08 October

Bible In 365 Days              

Matthew 15-17

Matthew 15

The question was not of cleanliness, but of ritual. This washing of hands to remove imaginary evil was a part of the tradition of the elders. Against the binding of such burdens on men our Lord passionately protests. "The commandment of God" (Matthew 15:3). This is the one and only burden that men ought to bear, and this fact our Lord proceeded to enforce by illustration and teaching.

Then going into Tyre and Sidon, we have one of the sweetest stories of them all-the mother heart carrying the need of her daughter with unswerving faith to Him who had created the love of mother! How strange at first appear His silence and rebuff. The reason for His attitude is revealed in the result which followed. He knew how strong her faith was, and His method manifested that faith in all its beauty. How perpetually the very best of character is hidden, until for its forth-shining our King seems to hide His face.

Another manifestation of the unlimited resources, unmeasured power, and ungrudging grace of the King follows. These people were most probably heathen or semi-heathen, gathered from the region of Decapolis (Mark 7:31). Our Lord had confined His journeyings and ministry to the chosen people to whom He had been sent, but true to the divine intention concerning that chosen people, when strangers and aliens came to Him He gave them blessing without stint.

What a marvelous exhibition we have of the slowness of faith in these disciples, who, notwithstanding what they had seen the Master do with five loaves and two fishes among 5,000 men, yet questioned Him how they should feed a smaller crowd, 4,000 men, with more supplies, seven loaves and a few fishes. Yet are we much better than they? How often past deliverances seem to have no power to deliver us from present anxiety.

Matthew 16

What a very wonderful fact in the life and ministry of Jesus is His power of suppressing the marvelous powers He possessed. He never used them save in divine wisdom and love. How easily He could have given a sign which would have startled and overwhelmed. It would have been wasted so far as the purpose of His life and ministry, the establishment of the Kingdom of heaven, were concerned. This accounts for the solemn word to the disciples which they were so slow to comprehend, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Here again notice the blindness of these disciples. It really looks as though the two miracles of feeding had impressed them with the importance of taking "loaves," rather than with being with Christ. Thus do men put the emphasis in the wrong place.

Now the King is rejected! Here is the first hint of a new departure. All the principles and privileges of the Kingdom are to be embodied in a new society among men, the Church. The creation of the new society is the outcome of the refusal of men to accept the King. That refusal will presently be culminated in the Cross. That Cross, then, is to be the way of the creation of the Church. So the King begins to speak of His coming passion (Matthew 16:21). From this His loyal subjects shrink. They are as yet subjects of the King only. The wisdom and love of God are beyond their present comprehension, and they tremble and protest. Therefore came the searching word to them. Members of the Church, those who will follow Him henceforth during the period of His rejection, must in the necessity of the case do so by the way of the Cross. The best and only preparation is that they should deny self, and themselves go to the place of crucifixion. From this time these men were amazed, and estranged, and followed afar, until at Pentecost they were baptized into a vital union with their Lord.

Matthew 17

"After six days." Days of silence. No record have we of what transpired in those days. The strange declarations of the Cross had crushed the hearts of these men. Now to three of their number, as special training for special work, was granted this wondrous vision of glory. The true force and meaning of all this they did not comprehend until the Spirit came. That then the value of the experience was appreciated is evident from Peter's reference to the vision (2 Peter 1:16-19).

Again a contrast! There the mountain; now the valley. There glorified saints; here the lunatic. There the King in His heavenly glory; here His representatives baffled and beaten. And why? For lack of faith! Not for lack of intellectual assent-though even that today seems in danger of vanishing-but for lack of that living faith which yields the whole being to the King's unquestioned control. Wherever there is such faith, even though small as a grain of mustard seed, the mountains become plains. Yet how glorious it is that when need can find its way beyond the failing disciples to their Lord He is never beaten or unable. With what quiet and Kingly majesty He accomplishes all we fail to do. That is the great comfort. The issue of this fight with demons does not depend on us, but on Him.