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

When I began reading today’s passage, I was feeling like it would be a passage I would have trouble commenting on.  Then I came to verse 6:27, “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.”   I think that we as Christians spend too little time talking about what this verse and those which follow mean about how we should live our lives.  It is in the context of the above statement that Luke records Jesus giving us the Golden Rule, “Do to others as you would like them to do to you.”  And it is worth noting that we cannot take Jesus’ statement of the Golden Rule as a transition into the next thing He talks about because a few verse later He repeats “Love your enemies.”  Right here Jesus spells out what it takes to truly be His follower.  I want to note that He talked about loving our enemies just a few verses after He said in 6:22-23, “What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man.  When that happens, be happy! Yes, leap for joy! ”  If we truly want to follow Christ, we need to do good things to and for those who abuse us.  And we need to expect that they will abuse us.  This passage is the basis for Chapter XII of “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo.  While it is not quite true as the Bishop says that we can buy someone’s soul from evil by this sort of action, after all, Jesus has already purchased their soul with His death, we can perhaps show people that their souls have been purchased by such action.

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

Every time I read the account of the temptations which Jesus faced in the wilderness I see them as representing the temptations by which everyone who sees the wrong in this world is tempted.  One of those temptations is the temptation to think that if we could just solve everyone’s material needs, all would be well.  Another temptation is the belief that if we just had the right people in positions of political power, they could fix what is wrong with our world.  The last temptation is in some ways the most insidious.  We are tempted to think that all we need to do is to get people to worship God correctly, all of their other problems would go away.

Each of these temptations fall short of what God wants from us.  Each of these temptations represent real problems in the world.  At different times to different people it will seem like the solution to these problems is just to work at whichever one most touches our soul.  Ultimately, none of these problems exists in isolation and, more importantly, we cannot fix them on our own.  We find in Jesus’ answers that the key to solving these problems is to realize that we cannot solve them.  And this is where I find trouble expressing the meaning this passage conveys to me.  So, let me give you Jesus’ answer to each of these temptations”

• “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word which comes from the mouth of God.”
• “You must worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.”
• “You must not test the Lord your God.”

Do you see what each of them has in common?  That’s right.  When we seek to solve this world’s problems our first step needs to be to turn to God, and to point others to Him as well.  We want one-size-fits-all answers, and there is only one of those.  That answer is that of Jesus on the Cross.  Jesus was victorious because He was willing to die to get His message across.  We cannot make people serve God, they have to want to serve Him.  We can’t make people experience what is best for them, they have to accept God’s word for it.

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 2-3

There is a reason that the Luke account of Jesus’ birth is the “standard” used by most Christians at Christmas.  Every time I read this passage I am struck by who the angels were sent to make an announcement of Christ’s birth.  I want to review the various people whom the Gospel accounts tell us received a message regarding Christ’s birth.  Mary and Joseph each received a visit from an angel.  They were both intimately involved in this pending birth (Mary more so than Joseph and the nature of the message they received reflects this fact).  Elizabeth received word by the Holy Spirit and her son leaping in her womb. The wise men discovered the announcement by their study of the stars; Herod and others among the high and mighty received word by way of the wise men.  However, the shepherds, among the lowest of the low, received the message by way of a host of angels on the occasion of Jesus’ birth.  When God chose to announce the birth of His Son, He sent His messengers to those who mattered, but they were not those whom we, as humans, would have thought mattered.  He “called” the shepherds, the “common man”, and gave them the message right away.  He let the wise men find out by “reading the sign” that the father put up when the baby went “home from the hospital”, and he let the big wigs and important people find out from them.

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 23-24

Reading today’s passage I was struck by how the crowd demanded Jesus’ death from Pilate, even though they could provide no evidence of any crime deserving of death.  Pilate tried to either find something he could charge (and convict) Jesus with which would justify crucifying Him, or to convince the crowd to accept His release.  When Pilate failed at both, he ordered Jesus’ crucifixion because he was unwilling to go against the crowd.  We learn from this passage that being part of the crowd, or doing what the crowd demands, will often lead us to do evil.

The men who appeared to the women at Jesus’ tomb ask a question which sums up the theme of the rest of this chapter and one which we today should ponder.  “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”  The two men on the road to Emmaus were doing the same thing.  They could not believe that Jesus had risen, certainly not on the testimony of mere women; rising from the dead was impossible.  The men who appeared at the tomb told the women that Jesus had told them this would happen, including His resurrection.  Jesus showed the men on the road to Emmaus that the prophets foretold that He would be crucified and rise from the dead.  And I just realized that if we believe that He is indeed alive we will never again be either part of that crowd which gathered before Pilate, nor afraid of that crowd. 

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.