Year 6, Day 193: Matthew 19

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

Matthew 19 is loaded with challenge.  Every single one of these parables has a story where the people around Jesus are shown where they can grow.  This chapter proves that if we are going to be in proximity to Jesus, we have to be willing to look at ourselves.

Jesus begins with a teaching about divorce.  Yes, this is about divorce.  But at a deeper level this is about forgiveness.  Anyone who has been in a relationship that runs as deep as marriage knows that there are times when it is hard, mistakes are made, forgiveness needs to be extended, and hurt feelings need to be overcome.  It’s hard.  It may be one of the hardest things that you can do in life.  But it is necessary.  If we are going to follow a God who is gracious and loving and merciful, we need to commit to be a people of grace, love, and mercy ourselves.  That starts in the home.  It starts with our perspective on marriage.

Then, we hear about Jesus’ disciples and their interaction with children.  Do you hear Jesus’ words?  Let the children come.  We want to minimize children. We want to think that they aren’t old enough, aren’t mature enough, they can’t understand.  But we are wrong.  You can never be too young to start learning about God and His ways.  You can never be too young to begin to learn to imitate Jesus.  As adults, we need to understand that, too.

And then we hear about the rich man.  Jesus tells us flatly that there are many things that will come between us and the kingdom of heaven.  Isn’t that the truth!  Life is a daily struggle with respect to remembering to put God and His ways first.

<><