From the Pulpit...

Check yourself. If you are getting hot under the collar right now because I told you that God views you as a sinner, then you are responding just like the hard-hearted audience of this passage. If you are angry at the messenger, what that really means is that you are rejecting God — because I am just recounting what Scripture says, and Scripture is God’s word, not mine. Please do not repeat the same error of these unbelieving synagogue goers. They were not very religious after all, were they? We know because they wanted to murder a man!