Stay Focused!

Matthew 17: Glory and the Grind (5)

Pray Psalm 119.15, 16.
I will meditate on Your precepts,
And contemplate Your ways.
I will delight myself in Your statutes;
I will not forget Your word.

Sing Psalm 119.15, 16.
Passion Chorale: O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
We contemplate Your precepts and cherish all Your ways, 
delighting in Your statutes, rememb’ring all our days.
With wondrous bounty bless us, Your humble servants, LORD, 
that we may live with Jesus and keep His holy Word.

Read Matthew 17.1-23; meditate on verses 22, 23.
How was Jesus “betrayed”?

Prepare.
1. What was Jesus focusing on at this time?

2. How did the disciples respond to what He told them?

Meditate.
In his commentary on verse 17, Calvin wrote, “The nearer that the time of his death approached, the more frequently did Christ warn his disciples, lest that melancholy spectacle might give a violent shock to their faith.” Three of the disciples had just seen Him in His glory. All of them had witnessed the mighty work of healing an epileptic boy. They had inquired of Jesus how they might be able to have such power. Were they beginning to lose sight of what He had told them in Matthew 16.21-28? Were they losing focus?

Jesus had come, as He insisted, to “bring near” the Kingdom of God (Matt. 4.17). He brought the disciples and the people to the very edge of the Kingdom Sea and pointed them to the fast-approaching horizon. The Kingdom would come when the Spirit was poured out, and when the Gospel began to make all things new. As John the Baptist prepared the world for Jesus, so Jesus was preparing the world for the coming of the Kingdom.

But that would never happen without the cross and the resurrection. These were the linchpins to the great work of reconciling the world to God which Jesus had come to do. Everything depended on this, and from those events forward, the coming of the Kingdom would result in understanding, embracing, and living in those realities. “Stay focused!” Jesus seems to be saying to His disciples.

And even at that, they could only hear a portion of what He said. They “were exceedingly sorrowful.” Why? Because He was going to rise from the dead? No, because He was going to die. That much they could understand, and so they could believe it might happen. They had not paid attention when Jesus raised the dead girl, to know that death is not the end for Jesus, but merely the portal to resurrection and the Kingdom.

And we are so much like them! We only hear what we can understand of the Word of Jesus. What is too hard or unfamiliar, or perhaps even uncomfortable or inconvenient, we don’t hear, and so we don’t follow, and we don’t gain the blessings of faith and power the Word brings to those who hear and obey it.

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
Yes, the disciples were missing the good part by focusing on the sad part.
But, oh my, their love for Jesus was so obvious and overwhelming 
that the sad part caused them to be “exceedingly sorrowful” (Matt. 17.23).

Recently, in our daughter Kristy’s Bible Study group, now studying the book of James,
one of the members of the group asked a question seemingly off topic, but poignant.
She asked Kristy why Jesus didn’t defend Himself, when asked at His trial, if He was the Son of God.
Within her answer to this woman, Kristy praised her for her deep love for the Savior. This woman loves Jesus so much that she wants, what Peter mistakenly wanted, that Jesus be saved from His humiliation at the hands of wicked men. And Kristy, of course, did the right thing. 
She praised her for her love for her Savior, Whom she did not want to suffer; 
but explained that because of His love for us—He had to.

Jesus praised a woman for her love for Him, as well—the woman who stood at His feet behind Him
weeping, who washed His feet with her tears, and wiped them dry with the hair of her head. Who kissed His
feet and anointed them with an alabaster flask of fragrant oil. 

Whereupon, right on cue, a Pharisee protested and complained of her behavior. 

But Jesus said to the woman: “Your sins are forgiven.” 
And furthermore, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace” (see Lk. 7.36-50 for the full story). 
“She” indeed “loved much” (Lk. 7.47).

The disciples were familiar with the Old Testament passages concerning the sad part, the Messiah’s death:
“Be not far from Me, for trouble is near; for there is none to help…
I AM poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint…
they pierced My hands and My feet…
they divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots…” (Ps. 22.11, 14,16, 18).

“For You will not leave My soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption” (Ps. 16.10).

“He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…
Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…
He was wounded for our transgressions, 
He was bruised for our iniquities; 
the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, 
and by His stripes we are healed…
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. 
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities…
because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, 
and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressor” (Is. 53.3, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12).

“And the third day He will be raised up” (Matt. 17.23). The Good News. Overcoming death.

Hopefully, like the disciples, our love for the Savior is growing daily.
To have a love so deep that we, too, are moved with compassion for His suffering—exceedingly sorrowful.
That His humiliations distress us greatly. That His dire separation from His Father grieves us.
And that ultimately, our love for Him leads us, to long for nothing more than to please Him (Jn. 14.15).

Feel the sad. Cling to the Good. Love Him. Follow Him.

“Stay Focused!”

Reflect.
1. What focus guides your life? How does that show up in your words and deeds?

2. How can you sharpen that focus day by day?

3. Do you expect everyone to be glad about that focus? Why or why not?

They knew that He would die, having heard it continually. But as yet they did not know clearly what kind of death this was to be, or that there would be a speedy release from it, or that it would work innumerable blessings, or what this resurrection might be. They did not know it, and so they were distressed, for they greatly adored their Master. John Chrysostom (344-407), The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 58.1

Pray Psalm 119.12-14.
Plead with the Lord to teach you His Word, and give you His Spirit to understand and obey it, that you may know His Word to be more valuable than all the riches of this world.

Sing Psalm 119.12-14.
Passion Chorale: O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
Be blessed, O God our Savior. Teach us Your holy Word!
Our lips proclaim with favor the statutes of the LORD.
How great our joy, dear Jesus, to follow in Your ways. 
What more than this could please us, or brighten all our days?

T. M. and Susie Moore

If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment to give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

Other columns of interest: This week: Our Read Moore podcast continues our readings from the book, The Joy and Rejoicing of My Heart. Our Crosfigell teaching letter is pursuing a series on the spiritual poetry of the Celtic Revival. The ReVision column is working through a study of the role of reason in the life of faith. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.