PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2025-2026

I have to say that it doesn’t settle the heart to think at the end of this story that someone was tortured because of their cruelty, and that a metaphor is applied to us if we do not have mercy on others. I’m wondering what kind of motivation is it to have mercy if we know that if we do not have mercy then we will be tortured. That doesn’t sit great with me, but Jesus was telling parables in a way that people would be able to understand and that they would know how important it is for them to be righteous in their life.

We also have the parable of the lost sheep and the shepherd leaving the 99 and going on a hunt to find that one lost one. We also have Peter asking Jesus that we all want to ask Jesus, how many times do we actually have to forgive someone if they keep hurting us over and over again. And the answer is every single time. Now, her me well, that does not mean that we put ourselves in a position to be hurt again. If we are in a relationship that is harmful to us, we leave, this does not mean that we stay and submit to abuse. But it does mean that we forgive and allow God to heal our wounds as we have moved on closer to Jesus.

We find a strange aggregation of stories, but the first of them, the transfiguration, probably the most impactful. Keep in mind that just about everything that Jesus does while on earth is reflected somewhere in the Old Testament as something that either a leader of the Israelites did, or a prophet, or something that someone of importance did before he did it. Going up a mountain and having yourself transformed and transfigured is very much something that Moses did. So much so, that the Hebrew word for his face shone and he had horns is pretty much the same. This is why we have this depiction by Michaelangelo of Moses.

God speaking from the heavens reminding Peter that He is in control and will dictate that which comes next is a great reminder for us as we try to tell God how things ought to be. But also with the transfiguration we see a scene that leads to another, where in Mark Jesus cures a boy with a demon. This is depicted well in one of my favorite paintings that you can see below which is found in St. Peter’s in Rome. This one is done by Raphael, not the turtle, but the artist.

This is a fairly pivotal chapter in the disciples understanding who Jesus is, even though they never fully get it in Matthew. I had mentioned earlier that the title of Messiah for Jesus is one that he has embraced and one that Matthew repeats over and over again. Here, Peter, one of his disciples, describes Jesus as the Messiah and Jesus clearly tells him that he got it right. There has been much debate over Matthew 16:18-19 with some traditions seeing this as the installing of Peter as the first among all and a role in the church that is unequalled. Instead, we see this as an exchange where Jesus is declaring that he is the Messiah and this truth, this rock upon which the church stands, will never be shaken. That’s a pretty big and a pretty important difference.

Doesn’t it seem like yesterday when Jesus was feeding the five thousand, and now here he is feeding the four thousand? Well, yes, it was yesterday. We have two accounts in Matthew of Jesus miraculously feeding large crowds of people with baskets of food left over. Why is this, and why is Matthew the only Gospel that does this? I am a firm believer that we trust that which is written. I don’t believe that what Scripture contains is in error, certainly not the Scriptural truths. We say and we believe that Scripture has authority, more than any other book every written, because it was inspired by the Holy Spirit when it was written and now when it is read. But that doesn’t answer the question, except to say that yes, Jesus fed thousands of people twice. I’m okay with that.

Jesus does come down hard on the religious leaders when they criticize him for not following the Jewish customs. He sees that as the pinnacle of hypocrisy. The religious leaders were teaching their people ideas that were beneficial for them and the temple, but had nothing to do with the law. Now they have the guts to criticize Jesus for something that was not essential. We don’t often see Jesus this critical, and speaking so strongly, but here we have it. He doesn’t suffer hypocrites.

John Ortberg wrote a book entitled If you want to walk on water you have to get out of the boat. I highly recommend it. It describes the tendency of churches and individuals who have been doing this for a long time to inevitably steer toward the more risk averse stance as possible in their life. He says that those who have been in mainline churches for a long time have forgotten what it looks like to get out of the boat so that you can walk on water. It is a good read and one that I would highly recommend especially for those who have been in the traditional church for a long time. I would love to see a church full of people who are looking to walk on water and are eager to get out of the boat.

Peter’s beginning to sink comes about as a result of the waves and the storms that are literally battering him. But isn’t it ironic that this is exactly when we need to keep our eyes on Jesus and stay focused on him in our lives, and yet there was Peter forgetting the most fundamental thing possible, it was Jesus who called us out upon the water.

There are a lot of examples in this passage that deal with agriculture. The throwing of the seeds that do not take root and remain unless they are in the good soil. The sowing of the weeds by the devil in the midst of the wheat field in order to cause confusion among the children of God. A mustard seed planted and the yeast rising, all of these are then later explained as parables and how parables are used to teach those who are willing to hear, and be confusing to those who have an agenda which is to work against the kingdom of God.

But there is one detail that is easily missed that is found in the very first verse. From where does Jesus come in order to go and sit by the sea? It states that “Jesus left the house.” The assumption is that he is at his home town, Capernaum, and he leaves the house where he was living. I have often envisioned Jesus as one who lived in tents, or in fields, or in settings that were something other than a house. Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to rest his head. But here we find, like we do when the wise men come to visit him, that he is in a house. Nothing deeply theological about this, but just interesting.

There is a lot of theology in this chapter that we could parse and look through. We could talk about what did Jesus mean when he talks about and heals on the Sabbath? How are we able to remain righteous so that Jesus can inhabit our lives as opposed to the demons of society and cultur which constantly look to take residence in our lives? But instead we are going to look at something that is a little more straightforward that is confusing to many who do not read that Bible that often. Did Jesus have siblings? This chapter answers that question.

There are theological reasons for why some denominations require that Mary remain a perpetual virgin, which would clearly mean that she had no children except for Jesus. In this strain of thought she is considered to some a co-redemptress. For us, this is heresy. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus, and Jesus alone. So when we read in Matthew 12 that Jesus’ family, and it is delineated as his mother and brothers and he adds in his sisters, then we can clearly see that this was not the case. We even understand that James was potentially written by the blood brother of Jesus as well. Now he self defines his family as those who do his will, but we do see that he had a biological family.

There is an ongoing debate in Biblical scholarship as to whether Jesus portrays himself as the Messiah, and whether he actually believed that he was the Messiah. This chapter in Matthew shold dispel the debate, along with chapter 1 of Messiah, because he is clearly defined and called the Messiah. Did you know that the technical term for Messiah is Christ, or Christos in the Greek? So when we say Jesus Christ we are actually saying Jesus the Messiah.

This chapter contains a lot of John the Baptist because he was the one who prepared the way of the Lord for Jesus. It does make me think of Godspel when I say that and the well known tune: Prepare the Way of the Lord. It might be fun to sing along to it.

We hear a little bit of a different voice from Jesus here. There is not the soft-spoken, unassuming Jesus that we are used to, but rather the one who tells it like it is, without mincing words. That doesn’t mean that he is unkind, or that he is pursuing a fight, but rather he is telling the truth in a way that those who have ears are able to hear it. When he sends out the twelve disciples he does so with a very specific mission, you can find that in vs. 5 and following. He tells them specifically to whom they are to speak, the Israelites, what they are to do, they were a type of doctor who healed people, and they were told when to leave, when they were no longer welcomed.

He then launches into a warning about those who are not only against them as disciples of Jesus, but actually working against them. He does not tell them to raise arms against them, but rather, just avoid them. Pretty simple, do not spend time with them, find people who are willing to welcome you and receive you. That sounds like some pretty sound advice in life. Don’t react, just pivot and move on.

Each Gospel contains many of the similar stories as the other Gospels, just not all of them. But each Gospel tells the story in its own way. For example, this chapter we have a number of stories that are told very differently in other Gospels. The man on a stretcher is the same story in Luke where his friends cut a hole a in the roof and lower him down to Jesus because the house is so full. That doesn’t happen here because Matthew chooses not to tell that part of the story. Similarly, the woman healed from a flow of blood is done in a much less dramatic fashion than in Luke as well.

I’ll never forget my senir high school English AP Class the teacher, without us knowing, had another teacher come into the room and just start yelling at him for no apparent reason. She then left the room and the teacher asked each of us what happened, and each of our stories was different. That can even happen to an individual after a major life event. I used to keep a journal for that same AP English class and in the middle of that school year I came to know Jesus personally. My writing after that moment was so very different than before that moment.