We now move into the last two days of Jesus’ earthly ministry and his last meal with the disciples. All of the Gospels give extensive space to the last meal, though John focuses much more on the conversation and Jesus’ teaching and does not mention the actual sharing of the meal and particularly the bread… Continue reading Handed over
Tag: New Testament Studies
The time will come
Jesus’ prophecy of the destruction of the Temple is one of the significant events from the last week of his earthly life and finds its way into all the Synoptic Gospels.[1] In fact, some have seen that as a crucial part of our ability to date the writing of the New Testament.[2] If these events… Continue reading The time will come
Challenged
Jesus’ manner of arrival has put a cat amongst the pigeons. Ther authorities are increasingly determined to have him killed but also fear the crowds, so they seek ways to catch him out and either bring Roman justice or the wrath of the crowds against him. Read Luke 20:1-8 Jesus spends his time during the… Continue reading Challenged
Mustard
The image of someone with only a small amount of faith, comparable to the size of a tiny seed being able accomplish great things whether the casting of a tree as in Luke 17, mountain (Mark 11:22) or both (Matthew 17:20), is an evocative one. It is central to Jesus’ teaching about faith in Luke… Continue reading Mustard
Reckoning
Luke 16 brings together two parables, one is the story of a shrewd manager who is identified at first as dishonest but ends up commended. The second story tells us the fate of a rich man and the beggar who lived at his gate. Both parables are unique to Luke. Sandwiched between them is some… Continue reading Reckoning
Towards D-Day
Time to repent
In Jesus day, there wasn’t really any question that sin was a problem, nor that it deserved judgement.. A culture that accepted the reality of sin may seem a long way from our “sinless and shameless” culture today. However, there were questions about the nature of sin and more pertinently who was a sinner. To… Continue reading Time to repent
Signs (Faithroots Podcast)
Hearing and understanding
The latest Faithroots Podcast is now on YouTube. We are looking at Luke 8:1-21.
Submitting to one another and learning love languages
My friend Steve Kneale has written a very helpful article here about how we learn to experience love across cultures. In his article, he picks up on how the concept of “love languages” has often been misunderstood and misused. Steve, observes that too often, people talk in terms of what their “love language” is meaning… Continue reading Submitting to one another and learning love languages
Faithroots 