Psalm 95, 40 Meditation: Mark – Not only does this passage show Jesus eating in the house of tax collector with other tax collectors and sinners, it also shows him asserting that he is the one they were preparing for. The fasting of John’s followers and the Pharisee’s disciples was in preparation for the coming …
Tag: Sinners
Thursday, December 3
Psalm: 21 Meditation Matthew: In this parable, one of the sons obeyed his father – it was the one who had said he would not go into the vineyard. This son was representative of “prostitutes and tax collectors”; whereas the other son who said he would go but did not represented the chief priests and …
Sunday, October 11
Psalm: 147 Meditation Luke: How easily our eyes are closed to ourselves as Jesus said in the “Sermon on the Mount”: clear out your own eye before judging someone else. While the Pharisee is judging Jesus, Jesus, is about to judge him. Like Jonah, the Pharisee hates the idea of God showing forgiveness and mercy …
Wednesday, July 15
Psalms: 119:25-48 Meditation Mark: This is the calling of Levi whom we know as Matthew. Levi was a tax collector regarded by self-respecting Jews as akin to a traitor or collaborator with Rome. Mark, though, distinguished tax collectors from “sinners”. Later in this reading Jesus talks about applying a new patch on an old garment …
Tuesday, May 19
Psalm: 78:1-39 Meditation James: Most people, at this time (in Jeru-salem) were either agrarian, fishermen, or merchants. The “first fruits” James speaks of are the very early believers who were a promise of a greater harvest yet to come. The birth spoken of in v. 18 is the one “born of the Spirit” the regeneration …
