Sublime

It is not surprising, therefore, that when Jesus came to Jerusalem the place was not, so to speak, big enough for both him and the Temple together. The claim which had been central to his work in Galilee was that Israel’s god was now active, through him, to confront evil and so to bring about the real return from exile, the restoration for which Is

14 For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant. 15 I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbage; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools.

Charles Hartshorne,

The Jews who remained Jews, who remained faithful to the historical character of the Exodus, continued to insist that redemption could not be fully realized without social, political, and economic liberation as well as spiritual fulfillment.

19You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death persons who should not die and keeping alive persons who should not live,…

Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

Jerusalem is surrounded by three valleys that converge to form an interesting shape. It looks like a sideways number three (or if you’re a Trekkie, it looks like the Vulcan salute). To an Israelite, it’s clearly the Hebrew letter shin, which is regarded as a sacred letter among the Jews. Why would they show honor to a letter? Shin is the first lett

Judah and his band might never have succeeded but for the shift of moderate Hellenizers to the side of the revolt. Thus, what started as a revolt of the fundamentalists became a viable coalition of simple traditionalism and moderate Hellenization.

They have grown tired of waiting for the “son of man” to be vindicated and will cut a deal with the fourth monster. They have glimpsed the servant vocation held out to Israel and are content to accept the rule of Babylon. Jesus came to his own, and his own didn’t want to know him. “If you let this fellow go,” they say, “you are no friend of Caesar”

encouragement-it might seem impossible for the promise to be fulfilled, yet the promise is renewed time after time.