Jericho is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world.  It was already a walled city when the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land in about 1400 B.C.  We remember the story of how the walls of Jericho came tumbling down at the trumpet blast of Israel.  At the time of Jesus, it was busy and active.  King Herod even built his winter quarters at Jericho.  To this very day, you can still travel to Jericho.  If you do, you can go to the town center called Al-Jummezeh Square and there you will find a little monument built around the stump of an old sycamore tree. 

Our text from Luke this morning is intensely fascinating to many Christians. It is part of Jesus’ “End Times” discourse spoken on Tuesday of Holy Week. In this discourse Jesus speaks at length about the end of the world and what fascinates so many about this topic, the signs of the end! And certainly Jesus gives us information here that we don’t get anywhere else.

Our text this morning is from the book of Galatians. I don’t know how much you know about Galatians, but Martin Luther LOVED the book of Galatians! Martin Luther was that German monk who nailed the 95 Theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

Martin Luther said our text is one of the most obscure sections in all of Scripture.  There are things about it that are hard to understand!  It is difficult to understand why God comes out of nowhere in the form of a man and wrestles with Jacob.  Why does he do it on the night before Jacob is going to meet his brother Esau? 

There is no question that the COVID pandemic has changed everything.  We are still in the early days of assessing all the long-term effects, but one early observation is troubling.  Doctors and mental health professionals are noticing a dramatic increase in anxiety and depression in people.