Category Archives: Uncategorized

(John 5:9-15) I wasn’t going to cover the “after story” of the feeble man at the Pool, but changed my mind: because it raises one absolutely fundamental issue. The easy part is this: when Jesus tells the man to get up, pick up his bed and walk, he does exactly that, and walks off, whileContinue reading “Not the sharpest stick in the forest”

(John 5:2-9) This one is for those who struggle with the chunks of Greek. That’s because what matters in this passage stands out in pretty much any translation. It begins with Jesus having returned to Jerusalem for a Feast… There was in Jerusalem near the Sheep (Gate) a diving pool called in Hebrew, Bethesda (houseContinue reading “I have no one to throw me in…”

(John 4:43-54) Here is the above passage, in the NIV. It has two extraordinarily strange features; please tell me you can see them… After the two days he left for Galilee. (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomedContinue reading “Strange welcome”

(John 4:31-38) This passage sits in the middle of the story of the woman at the well, at Sychar. Before it, the woman has left her jar and headed off to tell all her neighbours about “a man who told me everything I ever did.” After this passage the Samaritans are believing, originally because ofContinue reading “Food, glorious food”

(John 3:1-21) Read Part 1 first; and then you might need help to collect your thoughts. This passage can so easily read as one of those “I say ‘tomato’, you say ‘93.8 km/hour, but only on Sundays’” kind of moments, when two people appear to be speaking past each other; and here with John alsoContinue reading “We talk about what we know (Part 2)”

(John 3:1-21) There was a man of the Pharisees, called Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This one came to Jesus by night and said… Well, he thought he was proffering an olive branch. “Rabbi, we know that you have come from God, a teacher; for no-one is able to do these signs that youContinue reading “We talk about what we know (Part 1)”

(John 2:13-22) Jesus cleansing the temple: He has a whip, He overturns tables, the disciples quote Psalm 69:9. It puts me in mind of the T-Shirt I saw once: “Jesus is coming back, and boy is He mad!” However, if we are picturing Jesus filled with wrath and wreaking destruction, we might need to readContinue reading “I predict a riot”

(John 2:1-11) In John’s Gospel, the first sign Jesus does is a rather irrelevant one. Instead of something useful (a healing, a feeding, a raising from the dead), He makes wine for a party where everyone has already had more than enough to drink. Strange… Having gathered at least some of His original disciples (ofContinue reading “What’s “need” got to do with it?”

(John 1:10-14a) We can be unwittingly passive, as believers. Even the name, “believers” says it all: we believe that God will turn up and do something. What we actually need to believe is that God has already equipped us with everything we need, so that we can get on with the assignments He gives us.Continue reading “Are you receiving this?”

(Luke 5:33-39, also Matt 9 and Mark 2) The Pharisees asked (actually, “accused” is closer to the mark) Jesus why John the Baptist’s disciples regularly fasted and prayed, and their own disciples also – but His disciples just kept on eating and drinking. Jesus answers them with three figures: the bridegroom and his friends; theContinue reading “New wine or old?”