Jesus uses a question to lecture his followers on humility and servanthood. Still today, greatness is rarely pictured in the terms He described it in: service.

Then Jesus shows us an example of humility, choosing to ride through the crowds around Jerusalem on a simple donkey. He didn’t ask for or encourage the praises of the people, He had earned them with His teaching and healing ministry.

Just like His approach to us now, through the accounts of His life written by other people, Jesus allows His actions to speak for themselves, rather than demanding the status He deserved.

My reputation should not be something I need to manage or build through social media or public speeches, but rather something others defend because they know me and have seen me at work.

God gives great rewards. He promises that the future will be one thing for certain: worth far more than anything you suffer here.

But He also promises that no matter how lazy or wasteful a person is in their life, if they change and turn to Him, even at the last moment, they get to share the reward too. They get paradise just the same.

That makes a lot of people mad. That makes a lot of people dislike God. It makes more unwilling to share God with others. They only want people to know Jesus who are going to make the most of it…who are certain to be hard workers and top performers too.

I remind myself often, that I am blessed with the opportunity to share God’s gift with everyone I meet. I am not allowed to judge or withhold that news to anyone, no matter how I view them or what their motivation is. I put myself in the place of a person who is turning to Jesus at the end of their life, and I am reminded: that could be me! I could have been that blind and lazy person…and I would want someone to love me enough, even in my worthlessness to share Jesus authentically with me.

Don’t be jealous or angry. Don’t hesitate to share Jesus with people, no matter how strange they are or different from you they seem.

Do we stick to the letter of the law, or use the law to see and follow God’s heart?

Do we approach God like little children, without agendas or fake actions, or do we think He will be happy with half-hearted, distracted us?

Will we follow God to extremes if He asks, or are we just trying to do just enough to get to heaven, but not so much to pull us out of our comfort zone?

This morning’s reading challenges me to make sure I am not simply going through the motions, but to use my time with God to connect relationally with Him and make sure I am both willing and attentive to our conversation. That’s what changes my life from dull religion to fast-paced, challenging life with God.

Jesus doesn’t issue many threats, but He does issue one important one, twice.

“This king did what my heavenly Father will do to you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart!”

Forgiveness is at the core of Christian faith–it is what separates us from every other religious movement: we don’t earn our salvation in any way. It is a free gift of forgiveness for all the selfish, God ignoring things we have done. And Jesus points out that although forgiveness is hard, if you can’t look at the billions of things God has forgiven and then act in the same way toward those who have hurt you, you don’t truly understand forgiveness.

Forgiveness is hard. I need to be threatened, because it NEVER comes naturally. But it is a necessary part of living out our faith, and I must do it, no matter how hard, or how deep the hurt.

The journey with Jesus is full of the unexpected.

For the disciples it meant gloomy confusing predictions of Jesus death, harsh rebukes, mountaintop visions, failures trying to heal people, and most interestingly, long fishing assignments to retrieve a coin for paying taxes. The key to these many events for me is the last passage in this section. The best mentality, the one it takes time to arrive at as a follower of Jesus, is one of great humility and trust. The attitude that has walked with Jesus and learned from him for so long that they trust quickly and without a lot of extra information.

We need faith like children–but that faith doesn’t come quickly. it requires a lot of time following and learning to trust God. Faith that has had a few weird assignments from God and has God lead them through them. If you’re not there yet, that’s fine. I’m not as close to that target as I would like to be, but its a goal that I aspire to.