Category: Gospel of Matthew
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The Tragedy of the Pharisees: How Good People Become Enemies of God (Repost)
(Hey everyone! I am working hard getting the Sermon on the Mount book out. It is titled “The Way of Restoration: Following Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount”. In the meantime, I am reposting one of the posts in the series for you. Enjoy the sneak peak of the book to come!) When the…
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Living in the Public Eye: How Jesus Related to the Masses and Why We Can’t Remain in the Crowd (Repost)
(Hey everyone! I am working hard getting the Sermon on the Mount book out. It is titled “The Way of Restoration: Following Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount”. In the meantime, I am reposting one of the posts in the series for you. Enjoy the sneak peak of the book to come!) When Jesus…
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Blessed Are the Spiritually Impoverished, for the Kingdom of Heaven Is Theirs (Repost)
Note from Rachel: This is a repost from my series on the Sermon on the Mount, soon to be included in my upcoming book. The first blessing Jesus gives in the Beatitudes makes no sense at all. Poverty is not a “happy” state (makarios, the Greek word for “blessed,” is also translated “happy”). To be…
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The Shadow Life of Moses and How We Know We Can Trust the Storyteller (Repost)
Note from Rachel: This is a repost from my series on the Sermon on the Mount, soon to be included in my upcoming book. We are living in some crazy days, but this post reminded me that God’s got it — it’s all part of the Story. When Moses declared some fourteen hundred years before…
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The Waste of Worry, and What to Do Instead (Repost)
Note from Rachel: This is a repost from my series on the Sermon on the Mount, soon to be included in my upcoming (and still untitled) book about the same. As I worked my way through revisions, I was struck by how pertinent Jesus’s message about worry is during our present moment in history. I…
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The Surprising Humility of the Hidden God (Jesus the Servant, Pt 1)
But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. He warned them not to tell others about him. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Here is my…
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The Dawn of the New Creation: Jesus, the Sabbath, and the Creative Work of God
Moving on from there, He entered their synagogue. There He saw a man who had a paralyzed hand. And in order to accuse Him they asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” … Then He told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored, as…
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Human Value, Need, and What Really Offends God: Jesus on Legalism and the Sabbath
Moving on from there, He entered their synagogue. There He saw a man who had a paralyzed hand. And in order to accuse Him they asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” But He said to them, “What man among you, if he had a sheep that fell into a pit on…
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Lord of the Sabbath: Jesus and the One Necessary Conversation (Lord of the Sabbath Pt 5)
Or haven’t you read in the Law that on Sabbath days the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent? But I tell you that something greater than the temple is here! If you had known what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. For…
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Restoring the Heart of Religion (Lord of the Sabbath Pt 4)
At that time Jesus passed through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick and eat some heads of grain. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” He said to them … “If…