Matthew

No. 56 Matthew 9:23-28
A synagogue official has come to Jesus saying his daughter has just died, and asked him to come and lay a hand on her. This passage is the arrival at the house, and it opens on a scene that would have been...
No. 180 Matthew 24:9-14
The disciples have asked Jesus when the temple will be destroyed and what the sign of his coming will be. This passage is part of his answer, and it is a description of conditions rather than a timetable.
No. 184 Matthew 5:17-22
Jesus is partway through the Sermon on the Mount, and this passage answers a suspicion the sermon has already raised. Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish but...
No. 208 Matthew 8:26-34
The scene opens in the middle of an action. Jesus and his disciples have just crossed the Sea of Galilee in a storm, and the passage begins with him rebuking the wind and the water into a dead calm. Then the...
No. 304 Matthew 10:1-15
Jesus gathers the twelve, gives them real authority over sickness and unclean spirits, and sends them out on their first mission. The instructions are specific, and two of them cut against every instinct we...
No. 331 Matthew 12:30-37
Jesus has just been accused by the Pharisees of casting out demons by the power of the devil, calling the work of God's Spirit the work of Satan. He gives a severe warning about that particular hardness, the...
No. 333 Matthew 13:10-15
The disciples ask Jesus a fair question: why do you teach the crowds in parables, in riddling little stories, instead of just saying plainly what you mean? His answer is unsettling at first. To you it has been...
No. 342 Matthew 26:57-61
This passage sets the scene for Jesus' trial before the high priest, and two things run alongside each other in it. One is the corruption of the proceeding. The other is a single phrase about Peter that is...
No. 471 Matthew 12:9-14
This is another Sabbath confrontation. A man with a withered hand is in the synagogue, and the religious authorities, hoping to trap Jesus, ask him whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Instead of a...
No. 501 Matthew 21:41-46
Jesus has just told the parable of the wicked tenants, who beat and killed the owner's servants and finally his son, and he has trapped his listeners into pronouncing their own sentence: the owner will destroy...
No. 510 Matthew 1:12-16
This is the tail end of Matthew's genealogy of Jesus, the stretch running from the Babylonian exile down to Joseph, and it is almost entirely a list of names no one recognizes. Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok,...
No. 585 Matthew 15:1-9
The Pharisees come to Jesus with a complaint about ritual: his disciples do not wash their hands in the ceremonial way before eating, breaking the tradition of the elders. Jesus does not defend the...
No. 593 Matthew 24:23-28
Jesus is warning his disciples about the confusion that will come before the end, and specifically about people who will claim to have the Messiah cornered somewhere. If anyone says to you, look, here is the...
No. 601 Matthew 27:38-44
As Jesus hangs on the cross, the mockery rises from every side, from passersby, from the chief priests and scribes, from even the two criminals crucified beside him. The taunts circle one theme: save yourself....
No. 605 Matthew 2:7-12
The wise men have followed a star across a great distance to find a newborn king, and Matthew describes their arrival with care. They come into the house, see the child with Mary his mother, and fall down and...
No. 623 Matthew 19:1-6
The Pharisees come to Jesus with a question about divorce, and the way they frame it gives them away. Is it lawful, they ask, for a man to divorce his wife for any cause? It is a loophole question, a request...
No. 636 Matthew 25:24-30
In the parable of the talents, two servants invest what their master entrusted to them and double it, and are commended. But the parable lingers longest on the third, the one who received a single talent and...
No. 640 Matthew 4:12-16
When Jesus begins his public ministry, Matthew is careful to tell us where he goes, and it is not where we might expect. He leaves Nazareth and settles in Capernaum, up in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,...
No. 645 Matthew 14:22-27
Jesus has sent the disciples ahead in the boat while he goes up the mountain alone to pray, and out on the lake things go badly for them. The wind turns against them, the waves batter the boat, and they are...
No. 700 Matthew 9:1-6
Jesus comes back across the lake to his own town, and some men bring him a paralyzed friend, carried in on his mat. Matthew notes whose faith Jesus responds to: seeing their faith, the faith of the ones who...
No. 720 Matthew 18:1-6
The disciples come to Jesus with a ranking question, the kind that had been simmering among them for a while: who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Instead of naming one of them, Jesus calls...
No. 732 Matthew 2:1-6
Matthew's account of Jesus's birth quickly becomes a story about who goes looking and who does not. Jesus is born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod, and the first to come seeking him are outsiders, wise men...
No. 735 Matthew 26:19-24
The Passover is prepared, and in the evening Jesus reclines at the table with the Twelve, and in the middle of the meal he says something that stops it cold: truly I tell you, one of you will betray me. What...
No. 810 Matthew 19:23-30
Jesus has just watched a rich young man walk away rather than give up his wealth, and told his disciples how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom, harder than a camel through a needle's eye. The...
No. 870 Matthew 27:50-54
Jesus cries out with a loud voice and gives up his spirit. At that moment the veil of the temple is torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quakes, rocks split, tombs open, and the centurion who was keeping...
No. 878 Matthew 15:26-31
A Canaanite woman, a Gentile, has been begging Jesus to heal her tormented daughter. Here comes the hard exchange: Jesus says it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. She answers...
No. 883 Matthew 4:7-11
This is the end of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. The devil has already tried hunger and spectacle; now comes the sweeping offer. He takes Jesus to a very high mountain, shows him all the kingdoms of the...
No. 898 Matthew 5:1-10
Jesus goes up on the mountainside, sits down as a teacher, and opens the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. One after another he calls blessed exactly the people the world does not envy: the poor in...
No. 924 Matthew 5:31-37
Still in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes up two more old teachings and deepens them. On divorce, where the law allowed a man to dismiss his wife with a certificate, Jesus tightens it, saying such casual...
No. 931 Matthew 21:1-5
Jesus is approaching Jerusalem for the last time. Near Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, he sends two disciples ahead with oddly specific instructions: go to the village, find a donkey tied there with her...
No. 958 Matthew 2:13-18
The wise men have gone, and an angel warns Joseph in a dream to take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, because Herod will hunt the child to kill him. They leave by night. When Herod realizes the magi...
No. 986 Matthew 10:21-28
Jesus is preparing his disciples for the cost of following him, and it is bracing. Families will divide, brother handing over brother to death; you will be hated by everyone for my name; but the one who...
No. 1024 Matthew 16:12-16
Jesus has just warned the disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and they finally understand he meant their teaching, not literal bread. Then, in the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus puts...
No. 1059 Matthew 6:14-18
In the Sermon on the Mount, right after the Lord's Prayer, Jesus underlines one petition: if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive, neither...
No. 1067 Matthew 26:14-18
Two very different scenes sit side by side. In the first, Judas, one of the twelve, goes to the chief priests and asks, what will you give me if I hand him over to you? They weigh out thirty pieces of silver,...
No. 1074 Matthew 12:15-21
Jesus, aware that opposition is hardening against him, withdraws quietly, and though great crowds follow and he heals them all, he orders them not to make him known. Matthew explains this reticence by quoting...
No. 1085 Matthew 26:67-75
Two scenes are told together. Inside, they spit in Jesus' face, strike him, and mock him: prophesy, Christ, who hit you? Outside, in the courtyard, Peter is warming himself when a servant girl recognizes him,...
No. 1100 Matthew 15:32-39
A great crowd has been with Jesus for three days in a deserted place, and their food is gone. Jesus calls his disciples and says, I have compassion on the crowd; they have nothing to eat, and I do not want to...
No. 1130 Matthew 17:6-10
On the mountain of the Transfiguration, the disciples have seen Jesus shining, with Moses and Elijah, and heard the Father's voice from the cloud. Overwhelmed, they fall on their faces, terrified. Then Jesus...
No. 1144 Matthew 6:1-13
Jesus teaches how to practice righteousness without turning it into a performance. Do not give to be seen, do not sound a trumpet when you give; give so secretly your left hand does not know what your right is...
No. 1147 Matthew 21:6-10
The disciples have brought the donkey and colt, and Jesus rides into Jerusalem as the crowds erupt. They spread their cloaks and cut branches to cover the road, and go before and behind him shouting, Hosanna...
No. 1150 Matthew 2:19-23
Herod is dead, and an angel tells Joseph in a dream to take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are gone. Joseph obeys, but hearing that Herod's brutal...
No. 1163 Matthew 22:29-33
The Sadducees have tried to trap Jesus with a riddle about the resurrection, and he answers with a sharp diagnosis: you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. In the...
No. 1208 Matthew 22:15-19
The Pharisees plot to trap Jesus in his words and send their disciples along with the Herodians, an odd alliance, with a question about taxes. But first comes the flattery: Teacher, we know you are truthful...
No. 1240 Matthew 22:34-40
A lawyer, testing Jesus, asks which is the greatest commandment in the law. Jesus answers by drawing together two commands. First: love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind;...
No. 1277 Matthew 28:8-15
The women leave the empty tomb with fear and great joy, running to tell the disciples, when Jesus himself meets them. Rejoice, he says; they fall and take hold of his feet and worship. Do not be afraid, he...
No. 1298 Matthew 27:1-5
In the morning the chief priests and elders decide to put Jesus to death and hand him over to Pilate. And then the tragic figure of Judas returns. Seeing that Jesus is condemned, Judas is seized with remorse...
No. 1329 Matthew 18:12-20
Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep: a man with a hundred sheep, losing one, leaves the ninety-nine to go after the one that strayed, and rejoices over finding it more than over the ninety-nine that...
No. 1373 Matthew 19:13-17
People are bringing little children to Jesus so that he might lay his hands on them and pray, and the disciples, thinking this beneath his time, rebuke them and try to turn them away. But Jesus overrules them:...
No. 1399 Matthew 25:1-13
Jesus tells of ten virgins who took their lamps to meet the bridegroom. Five were wise and took extra oil in flasks; five were foolish and took none. The bridegroom was delayed, and they all fell asleep. At...
No. 1497 Matthew 7:21-29
Jesus brings the Sermon on the Mount to its close with a sharp warning and a parable. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, he says, but the one who does the will of my...
No. 1535 Matthew 13:16-23
Jesus explains the parable of the sower, in which the same seed, the word of the kingdom, falls on four kinds of ground. On the path, it is snatched away before it takes root. On rocky ground, it springs up...
No. 1602 Matthew 12:1-8
On the Sabbath, Jesus' disciples, being hungry, pluck heads of grain and eat as they walk through the fields. The Pharisees object that this is unlawful on the Sabbath. Jesus answers with examples: David ate...
No. 1715 Matthew 20:20-24
The mother of James and John comes to Jesus with a request: command that my two sons may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom. It is a bid for the top places, the seats of honor...
No. 1734 Matthew 4:1-6
Led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Jesus fasts forty days and is hungry, and the tempter comes. If you are the Son of God, he says, command these stones to become bread. Jesus answers with Scripture: it is...
No. 1805 Matthew 26:52-56
As Jesus is arrested and one of his followers draws a sword, Jesus stops him: put your sword back in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think, he says, that I could not call...
No. 1821 Matthew 26:35-39
Peter has just boasted that he will die rather than deny his Lord, and all the disciples say the same. Then Jesus comes to Gethsemane, and begins to be deeply sorrowful and troubled. My soul is sorrowful, he...
No. 1836 Matthew 26:40-46
In Gethsemane, Jesus returns from praying to find his disciples asleep. Could you not watch with me one hour? he asks Peter. Watch and pray, that you do not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing,...
No. 1838 Matthew 9:34-38
As Jesus goes through the towns and villages, teaching, preaching the good news, and healing, he looks at the crowds and is moved with compassion, for they are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a...
No. 1851 Matthew 6:19-23
Jesus teaches about treasure and the heart. Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, he says, where moth and rust consume and thieves break in and steal, but lay up treasures in heaven, where they are...
No. 1913 Matthew 28:1-7
At dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary come to the tomb. There is a great earthquake; an angel descends, rolls back the stone, and sits on it, his appearance like lightning....
No. 1978 Matthew 9:12-17
When the religious criticize Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners, he answers with an image: those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. Go and learn what this...
No. 1993 Matthew 24:1-8
As Jesus foretells the destruction of the temple and the troubles of the last days, his disciples ask when these things will be. He warns them not to be led astray by false messiahs, and then speaks a word...
No. 1997 Matthew 25:31-36
Jesus describes the final judgment, when the Son of Man comes in glory and gathers all the nations before him, separating them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. To those on his right he says:...
No. 2001 Matthew 20:7-12
In Jesus' parable, the master of a vineyard hires laborers through the day, some at dawn, some at the eleventh hour with only an hour of daylight left. At evening he pays them all the same wage, a denarius,...
No. 2015 Matthew 27:45-49
As Jesus hangs on the cross, darkness covers the land from the sixth hour to the ninth. And at the ninth hour Jesus cries out with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani, which means, My God, my God, why...
No. 2043 Matthew 11:1-6
John the Baptist, who had boldly announced Jesus as the coming one, is now in prison, and doubt creeps in. He sends his disciples to ask Jesus a startling question: are you the one who is to come, or should we...
No. 2074 Matthew 3:13-17
Jesus comes from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. John hesitates, feeling the reversal of it: I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me? But Jesus insists, to fulfill all righteousness, and...
No. 2098 Matthew 26:62-66
At his trial before the high priest, Jesus faces a barrage of false testimony against him. The high priest demands, have you no answer? What is this these testify against you? But Jesus stayed silent. He does...
No. 2153 Matthew 8:1-6
As Jesus comes down from the mountain, a leper approaches him, one of the outcasts whom the law and society kept at a distance, untouchable, shunned. He kneels before Jesus and says, Lord, if you are willing,...
No. 2155 Matthew 15:10-14
Jesus calls the crowd to hear and understand a truth that overturns a common assumption about purity. It is not what enters the mouth that defiles a person, he says, but what comes out of the mouth; this...
No. 2162 Matthew 11:25-30
Jesus gives one of the most tender invitations in all of Scripture. Come to me, he says, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am...
No. 2177 Matthew 22:20-28
When his opponents try to trap Jesus with a question about paying taxes to Caesar, he asks for a coin and inquires whose image and inscription it bears. Caesar's, they answer. Then Jesus gives his famous...
No. 2192 Matthew 12:22-29
When Jesus heals a man who was blind and mute by casting out the demon that afflicted him, the Pharisees, unable to deny the deliverance, accuse him of casting out demons by the power of the prince of demons....
No. 2208 Matthew 17:17-21
When the disciples fail to cast a demon out of a suffering boy, Jesus does it, and afterward they ask him privately why they could not. He answers, because of your little faith. And then he says something that...
No. 2237 Matthew 26:25-29
At the Last Supper, as they are eating, Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and gives it to his disciples, saying, take, eat; this is my body. Then he takes the cup, gives thanks, and gives it to them,...
No. 2238 Matthew 26:30-34
On the way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus tells his disciples that they will all fall away that night, for it is written that the shepherd will be struck and the sheep scattered. But he adds a word of grace:...
No. 2272 Matthew 16:7-11
When Jesus warns his disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees, they mistake his meaning, worrying among themselves that they had brought no bread. Jesus perceives their anxiety and rebukes their little...
No. 2283 Matthew 21:11-16
After Jesus cleanses the temple, driving out the buyers and sellers and declaring, my house shall be called a house of prayer, he heals the blind and lame who come to him there. And the children in the temple...
No. 2346 Matthew 20:25-34
In Matthew, Jesus has just overturned the disciples' idea of greatness. The rulers of the nations lord it over people, but among his followers the great one is the servant, and the Son of Man himself came not...
No. 2363 Matthew 27:24-31
Matthew brings us to Pilate's judgment seat. Seeing that he is getting nowhere and a riot is starting, Pilate takes water, washes his hands before the crowd, and declares himself innocent of this righteous...
No. 2368 Matthew 21:28-32
Jesus sets a short parable before the religious leaders. A father asks two sons to work in the vineyard. The first says no, then thinks better of it and goes. The second says yes, sir, and never goes. Which...
No. 2374 Matthew 10:34-42
Jesus tells the disciples he did not come to bring peace but a sword, and that his coming will set members of a household at odds, a man's foes becoming those of his own family. Whoever loves father or son...
No. 2397 Matthew 9:7-11
Jesus is passing by when he sees Matthew at the tax collection booth, a man despised as a collaborator who grew rich off his own people. Two words: follow me. Matthew gets up and goes. Soon Jesus is at table...
No. 2408 Matthew 7:13-20
Near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus sets out two gates and two ways: a wide road, easy and crowded, that ends in destruction, and a narrow one, harder to find, that leads to life. Then he warns...
No. 2471 Matthew 13:1-9
Jesus sits in a boat off the shore and tells the crowd a parable everyone farming that hillside would recognize. A sower scatters seed, and it falls on four kinds of ground: the hard path, where birds snatch...
No. 2511 Matthew 27:6-10
Judas has thrown the thirty pieces of silver back into the temple, and the chief priests face a small legal problem. It is not lawful, they decide, to put blood money into the treasury. So they scruple...
No. 2558 Matthew 19:7-12
Pressed about divorce, Jesus points past the law to the design. The Pharisees ask why Moses commanded a certificate of divorce, and Jesus answers that Moses permitted it because of the hardness of your hearts,...
No. 2571 Matthew 20:1-6
Jesus tells of a landowner hiring workers for his vineyard. He goes out early and hires a crew for a day's wage, then goes out again at nine, at noon, at three, and even at five in the afternoon, the eleventh...
No. 2590 Matthew 19:18-22
A rich young man asks Jesus what he must do to have eternal life, and when Jesus lists the commandments, he can say honestly that he has kept them all from his youth. What do I still lack? he asks. Jesus,...
No. 2658 Matthew 24:45-51
Jesus contrasts two servants left in charge while the master is away. The faithful and wise servant keeps doing his job, feeding the household on time, and is blessed when the master returns to find him at it....
No. 2679 Matthew 10:16-20
Jesus is sending the Twelve out on their first mission, and he does not sweeten the assignment. "I send you out as sheep among wolves." Be wise as serpents, harmless as doves. Expect councils, floggings,...
No. 2724 Matthew 24:15-22
Jesus is describing the terror that will come on Jerusalem and the last days. When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, flee to the mountains and do not stop for your coat; do not...
No. 2728 Matthew 27:19-23
Jesus stands before Pilate, and the truth of his innocence keeps pressing in from every side. Pilate's own wife sends an urgent message from the judgment seat: have nothing to do with that righteous man, I...
No. 2799 Matthew 1:17-25
After tracing the generations in three sets of fourteen, Matthew tells the nativity from Joseph's side. Mary is found with child before they come together, and Joseph, a righteous man unwilling to expose her...
No. 2807 Matthew 24:29-35
Jesus describes his return in cosmic terms: after the suffering of those days, the sun darkened, the moon unlit, the stars falling, the powers of heaven shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man appears, and he...
No. 2865 Matthew 25:19-23
In the parable of the talents, the master returns after a long time to settle accounts. The servant given five talents brings five more; the one given two brings two more. And each hears exactly the same...
No. 2926 Matthew 13:44-51
Jesus gives three quick pictures of the kingdom. It is like treasure hidden in a field: a man finds it and, in his joy, sells everything he has to buy that field. It is like a merchant hunting fine pearls who...
No. 2951 Matthew 18:21-27
Peter asks how many times he must forgive a brother who sins against him, up to seven times? It sounds generous. Jesus explodes it: not seven times, but seventy times seven, forgiveness beyond counting. Then...
No. 2968 Matthew 27:62-66
The day after Jesus dies, the chief priests and Pharisees go to Pilate. We remember, they say, that this deceiver claimed he would rise after three days. Secure the tomb until the third day, lest his disciples...
No. 2975 Matthew 26:1-5
Jesus tells his disciples plainly that in two days the Passover will come, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified. Meanwhile the chief priests and elders gather in the palace of Caiaphas the...
No. 2977 Matthew 12:38-42
Some scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign. He calls them an evil and adulterous generation and says no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah: as Jonah was three days in the belly of the fish, so...
No. 2986 Matthew 18:7-11
Jesus speaks with startling seriousness. Woe to the world for its temptations to sin, and woe to the one through whom they come. If your hand or foot or eye causes you to stumble, he says, cut it off, tear it...
No. 2991 Matthew 21:23-27
As Jesus teaches in the temple, the chief priests and elders confront him: by what authority do you do these things, and who gave you this authority? Jesus answers with a question of his own. John's baptism,...
No. 3033 Matthew 16:17-21
After Peter confesses him as the Christ, Jesus blesses him: flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades...
No. 3166 Matthew 5:43-48
You have heard it said, Jesus tells the crowd, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who...
No. 3168 Matthew 24:36-44
No one knows the day or hour of his coming, Jesus says, not even the angels of heaven, but only the Father. As in the days of Noah, people were eating and drinking, marrying, entirely unaware, until the flood...
No. 3242 Matthew 13:34-43
Jesus spoke to the crowds only in parables, and then privately explained the parable of the weeds. The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the...
No. 3246 Matthew 22:8-14
In the parable of the wedding feast, the king's first guests prove unworthy, so he sends his servants to the streets to invite anyone at all, both bad and good, until the hall is full. But when the king comes...
No. 3264 Matthew 4:17-25
Jesus begins to preach, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and then walks by the Sea of Galilee and calls four fishermen. To Peter and Andrew he says, come after me, and I will make you fishers for...
No. 3268 Matthew 13:52-58
Jesus says every scribe trained for the kingdom is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old. Then he comes to his hometown of Nazareth and teaches in the synagogue, and the people...
No. 3351 Matthew 23:23-28
Jesus pronounces woes on a religion that is all surface. The scribes and Pharisees meticulously tithe their garden herbs, mint and dill and cumin, while neglecting the weightier matters of the law: justice,...
No. 3357 Matthew 27:32-37
The account of the crucifixion is told with stark restraint. A stranger, Simon of Cyrene, is pressed into carrying the cross. The wine mixed with gall is offered and refused. The soldiers gamble for his...
No. 3372 Matthew 11:16-24
Jesus compares his generation to sulky children who will not play: they rejected John the Baptist for his austerity, calling him demon-possessed, and rejected Jesus for his freedom, calling him a glutton and a...
No. 3378 Matthew 5:11-16
Jesus tells his followers what they are: you are the salt of the earth, and you are the light of the world. Salt that loses its savor is good for nothing; a lamp is not meant to be hidden under a basket but...
No. 3382 Matthew 14:28-36
Peter does a bold thing: at Jesus' word he steps out of the boat and walks on the water toward him. But then he sees the wind, takes his eyes off Jesus, and begins to sink, crying out, Lord, save me. And...
No. 3416 Matthew 9:18-22
Two desperate people reach out to Jesus in faith. A synagogue ruler kneels and asks him to come and raise his daughter, who has just died, believing Jesus' touch can restore even the dead. And on the way, a...
No. 3450 Matthew 5:38-42
Jesus overturns the old measured retaliation, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, with something startling: do not resist the one who is evil; if he strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other...
No. 3453 Matthew 16:22-28
Right after confessing Jesus as the Christ, Peter stumbles badly. When Jesus foretells his suffering and death, Peter takes him aside and rebukes him: far be it from you, Lord; this shall never happen to you....
No. 3496 Matthew 27:11-18
Jesus stands before Pilate, and what stands out is his silence. Accused by the chief priests and elders of many things, he answers nothing, not even a single word, so that the governor is greatly amazed. Jesus...
No. 3504 Matthew 16:1-6
The religious leaders demand a sign from heaven, though Jesus had been doing signs all along, healing, feeding, casting out demons. Jesus exposes the real problem: they could read the evening and morning sky...
No. 3534 Matthew 25:37-46
In this scene of final judgment, the King identifies himself with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner: as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did...
No. 3542 Matthew 18:28-35
This is the sting of Jesus' parable. A servant who has just been forgiven an enormous, unpayable debt by his master turns around and violently seizes a fellow servant who owes him a trifling sum, refusing the...
No. 3546 Matthew 3:1-6
John the Baptist appears in the wilderness with a stark message: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He is the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the...
No. 3558 Matthew 15:15-20
Jesus corrects a deep misunderstanding about what makes a person unclean. It is not what goes into the mouth, food, unwashed hands, external things, that defiles, but what comes out of the heart. For out of...
No. 3566 Matthew 13:24-28
Jesus tells of a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while everyone slept, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the servants later discover the weeds and ask, did you not...
No. 3573 Matthew 23:13-22
Jesus pronounces woes on religious leaders who are blind guides, and one folly he exposes is their twisted system of oaths. They taught that swearing by the temple meant nothing, but swearing by the gold of...
No. 3607 Matthew 1:1-11
Matthew opens his Gospel with the genealogy of Jesus, tracing his descent from Abraham, through David, to the exile. It might seem a dry list of names, but there are surprises woven into it. Matthew includes...
No. 3623 Matthew 12:43-50
While Jesus teaches, he is told his mother and brothers are outside wanting to speak to him, and he says something startling: who is my mother, and who are my brothers? Then, gesturing to his disciples, he...
No. 3649 Matthew 3:7-12
John the Baptist confronts the self-assured religious leaders with startling bluntness: brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. He refuses to let them...
No. 3656 Matthew 7:6-12
Jesus gives a threefold encouragement to persistent prayer: ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. God invites us to keep asking, seeking, and knocking,...
No. 3671 Matthew 10:29-33
Jesus grounds fearlessness in the Father's intimate care: are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father. If God is attentive even to the fall of a single...
No. 3699 Matthew 22:41-46
Jesus turns the questioning on the Pharisees with a puzzle from Scripture. Whose son is the Christ? They answer, correctly, the son of David. But then Jesus quotes David himself, in the psalm, calling the...
No. 3708 Matthew 8:14-18
Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law of a fever with a touch, and she rises and begins to serve him, a small picture of the right response to being healed, to get up and serve. And that evening, they bring him...
No. 3738 Matthew 23:1-12
Jesus warns against the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who say but do not do, who lay heavy burdens on others but will not lift a finger to help, and who love the trappings of honor, the places of honor at...
No. 3752 Matthew 21:17-22
Hungry, Jesus comes to a fig tree full of leaves but bearing no fruit, and it withers at his word. The leaves promised fruit that was not there, a picture of the appearance of life without its reality. When...
No. 3860 Matthew 26:47-51
Judas leads the armed crowd to Jesus and betrays him with the agreed sign, a kiss, the gesture of friendship turned into the tool of betrayal. And Jesus, receiving that traitor's kiss, says something...
No. 3882 Matthew 17:1-5
On a high mountain, Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John; his face shines like the sun and his clothes become white as light, and Moses and Elijah appear, talking with him. Peter, overwhelmed,...
No. 3888 Matthew 14:9-13
Herod had made a rash oath before his dinner guests, and now, though grieved, he will not go back on it; caught between his conscience and his pride before those at the table, he chooses to save face and...
No. 3894 Matthew 5:23-30
Jesus gives a striking instruction about worship: if you are bringing your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there, go and be reconciled to your...
No. 3895 Matthew 28:16-20
On a mountain in Galilee, the risen Jesus gives his disciples their marching orders, words that would send the church into all the world. He begins with the ground of it all: all authority in heaven and on...
No. 3908 Matthew 26:6-13
At a meal in Bethany, a woman comes to Jesus with a jar of very costly ointment and pours it over his head, an act of lavish, unrestrained devotion. The disciples are indignant: why this waste? they ask; it...
No. 3933 Matthew 23:29-39
Jesus pronounces woes on the religious leaders who honor the dead prophets their fathers killed, while preparing to reject and kill the very One the prophets pointed to. But the passage ends not in anger but...
No. 3986 Matthew 22:1-7
Jesus tells of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who had been invited. But they would not come. Even when he sent again, urging them that everything was...
No. 4046 Matthew 27:55-61
As Jesus dies and is buried, his enemies have had their way, and most of his disciples have fled. But this passage lingers on those who stayed. Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee stood watching...
No. 4051 Matthew 9:29-33
Two blind men come to Jesus for healing, and before he touches their eyes, Jesus says something significant: according to your faith be it done to you. And their eyes are opened. Jesus links their healing to...
No. 4055 Matthew 14:1-8
John the Baptist had done a dangerous thing: he had told King Herod plainly that his marriage to Herodias, his brother's wife, was not lawful. It was not John's business to flatter those in power or to keep...
No. 4068 Matthew 7:1-5
Jesus gives a memorable warning against a hypocritical, fault-finding spirit: do not judge, or you too will be judged, for with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. And he sharpens it with a vivid...
No. 4075 Matthew 8:7-13
A Roman centurion comes to Jesus on behalf of his sick servant, and when Jesus offers to come and heal him, the centurion says something remarkable: Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but...
No. 4095 Matthew 8:19-25
Two would-be followers approach Jesus, and to each he speaks a searching word about what following him really means. To an eager scribe who declares he will follow anywhere, Jesus does not offer comfort but...
No. 4126 Matthew 14:14-21
Seeing a great, hungry crowd in a deserted place as evening comes, the disciples urge Jesus to send them away to buy food. But Jesus gives them a startling command: they need not go away; you give them...
No. 4145 Matthew 11:7-15
Jesus praises John the Baptist in glowing terms: among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. John was the culmination of all the prophets, the forerunner who prepared the...
No. 4150 Matthew 13:29-33
Jesus gives two short parables to describe how God's kingdom grows. It is like a mustard seed, he says, a very small seed, which a man plants, and which grows into a tree so large that birds nest in its...
No. 4158 Matthew 21:33-40
Jesus tells of a landowner who planted a vineyard, equipped it carefully, and leased it to tenants before going away. At harvest time he sent servants to collect his share of the fruit, but the tenants beat,...
No. 4179 Matthew 15:21-25
A Canaanite woman, an outsider, comes to Jesus crying out for mercy for her demon-tormented daughter. And Jesus, at first, does not answer her a word. His disciples want her sent away. He tells her he was sent...
No. 4210 Matthew 17:22-27
When the collectors of the temple tax ask whether Jesus pays it, a small scene unfolds that reveals something of his heart. Jesus points out to Peter that kings collect taxes from strangers, not from their own...
No. 4221 Matthew 17:11-16
As Jesus comes down from the mountain, a desperate father meets him. He has a suffering son, tormented and often thrown into fire and water by his affliction, and he had brought the boy to Jesus' disciples for...
No. 4264 Matthew 20:13-19
At the end of the parable of the vineyard workers, the owner responds to those who grumbled that latecomers received the same wage as those who had worked all day. Friend, he says, I am doing you no wrong; did...
No. 4271 Matthew 6:24-34
Jesus addresses the anxiety that gnaws at us over the basics of life, what we will eat, drink, and wear. He points to the birds, fed by the heavenly Father though they neither sow nor reap, and to the lilies,...
No. 4319 Matthew 25:14-18
In the parable of the talents, a man going on a journey entrusts his property to his servants, giving to each according to his ability: to one five talents, to another two, to another one. The first two...