Home

Weekly Devotional

October 20, 2008
 

Matthew 22:34-46  ⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together.  ³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him.  ³⁶ "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  ³⁷ And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment.  ³⁹ And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."  ⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,  ⁴² saying, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David."  ⁴³ He said to them, "How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,  ⁴⁴ `The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put thy enemies under thy feet'?  ⁴⁵ If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?"  ⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did any one dare to ask him any more questions.

The above pericope is the appointed Gospel for the 24^th Sunday after Pentecost.  However, since we celebrate Reformation Sunday next week, this will not be our text.  Instead we will use a text out of John’s Gospel.  However, I think it is important that as we move toward the end of Cycle A of the lectionary (which we have been in since the first Sunday in Advent 2007), we hear the continuing story as told by Matthew. 

We are at a point in this Gospel where Jesus is continually being tested.  The Pharisees are trying to find a way in which they can bring him to trial for committing a religious crime.  However, as we have seen for the last few Sundays, Jesus continually answers with something they are not ready for.  Even the pericope above shows just how radical Jesus’ responses were. 

As we march on toward the end of this Cycle and into Cycle B, I would like you to keep Jesus’ radical nature in mind.  Ask yourself “how can I be a radical Christian against the forces of Satan?”  Can you come up with an answer that is not expected?  How do you show the love you have for God and neighbor? 

 The other scheduled readings for next week are Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 (OT); Psalm 43; and 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 (NT).  I encourage you to read those at some point this week, and see how they relate to the text chosen from Matthew’s Gospel.

In our prayers this week:  Alma, Ann, The mothers of Doris and Gail, Norm, Jane, and Marianne.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Judson