Tom Wright
John for Everyone part 2 - Mary Magdalene and the Risen Jesus
John for Everyone part 2 - Mary Magdalene and the Risen Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mary Magdalene and the Risen Jesus John 20.11-18 The first time I went to stay with a family in Germany, I learnt enough German before the trip to know the basic rules of politeness. When people say ‘you’ in German, there are two forms, like the old English ‘ye’ (for more than on…
John for Everyone part 2 - The Empty Tomb
John for Everyone part 2 - The Empty Tomb
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Empty Tomb John 20.1-10 Darkness on the face of the deep. The formless beginning, the chaos. The void. The beginning. The wind and the word. God’s breath, God’s speech, summoning things never known before. Life and light. The first day. Creation. In the beginning was the Word…
John for Everyone part 2 - The Burial of Jesus
John for Everyone part 2 - The Burial of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Burial of Jesus John 19.38-42 The camel was called Michael. He stood, with his owner, outside the walls of Jerusalem. Our day’s tour was over, and one member of the party at least was keen to do something different. I went with her to speak to the camel’s owner, one of the ma…
John for Everyone part 2 - Blood and Water
John for Everyone part 2 - Blood and Water
by SPCK - N T Wright
Blood and Water John 19.31-37 He came up at the end of the service and shook me warmly by the hand. ‘I didn’t really know why I was coming here this morning,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t normally have made the effort. I’d have gone somewhere closer to home. But something made me come. A…
John for Everyone part 2 - The Death of Jesus
John for Everyone part 2 - The Death of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Death of Jesus John 19.25-30 A colleague of mine worked in Lebanon during the awful civil war in the second half of the twentieth century. He reported an interesting phenomenon, which helps us to understand what was happening at the foot of the cross. Rival militias were stal…
John for Everyone part 2 - The King of the Jews
John for Everyone part 2 - The King of the Jews
by SPCK - N T Wright
The King of the Jews John 19.16b-24 There was a shocking photograph in the newspaper the other day. A cart was being driven through the streets of a city in the Far East. On the cart were standing fifteen or twenty men. Round the neck of each, hanging from a string, was a notice.…
John for Everyone part 2 - No King but Caesar
John for Everyone part 2 - No King but Caesar
by SPCK - N T Wright
No King but Caesar John 19.8-16a From our seats, high in the stands, we watched as the football match swung this way and that. Our team was doing well and scored a couple of early goals. We were delighted; surely they could hang on to a lead like that? When the opposition scored …
John for Everyone part 2 - Here's the Man!
John for Everyone part 2 - Here's the Man!
by SPCK - N T Wright
Here’s the Man! John 19.1-7 If you go into the Ashmolean museum in Oxford, you will see many treasures and beautiful objects from countries far away and centuries long past. But the last time I went in I was particularly struck by one set of objects. They weren’t particularly bea…
John for Everyone part 2 - My Kingdom Is Not From This World
John for Everyone part 2 - My Kingdom Is Not From This World
by SPCK - N T Wright
My Kingdom Is Not from This World John 18.33-40 The ancient world knew more about kings than we moderns do. Where kings and queens still exist today, they mostly live and work within a carefully constructed framework. They are not ‘absolute’ monarchs, but ‘constitutional’ ones. T…
John for Everyone part 2 - Pilate and the Judaeans
John for Everyone part 2 - Pilate and the Judaeans
by SPCK - N T Wright
Pilate and the Judaeans John 18.28-32 I watched today as the television interviewer fired questions at a man whose main aim seemed to be to answer them all at great length without saying anything at all. On and on the interviewer went, trying angle after angle; but the man stood …
John for Everyone part 2 - Peter Denies Jesus
John for Everyone part 2 - Peter Denies Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peter Denies Jesus John 18.15-27 There is a part of the human brain which seems to be closed off for much of the time, but which can be reached at once through the sense of smell. You can be walking down the street, thinking of something completely different, when a single sniff …
John for Everyone part 2 - The Arrest of Jesus
John for Everyone part 2 - The Arrest of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Arrest of Jesus John 18.1-14 He came, looking for someone. He came on the evening breeze, came as he had always come. Came because they knew each other, and used to spend time together. Came to the garden, because that’s where they always met. That’s where he was at home. And…
John for Everyone part 2 - That They May Be One
John for Everyone part 2 - That They May Be One
by SPCK - N T Wright
That They May Be One John 17.20-26 This afternoon I looked on the Internet for a website about an electric appliance that’s gone wrong. I’ve lost the instruction booklet and was hoping to find relevant information through the Web. I found the website of the company that makes the…
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus Prays for His People
John for Everyone part 2 - Jesus Prays for His People
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus Prays for His People John 17.9-19 In the newspapers recently a mother was punished by the courts. She had left her two young children entirely by themselves, while she went off for a foreign holiday with her new boyfriend. (The father, it seems, was nowhere to be found.) It…
John for Everyone part 2 - Glorify the Son
John for Everyone part 2 - Glorify the Son
by SPCK - N T Wright
Glorify the Son John 17.1-8 Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is full of action. Ghosts, murders, love scenes, plots, accidental killings, betrayals, recriminations and more plots. The play highlights the indecision of the hero when faced with huge problems, and this results in pauses he…
John for Everyone part 2 - Ask, and You Will Receive
John for Everyone part 2 - Ask, and You Will Receive
by SPCK - N T Wright
Ask, and You Will Receive John 16.23-33 In the world of business you can often tell how important someone is by finding out how many people you have to ‘go through’, as we say, in order to speak to them. You telephone, hoping for a word with the chairman of the company. You get t…
John for Everyone part 2 - Your Heart Will Rejoice
John for Everyone part 2 - Your Heart Will Rejoice
by SPCK - N T Wright
Your Hearts Will Rejoice John 16.12-22 How do you talk about things that are not just out of the ordinary but that take you into a whole new world? One way of doing it is through music. That’s why some of the greatest songs are love poems. Faced with the glory and thrill of human…
John for Everyone part 2 - The Spirit and the World