The View from the West Mesa

       In chapter 16 of Matthew, Peter ‘makes the great confession’ - Jesus he says is the Son of the Living God. At Covenant, when someone wants to become a member or to be baptized, we ask them who Jesus is and we expect this response. Peter is correct when he says this, but it is not clear that Peter (or the other disciples) understood the ramifications of his statement. Following Peter’s statement we find a series of incidents that make us wonder just how much Peters actually believed what he had said.      In the first instance, Jesus compares Peter to Satan. Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem and there he will die. Peter exclaims that he will not let that happen; Jesus will not be killed. Peter is expecting great things from Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God on behalf of Israel and he cannot fit Jesus dying into his hope for a greater Israel under this Messiah. This cannot happen, he reasons. Jesus’s response is a harsh re...

  Jesus comes from the Wilderness where the Spirit has driven him for testing, announcing the imminent coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. His message to the crowds calls them to repent because the “Kingdom is at hand.” The kingdom or the effective rule of God has come upon Israel and Israel’s expected response is to return to her God. A number of passages tell us the sorts of things God has against Israel or at least her leaders. They have the form of the People of God, but not the substance. He will call those opposed to him “white-washed tombs” to describe their religious and moral corruption. They look good but are dead. He calls these people to repentance, to return to “their first love,” to actually live as though they are the People of God. In another place, he will tell them that while they do well to tithe mint and cumin, they have missed the larger point of caring for people. In the judgment scene, he describes sending into a place of gnashing of teeth those who failed to gi...

“So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matt 18:35, ESV) This phrase, this warning, this admonition comes as the conclusion or the point of the parable about the unforgiving servant. This servant has been forgiven a huge debt rather than being put in jail and having his family given in payment. This servant then goes out and finds someone who owes him a smaller amount and assaults him to gain the payment owed and has that person thrown in jail. Jesus explains this parable by the statement we began with—if you don’t forgive other people, you cannot expect God’s forgiveness for you. But there’s more here. Look at the last phrase: “from your heart.” Throughout Scripture and even though God provides a number of rules, we find that what God is after is not first of all, a keeping of the rules. So we have a wrinkle here. Sometimes we will hear something like, “I forgive you ‘because God’ forgives you.” For immature discip...

  In Matthew 23:11-12 Jesus says for at least the fifth time, “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (ESV) Sometimes the phrasing is a bit different with masters and servants taking the place of exalting and humbling but the point is the same. We have heard echoes of these ideas from the beginning of the Gospel too. Jesus’s responses to his temptations in the wilderness require that he set his pride aside, reject the power and the wealth offered him, submitting himself to the Father. The Beatitudes reflect one who is humble and who seeks the things of the Kingdom even in the face of power and oppression. We see it when we are told to be righteous but not to practice righteousness to be seen doing it. We can feel it a bit in the statement “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” and how that flows from the teachings on forgiveness. Forgiveness requires humility because, without it, our egos would...