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52 Reflections on Faith - Trinity Sunday: The circle of life
52 Reflections on Faith - Trinity Sunday: The circle of life
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Trinity Sunday:The circle of life Probably the most popular icon of the Holy Trinity these days is the one by the Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev, which is displayed in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Reproduced widely, it has become very well known in recent years outside th…
52 Reflections on Faith - Mary, mother of Jesus: pointing to God
52 Reflections on Faith - Mary, mother of Jesus: pointing to God
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
Mary, mother of Jesus: pointing to God Michelangelo’s Pietà is one of the most beautiful and famous pieces of art in the world. It stands just inside St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In glorious white marble, sculpted in the 15th century when the artist was only 24, the statue depict…
52 Reflections on Faith - The body of Christ: respecting difference
52 Reflections on Faith - The body of Christ: respecting difference
by BRF - Stephen W. Need
The body of Christ: respecting difference On a recent visit to the concert hall at Snape Maltings in Suffolk, I became particularly aware of the need to respect differences. The concert hall at Snape is widely known as the music centre founded by the composer Benjamin Britten (19…
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 Healings
Mark The People's Commentary - More Healings
by BRF - Dick France
More Healings Once again Mark allows us a brief respite from the breathless series of amazing events. This more general summary of what Jesus was doing in Galilee at this period, like that in 3:7–12, shows us that the relatively few specific miracles which he has included in his …
John The People's Commentary - More Questions and Answers
John The People's Commentary - More Questions and Answers
by BRF - Richard A. Burridge
More Questions and Answers We have seen how John likes to move from signs into a dialogue between Jesus and others which ends with a discourse. So here, we start with three questions from the crowd, each answered by Jesus, which pick up the signs and begin to explore the themes t…
Mark The People's Commentary - The Dance of Death
Mark The People's Commentary - The Dance of Death
by BRF - Dick France
The Dance of Death Mark 6: 17-29 Mark The People’s Bible Commentary In the previous study we thought about why this story is here, and why Mark may have felt it appropriate to insert it into the story of Jesus. But now we shall look at the story of the death of John in its own ri…
Mark The People's Commentary - Jesus and John the Baptist
Mark The People's Commentary - Jesus and John the Baptist
by BRF - Dick France
Jesus and John the Baptist A change of scene The disciples, sent out on their mission in verses 7–13, will return and report back in verse 30. The intervening space is filled with an unexpected return to the person with whom Mark’s story began….
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 - 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 - 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…
John The People's Commentary - Bread from Heaven
John The People's Commentary - Bread from Heaven
by BRF - Richard A. Burridge
Bread from Heaven Jesus and the crowd have been debating the meaning of the feeding and the last section concentrated on the issue of Jesus’ identity. Suddenly it is no longer a matter of whether he is ‘the prophet like Moses’ who can feed people in the mountains as Moses did. Hi…
John The People's Commentary - Feeding the Five Thousand