Who was God talking to at Jesus’ Baptism?

Who was God talking to at Jesus’ Baptism?

Matthew 3:13-17 Jesus came from Galilee to John to be baptized by him.  During the Second Temple Period, there were generally four groups of Jews: Pharisees, Sadducces, Zealots and Essenes. Pharisees: Believed in the primacy of Torah and the rabbinic interpretation of the Law. Jesus was a Pharisee. He has discussions with many other Pharisees, and their disputes […]

Slave to God

Slave to God

Isaiah 49: 3-6 3 He said to me, You are my servant, in you, Israel, I show my glory.    God intends to show His glory through people. But what does God mean by “glory”? Here, the Hebrew word is פָאַר “paar” and it generally translates as “beautify” or “glorify.” God intends to use us, His people, to beautify His Creation. […]

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday

I never really understood the Palm Sunday liturgy. We spend the first five minutes singing, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!!” and then head straight into fifteen minutes of the Passion and death of Jesus. As a result, I figured that the Palm Sunday part of it was pretty […]

“Go to Galilee”

“Go to Galilee”

“Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me”  ~ Matthew 28:10 These are among the first words that Jesus says after the Resurrection. “Go to Galilee.”  WHY? Galilee is green and lush, full of hillsides covered with orchards, goats, wildflowers, and paths leading up the surrounding mountains. Jerusalem is […]

The Most Important Seven Words in Scripture

The Most Important Seven Words in Scripture

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ: Beresheet bara elohim ayth hashamayim ayth haaretzIn the beginning, God himself created the heavens and the earth.  These could be the most important words in all of Scripture. Why, you ask? Because everything else depends on them. If you do not believe that God himself created the heavens […]

Blessing the World

Blessing the World

Isaiah 11:1-10 1: But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.     Isaiah does not claim that “from the roots of David a bud shall blossom.” Why not? Because while David started off acting righteously, he was eventually corrupted- remember the whole episode with sending Uriah […]