The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four.  Some imagine that because it’s more concise than Matthew and Luke, who may have taken Mark and elaborated on it at greater length, it’s relatively less complex. Not so. Mark is unsettling, mysterious, and wonderfully iconoclastic.  He challenges his readers, subjecting their assumptions of what […]

It’s a fairly normal human response to think that something is wrong (either with our lives or in our relationship with God) when we go through hard times. In his commentary on Hebrews, David DeSilva calls us to reconfigure our conception of suffering.  A snippet of his comments on Heb. 5:7-10: Since the Son himself was […]

The political season here in the States has me thinking about Paul and politics. Before he was arrested and transformed by the exalted Jesus on the Damascus Road, Paul (called Saul, at the time) was a Pharisee.  As such, he had a thoroughly political orientation and outlook.  He was passionate about the God of Israel […]

Luke’s Gospel is filled with eating.  There are 19 meals in Luke, 13 of which are unique to his account.  If you love to eat, Luke is your Gospel! Meals are occasions for Kingdom dynamics, for the experience of redemptive realities. They are occasions for healing and hospitality (9:10-17; 10:5-7) for fellowship and celebration (13:29), […]

I don’t know exactly why, but sports journalists lose their capacity for critical analysis when it comes to Tiger Woods.  In analyzing and commenting on the state of his game over the last three years, they have largely capitulated to the terms set by Woods himself.  As I’ve said before, athletes usually have no ability […]

We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven. Have mercy on us, Lord.   We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us. We have not been true […]

David Brooks writes today about not being able to shake being a Mets fan.  I know whereof he speaks.  My being a Cubs fan precedes my choice, just as Brooks’s team loyalty does his. It was thrust upon me from my childhood.  I, too, can recall individual at-bats from 30 and 35 years ago.  I’ve tried […]

A third text from Luke exhibits the offensive inclusivity of Jesus’ family, this one from the Book of Acts. At the end of his third mission, Paul arrives in Jerusalem (Acts 21:17).  It’s Pentecost and the city is jammed with pilgrims and heightened religious fervor.  James informs him that his presence in the city is […]

Jesus’ inclusive ministry crossed ethnic lines, offending Jewish racial prejudices.  It also offended self-satisfied religious leaders. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:1-2). They were offended that Jesus was […]

Luke’s Gospel, like Mark, emphasizes “outsiders.”  In Mark, everyone who ought to get Jesus doesn’t (the disciples, Pharisees, scribes, etc.) and everyone who shouldn’t get Jesus does (the demon-possessed, leprous, unclean, the Syrophoenician woman, etc.). In Luke, Jesus is the Savior of all humanity—Jew and gentile—and this doesn’t sit well with God’s people.  We see […]