Before we press on, let’s look back. I want to check that I know where the text is taking us. As we have dealt with all sorts of different scenes and various amazing teachings of Jesus, it is easy to lose our way.
I’ve been suggesting we view this Gospel through the lens of Family – and not just any family – but the family of God. There is a caution, and that is to not force this idea of family on every bit of the text if it does not support it.
Let’s take a look.
Matthew 1 shows the link to God’s family back to Abraham, the father of the nations.
Matthew 2 shows that this is a family of light (for the darkness seeks to destroy it).
Matthew 3 highlights, I think, how we, as humans, respond to God and His Word. John the Baptist is proclaiming our need to repent—and this message reaches into our human hearts. It is as if we are being called home.
Matthew 4 notes that the road is tough, you might say forces want to take you away from the family.
Matthew 5 lays out the principles this family is built upon. We are called less to be citizens following a law, and more a group of people who live in a way that not only fulfills the law, but far surpasses it.
Matthew 6 then reinforces what membership in the family looks like. It is not about law-keeping, but relationship-tending. Jesus has come to not tend, but rather mend our relationship with God! Can we believe this family is real, that there is a loving God who is Father? Can we believe if such a family exists that we can belong?
Chapter 7 says, “Yes” to those questions and invites us to plant our identity in Jesus. To build our home on him.
Chapter 8 continues to present Jesus. In some ways what Jesus is inviting us to participate in seems too good to be true. Can we, as Jesus suggests in chapter 6, pray to God as Father. Can Jesus really back up what he is saying?
That question of whether Jesus is real is brought to the front in Chapters 8 & 9. The scenes seem to bounce back and forth between Jesus demonstrating his amazing power, and the reality of the challenge of joining him. We are back to light and darkness.
You may not be ready to answer the call of Jesus. I pray you keep reading. My point in looking backwards is because as we begin chapter 10, we will note Jesus is speaking to people who have answered the call. We will begin to see him shaping them for mission, and teaching them more about what his, and their, futures hold.
Where are you with Jesus? Have you received him as your savior? Have you gone beyond him as having rescued you, and are you following him as your Lord?
For the harvest in plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefor pray earnestly to the Lord of harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.