Search Results

At this point in Luke’s Gospel we’re only just over a third of the way through the story, but already Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem. The disciples were distressed by this earlier in (...)

Psalm 116 is a thanksgiving psalm.1 These hymns were sung by those whose earlier lament, or prayer for help in time of trouble, had been answered. Laments frequently conclude with promises to return to the (...)

Psalm 22 has been described rather glibly as “the fifth passion narrative” for the imagery it has contributed to the evangelists’ depictions of the closing events of Good Friday.1 While this description does wrench the (...)

In Exodus 19, the children of Israel arrive at the beginning place, Mount Sinai. Their arrival marks the fulfillment of the promise God made to Moses at the burning bush: “I will be with you; (...)

The parallel pattern of behavior between Jesus and his apostles is nowhere more striking than in Matthew’s Gospel. In this passage the narration zooms in, first on Jesus himself (9:35-36), then on the disciples in (...)

Mark 13:24-37 represents the second half of the single longest speech by Jesus in the Gospel. The significance of this must be noted. Toward the end of a sixteen-chapter narrative about Jesus, early first-century Jesus (...)

There is probably not a better text for the second Sunday of Advent than Gospel of Mark’s version of the John the Baptist story It is not because Mark’s take on the story is necessarily (...)

This Advent season, the Gospel of Luke’s version of the birth story is our focus. Because of the busy and image-rich Christmas holidays full of nativity plays and orations — many of which combine Matthew’s (...)

In many ways, Luke 2:22-40 is the after story that is rarely shared during Advent season — at least, not theatrically. For many churches, their dramatic presentations of the nativity stop at the scene of (...)

The account of Jesus’ baptism in the gospel of Mark is read and heard on the second Sunday of Epiphany, a season that expands and unfolds the birth of Jesus highlighting themes of mission to (...)