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Often when we look at a passage like the Gospel today we look at one word in the question and forget to look at the whole question and the context and who is asking and why. We tend to focus solely on the word divorce, and miss that the Pharisees came to test Jesus and use the word lawful. Jesus responds by asking; “What did Moses command you?” When they answered that Moses had allowed for a man to divorce his wife, Jesus said that this is because of hardness of heart.

In Revelation: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” That is the challenge for us, calling us out of our comfort zone to a new and exciting reality, but it could be in the ordinary and we just miss it. The two phrases of Jesus in today’s Gospel, point us to the new heaven and earth, “Lazarus come out!” and “Unbind him and let him go.”

This Gospel lends itself to a number of topics for discussion. We can talk about blind Bartimaeus asking Jesus to see again, this after Jesus asks him what he wants him to do for him. This suggests being clear and specific about what we want from Jesus in prayer.

We all grew up reading stories and having stories read to us. Often, they had a moral to teach or a lesson to learn. In particular, I’m thinking of a story that has been shared across many cultures and religions, each with their own unique details, but the settings are exactly the same: hell and heaven.

Sometimes it takes a while for me to come to understand an idea and how things come together. This is one of them. I have said that Thanksgiving is really in two parts; giving thanks directly to God, and sharing the blessings we have received and giving thanks for to benefit others as well.

Often when we look at a passage like the Gospel today we look at one word in the question and forget to look at the whole question and the context and who is asking and why. We tend to focus solely on the word divorce, and miss that the Pharisees came to test Jesus and use the word lawful. Jesus responds by asking; “What did Moses command you?” When they answered that Moses had allowed for a man to divorce his wife, Jesus said that this is because of hardness of heart.

Am I the only one not about to rush out and cut off or out an eye, foot or hand? Jesus is trying to make a point, that it is not about the parts of the body but something else, a more subtle and less obvious. We know from Psychology that to do so won’t solve the problem.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a question I’m sure we were all asked at one time or another when we were young. When I was barely a teenager, I dreamed about becoming a doctor. I studied the classic reference work, Gray’s Anatomy, and buried myself in books about the history of medicine and surgery.

It seems to me there are two parts to this gospel this morning. The first part is answering the question about who Jesus is for ourselves. Jesus begins by asking who the people say I am, and then asks who they think Jesus is. That means we are to listen to what others think and say, and learn about Jesus and God from them, but ultimately it means deciding for ourselves.