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.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 2-3.

A few days ago in this blog I asked about how Jesus had the credentials to be allowed, and perhaps even invited, to teach in synagogues, which the Gospels report that He did at the very beginning of His ministry.  In today’s passage we get the only direct insight into that.  Luke writes that when Jesus was twelve He spent three to six days in the temple courts  learning from some of the leading religious scholars of the day.  At the age of twelve, those who taught there were amazed by the questions He asked and the answers He gave.  I want to go over the number of days Jesus spent in the temple courts.  So, Luke writes that His parents did not realize He was not with them until they were a day out from Jerusalem, then Luke writes that they found Jesus after three days.  So, the question becomes, did Mary and Joseph find Jesus three days after they left Jerusalem, three days after they realized He was missing, or three days after they got back to Jerusalem?  If the latter, Jesus was in the temple courts for five or six days, because perhaps the reason Mary and Joseph left Jerusalem without Him was because He spent the day before they left at the temple as well.  Not that the exact number of days has any significance.  More importantly, this story indicates that Jesus spent every opportunity He had learning from teachers of the Law, and He was such a student that the teachers of the Law welcomed Him studying with them.  I think that Luke intends for us to understand that Jesus continued in His studies of Jewish Law, thus explaining why He was welcome to teach in the synagogue when He began His ministry.

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

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

I do not have a theme which ties my thoughts together today.  I will just comment on the things which struck me as I read.  The first thing that struck me is that one of the criminals on a cross next to Jesus may have been the only person who truly and fully believed in Him before He rose from the dead.  There, with both of them dying on the cross, he asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom.  No one else at that point thought Jesus would have a kingdom, not even His disciples.

The next thing that always strikes me when I read this passage is what the “men” who met the women at the tomb said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen.”  That is such a profound and joyful statement.  We will not find Jesus if we seek Him among the dead.  Which ties right into the last thing that I would like to write about today, something which we often gloss over.  When Jesus appeared to the group of disciples, the first thing He did was show them His hands and feet and tell them to touch Him, to know that He was physically present.  Then to prove He was not a zombie, He asked them for some food, received some boiled fish, and ate it.  I know all too many people who claim to believe Jesus, who do not believe that He genuinely rose from the dead.  Luke wanted to make sure that everyone knew two things: Jesus’ rising from the dead was not a made up story, and it was not a mass hallucination.  The first he addressed by pointing out that, from the beginning, the disciples story was that women were the first to know He had risen.  If this was a made up story, they would have reserved that honor for the men among the disciples.  The second is addressed by the fact that Jesus actually ate some food.  They gave Him some boiled fish, which was observably no longer there after He ate it.  So, the disciples did not make up the story about Jesus rising from the dead, because if they had made up the story, they would have given themselves the place of honor of being the first to know He had risen.  And they did not hallucinate His appearance among them, because He ate a piece of fish, which was actually gone once He had eaten 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 21-22.

I thought I should write something about what Jesus said concerning the destruction of the Temple, but I was not able to compose my thoughts.  Then I  thought I should write something about what Jesus said at the Last Supper, but I ran into the same problem.  I also thought I should write about Jesus’ praying on the Mount of Olives.  This time my thoughts came together.  A few days ago I wrote about how the Lord’s Prayer is a template we should use for composing our prayers.  Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives gives us insight into how we should ask God for things.  Jesus asked the Father to take the cup of coming suffering from Him, but also yielded Himself to the Father’s will.  We should ask God for those things we desire, but we should also ask that He give them to us only if it is His will to do so.  In addition to Jesus’ prayer, we also have what He said to His disciples when He found them sleeping, “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”  This offers us insight into one of the aspects of prayer which is often overlooked.  Prayer helps us avoid temptation.

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