Recap

So far in Mathew, we've read the prologue, and started the first block of Jesus' ministry. The Jews are now living under Roman occupation and are waiting for their future king from the line of David to come, defeat their enemies, and save them. Speaking to that hope, Matthew opens with a genealogy of Jesus, calling him a son of David, and then rooting his birth in Old Testament prophecy and allusions. He's born through the Holy and is literally the son of God. He's given gifts from wise men that match what was given to Solomon's temple. He is God's presence on earth. He is brought out of Egypt as a new Israel.

Then we read through his preparation for ministry. John the Baptist prepared the way for him by encouraging people to live lives of repentance. John baptised Jesus and then the Holy Spirit then sent Jesus into the desert, where he fasted for forty days and nights, resisting the temptation of Satan. Jesus is succeeding where the Israelites before him failed.

Leaving the desert he chose his first disciples and started declaring the kingdom of God is at hand. He reinforced this by healing the sick and casting out demons. Then came Jesus' first teaching block, the Sermon on the mount. Just as Moses went up Mount Sinai to bring back the law, Jesus is going up a mountain to unpack the law of the kingdom of heaven.

The Beatitudes showed the upside down nature of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus then pulled out a number of Old Testament laws and shows how they don't go far enough. It is not enough to behave well. It's the state of our hearts that's important. Murder and affairs are wrong, but they flow out of internal feelings of hatred and lust. Our priorities should always be to get our hearts right.

He challenged how people outwork their faith, telling them when they give, pray, and fast they shouldn't do it to show off. Our focus should be on God's kingdom, not power, money, or even providing for ourselves. God has that covered. Our focus needs to be on him.

Matthew 7-8

Moving from an inward focus on our lives, worrying whether we have enough, Jesus challenges our focuses on the lives of others. Do not be quick to judge. It can be so easy to give all our attention to what others are doing wrong, that we ignore the wrong things in our lives.

Jesus encourages his listeners to deal with the wrong in their own lives first, and then they will be able to see clearer and better understand how to address the wrong in other people's lives.

At the same time, don't be too quick to just give good things to anyone. There are some people who we can do our best to bless, but they will treat it with contempt and it will come back to bite us.

So far, Jesus has set the bar high for those who will follow him. How can anyone manage to meet these expectations? Ask. God wants you to be able to meet these expectations. They are good for you. So if you humble yourself and seek him, God will give you what you need to live up to these standards.

Jesus then summarises all these teachings in what is none as the Golden Rule, "whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them" (Matthew 7:12). Simple, but effective, Jesus' teachings can be boiled down to caring for one another.

Jesus rounds off his sermon with teaching on how best to live out the things he's shared. First, beware of those who would bring slightly different teaching. You can always test someone's teaching by how it bears fruit in their life. Good teaching will bear good fruit in their life, whereas bad teaching will bear bad fruit.

To use a modern saying, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating". If someone is teaching a particular way of living or thinking, but their life doesn't reflect the kind of life Jesus calls us to, then their teaching isn't worth following.

Next, Jesus warns against the idea that you can live a good life and earn a place in the kingdom of heaven. Remember, what matters most is the state of your heart and your relationship with God. Jesus notes that there will be plenty of people that do incredible things, but never really had a relationship with him. So when the day comes and they try to enter God's kingdom, Jesus will turn them away because he never knew them.

Finally, Jesus encourages his listeners to make sure to root themselves in all that he's taught them so they can have good foundations. Someone that wants to live a good life but tries to do it any way other than what Jesus has taught is like a man who builds a house on the sand and then wonders why it all fell apart when the storms and waves came.

In this first block of Jesus’ ministry, we learn a little of the nature of the kingdom of heaven. In the second block, we get some demonstrations of what it looks like in people’s lives. Matthew lists ten different accounts of Jesus performing miraculous acts, including healing.

First up is a man with leprosy. Leprosy was highly contagious, and those that had leprosy were seen as unclean. In Leviticus we read how unclean make other things they touch unclean. And yet Jesus shows this isn't the case in the kingdom of heaven. He reached out and touched the leper, and rather than becoming unclean, Jesus made the leper clean.

In Mark’s gospel, the leper ignores Jesus’ warning and tells everyone what happens. This was because Mark was focused on how everyone misunderstands or ignores Jesus. In Matthew, this is missing as it’s not a focus for Matthew. His focus is that the kingdom of heaven is for the outcasts and those seemingly far from God.

Which leads us to the next miracle involving a Roman centurion who has a paralysed servant. As soon as Jesus hears about this, he offers to come visit, but the centurion stops him. In his job, he understands authority, and so if Jesus tells the sickness to go, it will go. Jesus is amazed. Here is a Gentile, a non-Jew, who understands God's kingdom better than many of the Jews. Jesus tells the centurion to go home and his servant is healed.

Later on, Jesus visits Peter's house and finds his mother-in-law in bed sick. Jesus heals her and then spends that evening casting out demons and healing diseases. Matthew points out this is what Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 53:4. This reference to Isaiah was missing in Mark. Matthew’s focus is to constantly link Jesus’ actions back to the Old Testament.

If you go back to Isaiah, you might notice that Matthew says 'illnesses' and 'diseases', but Isaiah says 'griefs' and 'sorrows'. This is because Hebrew words have very broad meanings. So when Isaiah first said it, he was focusing on the grief of the people, but Matthew is now bringing out some of the other meanings of the words Isaiah used to show that it was also speaking of Jesus bringing physical healing.

Matthew takes a break from the miraculous stories to highlight the cost of following Jesus. There are plenty that are willing to follow Jesus at first because what he is doing is exciting. But following Jesus comes with a price. It is rarely an easy life, and it involves having to leave a lot behind.

A little later, Jesus is out on the Sea of Galilee with his disciples when a storm comes. His disciples are terrified and wake up Jesus, who was sleeping. Jesus immediately speaks to the waves and they calm.

In the Old Testament it was God who had the power over the sea, whether it was how he organised the sea back when he was creating the earth, or how he divided the red sea for Moses and the Israelites to walk through back in Exodus. Jesus is demonstrating the same authority now.

Getting to the other side of the Galilee, Jesus came to a land which was much more Gentile. There, he found two men filled with demons. Matthew’s version of this story differs from Mark’s (Mark 5:1-20) in two key areas. Mark’s version was based in Gerasa and had one man filled with many demons. Matthew’s version is based in Gadara (40 miles away) and has two men filled with demons. It’s unclear why Matthew made this change.

Jesus cast the demons into a herd of pigs, and the herd rushed into the water and drowned. Matthew’s point is the same as Mark’s. This is no longer the land that belongs to the Jews. Also, pigs were seen as unclean. Put these two things together and we see Jesus cleansing non-Jewish land.

The kingdom of heaven that Jesus is bringing isn't limited to the Jews and their land. As we've already seen, it is often the Gentiles that grasp what is happening before the Jews. Jesus' kingdom is for the whole world.

Psalm 90

In book three of the psalms (Psalm 73-89) we saw the focus on the destruction and exile of Jerusalem. This ended with Psalm 89, focusing on the restoration of the kingdom and a future king. Book four of the psalms (Psalm 90-106) is focused on God as king. We also get the most mentions of Moses of anywhere in the psalms.

This psalm is attributed to Moses and falls into the category of lament psalm.

Psalm 90:1-2 - God is eternal

Psalm 90:3-11 - Our days are short

Psalm 90:12-17 - So make our days good

The psalmist starts by highlighting God’s eternal nature. All generations have found their source in God, and God was around before the earth was formed. In contrast, humans are like dust in comparison. What is a thousand years for us is just a day for God.

While God causes people to flourish one moment, they fade away another, much like plants in the seasons. God’s judgement weighs heavily on us in light of our sin. Our lives are short and are spent underneath God’s judgement.

Having brought their complaint, the psalmist switches to their request. Help us to count our days, not waste them. Have mercy on us and dwell with us so that we might be satisfied by your love. That our days are spent in joy and gladness. Let us see that God is good and does great things for his people.

This psalm serves as a reflection on the shortness of life. It’s here one day and gone another. Joy should be found enjoying each moment in God, for he is eternal.