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.

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

Jesus warns us against worrying about material possessions.  Yesterday, I touched on one of the themes which Jesus comes back to again and again:  that we should love those who abuse us.  Today, we have another one of His recurring themes: do not worry.  In particular, He tells us not to worry about what we will eat, or drink, or wear, because God knows that we need these things.  Instead, we should seek God’s kingdom, we should seek to do God’s will.  We should expend our resources on things which have value before God.  Jesus tells us that we will value more highly those things upon which we spend our resources.  If we spend our efforts and money to acquire material things, we will value those things.  On the other hand, if we spend our efforts and money on others, we will value others.  While it is true that we will spend our efforts and money on those things which we value, we often miss what Jesus is telling us here.  If you wish to value that which God values, spend your money on it.

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.

In today’s passage, Jesus discusses what we must do to inherit eternal life.  He tells us, by agreeing with the man who asked Him about it, that all of God’s commands follow from two basic commands:

• Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind
• Love your neighbor as yourself

Really, the first of these should be sufficient, because if we truly love God with all of our heart, and all of our soul, and all of our strength, we will love our neighbor as ourselves.  However, we need the second because some of us, most of us, would try to claim we do the first command while treating our fellow man with contempt.  However, what I really want to look at is the story Jesus told to illustrate who our neighbor is.  He told the story of the Good Samaritan.  The Samaritan in this story practices love for his neighbor.  But, who was the Samaritan?  He was part of a social group which the man who fell victim to criminals held in contempt.  The Samaritan would have been an “oppressed” group to those in Jesus’ audience: they would have hated them.   The Samaritan was one of those whom many today would have said was justified to commit violence against the man he instead helped.  So, with this story, Jesus tells us that we should love and care for those who abuse and oppress us.

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