Tag: Matthew

Scripture Focus: Matthew 19.13-14 
Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Reflection:  Prayer in Relationship
By John Tillman

Many have faithfully lived out Christ’s command to let the little children come to him. But perhaps no one in history has lived it out affecting as many children as Fred Rogers.

In her book, The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers, Amy Hollingsworth gives an up-close look at the foundational Christian faith that made Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood a sacrament carried on secular airwaves.

The show had an intangible quality that captivated children and defied expectations. In the recently released documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, one of the show’s producers, Margy Whitmire, said, “If you take all of the elements that make good television, and do the exact opposite, you have Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

One possible reason for the show’s intangible and unlikely success is the simple spiritual discipline of its founder. According to Amy Hollingsworth:

Everything Fred Rogers did was a prelude to—or an outcome of—prayer….the essence of prayer is relationship, and Fred understood that.

One of the greatest things Mister Rogers may have modeled for children about God, is that he listens to and accepts their concerns, their emotions, and them as their true selves. Hollingsworth relates his answer to a child about not getting what she prayed for.

“Now, you know prayer is asking for something, and sometimes you get a yes answer and sometimes you get a no answer,” he carefully explained. “And just like anything else you might get angry when you get a no answer. But God respects your feelings, and God can take your anger as well as your happiness. So whatever you have to offer God through prayer—it seems to me—is a great gift. Because the thing God wants most of all is a relationship with you, yeah, even as a child—especially as a child. Look how Jesus loved the children who came around Him,” he told her.

Prayer was the purpose of the children coming to Jesus. Jesus didn’t merely greet the children. When the Bible says he “placed his hands on them” it isn’t referring to casual pat on the back, but a purposeful, prayerful blessing. That kind of welcoming and blessing is something we can receive from God, and give to others.

As we pray, about personal problems or about weighty national issues, we would do well to keep in mind the simple teaching of Mister Rogers, that also is the teaching of Jesus—prayer is about relationship.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
You are the Lord; do not withhold your compassion from me; let your love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever. — Psalm 40.12

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 5 (Listen – 5:04) 
Matthew 19 (Listen – 4:04)

Read more about Prayer Beyond Petitions
It is more important that we know God through prayer than petition him. God answers Hezekiah’s unasked prayer through relationship.

Prayer Beyond Petitions

Read more about Free to Become Like Children
Jesus has granted us the ability to become like little children and to run freely to him.

Free to Become Like Children :: Worldwide Prayer

Scripture Focus: Matthew 18.1-5
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 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.

Reflection: Invisible Status
By John Tillman

The disciples were constantly grasping for status. 

Over and over the gospel accounts give us insight into the ways they jostled one another, trying to be better than the rest, bigger than the rest, closer to Jesus, more “righteous,” more powerful…

“Who is the greatest?” they ask, each hoping it will be himself.

Jesus urged his disciples, and he urges us, to lay down all such status-addicted, scrambling, scuffling struggle. When they pressed around him longing for greatness, Jesus called to himself someone they never would have expected—a child. 

Children, and women, were so low status that they were invisible to the statisticians, politicians, and religious leaders of the day, but Jesus sees those who are made invisible by culture. Jesus kicks over our definition of greatness.

Jesus calls “the greatest” those others call “the least.”
Jesus moves the invisible to the best seats at the feast.

Jesus calls the ignored who no one thought should come.
Jesus gives a hand up to those under a thumb.

Jesus calls attention to ones we are too blind to see.
Jesus hears the pleas of those crushed beneath our knees.

Jesus gives strength to those we mock for being weak.
Jesus elevates the lowly from the valleys to the peaks. 

Jesus makes great those accepting they are small.
He will be our everything when we make him our all.

We don’t have to convince Christ of our potential based on past performance. There is no need to demonstrate return on investment. His investment in us is already assured. It is his own work and word that will not return void without fulfilling its purpose in us.  He accepts us not based on our past but on the future he will guide us towards.

When we come to Jesus, we must leave behind any thoughts of status. Thanks be to God.

“I hear you have a soft spot for fools and little children and I’m glad. ‘Cause I’ve been both of those.” — from “Farther On” by Russ Taff

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
The Lord is my shepherd and nothing is wanting to me. In green pastures He has settled me. — The Short Breviary

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 4 (Listen – 5:23) 
Matthew 18 (Listen – 4:25)

Read more about Dirty Feet
Jesus…turned everything upside down. Surely, shouldn’t the servants be washing their master’s feet?

Dirty Feet

Read more about Blessed is the One :: A Guided Prayer
But we rely, Lord, not on our striving, but on Jesus Christ…Jesus is the Blessed One, whose leaf does not wither.

Blessed is the One :: A Guided Prayer

Scripture Focus: Matthew 17.22-23
22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

Reflection: Way of the Cross — A Guided Prayer
By John Tillman

Through the rest of this week, pray the words of scripture interspersed with those of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In this prayer we struggle, along with Peter, and Jesus himself, to accept the way of suffering.

Imagine Christ, victorious. A champion. Beneficent. Are you comfortable with the victorious Messiah?

A Christ who brings earthly victory enjoys near-universal welcome.

God’s way in the world leads to the cross and through the cross to life. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Matthew 16.21

Imagine Christ, humiliated. Crushed. Suffering. How uncomfortable does the suffering servant make you?

Everyone rejected the suffering Christ—even the closest of his disciples.

“Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’”

“Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’” Matthew 16.22-23

How easy it is, in times of confusion like today to fight in the name of Christ against the real Christ. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Often our discomfort with the suffering Christ is connected to our current level of comfort.
In our afflictions, we are glad to find the suffering Christ joining us.
But in our bliss and blessings, we do not wish to join him on his path.

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you assess your level of comfort, your level of acceptance of the suffering Christ, and your willingness to step into suffering, embracing it as the path to life.

For this reason, do not be alarmed, do not be afraid—be faithful! But what does being faithful mean here other than standing and falling with the word of Christ, with his preaching of the kingdom of peace. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Pray through these words of Christ:
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” Matthew 16.24-35

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Early in the morning, I cry out to you, for in your word is my trust. — Psalm 119.147

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 3 (Listen – 4:40) 
Matthew 17 (Listen – 3:46)

Read more about Looking Back at Good Friday
Good Friday is not just one day of the year. It is a day relived in every day of the world, and of our lives in the world.

Looking Back at Good Friday

Read more about Proclaiming The Lord’s Death and Ours
His renunciation of the empire as a kingdom of this world takes place not at Golgotha but at the very beginning. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Proclaiming The Lord’s Death and Ours

Scripture Focus: Matthew 27.3, 5
When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders…Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

Reflection: The Flavors of Betrayal
By John Tillman

Thursday of Holy Week includes many events. One that stands out sharply from the others is betrayal.

Judas most directly betrayed Jesus, but Peter was the one who most strenuously promised Jesus to go to death with him. It is Peter’s outsized boasts of loyalty that make his betrayal of these oaths sting so badly. The other disciples cosigned Peter’s oaths, assuring that they too would die with Jesus. But in the garden, all their promises turn to dust and tears.

Each of the disciples made the same wrong assumption as Peter and Judas. They assumed there would be a fight. Judas seems to have assumed Jesus would put up a legal fight and perhaps assumed he would perform the miracles needed to win over the religious leaders. Peter and other disciples assumed that Jesus would put up a physical fight, first with the Temple Guards and then with the oppressive Roman empire.

All the disciples came to the same conclusion. Fight and die? Acceptable. Submit to arrest and torture? Unacceptable. They were willing to kill for Jesus, gaining glory through either victory or noble defeat, but were unwilling to give their lives voluntarily in sacrificial humility. 

Most ran away. Scared. Hiding. They were not to be heard from again until the resurrection. Notably, the only disciples who don’t flee and are found at the cross are the female disciples and John. Judas commits suicide after the legal case is lost and Peter flees into the night after his humiliation in the courtyard of the high priest.

Where do we find ourselves in the garden? What form does our betrayal and abandonment of Jesus take?

Are we willing to “win” with Christ but unwilling to “lose” with him?
Are we willing to die for Christ in glorious sacrifice but unwilling to live as Christ in humiliating suffering?
Do we fantasize about “defending the faith” in extreme circumstances (like facing down an active shooter or facing martyrdom) but ignore opportunities to serve the needs of others in the humble circumstances around us? 

May we not seek glory or victory. That is the path of the betrayer.
May we instead seek humility and suffering in the service of others. That is the path of the Cross.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in me. — John 14.1

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

Today’s Readings
Proverbs 27 (Listen 2:43) 
2 Thessalonians 1 (Listen -1:52)

Read more about The Path of the Betrayer
We prefer others be forced to subject themselves to our weaknesses and sins—to accept us the way we are.

The Path of the Betrayer

Read more about Learning from Judas
The great value of viewing Jesus Christ Superstar as a Christian is not to condemn Judas, but to see how like him we are.

(The 2018 live broadcast of Jesus Christ Superstar will be rebroadcast on Easter Sunday evening. I highly recommend watching it, but keep this devotional in mind as you do.)

Learning from Judas :: Readers’ Choice