The New Testament in 90 Days

So this is the final installment in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.  Paul testifies convincingly to King Agrippa.  In fact, in some translations, he says that he is "almost persuaded" to become a follower of "The Way."  But, not quite.  Paul shares his testimony, his former life as a Pharisee, how he came to believe in Jesus, and what he is doing now.  King Agrippa is almost persuaded.  Others shout that Paul has gone crazy (from too much learning, they say).  Everyone agrees, though, that there is not reason for Paul to be arrested.  He could be released. If only he hadn't appealed to Rome. So Paul sets out, as a prisoner, for Rome.  It's late to make the sea journey, and Paul (who comes off just a little as a know-it-all) warns them that they will run into trouble.  Which they do.  Paul becomes a leader, encouraging and supporting the crew and the other prisoners, blessing food for a meal (which sounds a lot like a commu...

To be honest with you, I would have liked it much better if Paul had given his powerful testimony of conversion on the road to Damascus, and the result was that everybody (or most everybody) (or a large group of people, anyway) was convinced and convicted by his story, and changed their hearts.  Or, at least, decided not to to kill him. But that's not what happened.  The plot thickens.  Paul tells everyone about what a good Jew he was, and is, and how he was on the way to persecute Christians, and the blinding light, and the voice, and how the Jewish believer Ananais came to him and restored his sight. It's such a powerful testimony that the voices rise up, "He deserves to die!"  Which is what they already thought. I always think that our stories are so powerful, more powerful than statistics.  Statistics don't convince people, but stories do.  And that is true -- sometimes.  Other times, we have our minds so made up already that the most moving ...

This is where it's a good idea to start looking at a map, to keep track of the towns Paul travels through, the seas he sails through, as well as the people he meets.  At the beginning of chapter 19, Paul is traveling through Ephesus and meets some believers who have not yet received the Holy Spirit.  Not only that, they haven't even heard of the existence of the Holy Spirit.  He prays for them, and immediately they begin to speak in other languages and prophecy. Coincidentally, there are "about" twelve of them.  Hmmmm. In the meantime, things are not going so smoothly in the synagogues.  There are people who are convinced about Paul's message, but many more who are not.  One small, odd story concerns some exorcists who do not appear to believe in Jesus, but who like to cast our evil spirits in his name.  At one point, the spirits ask the exorcists, "Jesus I know, and Paul I am familiar with, but who are you" Personally, the very small detail abou...

Paul and his companions have dodged a bulletin with church-dividing implications.  The Gentile and Jewish believers have found a way to be in fellowship with one another.  Still, Paul and Barnabas somehow couldn't fix a rift that developed between the two of them.  We really don't know much about the rift, except that it had to do with John Mark.  Barnabas wanted to take him along with them; Paul did not.  On the basis of something as simple as this, Paul and Barnabas part ways.  Paul teams up with Silas, and eventually Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman and a Greek father (interesting that he has Timothy circumcised because of the company with whom he expected to be traveling). It's sort of sad that the church could come to an agreement with respect to the first controversial issues they faced, but that Paul and Barnabas couldn't come to an agreement with regard to John Mark.  But that's the way it is in churches sometimes, isn't it?  It is the...

The Spirit keeps sending the church out, to Antioch, and every farther out.  Paul, Barnabas and john Mark head down to Seleucid, to Cyprus, and to Paphos and Perga, preaching in the synagogues and then going out to tell the Gentiles as well. Paul preaches a sermon telling the basic story about Jesus.  He meets with success at first, but later on, some of the other Jewish leaders come in with questions, and their success is diminished.  This is the pattern wherever Paul goes, whenever he goes out into the world;  he always goes to the synagogue first, and then later on, they go out to the Gentiles. There's an interesting story in chapter 13 about a false prophet named bar-Jesus.  Bar-Jesus is rebuked and he goes blind.  It does make me wonder about others who might be around claiming to be the messiah. Even when Paul meets with success, there are complications.  First example, Paul heals a man in Lystra, and then has to deal with the problem that ...

There's a turning point in this chapter, and it begins with two men praying and seeing angels and having visions.  First, there is Cornelius, a pious Gentile, who is praying at around three in the afternoon (one of the hours of prayer, by the way), when he sees an angel who tells him to go and summon a man named Simon (who he never met).  This Simon will tell him Something. In the meantime, Peter is also praying.  It is noon (another hour of prayer) and he sees a vision while he is on the roof.  In the vision, he sees a sheet full of animals that are considered unclean by Jewish law.  The voice in the vision says to Peter, "Get up!  Kill and eat!"  Peter refuses, but the voice persists.  "Never consider unclean what God has made pure." Peter does receive a visitor, who invites him to Cornelius' home.  He finds a surprising welcome when he gets there.  There are many people waiting for him, waiting for the word that he will give him. ...

The apostles are witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus -- in both their deeds of power and in their preaching.  But they also spend time defending themselves from religious leaders who do not understand this new thing and who are angry and probably afraid.  They are brought up against the council more than once in these beginning chapters of Acts, and they are thrown into prison, only to be let out by the power of the Holy Spirit. "You know those uneducated fishermen you threw in prison?  they're preaching in the temple again!" For a little while, at least, the faith community seems to lead an ideal life.  They are devoted to Jesus and to one another.  They have no secrets (it seems) and they share everything -- not because they have to, but freely.  they sell property and lay the proceeds at the apostles' feet, to be used for the good of the whole community.  Wow. Until Ananais and Sapphire.  It doesn't take long for someone to come along ...

Luke and Theophilus are back for the second volume of writing, often called, simply, "Acts."  Have you ever thought about that?  But the full title is really, "The Acts of the Apostles, and this second volume written by Luke is about many of the miracles, healings, and other things the disciples did in the name of Jesus and in the power of Jesus. But it begins with Jesus eating with his disciples, teaching his disciples, and, after 40 days, promising them that he would send the Holy Spirit, so that they could say the things he wants them to say and do the actions he wanted them to do. During that ten-day waiting period, one of the tasks that the disciples face is choosing a replacement for Judas (the gory details of his demise are also included).  They have two candidates and pray and cast lots to discover the right choice.  What do you think of this means of electing an apostle? Then, in Acts chapter 2, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes down and f...

The end is near.  Also the beginning. The story becomes familiar:  Jesus eats with his disciples, and one of them goes to betray him.  He predicts Peter's denial; he prays, and they cannot keep their eyes open.  He is arrested, and he is mocked, and Peter does deny Jesus, and finally, he is brought before the religious leaders. Jesus is sent to Pilate, and then to Herod, and then to the crowds, and then crucified.  We've been through this now twice before.  And yet... Did you notice that when Herod and Pilate meet, they become friends?  Formerly, Luke says, they were enemies, but as of today, they blame friends.  Hmmmm.  What do you suppose that means? When Simon helps Jesus carry his cross, Jesus has words for the women of Jerusalem, who follow him, weeping.  "Weep for yourselves, he warns them.  On Jesus' Last Day, he flashes forward to another Last Day that is coming:  the destruction of Jerusalem. In Matthew and M...

Before Jesus rides into Jerusalem to begin Holy Week, he goes through Jericho, where he meets a short tax collector named Zaccheaus, who is not only short, but universally disliked by everyone else in town (probably because of what he does for a living).  Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus so badly that he climbs a tree, and Jesus surprises everyone by inviting himself over to Zacchaeus' house for dinner.  I mean, really!  Why couldn't Jesus have gone to the house of one of the deserving people! I recently read a commentary that posited that perhaps Zacchaeus the hated tax collector was secretly already a God-fearer and a disciple -- that Jesus knew this even though his neighbors did not. I am not sure what this does to the end of the story, which seems like a sudden change of heart, when Zacchaeus responds to Jesus' invitation by offering to give half of his possessions to the poor, and offering to repay anyone he has cheated four times.  He must not consider money quit...

In these Chapters you may begin to feel a foreboding.  Jesus is getting nearer the cross.  He has "turned his face to Jerusalem."  Still, as he goes along the way there are parables and there are miracles. Chapter 16 has two parables with some disconnected warnings between them (it seems to me, anyway).  The parable of the dishonest manager has made commentators scratch their hands and do theological contortions for about 2,000 years.  The idea is that the manager is dishonest, but clever.  Jesus seems to think that disciples need to be creative and clever and this is a part of faithfulness (and stewardship of the resources that God has given us).  But, it makes us scratch our heads.  (And, I'm open to more suggestions on this parable.) The next parable is famous to some -- the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the poor man, and how Lazarus goes to heaven (the bosom of Abraham), but the rich man -- doesn't.  If you're Lazarus -- this i...

I am tempted to begin at the end -- and focus all my attention on Chapter 15.  There's something about this chapter that makes everything else worthwhile.  There are many difficult things in Luke, as there are in Matthew and Mark.  But the sheer grace of chapter 15 -- the images of the father with his arms wide open, the woman searching everywhere for her coin, the shepherd looking high and low for just one out of 100 sheep -- make every difficult saying worth it. There's one catch, though:  you have to be lost.  If you are a wandering son, a coin gathering dust in a dark corner, a sheep out in the wilderness, Luke chapter 15 is good news.  If you are not lost, or you don't think you're lost, well, you might not understand what all of the fuss is about. I noticed reading these familiar stories again that the wandering son doesn't get to say his whole speech before his father interrupts him.  (The part about "treat me like one of your slaves..." the...

This chapter begins with 72 disciple (missionaries) sent out to heal and preach.  They come back pretty excited with their success, although Jesus admonishes them not to rejoice in that success, but to rejoice in this -- their names are written in heaven. I am thinking about that.  I am all for success.  I think the church should grow, that we can reach more people with God's good news. I used to be a missionary, and that calling is near and dear to my heart.  And yet Jesus simply wants to rejoice in this:  our names are written in heaven.  (I think he may be saying:  Don't let success go to your head.  What do you think?) These three chapters of scripture include several parables and stories unique to Luke, as well as some more familiar ones.  The Parable of the Good Samaritan is probably one of the most familiar stories in the New Testament.  Jesus tells it right after a lawyer asks him, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?", a...

In Luke 7, Jesus heals a centurion's servant, a story we might be familiar with.  Then he balances that story with one about Jesus raising a widow's son from the dead.  Luke is careful to include many stories about women in the gospel. There's also the unnamed woman who anoints Jesus' feet with her tears while he's dining at Simon's house.  She is identified as a "sinner", which leads many people to consider he to be a prostitute.  Really, is prostitute the only sin open to women (at least in those times?)  Also, I still wonder about identifying people as "sinners".  To me, it's like saying, that person is a "human being." Mary Magdalene is named as one of the followers of Jesus at the beginning of Luke 8.  Luke also mentions (without saying much more) that several women travelled with him and supported his ministry.  Some of the names are interesting though, like Joanna, who is coincidentally, the wife of HEROD'S stewar...

In Luke 4, Jesus is tempted by the devil.  The content of the temptations is very similar to Matthew (as you might suspect), but the temptations are in a slightly different order (an orderly account, remember?).  The last sentence is ominous:  the devil departs from Jesus "until an opportune time".  (What does your translation say?) Afterwards, Jesus begins his ministry by going to his hometown, wowing them all with his preaching, and, within the space of a few minutes, making everyone angry enough to want to kill him.  the theme of Jesus' ministry is set then from the beginning.  The sentence we hear him read in the synagogue, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.  He has sent me to preach good news to the poor...."  is the theme of his ministry.  Large, appreciative crowds, and anger and rejection also appear right here in Luke 4. In Luke 5, Jesus calls disciples.  John has already been put in prison (see ...

Unlike Mark, but like Matthew, Luke begins well before the beginning of Jesus' ministry.  He begins by telling us that he too is going to write about Jesus, and that his account is going to be an orderly one.  He writes to tell someone call "Theophilos" about Jesus (by the way, Theophilos is Greek for 'Lover of God.") There's a combination of well-known and less-well-known stories in these first two chapters of Luke. I know I had the first few verses of Luke 2, the Christmas story, almost known by heart.  But what about the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist?  Unlike Mary, Elizabeth and her husband were not young ,but an older couple who had long ago given up hope that they would have a child.  Like Mary, Zechariah meets an angel who tells him the good news, but he respond, "How will I know?  After all, my wife and I are getting on in year...."  To me, this is a nice way of saying, "Give me a break.  How am I su...