Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 12

Jesus tells two parables in today’s passage which I think we should look at together.  The first is the Parable of the Rich Fool, specifically in Jesus’ expansion on its meaning where He tells His disciples, and us, not to worry.  The second is that parable of the fig tree.  After being asked to take sides in an inheritance dispute and telling the Parable of the Rich Fool, Jesus tells His disciples, and us, that they should not worry about what they would eat or wear.  I understand that to be an indication that they should not worry about material possessions.  He tells us that God knows our needs and will supply them just as He supplies the needs of wild animals if we put our focus on doing His will.  Later, Jesus tells the story of a fig tree which did not bear fruit.  He tells us that after three years, the owner of the vineyard in which the fig tree was planted wanted to cut it down, but that His gardener asked Him to give it one more year.  The gardener said that he would give it special treatment, and if it did not bear fruit the following year, then they would cut it down.  The connection I see here is that if we seek God’s kingdom He will provide our needs, but He expects us to bear fruit.  If we have not born fruit after a bit of care, He will send someone to give us special care, but, if we still do not bear fruit, He will cut us down.  I do not think that necessarily means that we will lose our salvation, although I won’t rule that out.  Rather, I think it means that if we fail to bear fruit we will experience suffering.  If we were receiving more that we needed to survive but do not bear fruit we may find ourselves struggling to make ends meet.  Or, to put this another way, we are blessed in order that we might bless others.

As I wrote the above I realized it could come across as referencing the “special care” as being material.  That is not what I intended to imply at all.  In fact, I am feeling somewhat called out over the next year or so because I believe that I am receiving special care intended to make my spiritual life more fruitful for God.  Actually, as I look at it, God has been providing care intended to make me more spiritually fruitful over the last couple of years.  However, the most recent such “care” is that which makes this passage make me feel called out.  The title of today’s study comes from a course I am currently taking, Kairos through Eastern Mennonite Missions.  God has enriched my spiritual life by my involvement with my local congregation for the last few years, and now He is providing more enrichment.  Clearly He expects something from me going forward.

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 9.

As I was reading today’s passage I noticed something interesting in the account of the transfiguration.  Luke says that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah talked about Jesus’ “departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.”  The NIV has a translator’s footnote by the word, departure.  That footnote says that the Greek word used there is “exodus”.  I think that Luke is intentionally connecting Jesus’ Crucifixion, and later Ascension, to the Israelite Exodus from Egypt.  In the Exodus God redeemed the Israelite people from slavery in Egypt by His mighty power.  In the same way, with Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, God redeemed all mankind from slavery to sin and death.  If nothing else, Luke is foreshadowing the Last Supper and how Jesus there connected His Crucifixion to the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb.  However, I think there is more to the connection Luke is making to the Exodus than just that.  At the very least, there is a connection between the transformation of Jesus appearance and Moses’ need to wear a veil over his face after communing with God.  In Exodus, it was just Moses’ face which shone unbearably bright from the glory of God, here Luke describes everything about Jesus as shining unbearably bright, even His clothing.  I want to give some more thought about the connection Luke is making between Jesus’ death and resurrection and the Israelite exodus from Egypt.  Perhaps, I will have more insight into that connection the next time I write on the Transfiguration.

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 8.

Today’s passage begins with Luke telling us that Jesus travelled around with the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases.  He lists three women and then says “and many others”.  First, it is not clear to me if the “many others” was intended to indicate many other women, or many other men and women.  In any case, I am convinced that when Luke writes that “These women were helping to support them out of their own means,” he was saying that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna were providing financial support for Jesus’ ministry.  Luke may have intended to say that many other women provided financial support to Jesus’ ministry, but he definitively says that these three women did.

Further on in this passage we come to the account of Jesus casting the demons named Legion out of the man from the region of the Gerasenes.  Now there is an interesting part of this story which I rarely hear anyone comment on, and I have not written about it in the many years I have been writing this blog.  After the herd of pigs rushed into the lake and drowned the pig herders rushed into town and told people what had happened.  This led the people of town to come out and see what happened.  Which brings us to the interesting part.  When the people saw the man who had been demon-possessed sitting and Jesus’ feet dressed and in his right mind, they were afraid.  They weren’t frightened by hearing about the demons coming out of the man and causing the pigs to kill themselves.  No, they were frightened by seeing the man dressed and in his right mind.  They were even more frightened after those who had witnessed the man be cured told them how that happened (as an aside, I find it interesting how Luke refers to the people out of whom demons had been driven as being cured).  The people from town weren’t frightened by the pigs stampeding into the lake, that was just a curiosity to be checked out.  They were so frightened by the fact that a demon-possessed man was cured that they asked Jesus to leave the area.

Finally, I want to look at just one piece of the story about Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead.  After raising her, Jesus told her parents to give her something to eat.  When I have heard this commented on, the commenter either says that this was because she needed food after her illness, or, that it was because her appetite had returned after Jesus healed her.    However, I was reminded of how Jesus made a point of eating in front of His disciples after He was raised from the dead.  I think Jesus told her parents to give her something to eat as a confirmation to them that she was alive.  Ghosts and spirits do not eat.  When the girl’s parents saw their daughter eat, they knew that she was indeed 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 1.

I am going to be all over the place a bit today.  I am hoping that as I write about the things which seemed noteworthy as I read today a theme will emerge tying them together.  The first thing I thought about when I read today’s passage is that we do not know if Mary became pregnant with Jesus immediately after Gabriel appeared to her, or if there was some time between Gabriel’s appearance to her and the beginning of her pregnancy.  What made me notice this was the way in which Luke tells us that John the Baptist in the womb responded to Mary’s arrival to visit Elizabeth.  Luke tells us that when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb.  I would not have a problem if something were to emerge which indicated that Mary became pregnant with Jesus after she returned home from her time with Elizabeth.  The next thing I thought about was that at the end of the passage it tells us that John the Baptist lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly in Israel.  This aligns with my understanding that John emerged as a prophet from among one of the groups associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The groups associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls appear to have sought to turn to God by withdrawing from the world.  John the Baptist saw the need to call the entire people of Israel to repent and turn to God.  We might even say that the groups from which John the Baptist emerged had been preserving faithful Judaism until it was time for John to announce Jesus coming.  All of the people discussed in today’s passage, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, and John the Baptist, lived their lives according to what Mary said in response to Gabriel’s message to her (with Zechariah taking a little time to process God’s message before doing so): “I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled.”

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