After seeing Jesus multiply meager supplies of bread and fish on two occasions to feed vast crowds, the Disciples failed to understand what the Lord meant in His warning to beware of the “leaven” of Pharisees and Herodians. (Pharisees enjoyed authority as experts in Mosaic Law and detailed rules under the Law, while Herodians sought to preserve political power of Herod’s descendants. Both groups were self-serving, while Jesus gave His all to satisfy the spiritual hunger of others.) The Lord taught that celebration and sacrifice both have

Sick people lying on mats outside hoped for and received healing from Jesus. Pharisees and scribes hoped to discredit Him. For example, they pointed out that some of the Lord’s followers skipped ritual handwashing before putting food past their lips. Jesus said to worry instead about doing mere lip service to God and His Commandments. The “chosen people” felt favored by God, and Jesus acknowledged that healing a Gentile woman’s daughter would seem like throwing food meant for children to the dogs. When she responded that even dogs get t

When Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple, a devout man named Simeon recognized the Child as the Messiah. In Jesus’ adult ministry, people in His hometown of Nazareth showed little faith in the Son of a carpenter, despite His wisdom. A grateful man freed of unclean spirits wanted to follow the Lord, even as others begged Jesus to leave the area because those unclean spirits had entered a herd of swine seen rushing into the sea in a terrifying frenzy. When Jesus began to send the Apostles to minister in His name, they each carried not

Jesus compared people to trampled, rocky, thorn-choked, and fertile ground. Seed, representing the Word of God, can only thrive when it takes root in good soil. Saint Paul, once a powerful Pharisee, had zealously persecuted believers in the early Church. A blinding light and the voice of the Lord caused Paul to fall to the ground and led to his conversion. He became the “Apostle to the Gentiles.” Timothy received the gift of faith planted more gently by his grandmother and mother, but Paul had confidence in that faith as he took Timothy und

People had grown accustomed to strict observance of the Sabbath, fasting, and other rules and rituals. Using unshrunken fabric to patch an old cloak would pull at the tear. The Lord taught what worked for people clothed with faith in Him. He allowed the Disciples to pick heads of grain to eat when they got hungry while walking along on the Sabbath. Seeing a man with a withered hand in the synagogue, Jesus cured him on the spot. At the seashore, Jesus instructed the Disciples to have a boat ready so that the crowd wouldn’t crush Him as people

Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. He even invited a customs collector named Levi (Matthew) to become a Disciple. Like a doctor making house calls, the Lord came to heal people, physically and spiritually. He expelled whatever interfered with holiness. The Lord continues to teach with authority and to heal as needed, asking only that we have faith and cooperate! After a group of four men lowered a paralytic through the roof to reach Jesus, some scribes decried the Lord’s forgiveness of sin as blasphemy (irreverence or claiming equalit

After feeding the spiritual hunger of a vast crowd, the Lord multiplied five loaves and two fish for the people to eat. The leftovers filled twelve baskets. Jesus then sent the Disciples and the crowd on their way so that He could pray by Himself for a while. Terrifying His friends by walking through wind and over waves to rejoin them in their boat, the Lord then calmed the sea and their fears. As the Lord continued to preach, heal, and Baptize people, news about Him spread. John the Baptist willingly and humbly became like a best man in the pr