Our Lord Jesus had been addressing a crowd either in, or nearby, Jerusalem. They were likely mostly Judean Jews. And as He was speaking to them, some in the gathering told Jesus about a heinous act committed by Pontius Pilate, the Roman appointed Governor over Judea. The atrocity involved a slaughter of some Galilean Jews and the mingling of their blood with the blood of their religious sacrifices. This was related to Jesus no doubt because of what Jesus had just said a few verses earlier… (cf. 12:54-56)… And now they were testing Jesus’ ability to interpret the event…
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Grace Notes 2025-03-26Beloved in the Lord, this week I feel compelled to write to you about Christian unity. What compels me? I’m not sure. Hopefully we all know how dear this is to our Lord Jesus Christ. And at the same time, we are well aware of the lack of such unity and the damage this causes.
“As disciples of the Lord Jesus we are called to struggle against everything that leads us away from love of God and neighbor. Repentance, fasting, prayer, and works of love – the disciplines of Lent – help us to wage our spiritual warfare.” This is taken from the Liturgy for Ash Wednesday in the Lutheran Book of Worship.
On Ash Wednesday the Gospel Reading was taken from Matthew’s Gospel the 6th chapter. In the reading Jesus addresses three acts of piety: giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting. The first mentioned is also known as the giving of alms, or simply as charity.