Liz Cooledge Jenkins

Category: Matthew

  • When You Can’t Win

    “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son…

  • Buddying Up to Power

    7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.…

  • John and the Bethel Worship Leader’s Daughter

    Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities. When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to…

  • Authority Issues?

    Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all…

  • Fire Baptism

    I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his…

  • Where have all the young people gone?

    For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. -John the Baptist (Matthew 3:9b) Right after John tells a bunch of religious leaders that claiming a lineage from Abraham can only get them so far, he declares that God is able to raise up children for Abraham…from stones.…

  • Spiritual Heritage

    And you should not think to say among yourselves, “We have Abraham as father.” -John the Baptist (Matthew 3:9a) The Pharisees who came against John’s baptism thought that they did not need to “make fruit worthy of repentance,” because they could trace their lineage back to Abraham. They claimed Abraham as the forefather of their…

  • Making Good Fruit

    Make fruit worthy of repentance…already the ax is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not make good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. -John the Baptist (Matthew 3:8,10) When I think of a truly repentant person (myself or others), I tend to think of someone who feels…

  • Brood of Vipers (Part 2 of 2)

    But when John saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7). (Same verse as yesterday, new thought.) It must not have been very fun to be called a brood of vipers―the offspring of a venomous…

  • Brood of Vipers (Part 1 of 2)

    But when John saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7, NRSV). When I first read this verse, I wasn’t sure what to make of the thought that a bunch of Pharisees and Sadducees came…