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

Matthew 25:31-26:13 Jesus says the greatest command is to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. He intricately connects our love of God with our love of people and vice versa. You can only do one when you are doing the other. Jesus makes this point very clear in some of his final words to his disciples. He proclaims that the judgment people will face will be connected to “whatever you di...  Read More

Matthew 25:1-30 A wedding can be one of the most stressful events in life. When I do premarital counseling, we often spend time discussing how stressed the couple is because of the planning. Think of all the things that go into a wedding: clothing, food, music, location, a date, vows, and an absurd number of other details. That is a lot of stuff. In the same way, Jesus says we need to prepare and ...  Read More

Matthew 24:29-51 As Jesus heads to the cross, he makes a point of instructing his disciples about his return. He wants this final event of human history to transform their lives. The return of Christ is not meant to be an abstract theological concept but a life transforming reality. Jesus gives two specific applications regarding his return. First, we are to be watchful. We are to have our eyes op...  Read More

Matthew 24:1-28 What is going to happen? How many times in life have you wished you knew the future? Though we are not given the details of our tomorrow, Jesus does lay out for his disciples a general map of what was to come for them and some of what is still to come for us. As the disciples look around the magnificence of the temple mount, they are stunned that Jesus says it will soon be destroye...  Read More