Matthew is a book written for a Jewish audience. Jesus makes multiple references to Himself as the one prophesied, and even talks about being held up, as Moses held up a serpeant that became a rod. Matthew is intentionally hilighting the parts of Jesus life and teaching that will make it easier for the Jews to understand and have faith He is the Son of God.
That said, Jesus pulls no punches in calling the Jews on their own self deception. They are a people steeped in religious tradition. They go to temple. They observe the sacred holidays. They perform rituals. It would be very difficult to then transfer a sense of security based in sacrifice and action to a security based in faith, even if the man making the request was performing miracles.
As Christians, we are, of course, not Jews, we do not slaughter animals or perform rituals. Our faith, supposedly, is in Christ. And yet we have developed our own sense of security outside of Christ that we call church or christianity or Bible study or discipleship. There is, of course, nothing wrong with this, but it’s hardly the source of our security. Our security is in Christ and Christ alone.
Imagine counseling a married couple and noticing that the man does everything he is supposed to do. He provides, he takes out the garbage, he writes loving notes, he spends time. The woman’s complaint, then, is not that he doesn’t do the right things, its that he doesnt mean any of it. He is doing these things because he gets a sense of security and even satisfaction in having a perfect marriage. Perhaps his little community at the church is in a kind of subconscious contest to see who can have the best marriage. What’s missing is a genuine love for his wife.
This woman would gladly take a changed husband who even forgets to take out the garbage and doesn’t often leave notes but has that intangible quality that we could only call a loving heart. The doing is nice, but it’s the genuine authentic reality of the love that is the point.
The great crisis of the church goer is that his action does not save him. He must base his faith on someone outside his control. He cannot make Christ redeem him, or manipulate Christ into redeeming him. He cannot trick Christ or impress Christ into giving him what he wants. He can only trust Christ. And this is a frightening reality.
Our Christian devotion can put us in a crazy dynamic. Of course we are devoted to Christ because we go to church. Of course we are devoted to Christ because we give our money to the church. Of course we are devoted to Christ because we read the Bible. And if we are devoted to Christ, some of these things will sometimes be true. Love does. But the dilemma is this: Attempts to control do the same things that love does, without the love.
So let me ask you this. If you stopped going to church for years, and never picked up your Bible again, would you still believe your eternal security rested in the good and gracious heart of Christ, despite your lack of ritual? If not, then part of your security is based in religion, and it’s a false security.
Near the end of Matthew 8, Jesus says to the Jews “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
The remarkable and alarming context of this passage has Jesus talking to the Jews, who were referencing their Father Abraham, and were getting their security from Him. Jesus here is not talking about Abraham, of course, because he said earlier “If Abraham was your Father you would love me.” He’s referencing Satan. He is saying that your sense of security is a lie, and your religious devotion, which is your way of controlling your own sense of security through your own actions, is of the devil.
