Journey with Jesus – Book 3
I just started editing Book 3 for Journey with Jesus (Matthew 13-21) and plan to get it out before the end of the summer. I hand wrote all of my…
House of Prayer
Reading for today: Mark 11:12-19
Read Mark 12 in your preferred version of the Bible. My own paraphrase from the Greek New Testament follows.
“The next day they went out from Bethany and they were hungry. Seeing a fig tree from a distance they saw it was full of leaves and they went to it to see if by chance they could find anything on it, and when they came to it no one found anything but leaves (it was not the right season for figs). He responded saying to it, ‘May no one ever eat any of your fruit. Never!’ And his disciples heard him say it.
“They came to Jerusalem and entered into the Temple and he began to drive out the ones selling and buying in the Temple area, and he turned over the tables of the money-changers and the chairs of those selling doves. He did not let anyone carry their wares through the Temple and he taught them, “Is it not written: (more…)
Journey to the Passion
Jesus triumphally entered Jerusalem in Matthew 21, the last destination in the journey with Jesus. Christian churches to this day remember that royal entry on Palm Sunday. After arriving at the royal city, Jesus spends the last week of his life–passion week–with his disciples and among the Passover festival crowd, telling parables, answering questions and besting the arguments of his enemies.
Matthew 26 is a hinge in the story of Jesus. The last two days of Jesus’ life are spent near Jerusalem in Bethany and in the holy city itself. There is so much going on in the 75 verses of this chapter that we set aside one week to cover the 7 readings from Matthew 26 in Journey with Jesus – Book 4. In this chapter Jesus goes from anointed to arrested, from highly honored to despised and beaten. It is not an easy journey to make as we witness these events.
For today, take time to read through the chapter on your own–it will only take you five minutes or ten if you slow down to ponder the words. The condemnation, the sufferings and the death of Jesus is called the Passion from the ancient word passio, which meant suffering. (more…)
Good Teacher – Mark 10:17-22
Journey with Jesus
“As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good, except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'”
“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” (more…)