Jesus Foretells the Future

This is a big passage - I have a feeling that I really won't cover it so feel free to help me.
Basically it covers the end times and the return of Christ - it sounds pretty nasty from Jesus's description, which certainly makes me wary. Hopefully we will heed His warning and make sure that we are His, and not the worlds.

The Widows Offering

The story of the widow who gives all that she has thus outgiving the rich.

Whose Son Is the Messiah?

I am unsure as to why Jesus asks this question right now, but He asks the Pharisees why they believe the the Messiah is the son of David if David refers to him as Lord, they of course can't answer, and Mark and Luke give the impression that he did this to prove to the people that these Pharisees aren't all that they crack themselves up to be.

The Most Important Commandment

This is a follow up question by the Pharisees after the Sadducees had failed in getting Jesus to trip up. Once again Jesus shows that he is more than up to the task and swiftly answers their question, interestingly he doesn't use one of the ten commandments to answer this. His answer; love God, and love your neighbour. In Luke this is then followed by the well known parable of the Good Samaritan, as Jesus goes on to describe who your neighbour is.

One Bride for Seven Brothers

Here Jesus is questioned by the Sadducees as to whom a woman will be married to at the resurrection, if she was widowed by her previous husband - of course they go to the extreme and have her marry 7 guys!! Jesus knows they are asking this to disprove the possibility of our own resurrection from the dead, which the Sadducees didn't believe in, so not only does he tell them the question is stupid (there is no marriage after you are resurrected, maybe you are too busy getting to worship God up close and personal). He then goes on to answer their hidden question, which is does the resurrection exist, which He does by quoting God at the burning bush when He refers to Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the present tense. This quote unfortunately doesn't have as much impact in English as apparently it would have in Hebrew (otherwise Jesus wouldn't have used it).

Taxes for Caesar

Another story of Jesus seeing throught he Pharisees and their trying to trick him so that they can have an excuse to arrest Him. This time they try and get Him to preach rebellion against the Roman occupation of Israel (and bring the roman authorities with them to hear this open dissension, of course it backfires on them, making them even more mad at Jesus!

The Parable of the Great Feast

This parable teaches about how the invited guests (Pharisees/Jews) ingnore the invitation to the banquet, and so the master (God) invites everyone else (gentiles/us) in their place.

The Parable of the Tenants

This is a cool parable I think, and very easy to understand, in it Jesus talks about the land owner who leaves the country and lets tenant farmers run it. When the land owner sends his servants (and ultimately his son) to collect his payment of the crops they are murdered by the tenant farmers. Not only is this obviously comparing Jesus to the son and the Pharisees to the tenants, but it goes on to say that the Pharisees knew what he was getting at too. This is one parable where it is fully explained at the end.

The Authority of Jesus Challenged

This is when the religious leaders come to challenge Jesus's authority to teach, the interesting part is that Jesus offers to answer this question if they answer His, when they profess a lack of knowledge, Jesus sees through their answer knowing that they are trying to weasel out of answering the question, and refuses to answer their one!

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

Jesus curses a fig tree for not having fruit on it - doesn't sound particularly nice until you see how he teaches the disciple the power of prayer. This is a moving mountains passage too, like the more famous one in Matthew 17:20.

Jesus Clears the Temple

Jesus empties the temple of the money lenders and merchants and starts to really annoy the priests with his teachings.

The Triumphal Entry

This is the weekend before passover when Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey

Jesus Blesses the Children

When Jesus tells the Disciples to allow the Children to come to Him

Faith as Small as a Mustard Seed

This is a single verse for both Matthew and Luke, and yet so many people know it, which is what makes it so cool.

"I assure you, even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, `Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."

I pray that we can all gain the kind of faith which is as big as a mustard seed (as apparently with the lack of mountain moving going on that is what we should aspire to first! )

Tempting and Forgiving Others

This is really two parts - but Luke puts them together and its kinda hard to separate them so here you Go. The first part refers what punishment we will bring upon ourselves if we lead others into temptation, the second refers to how much we should forgive others - which is continually, not a limited amount. However do remember that there are still consequences for your actions, and earthly punishments which you must submit too for your sins. Forgiveness isn't just ignoring what just happened, punishment must still be handed out - but that you can no longer harbour resentment for the occurrence

Parable of the Lost Sheep

Jesus reminds us that a shepherd will rejoice over finding a lost sheep, more than he will be excited about ones that aren't lost. He uses this to show us how Heaven will rejoice over the salvation of the lost, compared to those who stay faithful and never stray in the first place.

Lamenting Jerusalem

This passage isn't particularly encouraging for Jerusalemites (is that a word???) As Jesus lets them know what they are going to do to him. The fact that some Pharisees tell him to leave is interesting. I don't know if they did it because they didn't want anything to happen to him or because they wanted to get him away from a large population that he could incite to rebel. Either way he blew them off .

Be Ready for the Lord's Coming

Here Jesus tells us to be prepared for his return. Specifically if he has put us in charge of a family then we need to be taking care of it, not partying and oppressing the others. He also tells us that those who know what they should be doing will suffer a worse fate than those who didn't know their job.

Teaching about Money and Possessions

In this passage Jesus comforts the disciples by reminding them that they are cared for by their father in heaven. He tells them not to worry about storing treasures here, when they can't take it with them and to remember that the birds are cared for by God, yet they don't harvest and that Solomon in all his glory was not more finely dressed than the lilies of the field, which last for only a few days. In conclusion if God take cares of the little stuff how much more effort will he put into taking care of you?