Sturtz Stuff

Mark 12:13-17 (NIV) Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax[b] to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay or shouldn’t we?” But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.        What are the politics of Jesus? That is what the questioners want to know. They are bring out a specific and particular hot button political issue to smoke Jesus out. If you have been in church...

So why release Barrabas instead of Jesus?      “Very simple: if you let Barabbas go, you can always stop him. The most Barabbas will do is go out, round up another bunch of guerrillas and start another riot. And you will always stop him by rolling your tanks into his neighborhood, bringing out the National Guard and putting his riot down. Find out where he is keeping his ammunition. Raid his apartment without a search warrant and shoot him while he is still asleep. You can stop Barabbas.      But how do you stop Jesus? They took and nailed him to a cross. But they did not realize that, in nailing Jesus to the cross, they were putting up on that cross the sinful nature of all humanity. As Christ was nailed to the cross, it was more than just a political radical dying; he was God's answer to the human dilemma. On that cross Christ was bearing in his own body my sin, and he was proclaiming my liberation on that cross. And on that cross he shed his ...

Probably the most famous Bible passage used to talk about Biblical womanhood is Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31 is about an upper class Jewish women [1] who is up at the crack of dawn to get to work. She owns land owns her own vineyard and cooks dinner every evening. She tends to every single need and want of her husband. She could be considered a total over achiever. When Proverbs 31 is used as the rule and guide for being a “Biblical Women” it would seem to set a very high if not a totally unattainable level for women to achieve. If the Bible were a blueprint and nothing more than a list of dos and don’ts then think of all of the controversies and tensions we could avoid. Consider all of the decisions that we would not have to make. It would be so much easier because we would all look and act the same. Seems to me that often when some suggest that they have discovered some Biblical blueprint on how to be a women or a man some Biblical character comes along and breaks that blueprint. Fo...