A quite introductory note: Pressed for time on several fronts, Dear Partner, I’m going to share with you a lightly edited reflection on this week’s Gospel passage that I first wrote three years ago for WorkingPreacher.org. I hope not to have to do that often, as I love our weekly fresh engagement with the text, but for now I appreciate your patience as I try to tend multiple responsibilities. Blessings on your proclamation this week and always. Dear Partner in Preaching, I hate to say it, but I kind of think Matthew’s a punk. Yes, I know, we’re not supposed to say stuff like that. But I can’t help it. Just read...

In working through Matthew’s Passion for our Lenten Devotions this year, I’ve been struck again by some of the really difficult elements of his story. In particular, at several points he seems to work pretty hard to exonerate the Romans, and particularly Pontius Pilate, of responsibility for Jesus’ death and to cast that responsibility and blame onto the Jewish religious authorities and crowds. All of the gospels do that to some degree or another, but Matthew goes to greater lengths (although John’s Gospel comes in a close second). His is the only passion narrative, for instance, in which Pilate washes his hands of Jesus’...