We are now ready to move on to the next chronological phase in the ministry of Jesus. We've covered his birth, the prologue to his ministry, the calling of his disciples, and then the beginning of his preaching - just a few days in Galilee around Capernaum. Now Jesus is going on into Judea, and Jerusalem. Our next set of passages is the Cleansing of the Temple.
Wait... what? Doesn't that come at the end? Not in the Gospel of John, and there's good reason to believe that we should follow John's chronology, in part because the other three gospels conflate Jesus' activity in Jerusalem, and jam it all into that last week before his passion. So we're going to think outside the box a bit, and look at this prophetic act of cleansing the temple (and referring to his own body as the new temple) over the next couple of weeks. If you're following along on that chronology chart I gave you a while back, we are now in the phase I called "Year 1A, Judea". See you tomorrow, at the regular time.
Dear friends - Please take 10 minutes to watch this personal update from me:
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
This is Michael Knowles' commentary on the murder of Charlie Kirk, and directly on the press conference about the arrest - In the middle is a great speech by the governor of Utah - overall excellent stuff if you have 1.5 hr to spend on it
with some Florida colleagues - all of them Protestant, but with varying traditions on the Eucharist - it was encouraging to hear how there are some Protestant denominations that have a real respect for the Sacrament (and I'm not talking about Anglicans or even Lutherans):
