Our reading challenge for the day is Matthew chapters 16-20. I'll hit a few highlights. You make comments too and fill in the gaps. What strikes you as specially significant?
Matthew 16 - Jesus responds with rather oblique statements about his work. Notice he always does this when speaking to people who approach him with questions which are not genuine questions of belief. When Jesus questions Peter, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Son of God. Yet Peter then turns around and attempts to hinder Jesus in his plan of dying for the sin of the world. This idea of Jesus losing his life so we can gain ours and our then following him to lose our life in him as well is very foreign to us.
Matthew 17 - Jesus shows himself not only as the one who is transfigured but the one who transfigures other people. In the narrative about the temple tax Jesus observes that he is not subject to the tax because he is above it, but that he provides for the payment of obligations through his own supernatural means.
Matthew 18-20 Look at these chapters together as a striking example of Jesus' desire that people should be brought to him in repentance and faith, receiving his healing and restoration. We can all stand to look frequently at where we fit into the various situations presented in these chapters. May the Lord bring us each to daily repentance and trust.
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