Day 18: Luke 10-12. Sending with Success, Parables, Warnings and Prayer
This chapter begins with 72 disciple (missionaries) sent out to heal and preach. They come back pretty excited with their success, although Jesus admonishes them not to rejoice in that success, but to rejoice in this -- their names are written in heaven.
I am thinking about that. I am all for success. I think the church should grow, that we can reach more people with God's good news. I used to be a missionary, and that calling is near and dear to my heart. And yet Jesus simply wants to rejoice in this: our names are written in heaven. (I think he may be saying: Don't let success go to your head. What do you think?)
These three chapters of scripture include several parables and stories unique to Luke, as well as some more familiar ones. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is probably one of the most familiar stories in the New Testament. Jesus tells it right after a lawyer asks him, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?", and its follow up question, "Who is my neighbor?"
Right after this, Jesus visits Mary and Martha, and Mary, sitting at Jesus' feet, has chosen better than Martha, so busy serving.
Some commentators have suggested that these two stories taken together, illustrate the great commandment, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind; and with all your strength; and your neighbor as yourself." What do you think?
In chapter elven, Jesus teaches his disciples the Lord's prayer. (You may want to turn back to Matthew, chapter 6, for another version of this prayer.) Only in Luke's Orderly Account, the disciples observe Jesus in prayer, and ask him "Teach us to pray."
I love this. (I think I love the simple, but not easy, sentences in scripture, sentences like 'Love your enemies." Prayer without ceasing." "Jesus wept.")
Luke just keeps reminds us not only that Jesus saves, but that Jesus prays. Afterwards, Jesu tells a story about a man who goes to his friend in the middle of the night begging for bread. Even if the friend doesn't want to get up, the noise of his friend pleading from our in the courtyard where everyone can hear will finally convince him to get up and give him what he wants. (this is another one of those stories unique to Luke.)
If you remember Jesus saying really recently, "Whoever is not against us if for us" you might be surprised that now Jesus says that 'whoever is not for me is against me.' however, this is a different situation, when Jesus himself is being accused of using the power of the devil to cast out demons. (What do you think is the "sign of Jonah"?)
Jesus speaks out against the Pharisees here in Luke, but it doesn't seem quite as over-the-top as in Matthew somehow. And please note, that at the end of chapter 13, it is some of the Pharisees who warn Jesus about Herod.
It's interesting to me that Jesus places the warning about the unforgivable sin in this section of Luke, in the middle of his warnings about persecution, and the same time as he assures his disciples that, when persecution comes, the Holy Spirit will give them the words to speak.
Another parable that only Luke tells is the only about the man with many barns, who accumulates a lot of "stuff" and then finds out it won't help him in the world to come. Afterwards is the familiar teaching about the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.
What struck you in these passages of scripture?
I am thinking about that. I am all for success. I think the church should grow, that we can reach more people with God's good news. I used to be a missionary, and that calling is near and dear to my heart. And yet Jesus simply wants to rejoice in this: our names are written in heaven. (I think he may be saying: Don't let success go to your head. What do you think?)
These three chapters of scripture include several parables and stories unique to Luke, as well as some more familiar ones. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is probably one of the most familiar stories in the New Testament. Jesus tells it right after a lawyer asks him, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?", and its follow up question, "Who is my neighbor?"
Right after this, Jesus visits Mary and Martha, and Mary, sitting at Jesus' feet, has chosen better than Martha, so busy serving.
Some commentators have suggested that these two stories taken together, illustrate the great commandment, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind; and with all your strength; and your neighbor as yourself." What do you think?
In chapter elven, Jesus teaches his disciples the Lord's prayer. (You may want to turn back to Matthew, chapter 6, for another version of this prayer.) Only in Luke's Orderly Account, the disciples observe Jesus in prayer, and ask him "Teach us to pray."
I love this. (I think I love the simple, but not easy, sentences in scripture, sentences like 'Love your enemies." Prayer without ceasing." "Jesus wept.")
Luke just keeps reminds us not only that Jesus saves, but that Jesus prays. Afterwards, Jesu tells a story about a man who goes to his friend in the middle of the night begging for bread. Even if the friend doesn't want to get up, the noise of his friend pleading from our in the courtyard where everyone can hear will finally convince him to get up and give him what he wants. (this is another one of those stories unique to Luke.)
If you remember Jesus saying really recently, "Whoever is not against us if for us" you might be surprised that now Jesus says that 'whoever is not for me is against me.' however, this is a different situation, when Jesus himself is being accused of using the power of the devil to cast out demons. (What do you think is the "sign of Jonah"?)
Jesus speaks out against the Pharisees here in Luke, but it doesn't seem quite as over-the-top as in Matthew somehow. And please note, that at the end of chapter 13, it is some of the Pharisees who warn Jesus about Herod.
It's interesting to me that Jesus places the warning about the unforgivable sin in this section of Luke, in the middle of his warnings about persecution, and the same time as he assures his disciples that, when persecution comes, the Holy Spirit will give them the words to speak.
Another parable that only Luke tells is the only about the man with many barns, who accumulates a lot of "stuff" and then finds out it won't help him in the world to come. Afterwards is the familiar teaching about the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.
What struck you in these passages of scripture?
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