discernment

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING TO?

June 12, 2025 by Eddie Leave a Comment

You know, if you ask me, I don’t think the Pharisees were bad people. I think they meant well. But they just didn’t get it right, even though they seemed pretty convinced that they were on the right track and that they were doing the right things. That’s what I think. Maybe it got to their head, and they felt superior, and they didn’t expect anybody to know better than them. But can you blame them? I mean they studied scripture, they followed tradition, they had strict code of conduct and rules, and they were careful to observe them. Scrupulous, even. Right?

But it took Jesus to point them out to everyone and said, on so many occasions, “Don’t be like the Pharisees.” One of those occasions, we find in the opening of Matt 5:20-26, where Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness surpasses those of the Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” And after saying that, Jesus started giving examples after examples of the things that changed the way people viewed about what it takes to enter the kingdom of heaven.

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IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT’S GOING ON — Trust that God Knows

September 27, 2024 by Eddie Leave a Comment

There’s a familiar Q&A exchange between Jesus and His disciples in Luke 9:18-22. Jesus asks them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” And then after they answer, He redirects the question to them and asks them “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” And then Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah.

Most commentaries will focus either on this declaration of Peter about the identity of Jesus as the Messiah, or on our response to the question “Who do you say I am?” In fact, I myself have spoken about this question in a previous episode of Pathways of Hope, using the version found in Matthew 16.

For today, I want to focus on something else. Today’s gospel ends with a twist. First it starts with the good news about Jesus confirming that He is the Messiah. But in v21 it says: “Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.“

What’s going on here?

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HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK? Maybe you’re lost and you don’t know it.

August 13, 2024 by Eddie Leave a Comment

Jesus asks a rhetorical question, “If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains, and go and search for the one that is lost?” (Matt 18:12 NABRE) It’s rhetorical, because the answer is obvious. Of course, he will go and look for the sheep that went astray!

And the lesson Jesus points out is this, He says: “God, your Father in heaven, is like that shepherd. He does not want any of these little people to be lost, not even one of them.” And who do you think Jesus was referring to as the people who are like the lost sheep?

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EVIL EXISTS WHERE THERE IS GOOD — sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference

July 30, 2024 by Eddie Leave a Comment

The parable of the weeds among the wheat (found in Matt 13:36-43) is about a situation when a farmer’s enemy secretly plants bad seeds in the field where this farmer has just planted good seeds of wheat. And as both of these types of good and bad seeds germinate and grow, the smart farmer tells his workers to leave these alone until harvest time because at this early stage and until the kernel of wheat actually appears, it is hard to distinguish the weeds from the wheat, because they all look the same at this stage.

Although this makes practical sense from a farming point of view, the disciples are curious what Jesus means, because Jesus starts off the parable by saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like this.” So, Jesus explains that the one who sowed good seed is Himself, the Son of Man, and the good seed are the people of the Kingdom; the enemy of Jesus is the devil and the weeds are the evil people. Now, Jesus points out that at the end of the age there will be a reckoning. The good news is that everything and everyone that causes sin and does evil will be thrown into hell, while the righteous will be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven.

When I think about this lesson, the obvious thing that comes to my mind is that I’m not surprised that evil exists where there is good. We see it not only in this world; we see it even in ourselves, right?

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WHY DO YOU SPEAK IN PARABLES?

July 27, 2023 by Eddie Leave a Comment

You’re all familiar with the parable of the sower and the seed, and what it meant, right? Well, here’s a bit of trivia. Did you know that this is the first parable that the synoptic gospel writers (Matthew, Mark and Luke) recorded? And, also, did you know that when Jesus spoke this parable to the large crowds, he didn’t explain it to the crowd? Mark says, in Mark 4:10, “When He was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables.”

In fact, I like the way Matthew recorded the question that the disciples asked Jesus about this parable when they were away from the crowds already. They asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?’” (Matt 13:10). In other words, why tell the crowds a story, but not explain what it means? What’s your point in doing this?

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