Reflection for the Week

Although bystanders told a blind man to stop calling out, Jesus saw his faith and gave him eyesight. A wealthy tax collector named Zacchaeus planned to get a glimpse of the Lord by climbing a tree but got much more. In a parable, servants received handsome rewards for making profits with money entrusted to them by a nobleman who later became a king. Jesus angrily ransacked a marketplace in the Temple area because it stole glory from God. Some Sadducees trying to debunk belief in resurrection asked whose wife a widow would become if she had seve

When the Apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith, the Lord said that even faith as small as a mustard seed would allow them to work wonders. The Lord came for everyone. Ten lepers realized that Jesus had cured them all, but only one, a Samaritan, returned to give thanks to God. Pharisees asked when the Kingdom of God would come. Jesus said to look around. He warned the Disciples that He would suffer rejection and that impostors would try to mislead people until He came back. In a parable, Jesus described a judge who finally ruled in favor

Invited to dine at the home of a Pharisee, Jesus recommended future guest lists of people who could not reciprocate. In a parable, the Lord described a steward who misused the master’s money. Too weak for manual labor and too vain to beg, the steward ingratiated the master’s debtors to him by reducing what they owed. The master commended the scheme, probably what he would have done in the steward’s place. In earshot of followers and Pharisees, Jesus said to make friends with dishonest wealth so that when the money ran out, they would rece

In a synagogue, the Lord freed a crippled woman of her infirmity. The synagogue leader bristled because Jesus had worked the miracle on the day of rest. At a Pharisee’s home on another Sabbath, the Lord asked if He could lawfully cure a man with dropsy (swelling due to illness). No one answered, but Jesus healed him anyway. He came to save the world but usually cured people one at a time, showing what He meant by comparing God’s Kingdom to a seed becoming a huge plant or a little yeast raising a batch of dough. Word about Jesus got around!

In the Old Testament, Abraham believed that God would make him patriarch of a nation with a long line of descendants. Never mind that Abraham and his wife had reached old age and had no children—for God, no problem! Jesus didn’t think much of a request to arbitrate when a man’s brother refused to share an inheritance. In response, He told a parable of a rich man’s plan to hoard a bountiful harvest and live in leisure for years that he would actually never live to see. Jesus also advised not slacking off when the master of the house migh

Jesus offered more wisdom than Solomon and more universal preaching than Jonah, yet people wanted another sign. Scribes and Pharisees asked questions to try to trip up Jesus, not to learn from Him. Their conduct snatched away from others the key to knowledge that comes from openness to Jesus’ teaching. Nothing remains hidden from God—a fearsome thought, except that God values people anyway. By rejecting God’s mercy and forgiveness, refusing to repent, people blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. Offered salvation, they tragically decline. Lo

Jonah felt angry about all that he had gone through to warn the notoriously sinful people of Nineveh, only to have God accept their repentance and spare them from destruction. A scholar of Mosaic Law, someone who looked down on Samaritans, doubted that Jesus could find fault with him. Then the Lord told His parable of a good Samaritan. Two sisters welcomed Jesus’ visit, but Martha got nowhere by asking Him to tell her sister to help with the serving, instead of sitting around listening to Him. When the Lord doesn’t grant what we ask, do we