Saturday, December 6, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Matthew 15-17
Key Verse
Matthew 16:9 — “Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?”
Devotional Thought
The scribes and Pharisees travel from Jerusalem to confront Jesus about unwashed hands, but the quarrel quickly moves from basins to hearts. They had built a hedge of tradition around God’s law until the hedge eclipsed the law itself; a man could declare his goods “Corban,” a gift to God, and thereby escape caring for his aging father and mother. Jesus quotes Isaiah against them: this people honors me with their lips while their heart is far off. Then He gathers the crowd and gives them a sentence worth memorizing: not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of it, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
From that confrontation He withdraws to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and there a Canaanite woman cries after Him, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David.” He answers her not a word. She persists, worships, and accepts even His hard saying about crumbs and dogs, and He crowns her with, “O woman, great is thy faith.” On a mountain in Galilee He heals the lame, blind, dumb, and maimed, then feeds four thousand with seven loaves and a few fishes. Later, at Caesarea Philippi, Peter confesses, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” only to rebuke Jesus for speaking of the cross and hear, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Six days afterward, on a high mountain, Jesus is transfigured, His face shining as the sun, Moses and Elias talking with Him, the Father’s voice declaring, “This is my beloved Son; hear ye him.”
We read this in December, when the days are dark and the year is ending, and the world around us is loud with a different kind of leaven—the doctrine of men, the traditions of the age. The temptation is subtle: to let outward observance stand in for inward devotion, to be clean on the outside and far off in the heart. But the Christ of this passage is not manageable. He calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow, and He asks the question that decides everything: “Whom say ye that I am?”
Reflection
- Where have I allowed the traditions and expectations of men to crowd out the plain commandments of God, especially in how I honor those closest to me?
- When Jesus seems silent to my cry, will I keep coming like the Canaanite woman, or will I turn away when the answer tarries?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and we confess Thee with Peter. Forgive us for honoring Thee with our lips while our hearts wander far from Thee, and for letting the commandments of men eclipse the commandment of God. Wash us not merely on the outside but within, and create in us clean hearts. Give us the persistent faith of the Canaanite woman, who would not be turned away. As this year closes and the days grow dark, teach us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Thee, until we see Thee only, and are not afraid. Amen.