Matthew 9:35-10:25 (AD 28) An army Captain once told me an officer should never tell his troops to do something or go somewhere he isn’t prepared to do or go himself. Not that I pay attention to what every army officer tells me – I heard from another that I was supposed to be a … More Day 48: Do not worry about what to say
Matthew 13:53-58 (AD 28) In Jesus’ home town of Nazareth, he was respected enough that he taught in the synagogue, and there was no argument that he possessed “wisdom and…miraculous powers” (v.54). And yet it wasn’t merely the leaders who had an issue with Jesus, we see plenty of ‘ordinary’ people whose rejection of Jesus … More Day 47: Dishonour begins at home
Matthew 9:27-34 (AD 28) If the Pharisees were on Twitter and tweeted, “It is by the prince of demons that [Jesus] drives out demons” (as per verse thirty-four), I think their tweet would have gone viral…and not in a good way. They would have received a stream of mockery, facepalming and eye-rolling gifs. Their statement … More Day 46: Pharisees getting desperate
Mark 5:1-43 (AD 28) Peripheral, nagging question first: Why did Jesus allow the demons to go into a herd of pigs which then drowned, causing significant economic damage to the pigs’ owner? Answer: Dunno. Maybe it was to provide proof that the exorcism was real. In Mark 9:6 a demon put a boy through wild … More Day 45: Demons in pigs
Mark 4:35-41 (AD 28) No matter how many times I read it, I can never quite get my head around the disciples saying, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (v.38) when the storm hit their boat. For their accusation of Jesus not caring about them to be true, the following things would also have … More Day 44: God, don’t you care?
Matthew 13:1-52 (AD 28) This is probably the second-most famous parable, after ‘The Good Samaritan’, with an unusually long explanation in the Bible about what it means. Today we’ll think specifically about the fact that all three of the seeds that found soil began to grow, although the seed falling on healthy soil did not … More Day 43: Healthy soil or bust
Paul T Reynolds 