The King’s judgments How many people rode into Jerusalem on a warhorse? Not many, only Kings and generals coming in victory, or conquerers who enter to take over the land they have vanquished. How many people do you think entered into Jerusalem on or leading a donkey? There must have been thousands of them, the …
Continue reading How many people ride donkeys? — Matthew 21:1–6
Psalms of David One of the first things I do when looking at a passage from the Old Testament is to check Jewish sources, they have had these scriptures longer than we have. A Rabbinic take is that Psalm 139 is by Adam in theme although the words are David's. The question asked here is, …
The King’s actions This is one of those passages which if you read it in each of the synoptic Gospels it contradicts. Luke has the healing happening to one man as Jesus enters Jericho, Matthew and Mark have it as Jesus leaves the city, Matthew heals two men, whilst Mark has one man named Bartimaeus. …
Psalms of David This psalm has a lot in common with Psalm 23, also by David. They both share the same structure and this psalm even points back to Psalm 23's theme. This could, possibly, be written as a sequel to that far more famous psalm. Image by Sharon Tate Soberon, used under a Creative …
The King’s actions Jesus breaks up a quarrel The context of the reading: Jesus and his disciples are in Jericho - implied from the next verse - James and John's mother has come to Jesus to ask for her sons to have the place of honour in Jesus' coming kingdom. To have a pushy mother …
The King’s actions Christmas is all about families. That was repeated on TV News (it isn't news it is opinion), as if family is what Christmas is about families, complete with the strory of the birth of Jesus as often depicted, with Mary dressed in expensive blue silk. I do not believe that story. Picture …
A family Christmas? (This post was intended for Christmas day, but I was not online to see if it had been posted correctly. So here it is three days later.) Christmas nativity scene at the Franciscan church in Sanok 2010,Picture from Wikimedia Commons At the time of writing, we do not know if the traditional …
The King’s actions The final journey It seems a strange passage to read on the Christmas Bank Holiday, one which talks about Jesus talking about his coming death. But if we are going to think about Jesus being Emmanuel, God with us, we cannot do it justice without thinking about why he came. The song …
The Kings Instructions Advent 2021 This is the second part of a parable and also a continuation of Jesus talking about money following a meeting with a rich young man. I'd like to think that this parable, before it was written in Greek, was a poem of Jesus. Grape harvestPicture by Larry Koester on Flickr …
Continue reading Jesus and the rich young man, part 5 — Matthew 20:8–16
The Kings Instructions Advent 2021 Jesus was a man of his time. Many of his sayings are based on things that not only people would be familiar with, but were seasonal. Fruit picking has always been seasonal work, the fruit is picked when it is ready to be picked. Jesus and his disciples are on …
Continue reading Jesus and the rich young man, part 4 — Matthew 19:30–20:7
Making an ass of myself 