Jesus: More Demanding

For a printable version of this blog, click here.
Read:
 
Scripture for Sunday, January 29:  Luke 9:57-62
Additional Scripture:  1 Kings 19: 15-21
 
Jesus is continuing on the road from Galilee to Jerusalem when meets three men considering his call of discipleship.
 
The first man volunteers to follow Jesus:  "I will follow you wherever you go." 
 
Jesus is clear and direct, leaving the man with no misconceptions about what life following him is like:  "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." 
 
Jesus calls another man:  "Follow me."
 
That man says, "I will.  But first let me bury my father." 
 
Most likely the man's father isn't already dead, awaiting burial.  The man is probably asking to defer following Jesus until a time when he is free to leave home.
 
Jesus' response seems hardened, calloused for a Savior who has recognized grief and done miracles to alleviate it. 

"Let the dead bury their own dead.  You go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 
 
One commentator suggests that Jesus' call comes at a crucial time in the man's spiritual life.  He suggests that if the man does not take action at the point of Jesus' call to put the conviction of his heart into practice through active discipleship, he may never act upon God's call in his life.
 
The third interaction is with a man who wants to say goodbye to his family before he follows Jesus.  Surely that is a reasonable request: even the great Elijah allowed of Elisha to say goodbye in 1 Kings 19. 

But no.  Jesus is more demanding than Elijah here:  "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

Jesus, his own face set toward Jerusalem, is stating a plowing fact:  You can't plow a straight row while looking backwards.  You have to face forward.  Jesus is calling the man not to live in the past but to step forward into a future following him.
 
 
Reflect:
What has following Jesus cost you in terms of comfort or convenience? 

Is there something you have sensed Christ calling you to do that you deferred until you never followed through on it?  Or, is there a way you have responded to Christ in a timely way?  What were the benefits of obedience?

 How might God be inviting you to set your face forward as you follow him each day?

for a printable copy of this blog click here

The More of Jesus:  More Merciful

Read (and Reflect)

When you read the gospels, the Old Testament is never far in the background. Sometimes the connection is clear. Matthew tells you that this happened so the words of the prophet might be fulfilled.  Mark says ‘as it is written,’ and then quotes a bit of Isaiah.

But most of the time the Old Testament is present as an allusion rather than a quote. Such is the case in our passage. Luke 9:51-56 is a story about an incident between Jesus, his disciples and some Samaritan villages.  It seems straightforward and self-contained.  Until you start to dig.  Read Luke 9:51-53 in the King James Version or the New Revised Standard Version. Those translations stick a little closer to the original Greek.  What image jumps out at you there?

Now compare those verses to Isaiah 50:5-7.  Do you see the allusion?  When Luke uses this image (or better: when the Holy Spirit leads Luke to use this image) he is pointing back to all this rich imagery from Isaiah, and the rich imagery from Isaiah is pointing forward to the suffering and shame Jesus will endure in Jerusalem.  The Bible a rich book!

There’s one other Old Testament allusion in this passage.  When James and John ask Jesus to bring down fire from heaven on the Samaritan villages, they are very clearly remembering their childhood Bible stories.  Specifically, they are thinking of 2 Kings 1:1-16, another story where God’s servant confronts opposition from Samaritan people.  Jesus’ response here is different than Elijah’s there.  Why is that? Jesus actually rebukes James and John in verse 55.  There are four other times in Luke where Jesus rebukes using this word, they are: 4:35, 4:39, 8:24, 9:42. Look them up. What do you notice about the rebuke in those passages and what do they suggest about Jesus’ frame of mind in our passage?

Happy studying.  Tune in Sunday morning for fuller answers to these and other questions.

Jesus: More Dirt-Covered

Click for a printable version of this post.
Read
Scripture for Sunday, January 15:  Luke 7:11-17
Additional Scripture: Numbers 19:11-22
 
This week we meet Jesus just a few miles southeast of his hometown, Nazareth.  He, his disciples, and a large crowd are traveling from Capernaum to the town of Nain. 
 
As they approach the town gate, the sound of wailing reaches their ears.  Then a large funeral procession comes into view.  Almost the whole town has come out to pay their respects and stand together in grief.

The young man who has died is "the only son of his mother, and she was a widow."  Luke's short description is packed with meaning.  Twice bereft, the mother is utterly alone.  Being widowed was bad enough; being without her son too means no safety net, no way to support herself.

Jesus sees the procession and this mother, and his heart goes out to her.  More accurately, his "guts" go out to her.  Jesus is deeply moved in his inner being as he feels this mother's loss.

And Jesus does something shocking:  He touches the young man's burial stretcher. 

Never mind that Old Testament law says this makes him ceremonially unclean, unable to be among the community of God for a week.  Never mind that now Jesus has to observe purification procedures.  Never mind that whatever the young man died from might be contagious. 

Jesus is moved.  And he doesn't meet the widow's grief with a word at a distance; he comes close enough to touch.
 
"Stop crying," he tells the woman.  "Young man, I say to you, get up!"

 As if asleep, the young man sits up and begins to talk to them all.  And Jesus gives him back to his mother.



Reflect

1.  In what ways have you received the nearness and compassion of God?  Thank Christ for them.

2.  How has God led you to follow a "More Dirt-Covered" Jesus?  (Perhaps in caring for a sick child or parent; perhaps serving people that you may not have envisioned yourself working with at another time in life, etc.)  Name some of the challenges and gifts of following a "More Dirt-Covered" Savior. 

3.  Read 1 Kings 17:17-24 alongside Luke 7:11-17.  See if you can identify why the people of Nain called Jesus "a great prophet."
 

Jesus: More Global



Click for a printable version of this post.

Read
Scripture for Sunday, January 8: Luke 3:21-38
Additional Scripture:  Galatians 3:8-9, Revelation 5:6-10

As a child I wondered why, oh why, the Bible would include genealogies and other lists of names.  The stories of God's people and his presence with them were so much more interesting!  Even the wise sayings of Proverbs or the poetry of Psalms spoke so much more readily to my heart.

Why would God give us the tribal divisions in Numbers, for example?  Who was interested in that?!

Apparently more mature people than I are interested in where we come from, and what sorts of people we belong to.  Family stories are handed down generation to generation.  We cherish old photos that give us windows into our immigrant forbearers' lives.  And where memory fails, Ancestry.com has an ever-expanding database that allows us to research our family trees.

We all have cultural histories.  We want to know whom we belong to and where we have been.  Knowing the family history grounds us in time, space, and relationship. 

The genealogies in the Bible stand in for the absence of Ancestry.com to show us the family tree of God's people, located in real time and space.  And they also point us to the concrete humanity of Jesus Christ.  The genealogies are one way Scripture testifies to the reality of God's entry into human history.

Both Matthew and Luke trace Jesus' family tree.  While Matthew highlights Jesus' Jewishness as a son of Abraham, Luke highlights Jesus "globalness," tracing Jesus' decent from Adam. 

Luke's gospel includes words and details that seem to be chosen specifically for a non-Jewish, "outsider" audience.  Luke shows how Jesus has come to reconcile people from all sorts of backgrounds to one another and to God.  

Luke's focus on the global kingdom of God is not a unique theme in Scripture. 

God's call to Abraham includes the promise that "all nations on earth will be blessed through you." 

The Israelites were geographically positioned as a light of God's presence and way as they encountered people from different backgrounds, living as they did on a land bridge connecting different ancient civilizations.  

Isaiah expects that all kinds of nations will stream to Jerusalem (chapter 60); and the vision of God's kingdom at the end of time is a vision of people "from every tribe, tongue, language and nation--a kingdom of priests to serve our God." (Revelation 5)   


It is a big, global vision.  It asks us to listen and learn from others, as well as to share what we have been given.  May we grow in the knowledge and love of our global Lord and Savior as he shapes us into his likeness.


Reflect
Consider a few aspects of your own cultural history.  Who are your people and where have you come from?  How does that history shape your encounters with people around you?

In what ways have you learned about walking with Christ from someone who was very different from you?

Brenda Salter McNeil works with organizations and churches desiring to pursue a multiethnic vision of God's kingdom among them.  Read an article from Christianity Today about Salter McNeil's work, and what Christians from different backgrounds can offer to one another.