Matthew 11 – 13
I am going to start with the last verse because it says so much about our world today. Here Jesus came back to his home town of Nazareth and was rejected in in verse 58:
And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief
I often wonder how much we miss as Christians in the “church” when we see someone become filled with the Holy Spirit that we knew before and reject his growth because of his past or his family. If Jesus were to come today would the church reject Him as the Pharisees rejected Him as the Messiah?
The chapters start with the Pharisees looking at John the Baptist and Jesus. They compare the two in the way they ate and drank in verses 18 & 19:
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
Once you start pressing on the status quo, people start questioning your intentions and actions. I find it interesting that both men were flawed for exactly the opposite reasons, yet they were rejected by the ones in power. Why? Because it was “change” that they needed to believe in. Their power was being questioned and would be lost if they accepted this man from Nazareth.
Once they found Jesus a threat, the Pharisees set to find flaw in anything He was doing. Chapter 12 explores his healing on the Sabbath and the Pharisees response. Unfortunately there are only two option, being on or off the bus. This is an analogy Jim Collins used in “Good to Great” as he analyzed companies that were good and suddenly turned to great. The great companies had a common theme of kicking the bad apples off the bus and keeping the ones who were committed on. Verse 30 is Jesus’ way of saying just that:
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
So might as well accept the teachings of Jesus and get on the bus, since it’s the right direction.
Now back to chapter 13 which is so filled with Biblical truths we could write an entire book just in this chapter. Jesus teaches so many parables in this one chapter you could read it over and over and still catch something new each time. He starts with the Parable of the Sower, which I seem to relate to the one thrown in thorns. I let my college days absorb my “morals” and lead me down a path of drinking and living for personal gratification.
I let the thorns consume my life! I let “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word.” My Bible was lost and the next “encounter” was the goal, with drinking to consume the in-between time. It is funny how the Parable of the Lost Son comes to mind here. Even if we receive the word on rocky ground and we get eaten, this parable gives us hope of a second chance.
Now learn from one who is still picking thorns out of his skin, stay on the path Jesus has lain before you. It’s so much easier! As we see in the rest of these parables, you will find your “mustard seed” will become mighty and will be spared from being discarded. So again read with desire to know God, pray with knowledge that it’s being heard and learn to remain with God in fertile soil. So find that place and grow!