What the Heck did Jesus Just Say?
January 19, 2022
Matthew 18:18-20, The Message - “Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is
yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is
eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth
and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or
three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”
Today’s passage recalls something Matthew says to Peter
earlier in the Gospel (Matt 16:18-19):
You are Peter, a rock. This is
the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with
energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.
“And that’s not all. You will
have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every
door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on
earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no in heaven.”
Matthew is careful to draw attention to the fact that Jesus
has used the exact same words on both occasions in order to reinforce an
important facet of God’s kingdom. In
chapter 16, Jesus confers the “keys to the kingdom,” meaning the authority of
heaven is now shared with the community of those who confess Jesus as
Messiah. Don’t miss this; the authority
of heaven is now shared with those on earth. Throughout the rest of the Gospel,
we will see Jesus expand upon what this means, but here the issue is the
boundaries of community. Jesus is saying
to his followers that a community who follows Christ as Messiah has the
authority to determine what is acceptable and unacceptable within that
community. Furthermore, the Kingdom of
Heaven will abide by it. This is astonishing. This is also the subject of endless debate on
what that really means and the limits of this surprisingly conferred authority. I do not propose to settle those disputes in
my little devotional here even if I thought that I could (which, by the way, I
do not). I fully expect those debates
will continue until kingdom is established in its fullness.
So here’s what I do what to point
out – the incredible importance of community in the Kingdom of God. Jesus does not invite us to an individual
faith. While I believe it is technically
possible to have a relationship with God outside the church proper, it’s clear
from this teaching of Jesus and many others that God’s invitation to have faith
is an invitation to place ourselves under the authority of a community that all
profess Jesus is Lord and Messiah. The last sentence above is Jesus’s promise
that where there is a community of followers, Jesus is there. I
think it bears repeating once again; your faith and my faith are not really
your and my faith. It is OUR faith. My faith is missing something without you and
vice versa. And specifically, this means
that the way I live out my faith is in submission to the grater authority of
OUR faith. This is what Paul meant when
he said, “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility
consider others better than yourselves.”
In our uber-individualistic society,
this is a counter-cultural idea. It has
enormous implications for how we should live which I could not even begin to
describe today. Instead, I’m inviting you to consider what might be one
implication for you. We all have our own
little “kingdoms,” those domains over which we have authority. Spend some time exploring that for yourself
today. Consider the following questions.
Questions: What specific
resources, regular decisions, and relationships do you have influence over? Do you use your influence over those things in
a way that reflects a submission to the larger Kingdom of God?
Prayer: Holy God, you
are over all things. We know that and we
say that but sometimes we live as if it were not true. Forgive us.
Help us see one place where we could more fully put your concerns
first. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for the Church across the world today as we continue to figure out how to be
effective in the new realities created by the pandemic.
Song: Where Two or
Three Are Gathered – Liam Lawton
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