Visual Resources for the Lectionaries

This post offers visual resources for the Revised Common Lectionary and the Narrative Lectionary for July 19, 2026. Use this chart for quick links to the texts and the resource pages on cartoonistbible.com.

Proper 11

CLICK HERE to jump to the Narrative Lectionary Resources

Revised Common Lectionary Resources

Gospel Reading – Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

This image is from page 9 in A Cartoonist’s Guide to Matthew

This image comes from my 300 Daily Devo Doodles collection.

Food for Thought

Jesus tells another farming parable this week. A farmer plants a crop and his enemy sows seeds of weeds in his field. The field hands are concerned and ask the farmer what to do. “Let them grow together until its harvest time” he instructs them.

Doesn’t that seem counter intuitive?

This parable is another that Jesus explains to his disciples, and I’m so thankful that he did. The good seed is “children of the kingdom.” The weeds are “children of the evil one.”

Let them grow together?!?

There have been many interpretations of this parable over the years, and I don’t pretend to have the definitive read on it. Here’s what speaks to me today.

Jesus ends his explanation by shifting the metaphor from grain to light. The darkness is real and it is everywhere. This is the realm of the evil one. Yet, in the final day, the children of the Kingdom will shine like the sun. What if we connect this to the opening section of Jesus’ sermon in Matthew 5. He tells the crowd, “You are the light of the world…let your light shine.”

Let’s bring Romans 8 into this. Paul acknowledges that life is struggle. Sin is everywhere and we wrestle with our own desires. Yet, we have been set free by Jesus and we walk in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit groans for us, like a mother in the pains of childbirth. (see my mothering images here.)

In these texts I am reminded that we live in the both/and reality of the already-but-not-yet. We have been set free from sin and death, yet the world is still engulfed in it. It is often difficult to discern who are the children of the kingdom and the children of the evil one. Praise God, that’s not my job!

As we struggle in the darkness, surrounded by the seeds of the evil one, may we not focus our attention on pulling weeds, but on shining our light as the Spirit shines through us.

Narrative Lectionary Resources

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Food for Thought

We jump to the conclusion of Paul’s letter to his apprentice, Timothy. Paul ends his instructions with two final commendations:

First, learn to be content with what you have. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. When we put our eyes on “bigger, better, more, more” we take our eyes off Jesus and our vocation.

Second, he defines where our eyes should be focused: righteousness, godliness, faith. love, endurance, gentleness.

This is a good reminder for Christian Public Leaders. At the end of your life, what matters most? Is it how big your buildings or list of followers was, or is it how much your life reflected the goodness and grace of God?

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