The Cursed Fig Tree

Matthew 21:19 – “Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then He said to it, ‘May you never bear fruit again!’ Immediately the tree withered.” The fig tree has the largest leaves of any tree in Canaan. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and […]

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Matthew 21:12-13 – “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a […]

Hosanna

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, the people who went ahead of Him and followed Him were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:9-10) “Hosanna” (Hebrew: הושענא) is a term used in […]

Bethphage

Matthew 21:1 – “As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives…” Bethphage means “house of unripe figs.” It was a place Jesus passed through on Nisan 9, 33 AD, on his way to Jerusalem. In Matthew 21, Jesus sent two disciples from Bethphage to a village across from them to […]

Rebellious Jerusalem

Luke 13:34-35 – “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not […]

Strain Out a Gnat, Swallow a Camel

Matthew 23:23-24 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a […]

The Good Samaritan

In Luke 10, when a lawyer asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” in a discussion about the law to love your neighbor as yourself, Jesus tells him this story: A Jewish man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him half […]

Marriage in God’s Eyes

Mark 10:6-9 – “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let […]

The Raising of Lazarus

Martha and Mary, two sisters who lived in Bethany and loved the Lord, had a brother named Lazarus. Lazarus was a disciple and close friend of Jesus. One day, when Lazarus became seriously ill, Martha and Mary sent a message to Jesus, who was at the time near the Jordan River. Bethany was at least […]

The Bent-Over Woman and the Man with Dropsy

The Gospel of Luke contains several unique accounts of Jesus’ miracles. In chapter 13, for example, it is recorded that on the Sabbath, in a synagogue, Jesus healed a woman who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. This is the last time Luke records Jesus entering a synagogue. The story doesn’t say […]