Blessed: 5 Days With the Sermon on the MountSample

Matthew’s Purposeful Pen

If someone asked you to describe Jesus’ ministry on earth in a single sentence, what words would you use? A single sentence from the book of Matthew answers this very question. Jesus taught in the synagogues, preached the good news of the Kingdom, and healed many people in the towns and villages in and around Galilee. Matthew wants us to know lots of things about Jesus’ ministry, but he really wants us to know these three things. How do we know this? Because verses 4:23 and 9:35 serve as repetitive bookends; each declares what Jesus did on either side of Matthew, showing us what He did. Matthew wants us to experience Jesus.

No matter why you’re here, you’re in the right place, for we can’t linger in the presence of Jesus and not be changed. The Son of God.

The “late in time” Messiah for whom Israel had long been waiting had finally come! It would stand to strategic reason, even basic commonsense, that Jesus would leak the breaking news of His Kingdom in the Jerusalem courts of the religious elite. Or perhaps He might seek an audience with the wealthy minority, or the Roman emperors.

But Jesus is no politician. His Kingdom is not of this world.

How unconventional of Jesus to deliver His otherworldly ethic—the truths about how we are to live and who we can now be as new people—on the side of a hill where the non-influential and the downtrodden gather. When we’d expect Him to go where the power is, He goes to where the need is. It is here we discover that the good news of the Gospel will not go from the top down but from the bottom up, or perhaps I should say bottom out to the ends of the earth.

What a gift Matthew has given us! A curated collection of Jesus’ words and deeds; a peek into the struggles of His primary followers; a detailed record of what He deemed most important about how we are to live the precious lives we’ve been given; a collection of specific people He cleansed, touched, healed, challenged, called, and poured compassion on. It is clear Matthew has not left us haphazard memories from his morning journal; rather his pen is purposeful and passionate.

What is your need? What are your longings? Carry them into the presence of Jesus and hear what He has to say.

Do not despair. It is precisely to you He has come.