A Question in Response to a Question That’s Actually the Answer

Mark 11:27-33, CEB - Jesus and his disciples entered Jerusalem again. As Jesus was walking around the temple, the chief priests, legal experts, and elders came to him. They asked, “What kind of authority do you have for doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?”

Jesus said to them, “I have a question for you. Give me an answer, then I’ll tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things.  Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me.”

They argued among themselves, “If we say, ‘It’s of heavenly origin,’ he’ll say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’  But we can’t say, ‘It’s of earthly origin.’” They said this because they were afraid of the crowd, because they all thought John was a prophet.  They answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Jesus replied, “Neither will I tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things.”

 

                Jesus and His disciples come back to the temple to do some teaching and are met by the religious leaders who are looking for a way to discredit Him.  His influence has become a threat to their own.  So they ask a question, not because they want a real answer, but because the question will stir up the crowd no matter how Jesus answers it.  Even if Jesus simply refuses to answer, He will appear to the crowd as evasive.  This would undermine His authority as well.  Instead of answering or refusing to answer, Jesus offers a deal.  If the leaders can answer His question, then He will answer theirs.  The fun part about this is that the question Jesus asks is the same kind of question as the one posed to Him.  The leaders’ credibility will be undermined no matter how they answer.  The huddled discussion they have elaborates on why this is the case.  They realize they have been beaten at their own game, so they relent by saying, “we don’t know.”    

                This is the beginning of a very intense conflict that will play out throughout the next chapter of Mark between Jesus and these leaders.  Of course, the eventual result is Jesus hanging on a Roman cross.  However, the issues raised by these conflicts are essentially important.  After all, it is important to answer, “by what authority” Jesus conducts His ministry. And if we are paying close attention, Jesus’s non-answer is a brilliant answer to the authority question.  Mark, is trying to point this out in his account.  By asking the leaders about the baptism offered by John, Jesus is, in effect, answering the authority question.  Great irony is discovered when we realize that the leaders own “strategy meeting” points out why.  Jesus’s authority is confirmed when John baptizes Him.  As Jeus comes up out of the water, the voice of God proclaims from heaven, “You are my Son, whom I dearly love.” (Mark 1:11)  If these religious leaders (the same group that will condemn Him to death in just a few days) admit that John’s baptism was of heavenly origin, then they would also answer their own question about Jesus’s authority.  The leaders care nothing about that; they care only that Jesus’s authority has come to challenge their own and they will not have it. 

                As I have said at least a couple times before in our journey through Mark’s gospel, we more properly hear the message Mark wants us to hear when we put ourselves in the place of the religious leaders.  Instead of making them the villains who we could never be like, we would do well to ask ourselves how Jesus’s authority impinges upon our own. 

 

Question:  If Jesus is indeed Messiah and Lord of all, what claim or authority does He have on our lives?

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, we admit that is hard to submit to Your authority sometimes, because in doing so, we have to let go of our own authority and power.  Where we are blind to this, point it out for us. Where we are too stubborn to relent, make us humble.  You are God and we are not.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for religious leaders at the highest levels of authority today (Bishops, District Superintendents, etc)

 

Song:  Stubborn – Michael English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTAnVc1HDFE

Crazy John?

Mark 1:4-8 - And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.  John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.  And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.  I baptize you with[e] water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

 

As we said yesterday, Mark begins his gospel account with the announcement that the Messiah would be preceded by another messenger who will prepare the way.  Immediately after this announcement, we meet this messenger, John the Baptist, in the wilderness.  He is “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

 

This is not the baptism with which most modern-day Christians are familiar.   It is not an initiation rite.  There is no such thing as a “Christian” yet.  As we will learn throughout his gospel, Mark says plainly what he means.  This is a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  To repent literally means “to turn away.”  John pleads with those who come to hear him to turn away from their sinful ways because the Messiah is coming.  John’s words come at the end of a very spiritually dry period of a few hundred years where no prophet’s voice is heard and God’s people have been oppressed my multiple empires.  The suggestion here is that people had fallen asleep spiritually.  John is the alarm bell piercing their slumber. 

 

Mark uses John’s clothing to point out that this clarion call is not coming from the comfortable religious establishment that quietly colludes with Rome.  No priest in Jerusalem would be caught dead wearing camel’s hair or leather.  Neither would they dine on the bugs and honey you could find in the wilderness.  This message comes from one who has himself repented of all the trappings of the religious establishment before he asks anyone else to repent.  John is the son of a priest, but he sheds the priestly signs of comfort and wealth.  His message is “do what I have done, because something amazing is about happen and you might just miss it.” 

 

It's a message that’s hard to hear even today.  We read about John and often picture him as “a crazy old man in the woods.” 

“Oh, that’s just John.  Pay no attention to him.” 

 

People dismissed John two thousand years ago and people still dismiss God’s messengers calling for change today.  They misunderstood John back then and they misunderstand still today.  John is not saying we need to change things;  He’s announcing that things are about to change whether we want them to or not.  We can prepare ourselves for that or we can miss what God is doing altogether. 

 

Question:   In what way is John’s message of “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” a message for you today? For the church today?

 

Prayer:  Holy Spirit, show us the ways in which we have grown too comfortable and content in our faith.  Wake us up with the news of what you are about to do in us and in the world.

 

Song:  Song of Repentance – New Wine Worship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE4YYHr2SF8

Two Kinds of Authority

 

Two Kinds of Authority

February 8, 2022

Matthew 21:23-27, NRSV -  When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”  Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.  Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’  But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.”  So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

 

                Have you ever felt like someone who was “not qualified” was moving in on “your” territory?  The Chief Priests and Temple Elders were having such an experience.  They find Jesus teaching people about God’s ways in the Temple and they question His right to be doing such a thing.  The reality is that unless the Priests and/or Elders had themselves given Jesus official authority to teach in the Temple setting, Jesus has no “official” authority to do so.  They are not questioning Jesus to find out who told Him He could teach.  They were asking Jesus about His authority so as to discredit him in front of those He was teaching.  There is no answer Jesus can give that will not escalate the situation. The Priests and Elders are not being inquisitive. They are being sinister.

                Jesus sees this for what it is and does not fall into the trap.  Instead, as He often did, he would answer a trick question with a question. 

                   Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?”

He promises to answer their question if they will answer His.  They deliberate.  Their deliberation confirms that they are only interested in how this looks to the people in the temple.  They realize that Jesus has turned the tables on them.  If they answer one way, they will look bad for not having heeded John the Baptist’s teaching.  If they answer the other way, they will be the ones that will be discredited in front of the people for John has the hearts and minds of the people.  So they lie and say they don’t know.  Jesus then dismisses them with, ““Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

                Then Jesus tells two parables aimed at exposing the intentions of the Temple leaders and issuing a startling indictment on them.  Those two stories will form the basis for our next devotional.  For today though, let’s stay with the authority issue.  There is an authority that comes from a position and then there is authority that comes from God.  When Bishop Corneilus Henderson laid his hands on my head in May of 1996 and said, “Take Thou Authority” as a Elder in the United Methodist Church, I was conferred the positional authority.  This is recognized by almost all who count themselves Methodists and that is the reason I am given the opportunity to lead a congregation that has never met me before.  This is positional authority.

                However, several times over the course of the few decades that I have served as a Pastor in the UMC, I have encountered others with the other kind of authority.  They did not have a Master of Divinity degree like me.  No Bishop had ever put their hands on these people’s heads.  They had no official position.  And yet, it was so clear so me and others that God had anointed them to lead in a specific way that normally would not be officialy recognized. 

                My favorite of this was a thirteen-year-old boy in one of my congregations who I quickly realized knew more about the Bible than me.  He was so humble about it though.  He would ask me questions for which I had no answer.  He would draw scriptural connections that had never occurred to me before, but were absolutely brilliant.  He didn’t just impress me.  He impressed the whole congregation – so much so that one of the adult Sunday School classes asked him to teach them.  An adult Sunday School class asked a 13-year-old to teach THEM.  By the time, this young man was a senior in high school, he regularly filled the pulpit.   He is in college now, but I can’t wait to see the things that God will do with this young man. 

                My point is that this young man had the God-given kind of authority, an authority that requires no degree, ordination, or official position.  We often refer to this authority as “an anointing.”  Too often though, people with this higher authority are often discounted and discredited as the Temple leaders attempted to do with Jesus.  I shudder to think that I may have been among the “discreditors” at times because I place too much emphasis on human authority and position.  I pray that this has never been the case and I guard against it all the time.  We all should.

 

Question:  Who are people that you have known that seemed to have “an anointing” from God?

 

Prayer:  Lord, help us to recognize your authority when it shows up in the people you’ve anointed among us.  May we value and allow them to live out their calling whether they have any official position or not.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for young people you know trying to figure out what they will do with their lives. 

 

Song:  Anointing Fall on Me – Ron Kenoly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8sX3IrCEWY

Matthew 16:13-20 - Who Do You Say That I Am?

 

Who Do You Say That I Am” - November 22, 2021

 

Matthew 16:13-20, NIV - When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.  And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

 

                Years ago, I visited the now abandoned town of Caesarea Phillipi, where the above conversation took place.  It was a Roman city built as a tribute to the Roman God Pan.  I remember gathering with the group I was traveling with at the bottom of a cliff where, carved into the mountain, were images and monuments created to honor Roman deities.  We read the passage above where Jesus asks His disciples, “who do people say that I am?”  We envisioned this question being asked in the shadows of carvings depicting pagan Gods and the question took on even more impact.  And yet today, amidst all the “gods” that vie for our attention and devotion, it seems just as impactful.  Who do people say that Jesus is?

                Even people who aren’t “churchy people” often have an opinion about who Jesus is.  Some say He is a great moral teacher, but nothing more than that.  Others say he was a good man whose wisdom still has relevance, but He was sadly deluded about being “the Savior of the world.”  Still others do believe Jesus was who He said He was, but their belief about Jesus never translates into living any differently than they would have if they had never heard of Jesus. 

                Chances are that, if you’re reading this, you are among people who would answer the way Peter did when Jesus asks, “yes, but who do YOU say that I am?”  Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God.   This confession of Jesus’s identity has formed the basis for the Church’s witness since the time of Peter.  Jesus is more than just a good man or wise teacher.  He is greater than any Prophet, even John the Baptist.  Jesus is God incarnate. He is Emmanuel, God with us.  He is the Lord of Lords, King of kings, the Alpha and the Omega.  Jesus is everything! 

                This conviction in Jesus identity that we hold two thousand years later is grounded in Peter’s confession in Caesarea.  Peter, as Jesus prophesies over him, does become the foundation for the church Jesus will build.  Peter is the first of apostles that carry on the ministry of Jesus after His death and resurrection.  And from the beginning in the first century until now, “Jesus is Lord,” is still the foundational confession of our faith.  But from time to time, I have to ask myself an important question.  Today I also ask you that some question:   

 

Questions:  “What difference does that confession make in my daily life?  How is the way I live different because I believe Jesus is Lord of all?          

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, after Peter confesses that you are the Messiah, you tell the others not to tell anyone until after your resurrection.  Perhaps it not until we realize that your death and resurrection is actually what makes you our Messiah that we can begin to understand who you really are.  Help us experience who you are for us so that our living may ever more reflect the truth about who you are.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people you know who do not know Jesus.

 

Song:  “Who Do Say That I Am?” – David Phelps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfvQcvKTPIw

Matthew 14:1-14 - The Heart of the Gospel

 

Matthew 14:1-14 - The Heart of the Gospel - November 10, 2021

 

Matthew 14:1-14, NIV - At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus, and he said to his attendants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.”  Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered John a prophet.

On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.  Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”  The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted and had John beheaded in the prison.  His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother.  John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.  When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

 

Three mini-lessons in this pericope.  First, the ruler Herod was obviously REALLY rattled by John the Baptist.  He feared his subjects’ reaction if he executed John, but he had to fulfill a foolishly made oath to give the daughter of Herodias anything she wanted.  What she said she wanted (after her mother whispered in her ear) is John’s head on a platter.  But it’s clear Herod would not have done it otherwise. It haunts him so much that when the tetrarch hears about the commotion being raised by Jesus, he believes it is John back from the dead to cause him more problems.  Doing the wrong thing for the right reason is still doing the wrong thing.

Next, Jesus is obviously affected deeply by the news of John’s death.  Anyone who has been blindsided by such grief understands why Jesus “withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.”  He just wanted to be alone to grieve.  This is important for us to see.  Jesus knows he hasn’t lost John forever.  In fact, Jesus knows more than anyone around him that He and John will be reunited in heaven pretty soon.  But still, Jesus grieves.  He has perfect faith and an eternal perspective and yet, the Son of God still intentionally withdraws to grieve.  Too many of us try to suppress our grief.  Jesus engages his grief, so why do we think we don’t need to do so?

Unfortunately, despite Jesus’s intention to engage His grief, he doesn’t get long to do so.  When he comes back from his solitary boat trip, he sees that the crowd has followed him along shore.  At the end of this sad day, there are people longing for more healing.  It must have been tempting for Jesus to say something like, “come back tomorrow.” I can even imagine myself, in the same situation, getting a little frustrated.  Instead, he chooses compassion and responds to their needs.  Compassion is always a choice.

It is because Jesus intentionally took some time to engage his own grief that he is able to then have compassion for others who are suffering.  Getting in touch with His own suffering allows him to “suffer with” (which is the root meaning of the word compassion) others.  At the heart of the Gospel is a God that is willing to enter into human suffering and then heal our deepest wounds.  This story is a microcosm of the entire book of Matthew and the other Gospels.  God knows our suffering and chooses to enter into it and heal it.  I need to hear that….a lot.  Perhaps you do too.

 

Question:  What is a place of suffering in you that perhaps, before now, you have not been willing to invite God into?

 

Prayer:  Jesus, you entered into my sorrow, shame, and suffering willingly.  I open my heart and receive your presence so that I can receive Your divine compassion.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend some time today praying for your own healing.  It’s not selfish; it’s necessary.

 

Song:  I Remember – Lauren Daigle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9TE8D5Vs8k

Matthew 11:16-19 - Seeing the World As We Are

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 15, 2021

Seeing the World as We Are

 

Matthew 11:16-19, The Voice - What is this generation like? You are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out, “When we played the flute, you did not dance; and when we sang a dirge, you did not mourn.”  What I mean is this: When John came, he dressed in the clothes of a prophet, and he did not eat and drink like others but lived on honey and wild locusts. And people wondered if he was crazy, if he had been possessed by a demon.  Then the Son of Man appeared—He didn’t fast, as John had, but ate with sinners and drank wine. And the people said, “This man is a glutton! He’s a drunk! And He hangs around with tax collectors and sinners, to boot.” Well, Wisdom will be vindicated by her actions—not by your opinions.

 

In the passage for today, Jesus is lamenting the resistance to God’s kingdom that he mentioned in his defense of John that we read yesterday.  John was labeled demon-possessed because he didn’t do what the people expected.  Jesus Himself was labeled a glutton and a drunk for eating and drinking with the wrong sorts of people.  This may sound like nothing more than Jesus venting about the hard time he and John have had as they have pursued their mission, but I invite us to see the deeper principle that he is describing because it is still being played out two thousand years later as God’s kingdom continues to unfold. 

                People naturally struggle with being called to a new way of living.  John called people to repent because the Kingdom of God was coming.  Some people did, but most continued as if nothing had happened.  Jesus announces that the Kingdom has arrived and the people repeatedly ran Him out of town.  As we’ll see in tomorrow’s passage, he performed miraculous works in multiple towns with barely any response.  Ultimately, we know that Jesus and His Kingdom were rejected forcefully when He was nailed to a cross.  When you call people to change the way they are living, even when embracing that change can help them, they often respond drastically to keep doing what they have been doing.

                I point this out as if it is only others that act this way; it is not.  I act this way too.  I often react badly when others, however lovingly, tried to point out an error in my thinking and/or doing.  When God first called me to be a pastor, I pursued at least three other vocations before I became open to what God was offering.  Almost always, when I am confronted with a truth that requires me to change my thinking or behavior, my first instinct is to fight it or go in the other direction.   Over the years, I’ve gotten better at recognizing when this instinctive reaction has been triggered and I sometimes am able to override it with some clear thinking and engaged faith.  But that first instinct to resist has never gone away in me.  And in my decades of observation of others, I know I’m not the only one with this issue.

                The Kingdom of God is still unfolding; the revolution that John announced and Jesus catalyzed is still calling us to live differently than we are now.  We’ll talk more about this tomorrow, but for today consider this question.

 

Question:  What is something you know God wants you to do differently but, as of this moment, the resistance instinct in you has won out?

 

Prayer:  Have mercy on us, Savior.  Help us confront the resistance to Your kingdom that persists in our spirit so that we may embrace the life that truly is life.  Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend some time confessing your own personal struggles with doing what you know is right to God today.

 

Song:  Man in the Mirror – Michael Jackson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivWY9wn5ps&t=23s

Matthew 11:6-15 - If John Had Doubts About Jesus, What Chance Do I Have?

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 14, 2021

If John Had Doubts About Jesus, What Chance Do I Have?

 

Matthew 11:6-15, NIV – “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”  As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind?  If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces.  Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.  This is the one about whom it is written:

“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,

    who will prepare your way before you.’

Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.  From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it.  For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.  And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.  Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Yesterday, we talked about Jesus responding to John the Baptist’s question about whether Jesus was the Messiah.  John seemed to be wavering in his belief, and Jesus gives him some scriptural reassurance to reinforce his faith.  As he finishes giving John’s disciples the message to deliver to John who is in prison, he makes the statement at the beginning of our passage for today.

“Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” (Mt 11:6)

This is a transitional statement that is for John and for the crowd that Jesus is now turning to address. The crowd has heard the exchange between John’s disciples and Jesus and will need some reassurance of their own.  If the great John the Baptist is having doubts about Jesus, then who wouldn’t have doubts? So Jesus talks to the crowd about John.

                The interesting thing about Jesus’s remarks to me is that Jesus does not even address John’s doubts (or the crowd’s for that matter).  He simply talks about the greatness of John and John’s ministry.  Though we (two thousand years later) may miss it, he is drawing a contrast between John (“among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater”) and the man that imprisoned John, the King Herod Antipas, whose public symbol was a reed (“a reed swayed by the wind”).  At some point though, you might expect Jesus to say something like, “John was great, but even the greats have doubts sometimes.”  Jesus does not make any such statement.  What he does with the crowd is similar to what he did with John/John’s disciples.  After affirming John’s greatness, Jesus quotes scripture. 

“This is the one about whom it is written:

‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,

    who will prepare your way before you.’”

The quote is from Malachi where Malachi talks about one who precedes the Messiah, an Elijah-like messenger.  By invoking this prophecy Jesus is simultaneously proclaiming that John is that Elijah figure AND that He (Jesus) is indeed the Messiah.  This is confirmed when at the end of our passage for today when Jesus says, “if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.”

                The implicit message of Jesus here is not a prescription to get rid of doubts, but an invitation to believe in the midst of doubts.  In fact, that is the very root of real faith itself.  Believing is easy when there is no cause for doubt.  But Jesus acknowledges that there is great cause for doubt (“the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it”).  Because of this, doubts will always be with us, but the invitation of the Kingdom is to keep on believing anyway.  The reasons for our doubts will fall away, but the Kingdom is forever.

                This sets up the last observation for today.  It concerns Jesus’s surprising statement, “whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than [John the Baptist].”  Why would anyone be “greater” than John, much less the “least in the kingdom?”  There is a lot that could be said here, but you’ve already endured a lot of explanation today, so I’ll keep it brief.  At this point in Matthew’s story, there is great confusion about the true nature of Jesus’s identity even among Jesus’s followers (and John the Baptist for that matter).  They hear Jesus proclaiming the Kingdom, but they aren’t ready for the “mind grenade” that it will come through Jesus’s death and resurrection.  They expect to see Jesus become an earthly king, not a crucified messiah.  There is no possible way for them to comprehend what even the most casual believer in Jesus embraces now – that the Kingdom that Jesus ushers in necessitated His death.  It is His death that makes the full expression of the Kingdom possible.  The “least in the Kingdom” now know something John the Baptist could have never known before.  You and I know that that too, “if we are willing to accept it.”

 

Question:  How do you choose to believe in Jesus and His Kingdom, in spite of doubts caused by all that is around us?

 

Prayer:  God, “we believe.  Help us in our unbelief”  (Mark 9:24) Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Choose a couple of specific people that you know that have not chosen to believe in Jesus yet.  Pray for them today.

 

Song:  Bill Gaither - I Believe, Help Thou My Unbelief

Note:  I have to confess.  I am not a huge fan of Bill Gaither fan (though my Mom adores him!), but this song deeply touches me and speaks to message for today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z__h1uiSC6I

Matthew 11:1-6 - Seeing the Forest for the Trees: John the Baptist Edition

 

Daily Devo W/ Pastor Eric October 13, 2021

Seeing the Forest for the Trees - John the Baptist Edition

 

Matthew 11:1-5, NLT - When Jesus had finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he went out to teach and preach in towns throughout the region.

John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”

Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen— the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.”  And he added, “God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.

 

Poor John is beginning to have his doubts.  The bold wilderness preacher has been keeping tabs on what Jesus is doing. He hears about the miracles, but he was expecting judgement. Remember back in chapter 3, just before Jesus’s baptism, John proclaims, “Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees.” (3:10)  What John is hearing about is not judgement.  Healing, resurrections, and the Word being preached are all well and good, but the Messiah is also supposed to bring judgement.  Are you the one to bring it or are we waiting for someone else?

Jesus’s message to John doesn’t seem to address the question because He simply tells John what John already knows – the miracles.  But Jesus is quoting prophecy in Isaiah:

“Blind eyes will be opened, deaf ears unstopped, lame men and women will leap like deer”  (Isaiah 35:5-6)

“He sent me to preach good news to the poor” (Isaiah 61:2)

John does already know these prophecies too, but we all need to reminded of things we already know when our heart seems to be set on something else.  John has been fighting with the authorities since he began his ministry and needs to know that those with whom he has been fighting are going to “get theirs.”  The reality is that the inbreaking of a new Kingdom does bring judgement on the old, but it does so by ushering in such good news that people begin to embrace the new with their whole hearts, dropping the old in the process.  Jesus’s message to John (and the crowd gathered) is that what John is hoping for is indeed happening, but maybe not in the way John imagined.   

                We all need that reminder sometimes.  We all get discouraged and long for vindication from time to time.  In those times, it can be easy to begin to fixate on our enemies being exposed for what they are.  But Jesus’s words here remind us that our focus should not be primarily on our enemies, but on what God is doing.  Good things are happening, but we will overlook them if all we are thinking about is what is not happening.  It was a good Word for John and it is a good Word for us as well.

 

Question:  Is it possible that you are missing something important that is happening right now because you are focused on something that is not happening?

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, help us not to confuse our expectations with Your Will.  Gently remind us today of the goodness in our lives to which we should be paying attention.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people in prison today

 

Song:  Accentuate the Positive – Dr. John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTMWNWrE3Uc