In John 15 Jesus makes His famous speech about “I am the vine; you are the branches,” and when we studied the passage in Bible study at my church about a month ago the metaphor really stuck in my head as… fearsome. The passage (vv 1-8, hcsb): “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. Every…
Well, that took me long enough, huh? I feel like Martha, distracted by many things. But back to Luke 7:36-50 tonight, at least! So after Jesus gets finished rebuking the Pharisees and experts in the law, one of them invites Him over for dinner. The Pharisee’s name is Simon (v. 40), which oddly I’d never noticed, despite the fact that…
Luke 6 concludes with Jesus reinforcing this idea of those whose blessings depend on heaven, and those whose blessings are built on earth. He begins by talking about trees. “Each tree is known by its own fruit,” Jesus says; good trees give good fruit, bad trees give bad fruit. Fig trees grow figs. Thornbushes grow thorns. Grapevines grow grapes. Everything…