Thursday 31st August - Matthew 19
Today’s chapter is Matthew 19
Tom writes:
When I first read about being a Eunuch for the Kingdom I choked on my cornflakes. The thought of Jesus forcing that on me (or anyone else) seemed impossible to digest. Today I ate my breakfast just fine. Here’s what I’ve learned: when we read the bible we are not just to take the verses about divorce or sex or any other commandment, whack them on a handout and try to do whatever they says. That is not an adequate approach - it will likely underplay both the high desires of God and instil a kind of judgementalism towards those who haven’t “followed the rules”. Instead, we read in order to step into the poetry and the history, the law and the prophecy to meet our God and be re-moulded by him. This is what Jesus is getting at with the rich young ruler; he may have been following some of the rules of God’s book, but he hadn’t really met God in the book and so he wasn’t really following the Ruler. If we want to read the bible like Jesus we need to read to discover the One who lies behind it.
When we come to the bible in this way an encounter takes place. In this encounter we become captivated by God himself. We begin to realise that not getting divorced, choosing sexual celibacy and giving away possessions are challenging and beautiful paths to greater intimacy with the joy-filled God who wafts life around like a cheap perfume. When we throw down the thrones in our hearts that we have built for sexual satisfaction, for financial wellbeing, for positions of power we realise that there is a better one to put on the throne, a better Way to find life, a more pleasing allegiance than accumulation, masturbation or manipulation could ever provide. True comradery with God feels like treasure worth 100 sexual encounters or 1000 new toys. We start to live a totally new life from deep convictions that have been rewritten in our souls. It is this “Presence-seeking” approach to the bible, rather than proof-texting and rule-defining, that we are trying to model all throughout this New Testament Journey. It is the approach we see all throughout the New Testament church and is the only one that seems to be worthy of our ridiculously awesome God, who became Emmanuel so that he could rescue us from our sins and lead us into life.
Question for reflection
How has the beauty and wisdom of God rewritten your expression of your sexual desires, and your yearning for accumulation?
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