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

The way Luke presents the two stories about the Pharisees confronting Jesus over the Sabbath indicates that he wants us to see a common theme between them.  Both of these stories remind us that we should not allow a rigid adherence to rules, even otherwise good rules, prevent us from caring for ourselves or doing good.  We should take a day each week to relax and worship God, but there is nothing wrong with doing things on that day which bring us joy and there is never anything wrong with doing things which improve the lives of others.

I feel like I need to write about Jesus’ instructions that we love our enemies and the story about the woman who anointed His feet.  My thoughts about them are linked, but I am not sure I am going to be able to actually put that in writing.  When Simon the Pharisee thought that Jesus should not allow the woman to touch Him, Simon was doing exactly what Jesus meant when He told us not to judge others. I want you to consider Jesus’ response to Simon here.  He called him out for what he was thinking about the woman.  It appears to have worked, because how do we know what Simon was thinking?  Clearly we know because Simon became a Believer and told this story on himself.  Simon thought of this woman as the “other”, one of those whom he did not need to love because they had put themselves outside of the acceptable by their actions.  Let us not make the mistake Simon made.  Let us make sure that the “others” know that God loves them and that nothing they have done is so bad that God will not forgive them.  And let us not hold the sins which God forgives against them.

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.

Years ago I came across a commentary on Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness which said that they represented shortcuts to bringing about social change, ways in which Jesus could change the world without going through the suffering which awaited Him.  The problem with these shortcuts is that they do not work.  In rejecting each of those “shortcuts” Jesus explained part of why they don’t work.   First, Satan offered Jesus the solution of changing things by meeting people’s material needs.  By changing stones to bread, Jesus could feed the world and no one would need to be hungry anymore.  Jesus’ answered that temptation by telling Satan that the problems of this world were more than a lack of food.  So, next Satan offered Jesus political power over the whole earth, all He had to do was worship Satan.  Jesus answered that temptation by telling Satan that his price was too high.  In order to acquire that much political power one must give up being a servant of God, one must give up one’s integrity.  An author I love had one of their characters say, “It does no good to obtain your heart’s desire if the price you pay is your heart.” (that is a paraphrase).  Finally, Satan offered Jesus the option of forcing God to prove Himself.  Jesus answered that temptation by telling Satan that God is not magic which we control.  Ultimately, Jesus’ answer to Satan’s temptation was that there are no shortcuts to the Kingdom of Heaven.  Many of the problems in our society result from people falling for one of these three temptations.

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.

I will always remember my father reading the beginning of Luke 2 every year on Christmas Eve before we opened our presents (we did that on Christmas Eve because we went to one of my Uncle’s house for Christmas Dinner with all of my Dad’s family).  I love the fact that God sent His messengers to announce the birth of His Son to shepherds in the field, not to kings or other members of the elite.  Then, when Jesus’ parents took Him to the Temple for to be presented to God, it was not the priests and Levites to whom He was made known.  No, it was Simeon and Anna to whom the Holy Spirit revealed who He was.  Like the shepherds, Simeon and Anna were not people of great notice.  Even today, God generally first makes His announcements to those of whom the world takes little notice.

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

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

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

One of the phrases in the Bible which most powerfully effects me is in today’s passage.  On the first day of the week after Jesus’ crucifixion, the women who had followed Him from Galilee went to the tomb where His body had been laid.  They found the stone in front of the tomb rolled aside.  So, they went in and discovered that the body was missing.  Two men suddenly appeared in the tomb with them and asked them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”  The two men went on to remind the women that Jesus had said that He would rise on the third day.

Part of me wants to go on and write about the rest of this passage and the fact that Luke highlights that the women believed, but the men did not, but I keep coming back to that question, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”  They knew Jesus was dead.  After all, they had watched Him die on the cross and seen His body taken down and placed in this tomb.  How could He not be here? What did those two men mean when they said He had risen? And yet, they remembered He had said He would be crucified and rise again on the third day.  They had thought it was some kind of metaphor at the time, but maybe, just maybe it wasn’t.  He had died, they had seen Him die.  Yet, here they were being asked, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

I don’t know if I have made the point I am trying to make, but I will ask one more time, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

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

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

Today’s passage begins with the account of the woman giving two small coins.  Jesus tells us that she gave more than those who gave much larger sums because they gave from their surplus, while she gave everything she had.  We need to read this in light of the fact that elsewhere Jesus told the rich young man to sell all that he has and give it to the poor.  The lesson being that if our giving does not cause us to sacrifice at least some of our desires we are not giving enough.

However, there is more to this story than just that.  My brother pointed out to me a few years ago that we need to look at this story in the context of what was going on in the Gospel accounts where this is recounted.  He focused on the things which immediately preceded it, but I think what comes after is just as important.  So, what is the context?  Well, immediately before this Jesus had a confrontation with the leaders of Jerusalem over where He got the authority to drive the merchants out of the Temple. At the end of that confrontation, Jesus condemned those who publicly did showy things to gain admiration while privately cheating those with no power.  Immediately after this, He told His disciples that the Temple would soon be completely destroyed in response to their expressions of awe over the magnificence of its construction.  That section ends with a warning not to let our hearts be dulled by partying and the worries of this life.

So, the widow stands in contrast to those who spend their wealth on ostentatious display to impress others and those who spend their wealth on material pleasures, or even just attempting to secure their well-being.  I also want to point out that the placement of this account suggests that the widow was in such dire straits because she had been cheated, yet she gave anyway. As so often happens when I write these blogs, I find myself having failed to fully flesh out the thought that was in the back of my mind when I began writing.

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

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

The story of Zacchaeus has some interesting characteristics.  As children, Zacchaeus is presented as an example because he strives to overcome his limitations in order to see Jesus.  As adults, we look at Zacchaeus because Jesus’ presence in his life causes him to turn it around. The story of Zacchaeus really does provide us with a lot of important lessons.  The self-righteous wanted nothing to do with Zacchaeus because of his blatant sinfulness.  Yet ,despite his well-deserved reputation, and the knowledge that he was looked down upon by the righteous, Zacchaeus sought to see Jesus.  Then Jesus did the fateful thing, He accepted Zacchaeus.  In His acceptance, Jesus did not sugar-coat Zacchaeus’ sins, He did not downplay them.  He merely said that He had come to seek and save the lost.  Like Zacchaeus, we should seek to see Jesus, and we should do whatever is in our power to make recompense for the sins we have committed.  But, also, like Jesus we should accept sinners without accepting their sin.  When sinners seek Christ, let us make sure to show them that He has been seeking them.  Zacchaeus did not stop sinning in order to approach Christ, he stopped sinning when Christ came to him.

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

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

Perhaps Luke just wrote it this way to move from one thing to another, but this passage reads as if the disciples asked Jesus about how to increase their faith in response to His teaching about forgiveness.  So, that makes me think we need to realize just how hard obeying Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness is.  The disciples heard what He had to say and their first thought was, “How can I get enough faith to do that?”  If someone wrongs us repeatedly and asks for forgiveness each time, we are to grant that forgiveness each time, even if they do so seven times in one day.  Let’s be clear that Jesus was not saying that we only have to forgive people seven times in one day.  He was saying that if people wrong us and ask our forgiveness, we should give it to them, no matter how often they have wronged us.

Now, let’s look at what Jesus says about how we increase our faith.  Initially, I was going to start here, but then I realized what I wrote in the previous paragraph and I thought that was important to write about as well.  The first thing Jesus says in response to the question about how to increase our faith is that it doesn’t take much faith to accomplish miraculous things.  As to the answer to the question, it is both easier than we might think and immensely harder than we would like.  If you want to increase your faith, and you should desire to increase your faith, you need to do that which you know is God’s will with no expectation of thanks or reward.  The more we serve God, the more we will see His power, and thus the more we will have faith in what He can do.  We do not grow our faith by serving God in the hopes of reward.  We grow our faith by recognizing that serving God is our duty and then doing so.  Our reward for serving God will be more opportunities to serve Him.

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

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

As I was reading this I considered writing about various elements of this passage: Jesus’ teaching about humility, His parables about seeking the lost, His parable about the fired manager, and such.  However, when I got to the end, to the end of His story about Lazarus and the rich man, I was truly struck by what He said Abraham told the rich man.  Jesus said that when the rich man asked Abraham to send someone back from the dead, Abraham responded by telling him that if they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen if someone comes back from the dead.  That concluding statement reminds me of something I heard a Christian apologist say once.  When someone asks for proof of God’s existence, before trying to offer them proof, ask them what would constitute proof for them.  Jesus made the point that God has revealed Himself.  Those insisting that they need more proof do not want to believe that God exists; they want to believe that He does not exist.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 12-13

I have spent significant effort trying to figure out how to word my thoughts on this passage.  Jesus talks about not fearing those who can kill our bodies but not effect our souls.  He then goes on to tell us not to worry about anything and to put more effort into pleasing God than in accumulating material possessions.  If our first priority is to seek the Kingdom of God, God will meet all of our other needs.   Jesus even gives us a contrast to work with.  Determining how to meet their material needs dominates the thoughts of unbelievers throughout the world.  Determining how to fulfill God’s will should dominate the thoughts of believers.  If we place our trust in God, we will be freed up from spending time and resources on securing our material future so that we can spend our time and resources pleasing God.  Luke goes on to write about an incident which brings Jesus’ point into focus.  When the synagogue leader berated the woman whom Jesus healed on the Sabbath for being healed on the Sabbath, Jesus berated him for being unwilling to see someone released from suffering because it was the Sabbath. His point here being that we should seek to aid those in need whenever the opportunity presents itself.  Then Luke presents two related teachings from Jesus: one about the mustard seed, and one about yeast.  In seeking to bring in the Kingdom of God we should do even the things which seem small and insignificant because small and insignificant things often have results much greater than we would expect.