What Does The Lord Require?
Good Morning Friends,
This morning we come to a section of Matthew which encompasses a mere six verses, but involves two different stories, one on each of these two topics—one on death and one on taxes. The sage of American History, Ben Franklin, commenting on his hope of the new U.S. Constitution’s permanency, and perhaps reflecting on this passage from Matthew, wrote in 1789: “But in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Those two things are what biology and governments would expect of us as history is our witness. However, our lectionary passage from Deuteronomy suggests five more expectations that Jesus would have known from the heart for our collective response. And so, we ask, What Does The Lord Require?
Scripture: So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it, yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen. Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.
Deuteronomy 10:12-22 (NRSV)
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.” And they were greatly distressed. When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?” He said, “Yes, he does.” And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?” When Peter said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the children are free. However, so that we do not give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.”
Matthew 17:22-27 (NRSV)
Message: We might have expected that the greatest person who ever lived, God-in-the-flesh Himself, might have been exempted from the experience of at least one or both unpleasant realities of death and taxes. Most of the people of Jesus’ day thought that the Messiah would rule forever and never die. But this was not to be played out as expected. So, Jesus shares with his disciples the morbid reality that he too must die and prepares them for how to respond. Indeed, death and taxes seem be unavoidable and all too similar beyond their juxtaposition in today’s passage.
And so, may many other unpleasant realities of this life be unavoidable. But today’s message is about how we handle them and the model is Jesus. You see, we are to approach them as Jesus did with the grace and responsibility of a child of God. When we do, God finds a way to bless us. That is what is required of us. We are to walk in obedience and observe commands and decrees for our own good. But we are to do so with a good attitude. God has our best interests in mind. Sometimes God wants to protect us for another day. But usually God wants us to do those things that will bring blessing in our lives.
You see God is interested with motives as much as obedience. Our lectionary scripture from Deuteronomy fleshes this out in a way that helps us to better understand the passage from Matthew. You see, God requires five things from us that will help us on this journey of ours here on earth. First is to fear God. Second, is to walk in the ways of God. Third, is to love the Lord. Forth, is to serve the Lord with all our heart and soul. And five, for our own good, to keep God’s commandments. And it is here we might just discover that there is a difference between walking in obedience and observing commands and decrees. A person can obey like a robot. A person can follow a list of things to do and not to do without much passion. There are sins of the disposition. But God wants a loving relationship with us. He wants us to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees with desire and love of God. Our actions are to connect our thoughts and our intentions as God connects the ways of heaven to improve the ways of the world. This may not be easy but is required and the sooner we come to terms with our mortality, the sooner we hopefully will come to terms with our need for an eternal savior, Jesus Christ. It is people who live in perpetual denial of their own impending deaths that often remain in denial of Christ’s saving work on their behalf. And of course, whether it’s taxes, or unpaid bills or deferred maintenance, or relational problems, or for that matter, dirty dishes, the longer we procrastinate in facing these problems, the worse those problems get. We need to act friends, but it is faith in Christ that resolves that problem.
Pray we face unpleasant realities of life as soon as possible. Pray we overcome the problems of unrealistic expectations. Pray we reconcile the realities of death with the hope of resurrection. Pray we gain wisdom in handling unpleasant realities so we might face them with grace and responsibility. Pray we realize that out of relationships come service. Pray we by the grace of God, who loved us first, would learn to fear God and walk in God’s ways and to love God and to serve God and to keep God’s commandments. Pray we ulitmately realize that Jesus does all of this for us and on our behalf reconciling expectations from our inside out. Pray that what we thought was bad news becomes the Good News. Pray we have faith.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 