Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Jesus's verbal spars with the religious leaders always leave the religious leaders at a loss. It was no small insult to relay the parable of the tenants as well, since the religious leaders stood in defiance of those whom God sent to correct them, a parallel that would have been hard to miss in this story.

Jesus takes up a heavily prophetic role in this passage: for starters, he rides into Jerusalem on the back of a colt, almost ridiculing the practice of riding on large war horses in victory. Once he reaches the strong edifice of the city, he again works in irony, predicting that it would soon be torn down (and that is exactly what happened). All in all, if you're trying to look like a big shot, th...

Jesus now uses money as a parable, as an example of faithfulness and faithlessness. (Be careful, money isn’t the main point!) God has established a covenant with his people through Abraham to call them his own, but that people were supposed to bless the other nations of earth. This is like the money gained by the faithful servants: God never intended his people to take the blessing and sit on it,...

“Lord have mercy” is a great prayer. It’s woven through both of these passages. The man who is healed asks for it directly, and Zacchaeus asks for it indirectly. The blind man has nothing to give back other than discipleship, which is a fitting response. Zacchaeus, on the other hand, receives mercy and immediately gives it back. This is a great opposite for yesterday’s passage about the rich man w...

Jesus flips the definition of “good” upside down even as he seems to shy away from the definition for himself. Pharisees and the wealthy would have certainly been highly respected in that time and place, and to say that they were less than perfect must have caused a bit of a stir. Jesus, of course, didn’t come to pat everyone on the back and assure them they were doing a good job. He came to give...

Why should anyone have been looking for more than the Jesus before them? Nonetheless, Jesus is not only the man that was among them. He will come again, and his coming will look very different. The best policy? Keep looking for him, because the Spirit remains among us.

The Kingdom Jesus brings is about give and take. None of us should only do one of those things, and we must also be careful not to live as we did before we became aware of what Jesus brings. Things will still come and cause us to stumble, but we cannot make ourselves the cause of someone else stumbling. To endure as a community in Christ, we must encourage one another and also forgive.

There is a lot to unpack in Jesus’s stories in this passage from Luke, and coming up with a single thread that runs between them might be a bit difficult. Both the passage on divorce and the story of the rich man and Lazarus point to a need to protect the vulnerable. Jewish law allowed men the right to divorce their wives, but not women their husbands. This put women in a vulnerable position, and...

The story of the prodigal is probably one of the most-used parables for preachers delivering sermons. The picture is so poignant: a wayward son, taking more than he should, coming home to a father who accepts him with open arms. Pastor and author Tim Keller has an interesting take on this story, though. The word "prodigal," according to Keller has more a meaning of one who recklessly gives away mo...

The word “hate” in terms of family shouldn’t be taken as a visceral loathing of your mother and father. Obviously, a God of Love doesn’t operate like that and wouldn’t ask us to. Instead, this is an escalated challenge to any who would follow Jesus: he comes first. Not even earthly family should come first. Of course, it’s even better for an entire family to follow Jesus together.

Jesus must have made things awkward for his hosts at times. Sitting in the house of a prominent religious leader, he breaks into a story about the futility of the very formalities among which he sat. As if that weren’t enough, he also challenged those around him to turn that very establishment upside down. That’s the Kingdom of Jesus, but it certainly wasn’t the culture of his day.

Did you know that all of Jesus’s Sabbath miracles were healing miracles? Here, when he is questioned on the matter, he compares it to being set free. Captivity is what prevents us from being who we were fully intended to be, and Jesus helps this woman get closer to that.

Jesus follows yesterday's reading about dividing families with today's about making peace on the way to court with an adversary. This is a good illustration that the Gospel sometimes take some wrestling. Good news is always good, but it's not always easy. While we certainly may find ourselves at odds with others, Jesus is still the Prince of Peace.

Jesus is speaking in this passage of some things coming surrounding his death and resurrection. The baptism he is bringing is the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that we are baptized into when we come to be part of the body of Christ. The spirit is fire, but it is a purifying fire.

Jesus takes a pretty radical approach to possessions. Where surrounding ourselves with things might be considered a mark of power in the world, it is not so in Jesus’s kingdom. He is looking to create disciples who are focused on the things of God, not distracted by the things they see around them.

Why was Jesus charging the "current generation" with the blood of the prophets? Because they reject him in the same way their ancestors rejected Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah. No lesson has been learned, and the prophetic Jesus now stands before them as proof. Even more, just like the Queen (outside the people of God) came to Solomon, so will God build his church with those outside the Jewish worl...

Jesus must have had some pretty impressive power if people thought he was working for the devil. Of course, God’s power trumps the devil’s every time, but the people around him were probably speaking more out of fear of what they thought he might be able to do. It’s sometimes difficult to trust God when we sight big things happening, but just like Jesus, God’s work is always for the good.

Jesus continues building a picture for would-be disciples of what his upside-down Kingdom looks like, and it’s even crazier: now, he’s talking about Samaritans who were honorable and loving. Samaritans were hated by the people Jesus walked among, and to call one of them such things would have been shocking. So it is with Jesus: the people you think belong may not be the ones who are actually part...

Is it any wonder that Jesus sends out a larger group of disciples with nothing, and when they come back, he talks about authority? This is how the upside-down Kingdom of Jesus works. Our strength doesn’t come from power or numbers, but by learning to live in humble submission.

As Jesus approaches Jerusalem and starts coming nearer to the end of his ministry, he is more urgently putting out the call for disciples. This isn't panic, but the culmination of God's plan. Just as Jesus became a person, so will the mission of God on earth be passed into human hands when Jesus returns to the right hand of the father. No pressure, right?

I wonder if Luke purposely put together the story of the apostles not being able to drive out the demon with the story of their jealousy of someone else doing it? Obviously Jesus didn’t give them exclusive rights to do so, and he acknowledged that there were others outside their circle who were also living Kingdom lives. Hopefully we won’t make the same mistake, and think our tribe is the only gro...

The way Jesus went about building a Kingdom was completely wrong in the world where he lived. Most Kingdoms were advanced by mustering troops and overpowering others. Once again, Jesus turns that paradigm upside down. Not only do his followers not go out with power, they actually go out with nothing. They are in the service of giving away, not taking.

What was it that got Jesus's attention? Ironically, it was not a storm, but the quiet faith of a woman desperately seeking him. He had to be awakened in the boat, but in the midst of a busy crowd, it was a single person, trying her best to be invisible, who instantly gained his notice.

Jesus is giving a glimpse into the abundant life if his Kingdom. Being able to see and hear with our spiritual eyes and ears comes only with the work of the Spirit, and our training among our brothers and sisters. Learning to hear God takes some effort on our part, but God will respond with more than we can imagine.

The woman who enters the Pharisee’s house to honor Jesus really puts herself on the line. To be known as a disreputable woman, to enter the house of a religious leader, and then to touch Jesus: she is clearly far less concerned about what people think than she is of what Jesus can do. That kind of reckless abandon was honored by Jesus, and it seems that he considers her a better disciple than the...