Pharisees and Herodians (a Jewish sect) asked Jesus about paying the Roman census tax in a veiled effort to get Him to deny either the sovereignty of God or of Caesar. The Lord said to give each his due. Sadducees tried to refute belief in resurrection to new life by asking whose wife a widow seven times over would be in heaven. Jesus said that the resurrected become like angels. Marriage on Earth doesn’t constrain the unlimited love in heaven. Observing a poor widow give all that she had to the temple treasury, Jesus pointed out that two sma

Finally, Jesus spoke to the Disciples in plain terms, and they realized that He knew absolutely everything. They believed in Him. When the Lord said that His friends would abandon Him anyway, the words must have stung. Jesus prayed for them, knowing that they would continue the work that He began on Earth. He prayed to the Father that the Disciples would be consecrated in truth, have oneness in love, and join Him in heavenly glory. During Jesus’ Passion, Peter denied Him three times, but the Risen Lord later gave him the opportunity to declar

No matter what, in life and death, the Risen Lord told the Disciples to testify to Him. He would soon go back to the Father but promised that it would work out for the best. Assured that the Holy Spirit would come to guide them, the Disciples still didn’t want Jesus to leave, even for a little while. The Lord had more to tell His friends than they could bear, but He did say that no one would take the rejoicing away when they saw Him again. When we miss loved ones gone before us and long to have them still alongside us, how does their love hel

Jesus told the Disciples that He would go to the Father but come back. He gave them His peace, a fragile gift in the face of fear about what would happen once He departed. Jesus said to remain in His love, keeping the Commandments and loving one another just as He loved them. In case they forgot lessons He taught, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would remind them. Reassuringly, our Savior invited them to picture Him as a vine. They would stay connected to Him like branches. Vines need pruning so that errant shoots and tangled stems don’t

Jesus called Himself the Good Shepherd who would lay down His life to protect the sheep. Eventually, He said, there will be just one flock. Looking at it another way, Jesus described heaven as a house with many dwelling places. Nevertheless, in the Acts of the Apostles, we see divisiveness. Saint Paul incurred the anger of the Jews by explaining that the “chosen people” heard the Word first, but that didn’t guarantee them eternal life. In the Resurrection of Jesus, God had fulfilled His promises to the ancient Israelites. The Apostles and

People could easily picture manna in the desert as bread from heaven. They could easily see the multiplication of loaves and fish as miraculous. Although hunger returned, it still made sense to go looking for Jesus. Presented with the promise of His flesh as the Bread of life, however, many found it too hard to swallow. Words He spoke as Spirit and life didn’t reach them because they decided they had heard enough. The Twelve stayed. Even if they didn’t understand everything that Jesus taught, they could not walk away from believing. As His

Five loaves and two fish became more than enough food for a vast crowd. The Gospel of John assures us that God doesn’t ration the gift of the Holy Spirit, either. To Nicodemus, a Pharisee, the idea of grown people “born from above” and “born of the Spirit” made no sense. To him, babies were born, and that was that. Later, with the Apostles on trial before the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee named Gamaliel advised letting them go. If just a fad, their endeavors would die out. If not, the Sanhedrin might find itself “fighting against God”! Th