Tag: Matthew

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A King to Hope In — Hope of Advent

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Esther 7 Listen: (2:08)
Read: 1 John 4 Listen: (2:58)

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Esther 8 Listen: (3:41), Read: 1 John 5 Listen: (3:00)
Read: Esther 9-10 Listen: (6:15), Read: 2 John Listen: (1:50)

Scripture Focus: Esther 7.3-6

3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. 4 For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.”

5 King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?”

6 Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!”

Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. 7 The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.

8 Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining.

The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?”

As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 9 Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “A pole reaching to a height of fifty cubits stands by Haman’s house. He had it set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.”

The king said, “Impale him on it!” 10 So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.

Matthew 2.16-18

16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”

Reflection: A King to Hope In — Hope of Advent

By John Tillman

Kings have always been replacements for God. (1 Samuel 8.7)

Some ancient kings only claimed to “represent” or “manifest” a god and others to descend from a god or gods. Many modern kings and politicians still do this. They are just more subtle about it.

Neither Xerxes nor Herod are righteous kings.

Kings don’t usually take well to criticism, the pointing out of flaws, or to being tricked. When Herod discovered the Magi’s deception and his first violent plot against Jesus failed, he ramped up the violence, murdering innocents as Christ’s family fled into exile.

If Xerxes had felt manipulated or accused when he realized he was Haman’s partner in the violent plot Esther exposed, he could have turned on Esther instead of Haman. God’s providence and Haman’s actions ensured he did not. However, after all the drama of getting Xerxes on their side, he couldn’t stop the violence or establish peace. He executed Haman but, as for the coming attacks, he couldn’t stop them or defend the Jews. He only allowed them to defend themselves. He added war to destruction and blood on top of blood. Afterward, mothers still wept for their children, refusing to be comforted.

God charges all kings, Herod, Xerxes, and our leaders, to establish righteousness. Yet most of the tools kings have destroy rather than cultivate. They wield the sword, not the plow. Even in brief moments when kings of the earth might support us, they are not as helpful or powerful as they seem. They are vulnerable to betrayal, assassination, and overthrow. Kings seem glorious in throne rooms yet their glory is an illusion of wealth, lacking any transcendence.

It’s easier than we might think to fall into the dangerous trap of replacing God with a king who is only an illusion of the power, glory, and righteousness of the Messiah. Herod’s soldiers and advisors did it. So might we.

Jesus is the one king we can hope in. He will not add war to violence and call it peace. His power is unassailable and unselfish. His glory is not an illusion of wealth or fine clothes, but the transcendent truth of existence. His righteousness is established not only by cutting down enemies but by cultivating goodness, growth, and godliness. His reign is both already and not yet. His kingdom is coming. His Advent is near.

Come quickly, King Jesus.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Hosanna, Lord, hosanna!…Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; we bless you from the house of the Lord. — Psalm 118.25-26

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about Another Love Chapter — Love of Advent

One purpose of Christ’s advent was to show what God is like. The Holy Spirit’s advent in our hearts shares that purpose. 

Another Love Chapter — Love of Advent
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Rahab’s Story — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: Matthew 1.1, 5a
1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab…

Joshua 6.25
25 But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

Originally published on December 12, 2023, based on readings from Matthew 1 and Joshua 6.

Readers’ Choice is here: There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or filling out the linked form.

Advent in September: Several of the choices from readers were from last year, during Advent. We are putting these posts together in this first week of Readers’ Choice. We pray as Summer winds down that the spirit of Christmas has continued in your heart and that these posts will help you look forward to anticipate the coming seasons.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Barbara, TN — Hallelujah!
Michele, CO — I imagine she [Rahab] must have declared, like Ruth, your God will be my God. And Salmon must have decided that her past was behind her. Imagine that!

Reflection: Rahab’s Story — Readers’ Choice
By Erin Newton

These are the matriarchs of Jesus: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. This is Rahab’s story.

Who was this Rahab, the great-great-great-(and so on) grandmother of Jesus? Her identity is somewhat muddled. (Have no fear, she is not the mythic dragon from Job, Psalms, or Isaiah.)

She is likely the woman you remember from Joshua, whose name is rarely said without her epithet, “the prostitute.” How shameful that we demote her to one identity, because she is, in fact, a matriarch of Jesus.

Rahab the prostitute matriarch, like Tamar, was not a member of the Abrahamic family. She did not escape slavery from Egypt nor cross the Red Sea with the multitudes. She was a Canaanite.

Her business was one of pleasure, not love as we dream of it. She used her body in a culture that was more than willing to pay for it. Her job was scandalous and disgraceful to the covenant people encroaching on the borders of Canaan. She is an unlikely character in God’s story of redemption.

The stories of God saving his people reached her ears in Jericho. Stories of wonder and power, stories that herald the supremacy of God. I imagine how she compared the stories to the pathetic notion of her Ba’al killed and trapped by the god of death. Rahab heard and believed in this true God.

By faith, she hid the spies who swore an oath to spare her family. She risked her life to save people who would condemn her land, her friends, her culture, and her job. All because she knew God was coming to her.

The sign of mercy would be the scarlet cord draped from her window. The grandchildren of the people who spread the lamb’s blood across their doorposts would recognize this same sign of faith letting judgment pass safely over her house.

And so she lived among the Israelites. Her old ways would be reformed. Her past would become a testimony. Her future would bear the One whose blood would wash away all sin.

Yes, she was a prostitute.

But she is a matriarch of Jesus. Rahab, the disgraceful member of the enemy nation, is chosen and honored as one of five women named in Jesus’s family. She is not defined by her occupation or nationality.

In the love of Jesus belong the foreigners and the shamed. In the love of Jesus, we are renamed. 

From John: The Divine Hours prayers will return in October. This month we will pray one scripture passage or verse each week.

Prayer:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1.14


​Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 29 (Listen 5:44)
1 Corinthians 6 (Listen 3:03)

Read more about Becoming Part of the Promise
Rahab asks to be accepted by this powerful God who is not only in the heavens but active upon the Earth.

Becoming Part of the Promise

Readers’ Choice is here!
This month, we are thankful to share your favorite posts from the past year. There’s still time to tell us your faves via email, direct message, or the linked form, so we can repost them.

https://forms.gle/9vyYwVxa1kZZn7AKA

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After Advent? — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: 2 Chronicles 30.18-19
18 Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone 19 who sets their heart on seeking God—the Lord, the God of their ancestors—even if they are not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” 20 And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

2 Chronicles 31.1
1 When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property. 

Mark 1.14b-15
14b Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Matthew 21.31b-32
31b Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

Originally published on December 26, 2023, based on readings from 2 Chronicles 30-31, Mark 1, and Matthew 21.

Readers’ Choice is here: This month means so much to us because we focus on you, the readers, and the devotionals that have been meaningful to you. Each year we send approximately 253 devotional emails. (260 minus a few holidays, like yesterday.) Over 50 percent of our emails get emailed responses from readers like you. It’s over 70 percent when we average the total number of respondents. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your most meaningful comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or filling out the linked form.

Advent in September: Several of the choices from readers were from last year, during Advent. We will put those posts together in this first week of Readers’ Choice. We pray as Summer winds down that the spirit of Christmas has continued in your heart and that these posts will help you look forward to and anticipate the coming seasons.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Barbara, TN — Wow! Poignant exhortation! Thank you!
MT, TX

Reflection: After Advent? — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

2 Chronicles 30 describes a Passover celebration like none since the days of Solomon and David. But not everyone was ready for Hezekiah’s revival.

Whether by ignorance or haste, some failed to come to the feast consecrated, violating the commandments Hezekiah was reinstating. Yet, there was mercy.

Hezekiah prayed that God would not look at their outward adherence to ceremonial rules of cleanness but at the determination of their hearts to seek after God. When God had mercy, the celebration was so joyous that Hezekiah extended the Passover festival for a week.

Many popular songs wish for a continuation of the Christmas season and the “spirit” of Christmas. Can you imagine a Christmas so peaceful or joyous you’d want it to keep going?

Truthfully, Christmas does keep going. Christmastide continues on the church calendar, ending with Epiphany on January 6th. Additionally, Advent’s message of the gospel never expires. We can and should share it all year round. But what comes after Advent? What should follow in our lives after experiencing hope, love, joy, and peace in Christ?

2 Chronicles 30 is followed by 31. Mercy, worship, adoration, and joy bring change. After the festival, the people smashed sacred stones and cut down Asherah poles. They dismantled the infrastructure of false worship, tearing down altars and destroying high places. They acted in faith to turn away from idols they had been devoted to.

Thank God that we can seek him as we are. When we come to him, God will judge us not by our outward adherence to rules but by the determination of our hearts to seek after him. We do not need to perfect ourselves, cover our wounds, or shine ourselves up. Like the unwashed shepherds or the pagan Magi, we can rejoice, knowing we are accepted.

Seeking God’s mercy, however, doesn’t mean continuing in sins. Jesus ate with sinners and preached repentance. Prostitutes didn’t stay prostitutes. Crooked tax collectors became honest. The demonically influenced were set free. Violence-prone fishermen became disciples of love. 

Jesus’ advent will not leave us the same. Mercy does not maintain the status quo. Pardon is not perpetual permission. Healing is not the enablement of re-harming ourselves or others.

Continue Christmas by seeking what change Jesus initiates in you. May we act in faith, turning away from what we have been devoted to, smashing our sacred stones and tearing down our altars.

From John: The Divine Hours prayers will return in October. This month we will pray one scripture passage or verse each week.

Prayer:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1.14


​Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 28 (Listen 3:05)
1 Corinthians 5 (Listen 3:15)

Readers’ Choice is here!
This month, we are thankful to share your favorite posts from the past year. There’s still time to tell us your faves via email, direct message, or the linked form, so we can repost them.

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More Important Matters

Scripture Focus: Matthew 23.23
23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

Reflection: More Important Matters
By John Tillman

It has almost become too trendy to post about one’s struggles with “popular” mental health symptoms or diagnoses.

Culturally, we have always colloquialized medical language. When we are startled, we say, “You gave me a heart attack!” When someone loses their temper, we say, “They are having a stroke!” No one calls the ambulance. These uses are a normal part of our language. We also colloquialize medical language around mental health. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD was a controversial and misunderstood diagnosis at one time. Today, it is still not well-understood but it is one of the most common colloquially used mental health terms. We all face distractions and many publicly joke about our “ADHD brains,” whether or not we are actually medically diagnosed.

Distractions often come in the form of pursuing some activity that is less important to the neglect of something more important. Instead of doing schoolwork that’s due today, we fold laundry that could be done tomorrow. Instead of repairing the item we entered the workshop to repair, we fixate on rearranging the toolbench.

The Pharisees had a kind of orthopraxy ADHD. Orthodoxy is what we believe. Orthopraxy is how we live it out. The Pharisees had great theology. Jesus commended it. But in practice, they ignored the more important things by pursuing less important things with hyperfixation. They were washing the dishes while the house was burning down.

It’s not just religious people who hyperfixate on secondary things. Many skeptics want answers about political or moral issues— what God allows or what God condemns— before considering God. They are distracting themselves from the most important issues with less important ones.

But less important doesn’t mean unimportant. Both are important. The Pharisees’ problem was that they should have done both the greater things and the lesser things. The problem is the same with us. We can’t get distracted. 

Jesus identifies the most important matters of the law as “justice, mercy, and faithfulness.” These come from loving God and loving people. We can’t ignore them, hyperfixating on performative righteous rule-following. We also cannot practice a lazy, “Just love people” vibe, while neglecting the practical realities of living out our faith in holiness. Living faith produces good works. Let’s show our faith by what we do.

When distraction calls, refocus on Jesus. He embodies what matters most.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Our sins are stronger than we are, but you will blot them out. — Psalm 65.3

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


​Today’s Readings
Amos 3 (Listen 2:11)
Matthew 23 (Listen 4:53)

​Today’s Readings
Amos 4 (Listen 2:21), Matthew 24 (Listen 5:59)
Amos 5 (Listen 3:44), Matthew 25 (Listen 6:04)

Read more about Heavy Loads Lifted
He critiqued the Pharisees for tying up “heavy loads” of moral requirements but not lifting them themselves or helping people live them out.

Heavy Loads Lifted

Read more about Hot-Button Conundrums
To the best of our ability, let us resist entrapment. Hold both truth and compassion; refuse to compromise either.

Hot-Button Conundrums
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Call on the Son of David

Scripture Focus: Matthew 22.41-45
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” 
“The son of David,” they replied. 
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, 
44 “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: 
“Sit at my right hand 
until I put your enemies 
under your feet.” ’ 
45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Reflection: Call on the Son of David
By John Tillman

“Son of David” occurs ten times in Matthew’s gospel. 

Once, it is directed at Joseph, instructing him to take Mary as his wife and Jesus as his son. Jesus, like his earthly father, Joseph, was a literal, physical son of David. So were hundreds of thousands. At the Nativity, Bethlehem was flooded with sons of David who came there to be counted, but only one was also the Son of David.

Eight times, “Son of David” is directed at Jesus. 

Two blind men followed Jesus, saying, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” (Matthew 9.27-31)
After seeing Jesus heal a demon-possessed, blind, and mute man, the crowd asked, “Could this be the Son of David?” (Matthew 12.22-24)
A foreigner begged on behalf of her daughter, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Matthew 15.21-28)
Two blind men cried from the side of the road, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Matthew 20.29-31)
The crowds welcomed him to Jerusalem, crying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (Matthew 21.8-9)Its last mention is when Jesus confronted the Pharisees about the Messiah’s origin and identity. Jesus claimed the Messiah had to be more than a natural child of David. Calling himself the Son of David and accepting the title from others is one of Jesus’ most direct claims of deity. “Son of David” is a cry appealing to Jesus’ messianic identity which includes healing. But why is that?

David was many positive things—poet, musician, fighter, leader. But he was never a healer. He was a man of blood, not bandages. Are we calling out for the wrong kind of “son of David?”

The true Son of David proves himself not in battle against flesh and blood but against sin on the cross. The true Son of David spills his blood instead of his enemies’ blood. He heals rather than harms. He saves rather than condemns. He includes rather than excludes. He rescues rather than takes revenge.

It is because of his identity as the Son of David that we can cry out to Jesus for healing, for help, and to enter his kingdom. His kingdom is from another place. We are already there, yet on our way. It is present among us, yet coming in the distance.

Call on the true Son of David! Hosanna to the Son of David! Have mercy on us!


Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; we bless you from the house of the Lord. — Psalm 118.26

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


​Today’s Readings
Amos 2 (Listen 2:12)
Matthew 22 (Listen 4:56)

Read more about An Accepting Father
The “son of David,” Joseph, accepted The Son of David, Jesus, as his son.

An Accepting Father — Readers’ Choice

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