Exclusively published to the Touchstone website each week, these Daily Reflections are brief commentaries on the lectionary readings contained in the St. James Daily Devotional Guide. The reflections are penned by Patrick Henry Reardon, editor of the Daily Devotional Guide and a senior editor of Touchstone. Father Reardon provides here a very brief directional clue for one of the readings each day. Long-time readers of the Daily Devotional Guide will find these reflections an additional help to their reading of Holy Scripture which they can print and keep with their Guide.

The Daily Reflections will be updated weekly.

Sunday, February 10

Matthew 12:9-21: This story continues the theme of the Lord’s relationship to the Sabbath. Rabbinical theory permitted acts of healing on the Sabbath only in danger of death; otherwise such actions had to be postponed. In this text, and generally throughout the gospels, Jesus ignores these rabbinical distinctions. In the present instance His enemies are completely frustrated, because Jesus does not do anything with which they can accuse Him. He does not touch the afflicted man; He does not speak one word that could be interpreted as an act of healing. He simple tells the man to extend his impaired hand, and immediately the hand is healed! In their frustration the Lord’s enemies take the action to which most of the narrative has been building to this point – they resolve that Jesus must die. That is to say, they resolve to do what Herod had failed to do in the second chapter of Matthew. To mark the theological significance of their decision, Matthew now quotes at length an Isaian passage about the Suffering Servant. One will especially observe the text’s references to the calling of the Gentiles, references which look backwards to the Magi and forward to the Great Commission.

Monday, February 11

Matthew 12:22-30: The Lord’s work of driving out demons is once again (cf. 9:32-34) the object of controversy, as His enemies allege that this power comes from Jesus’ collusion with the dark forces themselves. Among the Synoptic accounts of this controversy (cf. Mark 3:2030; Luke 11:14-23), only Matthew records a healing from blindness in this context. This liberation of a man from satanic darkness is contrasted by the example of those who remain steadfast in their own blindness of heart. Having made up their minds to destroy Jesus, they become ever more inveterate in their sin. Hence, this story leads immediately to the theme of the unforgiven sin, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Tuesday, February 12

Matthew 12: 31-37: Strictly speaking there is no "unforgivable" sin, because God’s mercy stands ready to forgive any sin of which we repent. The whole essence of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is that it is, by definition, the sin of which men do not repent. It is total and inveterate blindness of heart, in which men can no longer discern the difference between light and darkness. Such appears to be the sin of which the Lord’s enemies are guilty in these texts, where we find them plotting His death. From a pastoral perspective it may be said that those Christians who fear they may have committed such a terrible sin should take courage from the thought that their very fear is strong evidence that they have not done so. Those who are approaching the unforgiven sin are those who no longer even think about repentance and feel no need for it.

Wednesday, February 13

Matthew 6:9-18: This passage about prayer and fasting has long been the traditional reading for Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten observance. It also speaks strongly about our obligation of seeking and granting forgiveness. This feature of Lenten observance is especially striking in the Eastern Orthodox Church, which begins Lent with a special service in which each member of the congregation goes to every other member of the congregation and asks forgiveness, so that the entire congregation may commence the lenten fast with pure hearts, free from animosity and strife. It is unfortunate that the washing of the face, mentioned in this text, is sometimes cited as a reason for not receiving the ashes on Ash Wednesday. This command to wash one’s face, however, refers to private fasting, which is supposed to be kept secret. The command does not pertain to a public fast, in which all members of the Church are presumed to be fasting. The biblical precedent for the reception of ashes is the example of the people of Nineveh, who repented at the preaching of Jonah. This latter event will be referred to in tomorrow’s reading from Matthew.

Thursday, February 14

Matthew 12:38-45: Both examples here, the Ninevites and the queen from southern Arabia, are Gentiles, the very people of whom we have just been reading in 12:18-21. The figures of Jonah and Solomon should also be understood here as representing the prophetic and sapiential traditions of Holy Scripture. Jesus is the "greater than Jonah," whose earlier ministry foreshadowed the Lord’s death and Resurrection and also the conversion of the Gentiles (both the seamen of Joppa and the citizens of Nineveh). The Lord’s appeal to Jonah in this text speaks also of that prophet as a type or symbol of the Resurrection. The men of Nineveh, who repented and believed, are contrasted with the unrepentant Jewish leaders who refuse to accept the Resurrection and endeavor to discredit it (cf. 28:13-15). Matthew will return to the sign of Jonah in 16:2. Jesus is also the "greater than Solomon," who was founder of Israel’s wisdom literature and the builder of the Temple. A Gentile woman, who came seeking Solomon’s wisdom, foreshadows the calling of the Gentiles.

Friday, February 15

Matthew 12:46-50: (As best we can determine from manuscript evidence, verse 47 should be omitted from this passage. It seems to have come from the hand of a later copyist.) If we compare this story with the earlier account in Mark 3:31-35, several features are found particular to Matthew: (1) Matthew omits the view of Jesus’ relatives that He had lost His mind (Mark 3:21); (2) Only Matthew uses the word "disciples" here; this is a text, then, about the "disciplizing" which He will command in the Great Commission; (3) Instead of "God" here, Matthew speaks of "my Father in heaven." In short, Matthew portrays our relationship to Jesus as a new set of family relationships, under the Fatherhood of God; these new relationships transcend those family ties established by blood. In due course, however, we do find the fleshly relatives of Jesus within the body of the believers (cf. Acts 1:14).

Saturday, February 16

Matthew 13:1-9: As we now come to the third and central of the five great discourses in Matthew, Jesus once again sits down as teacher (Compare 5:1). Taking up a standard mystic number in Holy Scripture, this discourse will be composed of seven parables: the sown seed, the wheat and tares, the mustard seed, the leaven, the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, and the fishing net. Four of these, as we will have occasion to note, are found only in Matthew. Even in wording this first parable is nearly identical with Mark 4:1-9.

 

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