One last call to "whoever" - Matthew 12:38-50 - Harsh but heralding

 


Snow still at 10,000 ft but manageable to get where I was going.  This is probably one of many trips this spring, summer and fall to the Grand Ditch Road.  I followed this up with a hike the next day to the summit of Shadow Mountain.  I don't think I have my "trail legs" yet so I am thankful for a couple of days before heading out again.  

In the title of this post I used the word "whoever" to stress the invitation offered to the scribes and Pharisees who wanted to destroy Jesus and also called His driving out of unclean spirits as of the devil and also the words "harsh but heralding" to stress His attention getting words (brood of vipers and evil and adulterous generation) used to again warn them of a coming judgment and they were on the wrong side.  Jesus is speaking the truth in love.  A judgment is coming; this is how they are responding; and this is the solution out that will cost Him His life.  No greater love than this, that a man...

Chapter 12 was one long conversation with those who opposed Jesus.  He boldly addresses their issues right in front of the great multitudes.  He calls out for them to repent of their willful unbelief.  He has provided evidence to show from the Old Testament prophets that He fits the description of the Messiah.  He also draws a line in the sand that only one sign is left that is necessary.  He will rise from the dead.  His resurrection will ultimately prove that He is who He says He is.  

I am thankful for passages like this one that shows Jesus validating events of the Old Testament.  He validates the account of Jonah, the Ninevites and the great fish.  He also validates the wisdom of Solomon and the visit from the Queen of Sheba.  Jesus draws from history to make His point about how they, the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba, responded favorably to the words of God and the upcoming judgment to those who do not repent.  They, the scribes and Pharisees, would be condemned by these Gentiles who recognized the words of God through the prophet and the king.  

Jesus also handles the difference between our earthly biological family and our heavenly "in Christ" family.  One is temporal and one is eternal.  Our prayer is that the members of our biological family would also be members of our "in Christ" family but that only happens if they have heard God's word and respond with keeping it.  This is said in reference to His own mother.  Jesus' mother, Mary, would need to hear God's word (repent, believe, surrender, submit) and keep (follow with obedience) it to be a part of the "in Christ" family.  Even Mary doesn't get a pass on this and neither do the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders (the deemed holy and righteous ones) of the day.  

Adam


A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 39th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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