The Wisdom of Solomon

Gospel of Matthew 12

About the same time, Jesus walked through the corn–fields one Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and began to pick some ears of wheat and eat them. 2 But, when the Pharisees saw this, they said: “Look! your disciples are doing what it is not allowable to do on a Sabbath!” 3 “Have not you read,” replied Jesus, “what David did, when he and his companions were hungry. 4 How he went into the house of God, and how they ate the consecrated bread, though it was not allowable for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests? 5 And have not you read in the law that, on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet are not guilty?

6 Here, however, I tell you, there is something greater than the temple! 7 And had you learned the meaning of the words: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned those who are not guilty. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

9 Passing on, Jesus went into their synagogue, 10 And there he saw a man with a withered hand. Some people asked Jesus whether it was allowable to work a cure on the Sabbath, so that they might have a charge to bring against him. 11 But Jesus said to them: “Which of you, if he had only one sheep, and that sheep fell into a pit on the Sabbath, would not lay hold of it and pull it out? 12 And how much more precious are we than a sheep! Therefore it is allowable to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man. “Stretch out your hand.” The man stretched it out; and it had become as good as the other.

14 On coming out, the Pharisees plotted against Jesus, to put him to death. 15 Jesus, however, became aware of it, and went away from that place. A number of people followed him, and he cured them all; 16 But he warned them not to make him known, 17 In fulfillment of these words of the prophet Isaiah: 18 “Behold! the servant of my choice, my Beloved, in whom my heart delights! I will breathe my spirit upon him, And he shall announce a time of judgment to the Gentiles. 19 He shall not contend, nor cry aloud, neither shall anyone hear his voice in the streets; 20 A bruised reed he will not break, And a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he has brought the judgment to a victory, 21 And on his name shall the Gentiles rest their hopes.”

22 Then some people brought to Jesus a possessed man, who was blind and dumb; and he cured him, so that the man who had been dumb could both talk and see. 23 At this all the people were astounded. “Is it possible that this is the Son of David?” they exclaimed. 24 But the Pharisees heard of it and said: “He drives out demons only by the help of Beelzebub the prince of the devils.”

25 Jesus, however, was aware of what was passing in their minds, and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself becomes a desolation, and any town or household divided against itself will not last. 26 So, if Satan drives Satan out, he must be divided against himself; and how, then, can his kingdom last? 27 And, if it is by Beelzebub’s help that I drive out devils, by whose help is it that your own sons drive them out? Therefore they shall themselves be your judges.”

Interpreting the Lord’s Prayer

To continue reading Chapter 22 and read the wisdom of Solomon text, please click on page 2 below.

Your Sins Are Forgiven

Gospel of Mark 2

Some days later, when Jesus came back to Capernaum, the news spread that he was in a house there; 2 And so many people collected together, that after a while there was no room for them even round the door; and he began to tell them his message. 3 And some people came bringing to him a paralyzed man, who was being carried by four bearers. 4 Being, however, unable to get him near to Jesus, owing to the crowd, they removed the roofing below which Jesus was; and, when they had made an opening, they let down the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying.

5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man: “Child, your sins are forgiven.” 6 But some of the teachers of the law who were sitting there were debating in their minds: 7 “Why does this man speak like this? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God?”

8 Jesus, at once intuitively aware that they were debating with themselves in this way, said to them: “Why are you debating in your minds about this? 9 Which is easier? To say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven‘? or to say, ‘Get up, and take up your mat, and walk about’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins on earth.” He then said to the paralyzed man: “To you I say, get up, take up your mat, and return to your home.” 12 The man got up, and immediately took up his mat, and went out before them all; at which they were amazed, and, as they praised God, they said: “We have never seen anything like this!”

13 Jesus went out again to the sea; and all the people came to him, and he taught them. 14 As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting in the tax-office, and said to him: “Follow me.” Levi got up and followed him.

15 And later on he was in his house at table, and a number of tax-gatherers and outcasts took their places at table with Jesus and his disciples; for many of them were following him. 16 When the teachers of the law belonging to the party of the Pharisees saw that he was eating in the company of such people, they said to his disciples: “He is eating in the company of tax- gatherers and sinners!” 17 Hearing this, Jesus said: “It is not those who are in health that need a doctor, but those who are ill. I did not come to call the religious, but the outcast.”

What is the ‘Our Father’ Prayer?

To continue reading Chapter 2 of the Gospel of Mark, please click on page 2 below.

A House Divided Against Itself

Gospel of Mark 3

On another occasion Jesus went in to a synagogue, where there was a man whose hand was withered. 2 And they watched Jesus closely, to see if he would cure the man on the Sabbath, so that they might have a charge to bring against him.

3 “Stand out in the middle,” Jesus said to the man with the withered hand; 4 And to the people he said: “Is it allowable to do good on the Sabbath? Or harm? To save a life, or destroy it?” 5 As they remained silent, Jesus looked round at them in anger, grieving at the hardness of their hearts, and said to the man: “Stretch out your hand.” The man stretched it out; and his hand had become sound. 6 Immediately on leaving the Synagogue, the Pharisees and the Herodians united in laying a plot against Jesus, to put him to death.

7 Then Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea, followed by a great number of people from Galilee. 8 And a great number, hearing of all that he was doing, came to him from Judea, from Jerusalem, from Edom, from beyond the Jordan, and from the country round Tyre and Sidon. 9 So Jesus told his disciples to keep a small boat close by, for fear the crowd should crush him. 10 For he had cured many of them, and so people kept crowding upon him, that all who were afflicted might touch him.

11 The foul spirits, too, whenever they caught sight of him, flung themselves down before him, and screamed out: “You are the Son of God”! 12 But he repeatedly warned them not to make him known. 13 And Jesus made his way up the hill, and called those whom he wished; and they went to him. 14 And he appointed twelve, whom he also named ‘apostles,’ that they might be with him, and that he might send them out as his messengers, to preach, 15 And with power to drive out demons.

Discover How to Pray Like Jesus

16 So he appointed the twelve: Peter (which was the name that Jesus gave to Simon), 17 James, the son of Zebediah, and his brother John (whom he surnamed Boanerges, meaning the sons of thunder), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, 19 And Judas Iscariot, the man that betrayed him. 20 Jesus went into a house; and again a crowd collected, so that they were not able even to eat their food.

21 When his relations heard of it, they went to take charge of him, for they said that he was out of his mind. 22 And the teachers of the law, who had come down from Jerusalem, said: “He has the devil in him, and he drives the demons out by the help of Beelzebub, their chief.” 23 So Jesus called them to him, and answered them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 When a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot last; 25 And a house divided against itself will not last. 26 So, if Satan is in revolt against himself and is divided, he cannot last; his end has come!

27 No one who has got into a strong man’s house can carry off his goods, without first securing him; and not till then will they plunder his house. 28 I tell you that men will be forgiven everything: their sins, and all the slanders that they utter; 29 but whoever slanders the Holy Spirit remains unforgiven to the end; he has to answer for an enduring sin.” 30 This was said in reply to the charge that he had a foul spirit in him.

31 And his mother and his brothers came, and stood outside, and sent to ask him to come to them. 32 There was a crowd sitting round Jesus, and some of them said to him: “Look, your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.” 33 “Who is my mother? and my brothers?” was his reply. 34 Then he looked around on the people sitting in a circle round him, and said: “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

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Gain fresh insight into the Lord’s Prayer & how God is with us today. Read our free online book The Lord’s Prayer for Daily Life. The prayer’s hidden teachings will enrich and inspire you. Click the following link to begin reading the Living Hour Book now: The Lord’s Prayer.

To read Chapter 4 of the Book of Mark, please go to:  The Kingdom of God is Like

Browse the entire Book of Mark here: Gospel of Mark

Worship Services & How Progressive Christians Worship

When Progressive Christians talk about How We Worship, the discussion usually centers on the goings-on inside the Church walls. While Sunday worship services have an important role to play, what matters even more is the worship that happens during the course of our every-day lives. This daily interactive worship with our immediate neighbors and our inner divinity (Christ) concerned Jesus more than the performance of rituals.

Washing the feet of others (i.e. humbling ourselves in service to our community) is the kind of worship activity that mattered most to Jesus–much more than public hallelujahs¹ and orthodox practices such as recognizing the Sabbath or submitting oneself to formal baptism, a ritual which he told John that they must “suffer” for religion’s sake² not because God demands it–because, after all, rituals only point toward spiritual truths; they are not truths in and of themselves.

When we Christians focus too much on worship rituals in defining “how we worship” we run the risk of elevating the metaphor to God-ordained law, just as the Pharisees did with the Sabbath. Progressive Christian Reverends should begin using the power of the pulpit on Sunday mornings to begin talking more about the daily bread of worship: worship that includes being better stewards of the Garden; caring better for the bodies God has granted us; listening closer for the sound of the Holy Spirit as it struggles to make itself known within us and others; and attending more generously to the needs of family, friends, co-workers, and community as a whole.

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1. “When you pray, you are not to behave as hypocrites do. They like to pray standing in the synagogues and at the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. There, I tell you, is their reward! – Matthew 6:5 [↩]
2. “Suffer it be so for the present,” Jesus answered, “since it is fitting for us thus to satisfy every claim of religion.” Matthew 3:15 [↩]

John – Gospel 7 – Your Time Is Always Here

After this, Jesus walked about in Galilee, for he would not walk in Judea, because the Jews were eager to put him to death. 2 When the Jewish festival of tabernacles was near, 3 His brothers said to him: “Leave this part of the country, and go into Judea, so that your disciples, as well as we, may see the work that you are doing. 4 For no one does a thing privately, if he is seeking to be widely known. Since you do these things, you should show yourself publicly to the world.” 5 For even his brothers did not believe in him.

6 “My time,” answered Jesus, “is not come yet, but your time is always here. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me, because I testify that its ways are evil. 8 Go yourselves up to the Festival; I am not going to this Festival yet, because my time has not yet come.” 9 After telling them this, he stayed on in Galilee.

10 But, when his brothers had gone up to the festival, Jesus also went up, not publicly, but privately. 11 The Jews were looking for him at the festival and asking ‘Where is he?’ 12 And there were many whispers about him among the people, some saying: ‘He is a good man;’ others: ‘No! he is leading the people astray.’ 13 No one, however, spoke freely about him, for fear of the Jews.

14 About the middle of the festival week, Jesus went up into the temple courts, and began teaching. 15 The Jews were astonished. “How has this man got his learning,” they asked, “when he has never studied?”

16 So, in reply, Jesus said: “My teaching is not my own; it is his who sent me. 17 If anyone has the will to do God’s will, they will find out whether my teaching is from God, or whether I speak on my own authority. 18 Those who speak on their own authority seek honor for themselves; but those who seeks the honor of him that sent them are sincere, and there is nothing false in them. 19 Was not it Moses who gave you the law? Yet not one of you obeys it! Why are you seeking to put me to death?”

20 “You must be possessed by a devil!” the people exclaimed. “Who is seeking to put you to death?”

21 “There was one thing I did,” replied Jesus, “at which you are all still wondering. 22 But that is why Moses has instituted circumcision among you—not, indeed, that it began with him, but with our ancestors—and that is why you circumcise even on a Sabbath. 23 When a man receives circumcision on a Sabbath to prevent the law of Moses from being broken, how can you be angry with me for making someone sound and well on a Sabbath? 24 Do not judge by appearances; judge justly.”

25 At this some of the people of Jerusalem exclaimed: “Is not this the man that they are seeking to put to death? 26 Yet here he is, speaking out boldly, and they say nothing to him! Is it possible that our leading men have really discovered that he is the Christ? 27 Yet we know where this man is from; but, when the Christ comes, no one will be able to tell where he is from.”

28 Therefore, Jesus, as he was teaching in the temple courts, raised his voice and said: “Yes; you know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own authority, but he who sent me may be trusted; and him you do not know. 29 I do know him, for it is from him that I have come, and he sent me as his messenger.” 30 So they sought to arrest him; but no one touched him, for his time was not come yet.

31 Many of the people, however, believed in him. “When the Christ comes,” they said, “will he give more signs of his mission than this man has given?” 32 The Pharisees heard the people whispering about him in this way, and so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him;

33 On which Jesus said: “I shall be with you but a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will look for me, and you will not find me; and you will not be able to come where I shall be.”

35 “Where is this man going,” the Jews asked one another, “that we shall not find him? Will he go to our countrymen abroad, and teach foreigners? 36 What does he mean by saying: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and you will not be able to come where I shall be’?”

37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus, who was standing by, exclaimed: “If anyone thirsts, let them come to me, and drink. 38 You who believe in me, as scripture says, out of your heart shall flow rivers of living water.” 39 By this he meant the spirit, which those who had believed in him were to receive; for the spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been exalted.

40 Some of the people, when they heard these words, said: “This is certainly ‘the prophet’!” 41 Others said: “This is the Christ!” But some asked: “What! Does the Christ come from Galilee? 42 Is not it said in scripture that it is of the race of David, and from Bethlehem, the village to which David belonged, that the Christ is to come?” 43 So there was a sharp division among the people on account of Jesus. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, and yet no one touched him.

45 When the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, they were asked: “Why have you not brought him?” 46 “No man ever spoke as he speaks!” they answered. 47 “What! Have you been led astray too?” the Pharisees replied. 48 “Have any of our leading men believed in him, or any of the Pharisees? 49 As for these people who do not know the law—they are cursed!”

50 But one of their number, Nicodemus, who before this had been to see Jesus, said to them: 51 “Does our law pass judgment on people without first giving them a hearing, and finding out what they have been doing?” 52 “Are you also from Galilee?” they retorted. “Search and you will find that no prophet is to arise in Galilee!” 53 Then everyone went back to their own houses.

To read the next chapter of the Book of John, please go to The Gospel of John – 8.

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