Blog – Page 146 – Read Through the Bible

May 13 / Mark 12:18-37

Mark 12:18-37

I would suggest that it’s worth reading my comment in the second link below from 2019 on the scribe’s question about the most important commandment. I find that discussion between Jesus and the scribe to be really heartwarming – a genuine question from the scribe and a perfect reply from Jesus, then further discussion between them. It makes me want to meet that scribe!

And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. (v. 34b) I looked ahead in The Chronological Study Bible and as far as I could tell this statement is true, that there are no more incidents where the Pharisees or Sadducees were asking Jesus questions in which they were trying to challenge Him.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (v. 30) I don’t know if I’ve said it to all of you before, but this quote from Jesus is my “conversion verse”. On May 17, 1975 late in the evening I was once again sitting with my friend, Jim and he was sharing with me again as he had for the previous 3.5 years. But somehow through all that he said this verse came to me and I was convicted that I was a sinner and that I needed God’s forgiveness. I knew that I was not even close on obeying that “greatest commandment”. I think of this almost every Sunday when we read this commandment at the beginning of our service following the “Prayer for Purity” when the deacon reads the “Summary of the Law”. Sweet…!

May 12 / Matt. 22:23-46

Matthew 22:23-46

In the second link below I tried to clarify Matthew’s verse 44 which reads The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies under Your feet”. (Caps for further clarification…) Substituting differently than below, another way to read this verse could be God the Father said to Jesus <i.e., David’s Lord, the Messiah>, “Sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies under Your feet”. How does that substitution work for the rest of you? Is it still faithful to the Scriptural meaning?

Now there were seven brothers among us. (v. 25) Matthew, different from Mark and Luke adds these last two words, “among us”. I doubt that the Sadducees knew of one real-life case of seven brothers having the one wife. It’s one thing to ask Jesus a question, to test Him. But it’s another to employ a falsehood to initiate the test. Jesus could easily have responded, “Really? Six dead brothers and then a seventh…?? Amazing!” (Yes, it’s a very small point, but it’s something that I noticed this morning.)

May 11 / Luke 20:9-26

Luke 20:9-26

Verse 18 from today’s first parable is one that has been confusing to me: Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. But a key to understanding lies in the pronoun, everyone. My Study Bible suggested pottery instead of people. A clay pot falling on a stone will be broken to pieces, but stone falling on a clay pot will surely do more damage. The NASB says, “will scatter him like dust”, an even stronger wording. Maybe something was lost in the translation?

Both Mark and Luke note that “they” (presumably the chief priests) did not try to arrest Jesus because they “feared the people”. All of our readings for the next two weeks take place during the first few days of Holy Week, with Jesus presumably teaching in the Temple. If the chief priests are afraid of arresting Jesus because of the people, it must have been a very large crowd of people to whom Jesus was speaking – every time He spoke! And He is doing His teachings every day, Monday through Thursday, probably within the Temple grounds until He celebrates the Passover with His disciples at the Last Supper. Only then do the chief priests hatch a plot to catch Him late at night when the crowd is gone. And even then they incite a rabble crowd to force the Roman governor to sentence Jesus to death. What a sad commentary on these Jewish leaders.

May 10 / Mark 12:1-17

Mark 12:1-17

I noted in the second link below that the group sent to Jesus with the tribute question differs in the three Gospels. Mark has the following statement: And they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap Him in his talk. (v. 13) Here “they” must clearly refer to the chief priests who at that time were from among the Sadducees. This is yet another occurrence of the Sadducees and Pharisees, opponents in many respects, now joined in their plot to destroy Jesus. The first occurrence that I noted was in John’s Gospel after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, where the high priest, Caiaphas had suggested that …one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. (John 11:49-52) The third group in today’s incident, the Herodians presumably had nothing against Jesus, but were used by the other two groups in trying to trip Jesus up.

In his sermon yesterday Michael Matlock mentioned that God had ordained three institutions for our society – marriage and the family, the church, and the government. In answering the tribute question Jesus acknowledges the authority of both the government and the church. Interesting…

May 9 / Matt. 22:1-22

Matthew 22:1-22

And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. (v. 10) This verse caught my eye – my NASB translation said “both evil and good”, replacing “bad” with “evil”. “Evil” is a much stronger word than “bad”. But with either word, Jesus is making it clear that all people are invited to the wedding feast, even to His great wedding feast when the church will be presented to Jesus as His bride. There is no one out there who is not worth saving, even those family and friends who have been most resolute in rejecting Jesus. Whether by word or deed, we need to continue to reflect Jesus to them.

On paying taxes to Caesar… I had made a mistake in filing our 2019 taxes last year and filled out a Form 1040-X earlier this year to correct that mistake. It involved us paying back multiple thousands of dollars to the IRS. Then last week I saw a large deposit in our bank account for a smaller amount, but still multiple thousands of dollars. We haven’t received the official notification yet, but I did check online and it is a true refund. I imagine an IRS employee seeing a large check to correct an earlier error and doing what s/he could to minimize that correction – a good outcome for us. The point – we need to pay to Caesar what is due, even when it hurts, but the Lord will continue to provide for us!

May 8 / Matt. 21:33-46

When Jesus told this parable of the landowner (or tenants or wicked vinedressers) He was taking off from Isaiah 5:1-7, where the Lord is chastising Israel for their many failures. But Jesus changes it up a bit. In Isaiah the landowner prepared the vineyard much as we read in Matthew, but kept it himself and did not lease it out. However, the vineyard produced only wild grapes, so the landowner removed the hedge and the wall and let the vineyard go to ruin. Verse 4a is a key verse in Isaiah’s account: What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? The Lord had prepared His people well, but they had been unfaithful.

In Jesus’ parable He has the vineyard producing fruit, but the tenants fail to return the “rent” due to the landowner, even to the point of killing his rental agents. So the landowner decides to turn the vineyard over to different tenants. Matthew tells us that the chief priests and the Pharisees realized that Jesus was telling this parable about them, that they were the wicked vinedressers. Jesus foretells the final outcome in a summary statement: Therefore I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. (v. 43) We are those new tenants in His vineyard. Are we producing fruits for our Landowner?

May 7 / Mark 11:20-33, Luke 20:1-8

Mark 11:20-33 and Luke 20:1-8

It’s Mother’s Day week at the flower shop – that and Valentine’s Day take over our lives. So nothing for today, except for what I posted in 2019, in the links below. Be blessed!

May 6 / Matt. 21:18-32

Matthew 21:18-32

One item struck me anew this morning. In the morning, as He was returning to the city, He became hungry. (v. 18) It’s a small matter, I know, but with Jesus and his disciples staying evenings in Bethany this Holy Week, did Martha and Mary not offer them breakfast before they left for the day? I know, not an earth-shattering discovery…!!

The two sons… Neither had the perfect response. The first son relented, but did he repent? Was it guilt that sent him to the vineyard or a real recognition that he had wronged his father? And what was his continuing attitude while he was in the vineyard working – grumpy at having to be there or happy that he was helping his father? So, a mixed response for this first son. But the second son – clearly a problem! Nothing more to say on that one. But my further reflection is on the father. In the end he sees he must be happy to see his first son engaging in the work, but he probably feels some anger or disappointment at the second son not going out.

Jesus was speaking to the chief priests and elders when he spoke this parable, but He could just as easily be speaking to us. What has Jesus asked us to do and how have we responded? There are two other responses that Jesus did not mention in this parable, yes-yes and no-no. Forgetting the no-no, Jesus would surely like to see our yes-yes! But what is His reaction to a no-yes? I think the key is in our response – do we do His work because we relent or because we repent? If we’re just doing His work because “we have to” (we relent), I doubt that He rejoices over our work. But I daresay that His response to a repentant no-yes is every bit as joyful to Him as a yes-yes. But save yourself the trouble. If He asks something of you, speak Isaiah’s words: “Here I am, Lord, send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)

May 5 / Matt. 21:12-17, Mark 11:12-19, Luke 19:45-48

Matthew 21:12-17, Mark 11:12-19, and Luke 19:45-48

Yesterday’s pictorial image was well received, so here’s another – a close-up of the Temple. The Chronological Study Bible indicates that the full Temple was 500 yards long and 325 yards wide. Inside that larger Temple was another structure measuring 150 yards by 100 yards. To the lower right of the picture below the artists show a size comparison with a football field which measures 100 yards long by 53 feet wide. Inside this larger Temple area there are four courts. #1 below is the “Holy of Holies” which only the High Priest can enter; #3 is the Priests Court (or the Court of Israel) which only Jewish men can enter; #9 is the Court of Women which any Jews could enter; finally the largest area is the Court of the Gentiles, open to people of all races and creeds. This is the area where Jesus “attacked”, where merchants were selling sacrificial animals and changing money.

The Temple faces east; as I noted yesterday, the direction Jesus would go in the evening as He lodged in Bethany. The picture below has a label, “Solomon’s Portico (Eastern)”. Solomon’s Portico is a covered area that actually extends around the entire outer perimeter of the Court of the Gentiles. It is likely that Jesus did much of His teaching in these areas.

Enjoy!

May 4 / Luke 19:28-44

Luke 19:28-44

The Pharisees have long had problems with Jesus, but their complaint in verse 39 is too much: And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” The crowd is not in the Temple region or in a closed environment; they are gathered out in the open air, on a well-traveled road, part of a procession heading toward Jerusalem. How could the Pharisees have a problem with that, except for the jealousy they must have felt at Jesus receiving all this honor? So sad…

I think it’s helpful to see Holy Week locations on a map to get a better picture of Jesus’ travels. Imbedded below is a very good map that highlights the Temple, including the road that leads up to the East Gate, a common entry point for people coming from the east. You can see the Kidron Valley to the east, separating Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. Gethsemane is at the tee where the road splits, the south road leading to Bethpage and Bethany. It is likely this road that Jesus traveled on Palm Sunday as He headed toward the temple. He would also be traveling this road each evening of Holy Week, most probably staying in Bethany with Martha, Mary, and Lazarus – roughly a two-mile journey from the Temple. The map is drawn in a light relief fashion, giving some idea of the topography that Jesus would have traveled during Holy Week. The traditional location for Golgotha is also shown, just off the road leading west of the city. Other locations on the map that are also named in the Gospels include the Pool of Siloam, the Pool of Bethsaida, Solomon’s Porch, and the Pinnacle of the Temple.

Blessings!