Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

Jesus continues to confront the chief priests and Pharisees about their opposition to his kingdom. In the parable of the tenants, he speaks about how they responded to him and the in the parable of the wedding feast he describes how people will respond to the message of the kingdom delivered by his servants. The Parable of the Tenants (Matthew 21:33-45) In this parable, Jesus speaks about a vineyard, its tenants, a series of servants sent by the owner of the vineyard, and the son of the vineyard owner. It is not difficult for us to work out who is being depicted here. The owner is God the Father, the vineyard is Israel, the tenants are the Israelites, the servants are the prophets, and the Son is Jesus. What is said about them? Regarding God the Father, he created a vineyard with all that was necessary for it to be a fruitful place. He did not relinquish ownership of the vineyard, which is a reminder that it never belonged to the tenants, the Israelites. The vineyard was alw...

Matthew continues with his record of the activities of Jesus during the last week of his life. We have already seen what happened on the first day of the week when he rode into Jerusalem on the back of the borrowed donkey. Now we move on to the Monday with regard to what happened in the temple, although Matthew does not indicate that there is a gap between verses 11 and 12. But Mark tells us that the cleansing of the temple occurred on the day after the arrival of Jesus in the city. The explanation of the barren fig tree was given on the Tuesday, as was the interaction with the religious leaders in the temple. Matthew groups together several events and parables and discourses that indicate that Jesus has arrived in the city as a Judge, although the Jewish leaders, and eventually the people, do not realise this and are determined to resist him. Jesus Cleanses the Temple This is the second occasion when Jesus cleared the temple of bad practices – the previous occasion occurred at t...

We now enter the account of the final week of the life of Jesus and yet there is still almost a fourth of the Gospel of Matthew still to read. All the Gospels give a large amount of their accounts to telling what occurred during this final week, a reminder that it contains events crucial to how we should understand the mission of Jesus. This day is celebrated in the Christian Year as Palm Sunday. In the week of the time, it was the day after the Sabbath and so the first day of a new week. But what the people were expecting to happen as they anticipated the Passover and what they received were two different things because it was clearly a day of surprises. Matthew does not say where Jesus had come from. We know that Bethany and Bethphage were near each other. John tells that on the previous day Jesus had been anointed with oil by Mary, which means he had spent the Sabbath at Bethany with his friends there. This was the last ‘first day of the week’ of the old order. When the nex...

This incident follows the occasion in Jericho, recorded by Luke, when Zacchaeus the tax-collector became a follower of Jesus. One departing from Jericho, Mark and Luke describe how Jesus healed a blind man called Bartimaeus. We may wonder why Matthew says that there were two blind men when Mark and Luke focus on one blind man. Two options can be given in reply. One is that the two men whom Matthew describes are a separate incident from that of Bartimaeus, although this seems unlikely. Another is that Mark and Luke mention Bartimaeus because later on he became known in the church as a consequence of his healing and therefore focussed on him. If this is the reason, then we have an example in the other blind man of how those whom Jesus helped can be forgotten very quickly, an outcome that is not limited to back then. The fact that Mark and Luke do not mention the other blind man is not that different from how the Gospel writers describe other incidents. For example, they all indicate...

As is well-known, Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians while he was imprisoned in Rome. He was there because he had appealed to Caesar after being accused of wrongdoing while on a visit to Jerusalem. This imprisonment lasted a few years and during it he wrote four of his epistles – Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. Obviously, being able to do this was of great benefit to the churches and individuals who received those letters and they have come down to us as part of God’s Word. So we can see that God had his own secret plans when he allowed his servant to be arrested. But this set of verses brings to our notice another area in which God had plans and that was the spread of the gospel in the city of Rome. Sharing information One feature that stands out in what Paul says here is his willingness to provide information to the Philippians about what was taking place through his ministry in Rome. There were perhaps two reasons for this. First, he did not want his ...