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April 8 Lesson
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The kingdom of God is available to everyone
___Matthew 11:2-6, 16-30; 12:15-21
___11:2When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples 3to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"
___4Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 6Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me." ...
___20Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21"Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."
___25At that time, Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
___27"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
___28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
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___By Carolyn Ratcliffe
___Have you ever been asked who you are or what you do in the context of who you are? This is exactly the question with which Jesus is faced in Matthew 11.
___Warning concerning rejection
___Jesus had just finished his sermon concerning proper conduct within the kingdom of God (Matthew 5-7) and his demonstration of the power of the kingdom in the miracle collection (Matthew 8-9). Jesus had commissioned his disciples to go out healing and preaching (Matthew 10), yet warning them they will face opposition. At the end of Matthew 10, Jesus discussed the cost of being his follower and the results of his demand for unwavering loyalty. His followers would suffer persecution, alienation and rejection. Jesus explained more would reject the gospel than accept the message.
___Chapters 11 and 12 continue this rather negative and somber tone. John the Baptist is now in prison by the hand of Herod Antipas. Perhaps after hearing of the healing and exorcisms that Jesus had performed, John comes to the realization that Jesus may, indeed, be the coming Messiah. He sends two of his own disciples to inquire of Jesus.
___Is Jesus the Messiah?
___Jesus tells John's disciples to return and give him Jesus' rather indirect words; evidence, but not proof. Jesus' answer contains echoes of Isaiah 35:5-6 and Isaiah 61:1. The great prophet Isaiah had said that when God's kingdom comes the blind would see, the deaf would hear, the lame would leap, the mute would shout and the good news would be preached to the poor. By echoing the prophetic words of Isaiah, Jesus is declaring to John that, indeed, the time had come. God is breaking into history. The dawning of the kingdom has arrived in and through the public ministry of Jesus. The words of the prophet Isaiah are fulfilled in the person of Jesus--he is the promised Messiah.
___The questions then remain. What is an individual's response to this realization of who Jesus is? What does it mean that God has ended the old age and the new age has dawned? Jesus himself calls that individual "blessed" who by faith believes God has indeed issued in the new age. Jesus proclaims no condemning woe but a beatitude, "Blessed is anyone who does not stumble over me" (11:6). Always this is the question, what does the individual do with Jesus?
___Jesus now turns to the crowd to expand further on his message to John's disciples. Jesus asks a question that is rather difficult for interpreters, revolving around the word "reed" and Jesus' meaning. Since John was in prison at Herod's fortress at Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea, some suggest that the reference is to Herod Antipas whose symbol on some coins was a reed found in the Jordan Valley. If that is the case, then it was not a weak leader dressed in kingly clothes such as Herod that the people sought, but a prophet.___
___Elijah had come
___Jesus continues by saying the people had found a prophet, but they unknowingly found more than just a prophet (11:2-10). In John, the people had actually found the one who was to come and announce the Messiah of God. John, then, was the returning "Elijah" promised by Malachi 4:5. However, only those who hear and have the faith to believe understand who Jesus is. And those who hear and believe, even unto the least, would be greater than John. John ushers out the old age, Jesus ushers in the new. John only witnesses the dawning of the new age, the breaking in of the kingdom of God inaugurated by Jesus. John had not experienced the full work of Christ and would not know the meaning of the cross and the resurrection nor witness the ascension.
___Jesus' comments about John set the stage for the condemnation of "this generation" and three towns in Galilee. For the condemnation to make sense, John must be the forerunner of the Messiah, and Jesus must be the expected Messiah. First, Jesus addressed the people of his day. The term "this generation" is a collective term meant to describe the majority of people who would reject Jesus. In a parable, he compares his contemporaries to children who could not play together because of their disagreeable and domineering spirits. They criticized John for neither eating nor drinking, calling him a demon, yet they accused Jesus of being a glutton and a drunkard befriending sinners.
___Second, Jesus admonished three Galilean towns, Khorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. The historical occasion as to why these towns were addressed is uncertain. Evidently, because Jesus had done so many miracles in the area of Galilee with so little response, he felt compelled to use them as an example. Jesus condemns them, saying that even the pagan towns of Tyre and Sidon would have responded to such deeds as he had done. The wicked city Sodom would receive more toleration on the day of judgment than those who witnessed Jesus' deeds and still rejected him.___
___Acceptance or rejection
___What follows in verses 25-30 changes in tone from the negative to the positive. This group of verses represents the sharp contrast between those who accept Jesus and those who reject him. Jesus begins by acknowledging, praising and thanking God his Father (the first public mention of God as his Father), the sovereign Lord, for revealing to mere "children" the meaning and significance of Jesus' miracles. Jesus understands people must respond in faith to him as children to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3).
___Why must they respond to Jesus at all? Verse 27 gives the answer: Jesus has been given all revelatory authority. All Jesus says and does reveals the nature and will of the Father. To know Jesus is to know God. This verse is often called "the thunderbolt from the Johannine heaven" because is sounds so much like what John wrote in his gospel. The reciprocal knowledge of the Father and the Son is clearly characteristic of John's writing.
___Verse 28 is particularly cherished and is often called "the Great Invitation." Jesus invites all who will to come to him. The reward is rest, an easy yoke and light burden. In the context of what follows, surely Jesus is referring to the intolerable load the Pharisees and teachers of the law have placed upon the people concerning the law. Jesus, however, is not coming to give rest from the law but a less burdensome way of fulfilling it; not abolition of the law of Moses but fulfillment by providing its ultimate interpretation (5:17). Jesus emphasizes the more important things of the law, such as justice, mercy, faithfulness and love, not the burdensome minutia placed upon the law by the Pharisees. Furthermore, "the rest" looks forward to chapter 12 when Jesus promises the ultimate Sabbath rest of the kingdom he came to inaugurate.
___Jesus provided an easy yoke. The sense of the Greek is a "kind" yoke. The yoke is kind for it is not imposed upon anyone, it is only offered. Not only is the yoke kind, but it is the yoke that belongs to Jesus. In the New Testament world, oxen were yoked together to make a team. Jesus is essentially saying, "Pull with me, work with me and I will help you. Watch and learn from me. Do the work I do. I will work beside you." Certainly the heavy burden becomes lighter if we allow Jesus to help.
___The Sabbath as blessing
___In chapter 12, the negative tone of chapter 11 continues as opposition intensifies against Jesus in two disputes concerning the Sabbath. In the first dispute, Jesus allows his hungry disciples to pluck a few heads of grain because they were hungry. The Pharisees considered this act harvesting, a deed not acceptable on the Sabbath. Jesus defends his disciples, citing as historical precedent the action of David (1 Samuel 21:1-6). When David was hungry, he transgressed the law by allowing his men to eat the holy bread in the tabernacle reserved for the priest alone. The great David was allowed to transgress; therefore, Jesus, who is greater than David, has the authority to permit his disciples to harvest the grain, not only because they are hungry but because they are his followers in the work of the kingdom.
___Jesus' claim that something greater than the temple is present is interpreted in a number of ways. Jesus can be referring to himself or to the kingdom of God. More probably, however, he is referring to mercy, since he quotes Hosea 6:6 in Matthew 12:7 as well as in 9:13. The "law of mercy" for hungry disciples supersedes the Pharisaic interpretations of the Sabbath law.
___The second confrontation concerning the Sabbath carries the same lesson. Jesus is confronted with the decision of strict legalistic observance of the Sabbath or mercy. A man whose hand was withered is healed by Jesus. Jesus, once again, places mercy over legalism, inflaming the Pharisees to plot his destruction.
___Jesus heals, then addresses the multitudes that follow him. He quotes loosely from Isaiah 42:1-4 to define himself. This beautiful passage from Isaiah is clearly a messianic passage and presents the coming Messiah as the humble servant of God. The remarkable message in the quotation is the extension of God's grace beyond the Jews to the Gentiles, a direct answer to the bigotry of the Pharisees.
___The point of this lesson is that Jesus offers the kingdom of God to all. But only a few, like children, accept by faith. Jesus has the authority to bring the correct interpretation of the law given to Moses because Jesus and the Father are one. That interpretation is observance tempered by mercy. Jesus offers to all who enter the kingdom true rest with an easy yoke and a light burden.
For thought and discussion
___ If you were to come face to face with a man who called himself Jesus, what would your reaction be? How would you react if this man performed what you considered to be miracles?
___ What do you think Jesus meant when he said to the people who heard him in the 1st century that the least in the kingdom would be greater than the prophet John? What does this mean to you now?
___ How do you deal with the promise of Jesus that his yoke is easy and his burden is light when life itself seems to be so difficult and painful at times?
___ If you were confronted with an act of mercy that transgressed the law of God, what would you do? Do you have an example of such a time of choice?
___ Why do you think so many of the people around Jesus who saw what he did and heard what he said refused to believe that he was God's Messiah? Would you say that people today have the opportunity to hear and see Jesus? How is this possible and why do so many people reject Jesus as God's Son, dismissing him as simply a good man, a wise teacher or some sort of prophet?
___ As Christians, how do we handle bigotry? Do you think Christians, sometimes, are somewhat arrogant in our claim to have Jesus as only our Messiah?
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