PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2025-2026

We find ourselves in the most important chapter of the Gospel, the day of resurrection. The earthquake has to be one of the details of Matthew that is my favorite. It left everyone involved shook. Jesus appear to the women as they were making their way back, which is not seen in all of the other Gospels. This revelation of Jesus provides them with the impetus to go and speak their message without fear. The Great Commission, which we find in vs. 16-20 is at the core of why we go and preach the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus. We are commanded to go out into all the world. What a great way to end the Gospel, especially in view of history and seeing and knowing that the disciples took this to heart and went and did this. Although, when you think about it, it is really Paul who does the lionshare of the evangelizing, and he doesn’t enter the picture until after the Gospels.

And just like that, Jesus is crucified. But look at all the details that Matthew contains that none of the other Gospels contain. The suicide of Judas, the dream of Pilate’s wife. The choice between Jesus or Barabbas, the two thieves, both of whom mock Jesus. The darkness over the land at the crucifixion, the splitting open of the graves at his death, the guards being wary of the disciples and them making up any stories that might turn Jesus into a martyr, without realizing that they had no control over the resurrected Jesus, who makes an appearance next chapter.

Well, that escalated quickly. We find ourselves first with Jesus and the disciples just hanging out in Jerusalem getting ready for the passover festival when Jesus tells them that he is going to be arrested and put to death. A woman prepares Jesus’ body for burial, even while he is still alive, by pouring costly perfume on his feet. The disciples, and especially Judas object, so much so that he then goes out and gets 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus. It seems like for Judas a lot of this was about money, of which he was the holder of the purse.

But then we have the Words of Institution that we find for the Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples. From there we find ourselves in the garden of Gethsemane, and then from there Jesus is arrested and taken to the house of Caiphas. As I said, wow, that really escalated quickly. I had forgotten that chapter 26 is really the ending of the life and ministry of Jesus, now comes his death next.

We have spent a lot of time in this chapter, but I don’t think we ever spoke about the primary message of this chapter. We have taken it in bits in pieces, now talking about the end and what the church is required to be a Matthew 25 church: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger etc. Then the parable of the buried talent, or the talent that was multiplied. I don’t think we ever looked at the bridesmaids, but they all point to the fact that we have to be prepared for what the Lord requires of us becaues we do not know when he will return and require it from us. The lesson from the bridesmaids parable is not: “Do not share!” It is be prepared.

Jesus switches pretty quickly from castigating the religious leaders to warning those who would hear about the end times. It is not really a promise of the end times, as much as a warning. I know that in a lot of Protestant circles there is a great expectation and desire to see the end times, but Scripture is not always super rosy on what the end times are going to looks like, and this is one example. Jesus says that in the end times there will be great sacrifice and great pain and suffering. That is not really something that I am looking forward to.

It is equally important to recognize that no one is able to predict when the end times will be, even though we have tried over the years many, many times. Those attempts always lead to failure at best, and disaster and tragedy at worst, for example the whole Jim Jones saga.

We have an entire chapter devoted to what Jesus thinks about religious leaders. Warning, if you are a religious leader, like an elder at First Presbyterian, it is not good news. He does begin benignly enough by saying that you should listen to everything the religious leaders say about the law. They were trained in it, they have experience in it, so what they say, you do. But don’t do what they do. They tell us to do certain things, and sometimes even add things to what we have to do, but they never do it. And then it kinda takes off from there as he calls them twice as much fit for hell as those who don’t do exactly what they say is required to avoid hell. It is probably the harshest reprimand and diatribe that Jesus has for the religious leaders of his day in this chapter.

There are quite a few seemingly unrelated teachings in this text. Jesus is being clearly tested and the testors are the religious leaders from all sides. He does give us the greatest commandment in this Scripture which is worth repeating. We are to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. The law can be summarized by these commandments. In modern Christianity it is difficult to find a good balance. Often we can sense that we may think that salvation is all that is needed. Once I have a personal relationship with Jesus, that is all that is needed. It is a beginning, it is an important step. But Jesus says that we have to love our neighbor as ourselves and he puts that on par with loving God. We rarely do that. It is impossible hearing these words of Jesus to think that all we have to do is love God and everything else will follow. No, we have to love God and love neighbor and then, and only then, will everything else follow.

Can you imagine someone telling the pastors of a church that the prostitutes and tax collectors will get to heaven before they do? That’s exactly what Jesus told the religious leaders after he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. That’s where we find ourselves in this Scripture, it is on Palm Sunday. Jesus rides in on a donkey as a sign of both humility and victory. He then cleans out the temple and then he starts healing in the temple. I had not noticed that before. It isn’t as if he goes and cleans out the temple and then goes home after a hard days work. No, he stays in the most holy of places, that isn’t his to claim in the eyes of the religious leaders, and does the work that he has been doing all alone, healing people. He is asked by what authority he did the healings, and he answers as he always does, with another question that the leaders are not able to answer, so he doesn’t answer. We are getting closer to the end of Matthew, you know that once you get to Palm Sunday, because we have less than a week left in Jesus’ life now.

The parable of the laborers in the vineyard has always been one of my favorites because it reflects so accurately the current state of thought among believers. We complain that we only get what we don’t deserve. We don’t deserve to be freed from our sin while we were yet sinners, and yet Jesus showed his generosity toward us by dying for us on the cross. We often complain about the amount of money that professional athletes make, and here we are making that which we agreed to make and it just seems unjust. Our jealousy over God’s generosity is a pandemic that strikes so many and it throws our perspective out of joint. What we have received, the grace that we have through Jesus, is totally undeserved, and yet God showers it upon us. Spend the day today grateful for how God has blessed us, and don’t look to your neighbor, God can take care of them how He pleases.

There are a number of teachings here that are difficult for us to hear in our 21st century ears. The teaching on divorce, that we should not divorce except in the case of infidelity, is very difficult when more than 50% of our marriages end up in divorce. This is true both in the church and in society in general. It should not be, but it is. Jesus gives us the template on how we ought to treat and understand children. We are called to see children as those to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs. What a different way than to think that they should be seen and not heard as some might way.

We then are given a lesson on what it means to be a disciple. It isn’t enough just to be good enough. We actually have to relinquish all that is more important to us than God to God so that we can have eternal life. Being a disciple is not about following rules or giving things up. It is about understanding what Jesus has done for us on the cross and how living our lives can now be so different than what society tells us it should be.