"What Kind of Woman She Is"

The reason Simon the Pharisee is so scandalized when Jesus lets the sinful woman come near and weep all over him is because Simon can't imagine that if Jesus really knew "what kind of woman she is" that he would let her approach. But that's what's so amazing about Jesus: he neither condones sin nor pushes away sinners.

Today’s Scripture:

Luke 7:36-50

---

***Sign Up to Receive My Weekday Updates***

Subscribe here to receive a weekday update as we read through the Gospel of Luke.

In addition to my weekday blogging on the Gospels, I also write occasionally about other topics. Subscribe here to be notified when I publish a new post.

P.S. All Subscribers Will Get My Free Whitepaper!

If you sign up for my Andrew Forrest newsletter, I’ll send you a white paper I’ve written called “The Simple Technique Anyone Can Immediately Use to Become a Better Communicator”.

What Does "Corban" Mean?

In today's passage, Jesus accuses the Pharisees of hypocritically declaring certain segments of their property to be "corban." What does that mean?

Property or financial resources declared corban were meant to be used as Temple offerings. Here's the catch, though: some people would declare the lion's share of their resources corban but not actually donate them until later, perhaps upon their death. So, one way of avoiding the financial responsibility of caring for aging parents was to declare your resources corban and then say to your parents, "Sorry, folks: I just can't afford it--I've given everything away to God."

Today’s Scripture

Mark 7:1-13

---

***Sign Up to Receive My Weekday Updates***

Subscribe here to receive a weekday update on that day’s Mark reading.

In addition to my weekday blogging on Mark’s Gospel, I also write occasionally about other topics. Subscribe here to be notified when I publish a new post.

P.S. All Subscribers Will Get My Free Whitepaper!

If you sign up for my Andrew Forrest newsletter, I’ll send you a white paper I’ve written called “The Simple Technique Anyone Can Immediately Use to Become a Better Communicator”.

The Man with the Withered Hand

The Pharisees are so filled with hatred and jealously that they are more concerned with trying to find a way to kill Jesus than they are amazed at the miracle of the healing of the man with the withered hand. Right in front of them a man is made well, and all they can think is how much they hate Jesus.

A good test to apply to yourself: are you able to rejoice when good things happen to your enemies?

Today’s Scripture

Mark 3:1-19

---

***Sign Up to Receive My Weekday Updates***

Subscribe here to receive a weekday update on that day’s Mark reading.

In addition to my weekday blogging on Mark’s Gospel, I also write occasionally about other topics. Subscribe here to be notified when I publish a new post.

P.S. All Subscribers Will Get My Free Whitepaper!

If you sign up for my Andrew Forrest newsletter, I’ll send you a white paper I’ve written called “The Simple Technique Anyone Can Immediately Use to Become a Better Communicator”.

Jesus and Judgment

I appreciate what Stanley Hauerwas has to say about the seven woes that Jesus pronounces on the teachers of the law and the Pharisees:

"The series of woes that Jesus directs at the scribes and Pharisees make for difficult reading in light of the Christian condemnation and persecution of the Jews. That these characterizations of the scribes and Pharisees have unfairly been used to condemn all Jews as well as Judaism is a sign of Christian failure and sin. But the sin is not that Christians thought it necessary to make judgments informed by those forms of life that Jesus's condemns, but that we have failed to apply those judgments to ourselves. We cannot forget that Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees from a position of weakness. He has no power to act against those he condemns. Christians betray Jesus when they make judgments--like those Jesus makes against the scribes and Pharisees--from positions of power that transform those judgments into violent and murderous actions rather than attempts to call ourselves and our brothers and sisters to a better life."

Stanley Hauerwas, Matthew

Today’s Scripture:

Matthew 23:13-36

---

***How to Subscribe***

I’m blogging through the Gospels in 2019. Subscribe here to receive a weekday update on that day’s Gospel reading. (There is also an option to subscribe to non-Gospels posts as well through my plain ole Andrew Forrest Newsletter.)

Jesus and Hypocrisy

Jesus has talked many times in Matthew's Gospel about the problem of hypocrisy, of not practicing what you preach. Here, he again takes the Pharisees to task, not for what they say--he even says "You must be careful to do everything they tell you"--but for what they don't do: namely, follow their own advice.

If Jesus talks about this so often, it must be important. So, here's the question:

Where today am I not living up to my own principles? How am I not practicing what I preach?

Today’s Scripture:

Matthew 23:1-12

---

***How to Subscribe***

I’m blogging through the Gospels in 2019. Subscribe here to receive a weekday update on that day’s Gospel reading. (There is also an option to subscribe to non-Gospels posts as well through my plain ole Andrew Forrest Newsletter.)

Which Jesus?

I just read today's reading to my 8 year-old son, and this is what he said:

"I don't think John the Baptist did a good job telling the people about who Jesus would be because Jesus didn't come with fire...he was gracious to the people, and John kinda gave people the wrong idea."

Is that right? John is certainly a fiery fellow. See how he addresses the Pharisees (a conservative Jewish group who believed that the Jews needed to come back to the Torah and be obedient) and the Sadducees (the ruling group of priests who collaborated with the Romans):

"You brood of vipers....

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

John the Baptist, Matthew 3:11-12

That image of a wrathful judge doesn't fit with our typical picture of Jesus, meek and mild. And, in Matthew's Gospel Jesus does seem gracious and kind in many situations. In that way, my son was right.

But on the other hand, there are elements of the wrathful judge in Matthew's description of Jesus. (To cite one example among many, see the famous parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.)

As we read Matthew's Gospel, we'll see that Jesus doesn't fit preconceived notions, in his time or in our own. Yes, he is gracious and merciful (particularly towards the weak and downtrodden), but he is also forthright and condemning (particularly towards the religious and arrogant).

Jesus doesn't conform to our expectations, and that's the point:

We don't fit Jesus into what we already think. Rather, we need to fit what we think into Jesus. That's much harder, and much more important.

Today's Scripture

Matthew 3