Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Jesus's resurrection, though he has not even been seen yet, is being told of by the women who had gone to do the work of the funeral dressing. That nobody believes them, even after Jesus foretold it, is somewhat comical. Jesus always went to those of lower station first, and he made no exception in this case. The women were far from Jewish nobility, and were not even the leadership of Jesus&#3...

The road to the cross is not a straight one. Jesus does not merely go and die. Instead, an outsider carries his cross. He warns his followers that the destruction in their future is the real topic of mourning and lamentation. A conflict between those being killed with him erupts. Then, the grand finale is a dark day and admiration by one of those who carried out the crucifixion. If Jesus had done...

It is sad that a crowd and a cadre of religious leaders prefers the life of a murderer and a radical to that of the Prince of Peace. Of course, this whole scene is not happening because Jesus is helpless; there are prophecies being fulfilled and God's purposes finding their full volume in what is playing out. Still, there is Barabbas. He could not be more different from Jesus, but it is an acc...

The Kingdom that Jesus brought did not end with him, it was dependent on those who carried it on after his ministry in the power of the Spirit. Such a person was Barnabas: generous himself and such an encourager that it literally became his name, he would be present for Paul's missionary journeys and even branch out to go on his own.

If Jesus told his disciples to get swords, why does he now tell them not to use them? This is sort of guesswork on the part of your reader, but I like to think that he told them to bring the swords so he could rebuke the use of them. What if Peter and the others thought they could have saved Jesus if they had only been armed? Would they have come back and tried to break him out of prison? Not so i...

Things are about to become difficult for the disciples, and Jesus is giving them the benefit of all that they have learned before in review. Serving one another, communing with the Spirit, and sharing in the suffering of their Savior are disciplines that they can only learn by living them, and this is exactly what all of them will do.

The event of the destruction of Jerusalem happened not long after Jesus walked the earth, and it was indeed a horror. The residents of Jerusalem made a mess of things, and the Romans came down on them hard. It was brutal and violent. Especially since the temple of Jerusalem was so central to worship, this could be seen as a blow against God himself. Of course, that is not the case. Jesus lives tod...

Moving toward the cross, Jesus is working on establishing some pretty important ideas. Not only that the resurrection is real, and that those who experience it are headed toward a pretty incredible eternity, but also that preparation for eternal life starts now. The widow who have everything understood how that works. She did not lose sight of the eternal, and the things of the present world were...

Why did Jesus ask about John? Was he trying to change the subject? For that answer, he provides a parable. Just as the vineyard tenants did not recognize the authority of the representatives sent to them, so did the religious leaders truly not recognize God's authority with the prophets through the ages. Otherwise, just as the vineyard visitors, they would have honored their patron by honoring...

Jesus riding into town on a colt was the very opposite of the tone set by those who opposed him. On the back of that animal, he would make no war. It was not the steed of a conquering hero, but that is still what he would become. Of course, he would not conquer by killing those who opposed him, the very action of those who were working in the shadows against him. He would conquer through self-sacr...

Jesus is coming near the end of his ministry, so he is being more direct about his kingship in this new Kingdom. He is also being clear about the failings of the religious leaders who have been leading the people before: they have not all been wise with what was entrusted to them. (Although some have!) Merely being called a caretaker is not enough, it was left to them to do more with what they had...

The ways Jesus made others whole was not universal. For a blind man, it was restoration of sight. For a cheating tax collector, it was abandonment of his cheating lifestyle and coming back to a community that probably despised him. The message and life of Jesus inspired others to do such things, because walking his way was worth the effort.

The Kingdom of Jesus is upside down. The humble are first, children are the example of how we are to be, and having less is having more. Nobody gets left out of the equation, but the poor and marginalized are moved to the head of the class.

The passage about the Second Coming generally causes arguments between theologians, but this much is at least somewhat universal: Jesus is preaching abandonment of the temporal for the eternal. This is an important perspective in this Kingdom, because Jesus aims to remove the distractions between believers and their God. For many, this is a tall order. We are attached to our things. But in the vie...

It's kind of neat to know that God's plan was so filling the world with the birth of Jesus that even John the Baptist, a baby in his mother's womb, leapt when first in his presence. Jesus was certainly more than a great teacher, he was God incarnate opening up the world to a new order under himself. That certainly was worthy of recognition by a unborn future prophet.

Building a community is hard work and it's not always pretty. Sometimes, the members of that community hurt one another. The church is no exception, despite being the visible Kingdom of Jesus on earth. Because it's sometimes hard to love one another, Jesus gave us this radical command to forgive. It may not always seem fair, but we are putting ourselves in the hands of the one who has forg...

Jesus came to lift up the lowly, not cheer on the powerful. The rich man and Lazarus is a story illustrating that. The powerful of the day certainly didn't need any help. In a Kingdom where the first would be last and the last would be first, Jesus always stood with those who were already last.

Pentecost (the story of which is found in Acts 2) is the final piece of God's new play with Jesus's coming: the Holy Spirit descends on his people. This is God's affirmation that the Church is caught in the very spirit of the Trinity. Because of Pentecost, we know that God remains with us, even though Jesus did not remain in bodily form.

Jesus has spent a lot of time talking about the poor attitudes of the religious leaders, now he gives them a glimpse of what a good attitude would look like. If their eyes weren't set on power, perhaps they might see better those around them. And if those people were given some discipling, perhaps they would become members of this new Kingdom that Jesus talked about. This could be a great gift...

Jesus sure didn't mind making things awkward! Invited to a meal where it was almost certain that people would have been looking to sit in the place of honor, he talks about the futility of doing so. It's interesting to think about the host, a Pharisee, quietly going around telling people to move somewhere else, and Jesus calling out the action as an indication of a heart not tuned to the w...

What does it take to be saved? Jesus talks about those who thought they would be, but were still cast into darkness at the judgement. He has been hitting the religious leaders pretty hard, and certainly this applies to them. They were literally the people whose houses he had eaten, and who had encouraged him to teach for show. Generally, though, entering the Kingdom through the narrow gate is to d...

Jesus is pronouncing some pretty clear judgements on the religious elite of his day, the "fig trees" that had received extra care because they were in the special "vineyard" of God's leadership. Unfortunately, they were not doing their job as fruit bearers for God's cause, and chose instead to use their status for personal gain. This is not the way things must be in the...

Is Jesus out to start fights? Our God is about unity and harmony, so that's definitely not the primary goal of the gospel. But the Gospel can be difficult for some, and will be rejected by others. In those cases, the people in Jesus's day were not to abandon their newfound faith, but to hold to it. While this wasn't the easy path, this is the way that the Kingdom found its place.

With all the talk Jesus did about Kingdoms, it must have been difficult to separate people from ideas of riches and power. Neither of those were what Jesus came to provide. As he laid out the extreme differences between riches in the world and riches in his Kingdom, there must have been a few scratches of the head. Does he really want us to do that?

It seems like Jesus is being unfairly harsh on the entire group of religious leaders, but he does so with good reason. These are the religious leaders who have been speaking on God's behalf, and the people understood their mandates as being straight from God. Jesus needed to correct both the administration of the Law and the leaders themselves, because the selfish and power-hungry approach of...