My intention when I started this series on Luke was to finish on Easter. In order for this to happen, I am going to have to just hit some highlights of the next section. Someday I hope to come back and edit these posts into a more complete and better edited form.
This blog post will cover parts of Luke 9:51 through 19:27
Luke 9:51 is a transitional verse. Jesus had been concentrating His ministry in Galilee, but now it was time to head for Jerusalem. Almost half of Luke is about what happens during the journey there. Early in Luke, Jesus had one forerunner, John the Baptist, who prepared the way for His ministry. Now Jesus will have over seventy disciples preparing the way to Jerusalem.
Following Jesus means understanding what the mission involves 9:51-10:24
Jesus has a mission to complete. Note how Luke phrases this in verse 51. The completion isn't when He's crucified. It's not when He's raised form the dead. It's when He's raised up (by implication, to heaven, as many translations put it). His job is only finished when He returns to the divine realm. His reign is not as an earthly king; His reign is to be from Heaven. (John 18:36)
His disciples still have it wrong. They thought it would be appropriate to call down fire and destroy the people of the Samaritan village. Jesus rebukes them. In the majority text, He goes on to tell them their spirit is wrong; He did not come to destroy people's lives, but to save them. The completion of His mission (the ascension) will be the final stamp of approval that this is God's plan, and that Jesus completed the plan.
Jesus invites people to participate with Him and the plan. But those who follow Him must give Him their allegiance above all else, including comfort and family. (57-62) Jesus gains enough of a following that He is able to enlist seventy-two others to go before Him and spread the good news of the kingdom. Satan is losing His power as the demons are cast out. But Jesus tells them not to rejoice because of this authority they were given. He tells them to rejoice that their names were written in Heaven. (10:20) They are now part of the kingdom of God--the kingdom of Heaven Jesus is now establishing.
Following Jesus means understanding a new way of loving 10:25-37
The purpose of Jesus' parable was not that, as Anakin Skywalker put it in Stars Wars I: The Phantom Menace, "The biggest problem in the universe is that nobody helps each other." People do help each other. I see it every day on the internet. I see it in the grocery store and along the road. I actively look for it. For the most part, people are kind, especially when things are going well in their lives. The way the "expert in the law" questions Jesus, I am sure he had specific instances in mind when he was loving toward a neighbor. He thought for sure he would be able to get the upper hand and show everyone how knowledgeable and righteous he was.
But Jesus showed there was a deeper meaning in the command to "love your neighbor" than the "expert" had thought of. He turns the command on its head by asking "who was a neighbor" to the one in need. It wasn't one of the respected leaders who fit the bill; it was a despised heretical foreigner. It's not enough to be neighborly to those of one's own ken.
Following Jesus means putting first things first 10:38-41
For most of us, doing what Mary did is much harder that what Martha was doing. It is much easier to spend time fretting about things and trying to make sure all the "preparations" are taken care of than it is to just sit still and listen. One of the reasons for this is because people don't understand why you are "wasting time" on things that aren't "important." But Jesus understood that taking time to listen to Him is the most important thing of all.
Following Jesus means not putting unfair burdens on others 11:37-52
Jesus was not afraid to insult those who were abusing their privilege. The most loving thing He could do for them was to point out their hypocrisy. Note how when the "experts of the law" complained that His insults applied to them, Jesus just adds some more specific things they needed to be warned about.
We need to be careful about just checking off the less important commands while neglecting the most important: the mercy and love of God. We need to stop adding requirements that are not actually God's requirements. Instead, we should do everything we can to relieve people of the unfair burdens they carry.
Following Jesus means storing treasure in the right place 12:13-34
Jesus told a parable (Luke 12: 15-21) about a rich man whose crops are so abundant that he has huge barns built to store them. But the barns are not the problem; his attitude about his wealth (the grain) is. Having abundance is not in itself wrong; it’s what we do with our abundance that makes the difference.
The rich farmer decides to quit working and live off what he has accumulated. He has enough for “many years.” Instead of investing that grain into the ground where it would provide an income for his workers, and support the poor from its gleanings, the farmer became a miser. His thoughts are all about what his riches can do for himself instead of what it could do for others. Greed takes root when we depend upon ourselves instead of God.
That's the point of next section (12:22-34). Jesus tells His disciples that constantly worrying about what you have, and running after after material things, is how the pagan world works. The Father knows we need these things, and if we seek His kingdom first, those things will be ours, too. In one of His letters, C S Lewis put it like this:
Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first & we lose both first and second things. We never get, say, even the sensual pleasure of food at its best when we are being greedy.
Those who follow Jesus understand their value Luke 15: 1-32
In chapter 15, Jesus tells the parables about the sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. These are in response to the Pharisee's attitude about those they considered "sinners." Those who the Pharisees thought were not worth spending time with were valuable to Jesus. It was worth spending effort find the lost sheep and coins.
The third parable is more about the older son than about the prodigal. The one son takes his inheritance and spends it on wild living. When he realizes how much better even the servants have it at home, he returns, and the father throw a party for him. But that is not the end of the story.
Rather than rejoicing that his brother has returned, the older brother is angry. He has been the "faithful" son all this time, and his rogue brother gets a party after abandoning him to do all the work? That's how the Pharisees thought when they saw Jesus paying attention to those sinners when they are the ones who had worked so hard to obey God. And Jesus lets them get away with not holding to the traditions we worked so hard to follow.
It is much harder for God to reach an older son with this frame of mind than it is to reach a prodigal.
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