Posts from June 2023

The four Gospels agree that it is man named Joseph from Arimathea who buries Jesus after his crucifixion. Each account sprinkles into the story some unique details, and the details are everything. When John tells the story (John 19:38-42), we find out that this Joseph is a disciple of Jesus, but a secret disciple. He’s a well-respected man among Jerusalem’s religious elite, and openly following Jesus would have been a quick way to lose that status and whatever privileges and…

In John 9, a man who’s been healed by Jesus is interrogated by the Pharisees (since the healing happened on a sabbath). When the formerly blind man refuses to throw Jesus under the bus, he’s expelled from the synagogue community, which would mean the loss of many relationships and connections in his community. Jesus continually invites us to step into sacrifice, into oblivion with the faith that, when we do, we haven’t actually lost what we thought we would lose, and…

Everyone is blind. Those who can’t see, can see. And those who can see, can’t see. Everyone is blind. At least that’s what Jesus has to say at the end of John 9 after healing a man of his blindness – with saliva and mud! It is genuinely one of the most entertaining stories in the Gospels (which is saying something, considering Jesus is absent for most of it). The healing happens on a sabbath, which means the Pharisees feel…

Starting in John 7, we follow Jesus to Jerusalem and into the temple, and we’re there with him for a good while. We should be prepared – Jesus is heading into the lions’ den, to the Pharisees’ and priests’ home turf. Anyone who has spent any time at all in the Gospels knows what kinds of confrontations await Jesus any time he enters the space of religious procedure. Feathers get ruffled. Toes get stepped on. Tempers flare. Here we go.…