Parable of the Sower

This is a parable about a sower (I'm pretty sure there is another one ~ but I have been known to be wrong before ). Rather than trying to summarise here's a quote of it:

"A farmer went out to plant some seed. 4As he scattered it across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. 5Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The plants sprang up quickly, 6but they soon wilted beneath the hot sun and died because the roots had no nourishment in the shallow soil. 7Other seeds fell among thorns that shot up and choked out the tender blades. 8But some seeds fell on fertile soil and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted."

Jesus teaches this to a crowd, but it is only later that he explains it to the disciples. To be honest I'm not 100% sure about why this was necessary other than to fulfill Isaiah's prophecy. Seeing as God could have had the prophecy say something different in the first place that's really not a good reason. Although it does have to be said that Jesus did give it to the Jewish leaders pretty straight at times, and didn't mince his words so if you think you know please add a comment for all to see.

Jesus and John the Baptist

In this passage John sends his disciples to Jesus to verify that he is the messiah, this seems kinda weird as it was John who baptised Him, and saw the dove come down, and heard God speak. However I think there are two reasonable explanations for this;

• He was expecting Jesus to have overthrown the Romans and kicked them out by now, as he didn't know/understand God's plan to use the Roman empire to help distribute Christianity throughout the "world".
  
• He wasn't sure this was the same Jesus he baptised as he was now in gaol and couldn't go see Him for himself.

Either way Jesus tells them to see if he is walking the Talk and report that back to John.
Jesus then goes on to tell his disciples that John is Elijah (as prophesied in Malachi). He also tells them that those who don't want to understand/believe this, whinge about how John fasted, and is therefore possessed, and how Jesus feasted, and is therefore a drunk glutton.

Faith of the Roman Centurion

This is the Story of the Centurion who comes to Jesus and begs him to heal his servant, and then exhibiting amazing faith, and great humbleness tells Jesus that he is not worthy to have him visit, and that all Jesus needs to do is say the word. For the occupier and task master of Israel to humble himself like this, shows what the Centurion believed. Do we have this much faith, and can we humble ourselves in front of Jesus like this?

Building on a Solid Foundation

This is the passage where Jesus tells the disciples that many listen to him but only those who obey him will have a solid foundation, those who ignore him are building their house on the sand.

The Tree and Its Fruit

Jesus teaches us that the way to identify a person is by the fruit they bear. Good fruit only comes from good trees, and bad only from bad.

Plank Eye

This is the passage where Jesus warns us to first remove the plank in our own eye before we try and remove the speck in our brothers.

Love for Enemies

In this passage Jesus teaches that we should love our enemies, he then describes how, just to make sure that we don't just say it. The focus is on being Christlike, and loving unselfishly, knowing that the repayment may not be here, but will definitely come in heaven.

The Beatitudes

This is the passage where Jesus warns us that things won't necessarily be easy for us here on earth, but that God sees what we do for Him and will bless us for our humble, servant attitudes, and tells us we will be rewarded in heaven.

Crowds Follow Jesus

This is a short section that talks of how the crowds always surrounded Jesus, coming from far and wide to hear his words and heal their sick. In fact the crowds often got so bad that he would teach from a boat set out a little offshore.

Jesus Chooses the Twelve Apostles

In this passage Jesus gives authority to the 12 to cast out demons so far we have only met 5 of them so where he picked up the other 7 from I don't know. Interestingly he sends them out to preach - so the demon outcasting is just a side job. Is it just me or does it seem weird to you to mention those 2 functions in the same sentence? I mean we have pastors who go out and preach on a regular basis - but they don't do as much of the demon outcasting as this text might imply. What does that mean - there are less demons around today? (unlikely), or that we no longer have the authority to do it? (not true), I think most likely is that we just don't perceive them the same way that they were seen back then. We attribute their effects to other things, and try and solve things by ourselves. I'm not sure where I am headed with this train of thought - only that the same amount is out there, but we don't seem to be doing much about it (then again back then there were only 12 with authority, now there's a lot more so maybe we can handle it on a less regular basis per person).