This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 45 It is written in the prophets: ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.
Jesus now addresses the crowd for a second time and tells them to stop their grumbling. Then he repeats the saying of v.37, but in a slightly stronger form. In v.37 the word “come” (hēxei) is the future, active voice and means that the person (subject) will be in the process of “coming.” But in v.44 the subject is God who will helkysē (draw, haul by force – EDNT v.1:435) the person to him. In the midst of everyone considering the great Eucharistic questions posed by John 6, it is easy to pass over one of the great doctrines of the Gospel and the Christian faith: divine initiative. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 41 The Jews murmured about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” 42 and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
As with the encounter with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman at the well, the dialogue reveals more about Jesus and his mission, but the revelation does not necessarily lead to understanding. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The text from the previous Sunday (18th Sunday) centers around Jesus challenging the people’s motivation for coming to Jesus. He tells them they only came to see more signs, eat their fill, but not really “work” for the bread that is eternal. The people not only do not understand Jesus’ point, but become bogged down in “what do I have to do to get it” as though they could accomplish this on their own talents and perseverance. Jesus’ response is that all one needs to do is believe – and the conversation returns to “show us another sign” and they up the ante – “and make it better than the one Moses did in the dessert.” Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, lectionary cycle B. For five Sundays here in the middle of Year B, our gospel is taken from John 6. So, perhaps it is best to see where this reading fits in. John 6 follows the same basic pattern noted in chapter 5: miracle / dialogue / discourse. This pattern is more intricate in John 6 because the chapter narrates Jesus’ self-revelation to two groups: the crowd and his disciples. As such John 6 contains two miracles: one performed before the crowd and the disciples (6:1–15) and one performed in front of the disciples alone (6:16–21). This dual focus is reflected in the discourse material as well. John 6 can be outlined as follows: Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 32 So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. Continue reading
Yesterday’s post was well subtitled: Idolatry, Injustice, and the Coming Judgment. Our exploration of Jeremiah 7 gives you an idea of the essence of the prophet’s message of accusation and warning. It gives a nice summary of all of the main themes in Jeremiah 1-24: Judah and Jerusalem are full of idolatrous Israelites who neglect the poor and vulnerable and engage in treacherous politics. Judgment is coming. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 27 Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” 28 So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” Continue reading
To understand the book of Jeremiah and his message of judgment against Judah, there is no better place to go than Jeremiah’s famous temple sermon in chapter 7. If you wanted a subtitle to this post it would be: “Idolatry, Injustice, and the Coming Judgment.” As Tim Mackie of BibleProject (the original source of these insights) notes, this passage is like a one-stop shopping center for all things “Jeremiah and judgment,” so understanding what’s happening here will help you better grasp what’s going on in the rest of the book. But (spoiler alert!), this isn’t a “feel-good” kind of sermon. Rather, Jeremiah is sent into the temple courts to accuse God’s people of their false religion and idolatrous practices. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25 And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 26 Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Continue reading
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