#ordinary 13

[rivikah]

Welcome

We’re still in Jesus’ instructions to his disciples as he sends them out and here he reminds them again that they go as his own representatives. Whatever welcome they recieve is also a welcome to him. It’s not only his immediate audience who act as his proxies this way, its a larger class including prophets and righteous people. And all of his followers down to the least important. The smallest…

Welcome

[rivikah]

Trouble

Jesus and his followers are headed for Jerusalem for the Passover. To the Samaritans that they meet along the way, they’re going in the wrong direction. The location on the Passover sacrifice is one of the major theological disagreements between Jews and Samaritans. This Passover pilgrimage is exactly when tensions are likely to boil between the two groups. This Samaritan village is on the way…

Trouble

[rivikah]

Lament

To say that David and Saul aren’t on good terms at the time of Saul’s death is something of an understatement. They’re not fighting each other directly in this incident. It is not David or his army who kills Saul and his sons, but they’re still in opposition to each other. The messenger who comes to tell David the news believes that David will be pleased to hear it. He even goes so far as to talk…

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[rivikah]

Healing

After his meeting with the woman in last week’s passage, Jesus goes into the wilderness and sets up a hospital. It’s extremely understaffed and, as happens in understaffed hospitals everywhere, the waiting time grows. Three days later, the crowd of people waiting to be seen numbers in the thousands. Four thousand men, plus women and children. If the group is half men then that’s eight thousand…

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