Category Archives: Luke

The First Church

Posted on December 10, 2023 | Leave a comment

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. Luke 2:6-7

Churches today are definitely different than that stable, but in this season there are similarities that caused me to ask this question: was that feeding trough the first “church?”  That manger was not an accident that happened because of an overcrowded village at a busy time…God provided it!   Don’t be fooled into believing any details of the birth of Jesus were God’s last-ditch effort to provide a place for Jesus because there was “no room in the inn.” God picked that time and place and designated it a sacred space because Jesus the Christ was there. 

A stable isn’t the perfect structure I would have hoped to find a new beginning, but like every other “church,” availability matters.  That first church wasn’t meant to be a place for privileged and perfect people, but for people who just needed a “place.”  A place where the curious could come and look to see whether what they’d heard was real. The things that made that “first” church perfect, still matter.  The angel’s praise-filled words still remind our hearts of their timeless proclamation; “Glory to God in the highest heaven.”  We still have shepherds who boldly tell the story of what they’ve seen and heard.  There are still wise men and women that follow a Holy path to a “modern stable” to offer the gifts they bring to Him.  Today’s modern stable still holds the eternal promise of that first church: God has chosen His church today as a sacred space where the needs of the people and His holiness finally have the opportunity to come together…because Jesus the Christ is there.

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Posted in Advent, Luke, New Testament

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The Parable of Investment

Posted on October 8, 2023 | Leave a comment

Luke 19:11 As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. 12 He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. 13 Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’ 14 But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’ 15 When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business. 16 The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’ 17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant!Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’ 18 And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.’ 19 And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ 20 Then another came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief; 21 for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’ 22 He said to him, ‘I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’ 24 And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’ 25 And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!’ 26 ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 27 But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’” ESV

This has turned out to be the most challenging of the parables I’ve looked at for this blog. I started reading it a couple weeks ago but I had more questions from this one story than any other I’ve studied.  Even the only “sure thing” I thought I understood became a question.  Was the identity of the nobleman God or Jesus?  Did it make a difference? Were the ten servants a separate group from the citizens who hated the nobleman?  It was mind-blowing enough that I’ve spent a few hours each previous week and had to put what I’d written on the back burner…again. There was so much I didn’t know that I could barely figure out what I thought I did know.

I’ve made some  progress because I think I’ve come to understand the “more” of this parable is not the simple, straightforward story of obedience I began with.  It’s about authority, money, investment, responsibility, relationship and risk.  Was God Himself the nobleman who gave each of the servants something of value for them to invest?  Was the Mina “Jesus?”  That made some sense because in the very next sentence there were those “citizens” who hated the nobleman and did not want him as their king.  The parable says ten minas to ten servants — each given “a” mina.  This parable has become my “mina”  to invest.  So…each servant is given the same “Jesus” to invest on God’s behalf √.  OK, that’s worth pondering.  That’s why the return on their investment mattered so much to the nobleman.  Each servant was expected to invest the “mina” he’d been given to benefit the nobleman’s kingdom.   Their investment was evidence of their relationship with, and trust in the authority of, the nobleman who’s now become their king.  And the nobleman’s responsibility is to keep an accounting of their investment. Finally the parable has gotten easier for me to understand.  The parable wasn’t about the nobleman’s money, he was already wealthy.  The nobleman risked His own wealth by trusting it to those servants.  Each servant had been asked to respond to the nobleman’s trust by investing in the potential of “a” mina to reproduce itself as wealth for the kingdom.   And then comes the shocking reality no servant wants to hear.   “A” mina so carefully protected that it’s kept “laid away” and never invested at all is far riskier than a small return because it devalues the nobleman’s authority, money, investment and responsibility in their relationship.

Previous blog links to read:
Investing
Potential
Memories

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Posted in Light, Luke, New Testament, Parables, Sunday

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The Persistent Widow

Posted on September 6, 2023 | Leave a comment

Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”  6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Why isn’t this widow called The Persistant Whiner?  I find myself whining about my own prayer list that seems to get longer and longer. It’s unusual that almost immediately I see the “more” of this parable for me. This simple story of a whining widow has made me realize how easy it is to have one foot in both camps. This parable has made me aware that I’ve been praying by a wrong set of rules from a judge who cares more about goals than God.  God, forgive me, that’s a depressing “more.”

I’ve begun to think of the requests on my prayer list as if they are goals that God needs to act on so I can check them off.  The power of prayer is not the achievement of a goal but the persistent pleading for “justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night.” Lord, change my heart so my prayers follow your rules and become a persistent part of what empowers your justice, not my shorter list.  Amen

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Posted in Light, Luke, New Testament, Parables, Wednesday

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The Parable of Essential Trust

Posted on August 30, 2023 | 1 comment

Luke 18:9 He [Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

This parable is actually titled “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector” but rather than compare the two men I choose to compare their motives.  Many of the parables I’ve studied so far are Jesus addressing the people who cannot see or hear because they have decided they already DO see and hear and are therefore blind and deaf.  

Simple Observations:
— The Pharisee is standing by himself. He is thankful he’s not like “other men.”  He essentially is justifying himself by reminding God how good he is.
— The tax collector has also separated himself.  He’s standing far off from his own people by working for the Roman occupiers.  His request is essentially to trust God’s mercy to help him deal with his sin.

The hardest part about Jesus’s recap of this parable is the truth that everything the Pharisee claims he is doing is essentially good and desirable. There’s not much information about the tax collector other than he’s essentially aware of his sin and believes God still desires to interact with him.  “Essentially” became the motivation and the keyword of my thoughts to ponder what is “more” essential in this parable.  

Point #1: Both men are Jews.
Point #2: Both men are isolated, one by his prestige, the other by his job for the Roman occupiers that betrays his own people.
Point #3: Jesus speaks the truth that will separate the Pharisee and the tax collector even “more:” God is “essentially” more interested in the awareness of a sinner’s desire to trust His mercy than He is in being instructed about the indicators He should use to dispense it.
Amen!

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Posted in Light, Luke, New Testament, Parables, Wednesday

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The Parable of Alienation

Posted on August 23, 2023 | 1 comment

Luke 15:11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Define Alienation: a withdrawing or separation of a person or a person’s affections from an object or position of former attachment.  

It’s hard to even begin with this very familiar parable about the prodigal son because there are two sons. It always ends up being a story of their personal choices and here’s the tricky part. This parable seems to be teaching more about their alienation from the father than their choices.  It’s obvious alienation is often the result of a bad choice but you can’t escape the reality that even a good choice with a bad motive also results in estrangement.  

The Younger Son…views his bad choice as freedom and an opportunity to escape. He’s chosen to “set off for a distant country” as a way to avoid the responsibilities of a son to his father.

The Older Son…views his good choice to be obedient and faithful as “slaving.”  He’s chosen to define his relationship to his father in a way that reveals his estrangement from him.

I think every believer has identified with that younger son who valued separation more than his relationship with his father until “he came to his senses“ and experienced the reality that “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son.”  And I suspect I’m not the only one who’s also identified with the “enslaved” brother using his obedience to justify his entitlement instead of his relationship to his father; “all these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.” 

The Father’s choice is the “more in this parable.”  Jesus has given an age span the Father is concerned with, younger to older.  He’s given two examples of what the alienation of sin can look like, separation and entitlement.  And He’s given two very human responses to think about.  The Father’s choice is to be “filled with compassion” for repentant sinners, even those with bad motives, and remind them “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” “Let’s have a feast and celebrate.”

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Posted in Light, Luke, New Testament, Parables, Wednesday

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The Unworthy Servant

Posted on August 10, 2023 | 1 comment

Luke 17:7 “Will any one of you who has a servant(a) plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and  dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy(b) servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

One of the most important things I’ve learned in the last year was to pay attention to those “little” letters as I study, particularly when they’re red and relate to the resource Jesus relied on.  For instance because of that one little (a) this parable would begin: “Will any of you who has a bondservant bound to their service without wages, plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table?”  There’s tension in this parable and it’s about expectations. It’s Interesting to note it isn’t God who uses the word “unworthy” — lacking merit or value, — in verse 10.  It’s the servants who identify themselves that way.  I wonder about that. 

That little letter (b) cross referenced several places in the Old Testament.  That’s where I discovered Jesus probably began there too.  “-Can a man be profitable to God?  Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless? -The God who equipped me with strength [has] made my way blameless. -If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?”(b)   

We have a lot of Biblical evidence of our worth to God(c) so there is definitely something more to ponder in this parable. The man “who has a slave” rightfully expects a dutiful response from the servant but his reputation will not be changed whether the servant acts in a profitable way toward him or not. The servant is made blameless not by his service but because the owner has taken responsibility for the command’s he’s given the servant to obey by simply doing his duty.  The servant must come to the awareness his only expectation of worth is completing his duty to the master. “We are always debtors to grace before we have done anything and after we have done our duty.”(d)

(a) Bondservant: a person bound to service without wages
(b) Job 22:2-3, Psalm 18:32 & Job 35:7 copied in this sequence
(c) Our Worth to God
(d) John Piper

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Posted in Job, Light, Luke, Psalms

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All the Cost of Discipleship

Posted on August 2, 2023 | Leave a comment


Luke 14:28-33
28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

The highlighted words of the two small stories inside this parable seemed sensible to me.  The completion of projects, plans, desires, security, prestige and authority often depends on counting the cost and then throwing “all” your resources into making it a success.  What makes the “So therefore” of verse 33  so mysterious is that these Words of Jesus, “renounce all,” don’t seem to fit with the careful planning involved in the two illustrations that precede it.

Jesus did NOT say desiring something or counting the cost of getting it done is unwise or that deliberate and careful planning is a bad way to insure a good outcome that can overcome the odds against you.  In fact He details the negative outcomes of NOT counting the cost; mockery and being captured by an enemy.   “So therefore,” I am compelled to read and ponder what does that “renounce all” mean?  

Turns out I’m not the only one with that question. I read a very good paper by Pastor Tim Kelly[a] and because of his exhaustive referencing I learned Jesus didn’t always require the renouncing of “all” possessions even for His own mother or the disciples.  One helpful thing I learned was the verb that is translated “renounce,” apotassomai, can also mean bid farewell, delegate, appoint for, assign to, set aside or dismiss.  I looked back at that string of associated words I’d picked to consider as part of studying this parable — projects, plans, desires, security, prestige and authority and added [even] faith. It was then  I began to see they did have  connection to the wisdom of what Jesus was teaching His disciples. This parable wasn’t an option — they must “renounce all.”  What He did NOT say turned out to be very important  too.  Jesus was not preaching deprivation but that disciples must acknowledge that “all” things they have are already His to use.  This parable is not about personal deprivation at all but about a different reality for His disciples based on Isaiah 61:1-2.  “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound…”  

The cost that requires disciples to bid farewell, delegate, appoint for, assign to, set aside or dismiss everything as less valuable than Jesus is not deprivation but liberation for His disciples.  That’s “all.”

[a] Read Tim Kelly’s paper

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Posted in Isaiah, Light, Luke, Parables, Wednesday

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The Barren Fig Tree

Posted on July 12, 2023 | Leave a comment

Luke 13:6 And he [Jesus] told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

There are answers [?] that reveal deeper meanings in this simple story.  They all start “in the beginning” with Genesis and the three trees mentioned in the Garden of Eden; The tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil AND the fig tree.  The fig tree is an enduring symbol the Bible uses as part of its story of God’s provision [Genesis 3], peace [Micah 4], prosperity [Joel 2], and all the way to the end of the story [Revelation 6] to complete the long planned-for harvest of fruits in that vineyard.

There are two men in this story; an owner [God] with an expected result and a vinedresser [Jesus] with a plan.  The owner desires the fig tree but he relies on the vinedresser to plant and care for it.  Figs and grapes are often grown together because they both thrive in similar conditions and that’s probably what the owner wanted that tree planted. The whole point of adding the fig tree [gentiles?] to the vineyard was that it would provide additional fruit for the owner’s pleasure.  Its broad leaves would benefit the vineyard by protecting the fruit of the vine [God’s relationship with those He desires?]  from wind and scorching sun [the harsh circumstances of life?].   The vinedresser’s advice to the owner is “let it alone this year also”…I’ll dig around it, add fertilizer and give it my special attention.  It takes 3+ years for a fig tree to produce fruit [Jesus ministry was at that 3-year mark]. “Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good [salvation?]; but if not, you can cut it down.” [judgment?] “And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord”[a] to fulfill the desire of God; “the dwelling place of God IS with man.”[b] [the new Eden?]

[a]Leviticus 19:24
[b]Revelation 21:3

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Posted in Leviticus, Light, Luke, New Testament, Parables, Revelation, Wednesday

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Here, There & Beyond

Posted on July 9, 2023 | Leave a comment

HERE:
1 In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. 3 During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. 4 Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
THERE:
6 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” 7 He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  9 After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. 10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!” NLT

BEYOND:
My first question might be yours too.  Why is Luke’s second book not right there after his Gospel?  About the second century when the church was arranging these writings into a collection we call the “canon,” the writings of Luke were separated into two parts but they didn’t become Luke 1 and Luke 2.  Luke, in his first book tells the details and events of God revealing Himself in recognizable human form of “new life.”  Jesus came into the world to be a visible example of life that was not trapped by separation from God but built on a relationship with Him. The major events of Jesus’s life happened in and around Jerusalem in that “first” book.  Those details were foundational to what Luke wrote in that “second” book.  It was that second half of his writing to the same man, that tells the story of how the God of Israel revealed his “Acts” beyond Jerusalem and beyond the Jews to reveal Christ in a new way that would offer new life to us beyond the limits of humanity.   New life within people through the Holy Spirit effectively recreating a “new body” for Himself — His Church.

My second question is about the “two white robed men” who “suddenly stood among them.”  I don’t know who they were but I feel certain their message was to challenge the focus of those “men of Galilee” who were straining to see beyond their understanding into heaven and the future.  Jesus was writing the second part of His book.  He had promised there was going to be something new…the Holy Spirit.  Here’s an interesting thing for us to ponder about that challenge.  Was their message meant to focus the apostles on the promise that Jesus would be with them again when He returned in the future?  Or was it to remind them the second half of the story was not going to be about Jesus in Heaven but about Jesus in them…“telling people about [Jesus] everywhere?

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The Watchful Servant

Posted on July 5, 2023 | Leave a comment

Luke 12:35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. 

Jesus speaks the curious words of verse 39 about the Master not knowing the time the thief has chosen to break into his house.  Jesus is revealing the limitation of His human identity as “master of the house” until the moment He returns again to affirm His divine responsibility as Master over it which is equally curious.
— The Master has been away at a “wedding feast” but will return.
— The servants are responsible to the Master; t0 keep the “lamps burning” while they wait for His return.
— The servants must respond “at once” when the Master knocks.
— The servants will be blessed for “being awake” and prepared.
— The Master’s response to the servants on His return is to assume His divine responsibility as “server” to the servants.
— Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:7 ESV)

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Posted in 1 Kings, Light, Luke, New Testament, Parables, Philippians, Wednesday

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