Month: March 2023

This parable is about forgiveness 

But let’s first understand a couple of things 

First off what is a parable ?

The definition of the word “parable” is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.

490 times the Bible tells us we should forgive people 

But why is it so important? Why does the Bible tell us to forgive? 

Well if we can’t forgive someone, then we begin to harbor feelings of hate, anger, dislike, and resentment towards the person we can’t forgive. 

Jesus forgave the people who tortured and crucified him , are we any better than Jesus? No, of course not. We are not even 1% as good as he is. So if he can forgive those people who literally killed him we need to forgive people who hurt our feelings.

Now the king forgave the debt of the servant who owed him millions of dollars yet when that same servant went to the man who owed him a few thousand he wouldn’t forgive his debt and sent him to prison until the whole amount was payed off 

This man was a hypocrite he begged the king to let him pay it off instead of selling his wife and children yet when someone owed him money and begged him to for time he denied him and sent him to prison . 

We all do this and not one of yous can tell me otherwise . We expect to be forgiven from our family , friends and especially from God . Yet we won’t forgive the person who called us a bad word or was a jerk to us.

In Matthew 18 verses 32-34 it says 

“Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.”

‭‭‬‬

If you haven’t caught on God is the king we are the servant he has forgiven and the other servant is the people we can not forgive. 

What anyone says or does to us is grains of sand compared to the things we do to God daily because Since every sin we commit is committed against God, those who are forgiven by Him are forgiven for every sin, every wrong and wicked choice, we ever do over the course of our lifetimes. Nobody will ever sin against us anywhere near to the amount we have sinned against God. 

We break Gods commandments every day and yet when we ask for forgiveness he always forgives us , we break his trust, his heart, his word ,and his law every second of every day of our entire lives yet he will always forgive us, but we can hold a grudge for years and not forgive a person over a small fight with mean words. 

We owe God so much the least we can do is forgive our brothers and sisters for being mean . Even as Jesus was dying on the cross he asked God to forgive the people who crucified him. So again why are we any better than Jesus and won’t forgive people for petty things?

In verses 34 and 35 it says 

“Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.””

Jesus is telling us that is we don’t truly forgive others from our heart not just saying we forgive them but really forgiving them then in the end God will punish us. 

Verse 24 says 

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”

Jesus is telling his disciples if you want to follow him you must give up your own way take up your cross and follow him. Now what does that mean. It meant that they would have to give up the lives they lived  and they ways they lived if they ate with their left hand they needed to stop and do it the way Christ did they needed to give up everything from the way they walked to their family’s and dreams to sacrifice everything they had and their selves  to follow Christ with no regrets and to take up their cross  and to take up their cross now  in the first century, the cross meant one thing and one thing only: death by crucifixion. To carry a cross was to face the most painful and humiliating means of death human beings could develop. So they must be willing to through pain humility and suffering in order to follow Christ . 

Verse 25 says 

“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”

‭‭ 

If you hang on to your life in the world you begin to desire worldly things and become to love the world and when you love the world and the life you made in it you loose sight of the blessings God has gave you 

When you desire worldly items you have no interest in the holy items that God can bless you with so you will loose your life to the world . But if you give you your worldly life and devote your self to God and Holy things he can offer than you will find that you have no need or desire for worldly things and your life will be saved from the world . 

Verse 26 says 

“And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”

When you desire worldly things you become of the world and when you become of the world it’s more likely you will loose your soul to the worldly things the devil wants us to desire 

Let’s say you have everything you could ever want in the world . You have money, cars, jewelry, mansions, and more . You will loose sight of God and the heavenly things he can offer you because you only desire worldly temporary things this is how you lose your soul to the world . Now if you have everything you ever wanted but you loose your relationship with God is it worth it? You may have everything you want but do you have the 1 thing you really need? 

Verse 27 says 

“For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds.”

‭‭

Jesus is talking about the 2nd coming which is talked about in revelation. 

Then he will come and judge people according to their deeds when he says this it’s a big thing because we can say and confess with our mouths every day that we are Christians and we believe in God and that Jesus died for us, but if we have no good deeds to show  it’s just empty air.

An example of a good deed is when you give whole heartedly to someone in need and expect nothing in return, or when you do what is right by God and not sin and expect no blessings in return. These are good deeds. Now if you do what is wrong in the eyes of God but confess with your mouth that you believe Jesus is our one and only savior , this is not a good deed its an empty word. Jesus says in Matthew Chapter 15 Verse 8 ” These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

Jesus is telling us right here that is you confess you believe in him it wont get you anywhere if your heart is far from him and you practice bad deeds.

“On their arrival in Capernaum, the collectors of the Temple tax came to Peter and asked him, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the Temple tax?” Matthew‬ ‭17‬:‭24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

First off we need to know who is asking for the temple tax. This temple tax was not the civil tax that the Romans collected each year for the government. The people who were collecting this temple tax was Jews and the reason is because they need to maintain upkeep and service for the temple or tent of the meetings

It tells us that here in Exodus Chapter 30 verses 12-16 

12 “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them. 13 Each one who crosses over to those already counted is to give a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the Lord. 14 All who cross over, those twenty years old or more, are to give an offering to the Lord. 15 The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the Lord to atone for your lives. 16 Receive the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the tent of meeting It will be a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord, making atonement for your lives.”

So this is why they asked Peter if his teacher  who is Jesus was going to pay the temple tax .  

““Yes, he does,” Peter replied. Then he went into the house. But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, “What do you think, Peter? Do kings tax their own people or the people they have conquered?” Matthew‬ ‭17‬:‭25‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus asks peter a question but what does he mean by this? I’ll break it down as simple as I can . If you own a business would you charge your family and friends entry fees? Or would you charge the people whom you know not of? The answer is pretty simple you wouldn’t charge the people you know but you would charge strangers . 

““They tax the people they have conquered,” Peter replied. “Well, then,” Jesus said, “the citizens are free!” Matthew‬ ‭17‬:‭26‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Here is a simple verse Peter answers Jesus saying they tax the people they have conquered and Jesus says “the citizens are free” If we go back to my anecdote  the answer is you would charge the strangers and the friends and family would be free. 

“However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.” Matthew‬ ‭17‬:‭27‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Although there is no reason for Jesus to pay these fees since he is the Son of God ,he still pays this fee because he does not want to offend anyone. At this time and through out all of Jesus’s ministry people was looking for anything he did wrong so they can have something against him so they can arrest him , if he offended them by not paying the temple tax that would give them the perfect reason to arrest him and Jesus couldn’t let this happen he had a path paved for him to fulfill the purpose God had made for him and being arrested would have prevented the other things Jesus needed to do before he was crucified. 

The temple tax was half a Shekel or 2 drachma coins this is why there was 1 shekel in the fish’s mouth. But why was it in the fishes mouth? Now nowhere are we told that Jesus or Peter couldn’t afford it but Jesus shows Peter that once again God will provide for them and that God can provide everything we need. 

There’s a few things that I got from these verses 

 No matter what God is always there he always knows what we need before we even say it and he always blesses us with what we need before we even begin to worry and search for it he shows us this in 2 sections of these verses 

First when Peter walks into the house and before he says anything Jesus begins to talk. But how did Jesus know what to say? 

It’s because God already knew what Peter needed before asking Jesus so before he even needed to ask God gave him his answer 

And second  is when Jesus tells peter to throw a line , catch the fish and open its mouth and their peter found the silver coin to pay for the taxes. 

God shows us that before peter went to look and search and worry how he was gonna pay is Jesus told him where to go and how to do it. No matter what we go through God will provide he knows our problems he knows our worries and he knows our hearts.

no matter what we need to trust that God knows what’s best for us , we need to trust that he knows what we need and what we don’t need because God is all knowing . That means he knows all, he knows the thought we have before we think them.

“But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us with all her begging.” Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.”

Jesus didn’t say anything to the woman he didn’t say yes it no because at this time he was only preaching and healing to the Jews not the gentiles because if you remember back in Matthew chapter ten verses 5 and 6 it says “Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but only to the people of Israel—God’s lost sheep.”
‭‭ so since he have his disciples these introductions he didn’t want to ignore or defy his introductions by helping this woman who wasn’t a Jew because at this second he was unsure if her faith

But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!” Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”

When Jesus said this he was saying that it isn’t right to take away the spiritual food and physical healings away from the Jews and give it to gentiles

She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their masters’ table.”

Here the woman is saying that Jesus is right but even so a gentile is still able to go catch whatever blessings the master (being Jesus) will be able to give

“Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.”
‭‭
After hearing this Jesus was convinced that she had great faith and was a true believer so Jesus granted her request and healed her daughter

What I got out of this is that Jesus a mission at the time and it was for him and his disciples to only preach and heal the lost sheep of Israel the Israelites and Jews yet this woman asked him to heal her daughter and at first Jesus didn’t say anything because he wasn’t sure of her faith and he didn’t want to defy his instructions he gave to the disciples but after talking with her he seen her faith and healed her daughter

How can we want something from God yet we don’t have faith that he will give us them ? It says in mark 11:24 “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.”
‭‭
This woman had amazing faith that even tho she wasn’t a Jew Jesus healed her daughter because of her faith . If we can have that kind of faith when we ask God for something and we truly believe that he will give us that gift and have not 1 ounce of doubt then we will bless you .