Swallow No Camels

Have you ever had trouble figuring out what happened when in Jesus’ ministry?  Have you ever wondered how much traveling Jesus did?  Have you ever wondered how certain stories and teachings are related to their physical location?  I have.  

We have 4 separate gospel accounts of the ministry of Jesus.  Sometimes it is hard to put them together and understand what happens where and in what order because they all mention different events.  Some scholars have combined the stories into a single timeline of Jesus’ ministry. Even reading these combined gospels still left me struggling with a real understanding of how rapidly some events followed others and a realization of how much Jesus traveled and where these stories took place.

My Tuesday morning Bible study group has decided to spend a little over a year following Jesus through the story of his ministry.  We will go week by week, not only looking at the events and lessons of that week in Jesus’ ministry from all 4 gospels but also at the culture and geography presented in that week.  How far did they walk that week?  What kind of journey was it?  We will attempt to estimate the miles Jesus traveled and some in our group may choose to make that their exercise goal for the week. We call that ‘learning with your feet’.   All of this is to better immerse ourselves in the gospel story for better understanding.  

Most who have done a compilation of the gospels have used the idea that Jesus’ ministry lasted 3-and-a-half years.  But others believe the ministry of Jesus, from his baptism until the baptism of his followers with the Holy Spirit was 70 weeks. We will follow the 70-week model, for many reasons that I will enumerate later.  We will use “The Chronological Gospels” by Michael Rood.  I think Rood has done the best job putting the gospels together and has some interesting insights.  

If you want to join us, we will make our study available online.  I will send out an email for each week with the Scripture reading for that week as well as some cultural and geographic information.  I will also include the estimated number of miles Jesus traveled that week for those who want to follow with their feet.  We will have an interactive blog with a lesson for each week to stimulate discussion online. The blog will be here at http://www.swallownocamels.com. (For those who have followed this blog in the past, note that I have temporarily removed the past 100 posts as we begin this project.)  If you are interested in going on this journey with us, comment below with an “I’m in!” and your email address. The journey will begin the week of February 11-17.  That Saturday, on a Sabbath, Jesus began his ministry being baptized by John.  

I look forward to walking along with you and Jesus through the gospels.

David