Mark 4:26-5:20 In my whitewater canoeing days, my little canoe would more often than I liked hit a large wave and the cold water would rush into the boat. The air bags would struggle to keep me and the canoe afloat as I attempted to maneuver it to shore. The disciples found themselves in a similar situation in the Sea of Galilee. Mark 4:37 says “the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the b...  Read More

Mark 3:31-4:25 When someone asks you who you are, what do you share? You may talk about your job, your children, the city you are from, but do you ever share you are part of God’s family? When you place your faith in Christ, one of the things that happens is you are brought into a brand-new family. Jesus’ physical family rejected him as Messiah early in his ministry, but Jesus says “whoever does G...  Read More

Mark 3:7-30 Who is Jesus? That is the most important question we need to answer. This is so critical that it has eternal ramifications. Jesus says, “All the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of eternal sin.” Whatever this sin is, forgiveness is impossible. So what is it? When Jesus makes this claim...  Read More

Mark 2:13-3:6 How do the Old and New Testaments fit together? When we read the Old Testament and the Mosaic Covenant, we might wonder how they relate to Jesus. This is a question that many of the religious leaders had as well. Jesus brought a new covenant and a new way of life. In contrast the Pharisees and many in the early church tried to mash together the old way of things with the new. Jesus d...  Read More

Mark 1:29-2:12 What do you consider a productive day? Is it checking several things off your to do list? Is it making a bunch of money? Often our view of productivity looks more American than biblical, and more like the disciples than that of Jesus. Jesus’ public ministry has just begun and the disciples were ecstatic about the size of the crowds and their growing influence, but Jesus was not focu...  Read More

Mark 1:1-28 Where would you begin your life story? You might begin it with your birth, with some distant ancestor, with your first memory, or with a significant early event in your life. As we read through the four Gospels, we will discover they all begin in a different place. Matthew began with Abraham (a distance ancestor of Jesus) while Mark began with John the Baptist, a relative of Jesus. The...  Read More

Matthew 28:1-20 Have you ever experienced a time when sorrow was turned to joy? In the discovery of the resurrection of Jesus, we see the greatest transformation of emotions ever. Despair and uncertainty turned to joy and hope. The three Marys went to the tomb on Sunday to anoint a dead body, but discovered an empty tomb. An angel told them Jesus rose from the dead just as he said he would. Jesus ...  Read More

Matthew 27:32-66 What does power look like? How do we know whether someone is weak or strong? In the death of Jesus, we see that God’s view of power is very different from the world’s view. Those who watched Jesus’ death believed his crucifixion revealed weakness. While Jesus was on the cross, people mocked him for his seeming failure to fulfill his claims. The religious leaders also joined by say...  Read More

A correction and clarification from yesterday’s reading:The rooster crowed twice, not three times (Mark 14:30).  Also, Peter is taken back, but not Judas who is not saved (Matthew 26:24; John 17:12).Matthew 27:15-31 Who put Jesus on the cross? We could point to the religious authorities who had Jesus arrested and dragged him through his sham trials. We could point to the crowd who shouted, “Crucif...  Read More

Matthew 26:69-27:14 Are you willing to testify concerning the truth, or will you conform to the crowd? Will you follow along with everyone else or go against the flow? Peter is questioned three times concerning his association with Jesus and three times he denies even knowing him. The cost of allegiance to Jesus seemed too high, so he chose to swim along with the crowd. He valued his own comfort a...  Read More

Matthew 26:47-68 The ends justify the means. This common philosophical idea states that if we get the intended outcome we want, then anything we do can be rationalized and justified. We find that Jesus has a very different understanding. Peter wanted to protect Jesus. How could he let his master be arrested? How could he allow all they accomplished to be torn apart? Surely, this could not be God’s...  Read More

Matthew 26:14-46 Betrayal is a universal experience. We all have experienced someone ‘stabbing us in the back’ whether with a verbal insult, theft, or potentially physical abuse. In all of these cases, someone we loved and with whom we had experienced a closeness showed our trust had been misplaced. On his last two days on Earth, Jesus announces he would be betrayed. Judas betrays him by turning h...  Read More