A CHRISTIAN LOOKS AT MATTHEW’S GOSPEL
The crunch
Reading: Matthew 10:34-39 Click to view passage
We may have begun this study of Matthew with a rather romantic notion of becoming a 21st century follower and helper of Jesus. We may even have been stirred by the Sermon on the Mount and see its radical agenda as something that could change our planet for the good. Indeed, it probably presents us with the only real chance to deal with this world’s ills. Now comes the crunch. Nowhere else in the gospels will you feel the sheer honesty of Jesus to would be followers and helpers more powerfully than this. In these verses we are offered. (i) Warfare. This in the end is the uncompromising demand of Jesus. He didn’t come “to send peace, but a sword,” (v34). Our personal faith in Christ brings inward peace now, but only when the final struggle is over will we have peace surrounding us. (ii) A choice. Sometimes the choice will be between those near and dear to us and loyalty to Jesus. It is a heart wrenching choice, nowhere expressed better than by John Bunyan who said it is like, “pulling the flesh from (our) bones.” He was talking about his imprisonment and being parted from his wife and children.
Meditation: Am I ready to meet this challenge?
Prayer pointer: I need to put away “airy-fairy” ideas about the cost of discipleship.
Matthew:69
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