MONDAY
There’s a general rule in life that I think can help temper our anger and pride, a rule that goes something like this: you’re not allowed to be madder about a sin than the person who was sinned against. If someone lies about your friend, and your friend forgives him, you need to forgive as well. You can’t insist on keeping open a wound that your friend has already allowed to close. And as a strange rise in Jew-hatred seems to be overtaking the world, both on the political left and the right, I think this is something worth remembering.
In our reading from Matthew this morning, Jesus laments the unbelief of His people, in particular the scribes and Pharisees who are demanding signs from him while refusing to believe all the signs he’s already given them. And then He laments how this is yet another example of His people refusing to hear the word of God while foreigners and strangers embrace it. The men of Nineveh repented. His own people wouldn’t. The Queen of Sheba marveled to learn the Gospel from Solomon. His own people wouldn’t. Our Lord grieves over this. And yet, the scribes and Pharisees He condemns here are the same one He cries out for His Father to forgive upon the cross.
One of the statements often made against the Jewish people by self-professed Christians is that the Jews killed Christ. Ah, well, yes, our Lord’s people did. And so did with our sins. And our Lord has forgiven us all. He calls them home into His arms. He desires to be reconciled to those who share His DNA. He still longs to gather them to Himself like a hen gathering her chicks under her wing. So if that’s what Jesus wants, then that’s what we should want as well. Jesus doesn’t need our anger at unbelief. But we need His mercy. May we hunger for it always.
TUESDAY
In Deuteronomy 18, Moses tells us, “when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.” So that’s an easy sign. If a man speaks a prophecy that doesn’t actually happen, he’s a false prophet, a liar, and a fraud. Don’t have anything to do with him.
But does that mean that if what a prophet says does come true that you must listen to him? Not necessarily, as we heard in our reading from chapter 13 this morning. There will be false prophets who predict things that come true, but then they will use that truth to deceive you with a lie, to call you to go after false gods. Well, how could that happen? How could they have access to hidden knowledge? Moses tells us. This is happening because “the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
So if someone predicts that a plague of frogs will hit the earth at 8:45 am central time and it does, don’t listen if the supposed prophet doesn’t call you to put your trust in Jesus Christ. Don’t fail the test. Don’t give him your attention. If someone you’ve never met before tells you the name of your third grade best friend to woo you into participating in satanic arts, don’t fail the test. Remember that God permitting the wicked to have access to the truth doesn’t mean the wicked aren’t wicked. If someone tells you the secret thoughts of your hearts and tells you that this means you should chase after Vishnu or Allah or the idols of your heart, don’t fail the test. The false prophets of this world have nothing to offer you because you already have everything. You have the word of God given to you through the apostles and prophets. You have the Word of God made flesh to give you eternal life. You have the voice of God calling you to receive unfathomable peace with Him. You don’t need anything else.
THURSDAY
When Jesus gives us these two little parables at the beginning of our reading from Matthew this morning, what do they mean? This treasure in a field that a man covers up and sells all he has to possess, what’s the treasure and who is the man? Likewise with the merchant who sells everything he has to acquire the pearl of great value? Are we the man and is God the treasure? Or is God the man and we are the treasure? I think the ambiguity is intentional. There’s a sense in which we’re supposed to see this both ways, but in the proper order.
It is by grace that you have been saved. The reason you have peace with God is not because you saw Him as something to treasure and sacrifice everything for. The reason is that God wanted to have peace with you. He saw you as priceless because He wanted you to be priceless and therefore made you priceless. He sent His Son into the field where He covered you up by covering you in the blood that hid you from the assaults of the devil, that made Satan unable to claim you. Jesus gave up the life from His body to purchase you, to make you His own. The merchant declared you to be a priceless pearl because He gave you His priceless blood.
And because of that, because your Lord loved you first, then you can love Him in return. Because your Lord gave up everything to make you His own, you can give up everything to keep Him as your own. You don’t need your pride, your arrogance, your insistence on determining for yourself who Christ is. You can give that all up and live in the humility of learning from the Scriptures how precious the love of God is. You can give up your money, your anger, your lust, all these iniquities that seem to make you wealthy but that only separate you from the love of God. You can sell them all, have nothing in the eyes of the world, but have the greatest treasure of all–peace with the God who made you.
FRIDAY
For the Christian, holiness is both a journey and a destination. It’s a journey that we can’t begin in and of ourselves, but one that the Holy Spirit invites us to walk when He washes us in the waters of regeneration. When we are baptized into the Triune name, we are covered in the righteousness of Christ. And having been made a new creation, we walk the new path that Jesus has paved for us, the path surrounded by death and sorrow on all sides, but a path that will not lead us to corruption. This path we walk is one that belongs to all those who belong to Christ. The fools and the wise, the rich and the poor, the black and the white, the young and the old, this path guides us all as we follow Christ, keeping His example. On this path of holiness, we love as He first loved us. We forgive as He forgave us. We cherish what He cherishes. We hate what he hates.
That’s the path of holiness that we walk in this life. And then, at the end, we are welcomed into the kingdom of God. We enter into the presence of God. We enter into the arms of God that were opened to us, not because of our footsteps upon the path, but because of the piercéd feet of Jesus Christ who forged that path. So at the beginning of the path, every step on the way, and at the path’s end, the holiness of God is not something we earn or manufacture, but something we receive.
And we receive it because of the mercy of the Holy One of God, the Son of God, our Savior, Jesus Christ. We walk in holiness and we receive the kingdom of holiness because Jesus Christ came into this world. He opened the eyes of the blind. He gave leaping to the lame, songs of joy to the mute. He brought waters of salvation into the desert. The haunt of jackals He has made the pasture of the lambs. By dying for your sins, by rising for your justification, Jesus Christ has made you worthy to walk the way of holiness and made you worthy to be received in your Father’s arms when you reach the end.
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