BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

In our world, what matters most? What elevates or lowers our social status? That would depend on when and where you’re living, for sure. However, a few fundamentals seem constant everywhere.

Whether it’s an ancient empire, a modern republic, or any other social world (nation, small town, workplace, etc.), those with wealth usually live at the top. Kings and presidents, celebrities and billionaires—money means status, and status brings power. Historically, the power-wealth combination largely stays with men, male heirs, and those who maintain strong militaries.

Jesus sees it every day. But his world, God’s Kingdom, flips every human status system upside down. It isn’t about material wealth or powerful control. Love for all compels God’s Kingdom.

Notice how Jesus refuses to diminish women and children. First, he speaks into a religious controversy about divorce. Rather than upholding the male-dominated status quo, he protects women from abandonment and destitution. Today’s video helps unpack Jesus’ teaching on divorce. Notice how he never treats women as lessers.

When the disciples start shooing away children, who had no status, Jesus welcomes them. These kids have the right attitude, he says. Children trust their parents’ guidance implicitly. Those who trust God like that, he says, are closest to God’s Kingdom.

Then we read about a wealthy man. He had a much higher status than women and children in his day. He wants the good life Jesus offers. He follows the Torah carefully, but Jesus exposes the man’s love for wealth and says he needs to let it go. Love for wealth is not part of God’s Kingdom. Love for God and neighbor is.

Throughout these chapters, Jesus shows the upside-down nature of God’s Kingdom. The disciples aren’t seeing it yet. They argue over who among them will be most powerful in the future.

As they leave the city with Jesus, two low-status blind men call out. Physically blind, those men still “see” that Jesus alone can heal them. Unlike the disciples, these men want mercy, not power. Jesus, true to his message, heals them and treats them as valuable human beings.

Reflection Questions

• How does the parable of the vineyard laborers (Matt. 20:1-16) connect to Jesus’ conversation with the disciples in Matthew 19:27-30? What could this suggest about the values in God’s Kingdom?
• Where else in the Bible have you seen an ethic focused on taking care of people who have been isolated or oppressed by the “powerful” in society? What do those stories, along with the reading today, suggest about the difference between the world’s concept of power and God’s definition of power?