Luke 6:12-16: The Twelve Apostles: Part Two
2 Cor. 4:7, ‘But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.’ Paul is talking about the treasure of the knowledge of God in the gospel having been put into the jars of clay of the sinful apostles. He tells us that God delights to use the weak things so that His power is evident. The twelve apostles are a menagerie of jars of clay, each is earthy and ugly, bearing all the imperfections of being made by hand, each item is completely unique from the...
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Luke 5:27-32: Jesus the Friend of Sinners
One of the things that Christianity used to turn the world upside down was the meal, yes the simple act of sitting down together to eat. Religious and social norms were perpetuated by the meal, and it played an important role in society. Ideas about nationality, gender, class and religious purity were all supported by the way a meal was practiced. In Greco-Roman society an aristocratic woman who went to a meal with her husband was not better than a slave or prostitute; slaves and masters did not sit down at the same table, for the slave was to...
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