Gospels

In Mark 8:33, Jesus rebukes Peter. Peter has just suggested that Jesus is mistaken in his need to go to the cross. Jesus rebukes him with those terrifying words:

• "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."
• Ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, Σατανᾶ, ὅτι οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.

Jesus then (Mark 8:34-38) teaches the disciples of the need to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him.

What I hadn't realised until recently is how closely related this call to the crowd is to his rebuke of Peter.

Doug Wilson's post on the star followed by the wise men is most thought-provoking and insightful.

Enjoy!

Just spotted this for the first time: Luke 17:6-10 and Luke 17:11-19 are deliberately juxtaposed.

17:6-10 establishes that the right way to relate to God is as his servants. When we serve him, he doesn't “thank” us, because we recognise that we are merely giving him (a tiny part of) what he is due. As the commentaries point out, this is really about the fact that God does not owe us anything because of the service we have given him. Our service never puts us in his debt.

I picked up a second-hand copy of G B Caird's Penguin Commentary on Luke from 1963. Second-hand is all you'll get, but if you spot one in a second-hand bookshop, I'd say: Buy it!

Short. Insightful. Refreshing. Helpful.

How do we pray the Psalms as new covenant Christians? What difference does it make that they have been prayed before — now not just by king David but by king Jesus?

Is there any mileage in seeing the Lord's Prayer as a key part of this answer?

John Richardson offers us some interesting reading on Mark 13. He argues a few points somewhat more carefully than I have before, which I think clarifies things helpfully. Thanks John!

See my earlier post weighing the textual options for Matthew 18:15.

Enjoying R T France’s commentary on Matthew yet again.

Reading him on Matthew 18:15-17.

I haven’t posted for ages – partly very busy, partly nothing to say.

But I thought I’d post briefly now, because this has encouraged me.

The parable of the weeds and the wheat in Matthew 13:24-30 shows (I think) that the world is a mixed place – it contains true disciples and it contains unbelievers. We need to wait until the end of the age to see truly who is who.

Why does Jesus spend forty days in the wilderness, confronting public enemy number 1 (Satan, the accuser of the people of God), immediately after he has been declared Son of God (echoing Psalm 2) at his baptism?

I know that one answer is that it relates to the 40 years Israel spent in the wilderness. Jesus must be faithful at the exact point at which they failed.