RebeccaMallinson

Jesus withdrew to Ephraim because of the threat to his life, however it does not show fear. If he were fearful in a human way, he would have gone back to Nazareth and resumed carpentry and avoided all further publicity. Instead he continued to preach the Kingdom of God. This strategic retreat enabled him to continue his ministry. It teaches us that if we are unwelcomed, we should do as Jesus recommends elsewhere. We should wipe the dust from our feet and go elsewhere to continue our mission.

Caiaphas intended to put a stop to the vacillation by making an end in a very final manner. He said that it is better for one man to die for all. The prophetic meaning is that Jesus would be sacrificed for the whole of mankind.

I find Pastor Ralph’s interpretation interesting food for thought. I have always thought before now that he wept out of compassion for his bereaved friends Mary and Martha because, as we all know, God has compassion on those who suffer. I don’t know which interpretation is correct.

Based on Luke, Martha has been given a reputation as less spiritual than her sister. Martha’s confession shows that this is not so. She declares her faith in Jesus as the Son of God. This tells us that, like Thomas, she is a multifaceted character. Mary is a less active person, but as soon as she realises that Jesus is calling for her, she goes immediately. I don’t see this as less spiritual. She just has a quieter character.

Jesus is divine. He is immortal and cannot die. When he was crucified, he did not remain dead as it is not possible to kill God. His resurrection was a part of his being due to his divine nature. As the creator of all things, he embodies life, not death. His promise is that if we have faith in him we also will have eternal life.

Verse 16 teaches us that like Peter and like the rest of the human race, he is a mixture. He could clearly be extremely brave and loyal as he was on this occasion. Later, when he doubted Jesus’ resurrection demanding tangible proof, his ultimate reaction was to say, “My Lord and My God”, which also demonstrates his faith and acknowledgement of Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. It was the women followers who were quickest to believe.

In the world of shepherds either a carnivorous animal or a human thief would try to snatch a sheep. Those who feel threatened by Christianity would try to snatch a Christian. This can be members of family or society. Elsewhere (in Matthew and Luke) Jesus says that he expects division even within families. This strikes at the root of human security. Our security can only come through faith in God. We are told this repeatedly in the Gospels and Epistles. Ultimately we are assured of eternal life if we remain faithful.

A good shepherd loves and protects the sheep. He has no other motive than love. The hired shepherd has worldly motivations, especially money and personal security. Jesus laid down his life for us by dying on the cross.

An abundant life would be a life without fear or problems and with total trust in the shepherd. The Christian life is an abundant life if we put our complete trust in God. Even in hard times we should remind ourselves that we are meant to be tested, to see how strong our faith is. The life of an unbeliever is limited to this life only, with no hope of salvation. If they have an easy life, they still fear death. When they suffer hardships they are more likely to turn to drink or drugs which send them on a further downward spiral.

It means that believers or followers will recognise when they are called by him. It can be difficult to hear the difference between your own thoughts and his voice. The key is not to act too speedily, but to pray and meditate beforehand.

Yes he was responsible. We all have personal responsibility and the ability to be humble enough to change our minds. According to 2Corinthians 4:4 the Devil is the cause of spiritual blindness. Yes, Pharaoh was responsible for his hardness of heart. He received warning after warning and saw proof after proof, but refused to listen to Moses.

Jesus looked for him because he heard about his interrogation by the Pharisees and his brave attitude. The healed man was very open and believed that his healing could only have come from God. He was not knowledgeable at this point, but wanted to learn more. The first people to spring to mind as ready, are children. They listen as no adult will. They need guidance, but faith comes easily to them.

I have no idea why Jesus healed in different ways. He is one with the Father, so I don’t think he constantly needed to check how to do things. I believe he was (and is) capable of healing in any way he chooses. As mere human beings we need to check all the time that we are doing the right thing. It is so easy to make mistakes. Jesus did not make mistakes in his earthly ministry.

No. If it was, it would seem most unjust in the case of someone who was disabled in any way from birth. God creates us all, in many forms and characters. I myself was born completely and incurably deaf in one ear. I don’t hold my parents responsible! It has made me able to help others who became deaf later in life and really struggled. Sufferings are often a test, such as that performed on Job. How will we respond? Negatively or positively? Depending on people’s personal outlook on life, strength of character can be a good result from any suffering. I once knew a child with a club foot. As a tiny child, she ran, literally, before she learned to walk.

Jesus’s statement “Before Abraham was, I am” tells us that he is God. This relates to the beginning of St John’s Gospel which starts, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” This is a clear statement that God the Father and Son are one being.

This verse tells us about the deceptiveness of the devil. It also tells us that people who lie are followers of the devil, whether they know it or not. If Jesus is ‘the Truth’, a habitual liar is his opposite. This can seem very harsh, as often people have no idea that even a small lie or a lie intended to sooth someone’s feelings is wrong. It just shows how deceptive the devil is, when he turns what a person thinks is a friendly act into wrongdoing.

Sorry, I missed the next part of this question. If I find myself in a state of sin, I tend to agonise. When I get over that stage I meditate on it and then go to Confession. I use Confession as a means of drawing a line under that particular sin and remind myself every time I am tempted (or fail again) that that is a past sin, not to be repeated. At an earlier stage of my life, I was very scared of Confession, and as a result had no regular means of helping myself out of the mire of some very sinful ways.

Sinning enslaves people by becoming a habit or temptation that is hard to break or resist. Lifestyles are supported by other people in the same situation, making it even harder to break free. Trust in God is necessary for a person to break free. Jesus sets people free by many different methods. In some cases, such as St Paul’s, a direct revelation. In other cases, example from Christians. There is no single way.

A real disciple shows complete, single-minded commitment in following Jesus’ teaching and way of life. To continue in Jesus’ word, means not to fall away. The truth that sets us free is the true nature of Jesus as the Son of God. In a secular context its meaning is to be aware of human truths, such as science, the benefit of education etc.

To die in your sins means to die unrepentant. The consequence of this is hell. To be forgiven, it was necessary for them to reform, not to continue along the same path. Jesus so often said to people that their sins were forgiven, ‘go and sin no more’. To be forgiven and then to continue to sin in the same way shows ingratitude. I think most people have been like this, including myself. It is only in recent years that I have had the strength of will power to resist temptation more firmly and keep at the forefront of my mind the importance of a transformed life.

Jesus is the Light of the World because he is the hope of the world. We talk about the darkness of despair, light is the opposite. We need to follow that light of hope in order to reach salvation. ‘Following’ does not mean just studying as an intellectual exercise, but actually living our lives according to Jesus’ example, with passion, so that we too become lights for others to follow. I have often heard the analogy of a candle. Other candles can take their light from it without making the original candle weaker. Then other candles can be lit from those ones. Gradually the light from the multiplying candles becomes more and more powerful.

Jesus did acknowledge her sin, but his condemnation was of a different sort to the Pharisees’ version. He condemned the sin not the sinner. I think the Gospel would have been clear if she had been innocent but I suspect that it was a ‘stitch up’ for her too. The absence of the guilty man speaks loudly to me that he was part of a plot and was one of the witnesses, making use of a woman known for her loose ways. In other words a sting operation. Jesus forgave her sin and asked her to repent. Repentance and the determination to try hard to amend one’s life is essential to a ‘new birth’ and salvation. When we don’t emphasize repentance, Christianity loses its passion and becomes a faithless, lukewarm sludge of feel good philosophies with watered down moral teaching.

I have no idea why or what Jesus wrote on the ground, but like Dr Ralph I don't think it can have been important. Maybe it was to allow time for reflection or to quietly focus the scene on him rather than the noisy accusers. If so, his tactic worked.

In Matthew 7: 1-5 Jesus taught that we should remove the plank from our own eyes before attempting to remove the speck in someone else’s. Verse 7 is misused to justify a completely non-judgemental approach under any circumstances. My understanding is that we are in error if we do not try to ‘save people from themselves’ by pointing out their faults. I base this on Ezekiel 3: 16-21 when God said he would blame the prophet if he did not attempt to help others to avoid sin. It is how we do it that is key. Jesus’s injunction elsewhere to correct one’s brother privately and then take graduated steps if this is ineffectual, until things reach a point where he is to be treated like a ‘tax collector’. Finger pointing in a loud and judgemental fashion is both unlikely to succeed and also very cruel. None of us is sinless, so we can only do our best.

They tried to trap him by giving him a test which they thought he could not pass. Either he would fall into the hands of the Romans for going against their law if he agreed to condemn her to death or he would go against Mosaic Law if he simply forgave her sin, as he had so often done. They also thought they could accuse him of a lack of mercy if he agreed to stone her.