Luke adds a thought to the sermon context that Matthew omits, namely that the people kept pushing in towards Jesus to touch him. When this occurred on another occasion Jesus relocated himself to a boat. In this case Jesus simply turned towards his disciples, sat down, and began to teach. The crowds presumably stopped pressing on him and began […]
The other day I heard someone explaining the multi-sensory experiences within their church. There were things to touch, to see, to hear, to smell and to taste. Every avenue to the soul seemed to be met with religious icons. My first response was to think, wow - we need all that stuff at our church! […]
Matthew tells us that the imprisonment of John was a type of cue to Jesus.  First, Matthew tells us that the news about John elicited a move to Capernaum.  Why there? Matthew tells us that it was to fulfil a prophecy written by Isaiah about a light dawning. What was that light?
Next, Jesus went forward carrying on the preaching of […]
Matthew’s fourth chapter leaves me with far more questions than answers. The prayer of Jesus, ‘lead us not into temptation’ comes to mind as I read verse one, ‘the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil’. This wasn’t just a Jesus thing. Job also comes to mind. […]
It has never made a whole lot of sense to me that John went to preach in the wilderness. Who was he preaching to? How did everyone find out?  Things that don’t make sense seem to be the garden in which faith sprouts.ÂÂ
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Did someone, for reasons unknown, happen through the wilderness and ‘accidentally’ overhear […]
Matthew effectively, and more than likely intentionally, agitates his readers throughout this whole chapter.
The Messiah has been miraculously born, yet the first mentioned worshippers actually arrive from the East and we are told that they came to worship Jesus as the King of the Jews.  The obvious questions that come to mind are: (1) why does Matthew write about these faithful […]
Chapter one begins with two unequivocal declarations. First, that Jesus is the expected Messiah. Second, what follows is a genealogy of Jesus. This immediately sets up a paradox for the modern reader since what is presented is clearly a genealogy of Joseph - reaching back to Abraham - who is then declared not to be […]
