Almighty God, you have spoken to us through your Son.
Let your written Word now be spoken and heard by each of us.
Give us ears to hear and hearts to understand,
that we may not refuse your calling or ignore your voice.
May we all be taught by you through your powerful Word.
Bring our every thought captive to obeying Christ,
to the glory of your holy name. Amen.
We begin with the Sermon on the Mount. There are a lot of instructions here, but the sermon starts with blessings. We find that is Gods’ pattern – blessings before commands (look at the beginning of the 10 commandments for another example. “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have…). If life in the kingdom of God is described by this sermon, I want it!
As we read the Gospels, keep in mind that the kingdom of God (kingdom of Heaven) has two parts: it has been established already here on earth, but it will not come to its completion until Christ returns.
Twice in today’s reading (9:13 and 12:7) Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 – “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” He tells his listeners to find out what that means. Good advice for us as well!
The kingdom of heaven is such an important theme that it is the entire content of what he sends his disciples out to preach in 10:6.
I always marvel that John the Baptist from prison questioned Jesus’ identity. In Matthew 11:4-6 Jesus tells John’s disciples to watch the signs he is doing and report back. That list is much like the one in Luke 4:18-19 that Jesus uses at the beginning of his ministry, but one action is conspicuously absent – freedom for the captives. Is that what John is looking for? Is Jesus explaining that the kingdom of God is powerful but that is doesn’t give everyone what they want when they want it?
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