Year: 2024

The Year of the Lord’s Favor #9 – A note on the timing of Lent and our journey this year

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

In 2024, Lent begins on Wednesday, Feb. 14 (Ash Wednesday) and concludes on Thursday March 28 (the Thursday before Easter Sunday). The word ‘Lent’ comes from an Old English word meaning ‘spring season’ from the Old Dutch ‘lente’ or the German ‘lenz’ that referred to the ‘lengthening’ of the days in this season from winter to spring.  The observance dates back to around 325 at the council of Nicea when a 40-day time of fasting before Easter was established. The dates for the time of fasting have been altered several times, as have the fasting requirements.  Currently, the most-followed dates are 46 days, as the 6 Sundays in the season are not fast days.  

Depending on which source you read, it may have originally been a time of fasting before a candidate was baptized.1  As baptisms in the church began to be done primarily on Easter Sunday, then a more official fasting period was recognized.  It became a 40-day fast, following the 40-day fasts of Elijah, Moses, and Jesus.  The requirements for the fast have also varied tremendously through the years, originally requiring only 1 meal a day after 3 pm with no meat, fish, or dairy.  Currently, in the Catholic Church, only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are mandatory fast days.  And now, ‘giving something up’ for Lent has replaced the food fast for most who follow the tradition.

We will talk in the coming months about traditions that are contrary to scripture, and how Jesus said “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” (Mark 7:8) to the Pharisees.  But not all traditions are contrary to scripture.2  I believe any time that you set aside for God is good.  And there are, as mentioned above, Biblical models for a 40-day fast.  This year, the 40-day fast of Jesus in the wilderness will begin this Saturday, Feb. 17 as his baptism in the Jordan was Feb. 16 in 27 A.D.  In that year, the sacrifice of the Passover lambs would have been April 11 (remember the dates of Passover and Easter vary every year.)   Jesus would have concluded his 40-day fast on March 28, which is, coincidentally this year the conclusion of Lent on the Thursday before Easter.3

While Jesus’ 40-day fast in the wilderness is not a preparation for the Passover/Easter event, this year the dates do overlap.  So this year, whether your church tradition observes Lent or not, we can all observe this time of preparation.  Jesus’ time in the wilderness was a preparation for his year of ministry.  We can follow with him and use this time to prepare to follow him through his ministry in the 4 Gospels.  

This Friday, our study will be on Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, on the day it happened in 27 A.D.  Then we will follow Jesus into the wilderness for 40 days.  We will take that time to examine the idea of wilderness in the Bible, the ideas of testing and tempting, and the idea of fasting.  Then on March 28, when Jesus’ 40 days ends, we will discuss the 3 temptations as recorded in Matthew and Luke.

1. The Didache, a 1st Century Christian text, recommended that the candidate for baptism and ‘others that were able’ to fast and prepare for the sacrament of baptism. (Didache 7:4)

2. During the time of the Reformation, many theologians pushed hard against any Catholic traditions including Lent.  This is very interestingly like the hard push against anything Jewish in the 300s and following, when at the same Council of Nicea it was forbidden to share a meal with Jews or worship on a Saturday.  John Calvin in Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) said “Then the superstitious observance of Lent had everywhere prevailed: for both the vulgar imagined that they thereby perform some excellent service to God…”  In both instances, the church, I feel, overreacted and ‘threw the baby out with the bath water.’  They were so against the Jews and later the Catholics that they renounced everything Jewish or Catholic.  And because of this, for hundreds of years, the Church missed out on the Jewish roots of our faith and the rich history of our faith that was maintained by the Catholic Church.  Sorry, Mr. Calvin, I have to disagree with you here.  Now that being said, let’s not make the same mistake of throwing Calvin out with the bath water.  I own a set of Calvin’s commentaries and find his thoughts very useful (sometimes).

3. For those of you who are detail-oriented and count the days, we will have 41 days instead of 40 because this year is a leap year.  Jesus’ calendar in the 1st Century had a ‘leap month’ and this 13th month comes into play in the year Jesus is crucified.  We’ll talk all about how this works when we get there next year.

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD  The Year of the Lord’s Favor #8

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , ,

John’s Baptism

As we approach the baptism of Jesus, it is important to think about how John’s baptism was viewed by his disciples and those who came to hear him.  

There had been 400 years without a prophet giving a word from God.  A messenger had been promised.  And John the Baptist arrives on the scene.  He can’t be easily ignored, wearing camel hair and preaching in the wilderness.  But John is called “the baptist” or “the baptizer”, and it is this activity that makes him stand out the most.  This baptism is something new and different, and many are coming a long way to see what is going on.

Now we don’t think baptism is odd or unusual.  We see it as a normal part of our religion that some do as an infant, some after the time of confirmation, or some at the time of making a personal decision.  But our understanding of baptism is based on the baptism as done in the book of Acts and following.  We are looking backward with our preconceptions of what baptism means in our time.  The people in John’s time had their own preconceptions about baptizing.   How did the people of his day understand John?  What did it mean to them? 

The idea of ritual bathing or immersion goes back to the time when Israel was about to leave Egypt.  They are told to “consecrate” the firstborn before Passover.  According to the Jewish Torah Commentary, the instruction to consecrate people “involves a purificatory rite …[that] requires bathing, laundering of clothes, and abstention from ritual defilement on the part of the initiate.”1 Later, all of Israel is to consecrate themselves before their encounter with God on Sinai, and again before crossing the Jordan.  Priests also are consecrated before any service and washed in the bronze laver in the Tabernacle.

Up on Sinai, God gives Moses instructions for a tabernacle, and God tells him the purpose of the tabernacle is not for God to dwell in it, but for it to be a place God can dwell with man.  Again, this is God’s purpose for man from the beginning.  God has always sought to live in community with us.

God tells Moses that if we are going to dwell together, you have to keep yourselves pure.  He gives rules for two kinds of purity: Moral Purity and Ritual Purity.  Now we understand moral purity pretty well, including the 10 commandments given at Sinai. But ritual purity is more of a mystery for us 21st-century people.  (It is not that hard.)  Every modern culture has standards of purity and defilement.   For example, even though discrimination on the grounds of caste has been outlawed, many Hindus will not touch people of lower caste, and if they do, they must wash to remove the defilement.  Certain sicknesses are taboo to touch in many societies.  And I have witnessed it many times watching people interact with homeless people, refusing to shake hands, touch, hug, etc.  

You wouldn’t want one of my surgeon friends who just pulled a dead dog off the road, gathered up the pieces and buried it, to just walk into the operating room to do surgery without going through a process to become clean again. That would seem crazy to you.  Yet in the mid-1800s, before the idea of germ theory existed, medical residents in a hospital in Vienna would practice surgery on cadavers and then go upstairs and deliver babies without washing their hands.  It was Ignaz Semmelweis who discovered why this hospital had 3 times the maternal death rate of their sister hospital, and he saved countless lives simply by instituting handwashing there.2  Despite the decrease in maternal deaths, there was tremendous resistance to handwashing by the medical community and Semmelweis was ridiculed and eventually fired.  They had no basis to understand it in their culture.  Similarly, our modern culture has no basis to understand ritual washing (unless you read the Bible).  

Becoming ritually unclean was not a sin. It was a normal part of life to encounter bodily fluids and death.  There are just some things you don’t bring into God’s presence. If you followed the rules for cleansing before entering God’s presence, then there was no problem.  Ritual purity is totally separate from breaking moral laws.  And the Jews never believed that the water had any effect of actually washing impurity away, it was an act of obedience. It was a symbolic representation of the cleansing that God did because they were obedient.3

So God established a means for dealing with ritual impurity and with moral impurity (sin).  Dealing with ritual impurity usually involved washing.  Dealing with sin required a sacrifice.  When Israel went into exile in Babylon, they had no temple or altar and could not perform sacrifices.  So washing for ritual impurity became more important.  Philip Birnbaum in “An Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts” noted that because it had become common to perform tevilah (immersion in a mikvah) before entering the temple, “some religious Jews began to see a greater spiritual significance to ritual purity as it embodied a state of nearness to God, as if one were truly present in the Temple.”4  Over 1000 mikveh (ceremonial bathing sites) have been excavated in Israel, some dating before 100 B.C.E. including many at the entrances to the temple where all Jews (including Jesus) would immerse (tevilah) before entering the temple area, just in case you carried some ritual impurity.

The Jews coming to John’s Baptism had this background of ceremonial bathing in preparation for coming into God’s presence to remove ritual impurity.  Immersion in the mikvah would represent a change of status – from ritually impure to pure.  John is taking this idea of a change of status and applying it to moral impurity. His baptism was “with water for repentance”, a symbol of repentance of a moral wrong.  Again, no one believed the water accomplished cleansing from sin.  It was a physical act demonstrating their inward repentance.  

The place where John was baptizing was very significant.  This is the same place where Israel crossed the Jordan to enter the land of promise.  They were to establish a community in this land where they would have no other gods, where they would love God completely and love their neighbor.  But the Scriptures note over and over again how they failed.  Tim Mackie said, “so John is calling Israel to start over, to go back through the river and come out rededicated to their God, ready for the new thing that God’s about to do.”5

With this understanding of how the Jews viewed John’s baptism, now you can consider how you view your baptism.  How is it the same?  How is it different?  We will consider this as we move along Jesus’ ministry this year.  We will also revisit the idea of ritual purity several times.  Jesus has a lot to say about ritual purity, and his actions regarding ritual purity rules shock his followers over and over.  

1. The Jewish Torah Commentary, Exodus, on Exodus 13:1.

2. The story of Ignaz Semmelweis is a fascinating read.  Probably the best book on this is 

Genius Belabored: Childbed Fever and the Tragic Life of Ignaz Semmelweis, 

by Theodore G. Obenchain (2021).

3. Though the practical benefits of washing after contact with bodily fluid are well known

  to us now, they were certainly not before Louis Pasteur and modern germ theory 

and had no impact on the understanding of people before 1850.

4. Birnbaum, Philip, An Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts, p. 240, (1979).

5. Tim Mackie, from the Bible Project video, “The Baptism of Jesus”. 

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #7

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Hey John, is this good news or bad news?   

We have been talking about the message of John the Baptist, which is also the message of Jesus.  “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  Jesus said his purpose was to “preach the good news of the kingdom of God” (Luke 4:43).  But as we saw last time when the religious leaders came to John, the news was not all good.  John challenged their belief that their physical relationship to Abraham guaranteed their standing with God.  He called them ‘sons of a serpent’.1  John continues in Matthew 3:10

Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

The removal of trees is a common Old Testament metaphor for God’s judgment on other nations (See Isaiah 10:33-34, and Ezekiel 31).  Jesus will use this same metaphor along with John’s idea of fruit-bearing in Matthew 7:19

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

John will next describe Jesus as one who is separating people, using another common Old Testament metaphor of separating the wheat from the chaff (See Isaiah 41:15-16, Psalm 1:4, Psalm 35:5).  The wheat is taken into the barn, the chaff is burned with “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12). We have moved beyond a regular farmers fire to the eternal fire, or punishment of the wicked that Jesus mentions three times in Matthew (18:8, 25:41, and 25:46).

What is all of the wrath talk?  Didn’t someone tell John and Jesus that they were in the New Testament?  I was always told that the Old Testament is full of wrath and judgment and the New Testament is full of mercy and grace.  But John speaks wrath much like the prophets of old.  And Jesus, as we have just seen, also does not ignore the wrath of God.  And if you don’t like that ‘wrath-talk’ don’t read the last book in the New Testament.

But in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he does focus more on the mercy, love, and grace of God.  For example, when he reads from the Isaiah scroll in his hometown, Nazareth, he intentionally stops in the middle of a verse to leave out the section on wrath.  He reads from the Isaiah scroll (61:1-2) as this is recorded in Luke 4:18-19.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

But in the scroll that Jesus is reading, in Isaiah 61, verse 2 says:

to proclaim the year of the LORD’S favor, and the day of vengeance of our God;

Jesus stops reading in the middle of a sentence, in the middle of a passage that everyone in the synagogue is familiar with, and just sits down. Everyone is surprised by his faux pas.  Jesus then really shocks them as he tells them:

“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

I think this is very significant.  Jesus is announcing this messianic prophecy is coming true…to a point.  Remember that the first-century Jews expected the Messiah to come in with righteousness and vengeance, to overthrow the oppressive government and restore the kingdom to Israel.  Jesus is claiming that the days of the Messiah are here.  This is the “year of the Lord’s favor.”2  This year of the Messiah is all about God’s favor.  Jesus leaves the vengeance out because it is not the time for the wrath of God to be manifest.  That time will come with the Messiah, but not with this coming of the Messiah.

Nevertheless, Jesus does not ignore the wrath of God.  We see it again in the Sermon on the Mount with the house built on the sand. We see it in the woes on Chorazin and Bethsaida in Matthew 11:21-24.  In Luke 19:41-44 he weeps over Jerusalem, knowing that the wrath of God is coming on them in the classic Old Testament method — destruction by a foreign pagan army.  (And Rome did destroy Jerusalem and the temple 40 years later.)

John gives wrath as a warning.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  You could repent.  But if you do not, God’s wrath will come.  So is that bad news?

If you are in a building and someone shouts out a warning to you because the building is on fire, is that bad news?  If you plan on listening to them and leaving the building, then you would gladly thank them for delivering the news.  It is bad news only if you don’t heed the warning and run to the exit.

The Gospel is the good news of the Kingdom of God (unless you decide to ignore it.)

David

  1. This leans heavily on information I learned from Tim Mackie in a Bible Project podcast, “God’s Wrath in the Teaching of Jesus”
  2. The year of the Lord’s favor, the time of the Messiah, I believe to be the year of Jesus’ ministry that we will follow this year in this 70-week study.  Feel free to disagree with me.  If you do, you will be in agreement with almost everyone who went to seminary and was taught his ministry lasted 3 1/2 years.  This is a not new concept, however, as all the church leaders prior to 300 A.D. said his ministry was about a year.  Whether it was a year or three years of ministry, it will be good to go through the time in order, putting the gospels together.  So stay with me and please voice your opinion, especially if it is different.  That is how we learn.

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD —The Year of the Lords’ Favor #6

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , , ,

We have discussed the message of John the Baptist, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  But we are not finished with the message.  There is more.  Before Jesus comes to be baptized by John in a few days (Feb 16), first he has some other visitors.

John was at the Jordan for months in the winter of 27 AD.  And he was attracting crowds.  So some of the religious leaders in the area came to see what was going on.  They felt a responsibility to make sure he was not someone just misleading the people.  So they traveled the 20 miles to where John was baptizing.  They did not exactly get a warm welcome from John.  

Matt. 3:7-10   But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

“You brood of vipers”  Why this greeting?  A brood is the young of a species, and vipers are poisonous snakes.  So ‘You snake babies!’, or ‘You son of a snake!’.  As you read on, you discover that John is saying that they are not ‘sons of Abraham’, but instead ‘sons of a serpent’.  They had the idea that God’s promise to the heirs of Abraham guaranteed their relationship with God.  Today, we look at someone who is acting just like their father and say, “That apple didn’t fall far from the tree”.  John is telling them that their ancestry does not make them a ‘son of Abraham’.   

Romans 9:6-7 For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring 

 Not every physical descendant of Abraham is a ‘son of Abraham’.  Abraham’s first two sons were Ishmael and Isaac.  Isaac was a son of the promise, but Ishmael was not. Isaac had twin boys, Jacob and Esau.  Jacob was the son to carry the promise of God, not Esau.  

Galatians 3:7 The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.  

Now according to my genetic analysis from Ancestry.com, I have no Jewish roots.  But Biblically speaking, I am a son of Abraham adopted in, or as Paul says in Romans 11 grafted in.  So John tells these religious leaders that they are not sons of Abraham, but instead sons of a serpent.  It doesn’t take much thinking to figure out which serpent he was referring to.  Anytime you see snakes or serpents in the Bible you must ask yourself if there is a reference to the serpent in Genesis 3.1  

Jesus has a similar encounter with religious authorities in John 8:39 and challenges them in the same way John the Baptist did: “They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,”.  Jesus then tells them who he thinks their father is in John 8:44 “ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.”   To Jesus, like John, they are sons of the devil (the Genesis 3 serpent).  

Don’t you find it interesting that the Bible is chiming in on the nature vs nurture debate?  Are we more a product of our nature (our genetics), or are we more a product of our environment (how we were raised)?  I will let you draw your own conclusions, but I think the Bible is clear, when we become adults, we are not a product of where we come from genetically, nor of where we come from environmentally.  We are not a product of where we come from at all, but of where we are going.  We are a product of our actions — We are a product of the path we choose.  In other words, your actions speak louder than your chromosomes.

But John is not done with the religious leaders.  He felt they needed further explanation of his message.  They shouldn’t have.  They spoke Hebrew and understood the full concept of ‘shuv’ — that repentance involved a change of mind and a change of action.  But John felt their actions were lacking, and so he adds, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”  ‘In keeping with’ from the Greek ‘axios’. ‘Axios’ means ‘bringing into balance’ from the Greek root ‘ago’ (to weigh).  Think of a balance scale.  On one side of the scale is repentance. On the other side is a person’s actions, the fruit of their life.  It should balance.2  

This is not works-based righteousness.  This is a life changed by the grace of God that produces fruit.  Jesus tried to explain this to Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7.  Remember the story?  Jesus had been invited to Simon’s home and the meal was interrupted by a woman “who was a sinner” who anointed him with ointment and her tears.  Jesus tells Simon the story of two people who had debts canceled by a lender.  Simon agreed that the one who had the greatest debt canceled would love the lender more.  Jesus explains that because this woman had been forgiven much, she loved much.  (Jesus knows that “love” as a Hebrew verb is emotion and action.)  Lest anyone think this concept of your actions being in measure with your repentance is outdated after the cross, let’s look at Paul describing his message to Agrippa in Acts 26:19-20

“Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

“So how do you practically live so that your deeds are in balance with your repentance?”  I’m so glad you asked.  The people listening to this in John’s day wanted to know also.

Luke 3:10-14      And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”  And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.”  Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

There is a lot to unpack here, but notice there are three very different groups of people asking him the same question.  But his suggestions of how to respond to each of them deal with money and possessions.  For you see, people in the first century were very different than us.  Back then, in Jesus’ day, people had a problem that we may not understand. They loved money and possessions.  They were a very materialistic culture.  They had to have the latest name-brand tunics, shoes, and insulated drinking mugs.  Okay, maybe they weren’t so different.

If you need further explanation, Jesus will go on a mountain and preach a whole sermon on this (see Matthew 5-7).  Here is an excerpt:

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.  A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.  Mt 7:16-18

Let me challenge you today to ask God, what one thing can I do this week to help balance my repentance?  Maybe it’s sharing clothing, food, or money.  Maybe it’s being a friend to someone, maybe it’s sharing the good news of the kingdom with someone.   Do not let this week go by without your repentance being an action. Be a son of Abraham.

1. An exception to this is the sea serpent/dragon (Hebrew ‘tannin’) which is a special case with its own symbolism.  The Bible Project has a 22-episode podcast series on the symbolism of the sea dragon in the Bible.  (And you had no idea there was that much about sea/land serpents/dragons/monsters in the Bible. Now say it in your best “pirate” voice, “There be dragons!”)

2. Balance scales were very common in Jesus’ day.  Every vendor in the market had them to weigh out whatever you bought and to weigh out your payment.  Before coins were used,  you weighed out your silver or gold on a scale to balance the known weight. A ‘shekel’ was initially a measure of weight, and then later a coin. 

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD #5

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

John’s message:  “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  Matthew 3:2

So we have discussed the idea of repentance from John’s perspective.  So what does he mean by “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”?1

The idea of the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is central to the gospel.  You could say the coming of the kingdom is the gospel (good news).  Indeed, that is what Jesus said in Luke 4:43  “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” Do we understand the idea of the kingdom?  Do we emphasize it as we should?

Krister Stendahl, in Meanings: The Bible as Document and as Guide, states “But it remains a fact worth pondering that Jesus had preached the kingdom, while the church preached Jesus.  And thus we are faced with a danger: we may so preach Jesus that we lose the vision of the kingdom, the mended creation.”  I fear we have done just that.  As Tim Mackie says, “The church has done a pretty good job of teaching about Jesus, but an incredibly poor job of teaching what Jesus taught.”2

.

Part of the problem is that the idea of a ‘kingdom’ itself is not a common concept today.  In the time when the Bible was written, kingdoms were the usual method of governing a nation.  But kingdoms are a rarity today.   Most people immediately think of the United Kingdom,  though the power of the king there is very limited as it is a ‘constitutional monarchy’.  The only absolute monarchies today are in some Muslim countries (Brunei, Oman, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates).  Though these do have a representative body of some kind, the king retains most of the power.  

The monarchies of the Bible times were mostly absolute.  The king holds all the power and can not be questioned.  If you think Jesus came to establish a democracy where we all vote on what is right and what is wrong then you have bought the serpent’s lie in Genesis 3.  But there are some other differences between the idea of ‘kingdom’ that we hold and the idea in the Bible.

The English word, ‘kingdom’, is defined as ‘a territory ruled by a king or queen.’3  So we define the geographic limits of a Kingdom by setting land boundaries.  If you cross the English Channel and step on land then you are in the Kingdom of Great Britain. If you cross the Jordan River today from Jericho you will enter the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The extent of the kingdom is defined by lines on a map. If you use that definition with ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ in Matthew you miss the meaning.  And many people do.  They think of the Kingdom of Heaven as a place outside of time and space where God lives “up there” and their goal is to get to the Kingdom of Heaven someday in the ‘sweet by and by.’  And, for them, John the Baptist’s message and Jesus’ message is all about how to get to heaven.  This is not exactly what Jesus was preaching.  The Greek and Hebrew views of ‘kingdom’ define the geographic limits of a kingdom by the area where the king reigns.4  If a group of people places themselves under the rule of a king, they are part of his kingdom.  If they refuse to follow the edicts of a king, then the king does not reign over them so they are not part of the kingdom.  Dallas Willard, in The Divine Conspiracy, said, “Now God’s own ‘kingdom,’ or ‘rule,’ is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. The person of God himself and the action of his will are the organizing principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature of by choice is within his kingdom.”  We only are part of the kingdom if we submit ourselves to the rule of the king.

God’s kingdom is wherever God’s will is done.

This is why Jesus can say the kingdom is already here.

Luke 17:20-21   Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”  “In the midst” could also be translated as “within you” or “inside you”.  The kingdom is where Jesus is because Jesus always obeys the will of the king.  Are you part of the kingdom?  Do you follow the will of the king without question?

Understanding this concept of the kingdom makes it easier to understand what Jesus was praying for in the Lord’s prayer.  

“Thy Kingdom come,”

Jesus wants us to pray for the kingdom to come.  Do you know what that means?  Jesus defines it in the next part of the prayer —“thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.”  In God’s space, God’s will is followed perfectly.  There is no rebellion.  Jesus wants us to pray for the complete coming of God’s kingdom when all evil will be destroyed, all rebellion quashed, and everyone will follow the will of the king always.  That day is coming and Jesus wants us to pray for that day to come.

If you have 5 minutes this week, I highly recommend watching this wonderful Bible Project video, “The Gospel of the Kingdom”.  https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/gospel-kingdom/#fn-13

David

  1. Matthew says “Kingdom of Heaven” while John says “Kingdom of God”.  What is the difference?  Metonymy, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated.” We use this also.  It is understood to be the same thing when we say, “The Federal Government has issued a mask update.” or “Washington has issued a mask update.”  Some scholars.
  2. Tim Mackie, Bible Project Podcast,  “The Kingdom”
  3. The Oxford Dictionary
  4. Mounce Greek Dictionary 

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD #4

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Further notes on repentance— through Peter’s eyes.

God is not surprised when we sin.  He knows we are prone to sin.  The Bible specifically tells us that, and many of you have memorized Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. (But have you memorized Romans 3:24? – more on that later).  

Imagine you are sitting around a table eating dinner with some friends and Jesus.  And Jesus leans over and says to you, “Hey, [your name],  Satan demanded to put you through a trial,  but I prayed for you.  And you say, “Thank you, Jesus.  Thanks for blocking that old devil for me.  Trials are no fun.  I appreciate your prayers.”  But wait a minute, this actually happened in the Bible.  Jesus is having dinner with his friends, his disciples.  It is the last supper he will have with them.  And he leans over to Simon Peter and says, 

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you,that he might sift you like wheat,  but I have prayed for you” Luke 22:31-2   

But Jesus is not praying for Simon to avoid the trial, and surprisingly, Jesus is not praying that he would pass the trial.  What is Jesus praying for? 

“that your faith may not fail” Luke 22:32a

Jesus is not praying for Simon to pass the trial, because he is already sure that Simon Peter will fail the trial, and will tell him that specifically.  Jesus is praying that he will survive the failed trial with his faith intact. What does Jesus say next?

And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Luke 22:32b

“Turned again” there is our Greek word for repent, ‘strepho’.  “When you have repented for failing the test, Simon, then strengthen your brothers.”1   Jesus then tells him specifically what will happen.  Peter will deny him three times before the rooster crows.  You see, Jesus expects failure. And whether you pass or fail is not the most important thing about a trial.  The most important thing is whether you will repent of your failures. 

So let’s follow Peter a little further.  Jesus is arrested that night and all the disciples run and hide.  Peter and John follow Jesus (at a distance) into the courtyard of the high priest.

Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. … The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.  Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Peter again denied it, and pat once a rooster crowed.  John 18:15,17-18, 25-27.

Now it is April 28 of 28 AD, it is early spring in Jerusalem and it can get very chilly at night.

And John throws a few interesting details that they were warming themselves by the fire.

He doesn’t want you to miss this… he says it 3 times!  He even tells you what kind of fire this was, a charcoal fire (always pay attention when the Bible gives you little details.)  Then Peter denies Jesus 3 times and then the rooster crows, just as Jesus predicted.

 I once heard a preacher say, “Every time Peter heard the rooster he remembered his failure. And this is important. Don’t forget your failures.” And I get that. It is only when we remember our failures that we can appreciate what God has done to forgive us.

Remember the story when Jesus had been invited to Simon the Pharisee’s home, and the meal was interrupted by a woman “who was a sinner” who anointed him with ointment and her tears.  Jesus tells Simon the story of two people who had debts canceled by a lender.  Simon agreed that the one who had the greatest debt canceled would love the lender more.  Jesus explains that because this woman had been forgiven much, she loved much.  

Only when we consider the depth of our failures can we understand the depth of his mercy.

(I think Ignatius said this first.)  I can agree with that preacher up to a point about the importance of remembering your failures.  But we are not finished with Peter.

Now we skip forward to after Jesus has been resurrected; he is to meet the disciples in the Galilee, up north.  They went fishing all night and caught nothing. 

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.  John 21:4

You know the story:  They are about to quit when they see a guy on the shore. Jesus asks, “Catch anything?”  “No,” they answer.  Jesus then tells them to fish on the right side of the boat and the net is full of fish, and they realize it’s Jesus.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”  John 21:9-12

Nice, fish tacos for breakfast.  Then Jesus has a conversation with Peter.  He asks him 3 times Peter, do you love me?  And Peter affirms his love. Why 3 times?  3 times he denied Jesus, so Jesus makes sure to give him 3 times to affirm him.  Then Jesus tells Peter “Follow me.”   Jesus is rebooting their relationship.  Yes, I know you failed the test, Peter, but I still love you, it doesn’t change our relationship, I am asking you to do exactly what I asked you to do before, follow me.

But notice the details….What kind of fire was Jesus cooking on?  A charcoal fire (that detail is only given these 2 times in the New Testament.)  What time of day was it? John says “Just as day was breaking”.  He doesn’t specifically mention it, but what happens at dawn? The rooster crows.  Peter, standing by a charcoal fire, denies Jesus 3 times and the rooster crows. That was the lowest moment of his life. So Jesus gives Peter a chance to say he loves him 3 times, and Jesus doesn’t want Peter to forget this, so he recreates the scene. The same sound of the rooster, the same feeling and smell of the charcoal fire.  

Yes, it is important to remember your failures, but it is more important to see how your failures make you stronger through repentance and the resultant actions of repentance. For the rest of his life, every time Peter heard the rooster crow or smelled a charcoal fire, his mind went right back to what could have been a moment of great sorrow that Jesus turned into a moment of great redemption.  So yes, preacher from my past, we need to embrace our failures —-and then fall into the embrace of the God who loves us enough to forgive us when we repent.

1997 years ago, on this day we call January 23.  John the Baptist was preaching a message of repentance.  It is a message we need to hear today We all fail.  All of us. But who did the Bible call “a man after God’s own heart”?  David.  And he spectacularly had failures, breaking 5 of the 10 commandments in a few days (including those about adultery and murder). How could the Bible call him a man after God’s own heart?   Because it isn’t the failure that matters, it is the repentance  — he failed but he didn’t fall.

Have you failed?  God isn’t angry with you; he knew you were going to fail that test. He was not surprised when you chose the wrong path,  He is just standing there with open arms waiting for you to turn around.  Repentance is a story of good news, not bad news.  Maybe it’s time to memorize Romans 3:24 to go with 3:23.

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 

Rom 3:24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 

We all need to repent.  We all have friends who live in opposition to God, and Paul in 2 Timothy 2 tells us we need to pray for them that God might “grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and that they may come to their senses.”  Paul had lived this himself.  We all have friends who may be facing trials.  Jesus is praying for them.  Should we not also?  Finally, we may be about to face a trial that we would never have considered.   Peter had no idea and didn’t understand even after Jesus told him.  Be alert and “be careful when you stand lest you fall” (1 Cor. 10:12)  

Happy repenting!

1. There is one more important thing that is hard for us to see in these verses — because in English “you” looks the same in singular or plural.  But all of these ‘you’s in verses 31 and 32 are plural.  So if Jesus was speaking very Southern English, he would have said, “Satan demanded to have you all, so that he might sift y’all like wheat, but I have prayed for y’all that you alls faith may not fail. And when y’all have turned again, strengthen y’alls brothers.” There is no doubt in Jesus’ mind that they all (and we all) would fail.

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD #3

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , ,

John’s message:  “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  Matthew 3:2

Two words get translated as repent in our English translations: metanoeo and strepho.  Metanoeo means to think differently or to reconsider (a mental process).  Strepho means to make a change in direction or to turn back (a physical process).  But John spoke Hebrew, not Greek so he would not have used either word.  Instead, he would have used the Hebrew word ‘shuv’.  Shuv carries the idea of both a change in the way you think and a change in behavior or direction.  

Let me expand on this lesson on Hebrew verb usage.  Hebrew does not use ‘thinking only’ verbs.  All verbs imply action. For example ‘shema’ means to hear, but it carries the idea of obedience to the hearer.  There is no concept of hearing what your rabbi says and then not being obedient to it. If you hear (pay attention and consider and understand) then you will of course act on what you have heard.1  Another example is the Hebrew word for ‘remember’.  ‘Zakhar’ is the word translated ‘remember’ in Genesis 8:1.  “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark.”  If you use our English definition of remember (a thought process), then you can imagine God sitting up in heaven playing dominos with the angels and suddenly he jumps up and says, “Oh no, I forgot about Noah and the critters in that boat. I turned off the rain…let’s see… oh, about 150 days ago.”  Then an angel replies, “150 days!  Well I am glad you remembered them today!”  Of course that is not what happened.  Zakhar is translated as ‘remember’ for us, but it is not simply a verb about thinking.  When the Bible says “God remembered” it means God knew about something and then acted on it.  When the psalmist asks God to “remember your mercy” (Psalm 25:6), he is not asking God to recall a list of his attributes but to act mercifully.  

The oldest copies of the New Testament we currently have are in Greek, though we know many times people spoke Hebrew and it was translated to Greek.  Now that you know the difference between the two Greek words for repentance and the single Hebrew word, you will be able to tell me what language Peter was speaking in Acts 3:19

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out”  Our Greek New Testaments have Peter saying, “Metanoeo, therefore and strepho, that your sins may be blotted out.  Peter has to be speaking Greek to this crowd that had gathered from all over, because to describe the full process of repentance, he has to use both words.  Contrast this with John the Baptist who, like Jesus, uses the single word for repentance which must be the Hebrew word ‘shuv’ that incorporates both thought and action.

 John the Baptist was asking people to change their minds and then change their behavior.  Repentance is not merely regret.  Repentance is not complete if you only have a change “in heart”.  A famous 12th-century Rabbi, Maimonides, said “Complete repentance is when you have the opportunity to do the same hurtful thing, harmful thing again, and you make a different choice.”2

Matthew summarizes Jesus teaching in Matthew 4:17

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

And as we saw above, it is the same idea Peter preaches in Acts.  But repentance is not a new message but is seen throughout the Old Testament, as seen in the repentance of the entire city of Nineveh or the repentance of King David.3  It is a message for all time because God is well aware of our tendency to wander off of his path (to sin), and we will hear more about that on Friday.

After more than 400 years, in 26 AD, the long-awaited messenger has arrived.  His message is to prepare for the coming Kingdom of Heaven.  Get ready because it is at hand.   The anticipation for the return of God to his temple is building every day. 

Get excited! Jesus will appear on the scene with John on Feb 16th!

David

1. In Biblical Hebrew there is no specific word for someone who thinks one way but acts another.  But we see that concept in Isaiah 29:13 ““These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me.Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught” In the Old Testament the only word for this type of person is “godless”. The KJV actually translates the Hebrew word ‘godless’ as ‘hypocrite’ in Job 8:13.)   There is a word in Greek that describes someone whose actions are not equal to their thinking.  The Greek word is ‘hypokrites’ which is the Greek word for an actor in a play.  (The Greek is 2 words that mean ‘an interpreter from underneath’ because Greek actors interpreted the story from beneath the masks they wore on stage.)  We have imported this word into English as someone who puts on the appearance of being something they are not.  The Greek word ‘hypokrites’ is seen 17 times in the Gospels.

2. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Teshuvah 2:1

3. See Psalm 6, Psalm 51

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD #2

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog ,

A Geographic note.

John, Matthew 3 tells us, was preaching in the wilderness of Judea.  The Gospel of John gives us a more accurate description. 

John 1:28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John calls it “Bethany beyond the Jordan” to differentiate it from Bethany, the hometown of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, where Jesus will spend time later this year.  ‘Beyond the Jordan’ would mean ‘on the other side of the Jordan River’ and to any Jewish person, it would mean on the other side from Jerusalem, that is the east bank of the River.

We can’t pinpoint exactly where this Bethany is, but most scholars (and Google Maps) place it about 5 miles north of the Dead Sea across the Jordan from Jericho.1

Now if you are John the Baptist in 27 AD and are thinking about planting a church, the wilderness may not be your first choice of location.  But John is not planting a church.  The Judean Wilderness is a very desolate place, as we shall see in a month when Jesus spends 40 days there.  But John’s location would have been a well-traveled route.  Anyone headed to Jerusalem from Galilee would (to avoid Samaria) head east and cross the Jordan River and then travel on the ancient paths parallel to the river and then cross back over the river to the west here, near Jericho.  They would then take the ‘Jericho Road’ that runs between Jericho and Jerusalem (which you know as the setting of the story of the Good Samaritan.)

This area has great Biblical significance also.  It was in this area that Elijah and Elisha crossed the Jordan on dry land, where Elijah was taken up to heaven, and where Joshua and the children of Israel crossed the Jordan to enter the Promised Land.  

I find it very helpful to be able to draw a very simple map of Israel to be able to place events in the Bible in their location.  Knowing the location of the Mediterranean Sea, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, and the Dead Sea is enough.  Then you can learn the placement for a few cities and mountains.  Alternatively, you can consult the maps which many Bibles have, or even Google Maps, but I think being able to construct a rough map helps make the land come alive to you.

Here is one I frequently use.  

The “C” is Capernaum (located at the ‘cap’ of the Sea of Galilee.

“N” Nazareth is west of the lower end of that sea.

the Star marks Jerusalem which is close in line horizontally with the top of the Dead Sea.

Just below Jerusalem is “B” for Bethlehem, and you see Jericho near the river.

So John would be east of Jericho, on the other side of the river

If you are planning on following Jesus with your feet, we will begin on Feb 16th.  If you want to get a jump on it, then you had better get busy.  Jesus traveled from Galilee, likely his hometown, Nazareth, to the area where John was baptizing.  He most likely (this time) took the usual route, which would be about 90 miles.  In Jesus’ day, this would be a 5-6 day journey.  That won’t be doable for me on a workday, but I plan to take the next 6 weeks to make that 90 miles.  But again, we don’t ‘officially’ begin until mid-February, so no rush.  

1. “The section closes with a note of place. These things happened at John’s normal spot for baptizing on the other side of the Jordan (i.e., from Jerusalem). The name of the place varies in the MSS. Some read “Bethabarah” and some “Betharabah,” but both seem due to Origen, who early in the third century visited the land and reported that he could find no town called “Bethany” on the other side of the Jordan. He says that the ancient manuscripts read “Bethany.” But because he thought the place must be Bethabarah he adopted that reading. Origen was a great scholar, but for once it appears that he is not to be relied on. Close attention to his words shows that he did not actually go to Jordan; he says only, “they say that Bethabara is pointed out.” He appears to have been misinformed. It seems that “Bethany” is the right reading. But quite early the location was lost sight of. The Evangelist adds “on the other side of the Jordan” to distinguish this locality from the better-known Bethany, which was near Jerusalem.”  From New International Commentary on the New Testament, Matthew, Leon Morris.

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD #1

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog ,

Jesus will not begin his ministry for about a month, but John has been preaching in the wilderness for at least several months.  In the weeks (or likely months) before our study begins, John has been preaching in the wilderness and baptizing at the Jordan River.  He is attracting quite a crowd. Matthew 3:3 tells us:

“For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”

Now Matthew has just quoted a passage from his scriptures  (his scriptures being what we call the Old Testament),  He expects us to know this passage so that we will understand why he placed it here.  Unfortunately, Matthew’s modern readers are not as familiar with the Scriptures as were religious students in his day.  Many in the first century had much of the Scriptures committed to memory.  (It is amazing what you can learn and commit to memory when you don’t have to set aside time for Netflix.)   Since there were no chapter or verse numbers, it was common practice for teachers to quote a single verse to bring to mind the full passage for the students.1 So unless you are aware of the background and full passage Matthew is referring to, then you need to spend some time catching up.  

Let’s back up to Isaiah 39:5 to get the background.

Is. 39:5-7   Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD.  And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 

So bad news for the future delivered to the current King, Hezekiah2:  Babylon will conquer Israel and carry off everything and everyone.  But then Isaiah has good news:

Is. 40:1-5    Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

So further into the future, warfare will end and Israel will have paid for her sins and be pardoned.  The punishment of exile will not be forever.  And then more good news for even further into the future.  God himself is going to show up, his glory is going to be revealed. John the Baptist is this voice crying in the wilderness.  He was also predicted by the prophet Malachi.

Mal. 3:1   “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 

Malachi tells us God’s messenger is coming and then God is going to finally return to his temple.  (In case you missed it in Ezekiel, because of the accumulation of years of sin, the temple had become so defiled that God decided he had to leave it.  So the presence of God left the temple, and God did not return his presence to the temple when it was rebuilt after the exile.)  So Israel waits… for almost 500 years, for God to “suddenly return” to his temple.

Hear the good news of John:  God himself is coming here… to us!!!  But John’s message is one of preparation.  As we prepare to spend 70 weeks walking through Jesus’ ministry, we next look at the core of John’s message — repentance.

  1. As an example of this method to refer to scripture, Jesus, on the cross wants his few faithful followers present to think about Psalm 22 to reassure them in this horrible moment.  Today we could just call out “Psalm 22”, but not in Jesus’ day.  (Chapter numbers were not assigned until the 13th Century CE and verse numbers not until the 16th Century.)  So he quotes the first line of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  If you aren’t aware of how this works, you might be led to believe that Jesus is saying that God has forsaken him.  But those followers who are well aware of the content of Psalm 22 recognize that Jesus is telling them exactly what is happening. They recall how the Psalm mentions one who is “scorned”, “despised”, and “mocked”, one whom evildoers “pierced his hands and feet”, and one whom the evildoers have divided his garments and have cast lots for them.  They know this Psalm that Jesus directed them to, and so they see that God foreknew all that would happen. God is still in control.  They know how the Psalm ends, not with rejection, but with redemption.  God does not forsake but delivers.  Jesus delivers a message of hope, but it is only understood by those who know the scriptures.
  2. Hezekiah, in Isaiah 39:8 oddly says “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.”  He has just been given the worst news a nation’s leader can receive – your nation is going to be destroyed.  Yet he sees that it is good because it won’t happen while he is king.  Interesting view, Hezekiah.

70 weeks with Jesus – Study beginning Feb. 16

David Chupp An Intro to the 70-Week Journey, The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog

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