Transformation means complete change.  

Someone who is dear to me is going through a hard time right now. I have held that person in my prayers, and asked God to be a real presence in her life, and to bring her through this time.   I have tried to invoke God’s presence  in her life in such a way that she will be encouraged and uplifted, and relieved of stress and guarded against harm.

I have prayed that she will be brought through this time by His help, because He is the only one who can help at this time.

About three weeks ago I got a form from my bank to be attached to my Income Tax return. The form attests that I have made a payment into my RRSP’s of  9600 dollars.

That, as you know will trigger a tax refund of maybe three or four thousand dollars.

But I never made such a payment.

I had transferred some funds from one fund manager to another, and the bank had made a mistake in showing that transaction as coming from my regular account, rather than from my   RRSP account.  

If I chose to attach that form to my Income Tax Return, and claim my three thousand-dollar refund there would be little chance it would be questioned.

Even if the bank later found out its mistake – which would be unlikely,  no blame could  accrue to me.  It was their mistake not mine. It is my own money.  And of course, if it never came to light, then I would be three thousand or so dollars better off. And I could really use the money.

I could even, if I really tried, keep that transaction  secure in the investment compartment in my mind, and separate from the God part of my mind.

Or could I?

Because – how could I ask for God’s help on one hand, and on the other hand perpetuate deceit?

I told the bank and they checked their records, and put everything right. I returned the erroneous form.

I don’t tell you this to show how honest I am, because a part of me said, “It won’t harm anybody, and no-one will ever find out.”

I tell it to illustrate the plain fact that our lives have to be transformed in every department. 

It’s a bit like a light bulb. It can’t be half lit. It is either on or off.

That old excuse, “Well everyone does it,” won’t wash any more, once you have been transformed.

That other excuse, “No one will ever know about it,” won’t wash either, once you have been transformed. 

The light of Christ will illuminate every corner, or it will illuminate none.

You can’t be half Christian, half follower of Jesus, a half time player.

Former President Bush, in one of his speeches about combating terrorism, said that countries that wouldn’t aid in the fight against terrorism would be considered terrorists.

What he was saying was that if you are not with us you are against us.

Jesus said the same thing.

If you are not with me, you are against me.

Think about it.

If we are only half hearted Christians, then obviously, some of the things we say or do will not be compatible with being a follower of Jesus.

We will be against him.

Peter says in his letter, that the things we have seen and heard about Jesus, and the things written about him are certainly true. He says that we should continue to pray and pay attention to the way we follow Jesus, and keep on praying until the daylight comes, and the morning star rises in our hearts.

It’s being attentive, isn’t it?  It’s being purposeful in our pilgrimage.

It’s being different. Totally different.

This is my own dear Son. I am pleased with him. Listen to what he says. 

If you are not with me, you are against me.

But if you are with me, I will be with you to the end of the age.

Amen.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom ofGod.” (Matthew 5:13-20)

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I was in a town in Belgium called Diest, on a number of occasions  as I stopped, with my friends, on the way to Dunkirk to board the ferry across the Channel, to come home, and one thing that I remember is that the streets in that town were very dark, with street lamps very rare.

The brightest lights came from signs in the windows of the bars.

I remember a comedian once describing Belgium as a country illuminated with one forty watt bulb.

I knew what he meant!

The thing was that you were drawn to the lighted windows of the bars, out of the dark, and into the light inside.

I have known Christians – people who professed to be Christians who had no light in them.

Had no enjoyment in them.

Dark, like those Belgian streets.

And I don’t mean people who were undergoing trials, sickness, or other hardship, I mean people whose lives seemed to me to be normal, but they had no warmth, no light, no joy, in them.

And that doesn’t only apply to everyday people: Oliver Wendell Holmes, once said, ” I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.”

And I must say that the preachers I heard as a child didn’t seem to have much humour in them. They had the right words, the projection of their voices, the correct intonation,  but not a smile, or a sense of the joy of being close to Jesus.

And their sermons were designed to make you feel guilty, and uncomfortable.

We should be like a beacon, like a lighted window on a dark street, welcoming and professing the joy we find in knowing Jesus.

Like someone once said, if you are not enjoying, it you aren’t doing it right.

If you are not a happy Christian, you may not be practicing your faith right.

But the point is that we don’t shine because of some native luminosity within us,  but that we reflect the light of Christ in us.  

And what we do, and what we are, should point people toward our Father who is in Heaven.

I have met, and so have you, people who have real hardship in their lives, or have suffered great loss, and yet you wouldn’t know it from their demeanor.

They have a love and a light about them that uplifts you just to be near them.

It isn’t that they have a magic formula.

 It isn’t that they are on medication.

It isn’t that they have mastered some trick that helps them see beyond.

It is because they have Christ in their lives, and that light shines through the hard stuff. 

What may help them, is realizing that  Christ  walks with  us. That we are not alone on our journey.

.And we just can’t help sharing the light. .

We all know people like that.

And you are drawn to them. Because love shines out of them.

You know what I mean?

And it isn’t about obeying the law. Or about being so good. Or being a stickler for what’s the right thing to do.

And that brings me to something Jesus says today, that seems contradictory.  Seems to go against what Jesus, and Paul have both,  taught.

In Romans 10: 4, Paul tells us that “Christ is the end of the law.”

It has been a great part of Paul’s ministry that once we belong to Christ we don’t need the law.

We have the law written on our hearts, if you like, and we just act right. 

Can’t help it.

Jesus said the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.

The law was made for people, not people for the law.

But Jesus is saying here today in Matthew’s Gospel,  that whoever breaks the least of these commandments or teaches others to do so, will be called the least in the kingdom of God, whereas those who obey them, ( the commandments that is ) and  teaches others to obey them, will be called great in the kingdom of God.

And yet Jesus, himself,  broke the law, didn’t he?  He healed the sick on the Sabbath, for example, annoying the Pharisees.

So what do we make of this?

This seeming contradiction?

Some people have been so puzzled by this that they think  Matthew has Jesus extolling the law to make his Gospel more appealing to the Jews, since Matthew’s gospel is the most Jewish of the Gospels.

William Barclay sees things differently.

He tells us that the Jews thought of the law in four different ways.

First, ‘the law’ means the Ten commandments.

Secondly, the term ‘the law’ also means the first five books of the Bible.

Thirdly, they used the phrase ‘The Law and the Prophets’ for the whole of Scripture

Finally, the Oral or Scribal Law.

This last was the most common meaning of the Law, during Jesus’ time and this is the form of the law which Jesus and Paul condemned.

In the Old Testament, there aren’t that many rules and regulations, mostly there are broad principles which we can think about and use in life.

The Ten Commandments for example, have these great principles, which are there to guide us..

But to later Jews these principles did not seem enough. And since the commandments came from God, you could use them to come up with a rule and regulation for every issue that you might face in life.

For example, the Sabbath must be kept holy. Quite simply you should not work on the Sabbath.

But what was work?

How was work defined?

The carrying of a burden is work, according to the Scribal law . 

But what constitutes a burden?

Food that weighs as much as a dried fig, milk enough for one swallow, honey enough to put on a wound, ink enough to write two letters of the alphabet, and so on.

Burdens!.

You get the picture.

The Pharisees were among those who had worked out these rules, and lived their lives trying to adhere to them.

Scribal law had been oral law for  centuries, but eventually  a summary of the law  was made, and written down, and is known as the Mishnah,  which contains sixty three tractates on the various subjects of the law,  and which in English comes to eight hundred pages.

Later, commentaries were written to explain the Mishnah, which became known as the Talmud.

The Jerusalem Talmud comprises twelve printed volumes, the Babylonian Talmud comprises sixty printed volumes.

So there were thousands of legalistic rules and regulations to be heeded.

This was the kind of law Jesus and Paul both condemned.

Reverence for God and a respect for others, is to come out of love of God, and not from love of the law.

You can see that trying to live a life that is entirely blameless, would be impossible. In fact it was said that if one person could live through a day without breaking the law at all, then the world would end.

You can live your life by trying to satisfy “The law of God ”  and as we have seen, that law can be expanded exponentially, or, we can show our gratitude for the love of God.

That is the message Jesus brought.

And to those who asked him which law was the greatest, he answered, ” Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

“And Love your neighbour as yourself.”

That’s it.

Two laws.

Period.

An everyday real life example of what Jesus was preaching,  that love is more important than the law – and that Christ should shine out of us in such a way that people know we are Christians, happened like this:

A lady at a church I attended liked to organize events. In fact it was a skill she had, and had taken upon herself. And she was good at it.

At one event she had asked for volunteers to help and a young woman new to the church, was one of the volunteers.

The event was an outside barbecue, and when it was over the chairs and tables had to be brought back into the church.

The new young lady volunteer brought a chair in and not knowing where they went, stood it against the wall and turned round to bring more.

The organizer saw where the young woman had placed the chair, and said,” Not there stupid!”

It was so important to the organizer that the chairs  be in the right place – you might say according to the “law” – her law – that love and understanding went out the window,

That young woman attended for a little while longer, then left the church.

Now you might say that she shouldn’t have been so easily offended.

Or you might say that if that was the kind of Christian that church was producing, she didn’t want to belong to it.

In everything we do, and say, without knowing it, we show the world what kind of Christian we are.

The light of Christ within us, should shine on the person who is ahead of us in the check-out line, with a lot of stuff, buying lottery tickets, cashing in coupons and who then takes up more time by searching in her purse for every little bit of change she can find. 

The light of Christ within us should shine on the person who takes the last parking spot, the one we thought was ours.

The light of Christ within us should shine – even down the phone line –  to the person who is calling for the umpteenth time to ask if we want our heating ducts cleaned.  I must admit I have a hard time with that one myself.

Our light needs to shine on the person whose dog poops on our lawn.

Our Light……you get the picture……

………….and it’s not always easy.

But it is possible..

I was talking to a young woman once who was being given a rough time by her ex-husband, recently divorced. 

She told me she was still terribly angry at him, and that anger burned inside of her and  kept her awake at nights.

What should she do?

I said, “Pray for him.”

No way was she going to do that!

I pointed out that anger is physically and mentally damaging, and the only way I knew to rid oneself of such anger is to pray for the perpetrator.

Pray that God will move in his heart, will make him aware of his cruel actions.

Pray that God will guide him into a better way of acting, pray for his soul.

That, would be showing love for an enemy – wishing God’s love and guidance for them.

It may hard to understand, but when you have a light reflecting  God’s love for you, it can’t selective. 

Because when you think about it, a light that is placed on a hill can be seen by everyone.

Good or bad.

Amen