Posts that reference the Gospel of Matthew

At the Cross: Centurion

By Paula Wiseman

“Truly this was the son of God.”

The Roman centurion uttered these words.

After the darkness. After the earthquake. After Jesus died.

Hours, even minutes before, Jesus was less than nothing as far as he was concerned.

Another Jew. Another criminal. Another execution.

He had led his men to beat, to mock and to spit on Jesus.

Now he led them in a confession of ultimate truth.

Not because of how Jesus lived, but how He died.

Jesus died willingly, maintaining His love and compassion, completely surrendered to God’s plan.

We are called to take up our crosses and die to self. If we do that willingly, surrendered to God’s plan, full of love and compassion …

If we do that, what will happen to the hardened and cynical around us?

They might just respond like the centurion.

Preparing for Eternity

By Paula Wiseman

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“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.” Matthew 25:34 (NLT)

This is not a fairy tale. It is absolutely real. These are the words of Jesus Himself.

Jesus, not as a suffering servant, but in all of His kingly glory will look at us, at you, at me, and He will call us “blessed.” Blessed by God the Father Himself.

Yes, we are.

Then He will say “Receive what is yours. Receive what I have been preparing for you since the world began.”

Think of that.

Jesus has been preparing for our eternity with Him since creation.

So that made me wonder… Are we, am I preparing for my eternity with Him?

Bothered by Beggars

By Paula Wiseman

Jesus was traveling near Tyre and Sidon in Gentile country. A woman met Him desperate for His help. Her daughter was demon-possessed, experiencing unrelenting torment.

She was the kind of mother who would go to any lengths to find help for her daughter. It didn’t matter that Jesus was a Jew and she wasn’t. She prostrated herself and begged.

Frantic. Helpless. Pleading.

Matthew 15:23 says, “Then His disciples urged Him to send her away. ‘Tell her to go away,’ they said. ‘She is bothering us with all her begging.'” (NLT)

Read it again. It broke my heart when I read it.

‘We have an agenda. We have a program. We have important ministry to do. How do you expect us to get any of that done with all this groveling going on?’

They would have left the girl in the bondage of torment. They would have shown the woman that Jesus didn’t come for her after all. And they wouldn’t have lost any sleep over it.

May God forgive our annoyance with the very ones Jesus shed His blood for.

November is the new December. The three or four week whirlwind between Thanksgiving and Christmas has now become six weeks. We’ve already been to three Christmas events. I look at my calendar. I listen to the announcements at church and I want to go back to bed.

Times like this are especially challenging. It seems if the pressure mounts to get everything done, I start having trouble getting anything done. I lose perspective, energy and focus, so I end up spinning my wheels.

Jesus says, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest … Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (The Message)

Keep company with Him.

This is what I’m working on for the next few weeks.

Unseen Acts

By Paula Wiseman

“…and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.” Matthew 6:4

Jesus is talking about acts of kindness and compassion.

Sometimes it’s translated charitable deeds.

Acts motivated by love.

You do unseen acts out of love every day.

That three thousandth sandwich you made.

That seven thousandth load of laundry you did.

The phone call you made. That errand you ran. That burden you shoulder.

And so many others.

God sees.

He knows.

And one day He will personally reward you.

Missing the Obvious

By Paula Wiseman

My son plays junior high football. (If you’re not a fan or know nothing about football, stay with me.) Saturday evening his team was evenly matched and found itself in a tight, back-and-forth contest. On the last play of the first half, the opposing team had the ball and went for one desperate play to try and score before halftime. The quarterback ran around like crazy, trying to avoid being tackled, looking for someone he could throw the ball to. He threw it, but the receiver was quickly tackled and the half ended.

Most of the spectators on our side were pretty sure it was an illegal pass. (I’ll refrain from burdening you with the details of how and why.) The coach went out to talk to the referee about the missed call. The referee assured the coach that he had his eye on the quarterback the whole play, and the pass was legal. The coach however, said, “But you missed the whole offensive line breaking downfield.” (Which means a whole bunch of players who aren’t allowed to catch the ball were out of position trying to do just that.)

The Pharisees in Jesus’ day had a similar problem. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.” Matthew 23:23.

They were totally dialed into the minutiae of keeping the Mosaic Law (some might argue going overboard) while far more important and obvious things were overlooked– justice and mercy in their dealings with each other and faithfulness to God.

Unfortunately, we are not as different from those guys as we would like to believe. We have a tendency to fixate on small fringe details – the latest scandal out of Hollywood, a social or political cause, church structure and politics and so forth, and we miss the more important things. I can’t help but envision a day when we’re trying to explain to God how we never watched those kinds of movies, and we never voted for any of those candidates, and we never supported those companies. We had Bible covers and bumper stickers. We went to conferences and served on committees. I’m afraid He will look at us and say, “But you missed these people. You didn’t show them mercy or deal with them justly. You didn’t tell them how desperately I wanted them here with Me, and how I paid the price to make that possible.”

And we miss the obvious. When I say we, I mostly mean me.