The surprise of Jesus — part 4 40 blogs of Lent — day 25 It is always bad when you have been planning something and looking forward to it, only for something to happen that either puts your plans on hold. There is always a feeling of disappointment. My wife and I will have been …
Continue reading No Lord? How can you say that? — Matthew 16:21–23
The surprise of Jesus — part 3 40 blogs of Lent — day 24 One of Jesus' favourite pet names is you of little faith. There are different ways of reading this, one is to see him exasperated with them, but that would be against Jesus' character, Jesus is not the sort of person to …
The surprise of Jesus — part 2 40 blogs of Lent — day 21 In my ESV Study Bible this passage is under the heading, "The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." I want to look at it from a different angle, that of the disciples and of bread. Photo by Daria Shevtsova on Pexels.com …
The surprise of Jesus — part 1 40 blogs of Lent — day 20 Red sky at night, Shepherds' delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherds' warning. I have heard this little rhyme from my youth. The people who taught it to me probably had no idea that it is based on a saying of …
The concern of Jesus — part 7 40 blogs of Lent — day 19 The feeding of the 5000 and the feeding of the 4000, Jesus does it all again, only the numbers have changed. So why would two of the four Gospel writers put the same thing in twice? When you look at the …
The concern of Jesus — part 6 40 blogs of Lent — day 18 Matthew links the two story of the Canaanite woman to the next part of Jesus' Ministry simply. Mark adds extra details: Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of …
The concern of Jesus — part 5 40 blogs of Lent — day 16 Interestingly the passage I am looking at today has mention of both sheep and dogs. Dogs have had a relationship with humans as herding, hunting and protecting animals for thousands of years. But as the book of Tobit shows, written between …
The concern of Jesus — part 3 40 blogs of Lent — day 14 A few years ago we were visiting a friend in another city. We were asked by a man the directions to a place and none of us could answer. These were streets my wife and I did not know and out …
The concern of Jesus — part 1 40 blogs of Lent — day 12 The story so far: Herod is out to kill Jesus, Jesus has tried escaping out of Herod's province of Galilee, and then to a quiet part of Galilee, but wherever he goes he gets recognised. Then he get's crowds. Hiding is …
Continue reading Help from an unexpected place — Matthew 15:1–9
The withdrawal of the King — part 5 40 blogs of Lent — day 7 As far as the miracles of Jesus go this is the big one, the only miracle mentioned in all four Gospel accounts. There has to be something significant about this which goes further than just feeding people. Also there is …
Making an ass of myself 