Matthew 23: the Messiah of the Jews is rejected

Jewish leaders rejected the Messiah. He was expected to be received as in Psalm 118 (as in verse 39):

"Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!"

In fact, he was so received by the people of Jerusalem (children included), but he was rejected by the leaders. We read (MSG):

37-39 “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God’s news! How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me. And now you’re so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to say? Only this: I’m out of here soon. The next time you see me you’ll say, ‘Oh, God has blessed him! He’s come, bringing God’s rule!’”

Matthew 23 explain the psychology of the Jewish leaders, high priest included. They enjoyed to be seen as "men of God", but they didn't love the Word. They oppressed the people by many men made rules. We live in a world where many Christian churches behave exactly like the Jewish leaders behaved. Should we bow to religious leaders? We read:

8-10 “Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.

A Christian is not be put on a pedestal like the Jewish leaders, but why does that happen on Christian churches?
I daresay because men prefer to get simple (and silly) explanations or simple commands.
The Bible is the great defense to any manipulation, but do people read their Bibles?

Matthew 22: Jesus answer questions from his enemies

Jesus is in Jerusalem. Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians are against Jesus. They are enemies among themselves but they found an enemy in common: Jesus. These three groups of people ask questions to Jesus in order to test him and put him in a difficult situation. For instance: what is the position of Jesus about Roman taxes: pro or against? Some Jews hate Rome; and they are against Roman taxes. However if Jesus were against  Roman taxes he becomes against Rome and Caesar. Here is a difficult question in order to trap Jesus. We read:

18-19 Jesus knew they were up to no good. He said, “Why are you playing these games with me? Why are you trying to trap me? Do you have a coin? Let me see it.” They handed him a silver piece.
20 “This engraving—who does it look like? And whose name is on it?”
21 They said, “Caesar.”
“Then give Caesar what is his, and give God what is his.”  

Jesus didn't preach any revolt against the system, against Rome. In a way, he said to submit to Rome. He saw many ways to submit to the Lord and to Rome because most of time there's no conflict between Rome and the Lord even though Rome is a kingdom of this world and essentially evil. Christian pay the taxes and this is not evil (by contrary, it is good). Jesus is the king of the kingdom of heaven, but he came not to destroy the kingdom of this world, but to destroy sin and death. I am a sinner and my destine is the death. Jesus came to free me. Peter, John, etc. were Jews that ,very likely, had Rome as an enemy, but their great enemy was sin and death.

It is very easy to think that a kingdom comes when it win battles. Can we imagine a kingdom that wins by being submissive? Jesus way is very different, it is divine.

Matthew 21: Is Jesus the Messiah for Jerusalem people?

In Matthew 21 Jesus arrives in Jerusalem from Galilee. He is welcomed by the people of Jerusalem as the Messiah, the son of David:

6-9 The disciples went and did exactly what Jesus told them to do. They led the donkey and colt out, laid some of their clothes on them, and Jesus mounted. Nearly all the people in the crowd threw their garments down on the road, giving him a royal welcome. Others cut branches from the trees and threw them down as a welcome mat. Crowds went ahead and crowds followed, all of them calling out, “Hosanna to David’s son!” “Blessed is he who comes in God’s name!” “Hosanna in highest heaven!”

However, the Jewish leaders had another idea as for example: Jesus is a mere human - so it is an absurd that he is so welcomed in Jerusalem, or worse, he got power from Satan when performing miracles. Jesus said to them that they pretended to be doing the will of the Lord using just their mouth:


31-32 “Which of the two sons did what the father asked?”
They said, “The first.”
Jesus said, “Yes, and I tell you that crooks and whores are going to precede you into God’s kingdom. John came to you showing you the right road. You turned up your noses at him, but the crooks and whores believed him. Even when you saw their changed lives, you didn’t care enough to change and believe him.

In Matthew 21, we see Jesus as the Messiah to the crowd but not to the Jewish leaders. To welcome Jesus is to welcome the kingdom of heaven, while rejecting him is to reject the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 20: great in the kingdom of heaven

The mother of James and John requested Jesus that their sons would be great in the kingdom of heaven. We read:

24-28 When the ten others heard about this, they lost their tempers, thoroughly disgusted with the two brothers. So Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, “You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.”

The great man in our world demands to be served, but in the kingdom of heaven, the greater a guy is, the more he serves. Jesus himself is the one who serves. He gave away his life in exchange of my life. If my king is the one who serves, how would dare I not to serve? Christ shows to serve and to suffer for the kingdom.

Matthew 19: eternal life and kingdom of heaven

Who has eternal life? Those who belong to the kingdom of heaven, right?! Who is saved in Christian terms? Those who surrender their life to Jesus. Where in the Bible may we put all this together? In Matthew 19, we see all this together.
We read:

16 Another day, a man stopped Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

A man (a rich guy) asks what he has to do to get eternal life, however here, in Matthew 19, is the first occurrence of "eternal life" of Matthew gospel. The enphasis on previous chapters has been on the kingdom of heaven. It is not explained how this guy came up with this question. I would expect much more a question like:

“Teacher, what good thing must I do to enter in the kingdom of heaven?”

However, after Jesus said that the rich guy should sell everything, he left Jesus. We read:

23-24 As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God’s kingdom? Let me tell you, it’s easier to gallop a camel through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter God’s kingdom.”
25 The disciples were staggered. “Then who has any chance at all?”
26 Jesus looked hard at them and said, “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.”

Jesus commented that it was difficult for the rich guy to enter God's kingdom, however the question was about "eternal life". We can understand that "eternal life" and "enter in God's kingdom" are close related. Every Christian who is saved, believes they are on the way to eternal life because they trust what the Lord has done to them. In this same chapter, we understand that Jesus thinks of himself as much more important than any other disciples' family. Every Christian surrenders his life to Jesus as in:

28-30 Jesus replied, “Yes, you have followed me. In the re-creation of the world, when the Son of Man will rule gloriously, you who have followed me will also rule, starting with the twelve tribes of Israel. And not only you, but anyone who sacrifices home, family, fields — whatever — because of me will get it all back a hundred times over, not to mention the considerable bonus of eternal life. This is the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.”

Sadly for the rich guy, he couldn't give up everything to follow Jesus.

Matthew 18: How to enter in the kingdom of heaven?

We don't read so much things like: "accept Jesus" or "when were you converted?" in the gospels and even in the roman catholic church. However, we read in MSG:

2-5 For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me.


The values of this world are the opposite of the values in the kingdom: the king of this world is the one who is served but the King in the kingdom of heaven is the one who not only serves, but also give his life as food for their servants.  Therefore, to enter in the kingdom is necessary a conversion, a change in priorities. This change is not easy for any human being, but it is the work of the Spirit who makes one person start over like children: everything has to be learned again.

To learn means to recognize errors and improve. A Christian is not someone perfect, but a one who walks with Christ, who learns with Jesus. As he is not perfect, the kingdom of heaven, the church must help him, forgive him and teach him. We read:

15-17 “If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.

It is really strange and marvelous that the kingdom of heaven is made of sinners who are constantly repenting.

Matthew 17: This is my Son

 Peter declared that Jesus is the Son of God, but now the Father declares that Jesus is his son. In a private moment with only three disciples: Peter , John and James, Jesus shines and a voice is heard:

5 While he was going on like this, babbling, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them, and sounding from deep in the cloud a voice: “This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of my delight. Listen to him.”

Who in the Old Testament was called the Son of God? The nation of Israel, but there was not a single person who was called the Son of God. To the first Christians, the statement: "Jesus, the Messiah, Son of God" was very important, so important that the fish was the symbol of the first Christians due to ICTUS ( (Ι) = Iesus (Jesus), (Χ) = Christos (Christ), (Θ) = Theos (God), (Υ) = Yios (Son), (Σ) = Soter (Savior)).

Jesus is the son loved by the Lord in whom the Lord delights. Certainly Jesus was not a spoiled child. Soon after this statement we read:

22-23 As they were regrouping in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him—and three days later he will be raised alive.” The disciples felt scared to death.

Jesus, the Messiah, Son of God knew he was to suffer in the cross, but he also knew he would defeat death.