Luke 22:47-71 “Projection” is a term that psychologists use for a curious form of human behavior where Person A accuses Person B of doing or thinking the things Person A is actually doing or thinking. For example, if a man has a guilty conscience about having committed adultery or giving himself over to lust in some way, he will often accuse his wife of having adulterous intentions when she’s just friendly with another man. Adulterers project adultery onto everyone else. Addi

Luke 22:24-46 Throughout the earthly ministry of Jesus, His disciples are constantly arguing among themselves as to which of them will be the greatest in His kingdom, which of them will have the most glory, the most honor, the greatest position of power in the presumed earthly reign of our Lord. And here in our text for today, the disciples are doing this again, on the very night of our Lord’s betrayal. It’s all quite amazing. The disciples have now heard Jesus speak numerous

Ephesians 2:19-22 Salvation is never faceless. When God gathers saints into His kingdom, they are never just masses of people stumbling in like crowds swarming the gates of Disney World as the park opens for the day. Even though Jesus tells Peter he will become a fisher of men, He tells him this to describe the size of the harvest, not the relationship our Lord will have with His faithful. To understand that, we have the sheep and shepherd metaphors. Likewise, when Jesus give

Luke 5:17-39 Tax collectors in the days of Christ’s earthly ministry had a rather bad reputation. First, tax collectors were known for being rather thuggish. They weren’t accountants as we might think of them, but more along the lines of mafia goons, shakedown artists who would often use threats of governmental power and violence to extract from people more than they owned. And second, those who worked as tax collectors worked for a foreign power that was imposing itself on y

Mark 14:53–72 Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” What does Jesus mean when He speaks these words in response to the high priest during His trial? I think there are ultimately two answers to that question. The first is because Jesus wants to bring the whole sham to an end. The Chief Priests need red meat in

Mark 4:21–41 When I was a sophomore in college, my sister lived just a couple blocks away from my apartment. And one day she called me and frantically begged me to come over to her house. She was terrified of something. Something had paralyzed her with fear. A problem had appeared in her life that she could not escape and she needed me to rescue her from it immediately, lest she perish! The problem, of course, was a spider. So I walked over to her apartment, smashed the spide

Genesis 8:13-9:17 In 1 Peter 3, the apostle tells us that the saving waters of baptism correspond to the flood, which is to say that the flood was a type of baptism, a promise of what we would receive in baptism. And understanding this makes the promise that God gives to Noah in Genesis 9 all the more beautiful. In discussing the rainbow that He puts in the sky as a sign of His promise, God tells Noah, “I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures o

Mark 3:1-19 “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” This is the question Jesus asks those who are jealous of His power and popularity. It’s what he asks those who want Him to heal a man on the Sabbath not because they want the man to be healed, but because they want to get rid of the One who is able to heal. And it’s a marvelous question. So in other circumstances, Jesus will ask this crowd, “is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?” But h

Genesis 2:4-25 If you listen to supposed biblical “scholars,” they’ll tell you that the author of Genesis 1 must have been different from the author of Genesis 2. These must be two different creation myths assembled together. And their reasoning is because the tone of these creation accounts is so radically different. In Genesis 1, God is speaking and things are erupting into existence. Light is bursting into being, the massive swaths of dry land are emerging from the sea. Tr

Mark 1:14–28 One of my favorite tropes in old movies is the whole “there’s a new sheriff in town” thing that you find in westerns. So a bunch of bandits have overtaken some little town and are terrorizing the poor citizens. But then the hero arrives and some low-level thugs find him in the street or in the saloon to tell him he’s not welcome. This is their terrain, and he’d better git if he knows what’s good for him. But, of course, the hero responds by easily dispatching the

Matthew 27:11–32 There’s a fascinating thing that happens often in the passion of our Lord. Those who despise His gospel end up confessing His gospel. When the high priest demands that Jesus tell them whether He is the Christ, Jesus responds by saying, “you have said so.” As we heard in our reading this morning, when Pilate asks Jesus if He’s a king, Jesus replies again, “you have said so.” In other words, “you have refused to acknowledge me as your Savior and your King. But

Colossians 2:8-23 The devil is cunning and crafty, but he is not wise. Which is to say, he knows how to lure you into temptation. He...

2 Chronicles 29:1–24 On days like this, it’s easy to hunger for a Hezekiah, for a faithful king who will root out the godless rot in our...

Philippians 1:21-2:11 Very often, when people go to funerals, they feel like they need to say something to those who were closest to the...

2 Kings 5:9-27 Very often in the Scriptures, God reveals the depth of His love for us in the simplicity of His miracles. We see this in...

WEDNESDAY 1 Kings 19 It’s understandable why Elijah is so despondent in our text for today. For some time, he’s been dealing with the...

MONDAY Psalm 32:1-7 On the one hand, it’s a little weird that “Rumpelstiltskin” is one of the most famous fairy tales. It’s weird how a...

MONDAY Psalm 107:1–9 “Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in.” So says the Psalmist. And so he says about...

THURSDAY 2 Samuel 1 A man stands before his judge and king, proud of himself for having destroyed the king’s enemy. For years, this enemy...

1 Samuel 31 When Jesus tells us about Lazarus and the Rich Man in the Gospel of Luke, the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to his...