Author: Bryan Richardson

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:13-14 (day three)

“The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Everything about Jesus runs counter to your expectations. Little is much, servanthood is greatness, the poor are celebrated, and now this. Does everything have to be counterintuitive? It’s only that way because you’ve been told that there’s safety in numbers: lots of dollars, lots of people, lots of admiration, lots of publicity, lots of approval. That way of life links security to external factors, though. That way of life tells you that there’s nothing worth much on the inside, so you’ve got to prop yourself up with whatever you can grab. But Jesus says you don’t need a Las Vegas-style entryway to convince you of your value. You’re already worth much to God, so come on towards him through the little gate.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:7-11 (day three)

“Knock, and it will be opened to you.”

A slamming door, a closed sign, a missed deadline – what has it been like for you when you’ve experienced these things? Just thinking about those descriptions can evoke anxiety or dejection or panic. To miss out, to be left out, to be thrown out, to feel like you’re not cut out or that you don’t stand out – these are among life’s hardest circumstances because they can invite you to believe that you don’t amount to much. On the other hand, when someone recognizes you, opens up to you, desires your company, and confides in you, a sense of welcome, worth, encouragement, and hope begins to rise in you. God doesn’t slam doors, but opens them, Jesus reveals. To you. You’re so used to finding them closed that it might take you a while to notice.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 6:25-34 (day three)

“Are you not worth much more than they?”

Rather than trying to talk you out of worry, Jesus agrees with you that your grip on security feels tenuous much of the time, as if you’re barely going to make it. He’s stating that circumstances are mostly beyond your control, and that feels scary. Finally, somebody is just saying it: life is hard. What’s more, that somebody was, of all people, the Son of God. This divine human being was telling his hearers, “I deal with this difficult life, too. Everyday.” He goes on to tell them that a God who would give flowers a bigger break than you would not be very loving. In a world that says you don’t matter much, Jesus declares your worth. Your confidence won’t come from trying not to worry, but from this news of your immeasurable value.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 6:19-24 (day three)

“If your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.”

A large swath of Jesus’s audience were people who had learned to accept their lot in life as spiritual paupers – that is, people who would never be considered particularly worthy in God’s eyes or in the eyes of the religious powers-that-be. Jesus goes right for the jugular of “the system” when he opens up with the shocking beatitudes, declaring that such poor in spirit, mournful, meek ones are actually blessed, because they are exactly the ones whom God desires to come near and befriend. Here, he goes further still. He proclaims to his hearers that as his words wash over them, those words can bring clarity to them, doing away with their dependence on the myopic teaching of “brilliant” spiritual “actors.” Who needs a bulb when you’ve got the sun?

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 6:9-15 (day three)

“Your kingdom come.”

What does it mean to long for God’s kingdom to come on earth? The next two phrases of the prayer lay it out: it means that earth, also, would be a place in perfect harmony with God’s will. Jesus’s words themselves are in perfect harmony with the Old Testament prophets who longed for the day when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord would fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. God pronounced his creation good. To pray this way is to yearn for the day that you will see that goodness in all its fullness.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 6:1–8, 16–18 (day three)

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them.”

How would you like to be seen by others? That very image is exactly what you will want to announce about yourself – both in direct ways (trumpet blast) and in nuanced ways (gloomy face). “I am devout.” “I am generous.” “I am disciplined.” These are good things. And you want good things. But good things are hard to find and learn and practice. So you’ll settle for people thinking you want good things. Who hasn’t experienced this? We’re all Pharisees now. It’s not merely that living this way is a bad look. It’s that living this way isn’t devoted or generous or spiritually disciplined at all. There are some things so intimate that the only place to keep them without destroying them is between you and God.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:33-48 (day three)

“But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”

It’s not easy to put your words out there unadorned with any kind of agenda. Even to declare, “I just say what I mean and mean what I say” is to use words to attempt to shape your image as a fearless straight shooter. You discovered very early in your life – we all did – that words have power. In the mouths of human beings, words can function as a means to gain influence over one’s neighbor – to bolster one’s own position, to confuse, to obfuscate, to distract. One human being, the divine son of God, showed a brilliant way to resist the temptation to use words to gain the upper hand: silence. Standing before Pilate, Jesus kept his yes, yes and his no, no by saying nothing.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:17-32 (day three) 

“Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.”

It’s probably not uncommon to think of a typical person in hell as a ne’er-do-well. But it turns out that the population of the damned might well be able to build quite a safe, orderly city where the murder rate is low and sexual assault is rare. Jesus reveals that an outward display of good citizenship, though, is not the center of heaven’s moral vision. God’s command to refrain from murder, for instance, is intended to form in human beings a kind of heart that doesn’t merely avoid violence but reaches out with compassion. It is possible to hate a person without becoming a felon. Which is why it would ultimately take the “convicted criminal” Jesus Christ to lead us to follow the law of love.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:13-16 (day three)

“A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Jesus spoke these words to a society very familiar with overt attempts to appear pious and holy. But if you love God, you don’t need to come up with any proof — actions, words, or appearance. Those things are already happening in the life of one who loves God. Later, Jesus would say, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Again, love is self-evident. He wasn’t saying that commandment-keeping is the next step you need to master after proclaiming your love, but rather that if you love Jesus, you’re already keeping them. Who told you that you have to try really hard to shine? You’re shining. You can’t help it.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:1-12 (day two)

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

When few would ever want to know what you think about religious matters, when you’ve never been welcomed into the inner circle of the “lauded and applauded,” when you’ve wondered if anybody in the congregation really cares about you, when you can’t imagine ever having the confidence to voice your deepest questions in front of others, when you’ve doubted for years that God pays attention to someone like you, this is the place of spiritual poverty. Just as with economic poverty, the conventional wisdom blames spiritual poverty on those who live in it – as if a person chooses that circumstance. The biggest refutation of that belief is right here in the words of our Lord. “I see you,” Jesus says, “and you are beautiful to me.”