It would be hard to imagine how many words have been put to paper about the seven days that Jesus walked to the cross. Most every one knows the crucifixion story but you would be surprised to know how little we really know. Bethphage, Bethany, Mount Of Olives, Jerusalem, Pharisees and the day not methioned in the Gospels and what about that donkey? Let’s take a walk. Jesus knew his time was soon and there was much yet to be said and done. The first thing I will note on this walk is about Lazarus. Consider this… as Jesus’s ministry grew and more and more people came to Him, the Pharisees grew to fear his influence. Their power and influence was in their mind being lessened each time he appeared and the crowds were growing larger. What we do know is that the Jewish leaders had in the past sought to discuss how this Jesus could be done away with. The following is my own opinion, there is no proof so to speak. I believe the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus was a political hit job. I also believe that the death and resurrection of Lazarus was as we have come to say “the straw that broke the camels back.” The Lazarus thing occurred in Bethany…The town is located on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, less than 2 miles (3.2 km) from Jerusalem, and word of this thing with Lazarus spread   fast. There is no indication that Jesus did any traveling, between that event and is followed in Luke chapter 19 by Jesus entering into Jerusalem on that donkey. For the account of the donkey we go to Matthew 21:1-11. Bethphage is a village near Bethany and the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent his disciples to find a colt for his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is methioned in the  Synoptic Gospels in connection with Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where he rode a colt from this village. Interesting thing about Bethphage, in distance… it is at the very limit of a Sabbath-day’s journey (900 meters) from the city. Before we move on one note about that political thing I mentioned. The news about Lazarus had traveled fast and the account of such had raised the interest of many people. Alarmed, the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of Israel. Most likely, Lazarus was reciting his experience over and over again, which resulted in the desperate decision of the Pharisees: Lazarus must die. The other part of the Jewish ruling trifecta was the Sadducees… so these three and the Roman Government were about as close to a political hit job as you could get. Just saying. 

Keep Walking…Jesus arrived in Bethany six days before the Passover and stayed with Mary, Martha and Lazarus at their house. It was here that Mary Anointed his feet. You can read of this event in John 12:1-3. The next day is not mentioned in the Gospels but being the Sabbath, jewish tradition would have made it a day of rest.…We will go to Palm Sunday. Sunday, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on that donkey and on a carpet of palm leaves. This was to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey… The people welcomed him with shouts of Hosanna and words from Psalm 118:25-26…Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success! 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you. On Monday we find Jesus at the Temple and in the court of the Gentiles where there were traders and money changers. Jesus overturns their tables and drives them out. This event is recorded in all three of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. The Third day the authority of Jesus was questioned by the chief priests and teachers of the law. It was a day of controversy. The forth day is one not mentioned in scripture. The fifth day Thursday is the Passover.I suggest you read the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John for a complete understanding of this part of the journey of Jesus to the cross. Jesus gave a new twist to the meaning of the Passover meal. The loaf of bread representing his body, the wine his blood soon to be shed…So here he instituted what we now celebrate as “The Lord’s Supper.” Friday, the longest night and day contains all those things that came against Jesus in those last hours. Betrayal, arrest, desertion, false trials, denial, condemnation, beatings, and mockery…and if that wasn’t enough Jesus was required to carry the cross bar of his cross to “The Place of The Skull.” There he was crucified with two other prisoners. Remember we are still in Friday and the Jewish Sabbath will start at 6:00 PM. Jesus was taken down from the cross shortly after 3PM…there was not time to properly prepare the body…so he was wrapped in a burial cloth sometimes referred to as a shroud  and place in a tomb. At this point we come to the final few words of this blog. The following is from an article by  Jack Zavada:(click here)

Joseph of Arimathea had been a secret follower of Christ because he feared the Jews, but after the crucifixion, he went to Pilate and boldly asked for Jesus’ body. Joseph risked his reputation among the religious leaders to give his Lord a proper burial. When Joseph laid Jesus’ body in his own new tomb, he showed both great love and great courage.

We can stop walking now…We have arrived at the tomb, early Sunday morning as a group of women have come to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away…the tomb was empty…an Angel told them Jesus was alive!

This for us, those of the way, the faith, we whom will soon be charged with going forth and telling the world The Good News. 

Life is Good

jk

Next Week Evidence of the Resurrection

Sources: www.christianquestions.net    Jack Zavada

Welcome back…pull up a chair, box or whatever and sit a spell. The rain is gone for awhile and the sun in all its glory is out!  I have had some time the past few days to Ponder  on this phenomenon of mass protests across the nation these past few weeks. Seems there all kinds of groups that are easily offended and if paid enough they will take to the streets in great numbers. One thing I have noticed is the remarkable absence of spontaneous protests. Some of these folks that act as agents for securing protesters are well organized and well funded. They operate under an array of names…and that is what this ponder is about. Consider this or rather ponder this! I have a name for them…. Antidisestablishmentarianismers…  Its root word would be Antidisestablishmentarianism. It is estimated to be the 6th longest word in the Oxford dictionary. However, the word is not recorded in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary of American English. Ok, what is that, or in the words of Pogo… “what is them”? Well you asked. 

Antidisestablishmentarianism is a political position that originated in 19th century Britain. The position opposed proposals at that time to remove the Anglican Church’s status as the established church of England, Ireland, and Wales, but not in Scotland, which had and still has its own separate national church.

One last thing about this word… It has morphemes…

A morpheme is the smallest part of a word that retains an individual significance. For example, the word ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’ can be broken down into the following morphemes: anti/dis/establish/ment/ari/an/ism (7 morphemes).

I will invoke “writers privilege” here and add to its meaning to also be a political position that opposes any attempt that seeks to balance the budget or limit the wasteful spending of various agencies. We are all tired of  these people… Antidisestablishmentarianismers. PONDER THIS! Just like the word from which it comes…there is very little practical use for it or for such people. They are paid to use slogans,  chants and disruptive behavior for things they have no solutions for. They have just recently resorted to violence because their vocabulary of of words to justify their position is limited, as is their knowledge of the definition of some of the words on their signs. 

Oh, I have to say this to Whoopi Goldberg…78 million Americans voted for Donald Trump…we are just as much or more so representative of America as you and your minions.

Jk

The pseudepigrapha are the books that attempt to imitate Scripture but that were written under false names. The term pseudepigrapha comes from the Greek pseudo, meaning “false,” and epigraphein, meaning “to inscribe,” thus, “to write falsely.”  

(gotquestions.org)

Three weeks till Easter and we are taking some time out of the “Pew” to just wander around a-bit. These are some little things and locations that get a few words in scripture but have a large impact on the story as a whole. Last week we looked at the stations of the cross in many other writings. It’s also referred to as the Via Dolorosa which marks the path of Jesus’s journey to the cross and the events that occurred during that walk. We do not find this in the Bible, so to speak and the events that took place for the stations of the cross occurred in the New Testament. Another place of interest that will take just a second to mention would be in 35 BC King Herod built a palace on the Temple Mount, it was placed there to protect Temple courts and was located on the north west corner of the Temple Mountain and called the fortress of Antonia and it housed about 600 Roman soldiers. In your Bible, you will find that Paul spoke there at the Antonia Fortress. It was here that Paul gave an address to the people that’s in Acts 22:1 – 21. Now without getting too complicated or confusing it is believed by early Christians that Jesus was taken to the Fortress Antonia for His trial before Pilate. Pilate used the fortress as his home whenever he was in Jerusalem. For your consideration… Do you know the names of the thieves that were crucified that day with Jesus? Their crosses were to the right and left of Christ. One of our favorite sources GotQuestions.org lists Dismas and Gestas as the names sometimes mentioned as the two thieves crucified  to the right and left of Jesus. While they are mentioned in the New Testament writings, their names are never given. We must be careful to make it plain that these names do not come from the New Testament writings but another source not included in the New Testament canon. They come from a pseudepigraphal book. Fact is that there were two other men that died that day but we truly do not know their names, at least from a reliable source. I have left the Link in blue above in tact so that if you wish you can check it out for yourself.

As I wrote we are just kinda out of the “Pew” and wandering a bit. One subject that has always interested me was who were there at the cross that morning…we can list a few but to determine a number I believe would be impossible. The simple account of who were there is as follows…At the cross during Jesus’ crucifixion, the Gospel accounts indicate the presence of Jesus’ mother, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Clopas, some other women, the “disciple whom Jesus loved”  traditionally understood to be John , Roman soldiers, and the two criminals crucified alongside Jesus. We have referred to the two criminals crucified alongside Jesus but we sometimes let it slide by about that other group…The Chief Priests, Scribes, and Elders of the Sanhedrin, who at this moment were most likely pleased to see their agenda come to fruition. Mary?…How many Marys are there in the Bible? In the time of Christ Mary was a common Female name. New Testament writings lists six different Marys. I like the fact that I am able to share some little things beyond the word that we just don’t ponder about a lot. The Hebrew name would be Miriam (or Miryam), given to the sister of Moses. Miriam is the sister who watches over her baby brother Moses among the bulrushes on the banks of the Nile. Back to our question about the number of Marys. There is Mary…The Mother of Jesus…Then Mary Magdalene…her name distinguishes her from the other Mary…Luke 8:2 says Jesus had cast seven demons from her…Mary of Bethany… This Mary was the sister of Lazarus and Martha. An interesting insight is in Matthew 26:6-13….I don’t want to confuse anyone, so remember each of these Marys has a distinct place in the closing weeks leading up to the Crucifixion of Jesus…Next on our list would be the one who is sometimes called the “other” Mary. She was one of the women who brought spices for Jesus’ body and met an angel instead… A fifth Mary in the Bible is Mary the mother of John Mark. This Mary’s son is the author of the Gospel of Mark…A sixth Mary in the Bible is mentioned as a member of the church at Rome. She is methioned in Romans 16:6 by Paul in closing one of his letters.

Thanks for coming along with us this week, we almost made this wandering into a journey. One of my main references for this week’s Blog was gotquestions.org . I cannot say enough for how great this web site is. It is simple enough…you got questions about the Bible give them a look-up…you won’t be disappointed.

I thank each of you for joining us each week…God Bless

Life is Good jk

I have got a First Class Ponder for those of you who were unable to join us on “The Back Porch” last evening. Where has all this hate come from?  We might ask again Where Have All The Flowers Gone? Music has always held a special social power, remembering when…“Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” is a folk song written by Pete Seeger in 1955. The song reflects on the destructiveness of war, with cyclical lyrics that signify the repetitive and unending nature of conflict. It became a global anthem for peace and anti-war movements, especially during the 1960s and 1970s. The song’s lyrics poignantly ask about the fate of flowers, symbolizing lost youth and the impact of war on society. (Copilot Answer) Well as you might suspect, I jumped on that quick. Take a little writers liberty and turn it just a bit and it fits what I am pondering just fine. WHERE HAS ALL THIS HATE COME FROM. The flowers I write of are civility, respect, tolerance, and that word I don’t particularly like but has its place in some areas…inclusiveness. Our present environment is one of a constant unending nature of conflict not based on facts but rather fueled by paid protesters… fact…look it up… Ask yourself this…or as I am fond of writing…consider this… What type of  person would consider firebombing a lot full of cars anything other than destroying others property anything other than a senseless argument, without fact or reasonable alternatives that can support their argument or their opinion. The best way I can describe this situation we are now facing is to remember a sand lot football game many years ago. We had gotten the lead over the other team and they didn’t like it, so they took the football and went home. I think that’s what happening today…We have gotten advantage of this progressive stuff and they have taken civility, respect, tolerance, and inclusiveness off the table and went home…or in some cases…into the streets. So Ponder This…Is Hate The New Norm?

This week we continue to pause for a bit during this Lenten season to go beyond the words a bit for a better understanding of this time of suffering and sacrifice of our Lord that we might be forgiven of our sins.

The Stations of the Cross are a series of 14 stations that depict Jesus’s journey to his death and resurrection.  Broken down into 14 stations it helps us follow Jesus that fateful day after He had been turned over by Pilate to the soldiers for crucifixion. I will list at the end of this blog the complete list of the Stations. For today we will pause at three of those stations that have specific meanings. They are as follows:

• First Station: Jesus is wrongfully condemned to death  
• Third Station: Jesus falls under the weight of his cross  
• Eighth Station: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem, who mourned for him as he carried his cross.

I will share from John Chapter 19 NLT version.

The First Station… It is plain from scripture that Pilate had a problem he would have gladly passed on to someone else but Roman Law would not allow this. The Jewish Leaders wanted Jesus dead for reasons that would fill another blog but to keep this simple, Jesus was a threat to their power and influence and authority over the Jews. They, the Jews, were pretty much able to rule themselves but there was no tolerance of disrespect to Caesar or Roman Law. To condemn Jesus to death…Kill him…Pilate must concur and order it…that was Roman Law. It can’t be said enough, here from …John 19:4-5 NLT…

4 Pilate went outside again and said to the people, “I am going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty.” 5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, “Look, here is the man!”

It was with fear and uncertainty that Pilate acceded to give Jesus over to the soldiers for crucifixion. Indeed Jesus was  wrongfully condemned to death.  

The Third Station…Jesus falls under the weight of his cross. After being handed over, Jesus was made to carry his own cross to the place of execution, Golgotha. Golgotha, which means “Place of a Skull” in Aramaic, was the location outside Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. In the English language this place is referred to as Calvary. Oddly enough the journey from the Roman headquarters to outside the walls of Jerusalem gets only the briefest of factual mentions in Scripture (John 19:16-17).  6 Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus away. 17 Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). …The carrying of the cross is mentioned, without much detail, in all the canonical Gospels: Matthew 27:31–33, Mark 15:20–22, Luke 23:26–32 and John 19:16–18. Another odd note only John specifically says Jesus carried his cross, and all but John include Simon of Cyrene, who was recruited by the soldiers from the crowd to carry or help carry the cross. We must also note here that some writings record Jesus fell three times but the story of Jesus falling three times is not part of the biblical narrative of Jesus’s journey to Golgotha. John 19:17 reads that Jesus was made to carry his own cross…some other accounts say it was the crossbar…which ever, the fact remains that the crossbar alone would weigh around 70 to 90 pounds. His physical condition at this time was such that such weight was more than an ordinary man could endure…but this was The Christ, Son of God and he would endure. Indeed the sins of the world were heavy on his shoulders.

The Eighth Station: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem, who mourned for him as he carried his cross. In some writings it is numbered as the ninth. 

For scripture reference here I use Luke 23:27-31 NLT…27 A large crowd trailed behind, including many grief-stricken women. 28 But Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the days are coming when they will say, ‘Fortunate indeed are the women who are childless, the wombs that have not borne a child and the breasts that have never nursed.’ 30 People will beg the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and plead with the hills, ‘Bury us.’ 31 For if these things are done when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”…Jesus is in great pain and has suffered mightily at the hands of of the soldiers when he encountered the weeping women and some of His disciples on His way to crucifixion. It is obvious that His concern was not for Himself, but for the lives and souls of those who faced the danger of eternal damnation because of the sin in their lives. I take from this encounter the fact that many had gone into hiding and these few disciples and women were the core group of followers who although their world was uncertain at this time they were strong believers that here before them was indeed the Son of God. Jesus had said to all who would listen…“My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36), and as citizens of heaven, our focus and attention should be there. We must not let the sins and concerns of this world diminish our devotion and obedience to God.

The Stations of the Cross can be googled easily…here is the list I worked from…

Stations of the Cross [1] 

• First Station: Jesus is condemned to death 
• Second Station: Jesus carries his cross 
• Third Station: Jesus falls for the first time 
• Fourth Station: Jesus meets his mother 
• Fifth Station: Simon helps Jesus carry his cross 
• Sixth Station: Veronica wipes Jesus’s face 
• Seventh Station: Jesus falls for the second time 
• Eighth Station: Jesus speaks to the holy women 
• Ninth Station: Jesus falls for the third time 
• Tenth Station: Jesus is stripped of his garments 
• Eleventh Station: Jesus is nailed to the cross 
• Twelfth Station: Jesus dies on the cross 
• Thirteenth Station: Jesus is taken down from the cross 
• Fourteenth Station: Jesus is laid in the sepulcher 

Life is Good

jk

Had a conversation with a guy the other day and brought it with me tonight to the Porch. He talked about how he thought time passed quicker as we got older. Well I thought that a decent topic for a good ponder! Ever since I ended up in this wheelchair I have become more and more aware of that old saying “how time flies by.” Takes longer to do things now and while I have always been time conscious, I have now become obsessed with it. I know that It takes me thirty to forty minutes in the morning to get cleaned up and dressed and into my chair. It takes me thirty more minutes or so if I shave that day…because I have opted to shave my head also. People have said shaving my head makes me look old. I am soon to be 82… so ponder me this…why would they say that? I have a tool that helps me put my socks on because it saves time…No, I can’t bend over in my chair because my stomach is in the way and I can’t get to my foot. I also don’t mind sharing that my personal bathroom time takes longer… There is no longer the last minute dash to answer the call in my life anymore. Time is a critical factor…how can I say this? Time is important in being able to assume the proper position. The Taco Bell Dash is no longer a part of my life anymore. I know it takes about 20 minutes to get to church so I have a time set in concrete that we must leave at in order to get a prime spot to unload my chair. It is universally agreed that there are 60 minutes in an hour and as I get older I believe somewhere along the way I lost some minutes…an hour goes faster. I no longer tell my wife when she calls me to eat, “I will be right there”…she still operates on normal time, well it is wife time and it is different then men’s time even without the chair factor. I have learned that as the Bible says  there is a time for everything, so Ponder This…Time is Precious… Use it wisely.

jk

We continue this week to pause a moment throughout this  season of Lent to go beyond the words and look at the places that are a part of Christ’s journey to the Cross.  Just a quick search gives me 24 places to look at. But on this day I picked out three. Nazareth, Bethany and Gethsemane. I start with… Nazareth because that was His “boyhood home”,  (Luke 4:16). Jesus was often referred to as “Jesus of Nazareth”. In Bible times people were often identified by their native area or place of residence. The man who carried Jesus’ cross was called Simon of Cyrene, noting his name and his place of residence. After having fled to Egypt to protect Jesus from Herod, Joseph returned and settled his family in Nazareth. When we read Isaiah 53; and Psalm 22 most commentaries read that Jesus the coming Messiah would be of humble origin and would be despised and rejected. I am going to skip over some of the discussions had by some commentators and just make note of the fact that when… note that the following is taken directly from gotquestions.com  …. Matthew says, therefore, that the prophecies were “fulfilled,” his meaning is that the predictions of the prophets that the Messiah would be of a low and despised condition and would be rejected, were fully accomplished in His being an inhabitant of Nazareth. It was here that a major event in Jesus’ life occurs. As an adult, He returns to Nazareth and at the synagogue He confesses to be the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah’s words, Luke 4:1819…18 “The Spirt of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, (19) to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” …

To those in the synagogue that day he also said … “but I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.”(Luke 4:24)   

 Bethany, located on the eastern side of Mount of Olives, was the hometown of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, close friends of Jesus. Jesus visited there often and when Lazarus died he was raised from the dead by Jesus (John 11:1-45). Bethany was not that far from Jerusalem and it is here that everyone got to see Jesus’ divine power as the Son of God, as Lazarus raised up by Jesus. But something else happened here that is often not mentioned. The biblical phrase “Jesus wept”…John 11:35  is the shortest verse in the Bible, occurring in the context of Jesus’s arrival in Bethany after the death of his friend Lazarus, where he wept with Mary and Martha over their grief. The humanity of our Lord was there for all to see. One last note before we move on to Gethsemane. Bethany is also the place from where Jesus ascended into Heaven. 

Garden of Gethsemane   One way for us to better visualize the location of the Garden and its close proximity to Jerusalem is to consider this…It is just across the street there.  Gethsemane literally means “oil press,” the garden is located on a slope of the Mount of Olives just across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem. Don’t be misled by the name Kidron Valley it is not that expansive. A garden of ancient olive trees stands there to this day. As written in John 18:2, Jesus went there often with the disciples to pray. The garden was where on the night before His crucifixion Jesus was betrayed. There are four accounts of this in scriptures, Matthew 26:36-56, Mark 14:32-52, Luke 22:40-53 and John 18:1-11)  reading these will give an accurate picture of that night in full. What happened that night in the Garden of Gethsemane have traveled through the centuries. We often refer to it as the Passion of Christ… There have been books, music and movies made of that event in that garden and are the prequel to cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for being in “The Pew” this week, please come back.

Life is Good

jk

Welcome to the Back Porch… bit windy here on the plateau today but since moving here I can say it is the  only place I have lived for any time where the wind blows every day, that would be Amarillo Texas. Consider this…Spam, not the unsolicited electronic messages and such, not that, but the kind that comes in a can! The name being a combination  of “spice and ham”…thus Spam. Most folks  do not visualize the can thing. I always have a few cans of Spam in the pantry along with some cans of Vienna Sausages. Now about that Spam…Hormel Foods claims this phenom and with pride. What exactly is it? It is a blend of pork shoulder, ham, salt, water, potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrite (a preservative). It is not on your list of healthy foods… it contains twice as much of the daily dietary recommendation of fat as it does of protein, and what about the health effects of salt and preservatives. Why hasn’t it been kicked down the road? It showed up in 1937. Made its mark as an easily prepared food, lunch meat and such but could be found on many tables during the lean times of the depression. There are a lot of things about spam most of us don’t know and most would ask “who cares.”  After World War II, more than 100 million pounds of SPAM were consumed by Allied soldiers. Ponder on this…Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev credited SPAM with saving the Russian army during the war. By 1959 over one billion cans of the product had been sold a figure that climbed to eight billion by 2012, the last year for which Hormel published sales figures. One more little thing…can you believe the company opened a museum devoted to the meat product at its corporate headquarters in Austin, Minnesota, in 1991…well best you believe. Todays Ponder is very simple…Why is that?

Jk

The Easter Story like the Christmas Story are known by most Christians and I would venture by many of those who are not of the faith also. I would also venture to say on the surface it is familiar ground for most peoples. But what do we know about the ground it covered? There is a bit of advice that is given to public speakers that goes like this… “know the room it will help you share your message.” Or the advice of book publishers, “it helps to know what you are writing about.” Consider this… to really understand the richness of the biblical writings and appreciate the Saints that carried forth the message of God and His son Jesus Christ “knowing the lay of the land will enhance your study.” So let’s get to know the lay of the land. First of all… it was not the most hospitable place to be as far as terrain was concerned. Palestine during the time of Jesus was part of the Roman Empire and was governed by Herod the Great. The Jewish people were subject to Roman law and customs, and there was tension between the two groups. Add to that the tension between the two groups among themselves and it gets a bit treacherous. Three very distinct facts about the area that Jesus would have walked in, the ground under his feet,  which I sometimes refer to it as the way to the cross. Adjust your sandals and let’s take a walk.

(1) Political situation: Palestine was part of the Roman province of Syria and it was divided into ten regions, Herod the Great was a “client king” of Rome, he was an ally of Rome who was allowed to rule in exchange for loyalty andstability and after Herod died, his kingdom was divided into five parts. Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Palestine from AD 26 to 36.(2)situation:   The Sadducees were the political elite of Palestine, consisting of wealthy and influential Jewish aristocrats. The social institutions of Palestine included family, politics, and the economy. (3)Other thoughts: The Roman Emperor was called Caesar. The Roman Senate gave Herod the title “King of the Jews” and Roman imperial policy required Palestine to be loyal and peaceful.

 The Bible describes the historical situation in Palestine and is the most reliable source for the information we have today about the ground Jesus walked on.

Note: I have at the end of this blog listed my sources for this information.

For the next few weeks The Pew will attempt to go beyond the words in an attempt to get a feel of the land and challenges Jesus faced on the way to the Cross. I hope you will join us here in the pew.

Life is Good 

jk      

Sources

 [1] https://www.loc.gov/item/2009579463/

[2] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesus/Jewish-Palestine-at-the-time-of-Jesus

[3] https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/public/reresources/uploads/sites/2110/2016/02/Palestine-Religion-and-Romans.pdf

[4] https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney1/1-the-world-of-the-new-testament-journeys-b/the-rulers-of-palestine/

[5] https://study.com/academy/lesson/early-critics-of-christ-pharisees-and-sadducees.html

[6] https://www.logos.com/product/15711/palestine-in-the-time-of-jesus-social-structures-and-social-conflicts

[7] https://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Time-Jesus-Structures-Conflicts/dp/0800663098

Welcome…Pull up a chair, box or if it is all that is available…what God gave you to sit on. Got a good Ponder to work on. Weather is great and it is a good time to be outside. The games we used to play. Kids growing up in these times have a need to be entertained due to a lack of imagination. Ok, you have heard it before but in my younger years we always found ways to play and engage in activities, boys and girls…we learned early to fellowship if you don’t mind my using that word. Technologies had not advanced far enough to enable us to entertain ourselves. If we go back as far as the 1930’s most of our parents could not afford to by us manufactured toys, leaving most of us to make our own, share with others things like, hoops, marbles and skipping ropes. As time moved on and I know I might be repeating myself a bit, children played traditional games like tag, hide and seek, marbles, and hopscotch. Sports such as soccer, baseball, and cricket were also popular. Kids also often spent time exploring their surroundings, climbing trees, or playing in fields and woods. At school our playgrounds were rife with action packed games, Red Rover Come Over, Tag, Red Light and I am sure you know some I did not list. Now Ponder This… We made our own rules passed down to us over the years, enforced and policed ourselves…and yes it is true that every now and then we didn’t do a very good job and the best of intentions were carried out by a few of us rolling around on ground or in the gravel. I miss seeing the kids being kids. Ponder  This…   No one got shot, or cut up. Again Ponder This…Why?

Kurt