Matthew 1

[JLG]

Matthew 18

Jesus tells his disciples that it is necessary to behave like a child to enter into the Kingdom of the heavens. Jesus compares God’s kingdom with a man who cancels the debt of one of his slave who in turn put into prison another slave who can’t pay him back a smaller debt. So the other slaves tell about him to their master who decides to put him into jail because of his bad behavior and his lack of mercy.

 

[JLG]

Matthew 19

Jesus keeps curing crowds. And some Pharisees ask Jesus about a man divorcing his wife. Jesus says it is not possible for a man to divorce his wife. The question is in connection with the certificate of dismissal that a man could give his wife to divorce her according to Moses and the Israelites’ hard-heartedness. The only ground is sexual immorality. Then he reprimands his disciples who prevent children to come to him and he says that people must be like children to get into God’s kingdom. Then a man asks Jesus what he must do to obtain everlasting life and Jesus answers God’s commandments and finally to sell all what he has and follows him but the man was sad because he was really rich. And Jesus says it will be difficult for the rich to get into God’s kingdom.

 

[JLG]

Matthew 20

“The last ones will be first and the first ones will be last”. Here we get an incredible parable from Jesus about God’s Kingdom! The master of a vineyard hires different workers at different hours of the day and the last ones only work one hour. At the end of the day he pays them starting by the last and ending with the first and he pays them the same wage! After reading so much about “The last ones will be first and the first ones will be last” dealing with God’s Kingdom, it highlights this special parable in an incredible way especially when I think about how it works in this world made for the most powerful and what they have made of it which is so ridiculous especially when we get closer to the break point knowing that there is no break point because we keep falling down and down pit after pit instead of door after door!

 

[JLG]

And Jesus tells his disciples about his death which is going to be really hard but he will be raised up on the third day. Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee asks Jesus that his two sons could sit at his right and at his left in his Kingdom. And it says it is not possible. But the most striking is that it happens just after Jesus’ parable about God’s Kingdom and Jesus speaking about his hard death! They definitely have difficulties to understand Jesus’ message! Is that so different from today? I don’t think so as it is difficult for men to open their ears and eyes especially when they are contaminated with what they hear and see in this world!

 

[JLG]

So the ten others become indignant and Jesus tells them to be like slaves if they want to be first or in other words they mustn’t behave like the powerful of this world. On the contrary, they must use humility if they want to follow Jesus! Quite a different way!

 

[JLG]

And two blind men cry out to attract Jesus’ attention because they want him to cure them. The crowd rebukes them but they cry louder and Jesus cures them: another message indicating it is necessary to be careful of the majority and not let impressed by others! We must think by ourselves and check everything!

 

[JLG]

Matthew 21

Jesus sends two disciples to get a donkey and a colt for Jesus to sit on and arrive in Jerusalem. And the crowd cheers him. And Jesus enters the temple and throws out the people selling and buying inside the temple. And then he cures people. And he cures people. But the chief priests and the scribes become indignant because boys shout in the temple “Save, we pray, the Son of David” because of his miracles. The next day early in the morning Jesus goes back to the city but he feels hungry and he sees a fig tree without fruit so he makes it wither instantly. And Jesus tells his disciples that if they have faith they will be able to do incredible things. Then in the temple the chief priests and the elders ask him by what authorities he does all what he does. So he asks them by what authority John baptizes but they don’t want to answer so he doesn’t answer them. Then he speaks about a man who has two children and he asks them to go and work in the vineyard. The first one says no and finally feels regret and goes to work. The second says yes and he doesn’t go to work. Then he asks which one did the will of his father and they answer the first. Then he says that tax collectors and prostitutes go ahead before the chief priests and the elders into God’s Kingdom because they didn’t believe in John the Baptist but tax collectors and prostitutes did and when they saw it they didn’t feel regret so as to believe him. He tells another illustration about a landowner who leases his vineyard to cultivators before going abroad. When he comes back, he sends different slaves to collect but they are abused or killed. Finally he sends his son but they kill him thinking that they will get his inheritance. So the landowner will kill them and lease the vineyard to other cultivators. So God’s Kingdom is taken from them and given to a nation producing fruit. And when the chief priests and the Pharisees hear these illustrations they understand that Jesus speaks about them but they can’t get him because they fear the crowds.

 

[JLG]

Matthew 22
Jesus compares God’s Kingdom to a king who makes a marriage feast for his son but nobody wants to come and people treat his slaves insolently and kill them. So the king killed the murderers and burned their city. So he sends his slaves to the road and invite whoever they find. And one man is not dressed properly. So he asks his servants to bind him and throw him into the darkness outside. “FOR MANY ARE INVITED BUT FEW CHOSEN”. And then the Pharisees conspire against him. So they send their disciples to make Jesus fault. And they ask him if it is lawful to pay head tax to Caesar. And he asks for a coin and the image on it and as a consequence tell them to pay back Caesar’s things but God’s things to God. Then the Sadducees tell Jesus about a man with a wife and no children. He has seven brothers. Then he dies and every brother marries his wife and dies each time without having children. Finally the wife dies. They want to know in the resurrection whose wife she will be. And he tells them they are mistaken because in the resurrection people aren’t given in marriage. Then the Pharisees ask him about the greatest commandment in the Law and he says to love God and the second to love one’s neighbor. Then he asks them how the Christ can be David’s son and being called Lord by him but they can’t answer.

 

[JLG]

Matthew 23

Jesus tells the crowds and his disciples to observe what the scribes and Pharisees tell them but not to do according to their deeds because they do not practice what they say. They just act to be seen by men and like the best places at evening meals or in the synagogues or in the marketplaces and to be called rabbi by men. On the contrary to be the greatest implies minister the others. And Jesus accuses the scribes and Pharisees to prevent people to get into God’s kingdom. And he calls them blind guides full of hypocrisy and lawlessness and sons of those who murdered the prophets and serpents and offspring of vipers. And he announces the destruction of Jerusalem.

 

[JLG]

Matthew 24

Jesus tells his disciples about the destruction of the temple. On the Mount of Olives His disciples ask Jesus about the sign of his presence and the conclusion of the system of things. So he tells them about people coming in his name and about wars and food shortages and earthquakes and many disciples will betray one another and people will kill them and false prophets and the increase of lawlessness and God’s Kingdom will be preached in all the earth and then the end will come. Then he speaks about the destruction of Jerusalem and before it his disciples will have to escape to the mountains when they see the disgusting thing causing desolation. About the end, Jesus says nobody knows the day and the hour except the Father. He adds that it will be like in the days of Noah as people didn’t care and enjoyed themselves and the flood came. So the presence of the son of man will be the same. People will be choose and others abandoned.

 

[JLG]

Matthew 25

Jesus compares God’s Kingdom to ten virgins with their lamps going to meet the bridegroom, five foolish who don’t take oil for their lamps and five discreet who take oil. At night they must find the bridegroom but the foolish ones don’t have enough oil so they ask the discreet ones to give them some but the discreet ones say it may not be enough for all so they tell the foolish ones to go and buy some. When they are away the bridegroom comes and takes the discreet ones with him to the marriage feast and closes the door. But it’s too late for the foolish ones. So he tells his disciples to be careful because they don’t know the day and the hour. Again he takes the parable of the man who travels abroad and before leaving he gives money to his servants so they can make business and get more. But one doesn’t do anything with him so his master will take his money and give it to another slave. So when the son of man will come in his glory with all the angels he will separate people in the same way, the blessed ones who have served him will get everlasting life and the others who haven’t done anything for him will get destruction.

 

[JLG]

Matthew 26

Two days before the Passover Jesus tells them he will be executed. And the chief priests and the elders conspire to get Jesus and kill him. While Jesus is in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman pours costly perfumed oil on his head and his disciples become indignant because it could be sold for a lot lot of money and given to the poor. But Jesus says she does a good job because she prepares him for burial before his death. Then Judas goes away and proposes to betray Jesus to the chief priests. Then comes the meal of the Passover and Jesus tells his disciples of the one who is going to betray him. Then they go to the mount of Olives to pray. And he tells them they will be stumbled but he will raised up and meet them in galilee. And he tells peter he will disown him three times. And jesus goes to pray alone and when he comes back he finds his disciples sleeping. And the same repeats three times. And judas comes with the crowd to get Jesus. And one of Jesus’ disciples uses his sword and cuts the ear of the slave of the high priest but Jesus puts it back. Then they bring Jesus to Caiaphas the high priest, the chief priests and the Sanhedrin. And Peter disowns Jesus three times.

 

[JLG]

Matthew 27

They send Jesus to Pilate the governor. In the meantime Judas commits suicide. Finally Pilate ask the Jews if they want to release Barabbas or Jesus and the crowd to release Barabbas. Then the roman soldiers mock Jesus and they execute him in gthe place called Golgotha or Skull Place. And he is ececuted with two robbers and many mock him. Even the robbers reproach him. And a darkness falls over all the land. And the curtain of the santuary is torn in two and there is an earthquake and rocks split and tombs are opened and holy ones are raised up. And joseph asks for Jesus’ body and puts it in a tomb. And the chief priests and the Pharisees ask Pilate tu put guards in front of jesus’ tombs because they fear that Jesus’ disciples will rob his body to say he was raised up.

 

[JLG]

Matthew 28

Mary Magdalene and Mary go to the tomb but they see an angel at the entrance of the tomb and it is opened. And he tells them to check that jesus is not here anymore because he was raised and he tells them to go and tell his disciples and they will find him there. And Jesus meets them there and tells them to tell all his disciples and meet them in Galilee. And the chief priests invent a story because they don’t want people to know the truth. Then the 11 disciples meet Jesus in the mountain in Galilee. And he tells them to make disciples of all the nations teaching and baptizing them.

 

[JLG]

Matthew 1

- Genealogy of Jesus
- Birth of Jesus
- Joseph takes Mary home

Matthew 2

- The astrologers
- Joseph takes his wife and his child to Egypt
- Herod has all boys from two years of age and under killed
- After Herod’s death Joseph goes back to Israel in Galilee

Matthew 3

- John the Baptist preaches and baptizes to prepare Jesus’ way
- John baptizes Jesus

Matthew 4

- Jesus is tempted by the devil in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights
- John is arrested
- Jesus starts preaching
- He chooses Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John
- He teaches in synagogues and cures people

Matthew 5

- Jesus goes on the mountain and teaches the crowds

Matthew 6

- About righteousness
- About praying
- About fasting
- About storing treasures in heaven
- Stop being anxious
- keep searching God’s kingdom first

Matthew 7

- stop judging
- keep on asking
- Go in through the narrow gate
- be careful of the false prophets

Matthew 8

- Jesus cures a leper
- He cures the servant of an army officer
- He cures Peter’s mother-in-law
- Jesus calms down a storm
- He cures two possessed men

Matthew 9

- Jesus cures a paralyzed man
- He chooses Matthew as disciple
- Dinner with tax collectors
- John’s disciples ask jesus why his disciples don’t fast
- A woman touches Jesus and is cured
- He cures a ruler’s daughter
- He cures two blind men
- He cures a possessed man

Matthew 10

- Jesus gives authority to his disciples to cure people and expel demons
- he sends them out and gives them instructions

 

[JLG]

Matthew 11

- John sends his disciples to Jesus to know if he is the Christ
- Jesus speaks about John the baptist who has prepared his way
- Accusations against the cities where he had done most of his powerful works
- God’s Kingdom is for those who are like children and not for the wise and intellectual

Matthew 12

- Jesus’ disciples eat grain from the fields on the Sabbath
- He speaks about David and his men eating the loaves of presentation in the temple while hungry and it was reserved to the priests
- The priests violate the sabbath in the temple in the Law
- The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath
- He cures a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath in a synagogue
- And he cures many
- He cures a blind and speechless man
- The Pharisees accuse Jesus of expelling demons thanks to Beelzebub
- Jesus answers by saying that if Satan expels Satan he has become divided against himself
- the blasphemy against the spirit won’t be forgiven
- He calls them Offspring of vipers producing bad fruit and wicked things
- Men will render an account on judgment Day
- They ask a sign from Jesus and he says no except his resurrection
- This generation will be condemned
- This generation is like a man possessed with various demons
- Jesus’ mother and brothers want to see him

Matthew 13

- Jesus teaches the crowds from a boat
- The sower and the seeds
- He speaks with illustrations because people have become unreceptive
- But he explains them to his disciples
- The sower and his enemy and the harvest
- The mustard grain
- The leaven mixed with flour which ferments
- His disciples ask Jesus to explain an illustration
- The treasure
- The traveling merchant seeking fine pearls
- The dragnet gathering fish
- He teaches in the synagogues in his home territory but people don’t believe

Matthew 14

- Heros thinks Jesus is John the Baptist he had beheaded because he condemed the fact herod was with his brother’s wife
- during a storm jesus walks on the sea and Peter asks him to be able to do the same but takes his hand before he sinks. Then the storm stops.
- Later people bring sick people to be cured


Matthew 15

- The Pharisees accuse Jesus’ disciples of overstepping traditions of the past
- Jesus accuses them of overstepping God’s commandment because of their tradition
- He calls them blind guides
- A Phoenician woman asks Jesus to cure her daughter
- later he cures many people
- Jesus feeds 4,000 people by multiplying bread and fish

 

[JLG]

Matthew 16

- Pharisees and Sadducees ask jesus for a sign
- He answers them they will only get the sign of Jonah
- Be careful of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees
- He asks his disciples about who the Son of man is according to people
- He asks the same question to them
- Peter will receive the keys of God’s Kingdom
- He says he must be killed and raised up on the third day
- he tells to be ready to disown oneself if people want to follow him

Matthew 17

- Jesus goes to the mountain with Peter and James and John and Moses and Elijah appear
- He tells his disciples he is going to suffer
- A man asks Jesus to cure his epileptic son because his disciples couldn’t
- He tells them he is going to be betrayed and killed and will be raised up on the third day
- He tells Peter to cast a fishhook and get a silver coin from the first fish to come to pay a head tax

Matthew 18

- To be the greatest in God’s Kingdom it is necessary to be humble like a child
- The man with hundred sheep
- Two or three gathered in the name of God
- When someone sins against someone else
- A king wants to settle accounts with his slaves

Matthew 19

- Jesus cures many people
- Divorce prohibited except in case of sexual immorality
- The disciples try to prevent children to approach Jesus
- But Jesus says God’s Kingdom belongs to those who are like children
- How to get everlasting life
- it will be difficult for a rich to enter into God’s Kingdom
- those who are first will be last and vice versa

Matthew 20

- A landowner hires workers for his vineyard
- Jesus says he will be killed and raised up on the third day
- The mother of the sons of Zebedee asks Jesus for his sons to sit by Jesus in God’s Kingdom
- The other disciples are indignant
- whoever wants to be first must minister the others
- Jesus cures two blind men

 

[JLG]

Matthew 21

- Jesus sends two disciples to look for a donkey and they bring the donkey and its colt
- The crowd cheers Jesus
- He goes to the temple and throws out allthe sellers
- And he cures many people
- And the boys cheers him
- And the chief priests and the scribes are indignant
- Early in the morning he feels hungry but the fig tree has no fruit and he strikes it and it withers instantly.
- The chief priests and the elders ask about his authority so
- Jesus asks them about the authority of john the Baptist
- But they don’t answer so he doesn’t answer
- The illustration : a man and two children
- A landowner, a vineyard and cultivators
- God’s kingdom taken and given to another nation

Matthew 22

- A king makes a marriage feast for his son
- For there are many invited, but few chosen
- Is it lawful to pay head tax to Ceasar or not ?
- A man dies having a wife and no children, his seven brothers die the same way with the same wife and no children. Then the woman dies. In the resurrection, whose wife will she be ? None.
- The greatest commandment in the Law
- If the Christ is David’s son why does David call him Lord

 

[JLG]

Matthew 23

- Observe what the Pharisees and the scribes tell you but not what they do
- The greatest among you must be your minister
- Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees
- He called them blind guides
- Serpents, offspring of vipers
- Destruction of Jerusalem

Matthew 24

- Destruction of the temple
- Signs of jesus’ presence and of the conclusion of things :
- Many will cile on the basis of jesus’ name and will mislead many
- And wars and food shortages and earthquakes
- And Jesus’ disciples will be killed
- And there will be many prophets and lawlessness
- And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth
- When the disgusting thing that causes desolation arrives then it will be nececessary to flee to the mountains
- Because there will be a great tribulation
- The son of man will come on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory
- Nobody knows the day and the hour only the father
- Like before the Flood, people ate and drank and got married and Noah entered the ark

 

[JLG]

Matthew 25

- The ten virgins
- A man travels abroad and leaves his belongings to his slaves

Matthew 26

- Jesus will be executed within two days
- In the house of Simon the leper a woman pours costly perfumed oil on Jesus’ head
- The disciples are indignant
- She has prepared Jesus’ body for burial
- Judah goes to the chief priests to betray Jesus
- Jesus and the disciples eat the Passover
- Jesus tells who is going to betray him
- he tells them they will stumble but he will be raised up and will go ahead of them into galilee.
- Peter will disown Jesus three times
- In Gethsemane, he tells them to pray and he goes away to pray alone
- Three times he comes back and three times he found them asleep
- The mob is looking for Jesus
- One of Jesus’ disciples cuts the ear of the slave of the high priest and Jesus puts him back
- He is brought to the sanhedrin
- Peter disowns Jesus three times