September 4, 2026 - Matthew 15-16 (a re-read from yesterday)

The disciples sometimes just seemed slow, slow of learning.  Jesus had taught them that a man is defiled from within, not from without.  But they did not understand.  He asked them, “Are even you still lacking in understanding?” (15:16)  On another occasion, Jesus had just finished feeding around 12,000 people (4,000 men plus women and children) with only seven loaves and a few small fish.  Almost immediately, after reaching the other shore of the Sea of Galilee, the disciples realized they had brought no bread and were concerned.  Jesus said, “You of little faith!  Don’t you understand yet?  Don’t you remember the five loaves for the 5,000 . . . and the seven loaves for the 4,000?” (16:8-10).

But Peter got the most important thing right!  “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” (16:16).  On the one hand, they seemed so dense; on the other, Peter got this most important of all truths just right.  And, yet, on the third and fourth hands (can I do that?), Peter almost immediately tries to steer Jesus from his appointed path, and the Lord responds, “Get behind me, Satan!  You are an offense to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns, but man’s” (16:23).  And later, Peter would later deny Jesus three times at Jesus’ most desperate moments.  The disciples are us, and we are the disciples!  Sometimes getting it, sometimes not.  Sometimes faithful, sometimes not.  But the grace of God . . . that’s it, isn’t it? . . . the grace of God overshadows us keeps us through it all.

O love that will not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

O cross that liftest up my head,

I dare not ask to fly from thee;

I lay in dust life’s glory dead,

And from the ground there blossoms red

Life that shall endless be.   -- George Matheson (1882)