august 15, 2022

Peachtree Church is reading through the Bible together in 2022 with Quest: Exploring God’s Story Together. Devotionals are sent by email three days each week. Monday’s email includes additional background, history, and cultural information to help us better understand the texts. On Tuesday and Thursday you will receive a devotional based on one portion of the texts for this week.

Texts for this week

Mark 3:7-4:41

Matthew 13:24-58, 18

Luke 9:25-37, 15-16

John 3, 7, 10

Psalm 103

Introduction to the Texts

Taken as a whole, our texts this week begin to look at Jesus’ teaching ministry, which he primarily conducted using the story-telling technique of parables. Parables are illustrative stories that do not come right out and tell the point behind them. Rather, they provide context that allows the hearer and reader to learn the intent of the teller by having to think through what they have heard or read. This rhetorical device was commonly used by rabbis in Judaism; one of the oldest parables that we have recorded occurred when the Prophet Nathan confronted King David over his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah (2 Samuel 12). The use of parables by Jesus reflected his own understanding of his ministry as conforming to the words of Isaiah: “…they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven” (Isaiah 6:9, 10). The goal of the parables is to illustrate the full fruition of the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Interspersed with teaching through these various parables, Jesus continued in the early stages of his ministry with moments of providing healing to those in need, called twelve of his followers to the office of apostle (a Greek word meaning “one who is sent out”) and performed many other miracles.

The beginning of the passages from Luke contains a moment called “The Transfiguration.”  Jesus had brought Peter, James, and John with him to pray atop a mountain, when he became transformed. In this experience, those three apostles were able to see the full divinity of Jesus shine out from him in a manner that was reminiscent of Moses’ appearance after he had spent time in the presence of the Lord receiving the words of the Law (Exodus 34:29-35). The Transfiguration would have been an important lesson for the early Jewish converts to Christianity as a means of further showing Jesus as fully human and fully God.

Our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 103, is a prayer of praise to God in which David points towards the overwhelming goodness of God. The words of the psalm direct not only humanity but all of creation to offer praise and adoration to the Lord.

Devotional

“Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

John 3:5-8

The phrase “born again” is one that often has strong associations, especially for those of us who are Southern by birth and upbringing. As Jesus spoke with Nicodemus, he sought to explain that through our baptisms by water and the Holy Spirit, we are made into new people who are able to grow and change, becoming ever more transformed into the image of Jesus. We are called to continue to grow closer to our Lord, to seek to live as he did, and not to dwell in our inherently sinful natures.

This journey is one that begins when we are able to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, and it does not have an end while we continue to walk on this earth. While we will all have days where our walk is closer to that of Christ, we also will have days that are the opposite. Thanks be to God that we may ever be born anew in the Spirit.

For Reflection

When did you first come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior?

How is your walk with Jesus today?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you have offered us new life where we might dwell in your grace and grow to be ever more as you are. Forgive us when we falter along your path, and help us to live as children of your grace and Spirit. In your name we pray; amen.