Today is our final reading before Easter, and much like yesterday’s chapter, today’s is packed with action as Jesus approaches the climactic moment of his earthly ministry. Take time to read through Matthew 27 today and reflect on the questions below:

Questions for Reflection:

1. What scene or character in this chapter do you most identify with? Why?
2. Imagine you were one of Jesus’ disciples, and expected him to be the anointed one who finally overthrew the Roman oppressors and vindicated you and your people. How would this series of events impact you? How might you have made sense of it all?
3. There is a tension that runs throughout Jesus’ ministry between him and his followers: they want him to conquer with power but he typically serves and sacrifices instead – including giving the ultimate sacrifice. That is, Christ’s strength always looked like weakness. How does this tension continue today between Christ and his followers?

Today read Matthew Chapter 26 and reflect on the questions below.

Questions for Reflection:

1. Chapter 26 is packed with action. What portion of it speaks to you most powerfully and why?

2. Which character in this chapter do you personally identify with most? What does it teach you about Christ and about your relationship with God?

Today’s reading is a little longer, and introduces us to Jesus’ teachings about the end of the age – a subject we don’t often hear about during the Easter season, but one that is obviously tied to his resurrection. So, read Matthew Chapter 24 and 25 and reflect on the questions below.

Questions for Reflection

1. How would you sum up Chapter 24? What is the main thing Jesus seems to be trying to say?
2. How would you sum up the teaching of the three parables in Chapter 25?
3. Why do you think Jesus might be discussing this during the week leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection?
4. How do you think this subject of the end of the age might be relevant for us today?

Today read Matthew Chapter 23 and contribute your thoughts to the comments below.

Questions for Reflection

1. What single saying in this long list of “woes” strikes you most or which one best sums up the whole list? Why?
2. If Jesus were to come today and give a modern version of the “woes” for Christians, what kinds of hypocritical behaviors do you think he would be condemning?

Today read Matthew Chapter 22 and Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and contribute your thoughts to the comments below.

Questions for Reflection

1. In this passage Jesus quotes part of the Jewish Shema from Deut 6, the most important prayer practice in Judaism (you can read more about the importance of the Shema here). How do you think reciting Deut 6:4-9 three times daily might affect your thoughts and life positively?
2. How can we know if a religious practice, like reciting the Shema three times daily, is effective for good spiritual formation or if it is merely an empty religious ritual? How are Jesus’ words in Matt 21-22 helpful in making this distinction?
   

Today read Matthew Chapter 21 and Zechariah 9:9-17 and contribute your thoughts to the comments below.

Questions for Reflection

1. Based on the prophecy in Zechariah 9, what would your expectations have been of Jesus if you were a Jew in that crowd?
2. If Jesus is the promised messiah, why do you think he did and said these things in Matt 21? Are his actions and teachings consistent with Zechariah 9?
3. What do you think Jesus is trying to get across in Matt 21?

Today we visit Jesus again in the garden (Matt 26:39-44), only this time we zoom out from his admonition to Peter and view, instead, with the wide lens that gives us a brief peek into his own prayer life:

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. ⁴¹“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

There three things about Jesus’ prayer that I envy: The first is that he is persistent. Three times he prays the same prayer, urgently petitioning God to give him relief. Frankly, I rarely do more than utter a half-hearted plea.

The second is related to the first: I envy Jesus’ passion. I don’t mean merely his urgency – no doubt if I was convinced of my impending death I would be rather urgent as well – rather, I’m talking about the sense that Jesus really seemed to believe in the nearness of his hearer. We speak differently to people we know are listening, and even more differently when we know a person of means is listening. That is the passion I hear in Jesus’ voice. He knew God was listening and could do something about it. On my bad days I think I may have given up on that.

Lastly, I envy Jesus’ submission. As paradoxical as it might seem, I somehow manage to lack persistence and passion, yet overflow abundantly in obstinacy. Like some dumb animal I just can’t see it any way other than my own.

Like most good things, these three traits aren’t skills that can be taught by instruction, they’re character traits that must be caught by practice. Like the father who said to Jesus, “Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!”(Mk 9:24)  we may need to say, “Lord I pray. Help me to learn to pray!”

Prayer Exercise
This prayer exercise is a bit different because it doesn’t actually involve praying. At least, not at first. Your task this week is to find someone older who you believe has a good prayer life and interview them. It doesn’t have to be formal, they don’t even need to know you’re “interviewing” them. Just find a way to ask them some questions about prayer. What have they learned? Why do they pray? What does it help? Think about the questions you really want to know about prayer, and ask their perspective. Then come back here and share what you learned.

Then go pray.

Later in the Sermon on the Mount – after his words about not praying like the hypocrites and even after the famous Lord’s Prayer – Jesus revisits the heart of prayer with these words:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks find; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened (Matt 7:7-8).

Here Jesus teaches another fundamental principle of faith: simply ask. As Ben pointed out yesterday, this stood in sharp contrast to popular opinion that the gods could be constrained by an effluence of fancy words. Some people today apparently still believe that.

But not so with God. No need for coercion (as if we could), dispense with all manipulations, and abandon the art of “getting what you want.” Just ask – then let go of the need to ensure the outcome. In fact, we need to let go entirely of the incessant human compulsion to be in control:

Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or, if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him. So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. for this sums up the law and the prophets (Matt 7:9-12).

In other words, God is good. Wanting to be in control is foolish because what we receive from God is a gift – and God only gives good gifts. The only reason we seek to outmaneuver God in prayer is because we believe we know better. We doubt the goodness of God and seek to hedge our bets by trying to outmaneuver him verbally or convincing ourselves that he prefers our methods and agenda.

But if we pay attention to the end of this section we discover, perhaps surprisingly, that this turns out to be a fundamental principle of all good human relationships as well, because directly after this teaching on prayer Jesus imparts the famous “golden rule.” With each other, as with God, we’re to simply ask for what we want – and let go of the need to control the outcome.

This is the heart of the beloved community: all our relationships depend on prayer, not on our ability to persuade each other, lead each other, teach each other, or even be good to each other. Our community depends on the goodness of God and our surrender to Him in front of each other in prayer.

Prayer Exercise
Today we’re going to try journaling. Get hold of a notebook and pen or pencil and start by reading this passage (Matthew 7:7-12) slowly. Imagine how your life would look if you trusted God completely. Now write. Let your thoughts spill out onto the paper in free-form. Ask questions. Answer them. Express your feelings. Make arguments. Praise.

(This exercise was written by Ben Sternke as part of our prayer journey with Christ Church, Fort Wayne)

Our series on prayer began last week by focusing on the Lord’s Prayer. This week we will be looking at several passages from the gospels where Jesus teaches about prayer. Today we start with a look at Matthew 6:5-8. Take some time to read the passage slowly and carefully, jotting down any thoughts or questions you have. Then continue on to read the rest of this post and do the prayer exercise at the end.

Praying to be seen
Jesus teaches us not to pray “like the hypocrites,” who love to pray in public spaces, not because they love God but because they love the commendation they receive from others when they do so. The word “hypocrite” is simply what we would call an “actor” today: people who are pretending to be someone else. The hypocrites are those who are pretending to pray, but really they are simply seeking the recognition of other people. “They have received their reward,” Jesus says. In other words, their prayers had nothing to do with God, so God stayed out of the way. The purpose of their project was getting the attention of other people. That which they sought, they got: attention from others. It had nothing to do with God, so God didn’t involve himself where he wasn’t invited or wanted.

Instead, Jesus tells us, we are to go to our rooms and close the door and pray to our Father, who sees what is done in secret and will reward us. The point is not that public prayer ought never to occur. This would outlaw any kind of corporate prayer. The point is that we ought to simply and honestly bring our concerns and petitions to God, without giving much thought to how we appear to others. When we pray in this way, Jesus tells us we can expect a reward from our Father.

Praying to accumulate merit
So we are not to pray like hypocrites. Jesus also teaches not to pray like “pagans,” people who “keep on babbling” because they think if they shout loud enough or stay fervent enough that the gods might answer because they are impressed with their desperation. These are people who are worried that unless they continually present the “shopping list” to God, he’s going to forget what their needs are. Jesus tells us quite clearly, “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Ours is not a god who is far-off and uninterested, like a father who’d rather read the newspaper and watch TV than engage with his family. The God we call Father is absolutely good, absolutely able, and absolutely wise to carry out his purposes and provide for our needs.

Prayer exercise
Set aside a good 20-30 minutes for this exercise. In this short passage Jesus is teaching that the basis of our prayer life needs to be a confidence that God is an interested, caring Father. Many of us struggle to really live in the constant awareness that God sees us, knows our needs, and longs to meet them. In order to take this from an abstract concept into a concrete belief, we’re going to riff off Psalm 136.

Psalm 136 starts with a general call to give thanks to the Lord, because his love never quits. It then goes into some very specific events in the life of Israel, always echoed by the refrain, “His love never quits!” You’re going to write your own personal Psalm 136:

• First draw a graph of your life. The horizontal axis is time and the vertical axis is how close you felt to God, or how well you felt your life was going. Think of significant events, both good and bad, and trace a path of your life.
• Now think of the significant moments those points on the graph represent, and begin writing your Psalm, using the words below as the general pattern.

I thank you, High God
Because your love never quits.
Your love has been with me
From the moment of my conception until now.

When I first said ‘yes’ to you as a child, naïve and trusting,
Your love was there.
When I spent years in apathy and wanting to fit in
Your love was there.
When I first gave you my whole life, laid everything down,
Your love was there.

…etc…

And now as you’re bringing me into an unknown future,
Your love is here.

• Simply pray your Psalm back to God and rest in his love.

(This exercise was written by Ben Sternke as part of our prayer journey with Christ Church, Fort Wayne)

The last part of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray is as follows (Mt 6:13):

And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.

These two phrases are asking that we not be put through trials. Which, at first glance, seems kind of selfish doesn’t it? But it is simply a stance of humility.

Of course God doesn’t tempt people. It’s our own selfish desires and the interference of the enemy that tempt us and take us far from God’s grace. What we are praying for here is that we be kept as far from temptation as possible. This is because we recognize that we are weak and not very confident in our ability to resist temptation. We’re all recovering sinners, so much like a recovering alcoholic isn’t wise to wander into bars to “test” her resolve, it’s best for us to stay as far away as possible from the things that draw us into sin. We are voting “no confidence” in our ability to resist temptation, and asking God to keep us away from it.

These petitions remind us that we can’t stand up under very much pressure, that we’re voting “no confidence” in our ability to resist temptation, and that it isn’t a good thing for us to suffer. We also pray for deliverance from the evil one, or “Spare us from bad things that might happen to us”. This is a simple acknowledgement that it isn’t a good thing for us to suffer, and a prayer that we would be help safe from every bad thing that could happen. The trials and sufferings we go through always challenge our faith, and as such they are dangerous! Watch how quickly people start attacking God when they’re going through a rough time. We do well to humbly ask for deliverance from evil.

We get into a lot of trouble when we have confidence in the strength of our own faith (what some might call “faith in faith”). Remember Jesus’ disciples James and John, the “sons of thunder”, the ambitious brothers? They are seeking to advance their own position in the kingdom Jesus is about to set up, so they engage in a little behind-the-scenes political maneuvering, asking if they could be second and third in charge. Jesus asks them, “Can you go through what I’m going to go through?” They answer very confidently: “Yes sir! We can do it! We will ride with you!” Of course they had no idea what they were talking about, and we have to avoid such a cavalier attitude about such things. This prayer helps us.

So fine: it’s good to pray for deliverance from trials. But what about when bad things do happen to us? When we go through trials and are tempted? What are we to make of those situations?

First of all, if we learn to live in this prayer, we will probably begin to recognize how often God does prevent bad things from happening to us, how often he spares us. We’ll start to see how often good things happen to us, and how little we deserve those good things. But when bad things do happen, we can rest assured that evil never has the last say. Every trial or evil that comes our way has a special function in God’s plans. Just like with daily food for daily needs, God also provides daily for the trials and and evil we experience. We may not obtain the answers we want, but we can rest assured that God is good and is working righteousness in us through our weakness, combined with faith.

That was Paul’s astonishing secret: “So, living for Christ, I am delighted when I experience weaknesses, insults, desperate needs, persecutions and difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am powerful” (2 Cor 12:9-10). This kind of experience-based trust is what lies behind many of the Psalms, such as 23, 34, 37, and 91. God does not promise that we will have no trials, but he does promise totally unbroken care, along with adequacy to do whatever is needed. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” 1 Cor 10:13.

We must understand that usually God does protect us from trials, but when he allows them, it’s because he has something better in mind for us than freedom from trials.

Prayer Exercise
Find a time and place where you can spend 20-30 minutes in prayer.

Slowly pray through each phrase of the Lord’s prayer, applying specific points of application in your life after each phrase, according to your understanding of the petition.

After praying “deliver us from the evil one” read through Psalm 91. Spend some time journaling on some of the following questions.

• Does this passage seem unrealistic or overly optimistic?
• Does Psalm 91 seem to reflect your experience? If not, why not?
• What would your life look like if you walked in this kind of confidence all the time?
• Ask God to give you the first step you can take toward living the kind of life outlined in Psalm 91.