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 20:1-19 (AD 30) ‘Do you feel ignored by your network operator? Do they only chase after new business? Do they even care about you? Come to us and we’ll give discounts to our loyal customers. Come join the XYZ Network family…’ etc… That’s been a common advertising tack over the years, playing on your … More Day 97: God’s justice is better and his mercy is bigger than yours
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
Day 95: Matthew 19:13-15 (AD 30) You’d be surprise how this verse gets weaponised and in other ways misapplied. Just in my own experience I have heard it used as grounds for suggesting that a church was going against the Bible by not running a specific, requested children’s ministry programme. If the church was living … More Day 95: No barriers to entry
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, part 2 (winter, AD 29) A few months earlier Jesus was at the house of Mary and Martha. Mary was at Jesus’ feet, lapping up everything he was saying, leaving chores and practical hospitality aside for a while. Martha complained to Jesus about it, and was given a gentle but firm rebuttal: “Martha, … More Day 91: Martha – humbled and holy
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
Paul T Reynolds 