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

I did not comment on Jesus’ comments about the poor widow who gave her last two coins (OK, the passage does not actually say that, but Jesus does say that she gave all that she had) when I read it in the Gospel of Mark this year.  I felt bad about that because I have long thought it contains important lessons about wealth, but it is such a short part of the passage and I did not think it connected with the other themes in that day’s passage.

However, I did a quick search on it today to make sure that I remembered where it occurs in the Gospels and came across a commentary about it I had never heard.  The commentary pointed out that Jesus’ comment about the widow’s offering came just a short time before He prophesied the destruction of the Temple.  I am amazed that I have never heard anyone make that connection.  The collection box referred to in the verses about the widow’s offering would have been for expenses related to the upkeep of the Temple.  If the Temple was going to be destroyed in less than 40 years (and we know that it was indeed destroyed in just under 40 years after this) then these offerings were being wasted.  In this light, instead of commending the widow for her offering, Jesus was condemning the wealthy for what they were doing.  By ostentatiously making offerings which, for all intents and purposes, cost them nothing they were pressuring the poor to make offerings which they could not afford, offerings which accomplished nothing of value.

My title for today’s blog suggests that perhaps we should not spend money on worship facilities, but that is not what I believe.  Rather, I think this passage raises questions about how much we spend on those facilities.  Are we encouraging the poor to give more than they can afford so as to make our worship facility ostentatious?  Does the beauty and luxuriousness of the facility make the poor among us feel unworthy to worship God?  I don’t think the questions raised by this passage have one single answer.  We must consider them each and every time we make changes to our facilities.

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

As a child, the story of Zacchaeus was one which was retold often as a children’s Bible story.  I am unsure what made it such a success as a children’s story.  Perhaps it was the fact that Zacchaeus needed to climb a tree to see over the crowds, something children can sympathize with.  Whatever the reason, the story does have some basic lessons for us. 

1. 1. 1. an eagerness to find God will be rewarded.
      Zacchaeus ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus. Jesus called out Zacchaeus by name.
      2. God accepts us where we are.
      Jesus went to Zacchaeus house before Zacchaeus changed his ways.
      3. Showing people love and honor while they are still sinners can transform them.
      In response to Jesus coming to his house, Zacchaeus promised to give half of his wealth to the poor and to compensate those whom he had cheated.

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

I usually try to come up with a way to tie all of the lessons from the passage I want to write about into a coherent whole before I start writing.  Then I leave out those things which do not fit.  Today I am going to just start with the things I want to cover and see where that leads me.

Jesus told His disciples (and through them us) that temptation cannot be avoided, but we should do our best not to be the source of temptation for others.  If someone sins (say, by tempting you to sin), confront them with their sin.  If they admit to sinning and ask for forgiveness, forgive them…even if it is the seventh time today.  The disciples response to this was to ask Jesus to show them how to increase their faith.  Jesus’ answer was that even a minuscule amount of faith can do great things.  He further said that the way to build faith was to expect that the only reward for acting in faith was another task to which we would need to apply our faith.

Later in the passage, Luke recounts two parables which Jesus told His disciples.  Both of them address the the themes I looked at in the previous paragraph.  In the parable of the persistent widow Jesus gives us a lesson on building faith.  He points out that even the wicked will grant justice to someone who is persistent enough.  How much more will God grant us justice if we persistently pray for it?  In the parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector, Jesus tells us not to think of ourselves as better than others.  Instead, when we pray we should recognize our sins and failures and throw ourselves on God’s mercy.  Our faith will only grow when we recognize our need for God to transform us.  

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

There is more to Jesus’ teaching about honoring ourselves than is obvious.  Jesus gives the example of taking the seat of honor and being forced to give it up because someone of greater significance arrives.  Instead, He says that we should take the seat of least honor, then our honor will be even greater when the host moves us to the seat of honor.  However, there is more to it than that.  There are all sorts of social dynamics revealed here, but Jesus goes on to tell us that when we throw a party we should invite those who are unable themselves to throw a party.  So, while there is greater honor in being elevated to a position of honor from the humble position we chose for ourselves, we should not seek to be honored at all.  Or, perhaps a better way of putting it, we should seek the good opinion of those whose opinion society does not value.

Luke recounts five of Jesus’ parables here (well, actually six, but the first one is part of completely different theme).  Three of them illustrate the importance of befriending and loving the “lost”.  The parable of the lost sheep and the one of the lost coin illustrate how much joy and pleasure God takes over sinners repenting of their sin and returning to Him.  They also illustrate how that repentance does not happen by chance.  It is the result of great effort on God’s part, and perhaps on the part of those who serve Him.  I realized today that the parable of the prodigal son is actually more about the older son.  The older brother was angry that his father threw such a feast for his brat of a brother.  From our human perspective we tend to sympathize with the older brother.  He had done everything he was supposed to do, yet his younger brother who rebelled and ran away was given a celebration.  However, the parable points out that the older brother experienced all of the good things which come from being faithful.  He was not loved any less because his father was overjoyed that his rebellious brother had returned. 

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 10-11

When I got to Jesus’ parable about the Good Samaritan I realized something I do not remember anyone ever making note of: In yesterday’s passage we had an account of a Samaritan village which refused to welcome Jesus so strenuously that James and John wanted to call down fire from Heaven on them.  Which puts Jesus’ telling of this parable in a different context.  Despite having only a short time before having been rejected by a group of Samaritans, Jesus uses one of them as the person we should emulate in a story He told.

Having said that, let’s take a look at the three people who passed the man on the road.  First, we have a priest.  He would have been trained from childhood on up on the proper ways to worship God and it was his job to care for the spiritual welfare of the people.  However, he was also required to keep to a very high standard of ritual purity and if the beaten man were to die while the priest was touching him, he would be defiled and unable to fill his duties.  Well, then we have a Levite (the NLT translation says “Temple Assistant”, which for most understanding of this parable is good enough).  He would have had similar training to a priest, but would not have had quite as strict purity requirements.   However, neither of these men stopped to help the beaten man.  Finally a Samaritan, who did not even truly understand how to worship God, came along.  This Samaritan, who was despised by the Jews as someone who distorted God’s commands and who thought the same of the Jews, sacrificed his time and money to help the beaten man.  Jesus’ instructions to be like the Samaritan applies to more than just helping those in distress.  In this story, the priest and the Levite were more concerned with getting the ritual’s correct than with people.  The Samaritan’s only focus was on people.

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 6-7

Having previously caught flack from Pharisees over their rigorous interpretation of the Law regarding the Sabbath, Jesus took the initiative when He saw a man with a deformed hand in a synagogue on the Sabbath.  Instead of allowing them to set the terms of the discussion, He did so Himself.  The Law said, “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. .. On that day no one in your household may do any work.”  The Pharisees focused on the second part which I quoted there.  Jesus moved the focus from that to the first part about keeping it holy.  He focused everyone’s attention on the fact that you do not keep the Sabbath holy by making those in need wait for another day before you help them.

Today’s passage also contains Luke’s account of the teachings which Matthew presents in the Sermon on the Mount.  I suspect that Jesus touched on these themes many times throughout His ministry.  In fact, these two slightly different accounts of these teachings may actually represent two different occasions (or perhaps more than two).  As a general rule, I prefer the more nuanced account given in Matthew.  However, I also find an appeal in the much more blunt way in which Luke relates the same teachings.  God blesses the poor and the hungry, while sorrow awaits the rich and prosperous.  Which puts a whole new light when Jesus says a few verses later that we should love our enemies and do good for those who hate us.  We need to think about what Jesus means when He says “give to anyone who asks” when we realize this follows Him telling us that the poor are blessed.  Of course, Jesus also tells us elsewhere to be as wise as serpents.

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 4-5

Yesterday I wrote that Jesus’ mother was almost certainly Luke’s source for chapter 2.  Today’s passage was clearly based on the recollections of Jesus’ disciples, but not necessarily members of the Twelve (we know from Acts that there were others who followed Jesus from the beginning).  A careful reading shows us that while Luke did his best to put the stories he relates into the order they happened he was not entirely sure how stories he got from one set of sources matched up with those from other sources.  For example, it seems likely that Luke’s story about how Peter, James, and John came to follow Jesus, which appears at the beginning of chapter 5, preceded the end of chapter 4.

Speaking of Luke’s account of how Peter, James, and John came to follow Jesus (the fact that Andrew is not mentioned suggests that he is Luke’s source for this account) I want to point out something I never thought about before.  When Jesus was finished speaking from Peter’s boat, He told Peter to put back out and let down the nets.  Peter’s response was essentially, “We fished all night and did not catch anything.  There aren’t any fish out there, but I will humor you and put out the nets.”  The result was a catch so large that, even after he called James and John to bring their boat out to help, it almost sank the boat.  Then Jesus called them to follow Him and told them that from now on they would be fishing for people. The story makes the point that sometimes God will direct us to repeat something we did in the past that failed.  To put it another way, we should not give up trying to reach people for God just because they rejected our message in the past.