Plymothian

When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. ² Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

³ Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”

⁴ “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’^{[a] 5} and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’^[b]? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

⁷ “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”

⁸ Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. ⁹ I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

¹⁰ The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”

¹¹ Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. ¹² For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

User’s Manual Allows For Crashes

Jesus, I enjoyed what N.T. Wright wrote in Matthew for Everyone about this passage.   He said that he had a car manual that outlined what you should do in case of an accident or a crash.  He said that it also told you how best to navigate dangerous weather conditions like storms and snow.  The point was that even though the manufacturer allowed that crashes would happen, the manufacturer was not advocating crashes and dangerous or reckless driving.  The same was true of some of the laws in the Old Testament.  Even though the rules allowed for divorce and told you what to do in case of a divorce, they did not advocate divorce.

Jesus, you opened the way to a life where those who walk in your Holy Spirit would not have to follow the weaker ways left by Moses.  That seems so strange in our days where Christians are divorcing at the same rate as pagans.  According to this passage the rate of divorce would show a profound problem with spiritual formation.  My guess is that most Christians do not see marriage as an avenue where you transform them.  They see marriage as a venue where you reward them.  We have a tendency to think that we should receive a certain set of products from marriage and we are very disappointed when that is not the case.  We should have a continuously compassionate and understanding spouse;  we should receive support, safety, and security;  we should have exciting sex, adventures, and satisfying conversations.  We also have a set of things that we believe we should not have to endure in marriage:  alienation; lack of mutual appreciation for things; sexual sacrifice; depression; grief; anxiety; anger; stubbornness.  However, when our spouse seems harder to relate to, love, or respect it is a time when You can fill that suffering with more healing and more of yourself.  Also, before we become passionate about judging our spouse for the speck in their eye we ought to see the plank of a judgmental spirit and growing contempt within ourselves.  We tend to transfer our own issues onto others and then leave them for irreconcilable differences.  I know you can uproot the pain that we carry inside and blame on others.

Help us to cease looking for the ideal marriage, but help us to see the ideals that you are forming in us by the marriage that we are in.  Help us to release our dreams of what should be and rejoice in what is.  Help us to be less proud, but help us to learn from your humility.  Help us to remember how you sacrificed yourself and left heaven, so that we can sacrifice the unrealistic expectations that we create.  Help us then to dedicate our lives to unconditionally accepting and redeeming those who are closest to us and to work in ever-increasing circles.

Questions

1. What reasons did people in Jesus’ day give for divorce?
2. What do you think Jesus’ questioners expected from a marriage?
3. Why do people prematurely want to be free from a marriage?
4. What if Jesus gave up on you the same way others have given up on their spouses?
5. How can Christ be formed in you to sacrificially give to your spouse, your friends and even your enemies (which may be your spouse at this point)?

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

²² Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.^[g]

²³ “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold^[h] was brought to him. ²⁵ Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

²⁶ “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ ²⁷ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

²⁸ “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.^[i] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

²⁹ “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

³⁰ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. ³¹ When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

³² “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. ³³ Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ ³⁴ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

³⁵ “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Forgive!

Jesus, I am trying to think if there is anyone that I have not forgiven.  Those who most sorely wounded me are members of my church growing up and members of my family.  With some of the hurt within the family, it is only recently that I have seen how much pain I have been carrying because I have believed their opinion of me.  I was angry for a while.  When I accepted that I was angry it seemed to dissipate.  I was able to forgive and care for them more.  This was strange because in some cases we never had a conversation because they were dead.  However, I do find unforgiveness within me in strange areas.  When I came to America I had trained to play soccer and the coach that I approached told me that I couldn’t because I was ineligible.  He was wrong and I was devastated.  It is only recently that I thought not forgiving the coach was a problem.  According to Matthew 18, though, to truly forgive there has to be a conversation.  That has never happened and I feel a little sick at the idea.

To forgive, there must be some real offence that has happened.  there must also be some real conversation (as far as it is possible).  If we do not forgive, we do not become healed.  In other words we do not receive forgiveness and do not become healthy.  I have met people who say that they have forgiven a person and they don’t need to talk with them – in most cases I can think of this has really looked like cowardice which comes from fear and a frail self-image.  I know that I am accusing myself here, too.

Questions

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Should I forgive her?

“If your brother or sister^[b] sins,^[c] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. ¹⁶ But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’^{[d] 17} If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

¹⁸ “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be^[e] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be^[f] loosed in heaven.

¹⁹ “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Being Reconciled

Jesus, I thought I understood this process of reconciliation:  First go to the person who has sinned against you and talk it over; Second bring a few friends who have also seen the problem;  Finally bring it to the church.  Now I see things a little differently.  The second group of friends are to be mutually supportive, as far as possible, and will allow both sides to see where they are mistaken.  The final group would not have been hundreds of people in a church, but they would have been twenty people in a local gathering like a synagogue.  Also, I thought that if we could just let sleeping dogs lie, we should.  If we could avoid bringing things up, we would.  That is like nothing I have ever been a part of.  My father would suppress things and live on ‘simmer’ mode and then explode when it all got too much.  My mother would avoid the issues in the house for fear of my father erupting.  In my house we avoid issues most often.  The thought of, “Why blow this up out of all proportion?” is the prevailing thought.  However, what I see as the ideal in community here is the thought that there should be a foundation of love which allows offences and differences to be talked about as soon as they occur.  Both sides should be part of a broader community which can help them to see how they may be at fault.  that’s a bit much for many of us to cope with.  We are so enculturated toward avoidance that a community of healthy conflict resolution is not just alien but frightening.

Questions 

1. What problem does Jesus solve in this passage?
2. By what steps is the problem solved?
3. What exactly would the church or assembly have been at this stage?
4. How have you seen church discipline exercised?
5. How would a healthy church today apply these principles?

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Don’t Mess With God’s Children

Jesus, I like a good argument. I like to discuss different views on biblical interpretation.  However, do I cause people to stumble?  I hope not.  I try and encourage people to follow hard after God and wrestle with issues.  It’s not my desire to trip them up.  It’s my desire to cause them to think more and challenge their own comfort.  However, is it possible that I push too hard sometimes?  Is it possible I am an egotist who wants to look like I am smarter than I am?  It is possible.  Help me to be on guard from belittling people.  On the other hand, there are times when people have caused those around me to stumble.  I have seen legalism rip the guts out of faith.  People I grew up with knew what rules and regulations they had to follow, but rather than see what they could do, they saw what they could not do.  Rather than see what life was about and the joy that life with God contains, they saw what life could not contain and the focus on the forbidden fruit made them desire it all the more.  I remember being at college and our main professor calling us morons because we weren’t easily persuaded by Queer Theory or Revolutionary Theology.  A number of students walked away from their faith to become Revolutionary Marxist theologians.  I was in a lot of emotional pain myself during those years.  However, you were there, even though I couldn’t sense you.  You say harsh things to those who caused my peers to fall away from the faith.  I pray for mercy for them.  I hope that those who were angry and hurting will find peace.  I also pray that the bullying of Christians for their faith over sexuality in the United States would lead to something good.

Questions

1. What position should a person take in the Kingdom of God?
2. How should adults in the church become children?
3. Why are those who lead others away from Jesus so severely condemned?
4. What leads people away from the faith now?
5. Why don’t people who lead others away from the Kingdom of God feel any remorse?

When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. ²³ They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

²⁴ After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

²⁵ “Yes, he does,” he replied.

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”

²⁶ “From others,” Peter answered.

“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. ²⁷ “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

Coin In A Fish Mouth

I like to think of you, Jesus, teaching Peter in a way that he needed to be taught.  I think of him as a tactile learner.  It might be a stereotype for a fisherman but I think if him jumping into situations and being very hands-on. That is why I think that you told him to get the temple tax out of a fish mouth.  It was a master stroke of teaching.  A lot of pastors just talk, as if that is the only style of teaching that you did.  However, you were more diverse than that.  Some people who think that all learning is cerebral  do not see why this fish was ever caught.  Some take it that you are having a private joke with Peter because it doesn’t mention in the passage that Peter actually went and caught the fish. These people implied that Peter would have responded by saying, “Nice one, Jesus!”  Which then raises the question of whether the tax was paid or not.

I believe that you were saying that even though you are the King of Kings and the owner of the temple, you would pay taxes so as not to cause offense.  I think that is an example of the grace that you showed, but it is also strategic.  It was not time to get yourself killed, so you didn’t press hard on the authorities.

I can learn a lot about teaching and wisdom from you here.  I should try different methods to drive my point home to my students.  Also I should be wise and strategic when thinking through my spiritual path.

Questions

1. What was requested of Jesus?
2. Why didn’t he have to pay?
3. Why did he pay?
4. What are some of the rights that you have?
5. How could you give up your rights for the good of others?

When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. ¹⁵ “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. ¹⁶ I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

¹⁷ “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” ¹⁸ Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

¹⁹ Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”

²⁰ He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Developing Faith In An Exhausting World

Jesus, my faith is small, but it is connected to my understanding.  I rarely have certainty about a course of action but I do have faith to stay the course.  As I went through the hostile environment of my undergraduate school, I felt like I was carried by a faith that transcended reason.  Reason has coloured in a lot of the missing picture over the subsequent years, but there is still room for transcendence and mystery.  Where my faith suffers is knowing whether to move my family to Chicago, Grayslake, or Africa.  Where I am confused is about whether to take a financial risk and go to England over the summer.  Am I meant to stay in America and attend an ACSI conference and talk at Christian camps?  This is a difficult question to answer.  I don’t have an angel of God dictating to me what should be done.

When it comes to illnesses and healing, I don’t know when you want to work through the illness, when the illness is going to be allowed to take a life, or whether you really want to heal a person through the power of the Spirit.  So I muddle along trying to discern the will of God and I only know that I should hold the faith and persevere.  However, because of my lack of clarity about the spectacular I don’t speak to mountains and have them throw themselves into the sea.

Maybe it is because my prayer life is weak and that I really don’t discipline myself to fast.  Maybe if I was more immersed in prayer I would be more able to discern when the miraculous should happen.  It is not as if it is a slot machine where prayer and fasting is put in and miracles are paid out.  It is the sign of a deeper relationship.  I wonder that we are satisfied with so little, but we are too busy and too tired.  As I was talking with my wife, I saw how much energy we expend trying to control and worry.  In effect, how much energy we spend maintaining the opposite of faith.  We are so intent on spending our resources creating the anti-faith that we crave sleep and space rather than relationship.  Then sleep and space are denied us as we complete tasks we were not assigned and as we worry about a future that may never be.  Help us to cultivate a relationship where we pursue the tasks you assign and we have the resources which you give.  Help us to sleep restfully as you did in the boat when the storm raged.

Questions

1. Why was delivering the boy in the passage important?
2. Why couldn’t the disciples deliver the boy?
3. What kind of faith did the disciples have?
4. Why do you lack the resources sometimes to healthily live your life for God and for others?
5. How can you develop the capacity to serve God and others more effectively?

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

¹⁴ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵ “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter,^[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades^[c] will not overcome it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be^[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be^[e] loosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Who Are You, Jesus?

By this time in the gospel, people had developed an idea of who you were, Jesus.  They thought you were a prophet.  However, although you are prophetic, sovereign and the Great High Priest, you are more than prophet, priest, or king.  The types of prophets, priests and kings that we know lack the truth, the relationship with God the Father, or the authority that you have.  However, you are all three of these offices taken to infinite proportion:  As prophet, you speak truth into our lives and if we change in light of that truth we live more like we were designed to live;  As King of Kings, when we bow our knee to you and subject every area of our lives to your rule, you further your rule through us and bring the world back to the way it was created to be; As the Great High Priest, you stand in the presence of The Father and you make our case for us.

Jesus, we need you.  We need you to bring your authority and rule to bear on a society that wants to leave each individual to compose their own rules for living.  We need you to reveal to us the places where we should speak, the activities we should engage in, and the words which we should say so that the truth will be communicated that frees the oppressed and challenges the oppressor.  We need you to stand as our intercessor with The Father so that we will be seen as righteous.  Through the cross we enter into a new life.  Through your death we live a life of devotion that was once beyond our reach.  Through your life we live a transformed life that brings light and life to the world.  The world loves darkness and it rejects truth.  Help us to build the church so that the gates of Hades does not overcome it.

Questions

1. Where did Jesus go to ask the disciples who he was?
2. Why would Jesus remove himself from the power centres of Israel in order to dialogue with his disciples in this way?
3. Do you think the rock was Peter or the words that Peter spoke?
4. Who do people say Jesus is today?
5. If Jesus is the Messiah, how does that change the world?