A Pharisee named Nicodemus went to talk to the Lord one night and questioned Him about the meaning of rebirth as a requisite for seeing God’s kingdom. Nicodemus would later recommend that the Sanhedrin do more fact-gathering before condemning Jesus. After the miraculous multiplication of five loaves and two fish to feed a crowd of thousands, Jesus stayed behind for a while. Then He walked on water and brought the Disciples’ wind-rocked boat immediately to shore from miles out before His friends even brought him on board. God does not ration
Read MoreEven Jesus’ friends and followers failed to recognize the Resurrected Lord. After an angelic message and the sight of an empty tomb with the stone rolled away, Mary Magdalene mistook Jesus for a gardener until He said her name. The Lord explained Scripture as He walked with two travelers on the Road to Emmaus, but only after He blessed and broke bread did they realize that Jesus had Risen. When the Lord appeared to the Disciples in a locked room, they feared that He was a ghost. Despite prior appearances, it took a miraculous haul of fish for
Read MoreMuch can happen in a week. Jerusalem welcomed travelers arriving for the annual Passover festival. On His way there, the Lord visited his friends Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, allowing Mary to anoint His feet with costly ointment and dry them with her hair. Riding on a colt through an enthusiastic crowd the next day, Jesus alone knew that He neared Crucifixion. On the evening of the Last Supper with His Disciples, the Lord washed their feet—a task for a servant. When Peter said that He would lay down his life for Jesus, the Lord interjected that
Read MoreJesus taught that sin enslaves. He mercifully saved a woman caught in adultery by saying that anyone without sin should cast the first stone to punish her. The Lord revealed Himself as the Son of God but narrowly escaped stoning, even though He spoke the truth. For anyone who could not put faith in His words, the Lord suggested believing in the works that He performed. The Virgin Mary believed that she would miraculously give birth to the Son of God. Years later, after Jesus raised His friend Lazarus from the dead, the chief priests and Pharis
Read MoreAn official believed the Lord’s promise that his gravely ill son would live, and so it happened. Beside a pool called Bethesda, where people came in hope of healing in the water, Jesus told a man denied a turn to pick up his mat and walk. Bystanders accused the man of violating the Sabbath by carrying his mat. Controversy surrounded Jesus, who explained that His works testified to the Father’s sending Him. When chief priests and Pharisees asked guards why they had not arrested Jesus, the guards said that no one had ever spoken like Him. Whi
Read MoreInfuriated people in Nazareth drove Jesus out of His hometown after He compared His experience there to the treatment of Elijah and Elisha. Rejected by the Israelites, those prophets became bearers of miracles to a poor widow in Sidon and a leper in Syria. We may question the sincerity of repeated apologies for wrongdoing against us, but we respond mercifully if we ask, “Who’s counting?” Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength might seem to leave no room for loving neighbors, except that the Lord taught us to see Him in pe
Read MoreDevout Jews wore clothing with four tassels (reminders to obey the Lord’s commands) and phylacteries (boxes containing Scripture passages, strapped to the head and one arm). While the mother of James and John wanted the Lord to promise that her sons would sit at His right and left in the kingdom, Pharisees already sought glory for themselves by wearing oversized cloak tassels and phylacteries. In a string of the Lord’s parables, a rich man ignored someone gravely impoverished right at his doorstep, tenant farmers killed to avoid turning ove
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