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

In today’s passage Luke recounts a sermon by Jesus which is very similar to the one recorded in  Matthew as the Sermon on the Mount.  Some people think see the differences between them as indicating contradictions between the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew in a “Well, which way did Jesus say it? The way Luke recorded it or the way Matthew did?”  I see them as two different deliveries of the same basic sermon at different places and times, much like many public speakers deliver variations on the same speech to different audiences (I’ve done it myself).  I believe that Jesus delivered variations on this sermon multiple times throughout His three years of ministry.  In fact, I believe that this was probably the core of most of the sermons He preached.

Now, having said all of that, let’s get to what He actually said, as recorded by Luke.  Here the Beatitudes have a completely different slant.  Matthew recorded, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…”, Luke records, “Blessed are the poor…”  Matthew, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…”, Luke, “Blessed are the hungry…”.  Luke adds a series of “Woes” after his list of Beatitudes.  They are the opposites of the blessings.  I think the one to which we need to pay the closest attention is the last one. “Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”  That is a really tough one.  We all want people to speak well of us, but Jesus tells us that if everyone speaks well of us, we are probably guilty of misrepresenting God’s words when we speak.  From there I want to go into Luke’s account of what Jesus taught about the golden rule.  The context really makes it clear what Jesus meant when He told us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.  Jesus says that right after telling us to love our enemies and to pray for those who mistreat us.  You can’t get any further from this world’s take on the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as they do unto you.”  No, Jesus tells us that it is even more important to do nice things to those who treat us badly.  All too many of us think that being a nice person means being nice to those who are nice to us, but it’s OK to be rude to those who are rude to us.  Well, Jesus tells us that if we want credit for being nice we need to be nice to those who are mean to us. 

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 4-5.

Luke’s account says that after teaching and casting a demon out of a demon-possessed man in the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus went to Simon’s house.  I find this interesting because Luke does not mention Simon, or anyone else, becoming Jesus’ disciple before this.  As I was thinking about this, I believe that Luke wrote it this way in order to communicate that he was not reporting the events from early in Jesus’ ministry necessarily in the order in which they occurred.  In order to explain why I reach this conclusion let me recount the order of events which Luke records here.

• Baptized by John in the Jordan River
• Fasted in the wilderness for 40 days
• Returned to Galilee and taught in the synagogues
• Taught in the synagogue in Nazareth and was rejected by the people there, after He said they would ask Him to perform miracles like those He performed in Capernaum.
• Taught in the synagogue in Capernaum and drove a demon out of a demon-possessed man.
• Went to Simon’s house, healed Simon’s mother-in-law, healed many others.
• Went to a solitary place where people from Capernaum found Him and begged Him to stay in Capernaum.
• Preached in synagogues in Judea
• Preached from Simon’s boat at the Lake of Gennesaret(also known as the Sea of Galilee)
• Called Simon, James, and John to be fishers of men (may have called others, including Andrew, here, but Luke’s wording is ambiguous).
• Jesus taught in other towns

Now, let’s look at that.  Luke records Jesus preaching in the synagogue in Nazareth before recording Him doing anything in Capernaum.  Yet, Jesus references what He did in Capernaum to the people of Nazareth.  Which suggests that the preaching Jesus did in Capernaum, that Luke records after he records Jesus experience in Nazareth, occurred before the events in Nazareth.  So, why does this matter?  It matters because many of the “contradictions” people point to in the Gospel accounts are about how the different Gospels place events in different orders, or, apparently, at different times.  Here Luke, the Gospel writer most obsessive about accuracy, communicates that he is not recording events in exactly the order they happened.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 2-3.

OK, again something I have never thought about before.  When the angel appeared to the shepherds, he told them that he was bringing good news, and that good news was that a Savior had been born, the Messiah.  That isn’t the new thought.  Then the angel told them he had a sign for them that what he had just said was true.  The sign was that they would find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.  I have always read this, and hear it preached about as directions on where to find the baby, but that isn’t what the angel said.  The angel said that finding that baby would be a sign to them that his message. that the Messiah had been born, was true.  The angel was not telling them, “This is how you will know you have found the baby I am talking about.”  The angel was saying, “This is how you will know that the Messiah has been born.”  I am not sure what the implications are of this different perspective on what the angel said, but I think they are significant.

I also want to comment on something I noticed about Jesus staying in Jerusalem when He was twelve.  So, it says that Jesus’ parents found Him after three days of looking for Him in Jerusalem.  It occurred to me this morning that this was a foreshadowing of His death and resurrection.  In particular, it foreshadows the three days of anxiety which His mother, Mary, would experience after His crucifixion: anxiety which was relieved when He rose from the dead.  Again, I am not sure what the implications of that foreshadowing are, but they are worth thinking about.  Of course, this account has two very important implications.  The first being that Jesus is always doing His Father’s business.  The second, that when we look for Jesus, we should start in His Father’s House.  Combining the two, we find Jesus when we look at where God’s business is being done.

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

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

We often speak, or write, about the faith of the second criminal crucified next to Jesus, but I never before realized the extent of his faith.  Jesus’ disciples thought that His crucifixion was the end for Him, but not this man dying next to Him.  The man on the cross next to Jesus believed not just that He was innocent of anything which justified being crucified, but that He would go on to rule a kingdom.  The criminal on the cross asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom.  I never before realized just how great his faith was, nor how little he asked.  He was the first to believe in the Resurrection, and all he asked was that he live on in Jesus’ memory.  He knew that he did not deserve salvation and did not ask for it. Jesus gave it to him anyway.  This criminal, dying a horrific death, believed that Jesus had power over death when no one else did.

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

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

I haven’t written much about Jesus’ comment about the widow’s mites because it is just four verses out of this whole passage, with so much in the larger sections.  If you listen to the speakers at the fund raising dinners held by non-profit organizations you will often hear the speakers praise one or more wealthy individuals for their generosity.  That makes sense, by praising the wealthy who donate they increase the likelihood that they will donate more, and quite simply put, that small amount the poor widow gave would not provide enough for the adornments which caught the disciples attention in the next set of verses.  Yet God does not look at things that way.  After all, He does not need what we can give Him.  And while those who run non-profit organizations which rely on donations to operate need to pander to wealthy donors, we should not judge people by the amount they give, but rather by their dedication to sacrificing in order to help others.

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

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

I have always loved the story of Zacchaeus.  He could not see Jesus over the crowd, so he went ahead and climbed a tree in order to see over the heads of those lining the streets.   When Jesus got to where Zacchaeus sat in the tree, He called him down so that He could eat at Zacchaeus’ house.  While everyone else around condemned Zacchaeus for his sinfulness, not without reason, Jesus welcomed his desire to change.  Let us similarly welcome those who desire to turn away from their sinful lifestyle.

However, I want to write about something in the Parable of the Ten Minas which Jesus told.  In the version given here the man who handed out the money to his servants for them to manage had been called away to be crowned king of a foreign country.  I am unsure that I have ever heard, or read, someone comment on that portion of this parable.  Some of those who were to be the subjects of this individual rejected him as king, but he was crowned king anyway.  Then, after taking the mina (coin) away from the servant who failed to invest it, he ordered those who rejected him as king to be killed.  Having taken the time to summarize this part of the parable, I understand why we pay so little attention to it: it is hard to see what to make of it.  But I think I understand why Jesus brought up the enemies of the king in this telling of the parable.  By doing so, Jesus distinguished between a servant of the king who failed to properly use the resources which the king gave him and those who completely rejected the king.  The lazy servant remained in the king’s service, but those who rejected him were put to death. I think we see here something which Paul expands on in 1 Corinthians 3. While the lazy servant did not receive the rewards which the more diligent servants received, he also did not receive death.  Of course, better yet to be a diligent servant of our Lord.

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

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

When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to increase their faith, He told them two things.  He told them that it only takes a small amount of faith to do great things.  We easily see how that part of His answer applies.  On the other hand, we don’t usually connect the second part of His answer with ways to increase our faith.   Jesus tells us that to increase our faith we should seek how we can serve God more, all the while recognizing that our work for God does not make us worthy of His mercy.  So, Jesus tells us that we don’t need as much faith as we think we do.  He follows that up by telling us that to get more faith we should do what we know God asks of us, and then look for more to do for Him.  In a way the other teaching I want to highlight out of this passage is related.  Jesus teaches that we should pray repeatedly for those actions we desire God to take.  In a way this is a way to follow Jesus’ directions on building faith.  God wants us to pray for that which we desire.  So, we can build our faith by praying for what we desire until either God grants it to us or we realize God has something better for us.

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

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

My thoughts are all over the place on today’s passage, just like they were last year.  Today’s passage starts with Jesus performing another healing on the Sabbath.  He uses this opportunity to teach us that it is never the wrong time to relieve someone else’s suffering.  He goes from there to teach that we should not assume positions of honor for ourselves.  Rather we should place ourselves into the positions of low honor, allowing others to lift us up to places of honor.  Then Jesus tells us that when we throw parties and fancy events we should not invite those who can repay us by returning the invitation.  Instead we should invite those who otherwise do not have the opportunity to attend such events.  We will be blessed by such things, and God will repay us for the expense (and probably with things which cannot be bought for any price).  Jesus then tells a story about another banquet.  One where the invited guests all made excuses for why they could not come, so the one throwing the banquet brought in guests who would otherwise have been unable to attend.

Later, Jesus tells us that we must understand the cost of following Him, that we may have to give up our family, our wealth, and even our lives in order to be faithful to Him.  Luke then tells us about Pharisees and teachers of the law complaining because Jesus welcomed sinners to be His followers and was willing to hang out with them (even when they had not yet changed their ways).  Jesus replies to this by telling us that we should have more enthusiasm for bringing the good news to those who have wondered away from God and become lost than in debating His teachings with other followers of Christ.  The final point I want to make concerns Jesus teaching about how we should relate to material wealth once more.  We cannot serve God if we care more about material goods than we do about the needs of others.

I hope you see the thread which runs through all of these tying them together.  I was hoping I could find a phrase which would sum it all up once I had written down each of the parts, but that never happened.

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