Breaking News

Every day, somewhere, something happens that warrants an immediate response in the media. Programming stops or a news flash runs across the bottom of our screens that breaks an important announcement. Jesus had world- and kingdom-shattering news to share, too. And in today’s gospel text, he explains.

When NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others perished in a helicopter crash last January, chances are that most people heard about it when a “breaking news” ticker scrolled across the bottom of their laptops or TV screens.

Some programming might have been interrupted with a “breaking news” bulletin — the words “Breaking News” always in red.

When we see these words, we know that something amazing, terrible, interesting, incredible, troubling or heart-breaking has occurred. We also know that we’re about to learn more.

Breaking news. These two words are in themselves interesting. What is the grammatical role of the word “breaking”?

It is an adjective that modifies the word “news,” so the ticker across your screen could also read: “News that is breaking!”

Perhaps you could not care less.

But now, the question looms: Just what is the news breaking?

 

Think back to the...