Tom Wright
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Introduction
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Introduction
by SPCK - N T Wright
INTRODUCTION On the very first occasion when someone stood up in public to tell people about Jesus, he made it very clear: this message is for everyone. It was a great day – sometimes called the birthday of the church. The great wind of God’s spirit had swept through Jesus’ follo…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Glossary
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Glossary
by SPCK - N T Wright
GLOSSARY accuser, see the satan age to come, see present age apostle, disciple, the Twelve ‘Apostle’ means ‘one who is sent’. It could be used of an ambassador or official delegate. In the New Testament it is sometimes used specifically of Jesus’ inner circle of twelve; but Paul …
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Feeding of the Four Thousand
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Feeding of the Four Thousand
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Feeding of the Four Thousand Matthew 15.29-39 I went to the cinema the other day with my two nephews and niece. It wasn’t an ordinary cinema. It was a three-dimensional production. Instead of looking at an ordinary movie, it seemed as though everything was coming out of the s…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Canaanite Woman
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Canaanite Woman
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Canaanite Woman Matthew 15.21-28 One of the great moral and cultural issues of the last hundred years has been racial identity. The world was horrified to learn that the German Nazis had killed six million people whose only crime was to be Jews. The world was then increasingl…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Discussions of Clean and Unclean
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Discussions of Clean and Unclean
by SPCK - N T Wright
Discussions of Clean and Unclean Matthew 15.1-9 All churches have jokes about the power of tradition. How many Anglicans (or Methodists, or Baptists, or Roman Catholics . . . or whatever you like) does it take to change a light bulb? Five, comes the answer: one to change the bulb…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus Walks on Water
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus Walks on Water
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Walks on Water Matthew 14.23-36 Curiously, only one great picture of this scene has ever been painted (by Conrad Witz in 1444). You might have thought it would make an ideal subject: Jesus as a shimmering figure on the water, the frightened disciples huddling in the boat, a…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Death of John the Baptist
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Death of John the Baptist
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Death of John the Baptist Matthew 14.1-12 Imagine a movie set in a desert. The plot requires that the hero should travel across barren, dusty country for several days, somehow surviving not only the heat and drought but also the attacks of predators. At the very beginning of …
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Parable of the Weeds Explained
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Parable of the Weeds Explained
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Parable of the Weeds Explained Matthew 13.36-43 I have on my desk a photograph of a sunset. The sun is going down over one of my favourite countryside scenes, lighting up the sky above and silhouetting, on the skyline, hills I have loved since boyhood. The sun is mostly behin…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Parable of the Weeds
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Parable of the Weeds
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Parable of the Weeds Matthew 13.24-35 Why doesn’t God do something?’ That is perhaps the most frequent question that people ask Christian leaders and teachers – and those of some other faiths, too. Tragedies happen. Horrific accidents devastate lives and families. Tyrants and…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Parable of the Sower Explained
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Parable of the Sower Explained
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Parable of the Sower Explained Matthew 13.18-23 I stood still, puzzled. There was a high hedge to my right, and another one to my left. And now there was a third high hedge straight in front of me. The grass was flattened down in this small space. Clearly lots of other people…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Reasons for Parables
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Reasons for Parables
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Reason for Parables Matthew 13.10-17 We went out one windy day to plant a row of trees. The storms of the previous winter had damaged some of the oaks that surrounded the ancient church, and we had decided to remove them and plant new ones. The actual planting was to be done …
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Parable of the Sower
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Parable of the Sower
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Parable of the Sower Matthew 13.1-9 We stood on the shore of the Sea of Galilee on a spring morning. The bus was up by the road, and we had walked down, several dozen of us, to where the lake was glistening in the sunshine. It was peaceful and still. The ground slopes up stee…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' True Family
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' True Family
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ True Family Matthew 12.43-50 One of the saddest moments in my pastoral ministry came some years ago when I was contacted by a man in prison. He was coming towards the end of his sentence, having served some years for serious business fraud. During his time in jail he had t…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Sign of Jonah
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Sign of Jonah
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Sign of Jonah Matthew 12.33-42 We all like to play at being amateur detectives. Every year another crop of novels appears, and sometimes plays and movies as well, in which a wicked deed has been performed and nobody can figure out who did it. Some of the greatest names in fic…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus and Beelzebul
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus and Beelzebul
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus and Beelzebul Matthew 12.22-32 ‘How did they do it?’ We stood looking up at the west front of one of France’s great medieval cathedrals. It was massive, majestic and awe-inspiring. At the same time, the overall shaping of the stone was so beautifully worked that it seemed t…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Servant
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Servant
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Servant Matthew 12.15-21 The bishop sat at his desk and put his head in his hands. Another three letters had just arrived complaining at the way in which a particular parish had changed its style of music. The director of finance had just reported that unless people in the di…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Lord of the Sabbath
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Lord of the Sabbath
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lord of the Sabbath Matthew 12.1-14 Some years ago I read a book by a man who had worked most of his life with poor and homeless people in one of the toughest parts of London. It was a gritty tale of just how hard real life can be for some people – and of how the love of God can …
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' Invitation