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

When Jesus was telling His disciples about the signs of the coming destruction of the temple and the coming of the kingdom of God, He said something I found interesting.

Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.

We do not normally think of carousing and drunkenness as things we get weighed down by.  We tend to think of getting weighed down by work and family life so that we can no longer take part in drunkenness and carousing.  So, what are we supposed to be doing that we need to be careful not to get weighed down and thus fail to do?  Well, a sentence after the above quote Jesus tells us to be on watch and to pray.  So, perhaps if we come to view prayer as something which we will be too weighed down by other activities to take part in properly, we will pray more as we ought to.  We think of prayer as a solemn serious thing.  Well, it certainly is a serious thing, but perhaps we should sometimes make it less solemn.  Perhaps we should make our prayer time exciting and fun.  Certainly, our prayer time should be something to which we look forward.  And what about the other part of what Jesus tells us?  For what should we be on watch?  From the context, we should be on watch for the signs of the coming of the kingdom of God.  While the things which Jesus talked about earlier in this passage (earthquakes, famines, pestilences, fearful events, etc) are some of those signs, there is more to it than that.  Earlier in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus told us that the kingdom of God was within us.  So, we should be on watch for changes within us, for the ways in which we are being transformed to be more like Christ.

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 want to start by writing about Jesus going to Zacchaeus’  house.  We are not given much information about Zacchaeus, just that he was a short man, a tax collector, and wealthy.  We also know that Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus as He passed through Jericho.  W do not know why Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, did he hope to see Him perform a miracle, was he just curious what this man everybody was talking about looked like?  In any case, Jesus rewarded Zacchaeus for his curiosity by inviting Himself to Zacchaeus’ house, something which Zacchaeus would never have had the gall to do.  And I think this gives us a hint into Zacchaeus’ motive: he wanted to know more about Jesus, but “knew” that he, a terrible sinner, could never get close to this righteous man .  When people condemned Jesus for associating with someone like Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus was inspired to transform himself (or perhaps, was transformed).   Jesus pointedly acknowledged Zacchaeus’ transformation.  I believe that Luke is contrasting Zacchaeus’ reaction to Jesus to that of the ruler who had approached Him in the previous chapter; the ruler who was unwilling to give up his wealth to gain salvation.

Jesus followed up on Zacchaeus’ declaration by telling the parable of the ten minas.  This parable bears a close resemblance to the parable of the ten talents recounted by Matthew, but with a key difference I never noticed before today.  In Matthew, the ten talents were divided up among three servants and we were told what each did with their talents.  Here, each servant is given a mina (a coin) and we are only told what three of them accomplished with the mina they were given.  Many people believe that both parables are the same one, just remembered differently by the Gospel writers (or their sources).  However, it strikes me that the sum total of what the four Gospels report of what Jesus said is not very much for a man who taught regularly over a period of three years.  So, I suspect that the differences between Matthew and Luke stem from the fact that they were actually reporting different parables which Jesus taught at different times for somewhat different purposes.  In this parable all of the servants started out equal.  One worked really hard with what he was given and achieved great results, another worked hard and achieved good results, but one did not put in any effort and achieved nothing.  While the first received a greater reward for his hard work than the second, he was praised no more than the second.  Only the third who made no effort was reprimanded.  And it is worth noting that except for the mina which had originally been given to the third servant, most of the “reward” the first servant received was more work.  Being given cities meant he had to govern and manage those cities, meant a lot of work.  Our reward for working hard and obtaining good results from the resources God has given us is the expectation that we will work even harder with the greater resources He gives us.

The saying which I paraphrased in the title is often used as a cautionary tale.  If we truly understand what God has done for us, we should indeed consider being given more and harder tasks by God to be a reward.

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.

Today is another day where I am not sure that I can tie everything I want to write about together.  First I want to write about what I believe is Jesus’ hardest teaching.  It starts out relatively easy: if someone close to us, a “brother or sister”, perhaps a fellow Believer, sins against us, we should confront them, and, if they repent, forgive them.  But it gets really hard, really fast: if they sin against us again, but come back and say that they repent, we must forgive them again, even if they do it seven times in a day (and I don’t think Jesus was saying that we can stop forgiving if they do it an eighth time).  The first time is easy because it seems to say that the first time they have to actually repent for us to be required to forgive them, but it is clear that after that all they have to do is say that their sorry and we are supposed to forgive them.  Ultimately, I believe that Jesus teaches us that we should forgive everyone who offends against us, not for their sake, but for our own.  There exists a saying that goes, “Not forgiving others is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die.”

Next I want to look at what Jesus has to say about His return and the coming of the Kingdom of God.  Actually, I should put that in the reverse order, for He discussed the coming of the Kingdom of God before He spoke of His return.  When asked to predict when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus answered that no one can predict that because the Kingdom of God is within us (or, perhaps He was saying that no one can know when it will come for someone else).  After this when He was speaking to just His disciples, He told them that when the Messiah returned, everyone would know it; His return will be like a bolt of lightning which crosses the entire sky, except this “lightning bolt” will go across the sky all around the globe.  Further, Jesus tells us that upon His return, some will be suddenly taken, while others right next to them will remain.  From this account it is not clear if it is a good thing to be taken, or to remain, but since Jesus’ message was that we should be prepared because there would be no time to prepare when that day arrives, it does not matter.

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.

OK, I have some disconnected thoughts about today’s passage.  Perhaps I will manage to tie them together as I write.  Jesus tells us that we should never honor ourselves, nor assume that places of honor belong to us.  Instead of seeking the place of greatest desirability at a gathering or event, let us instead leave such places for others.  Instead wait for others to invite us to such a place, wait for others to hold us up for honor.  Instead of seeking honor for ourselves, let us seek to honor others.  Next I want to write about Jesus’ discussion about the excitement in heaven over finding the lost.  In His parables we normally think of God as being the one who found that which was lost.  While that is certainly the face value of what Jesus is saying, we should think a little deeper.  We should be the ones who energetically, and excitedly, seek out those who are lost and bring them back to God.  Which brings me to the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  We often think, speak, and write negatively about the elder son, because of the jealousy he felt over the feast his father gave his younger brother.  However, when we do that we are overlooking that his father offered him comfort, not condemnation.  The father pointed out that everything he had was the older brother’s and invited him to join the celebration of his brother’s return.  In the same way, God invites us to celebrate the return to Him of those who turned their backs on Him.  We get to decide by how we react whether the older son was ultimately a good brother or a bad brother, because we are the elder son in Jesus’ story.  We may have been, in fact, probably were, the younger son who turned his back on the Father, on God, but now we have been brought back and need to join God in celebrating the return of those who return after 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 12-13.

Today’s passage is the second time that Luke reports that Jesus said there is nothing hidden that will not be made known.  The previous time, Jesus warned us that we should be careful how we listen.  This time, He warns that everything we say in secret will be declared openly for all to hear.  Jesus follows that up by telling us not to fear anything because God keeps track of each and every sparrow and He values us much more than He values sparrows.  It is also in this context that Luke reports that Jesus told us not to worry about what to say in response to those who attack us for our faith: God will provide us with the words to speak.  Jesus then expands on His teaching us not to fear or worry, by pointing out that God will provide for our needs.  Instead of worrying about what we should eat, or drink, or wear, we should seek that which pleases God, that which brings us closer to God’s kingdom.  Rather than investing for our old age, let us invest in our eternity.

When I read passages such as the first part of today’s, I fear that I have squandered opportunities to do God’s will, that my efforts are too small.  However, the second half addresses those concerns.  First, there is the parable Jesus tells of the fig tree here.  The owner has become frustrated that the tree has failed to bear fruit and orders the caretaker to cut it down.  But the caretaker tells him to give it one more year, one more chance.  He, the caretaker, will give the tree special care to cause it to bear fruit.  In many ways I feel like God is giving me one last chance to bear the fruit which He expects of me.  Yet, I feel like even so what I am doing is too small.  And there the final things I want to write about come in.  Jesus told a parable about how large a mustard plant grows from a tiny seed, and how a small amount of yeast transforms a large amount of dough.  Both of these remind us that while the things we do may be small, even miniscule, they may have large consequences.

I use 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 the seventy-two disciples whom Jesus sent out to announce His ministry returned, they were overjoyed at the miracles they had been able to perform.  Jesus validates their response, but tells them, and us, that we should not rejoice because we can perform miracles.  Rather we should rejoice about what those miracles say about us.   Our joy should come from the fact that God has chosen to acknowledge us as His.  Perhaps He does not do so by allowing us to perform miracles, but in the way in which we touch the lives of those around us.  In fact, Jesus seems to be suggesting that we should not seek to do miracles, although He also says that we will do them (perhaps not all of us, but we should all expect miracles to happen around us).  Which brings me to Luke’s second account of Jesus using the metaphor of people not lighting a lamp and hiding it.  Jesus says when people light a lamp they put it on a stand so that everyone who comes by can see its light.  Then He tells us that our eyes are the light of our body…if our eyes are healthy our body will be healthy, and if our eyes are unhealthy than our body will be unhealthy.  There is some definite real-world truth to this, but, interestingly, the translators’ notes for the NIV say that the Greek word translated as “healthy” here has the connotation of “generous”, while the word translated as “unhealthy” has the connotation of stingy.  So, Jesus was telling His audience, and us, that if we look upon others and feel generous towards them we are spiritually healthy, if, on the other hand they inspire us to be miserly, we are spiritually sick, and our bodies are full of darkness.

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

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

I was struggling with deciding what to write this morning because there are so many good teachings in today’s passage and I could not figure out how to bring them together into one theme.  However, as I read the passage again in my attempt to put my thoughts in some sort of order, as I was reading Luke’s account of John the Baptist’s disciples asking Jesus if He was the One I decided to focus on What Jesus said there.  Not the answer Jesus gave John’s disciples, but what He said after they left.  Jesus talked about how the “best people” rejected John the Baptist because he lead an ascetic lifestyle, because he neither drank wine nor feasted.  On the other hand, they also rejected Jesus because He drank and went to parties with people who were considered unsavory.  So, we have these contrasting styles regarding their ministry, yet Jesus and John the Baptist both recognized the other as doing God’s work.  Some of us will be called to serve God by living an austere lifestyle, calling others to set aside the pleasures of this world in order to serve God.  Others will be called to spend our time with sinners in their pursuits, showing them that God loves and cares about them.  And some will be called to a lifestyle somewhere in between.

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.

When Jesus called Levi the tax collector to be one of His followers, Levi threw a lavish party which Jesus and His disciples attended.  The Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples why they would associate with tax collectors and sinners.  I want to note that, in the context of the Gospels, tax collectors were those enriched themselves by collaborating with the enemy to the detriment of their countrymen.  To which Jesus replied, even though He had not been asked directly, that He had not come to call the righteous, but rather sinners, to repentance.  The Pharisees then asked Jesus why His disciples did not fast, contrasting their failure to fast with the fasting by the disciples of the various Pharisee teachers and even John the Baptist’s disciples.  Jesus replied with an interesting metaphor.  First, He says that no one puts new wine in old wineskins, because the new wine would burst the old wineskins.  That would seem fairly straightforward: Jesus’ ministry is a new thing and cannot be contained by the traditions and customs of the old thing which the Pharisees and even John the Baptist represent.  There is only one problem with that, Jesus follows up the comment about the wineskins by saying that once someone has drunk old wine they do not want to drink new wine.  So, there is a connection between Jesus’ answer about calling sinners, not the righteous and His answer about wine and wineskins, but I am not quite sure what it is.  There is also a connection between His comment about the friends of the bridegroom not fasting while he is with them, but that they will fast later, and His comment about not wanting to drink new wine after tasting old wine.  Again, I am not quite sure what that connection is.  I think part of what Jesus was saying was that His movement was a new and joyous thing, but it would get better as it aged.

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