gospel of matthew – Mum's devotional

The narrow way

January 3rd

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Matthew 7:12-14 (NIV)

In eternity, the individual, yes, you, my listener, and I as individuals will each be asked solely about himself as an individual, and about the individual details in his life. If in this talk I have spoken poorly, then you will not be asked about that, my listener; nor will any man from whom I may have learned. For if he has stated it falsely, then he will be questioned about that and I will be made to answer for having learned from another what was false.

If it should so happen that in this talk I have spoken the truth, then I shall be questioned no further about this matter. There will be no questioning as to whether I have won men (quite on the contrary, it might well be asked whether I had any notion of having by my own efforts done the least thing toward winning them)… No, eternity will release me from one and all of such foolish questions. In the world of time a man can be confused, for he does not know which is which: which question is the serious one and which the silly one, especially since the silly one is heard a thousand times to the serious question’s once. Eternity, on the other hand, can admirably distinguish between them; yet it is obvious that the thing does not become easier on that account.

…But when all comparison is relinquished forever then a man confesses as an individual before God — and he is outside any comparison, just as the demand which purity of heart lays upon him is outside of comparison. Purity of heart is what God requires of him and the penitent demands it of himself before God. Yes, it is just on this account that he confesses his sins. And heavy as the way and the hour of the confession may be, yet the penitent wins the Eternal. He is strengthened in the consciousness that he is an individual, and in the task of truthfully willing only one thing. This consciousness is the strait gate sand the narrow way. For it is not this narrow way that the many take, following one after another. No, this straitness means rather that each must himself become an individual, that through this needle’s eyes he must press forward to the narrow way where no comparison cools, but yet where no comparison kills…

from Kierkegaard’s Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing (Ch. 15)

Probably the last Kierkegaard post, so enjoy it

December 29th

…you say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

Matthew 23:30 (NASB)

A living generation often believes itself able to pass judgment on a past generation, because it misunderstood the Good… At some later date, it is no art to decorate the graves of the noble and to say, “If they had only lived now,” now — just as we are starting in to do the same thing against a contemporary.

The view of the moment is the opinion which in an earthly and ‘busy’ sense decides whether a man accomplishes anything or not. And in this sense, nothing in the world has ever been so completely lost as was Christianity at the time that Christ was crucified. And in the understanding of the moment, never in the world has anyone accomplished so little by the sacrifice of a consecrated life as did Jesus Christ. And yet in this same instant, eternally understood, He had accomplished all. For He did not foolishly judge by the result that was not yet there, or more rightly (for here is the conflict and battleground of the two interpretations of what is meant by “accomplishing”) the result was indeed there.

Question His contemporaries, if you ever meet them. Do they not say of the crucified one, “The fool, he would help others and he cannot help himself, but now the outcome also shows, so that everyone may see what he was.”

Was it not said by His contemporaries, especially where the clever led the conversation, “The fool, he who had it in his power to become king if he cared to make use of his opportunity, if he had only half my cleverness, he would have been king. In the beginning I really believed that it was ingenuity, that he let these people express themselves in this fashion without wishing to give himself up to them. I believed it was a trick. But now the result shows clearly enough what I more recently have myself been quite clear about, that he is a shallow, blind visionary!” Was it not said by many intelligent men and women, “The result shows that he has been hunting after phantasies; he should have married. In this way he would now have been a distinguished teacher in Israel.”

And yet, eternally understood, the crucified one had in the same moment accomplished all! But the view of the moment and the view of eternity over the same matter have never stood in such atrocious opposition. It can never be repeated. This could happen only to Him. Yet eternally understood, He had in the same moment accomplished all, and on that account said, with eternity’s wisdom, “It is finished.”

Perhaps it would require many centuries before He would be able to say that in regard to temporal existence. Yet what He is still unable to say after the passage of eighteen triumphant centuries, He said in His own age, eighteen centuries ago, in the very moment when all was lost. Eternally understood, He said, “It is finished.” “It is finished.” He said that just when the mass of the people, and the priests, and the Roman soldiers, Herod and Pilate, and the idle ones on the street, the crowd in the gateway, and the newspaper reporters (if there were any such at that time) in short, when all the powers of the moment, however different their sentiments might have been, were agreed upon this view of the matter: that all was lost, hopelessly lost. “It is finished,” He said, nailed to the cross as He was.

from Kierkegaard’s Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing (Ch. 8)

Truly, Tomorrow

December 16th

O Virgin of virgins, how shall this be?
For neither before thee was any like thee, nor shall there be after.
Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel at me?
The thing ye behold’s a divine mystery.

translation of the O Virgo Virganum antiphon

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet he did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Matthew 1:18-23 (NIV)

Because I got ahead of myself and covered Mary’s story in July, and the context of Isaiah’s ‘Emmanuel prophecy’ is actually pretty complicated, I thought we’d look at Joseph’s point of view, because that really required a lot of faith too, and I feel like he doesn’t get enough credit.

Here is Pentatonix’s version of Mary Did You Know? on Youtube and Spotify. (Voctave also has an amazing version with Mark Lowry, but they already got a turn, and the Pentatonix one is easier listening, even if Voctave’s is just technically wow. You know what? Just listen to both of them. There, problem solved.)

Today’s picture in last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic is boring, so here is Van Eyck’s Annunciation because I adore this painting.

In the flesh, in our hearts, and in glory

December 1st, First Sunday of Advent

…He will proclaim peace to the nations.

Zechariah 9:10 (HCSB)

When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus then sent two disciples, telling them, “Go into the village ahead of you. At once you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, you should say that the Lord needs them, and immediately he will send them.”

This took place so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled:

Tell Daughter Zion, “See, your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”

The disciples went and did just as Jesus directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt; then they laid their robes on them, and He sat on them. A very large crowd spread their robes on the roads; others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. Then the crowds who went ahead of Him and those who followed kept shouting:

Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!

When He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds kept saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee!”

Matthew 21:1-10 (HCSB)

Here is the King’s Singers’ Veni, Veni Emmanuel on Youtube and Spotify. Because Latin, is cool. There’s also Josh Wilson’s O Come Emmanuel, for those of you that don’t think Latin is cool.

…and here is a photo of the Lagoon Nebula from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic. I’m sure there’s one this year, but I want to be able to post it on the right day. (I love Advent calendars, because, deep down, I’m actually just a really verbose five year old, and like to put things in their proper cubbyholes. Bonus points if they’re shiny.)

Public and private devotion

November 8th

…Jesus began to speak to the crowds about Jon: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothes? Look, those who wear soft clothes are in kings’ palaces. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and far more than a prophet… I assure you: Among those born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has appeared, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and the violent [forceful] have been seizing it by force.

Matthew 11:7-9,11-12 (HCSB)

The good example of the preacher is his best sermon; the Baptist had till this time, that is, about thirty years, lived in the wilderness under the discipline of the holy Ghost, under the tuition of angels, in conversation with God… thirty years he lived in great austerity; and it was a rare patience…

But after the expiration of a definite time John came from his solitude, and served God in societies. In the wilderness his company was angels, his employment meditations and prayer, his temptations simple and from within, his occasions of sin as few as his examples… and yet the Spirit of God called the Baptist to a more excellent ministry; for in solitude pious persons might go to heaven by the way of prayers and devotion, but in society they might go to heaven by the way of mercy, and charity. In solitude there are fewer occasions of vices, but there is also the exercise of fewer virtues.

John the Baptist united both these lives; and our blessed Saviour, who is the great precedent of sanctity and prudence, lived a life common, sociable, humane, charitable, and public; and yet retired to prayer and contemplation. Jesus reconciled both; and so did John the baptist: and from both we are taught,that solitude is a good school, and the world is the best theatre; the institution is best there, but the practice here; the wilderness has the advantage of discipline, and society opportunities of perfection; privacy is the best for devotion, and the public for charity. In both, God has many saints and servants; and from both the devil has had some.

from Jeremy Taylor’s The Life of Christ (Sect. 8)

Yes, Matthew 11 has come up before.

The Rich Young Ruler (cont.)

October 28th

Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have it.

Ecclesiastes 7:12 (NIV)

The sum of the matter in regard to the youth is this:—He had begun early to climb the eternal stair. He had kept the commandments, and by every keeping had climbed. But because he was well to do—a phrase of unconscious irony—he felt well to be—quite, but for that lack of eternal life! His possessions gave him a standing in the world—a position of consequence—of value in his eyes. He knew himself looked up to; he liked to be looked up to; he looked up to himself because of his means, forgetting that means are but tools, and poor tools too. To part with his wealth would be to sink to the level of his inferiors! Why should he not keep it? why not use it in the service of the Master? What wisdom could there be in throwing away such a grand advantage? He could devote it, but he could not cast it from him! He could devote it, but he could not devote himself! He could not make himself naked as a little child and let his Father take him! To him it was not the word of wisdom the ‘Good Master’ spoke. How could precious money be a hindrance to entering into life! How could a rich man believe he would be of more value without his money? that the casting of it away would make him one of God’s Anakim? that the battle of God could be better fought without its impediment? that his work refused as an obstruction the aid of wealth? But the Master had repudiated money that he might do the will of his Father; and the disciple must be as his master. Had he done as the Master told him, he would soon have come to understand. Obedience is the opener of eyes.

from George MacDonald’s Unspoken Sermons (Vol. 2, The Way)

Regarding money, I always liked C.S. Lewis’ view, but there are plenty of other things that we can value/overvalue in the same way. I think it’s more that whatever one thing you won’t give up is what keeps you from pursuing God. (But that may just be the Glen Keane books speaking; Adam Raccoon with his little red ball stands astride my childhood like a snub-nosed colossus.)

Learning Christ

October 27th

At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, because this was Your good pleasure. All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him.”

Matthew 11:25-27 (HCSB)

The Lord is the end. He who seeks in the Lord finds. And thus Laban who sought not in the Lord, for he sought idols, found not… Wherefore the Apostle says, ‘I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.’ So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God That giveth the increase! God gives to you in the spirit, and the Lord sows in your heart. Take care then that He breathe life and sow in you, that you may reap; for if you sow not, neither shall you reap. This is a sort of admonition to you to sow. If you sow not you shall not reap, is a proverb. The end agrees with the beginning; the seed is the beginning, the harvest the end.

Learn, he says, of me; nature aids the learner, and God is the Author of nature. It is of God too that we learn well, for it is a natural gift to learn well; the hard of heart learn not.

from the Letters of St. Ambrose (Letter VIII)

Preceded by a letter of deep spiritual insight that begins: “I HAVE received your present of mushrooms…”

The nature of goodness

October 24th

…one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”

Matthew 19:16 (NKJV)

…the Son no more thought of his own goodness than an honest man thinks of his honesty. When the good man sees goodness, he thinks of his own evil: Jesus had no evil to think of, but neither does he think of his goodness; he delights in his Father’s. ‘Why callest thou me good? None is good save one, even God.‘

Checked thus, the youth turns to the question which, working in his heart, had brought him running, and made him kneel: what good thing shall he do that he may have eternal life? It is unnecessary to inquire precisely what he meant by eternal life. Whatever shape the thing took to him, that shape represented a something he needed and had not got—a something which, it was clear to him, could be gained only in some path of good. But he thought to gain a thing by a doing, when the very thing desired was a being: he would have that as a possession which must possess him.

The Lord cared neither for isolated truth nor for orphaned deed. It was truth in the inward parts, it was the good heart, the mother of good deeds, he cherished. It was the live, active, knowing, breathing good he came to further. He cared for no speculation in morals or religion. It was good men he cared about, not notions of good things, or even good actions, save as the outcome of life… Could he by one word have set at rest all the questionings of philosophy as to the supreme good and the absolute truth, I venture to say that word he would not have uttered. But he would die to make men good and true. His whole heart would respond to the cry of sad publican or despairing pharisee, ‘How am I to be good?’

It is not with this good thing and that good thing we have to do, but with that power whence comes our power even to speak the word good. We have to do with him to whom no one can look without the need of being good waking up in his heart; to think about him is to begin to be good. To do a good thing is to do a good thing; to know God is to be good. It is not to make us do all things right he cares, but to make us hunger and thirst after a righteousness possessing which we shall never need to think of what is or is not good, but shall refuse the evil and choose the good by a motion of the will which is at once necessity and choice.

from George MacDonald’s Unspoken Sermons (Vol. 2, The Way)

That’s it

October 14th

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

Matthew 3:13-15 (NIV)

Have you not often felt in Church, if the first lesson is some great passage, that the second lesson is somehow small by comparison—almost, if one might say so, humdrum? So it is and so it must be. That is the humiliation of myth into fact, of God into Man; what is everywhere and always, imageless and ineffable, only to be glimpsed in dream and symbol and the acted poetry of ritual becomes small, solid—no bigger than a man who can He asleep in a rowing boat on the Lake of Galilee. You may say that this, after all, is a still deeper poetry. I will not contradict you. The humiliation leads to a greater glory. But the humiliation of God and the shrinking or condensation of the myth as it becomes fact are also quite real.

from C.S. Lewis’ Is Theology Poetry? (in The Weight of Glory)

I’ve been thinking about how we experience things in time. There are so many things that are a genuinely big deal, and then when you actually experience them, you think ‘Really? That’s it?’ sometimes in a disappointed way, or a ‘I don’t know what I was so worried about‘ kind of way, but most times in a ‘Wow, my expectations were totally wrong, and kind of stupid, but I’m okay with that, because that’s sort of how reality works isn’t it?’ sort of way. It’s only later that you again realize with the benefit of extra thought or some hindsight, that yes, those things were a big deal, and that’s why everyone made sure to tell you what a big deal they were, and it’s probably a much bigger deal than you currently understand even now.

Straight forward

October 2nd

“So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.”

Matthew 10:26-27 (NIV)

If you do not live in some out-of-the-way place in the world, if you live in a populous city, and you direct your attention outwards, sympathetically engrossing yourself in the people and in what is going on, do you remember each time you throw yourself in this way into the world around you, that in this relation, you relate yourself to yourself as an individual with eternal responsibility? Or do you press yourself into the crowd, where the one excuses himself with the others, where at one moment there are, so to speak, many, and where in the next moment, each time that the talk touches upon responsibility, there is no one? Do you judge like the crowd, in its capacity as a crowd? You are not obliged to have an opinion about what you do not understand. No, on the contrary, you are eternally excused from that. But you are eternally responsible as an individual to render an account for your opinion, and for your judgment.

And in eternity, you will not be asked inquisitively and professionally, as though by a newspaper reporter, whether there were many that had the same — wrong opinion. You will be asked only whether you have held it, whether you have spoiled your soul by joining in this frivolous and thoughtless judging, because the others, because the many judged thoughtlessly. You will be asked only whether you may not have ruined the best within you by joining the crowd in its defiance, thinking that you were many and therefore you had the prerogative, because you were many, that is, because you were many who were wrong. In eternity it will be asked whether you may not have damaged a good thing, in order that you also might judge with them that did not know how to judge, but who possessed the crowd’s strength, which in the temporal sense is significant but to which eternity is wholly indifferent.

For in eternity crowds simply do not exist. The truth is not such that it at once pleases the frivolous crowd — and at bottom it never does; to such a multitude the truth must appear as simply absurd. But the man who, conscious of himself as an individual, judges with eternal responsibility, he is slow to pass judgment upon the unusual. For it is possible that it is falsehood and deceit and illusion and vanity. But it is also possible that it is true.

from Kierkegaard’s Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing (Ch. 13)

I wanted to use ‘judge nothing before the time,’ but I already referenced that passage.