Luke 19:11-27 (AD 30) Why did Jesus tell this parable? “because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once” (v.11). He was walking towards the capital with his followers and after three years of increasingly public, popular and startling ministry, many were hoping that … More Day 100: God takes back the gifts that people don’t want
Luke 19:1-10 (AD 30) Zacchaeus may or may not have been chubby like he is in many Sunday School materials pictures, but he definitely wasn’t a sweet guy. He was pretty much a scumbag and admitted it during this story. In Roman-occupied Israel, tax collectors were paid a set and relatively low wage for collecting … More Day 99: Zacchaeus was a scumbag
Matthew 20:20-34 (AD 30) The opposition were bigger than my son’s team, and a couple of them were girls who looked several years older than the allowed age grouping. And they were violent. For the first half of the game our boys couldn’t quite believe a.) how much they were being kicked and b.) how … More Day 98: Service is leadership is service
Matthew 19:16-30 (AD 30) (A paraphrased, relocated version of today’s passage:) A Young, Important (and oddly pushy) Man (YIM) and a Pastor were at a dinner party… YIM: ‘You’re a religious, Bible teacher guy, I’m a really good guy. You can probably confirm this for me: what good thing, religious ritual, whatever…do you think I … More Day 96: Young, important and oddly pushy
Matthew 19:3-12 (AD 30) The Pharisees had a habit of deliberately mangling Scripture and then demanding Jesus publicly unmangle in a way that would make him look bad to either them, regular people, or preferably both. In this example they used some verses from Deuteronomy: “If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to … More Day 94: Jesus honoured marriage & singleness
Luke 17:11-37 (AD 30) “Now on his way to Jerusalem…” begins our reading. This is the journey for which Jesus ‘set his face’ as older translations described the manner of his setting out, in Luke 9:51. Jesus’ friends and family were concerned at the risks of seemingly putting his head in the lion’s mouth by … More Day 92: Ungrateful and undeserving
John 11 (winter, AD 29) The calendar was about to turn from AD 29, to AD 30 – in the spring of which Jesus was murdered. This passage shows us the power of Jesus over death. And it’s no accident of narrative that the response to Jesus’ demonstration of his power over death was to … More Day 90: Jesus raised a dead man to life – let’s kill him!
Luke 17:1-10 (winter, AD 29) Jesus said scary stuff sometimes, but some of the scariest things he said containing the most comforting truths. “Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown … More Day 89: Comfort in the scary bits
Luke 16:19-31 (winter, AD 29) Money is not the root of all evil. What Paul said to Timothy (1 Tim 6:10) was that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (emphases mine). That is a vastly different meaning, and reflects what Jesus was talking about in this passage, about thirty … More Day 88: Money is not the root of all evil
Luke 16:16-18 (winter, AD 29) There are still those who, while calling themselves Christians, insist that we need to keep to the civil and ceremonial code of Old Testament Law. And yet, throughout the gospels Jesus made it clear that those codes were done away with, and no longer acceptable because the prophesied Messiah had … More Day 87: Old covenant drugs and new covenant cure
Paul T Reynolds 