BRF
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and the Poor
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and the Poor
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
11 Jesus and the Poor It’s striking, isn’t it, that God often comes to us in times of deprivation and loss, at times when we’re most down and depressed, at our weakest and most vulnerable, and perhaps feeling least religious? It’s true, of course, that we feel God’s presence at t…
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and Healing: The New Creation
52 Reflections on Faith - Jesus and Healing: The New Creation
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
10 Jesus and Healing I wonder if you’ve ever played any part in healing somebody. Have you ever had a role in helping somebody become whole? I don’t mean ‘Have you ever performed a miracle?’ as much as ‘Do you think in terms of healing and behave as if healing were possible?’ Do …
Mark The People's Commentary - From the Least to the Greatest
Mark The People's Commentary - From the Least to the Greatest
by BRF - Dick France
From the Least to the Greatest Mustard Seed Mustard seed is proverbially tiny (see Matthew 17:20), and yet it produces ‘the greatest of all shrubs’. This is not, of course, the puny ‘mustard-and-cress’ that we grow in little plastic boxes, but a garden herb which in Palestine com…
Mark The People's Commentary - Mark 4
Mark The People's Commentary - Mark 4
by BRF - Dick France
Mark 4 In the middle of both the first and third acts of Mark’s drama (see study 2 for the three acts) we find what seems like an interlude, where we are offered a concentrated collection of Jesus’ teaching before the story resumes at its previous breathless pace. In chapter 13 t…
Mark The People's Commentary - Insider and outsiders
Mark The People's Commentary - Insider and outsiders
by BRF - Dick France
Insiders and outsiders Here is the other end of the ‘sandwich’ which began in verses 20–21; the family have arrived. At the same time, a further layer is added to the sandwich, in that the inner circle of the disciples, whose call was narrated just before the family were introduc…
Mark The People's Commentary - ‘BLASPHEMY against the HOLY SPIRIT’
Mark The People's Commentary - ‘BLASPHEMY against the HOLY SPIRIT’
by BRF - Dick France
‘BLASPHEMY against the HOLY SPIRIT’ For Satan or against him? In verses 23–27 Jesus offers what might be called a ‘common-sense’ reply. The scribes’ accusation does not make sense. Why should Satan want Jesus to drive out his own demonic forces. That would be to divide and weaken…
Mark The People's Commentary - How do you explain Jesus?
Mark The People's Commentary - How do you explain Jesus?
by BRF - Dick France
How do you explain Jesus? Mark sometimes likes to enfold one story within another (or to ‘sandwich’ it) so as to help his readers to listen to the one in the light of the other. He has done that in the latter part of chapter 3. Within the story of how Jesus’ own family responded …
Mark The People's Commentary - More trouble on the Sabbath
Mark The People's Commentary - More trouble on the Sabbath
by BRF - Dick France
More trouble on the Sabbath The encounter in the cornfields may have been just a chance meeting which gave rise to an argument. But this time there is certainly nothing accidental about the confrontation in the synagogue. It almost looks as though the man has been ‘planted’ to pr…
Mark The People's Commentary - In the cornfields
Mark The People's Commentary - In the cornfields
by BRF - Dick France
In the Cornfields The sabbath was one of the most distinctive features of Judaism, and was guarded with fierce national pride. The Old Testament itself gave little specific guidance as to how it was to be ‘kept holy’, beyond the general injunction to ‘do no work’. But what is wor…
Mark The People's Commentary - Old and New in Religion
Mark The People's Commentary - Old and New in Religion
by BRF - Dick France
DISREPUTABLE COMPANY Tax collectors are probably never popular, but in Roman Palestine their reputation stood at an all-time low. In Galilee they represented Herod Antipas, the unpopular half-Jewish ruler, who in turn represented Roman occupation. So a tax collector was a collabo…
Mark The People's Commentary - Disreputable company
Mark The People's Commentary - Disreputable company
by BRF - Dick France
A DEMONSTRATION in the TEMPLE Mark has carefully interwoven two themes here, as the scene shifts repeatedly between the temple and a fig tree on the Bethany road, thus: Verse 11, temple; verses 12–14, fig tree; verses 15–19, temple; verses 20–25, fig tree; verse 27, temple (which…
JOHN: The people's bible commentary - NICODEMUS by NIGHT
JOHN: The people's bible commentary - NICODEMUS by NIGHT
by BRF - Richard A. Burridge
NICODEMUS by NIGHT In the last chapter, Jesus did not ‘trust’ himself to people who ‘trusted’ in him because of his signs (2:23–24). Over the coming chapters, many people come to Jesus because of his signs—the Samaritan woman (4:29), the official whose son is healed (4:47), the p…
The Act of Prayer Year B - Trinity Sunday Year B
The Act of Prayer Year B - Trinity Sunday Year B
by BRF - John Birch
Trinity Sunday Year B Opening prayer As we join in worship today, let us spend a moment in quietness. Listen to the noises coming from outside this building— people talking, vehicles going by and maybe an aeroplane passing overhead….
52 Reflections on Faith - Christ the King: Overcoming Suffering