Tag: Matthew 18

Links for today’s readings:

Apr 14  Read: Joel 1 Listen: (2:59) Read: Matthew 18 Listen: (4:25)

Scripture Focus: Matthew 18:6–9

6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

From John: We return to this 2021 post today, at a time when the Epstein files and other scandals have revealed many who may need millstones, if we interpreted this passage literally. It is also a time in which we need to remember again that “these little ones” is not solely about age or the abuse of children, but the deception of those who believe in Jesus. Many today, old and young, are being led to stumble by algorithms (which is to say by the profit-motivated creators of those algorithms), by politicians, and by Christian influencers who spread cultural ideology and call it “biblical.” It’s easy and quick to focus outward and point fingers of blame. It’s better to focus inward and take responsibility for our own actions. Be wary. Devote yourselves to the scriptures. Watch out for the “little ones” around you.

Reflection: Misleading the Least

By John Tillman

The gospels record many times that people asked Jesus about “the greatest.”

There are religious debates about the greatest commandments and, multiple times, in many different settings, the disciples approach Jesus about, or are caught by Jesus arguing about, “the greatest.” (Matthew 18.1-3; 23.11; Luke 9.46; Mark 9.34)

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven…
Can my two sons sit in the greatest seats…
Which of us is the greatest…

We want to know, don’t we?

Jesus definitively stated that the greatest in the kingdom should be the least, the lowest, the small, the “little ones.” Jesus used a child in this example, but did not use the Greek word referring to age. The word Jesus chose, translated little, implies low status or being unimportant. 

The unimportant, Jesus says, are of the greatest importance, but we, like the disciples, don’t quite believe it. We want to be important, big, mature, strong, and dominant. We want to win. In pursuit of importance and status we grasp at power. We grasp at fame. We grasp at wealth. All the grasping we engage in to be the greatest is meaningless—chasing after wind.

This is challenging enough to our sinful nature, but what comes next is more chilling. Jesus has a stark warning for the leaders of the little. To those leaders and influencers who, through actions or words, may cause “little ones” to stumble comes one of the most graphic pictures of punishment to cross the lips of Jesus. If Christ’s metaphor about millstones had been carried out literally through history, there might not be room in the oceans for the millstones and the irresponsible leaders tied to them by the neck.

Woe to leaders who mislead. Woe to influencers who cause others to stumble. Woe when we manipulate rather than educate. Woe when we foment sin rather than form spiritual morality. Woe when we lie and deceive rather than unfailingly cling to the truth.

Have we caused others to stumble? If so, how?

By being an example of greed or any other sin? By spreading a lie? By keeping silent in the face of injustice? By sharing an inflammatory post? By provoking others? By being purposely insensitive? By manipulating people?

May we repent of any of our actions or words that may have caused others to stumble. It is better for us to cut those actions out of our lives than to cause harm to others.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

I will bear witness that the Lord is righteous; I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High. — Psalm 7.18

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

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Scripture Focus: Matthew 5.29-30
29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Matthew 18.7-9
7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Reflection: Maimed Yet Made Whole
By John Tillman

Christ’s resurrected body was glorious and mysterious in many ways. Tangible, yet able to move intangibly from place to place. Physically identifiable, yet at times unrecognizable. Living, yet bearing deadly wounds.

So then, would our wounds persist if we took Christ’s words about removing hands or eyes literally? Will we “enter life” maimed?

If we attempt to interpret our Heavenly existence by these words, we have turned the instrument the wrong way around. This saying is not a telescope for looking into Heaven but a microscope for examining our hearts. It does not tell us what Heaven will be like. It tells us how to live on Earth until the resurrection comes. Yet, reflecting on the resurrection can help us live now.

The life we live now, in the body, we live by faith in the Son of God. In the resurrection body, we will live face-to-face with the Son of God. In this life we must discipline our bodies, our flesh, conforming it to the image of Christ. We begin and continue this work in faith partnered with the Holy Spirit but completion only comes at the resurrection. 

The point of the resurrection is not that life will continue as it is now. Thank God. After tasting this life, would we really say, “More, please.”? If we would, the fault lies in our limited palates and imaginations. There is a better world. A banquet worth indulging in.

The resurrection does not condemn the physical; it redeems it. Our bodies are not evil and our spirits good. The resurrection reclaims and restores our full nature as simultaneously physical AND spiritual. 

What we will be is yet to be known, but we will be like Jesus. Our bodies will be so mysteriously glorious that C.S Lewis said if we could see the average human now as we will be, we would be tempted to worship that glorious being as a god.

Resurrection life will be mysterious and unrecognizable to us now. We see through a mirror darkly, yet we know we will be changed. We will be like the angels. We will be as Christ is, transfigured and resurrected, maimed yet made whole.

Let us live now, straining toward what is ahead, with no regrets for what is behind but with wonder at what is to come. This life will maim us, yet we will enter life made whole.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Cry of the Church
Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again!

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

​Today’s Readings
Song of Songs 8 (Listen 2:23) 
Matthew 5 (Listen 6:03)

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Scripture Focus: Matthew 18.3-7, 10, 18-20
3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. 

6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!

10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 

19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Reflection: What We Loose On Earth
By John Tillman

I grew up in churches that didn’t just pray for revival but planned them. A joke I often heard from preachers at revivals was that “Like taking a bath every day, we have a revival every year, whether we need it or not.” 

This joke acknowledges the awkwardness that an event on the calendar can be called a revival, but that doesn’t make it so. Calling these meetings “revivals” was aspirational. Revival was what we hoped for.

The term “revival” has often been tainted by unscrupulous, charlatan preachers of the past. Today politicians co-opt the term for political fundraisers which have little to do with the Spirit of God.

Though we can’t put revival on a calendar and we can’t remove the stain of past abuses of the term, it doesn’t mean the genuine article doesn’t exist. A revival movement with all the marks of being genuine sparked at Asbury University in Kentucky on February 8th. 

After that day’s chapel service, a spontaneous, round-the-clock time of prayer, singing, and testimony began. This was led and continued not by plans or schedules but by the hearts of students who were moved to do so. As I write this on Tuesday evening, the continuous service on campus is scheduled to end on Friday, the day this devotional will post. Services are currently being planned to continue in other locations and “The Outpouring,” as it was called, has inspired similar events at churches and other college campuses across the United States.

Many people hearing of this responded with hope but many responded with cynicism. Cynicism is just as lazy as naïveté. Neither requires thoughtful evaluation. 

We would be wise not to do anything to make these young followers of Christ stumble. Revival often begins among young people and Jesus has a special place in his heart for young believers. (Matthew 18.6, 10) Instead of doubting these young people and quenching their spirits, (1 Thessalonians 5.19-22) perhaps we should become like them. Instead of sniping from the sidelines, “Nothing will come of this.” We should pray fervently, “God, use this for your glory!”

Many great movements of God can be traced back to experiences such as the one at Asbury. We should not seek to copy-paste the Asbury experience into our communities. But we should seek God’s face, asking him to loose his Spirit on earth in our community in his own unique fashion. (Matthew 18.18)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Bless our God, you peoples; make the voice of his praise to be heard;
Who holds our souls in life, and will not allow our feet to slip. — Psalm 66.7-8

Today’s Readings
Exodus 7 (Listen 3:29) 
Matthew 18 (Listen 3:46)

This Weekend’s Readings
Exodus 8 (Listen 5:07) Matthew 19 (Listen 4:04)
Exodus 9 (Listen 5:31) Matthew 20 (Listen 4:22)

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Scripture Focus: Matthew 18:6–9
6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Reflection: Misleading the Least
By John Tillman

The gospels record many times that people asked Jesus about “the greatest.”

There are religious debates about the greatest commandments, and multiple times, in many different settings, the disciples approach Jesus about, or are caught by Jesus arguing about, “the greatest.” (Matthew 18.1-3; 23.11; Luke 9.46; Mark 9.34)

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven…
Can my two sons sit in the greatest seats…
Which of us is the greatest…
We want to know, don’t we?

Jesus definitively stated that the greatest in the kingdom are the least, the lowest, the small, the “little ones.” Jesus used a child in this example, but there is a different Greek word that refers to age. The word Jesus chooses, translated little, implies low status or being unimportant. 

The unimportant, Jesus says, are of the greatest importance, but we, like the disciples, don’t quite believe it. We want to be important, big, mature, strong, dominant. We want to win. In pursuit of importance and status, we grasp at power. We grasp at fame. We grasp at wealth. All the grasping we engage in to be the greatest, is meaningless—chasing after wind.

This is challenging enough to our sinful nature, but what comes next is more chilling, Jesus has a stark warning for the leaders of the little. To those leaders and influencers who through actions or words may cause “little ones” to stumble, comes one of the most graphic pictures of punishment to cross the lips of Jesus. If Christ’s metaphor about millstones had been carried out literally through history, there might not be room in the oceans for the millstones and the irresponsible leaders tied to them by the neck.

Woe to leaders who mislead. Woe to influencers who cause others to stumble. Woe when we manipulate rather than educate. Woe when we foment sin rather than form spiritual morality. Woe when we lie and deceive rather than unfailingly cling to the truth.

Have we caused others to stumble? If so, how?

By being an example of greed or any other sin? By spreading a lie? By keeping silent in the face of injustice? By sharing an inflammatory post? By provoking others? By being purposely insensitive? By manipulating people?

May we repent of any of our actions or words that may have caused others to stumble. It is better for us to cut those actions out of our lives than to cause harm to others.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the Lord when he comes, when he comes to judge the earth. — Psalm 96.12

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Genesis 19 (Listen – 5:33) 
Matthew 18 (Listen – 4:25)

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