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Luke 13:31-35

“Et tu, Brute” (Even you, Brutus) are the famous words from William Shakespeare’s rendition of Julius Caesar’s assassination. On March 15, 44 B.C. Roman senators took turns stabbing their elected consul out of fear of his rising power. They saw a threat to their freedom. They conspired to kill that threat. That conspiracy went into action on the famous “Ides of March” (March 15). A coin minted under Brutus’ leadership is known as the “Eid Mar” denarius. On one side, it’s Brutus’ face. On the other are two daggers with a “pileus” (the cap of freedom or liberty cap) in the middle. Brutus’ and those with him felt that their action preserved Roman freedom.  Others would say that they were trying to protect their power.  Continue reading “Et tu, Brute?”

Harmony of the Gospels: Passover and the Lord’s Supper

Jesus told His disciples, “The hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table.” Jesus would be arrested by His enemies, but a friend would deliver Him into their hands. And what do we read in the next paragraph? “After Jesus had said this, he was deeply troubled. His disciples were very sad. They stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant, and began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. One after the other they began to say to him, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’” Continue reading “Surely Not I, Lord?”

Philippians 3:2-12

St Paul says, “Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.“

But I say, “I don’t want to give up my profits.”

I don’t mind letting others know my strengths and what I’ve done right. I’m glad to say I’m not a liar, not a cheater, not a stealer, at least not most of the time. I’m downright proud of some things:  I volunteer, I save money, I love my kids, I try to help people, and I’m trying to do better in the things I do. You get the point. Continue reading “Profit as Loss”

John 13:31-38

Love one another. It sounds nice. And indeed it is. Love conquers all. Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest is love. And here Jesus says this is how people know we are Christians because we love. There is something different about the disciples of Christ. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn 13:35). It is kind of like the picture hanging on the walls of many a Christian home, including mine. It has a quote from Joshua, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Jo 24:5b). “We will do it, Lord. I promise. I promise you. And I will make sure my household does right by you too. I promise.” Continue reading “Love One Another”

1 Chronicles 21:1-17

King David sinned again. The man “after the Lord’s own heart” showed, yet again, just how unlike the Lord he truly was. Though this particular sin might not be as well known as his encounter with Bathsheba, it was even more deadly. Continue reading “The Man between Heaven and Earth”

Luke 4:1-13

“One little word can fell him.” We just sang those words in stanza 2. I’ve sung that line hundreds of times, and many of you have too. But until this week, I never bothered to wonder what the little “word” was. What word did Martin Luther think could defeat the Devil? I think maybe I assumed it was something like “Jesus” or “baptized” or “faith.” Maybe I assumed that Luther didn’t have one word in mind but rather was making the point that God’s Word in general, even in the smallest of quantities, is enough to fell Satan. But there actually was a word that Luther had in mind and it all revolves around the battle in our lesson today.

Today, we find Jesus going toe to toe with Satan. But before we can really dig into what is happening here, we really need to go back to the beginning, where the battle first began. It was so drastically different than what we see here. Back in the beginning, in Eden, there was not yet any human sin corrupting the world. In the Garden, Adam and Eve were surrounded on every side by countless reminders of God’s perfect kindness. The world was their oyster as they like to say. Continue reading “One Little Word”

Exodus 5:10-23

Suffering tends to bring out the worst in people. We all have our own ideas of what the good life looks like. But when it doesn’t happen the way that we think it should, things can get pretty ugly. Take the account from Exodus 5 for example. God heard the cries of his people in Egypt and resolved to deliver them. He sent Moses as his representative and even enabled him to perform miraculous signs before the people (4:29). When the people saw this and heard that the LORD was concerned about them, they bowed down and worshiped. Things were about to get better, or were they? Continue reading “God for the Troubled”