Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2726 to 2750 of 5000 results

Jeremiah 21:1-14, Jeremiah 22:1-30

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... Jehoiachin is about improved conditions in exile, where he died (Jer. 52:31–34). “Pot” (22:28) is a term for a degraded quality of jar. The address to land is likely a call for a witness (22:29; cf. 6:19). The threefold iteration marks intensity (cf. Isa. 6:3). Jehoiachin had seven sons (1 Chron. 3:17–19), none of whom ruled. Zerubbabel, Jehoiachin’s grandson, returned to Jerusalem to become governor, not king. Since Zedekiah, Judah’s last king, preceded Jehoiachin in death, Jehoiachin in effect ...

2727. The Execution of the Idolaters

Ezekiel 9:1-11

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... . It surrenders its sanctity. There were seven thousand in Elijah’s day who did not bow the knee to Baal. And there are those in Ezekiel’s day who grieve and lament over all the detestable things (9:4). The heavenly scribe is to put a mark on the foreheads of these faithful believers who have not compromised religious convictions. The Hebrew says: “put a taw on their foreheads.” Taw is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and in the original Hebrew script it was shaped like an x. We are reminded ...

2728. The Tithe

Malachi 3:6-18

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. (Ps. 73:1–3) In response, their names are written in “a scroll of remembrance” (cf. Exod. 32:32–33; Ps. 69:28; 87:6; Dan. 12:1). The Lord has marked a people for himself who will accept his tender care and the rewards of their labors. The greatest reward is to be a member of his “treasured possession” (Hebrew segullah). The word segullah is difficult to translate, since it connotes a people elected and loved by ...

2729. A Dead Girl and a Sick Woman

Matthew 9:18-26

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... her, she touches his cloak (9:20–21). Jesus declares that her faith has brought about her healing. The story ends with the raising of the ruler’s daughter as Jesus takes her by the hand. Matthew ties the two stories into one, sandwiching the former within the latter (as Mark does; Mark 5:21–43; see “Sources” in the introduction). This connection serves to highlight the dual themes of faith and Jesus’s authority and compassion.

2730. Clean and Unclean

Matthew 15:1-20

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... of 15:19). Here Matthew’s Jesus is not invalidating the Jewish purity system; rather, he is providing an alternate interpretation of purity issues over against the tradition of the elders. (Mark’s Gospel takes this story in a different direction, particularly in his extrapolation that all foods are clean [Mark 7:19]. Nevertheless, there is no Gospel evidence that Jesus or his disciples broke with kosher dietary practices.) In response to Jesus’s critique of the Pharisees and scribes, his disciples ...

2731. The Lord's Supper

Matthew 26:17-30, Matthew 26:31-35

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... the beginning of the Passover celebration at 26:17 (with “the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread” signaling its inception or the day anticipating it, as in Mark 14:12; for the combining of the two festivals cf. Deut. 16:1–8; Philo, On the Special Laws 2.150). He tells his disciples to prepare their Passover meal by going into Jerusalem and meeting a man with whom Jesus has presumably made room arrangements. In the later evening, ...

2732. The Calling of Levi

Mark 2:13-17

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... the Sea of Galilee. The frequent references to crowds going out to him (1:32, 45; 2:13; 3:8; 4:1) may symbolize that discipleship entails leaving behind some of life’s comforts and securities. “Teaching,” which occurs some fifteen times in Mark, indicates the essential role that instruction plays in Jesus’s ministry, and the large crowds that attend it indicate the public nature of the gospel. The Roman tax system functioned, in part, by renegade Jews like Levi (2:14–17) receiving a franchise to ...

2733. Lord of the Sabbath

Mark 2:23-3:6

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... sinful people. In this fifth and final conflict story (3:1–6), all eyes are trained on Jesus to see if he will heal on the Sabbath. A shriveled hand is not life threatening and does not qualify as an exception to Jewish Sabbath rules. Mark places this story immediately after 2:27–28 in order to demonstrate Jesus’s revolutionary teaching of doing—not refraining from—God’s work on the Sabbath. Before healing the man, Jesus asks two questions. The first question, about doing good or evil, refers to ...

2734. The Healing of a Demon-possessed Man

Mark 5:1-20

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... later the Romans established showcase cities of pagan culture and ideals that were intended to surpass Jewish settlements west of the Jordan. The wretchedness of the demoniac, who even in life is consigned to the place of the dead, is described in more graphic detail in Mark 5:2–5 than in either Matthew 8:28 or Luke 8:27. From a Jewish perspective, everything in 5:1–20 reeks of uncleanness: Jesus meets a man with an unclean spirit living among unclean tombs surrounded by unclean herds of swine, all in ...

2735. A Prophet without Honor

Mark 6:1-6

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... New Testament in general, however, is that Jesus was the eldest sibling of five brothers and at least two sisters. Surprisingly, Jesus is not a celebrity in Nazareth as he is elsewhere in Galilee, but a “stumbling block” (6:3; NIV “offense”). This repeats Mark’s insider-outsider motif: those we should expect to believe in Jesus do not, and those we should not expect to believe in him do. The return to Nazareth ends with Jesus “amazed at their lack of belief” (6:6). The greatest hindrance to ...

2736. Jesus Sends out the Twelve

Mark 6:7-13

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... the poignant account of the martyrdom of John the Baptizer (6:14–29). The Greek word for “witness” is martyreō, from which the English word “martyr” is derived. By sandwiching the death of John between the sending and return of the Twelve, Mark signifies that those who heed Jesus’s summons to mission must be prepared for the ultimate witness of martyrdom. Jesus “calls” and “sends” the disciples into mission in verse 7 with the same authority by which he himself ministers, and with which ...

2737. Jesus Walks on Water

Mark 6:45-56

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... compels the disciples to sail to Bethsaida (the northeast shore of the lake, 6:45), ostensibly to prevent them from becoming swept up in the crowd’s messianic fervor. He then repairs to the hills to pray (6:46). This is the second of three instances in Mark where Jesus prays (1:35; 6:45; 14:35–39). Each prayer is set at night in a lonely place, each finds the disciples removed from him and misunderstanding his mission, and in each Jesus faces a crisis. In this instance, the crisis may be the temptation ...

2738. The Healing of a Deaf and Mute Man

Mark 7:31-37

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... hardly talk” (7:32) is brought to Jesus for healing. The description of the man’s speech and hearing defects is a single word in Greek, a word that occurs only once elsewhere in the Greek Bible, in Isaiah 35:6. Use of this rare term indicates that Mark intends for readers to see the healing of verses 31–37 as a fulfillment of Isaiah 35, in which the glory of the Lord anoints the desert wastelands of Lebanon with joy. The regions of Tyre and Sidon are precisely the Lebanon of Isaiah 35, thus indicating ...

2739. Peter’s Confession at Caesarea Philippi

Mark 8:27-30

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... Lord (Mal. 3:1; 4:5–6). Great as these figures were, they are inadequate analogies, for they imply that Jesus is merely a reappearance of something that happened before. Identifying Jesus with preexistent categories is like pouring “new wine into old wineskins” (Mark 2:22). Not content with the opinions of others, Jesus presses the disciples for a personal confession: “Who do you say I am?” (8:29). He has not rushed this moment; enough time has elapsed for the disciples to make a judgment based ...

2740. The Transfiguration

Mark 9:2-13

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... gives specific time delimitations. The “six days” appears to link the transfiguration to Peter’s confession, assuring the bewildered disciples of the divine confirmation of Jesus’s way to the cross. Peter, James, and John appear elsewhere as Jesus’s inner circle (Mark 5:37; 13:3; 14:33). The “high mountain” (9:2) probably refers to Mount Hermon, rising 9,200 feet above Caesarea Philippi; the glorification of Jesus on its summit, however, doubtless also recalls the epiphany of God to Moses on ...

2741. The Little Children and Jesus

Mark 10:17-31

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... man are a striking contrast with the deficiencies of the children in the previous story. The rich man approaches Jesus with great eagerness and apparent receptiveness; he is the first person in Mark to ask to inherit eternal life, and he receives a clearer picture of the kingdom than anyone yet in Mark. Ironically, however, he turns away. Jesus deflects the address “good teacher” (10:17) perhaps because, like rabbis in general, he wished to avoid possible blasphemy against God, but more likely because ...

2742. The Parable of the Tenants

Mark 12:1-12

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... son is sent by the father, but unlike the servants, the son is the “heir”: he goes as the father’s representative, with the father’s authority, to the father’s property, to collect the father’s due. The beloved son (a phrasing that elsewhere in Mark refers only to Jesus; see 1:11; 9:7 NASB, RSV), unmistakably highlights Jesus’s consummate role in the history of Israel. Despite the schemes of the tenants, the vineyard is not destroyed; it is God’s possession, and it will be given to “others ...

2743. The Greatest Commandment

Mark 12:28-34

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... in Deuteronomy 6:4–5 recited morning and evening by every pious Jew. The word “all” occurs four times in the quotation, emphasizing the need for total love to God. The Shema commands believers to love God with heart, soul, and strength, but Mark records Jesus adding a fourth command, to love God “with all your mind” (12:30). The scribe asked for only one commandment, but as in his earlier response to the Pharisees and Herodians (12:17), Jesus appends a second, “Love your neighbor as yourself ...

2744. Gethsemane

Mark 14:32-42

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... Commanding the disciples to remain, Jesus departs a few paces in order to pray (14:32–42). This is the third time in Mark that Jesus prays (cf. 1:35; 6:46); each prayer is set in a context of crisis and decision, this being the most traumatic. In all ... the Bible, no affliction or agony is described with the intensity of 14:34–35. According to Mark, the decision to submit to the Father’s will in Gethsemane causes Jesus greater internal suffering than does the physical crucifixion ...

2745. Peter Disowns Jesus

Mark 14:66-72

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

Mark concludes the sandwich unit by returning to Peter, who is warming himself by the fire in the courtyard of the high priest (14:54, 66). Verses 66–72 focus exclusively on Peter, who alone of the ... Jesus—to which he explodes in a volley of abuse and denial (14:71). Peter cannot bring himself to mention the name of Jesus, but he cannot forestall the cockcrow heralding the shattering truth of his denial. Mark concludes the abandonment of Jesus in chapter 14 on the bitter note of weeping (14:72).

2746. Conflict with the Pharisees

Luke 5:17-26

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... unwritten law. The teachers of the law (or scribes) could come from any branch of the Jewish religion, but in this context they are probably Pharisees as well. Letting the paralytic down through a tiled roof (5:19) does not contradict Mark 2:4, for tiled roofs existed in Palestine at this date and Mark does not say what the roof was made of. Responding to the faith of the paralytic’s helpers, Jesus penetrates to his deepest problem (the text does not say the illness is due to sin, although such a view is ...

2747. Lord of the Sabbath

Luke 6:1-11

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... real purpose for the Sabbath. Jesus’s rhetorical question (6:9) and action of healing (6:10) show that doing good on the Sabbath is a positive duty. In other words, the failure to perform good deeds on the Sabbath is evil. Mark tells us that the religious leaders respond by plotting to kill Jesus (Mark 3:6), whereas Luke tells us of their fury and their uncertainty about what to do with him (6:11). In any case, the series of conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees (Luke 5:17–6:11) ends with the latter ...

2748. Choosing the Twelve

Luke 6:12-16

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... :44–51). Matthew and Levi (Luke 5:27) are the same person (6:15). The Zealots (6:15) were members of a nationalistic religious party in Israel that led the revolt against Rome. Judas son of James (6:16) should be identified with Thaddaeus in Mark’s list (Mark 3:18; cf. John 14:22). The meaning of “Iscariot” is disputed. Probably it means “a man from Kerioth,” a city in southern Judea (Josh. 15:25). In any case, Judas’s name evokes the memory of his betrayal. The description of the geographical ...

2749. A Dead Girl and a Sick Woman

Luke 8:40-56

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... “touched the edge of his cloak” (probably his tassel; cf. Num. 15:38–39). This woman has been hemorrhaging for twelve years, and such bleeding would make her ritually unclean (Lev. 15:25–30). Luke may tone down Mark’s remark on how her many doctors have only made her condition worse (Mark 5:26), perhaps because of his profession. Jesus is aware that healing power has gone forth from him, and he explains that her deliverance is not due to superstition but to saving faith (8:46–48). While Jesus ...

2750. Samaritan Opposition Foreshadows Jerusalem

Luke 9:51-56

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

A clear break occurs in the text here, indicating a major division in the Gospel. Luke may depart from using Mark as a source, for he does not recount a story from Mark until 18:15. Luke uses the motif of a travel narrative, but the reader should understand it primarily as a literary technique. As a travel narrative it gives very few details about where the events are taking place. Jesus is en route to Jerusalem so that he can fulfill the ...

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