Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 23-24.

The first thing I want to write about is the criminal on the cross who went to paradise.  He did not ask for anything except to be remembered by Jesus when Jesus came into His kingdom.  He knew he deserved to die, and he knew he deserved Hell for his sins.  He also knew that Jesus did not deserve death.  More than that, he believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but all this criminal wanted was for Jesus to remember that he at least believed in Him in His deepest despair.  That is a faith I have trouble fathoming.  It is the type of faith which I wrote of a few days ago when I wrote about Jesus telling us to say that we are unworthy servants who have but done our duty.  This man was an unworthy servant who had not done his duty.  Yet, because he acknowledged that, Jesus invited him to paradise.  That man will spend eternity praising God because he knows he did not deserve what he got.  Let us praise God similarly without expecting reward.

When Jesus appeared to the disciples after His resurrection, He asked for something to eat and ate what they gave Him in their presence.  This was to show them that He was not a ghost, or a spirit, or even an animated corpse.  Just as He had told Jairus and his wife to give their daughter something to eat in order to demonstrate that she was truly alive, here He asked for something to eat so that He could demonstrate that He was truly alive.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 21-22.

Usually I have an idea about what I am going to write on when I start writing my blog, but not today.  So, I will start at the beginning of the passage, which is the account of the widow’s mites.  Jesus told us that He values the gifts of those who have little, but give more of what they have than He does the gifts of those who give a lot out of even more.  To put that another way, sometimes when we have little to offer we feel like it is not worth our bother, our gift won’t make a difference.  There are two answers to this.  First, the answer which Jesus gives here, even if all we have will barely make a dent in the need, God values our willingness to give it.  Second, the willingness of those who can barely make ends meet, if that, to give inspires those who receive their aid to make the most of it.  So, don’t ever be reluctant to give because you think the amount which you can give doesn’t matter, won’t make a difference.

Jesus follows that up by predicting the destruction of the temple and the coming of the kingdom of God.  Matthew’s account of this prediction includes a prophecy of the end times with Jesus’ prophecy of the destruction of the temple.  Luke, on the other hand, appears to only include the prophecy of the destruction of the temple.  However, elements of what Jesus says here apply to other times in history as well, including a reference to His return.  Throughout most of history, those who follow Jesus have experienced betrayal by those closest to them, as Jesus predicts here.  One of the things which Jesus says here is something I think all of us should take to heart.  He says, “make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.”  We should not worry about how we will defend our beliefs when people attack them, or attack us for them.  We should just focus on being good witnesses for Christ and God will provide us with the words that defend against the attack.  That does not mean that we don’t need to study the Scripture, or fully understand what we believe.  We should not worry about knowing the right thing to say in any situation.  We can trust God to provide us with the answer.  However, I will repeat, this does not mean that we can leave off on studying God’s word.  In fact, Peter tells us, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 19-20.

We teach the story of Zacchaeus to children because they find him amusing and we use him to illustrate the value of enthusiastically seeking Jesus.  That is not a bad lesson, but it’s not really the lesson that Luke intends to convey.  No, the lesson Luke seems to primarily convey is the value of accepting those who seek the Lord.  When the people saw Zacchaeus, they saw a sinner.  Jesus saw a man seeking God.  In response to Jesus’ recognition of him, Zacchaeus gave half his wealth to the poor and recompensed those he had cheated.  The people saw a sinner, Jesus saw a man who desired God’s love.  The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.  Our mandate is to seek the lost and invite them to Christ.

Immediately after the story of Zacchaeus Luke records the Parable of the Ten Minas, which I have always thought of as a parallel to the Parable of the Bags of Gold from Matthew.  While the parable in today’s passage is similar to the one from Matthew, it is clearly different.  In this parable, the man who gave money to his servants was going on a journey to be made king over a distant land, something which is nowhere in the parable told in Matthew.  Interestingly, Jesus includes a bit about a delegation from the man’s subjects (different from the servants to whom he entrusted the minas) saying that they did not want him to be their king.  At the end of the parable Jesus returns to those who did not want the man to be their king.  Jesus says that the man, now king, ordered those men brought and killed in front of him.  This tells me that Jesus is saying that the man who gave out the ten minas is Himself, and that the servants to whom they were given are His disciples.

The final thing I want to touch on that I never noticed before, but which fits into my understanding of Passion Week, is that the crowd which joyfully praised God and Jesus during His Triumphal Entry were His disciples.  It has been my understanding for many years now that the crowd which praised Jesus during the Triumphal Entry were different people from the crowd which condemned Him and called for His death less than a week later in front of Pilate.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 17-18.

Today’s passage begins with an interesting progression of Jesus’ teaching and request from His disciples.  He begins by warning us against being the cause of someone to stumble into sin.  He says that things which cause people to sin are unavoidable, situations will arise where people will be unable to resist temptation, but we should do everything in our power to avoid being the ones who create those situations.  This leads Jesus into telling us to rebuke those in our fellowship who sin against us, but to forgive them if they repent.  In fact, we should forgive them even if they repeatedly sin against us and ask for forgiveness.  There are really three interconnected things here, and their relationship is complicated.  First, we should carefully watch ourselves so as not to cause others to stumble.  However, if they do, we should point out their sin to them and call them back to God.  We should especially do that if their sin was causing US to stumble.  However, in any case, should they recognize their sin and repent, or even just say that they repent, we should forgive them, no matter how often they repeat the offense (this gets a little complicated when it comes to Church discipline, but that is covered in other passages and not part of today’s lesson).

Which brings us to how Jesus disciples responded to this teaching.  After hearing Jesus tell them to forgive others up to seven times a day for the same offense, they asked Him to increase their faith.  I find that interesting, when Jesus told them to forgive those who sin against them, they asked Him to increase their faith.  They didn’t say, “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”  They said, “That’s really hard and I don’t think I have enough faith to pull it off.  Please give me more faith so that I can.”  And Jesus’ answer to their request to increase their faith deserves careful thought.  First, He tells them that it doesn’t take much faith to accomplish great things, that it takes less faith than they think.  But, if they want to increase their faith, He tells them how to do so.  He tells them, “when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”  So, the answer to gaining more faith is to do everything that we know God has asked of us and then look for another task to do for Him.  I want to reiterate that Jesus makes two points in response to His disciples request for more faith.  First, He tells them, and us, that if you think you need more faith to do what God is calling you to do, you are probably wrong…it doesn’t take as much faith as you think.  Second, desiring more faith is a good thing, and the way you get more faith is by doing God’s will because you believe it is your duty, not because you think God will reward you for doing so.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 14-16.

I was reading the Parable of the Great Banquet and realized that every sermon I have heard preached about it, and everything I have seen written about it misses the main point.  I have always thought that the feast described in it is Heaven, that we will go to this feast after our earthly death.  Which brings up the question, who would decline going to heaven?  Oh, I have heard explanations, but it struck me today that they miss Jesus’ point, that we miss Jesus’ point.  Our reward for doing God’s will, the feast is doing God’s will.  Every time I pass on an opportunity to share God’s word, I am doing what the invited guests in this parable did.  Every time I pass by an opportunity to help someone in need, I am doing what the invited guests in this parable did.  When we see those who are struggling helping others, we are seeing someone else eat God’s feast.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 10-11.

Yesterday’s passage began with the account of  Jesus sending out the Twelve, now today’s passage begins with Jesus sending out the Seventy-Two.  His instructions to the Seventy-Two are almost identical to those He gave the Twelve.  Between sending out the Twelve and sending out the Seventy-Two, we had Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Messiah, the Transformation, and Jesus beginning to tell His disciples that He would die and be raised from the dead.  All of that happened after the Twelve returned and reported to Jesus what they had experienced while on the mission He had given them.  It really tells us something about mission, about spreading the word of God.  Jesus took His closest followers, those who were the most enthusiastic, and sent them out to preach.  When they came back and reported on their experiences, He taught them, and the larger group, more, especially about the things which those outside of the group of His disciples would push back against.  Then He sent out a larger group, a group which had heard what the first group experienced.  When the Seventy-Two returned, they were excited by what they had experienced, by the way in which they were able to heal and the way in which evil spirits submitted to the authority Jesus had given them.  Jesus reminded them that while He had given them power, that power was not an end in itself.  That power derived from their surrendering their will to Him, to God, but that power was not the reason for surrendering their will.  We do not bow down to Jesus, do not bow down to God, in order to receive power.  Rather we bow down to Jesus in order to come into a better relationship with Him and with the Father.  Power over evil spirits is just a side effect.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 6-7.

Today’s passage begins with two incidents related to what Jesus taught about the Sabbath.  At the end of the first incident Jesus declares Himself Lord of the Sabbath.  In the second incident, Jesus asks if it is lawful to do good, or to do evil, on the Sabbath.  This is clearly a rhetorical question, because Jesus immediately, without waiting for an answer, restored the man’s hand.  I want to make note that the way Luke presents these two incidents indicates that he wants us to understand that he is not presenting the material necessarily chronological order, that these two incidents did not happen right after the other.  We need to keep this in mind as we read all of the Gospel of Luke–for the most part, events described earlier in his account occurred before events described later, but Luke makes it clear that sometimes an event is related out of chronological order for the sake of communicating the lesson more clearly.

This passage also makes clear that Jesus had many more than twelve disciples.  First, Luke makes a point that Jesus selected twelve apostles out of His many disciples after a night of prayer.  That right there is an important example for us to keep in mind.  Jesus, even though He was God, spent a night in prayer before selecting the twelve whom He set aside as His special messengers to the world.  After describing Jesus selecting the Twelve, Luke begins his account of Jesus’ central sermon (equivalent to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount) by telling us that Jesus stood on a level place surrounded by a large crowd of His disciples, and a great number of other people.

Finally I want to touch on a theme which pervades all of Jesus’ ministry, but which Luke highlights in this sermon.  It is really made of two parts.  first, love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.  Second, do good things for those who can’t and/or won’t return the favor.  In fact, we should especially do good things for those who will hold us in a negative light even after we have done them a good turn.  Related to that is what Jesus tells Simon the Pharisee after the “sinful” woman anointed Him, “whoever has been forgiven little, loves little.”  Do we think of ourselves as having been forgiven little?  Or, do we realize how deep our debt really was?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus