Matthew-12:1-21-kjv

For Reading and Meditation:     Psalm 42:1-11

Over the past few days we have seen how the psalmist was caught in the hiatus between the moment when he stopped himself from sliding and the moment when he started to climb again. This, we said, is a very critical time - critical because it makes us inclined to accept easy answers. The perplexity did not end when the...

For Reading and Meditation:     Matthew 12:1-14

We continue reflecting on the thought that Jesus Christ is not like anyone else who has ever lived. Take the claim which He made in our text today: "One greater than the temple is here." Jesus in effect compared Himself with the temple's grandeur and significance as the center of Jewish life and said: "I am greater...

What is weaker than the bruised reed or the smoking flax? A reed that groweth in the fen or marsh, let but the wild duck light upon it, and it snaps; let but the foot of man brush against it, and it is bruised and broken; every wind that flits across the river moves it to and fro. You can conceive of nothing more frail or brittle, or whose existence is more in jeopardy, than a bruised reed. Then look at the smoking flax-what is it? It has a spark within it, it is true, but it is almost...

What a mass of hideous sickness must have thrust itself under the eye of Jesus! Yet we read not that he was disgusted, but patiently waited on every case. What a singular variety of evils must have met at his feet! What sickening ulcers and putrefying sores! Yet he was ready for every new shape of the monster evil, and was victor over it in every form. Let the arrow fly from what quarter it might, he quenched its fiery power. The heat of fever, or the cold of dropsy; the lethargy of palsy,...

In carrying out a great enterprise, individual suffering is very little regarded. Revolutions are not generally effected without the immolation of many lives. Thousands, how many thousands, of human reeds were first bruised, then broken, and thrown to the winds of the Crimea, that Sevastopol might be taken. And can it be that Christ, in going forth to the conquest of the whole world, will not suffer a bruised and bent reed, ready of itself to snap asunder, will not suffer one such to be...

Matthew 12:1-14

The question of proper Sabbath observance arose several times during our Lord's public ministry. The Jewish law made careful provision for keeping of the seventh day of the week - but the Rabbis had added many rules of their own, making the Sabbath really a burdensome day. Jesus did not recognize these added requirements, and hence often displeased the rulers by what they considered violations...

John 10:10

Christ always wants abundant life. He is infinitely patient with the weak - but He wishes that we be strong. He accepts the feeblest service - but He desires us to serve Him with the whole heart. The smallest faith, even like a grain of mustard seed, has power with God and can remove mountains - but God is best pleased when we have a

Matthew 12:1-14

The question of proper Sabbath observance arose several times during our Lord's public ministry. The Jewish law made careful provision for keeping of the seventh day of the week - but the Rabbis had added many rules of their own, making the Sabbath really a burdensome day. Jesus did not recognize these added requirements, and hence often displeased the rulers by what they considered violations...

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart— these, O God, You will not despise. § He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. § Thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would fail...