“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either. [Matthew 23.13]
If Jesus hadn't already sealed His fate before this time, His speech in Matthew 23.13-34 sure sealed it up tight.
I know people prefer to promote love and peace as the ministry of Jesus, but few really focus on His severe rebuke of the religious leaders (who would eventually be responsible for His crucifixion).
Jesus particularly called out the religious leaders here for preventing people from entering the Kingdom of Heaven. This should be a sober warning for all who preach or teach today. More specifically, it should serve to warn any preacher, teacher, or writer of religious materials (including myself) from diverting anyone's attention from the Kingdom of God as priority number one. Furthermore, the Kingdom Jesus was speaking of here is the Kingdom He taught AND DEMONSTRATED among the people.
Remember what ticked off the religious leaders? Not that Jesus healed, but that He healed on the Sabbath... And there was also a vein of jealousy in their angst against Jesus because His miracles drew the attention to Him (a normal person) instead of those religious leaders! Everyone could see that the miracles (the manifestation of heaven on earth) were good, but the religious leaders contested details that fell under their "estimation" of what the Law was about instead of what it was actually about.
This makes what was discussed a few days ago much clearer about Jesus not preventing children from coming to Him (Someone Brought Them).
When Jesus said, "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else..." [Matthew 6.33], He meant it for every person in every situation. In other words, religious leaders ("influencers" in modern vernacular) who stray from the priority of the Kingdom are guilty as charged in Matthew 23.13.
So, what is the Kingdom of God - the Kingdom of Heaven - all about? It is about Heaven and how things are in God's Dwelling! And, how are things in God's House? They are just like Jesus demonstrated!
Then he told John’s disciples, “Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard—the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” [Luke 7.22]
Jesus was telling John's disciples, "The Kingdom is HERE!"
Our ministry then is really only single-fold: "the Kingdom is here!" We are to look and act like Jesus which, if genuine, will naturally result in the same outcomes. Any excuse we offer for our not looking and acting like Jesus is effectively "...shut[ting] the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either."
Oh wow, this is powerful! Oh wow, this indicts me severely!
Father, please forgive me for my excuses for not operating in and by Your Kingdom thus effectively preventing others from doing so as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment