Practical Proverbial, from Matthew, 12 October 2023. Today's topic: What We Should Do
His Word, Our Journey
Also found at Practical Proverbial, from Matthew, 12 October 2023. Today’s Topic: What We Should Do
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. Matthew 9:35
What was Jesus’ reaction to the Jewish leaders’ deliberate misrepresentation of His words and actions? Jesus continued doing them. If anything, He doubled down. Jesus continued doing what He was doing and saying what He was saying, following His Father’s will and seemingly ignoring what the Pharisees said.
Go we therefore and do the same. Jesus continued going into the world to preach His Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven. He did it knowing people opposed Him. He did it without fanfare or acclimation or media attention. Jesus continued to do what He was doing as long as there was daylight and He had breath in His lungs. He did it knowing that, one day soon, He wouldn’t have breath anymore. That’s what we should do.
As long as we follow Jesus, we should go forward and live our lives of faith. Be yourself; work at your job; parent your kids; love your spouse; enjoy your friends; go shopping and driving and changing a flat tire and casual conversation and watching a movie and whatever you do every day. The best way for us to proclaim our faith in Christ is to live our lives normally, letting Him do the heavy lifting through our thoughts, words, and actions.
That’s what Jesus did. He knew the score; He knew there were people who were (literally) out to get Him. He understood they eventually would. Throughout His time on Earth, Jesus kept confronting evil, correcting understanding, and demonstrating the mercy of God’s love, especially when He was opposed. He didn’t moderate His message; He didn’t change His ways; He didn’t reduce personnel. When challenged by opponents, Jesus decided to “keep on keeping on,” saying and doing the same thing: proclaiming the Good News of God’s favor to men.
In the face of war, in the face of growing anti-Christian attitudes and behaviors, in the face of peer pressure to moderate, preach ecumenism, and throttle the Gospel, in the face of friends and family abandoning us because of our beliefs, our attitude should be that of Jesus: to keep on keeping on preaching Christ crucified in all we say and do. After all, Jesus, “who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross!”
That’s what Jesus did. Especially at this time in human history, we should believe to do the same.
For more reading: Mark 16:15-16, Philippians 2:6-11, Matthew 9:36
Lord Jesus, all praise to You for all You did in Your work here, for all You taught us of the Father and Spirit.