The miracle known as the feeding of the five thousand is the only miraculous work of Jesus that is recorded in all four Gospels. The narrative evidences several links to Old Testament passages.

This text offers in John the Baptizer and Herod the Tetrarch a contrast between fear and faith.

Joshua follows his sermon on Psalm 91, the soldier’s psalm, with a consideration of Paul’s description of the armor of God that is available to all believers.

As Joshua notes, this is called “the soldier’s psalm,” but it has a message for every believer.

This text marks Matthew’s transition from Jesus’ third discourse, or teaching section, to back to narratives of his public ministry in Galilee.

Matthew has given us four parables that Jesus spoke to the crowds, and with these verses, we hear two that were given by him to the disciples.

The kingdom of heaven is like…

The weeds of this parable are the plant known as darnel, which looks similar to wheat in its earlier stages.

The parable of the sower and its interpretation is, we might say, the paradigm example of Jesus’ parables.

This text opens the third of five discourses, or teaching sessions by Jesus that Matthew includes in his Gospel.