The Greatest Commandment

Matthew 22:34-40

We are told each of us has a DNA that is unique to us only, and your saliva or a hair from your body has exclusive DNA in it to identify you from anyone else in the world.  I’m an uneducated guy who should have failed the first grade, but it amazes me that some educated people that we know, those with doctor in front of their name, can believe you and I happen by chance.  

We need to be clear, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were not in that group listed above, these were the elite of Israel, these were religious men who believed in God, but much like today, wanted a god of their choosing.  When Jesus did not line up with what they believed about God, they set out to trap Him, and neither group was being successful so they came together, and a lawyer came up with a question to test Jesus.

Beginning in verse 36 through 40, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  Now stop, read it once more, read it again and give thought to what you have read.  Before moving on shall we look at Dr. Luke’s account of this happening, for it takes you and me into the story?  The gospel of Luke 10:25-28, “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

Did you stop and ponder what is being said, and if you did you must have ask the question, do I love God in that way, do I love my neighbor in that way?   While your putting more thought into your answer, it may be helpful to revisit the book of Deuteronomy 6:4-9, for Moses has just handed down the Ten Commandments, and now he is telling the people the greatest Commandment.  Shall we begin in verse four; “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

And guess what, many of them tried, some of them did better than others, those like Moses and Joshua who the Holy Spirit came on for a season, but all came to one conclusion they were law breakers, they were sinners.  The Laws handed down from God seem to be a mirror to reflect their shortcomings, and especially in the area of the Greatest Commandment.  So God set up a short-term plan where each year the high priest would go into the Holy of Holy’s with the blood of a pure lamb, and on the alter its life would be taken and its blood would cover the sins of all who had come confessing or agreeing with God that they had not met His standards.

Now before God formed the earth, or man, He knew mankind was going to choose to live independent from Him, that is what God calls sin, but God loves you so much that He told His Son, you are the pure Lamb, Your blood will set men, women, and children free from the control of sin, so at the time chosen by the Father, Jesus humbled Himself and took on the form of a man.  John’s gospel tells the story, and chapter 3, verse 16, gives the answer to eternal life.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” 

And it is only when we are abiding in Christ that we come close to fulfilling the greatest Commandment.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Asking questions

Matthew 22:23-33

Ten verses, that contain 12 sentences and 194 words are so dynamic, if the reader is looking for truth, do you believe the Sadducees were exploring truth, or had they come up with what they believed was an unanswerable question?  It’s clear that Sadducees and Pharisees were not in the same camp, one believed in the resurrection and the other did not, so what is a Sadducee?  “The Sadducees were elitists who wanted to maintain the priestly caste, but they were also liberal in their willingness to incorporate Hellenism into their lives, something the Pharisees opposed. The Sadducees rejected the idea of the Oral Law and insisted on a literal interpretation of the Written Law, they did not believe in an after life, since it is not mentioned in the Torah. The main focus of Sadducee life was rituals associated with the Temple.” (Jewish Virtual Library)
This is the question ask by the Sadducees: “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.  Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother.  The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh.  Finally, the woman died.  Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?” (Matthew 22:24-28)  Now some thought went into their question, I bet they spent hours working on just the right question, asked in what they believed was, “We gotcha” language.
These guys were not sales people, for a salesperson wants to word the question in a manner that exposes facts, or brings understanding and clarity to the question.  They were also not that smart to confront Jesus with a trick question, when they had just witnessed Him replying to the question about paying taxes to Caesar.
This is Jesus’ reply: “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:29-32)
Have you ever played the role of a Sadducee?   Maybe a better question would be do you ask questions with no interest in the answer of the one you are asking?  If so, it is the heart of a Sadducee, and that seems to be the heart of so many in our culture, which have a mind made up of unfounded thoughts, with no desire for truth.  If that is where you find yourself, and this writer has found himself there more than once, it’s time to listen and learn from Jesus.  Jesus is saying: “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”  It is Ok to be wrong, but a Sadducee is too full of self to understand they are wrong, but in that you are much smarter than a Sadducee, examine the Scriptures, see if what you say you believe holds true with the written word of God. 
As just a side note, as a recovering Baptist it has taken years to unlearn much of what I believed, but I’ve learned that I must come to the Scriptures as a child and ask the Holy Spirit who Jesus sent as my Helper, to help me, not just to understand, but to apply these truths to my life.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice

To Pay or not to Pay?

Matthew 22:15-22

When it comes to paying taxes, I’ve yet to meet a person who claim they look forward to paying them, but I have read about the super rich like Warren Buffett who has made the claim that he and others in his small circle of friends need to pay more taxes.  Berkshire Hathaway, who’s CEO, is Warren Buffett, and the eighth-largest public company in the world according to Forbes, openly admits to still owing taxes for years 2002 through 2004 and 2005 through 2009, according to the New York Post. The company says it expects to "resolve all adjustments proposed by the US Internal Revenue Service" within the next year.  (Huffington post September 25, 2013)  So I guess we can dismiss Mr. Buffett’s claims, in that his actions do not hold with his statement.  In my opinion, anyone who believes government is a better steward of your earnings than you need to check the facts.

Has Scripture given us instruction on paying taxes, and the answer is yes, and in more than one book of the Bible.  In Romans 13:7, “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”  Back in 1983 we lived in Spring, Texas, in a neighborhood that was designed to have 500 homes but only had 14, the developer and his family died in a helicopter while looking at the subdivision and the silent partners owed 3 million in bonds at a rate of 15% interest.  They had the lots devalued and we, as a neighborhood, were heading for bankruptcy unless we were willing to have our taxes more than doubled each year.  An ad hock lawyer, that means they offer service for free, and I should have known nothing is free; the barrister told the members of the water board to approve the tax, in that the 14 homeowners would never have to pay them, but he forgot to share that insight with the taxing authorities.  I ask to meet with the elders of my church for guidance and Pastor James Moss came late to the meeting and all he did was quote Romans 13:7, and said please excuse me I have an important meeting to attend.  It was not the answer I was looking for, but the next week I wrote a check for my taxes plus the penalty, one more of many bought lessons.

This is Jesus’ story on taxes; “Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”  Who are these Herodians: “Herodian, one of a party of influential Jewish supporters of the Herodian dynasty (c. 55 bc–c. ad 93), which ruled in all or parts of Palestine and neighboring areas. Noted in the New Testament as opponents of Jesus, they probably were not a political party or a religious sect. They probably favored the policies of Herod Anitipas, who was tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea (4 bc–ad 39) and a strong promoter of Hellenistic (Greco-Roman) culture in Palestine. It seems likely that they rejected the messianic hopes of the people and thus united with the Pharisees in attempts to entrap Jesus into making anti-Roman statements.” (Encyclopedia Britannica)  So we find both groups trying to trick Jesus with this very crafty question, if He said do not pay taxes the Romans would arrest Him, and if He said to pay taxes then the people would turn from Him, because they were being taxed heavily.  So picking up the rest of the story, in Matthew 22:18-22, “But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.”

Jesus never told us we would enjoy paying taxes, but He is very clear, and so is Scripture that we are to pay our taxes.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

The Invitation

Matthew 22:9-14

In part one of the story of the wedding feast, those who were invited would not come and the reasons were many, some had business interest, others had family tasks, others were just not in the mood for a wedding, but the bottom line is they all chose to put their desires above the king and his son.  And it is clear that the King is God, the Son is Jesus Christ, the servants are the prophets and maybe the apostles, and the ones who the invitation went out to are people like you and me.

Now, let us move on to part two of the parable of the Wedding Feast, beginning with Matthew 22:8-10, and these are the words of Jesus; “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.”  The first invitation was only for the chosen, the Children of Abraham.  Do you grasp the fullness of the second invitation; it included you and me, it was a “Grace invitation” for we were included, we were the bad and good, but grace changed all of that, and by God’s grace we were grafted into the family of God.

The grandest of news is that the “Grace invitation” came to everyone, but many in religion have tried to limit the call to a group, a nation, and sometime to a denomination, but in John 3:16-18, we find this invitation was all inclusive, it was nondiscriminatory, the condition was “That whoever believes in Jesus will have eternal life.  God never meant that you believe only that Jesus was the Son of God, for we are told that the devil believes that and trembles.  This question must be answered; “But who do you say that I am?”  Both religion and the world are willing to agree that Jesus was a great teacher and even a prophet of God, and He was both of those things, but in answering the question you find the problem of unbelief, for He is, not was.  So when your answer lines up with the apostle Peter’s; “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and by that confession you are by faith putting your hope only in the finished work of Christ on the cross, then and only then will the invitation of grace allow entrance into kingdom of heaven.

You may ask, how can you make such a statement?  Look with me in Matthew 22:11-14, “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” 

Do you recall Jesus preparing His disciples for His crucifixion and He spoke these words to them; “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

If your confession is the confession of the apostle Peter, and you believe Jesus tells the truth that is faith!  But as we stated above many are looking for another way, they will tell you what Jesus said is too restrictive too narrow, and yet God has spoken, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’  That place of outer darkness was not designed for mankind; it was designed for the devil and his angels, but many a person has turned down the “invitation” and will by their choice enter for eternity, that place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

You are invited to the Wedding Feast

Matthew 22:1-7

It has been given the title of “The parable of the Wedding Feast” and rightly so, it is a story Jesus is sharing with the crowd and in that crowd were Pharisees and chief priests and scribes, plus the twelve disciples, and guys and gals much like you and me.  These are the words of Jesus as recorded by Matthew, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.  The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.”  The Holman Study Bible on page 1655 gives this insight into the allegory of Israel’s history.  “The king represents God; the son, Jesus, the slaves, the prophets and possibly Jesus’ disciples; and the wedding banquet symbolized the great messianic feast that Jews expected to share with Messiah at the beginning of His rule.  Those who rejected, persecuted, and murdered the slaves represent OT Israel and their rejection of the prophets.  The destruction of the city represents God’s judgment on those who refuse to honor His Son.  The destruction, like the penalty described in verse 13, portrays eternal punishment but may also hint at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.”

We who have this record would be wise to learn from these words of Jesus as He entered into the City, and both gospels, Luke and Matthew’s record the words of Jesus speaking to the people.  In the gospel of Luke 13:34, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”  We also have this account of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem as He drew near it and saw the city. “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19 42-44)

We the followers of Jesus Christ do not need a seven step program, we do not require more Bible studies, what we need is to let Jesus live His life in and through us, so that the world will see Jesus and desire to attend the Wedding feast.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

A story inside of a Story

Matthew 21:33-46

A story inside of a story: “The inner stories are told either simply to entertain or more usually to act as an example to the other characters. In either case the story often has symbolic and psychological significance for the characters in the outer story. There is often some parallel between the two stories, and the fiction of the inner story is used to reveal the truth in the outer story.” (Wikipedia)  When Jesus is telling the parable of the Tenants, He is not trying to entertain but is giving an analogy, the Master of the vineyard is God, and the tenants are a people living an independent life from the authority of God.  The servants in the story are the prophets and Judges that God has sent to lead His people and the son, is the one telling the story; Jesus.  But there is one more example in the story inside of the story, and that is you and me, make sure you look for yourself in the story.

Shall we look at the story: “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” (Matthew 21:33-40)

How you answer the last sentence, (“When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”) is very important.  You may want to read how they replied to Jesus, and this is Jesus’ reply to them; “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes”?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” (Matthew 21:42-44) 
Did you see your part in the story, the gospel according to John makes your part in the story very clear; “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”  When you and I received Jesus by faith we entered the story with in the story.  The saddest part of the account is a group of very religious men, who had read the Scriptures, rejected Jesus’ authority over them, and that’s a story still played out today.  This is the summation or the effect of those religious men.  “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.” (Matthew 21:45-46)
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice

What do you Think?

Matthew 21:28-32

“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.”

Jesus’ opening question, “What do you think?” or maybe you would say what is your take, or your opinion?  You read the story, the father in the story symbolizes God, now did you identify with the sons, for the first was brash, arrogant, and yes, a rebellious sinner, like a tax collector and prostitute who when confronted with the gospel believed and repented.  The other son was open and willing to give his father lip service, sure dad, I will go and work in the vineyard, but never planned on going, and is an example of the chief priest and elders who promised obedience to God and His commandments, but never acted on them.  It is not the end of this story, for the question is still being ask of each of God’s sons and daughters; will you go work in my vineyard?

Can a Christian life model both sons, and I believe the sad answer is yes, and sometime it is the first son we condemn and the second son that gets the accolades, for outwardly they look good, they volunteer, but they never go into the vineyard, they never do the work, they discuss, and recruit others, but it’s below them to work in the vineyard.  It is strange but it’s the first son that comes to understand that he/she is a sinner living in rebellion and confesses to the Father, and receives His forgiveness and joyfully, with some concern of what the other workers will think of them, enters the Master’s calling.  The second son will look good to others who have the same mindset, but he will not have any power, because his desires are not the will of the Father.  Jesus stated about Himself in John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his word.”  That became the heart desire of the first son; the second son was an empty suit.  The first son, the rebellious one, after repenting saw the vineyard as his Father did.  John goes on in the 35^th verse to give us the words of Jesus about the harvest.  “Do not say, “There are four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for the harvest.”

I know both of those brothers, for you see my Christian life has been a model of each at some point, and being in the role of the second son is the defeated life.  It matters not what others think, but God will never trust the second son, that is unless he becomes like the first son who repented and did the will of the Father.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Who pulling the Strings?

Matthew 21:23-27

Have you noticed the challenges of late, too many things we as Americans value; the right to bear arms, given to us in the second Amendment, or the right of privacy, and in question is the right to speak against evil, on what the Bible calls evil.  It seems to this writer that more than anytime in my life, even the sixty’s, we have a society that is challenging authority, and what is the end game for such actions?  If government, as it seems in the United States were attacking our right given by the Second Amendment what and why would they do such a thing?  “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” (Thomas Jefferson)  Could it be that we have arrived at the place and time that Jefferson warned us about?  Should we not be on guard against a government that makes nothing, but takes not only from the living but also from the dead, and tries to tell its citizens that it will provide for them?  Jefferson has words of wisdom for us in 2013 about such a government; “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of asking for help.”  “Has our President been given the title of “Food Stamp President?”  But it is not just government that is attacking authority, it is also happening in the Church, the workplace, and especially in our culture.  And one must ask who is behind the curtain pulling the strings, and some will be quick to answer Liberals or progressives, others would put a name to it, George Soros, but those answers do not go to the root source.  Jesus gave us the identity in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”  The thief is best known as the devil or Satan, and when we stand firm and do as our Lord did, tell the thief, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,  “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” (Matthew 4:10b)

With that background, it should be clear that the battle is not with Liberals, or any person, but as the apostle Paul told the church at Ephesus, it is against the schemes of the devil, that old thief.  He hates the family, the church, and he hates our Lord, so once more behind the curtain he is pulling the strings of the chief priests and the elders of the people to challenge the authority of Jesus.  But his puppets do not stand a chance against our Lord and Savior, when they came to him asking who gave Him the authority for doing the things He was doing.  “Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” (Matthew 21:24-27)  Now is that not cool?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

What is your Religion?

Matthew 21:17-22

I have often stated that everyone is religious, and the reply is always the same, I’m not religious, I never darken the door of a church.  But going to church is not the measure for being religious many are more committed to golf, football, exercise, or travel, than many in the church are about the church.   My computer dictionary uses this as one of many definitions of religion: a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance: consumerism is the new religion.  Let’s get real have you spent time with a person who golfs many times each week, it can easily become a religion, or how about those Aggies and Johnny Football?  It matters not the example, it may be keeping your house or yard, a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance!

And that brings us to the subject of Matthew 21:17-22, and if your take away from these verses is Jesus cursing a fig tree, you need to read it once more, it is about what happens when faith is applied; “if you have faith.”  Now faith is somewhat like religion, you can place it almost anywhere, an example would be in God, in people, in family, in children, in government, in the military, in business, or in faith it self.  So its not faith in faith but in the object of faith that we should be exploring, and this brings us to the above Scripture.

It is morning, Jesus and the twelve are leaving Bethany going to Jerusalem, and Jesus must not have had breakfast for Matthew tells us Jesus became hungry.  Picking up the story in the 19^th verse; “And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.  When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

These thoughts came into my mind, Jesus had total trust in His Father, Jesus knew the Father, and He had total understanding of the Father’s desires.  Jesus never placed faith in Himself, but always went to the Father, and at the worst time of His physical life, He bowed to the Fathers wishes and accepted the cross.  I’m reading a cool book by Bob Goff, it is titled “Love Does” and Bob confesses that he tried to Memorize Jesus, that’s what lawyers do they collect information and memorize facts.  This is such a needed quote from page 197 in “Love Does” “I used to think I could learn about Jesus by studying Him, but now I know Jesus doesn’t want stalkers.”  Bob Goff goes on to state that Bible study can be similar to looking at someone else’s vacation pictures, we have all been there, not much recall the next day. 

You may want to buy the book, it’s a great read and this point hit me between the eyes for there was a time when I also was a stalker of Jesus.  Quote from “Love Does” page 202, “What I like about Jesus’ message is that we don’t need to study Him anymore to know Him.  That’s what the religious people at the time were promoting.  Collecting information about someone is not the same as knowing a person.  Stalkers are ordinary people who study from afar the people they’re too afraid to really know.  Jesus said that unless you know Him like a child you’ll never really know Him at all.  Kids don’t care about facts, and they certainly don’t study each other.  They’re just with each other; they do stuff together.  That’s what Jesus had in mind.”  So mountain-moving faith has some requirements; we must first know Him, and believe that Jesus tells the truth.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

If I was Matthew, this would be the Day of all Days

Matthew 21:12-17

Having made my living in sales, I know a little about highs and lows, about expectations that seem so right only to become nightmares.  So it is easy for this salesman to place himself in the story, if I was Matthew, this would be the day of days.  We left Jerusalem last night on the high of all highs, we were not only accepted we were rock stars.  We had spent the night in Bethany, it was about two miles from Jerusalem, and I’m not sure about the others, but I was not able to sleep, my mind kept going back to the best day of my life.  I was a tax collector, and most people hated me, but today they are treating me as if I was a prince.  But also my mind raced ahead to the great expectation of what was to come, I’m sure the others were also excited, what great things will happen tomorrow?

The dawn has come, it was the longest night of my life, and breakfast seemed to take forever, all I want is to hit the road, for today Jesus may be declared king, and He has told us we are heading for the temple.  As we reached the outskirts of Jerusalem the crowds are so excited to see us, well maybe it’s not us so much as Jesus, but they are excited and as we enter the temple, you are not going to believe what Jesus is doing!  This is what I witnessed; “And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”  Is this the way you win friends and influence people?  I could not speak, but it sure looked as if things were going south at this point, but then the blind and the lame came to Jesus and He healed them.  It sure looks like the mood of some of the crowd has changed, but then as He healed the blind and the lame the crowd was telling everyone of the great things He is doing, in fact, they were telling the scribes and the chief priest. 

 I’m not sure what is going on with the chief priest and the scribes, it seems they are not upset about Jesus cleansing the temple, but about what the people are saying about Him.  This is my account of what happens next; “But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”  And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.” (Matthew 21:15-17, ESV) 

It is again dark, once more we are in Bethany and I must report my expectations were not met, and once again I cannot sleep, but this time it’s based on fear, my mind keeps going back to what Jesus told us a few days earlier, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”  (Matthew 20:18-19)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

What is Prophecy?

Matthew 21:1-11

Shall we begin with a question; what is prophecy?  The online dictionary gives this definition: say that (a specified thing) will happen in the future.  That’s not a bad definition, but the apostle Peter expands on the origin of prophecy in 2 Peter 1:20-21, “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”  With that stated, let’s explore Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, He and the guys, and a very large crowd have come to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives.  You may be asking why the large crowd?  It is time to celebrate the Passover and at Passover the faithful would come from all areas of the world to worship, and they all had one thing in common they wanted freedom from Rome.  The have been looking for the Messiah and Jesus gave them hope that He would deliver them from Rome’s power.

It would be surprising if many in the crowd recalled the words spoken by the prophet Zechariah who lived around 625 B.C.  This is recorded in Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” It is 625 years later, and most of us do not recall what we heard yesterday, and that is why this account is so important.  This is what Jesus said to His disciples: “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

You may want to read the apostle Mark’s account, for Mark tells us that when they untied the colt those who were standing there ask what are you guys doing, and the answer they gave them was what Jesus had said and they let them go.  But Mark gives us more detail about what happened after they untied the colt, this is his account beginning in Mark 11:7-10.  They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it and many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.  Those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”

If you are one of the twelve this is a great day, the day you have been waiting for, it looks as if the whole world has awakened to the understanding that Jesus is the Messiah.  But the gospel according to John gives us a look into the mind of Jesus; in John 2:23-25, “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.”  Jesus was not just referring to the crowd, but also the twelve, one would deny Him three times, another would betray Him for money, and the rest of them took off for safety.  The sign on the “Back Porch” is correct, “Smile you rascal, God knows all about you, and He loves you anyway.” 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

In great need of Help

Matthew 20:29-34

Have you been in need of help, help beyond any fix that man has been given, like the cure for stage four cancer, like the loss of your eyesight, or even a child in rebellion, what or whom do you turn to?  Often when circumstances bring us to a place of desperation we are confronted with few options, one is to be angry with God, and it is a long dead-end street, or we can by the faith He has given us run to Him.  In the book of Daniel, we are given an example of believing faith, the faith that God gave Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  Do you remember the account about king Nebuchadnezzar having a golden image made and all the people were to bow-down and worship it. “Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”

And as all things in life everyone has a choice, worship the image, or burn in a fiery furnace, and this was their choice; “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”  You and I are confronted with this same choice, not a fiery furnace, but a world that tells us to keep our mouth shut about what God calls evil, like preying on the poor, and calling it “Reverse Mortgage,” or letting some evil teacher in a government school tell your child that being a homosexual is a good thing, or that a government that lies to its people is just spin and everyone does it so it is ok. 

The two blind men in Matthew’s account of Jesus and his disciples leaving Jericho and the large crowd following and these two guys standing by the roadside, heard that Jesus was passing by and they began to yell, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”  What have we learned about crowds, is it not that they will push you out of the way to see the one they are following?  The crowd did not care one bit for these blind men, they came to see Jesus, and so they said to them, shut up, but Matthew tells us that was like pouring gas on a fire, they just yelled louder,  “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”  It should be apparent that these blind men had the same faith as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and their only hope of sight was Jesus.  Matthew tells us that Jesus stopped, and called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” “They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.”

We should all identify with the two blind men, for we all came into the world blinded by sin, and many of us went to all the self help clinics the world had to offer, like religion, and yet we still are blind, and God gave us the faith we needed to yell louder than the crowd, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”  And I can only tell you what Jesus did for me, He touched my eyes and I can now see, He changed my heart from fear to love, and now I can love the Lord my God, and my neighbor, and He is still working on me so that I can do it with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice