I have to be quite honest. There is really very little about this parable that I like. “The weeping and gnashing of teeth” is one of my least favorite phrases in all of Scripture, and Matthew seems particularly fond of it. It appears six times in Matthew, once in Luke,...
There is a vineyard. Someone has planted it, put a fence around it, dug a winepress, built a watchtower, and entrusted it to tenants. And everything in Jesus’ parable turns on one simple fact: The vineyard does not belong to the tenants. They have been entrusted with it. They are...
“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” That is the question the chief priests and elders ask Jesus. And it is a good question. Authority matters. We entrust people with authority over enormous parts of our lives. Parents have authority. Teachers have authority....
On Monday I was at my child’s soccer game. It was a close game. Tied for much of the time. In the end, my child’s team lost by one point. There were a lot of off-side calls. There were also, shall we say, some questionable calls by the referees. But...
Peter comes to Jesus with what sounds like a practical question. “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” It is such a human question. How many times? How long do I have to keep doing this? When...
There are passages of Scripture that comfort us, and there are passages that unsettle us. And sometimes, if we are willing to stay with them long enough, the unsettling passages may have more to teach us. Today’s Gospel is one of those passages. It begins with Jesus speaking about purity....
Immediately after feeding a multitude with five loaves and two fish, Jesus makes the disciples get into a boat. “Make” is almost too gentle a word. The Greek verb suggests that Jesus compelled them, constrained them, practically forced them into the boat. This is not a pleasant invitation to take...
Today’s Gospel begins with Jesus trying to get away. Matthew tells us that Jesus withdrew by boat to a deserted place. He had just learned that John the Baptist had been murdered by Herod. John—Jesus’ cousin, teacher, baptizer, and fellow prophet—had been executed because he dared to speak truth to...
“The kingdom of heaven is like…” Again and again, Jesus begins with those words. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. The kingdom of heaven is like yeast hidden in flour. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure buried in a field. The kingdom of heaven is like...
There is blood on the ground in Biddeford. On Monday morning, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero left his home to go to work. He was a young Colombian immigrant. A husband. A father. A man working two jobs to care for his family. He had authorization to work in this country...