“Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” -Matthew 22:37-39Throughout the next couple of chapters we see Jesus continue to teach the people of the temple through his responses to the questions of the Pharisees and priests. We can break down the chapters into several different subsections based upon the particular question that is Jesus is asked or the lesson that He is teaching the crowd. Through this devotional I wanted to focus on a couple sections within these chapters that I found particularly applicable.
The first sections is “The Parable of the Wedding Banquet” located at the beginning of chapter 22. Through this parable, Jesus tells the crowd about the kingdom of heaven in relation to something that they could relate to - a wedding banquet. Jesus uses the image of the banquet to show us that our Father has prepared a magnificent place for us in heaven; yet so many of us, like those who are invited to the banquet, ignore his affection for us. But Jesus continues to teach us that even though we may turn our back on God, He will continue to pursue us because He loves us and wants us to join Him in eternity. Likewise, Jesus continues his illustration to show that Heaven is not a place for those who are “perfect” but for those who are broken like those at the street corner. Jesus tells us that God pursues the broken, and uses them as a vessel for his work. No matter how messed up or hopeless we may feel, God promises us that in Him we are restored and endlessly loved. Lastly, the parable ends with the verse 14: “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” The should be a wakeup call for all believers; although all of us are invited into His kingdom, if we do not truly accept the Lord and do his works, we - like the man who is thrown into the darkness - will not be admitted into His kingdom.
The second section I want to focus on is the section titled “The Greatest Commandment”. Many of us have grown up memorizing Matthew 22:37 for memory verse competitions and Sunday school exams, but what does it really mean to apply this verse in our lives? Jesus tells us that to love the Lord your God is the first and greatest commandment, but how many of us would sacrifice everything we have to live out this life? As Christians we have grown to know that we are unconditionally and completely loved by God, yet we fail to reciprocate the same kind of love. We continuously run away and blame our perfect God when something goes wrong. We should find hope in the promise that the bible tells us in James 1:12: “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” So during this Lenten season we should inspect our lives and really ask ourselves if we are really following this commandment and truly loving our God.
Application:
Jesus continues to teach us about God’s unending love for us daily through the simple blessings that he provides for us, so we must ask ourselves if we are like the man who is thrown into the street, those we ignored the invitation of the king, or like the people on the street who were welcomed into the banquet? Throughout this Lenten season I encourage explore these couple of verses and apply the lessons that Jesus is teaching His people.
- Jamie George
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