Amidst some of the highest praise and evident joy in all of his writings, Paul in Romans chapter 8 guides us through Gospel resources in the face of suffering. He posits that our suffering is felt alongside Creation, and that the Holy Spirit Himself knows this suffering well and communicates it on our behalf to the Father.Readings: John 16:4-15; Ro…

The Year of Jubilee is like a great reset for the children of Israel. Every 50 years, at the culmination of 7 cycles of the "Shabbat year," all land reverts back to its earliest family ownership. Debts are cleared, indentured servants are freed, and countless families' connection to their land is reestablished.Jeremiah relied on this teaching in To…

The Levites are a unique group within the children of Israel. They are a 13th tribe not allotted any territory and yet chosen to render eternal priestly service on behalf of their brethren. Ezekiel, Isaiah, and other prophets all envision the Levites persisting even into the New Creation and maintaining their unique identity in it. Who are they to …

Holiness is not built by good behaviors, but itself characterizes those who obey God's commands. Holiness, then, is not bought with righteous behavior; but without righteous behavior, there is no evidence of holiness, even where there should be. This is what Ezekiel sees and condemns.Christ Church Jerusalem

The Ascension of our Lord is not an act of abandonment, but of commission. In John's Gospel, we are told that only after Christ's Ascension can we receive His promised Holy Spirit, Who empowers us to live out the calling he gave us. "Just as the Father sent me," Jesus says, "so I am sending you." May we ever seek to find Him present among us in Spi…

Many people, even some Christians, think that the Old Testament is only about Law and the New Testament is Love. But the ancient revelation was not changed by Jesus or Paul, although our ignorance of the Hebrew Bible, and perhaps even some anti-Semitism prevents us from seeing the connection. God’s election of the people of Israel was an unmerited …

Ezekiel is doubtless one of the harshest books of scripture, and this week's Haftara pairs with one of the harshest rituals in Torah: the double-sacrifice of a live goat and a scapegoat. This sacrifice on the Day of Atonement cleanses the people of both ritual and moral impurities. In it, we see the ancient connection between obedience and life; we…

From the Fifth Sunday of Easter, this sermon draws parallels between Deuteronomy 4:32-40, John 15:1-8, and 1 John 4:7-21, emphasizing the profound significance of history and love in the context of faith in action–or faithfulness. Through Moses's words, listeners are urged to reflect on the unparalleled actions of God throughout history, contrastin…

At the very heart of the gospel is the story of Passover: that final night in Egypt when God completed His judgments against the rebellious Pharaoh and called His own people out into freedom. We often think of Christ's death through the lens of atonement for sins, but its coinciding with Passover tells us something else about the gospel–namely, tha…

The image of shepherds and shepherding in the biblical text stands in sharp contrast to the romantic pictures of fat sheep on luxuriant, green hillsides that we see in popular Christian culture. The biblical image, best reflected in Psalm 23, is set in the dangerous Judean wilderness with wild animals, “the valley of the shadow of death”; sporadic …

Our current age, like all others that came before, is one full of trauma and death. And though both are such common realities, neither of them feel "normal" to us. They can render us illogical and reveal significant gaps in our faith. We see this well in the story of Thomas.The same Thomas who had claimed readiness to die with Jesus (John 11:16) wo…

Of the four Gospel accounts of Jesus' Resurrection, Mark's is the most shocking. His "shorter ending" (Mark 16:1-8) does not end in an appearance of the risen Jesus, but only a proclamation of His Resurrection to the faithful women who went to his tomb. Still, their initial act is to withhold this message out of fear and confusion. Throughout Mark'…

How do lepers relate to their former and future communities? Leviticus 14 makes ample provision for declaring a leper clean, giving them a way to rejoin the people. 2 Kings 7 shows us the remarkable role that 4 lepers of Samaria played in saving the city. In a moment of conviction and charity, they chose to share good news of the LORD's miraculous …

Purity in Leviticus finds its opposite most starkly in death itself, and leprosy is the disease most closely resembling death and decay. For this, stringent laws are given on how to handle leprosy, and to receive miraculous healing of it is exceptionally meaningful. This makes Naaman's healing in 2 Kings 5 all the more potent, as his turning from t…

Holiness, for all its many benefits and credits, can be deadly. The sons of Aaron, Abihu and Nadab, would learn this firsthand after offering strange fire to the LORD. So would King David, seeing Uzzah die for reaching out to steady the Ark of the Covenant. This week, we review the importance of holiness in both extreme and (seemingly) mundane exam…

What is the purpose of sacrifice in the Bible? Leviticus makes it clear that there are actually very many purposes behind sacrifice, and understanding them is equally as important as giving them.Christ Church Jerusalem

Readers and hearers of Leviticus will often come away confused about purity. On its face, purity seems to be a prerequisite for communion with God, one that we accomplish on our part before attempting to worship Him. But chapter 8 tells us something counterintuitive: purity itself is also a gift of God, given to us in anticipation of our communion …

What do a colt and palm branches have to do with a King? The cries of Hosanna heard around the world today started, not on Palm Sunday, but long before–from Israel’s oppression in Egypt and on through the Psalms and Prophets. The colt of a donkey and palm branches tell the story of a ruler who is both righteous and victorious. The expectations of I…

Does God merely acknowledge holy spaces, or does He consecrate them Himself? Whether Sinai, Shiloh, Zion, or Moriah, holiness seems to be imprinted on these places based on God's dealings with His people at each of them. Between the end of Exodus's description of the Tabernacle and 1 Kings 7-8's description of the Temple we find a key similarity: G…

In Jeremiah 31, God promises to establish a covenant with the people of Israel AND Judah, reconciling them both to each other as much as to Himself. This promise would find itself fulfilled in the person of Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel and High Priest after the Order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5). And not only would His saving work reconcile His fell…

Paul's letter to the Ephesians bears a number of striking resemblances to John's Gospel: stark contrasts of light and dark, life and death, children whose works reveal which family they belong to. Themes like these help us understand the gospel message for all its severity: we were not merely sick, but dead in our transgressions–and likewise now ma…

Why is money so difficult to talk about in churches? With no shortage of financial scandals in the Church, plus a history of global inflation, the modern world feels split between loud charlatans who raise too much and timid ministers who raise too little. Add to this our instinct to give toward a vision–sometimes rather than toward a need–and it's…

When Jesus cleanses the Temple, he utters a confusing prophecy: "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in 3 days" (John 2:19). This saying made little sense to his hearers at the time; but after his death, burial and resurrection, his disciples remembered it in light of his body. What lessons can we learn today from this prophetic act? The…

Elijah, Moses, and Jesus all bear a striking resemblance to one another in several ways. They also differ drastically in others. From similar mountaintop experiences–including a shared one at Jesus's transfiguration–we see the role of the biblical prophet hitting key milestones in each of their stories. And we find, at these milestones, divine conf…

YOU SHALL INSTRUCT | Ezekiel 43:10-27 with Aaron Eime by Christ Church JerusalemChrist Church Jerusalem