Category: Bible (Page 298 of 419)

I’ve always been a little hard on Martha, one of the two sisters Jesus and his band of disciples dropped in on during their travels. Mary, her sister, sat at the Lord’s feet and drank in his words and presence. Martha, on the other hand, was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.

She complained the Jesus, Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!

Come on Martha, throw some cheese and crackers on a tray, pop open a jug and hang out with Jesus and the fellas. Why blow your stack?

Then last fall I strolled through a museum in Amsterdam and happened upon the scene displayed above. Painted by Joachim Beuckelaer in 1566, the title explains what’s happening: The well-stocked kitchen, with Jesus in the house of Martha and Mary in the background (I encourage you to click the link, fill your screen, and take a longer look).

Martha just welcomed a large number of guests into her home, people she respected and cared for deeply. How better to honor them than serve a wonderful meal? Pondering Beuckelaer’s depiction of the scene I realized her dilemma. This was no cheese and cracker moment. The Messiah rested under her roof. Martha’s gift of hospitality kicked into overdrive and she needed the help of her sister.

Jesus’s words corrected and calmed Martha—Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. Indeed, the Messiah hung out in her house, but he was more interested in Martha joining him in the living room than sweating in the kitchen. A few minutes with Jesus mattered so much more than the food on the stove.

If a famous person walked into our house I’d pull out the china and serve the best we could offer (actually, my wife would need to take over). How else should you treat rare and dignified guests?

But Jesus, happy with whatever we could throw together from the frig, would rather sit with us in the den and talk of more important matters.

Luke 10 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

The first person I ever saw die passed away in a hospital bed after a long battle with cancer. I worked a summer job at a hospital, and the nursing director needed a member of the staff present in the room when the patient expired. I stayed in the background during this intimate family moment, watching for the final breath.

When the man died I knew it and the family knew it. I passed the word to the nurse who checked to be sure, and a doctor entered in a few minutes and confirmed the death. Me, the family members, and the medical professionals all clearly recognized that this body once animated by life now lay sunken in death.

When Jesus walked into a house to heal a little girl who clearly died, he scolded the mourners—stop wailing, she is not dead but asleep. These people knew a dead body when they saw one. Their response to this clueless stranger? They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.

They were right—she was dead. Until Jesus took the hand of the little girl and said, My child, get up! And amazingly, astoundingly, unbelievably, her spirit returned and she stood up. Jesus ordered the astonished parents to tell no one. But those loud mourners in the other room told everyone. No one could have shut me up had I seen that once-dead-now-alive little girl skip from that room.

Jesus says the same words to us—My child, get up! Have you heard them lately? He repeats them over and over. First when we were dead in sin, and again when life beats our spirits out of us. Jesus offers to take our hand and lift us from beds of death. New life awaits.

It doesn’t matter if those around us laugh at Jesus or don’t believe in Jesus. That little girl believes, and her parents believe, and their obnoxious neighbors believe. Billions more do so as well. Let their stories encourage us to turn to Jesus with the simple prayer—Jesus, help me get up.

Luke 8 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Frederic Köberl

John the Baptist sat in a prison cell increasingly depressed. His energetic preaching, spurred on the the Spirit of God, and the crowds pushing on the banks of the Jordan for baptism seemed so far away. Knowing he might never leave this hole, John wondered if his life’s work meant anything at all.

So John sent messengers to Jesus to ask, are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?

John baptized Jesus and heard the stories about Jesus. But John sat in jail while Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead. John saw none of this for himself. John, the precursor of Jesus, the one of whom Jesus said, among those born of women there is no one greater than John, never saw with his own eyes the miracles of Jesus. Instead, John lay in filth and darkness and doubt.

I love the way Jesus answered John’s emissaries: Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Jesus referenced familiar passages from the book of Isaiah pointing to the Messiah, words John knew by heart. Who knows, perhaps the cousins learned these promises together as boys, or maybe they had discussed them late into the night under the stars? I have a feeling these were the exact words John hoped to hear.

Regardless, Jesus comforted John with the only message he and the world and all of us need to hear—indeed, the Messiah has come.

Luke 7 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Spencer Tamichi