Luke 18- The Temptation of Self-Righteousness

Today I want to focus on the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector who went to pray. In his prayer, the Pharisee lists off the kinds of people that he feels he is better than, along with his righteous acts. But the tax collector recognizes his own brokenness and sinfulness.

Before the parable begins, Luke writes that Jesus "told the parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt." I think that's a temptation I give in to more often than I'd like to admit. On the outside it looks different from what the Pharisee was doing; I pride myself on not looking down on people who many would consider "more sinful" and I find myself judging those who do. But in the end, it's the exact same thing the Pharisee is doing- it's exalting myself, feeling proud of what I do, and judging others. Notice how the tax collector didn't say, "Yeah, well, I thank you that I'm not like this Pharisee, self-righteous and boasting and judgmental of others!"

I've said it before, because Jesus keeps pointing it out and it's something I feel is important- we all need to be more focused on our own sins and shortcomings, not those of others. If everyone is pointing their finger at someone else, no one is taking the time to examine their own lives and see what needs to change within themselves. I love the quote, "Be the change you wish to see in the world," and I think that sentiment applies here. Rather than pointing out where other people fall short and boasting about ourselves, maybe we would do well to focus on changing our own selves- admitting our weaknesses and brokenness and screw-ups, doing what we can to change ourselves, and encouraging others by focusing on the good we see.

Luke 17- Doing Our Part

So Jesus is walking through and there are ten guys with leprosy. They ask Jesus to have mercy on them, he tells them to go show themselves to the priest, and they get healed. Sounds like a pretty basic Jesus miracle, right?

But wait. Did you catch the part where Jesus didn't heal them until they were already on their way to see the priest? Look at the story again- he instructs them to show themselves to the priests, which is what lepers were supposed to do to verify that they were, indeed, cleansed of leprosy. Seeing the priest is something you do after you've been healed. And that's what Jesus told them to do- go show themselves to the priest. And they obeyed; they set off to see the priests, even though they hadn't been healed yet. Luke says that they were cleansed on the way.

I wonder how long it took- if they were all cleansed simultaneously or one at a time, if it happened after a few steps or when they had almost arrived or somewhere in between. I wonder how long they each had to keep walking, still lepers, but having faith that they would be healed by the time they made it to the priests.

And I wonder how often we ask God for something, and he's going to give it to us- but first we have to follow his instructions. I wonder if there are situations in our lives where we have to make our move while we're still in a particular situation or circumstance, believing God will do what he said by the time we reach our destination. For that matter, notice that Jesus didn't even say, "Go see the priests, and I'll heal you on the way there." He never promised to cleanse them, but the instructions he gave implied that cleansing would indeed occur, and they did what he said. I wonder, too, when we set off to follow God's instructions, still in the midst of a given situation, how long the journey to our destination may take. Will the healing or remedy or whatever else come as soon as we start taking the first steps? Will it come in the middle of the journey? Or will it come at the last minute, just as we are approaching the destination?

This miracle, the cleansing of the ten lepers, reminds me that God doesn't always work in predictable, cut-and-dried ways. And it reminds me that, regardless, we should follow him, believing that he has a plan. He does have a plan- but sometimes before we can see the plan's completion, we must do our part by following his instructions in faith.

Luke 16- Who Are You Serving?

In this chapter, Jesus makes yet another point about money and possessions—which is that you cannot simultaneously serve God and serve the money and possessions of this world. I think so often Christians throw that line out there—“You cannot serve God and money”—and say they agree with it without fully considering the implications of that belief. I think too often we may assume, “Hey, I’m a Christian, so obviously I’m serving God, not money.” Maybe it would be prudent to ask ourselves a very serious question: Are we trying to serve both God and money?

Here are the questions I have found myself asking lately. How important to me is money? How important to me are possessions? Is my family spending more time and energy working to get, use, and enjoy more money and more possessions, or are we spending more time and energy focusing on God and following him? How dependent are we on money? And how dependent are we on God? For me, if the answer is that we are spending more time and energy focusing on and depending on money and possessions than we are spending on following God, we have crossed the line. We are then attempting to serve both God and money—and Jesus makes it clear that serving both is simply not possible; you will inevitably give your devotion to one and hate the other.

After Jesus says these things, “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.” As Clark and I ask ourselves these questions and begin taking steps to purposefully decrease our dependence on and devotion to money and possessions, and to increase our dependence on and devotion to God, we have been asked questions and thought of as very strange. So many Christians seem to believe that God’s ideal is for his followers to prosper and be wealthy, and that people will see the wealth of Christians and how God has “blessed” them and they, too, will want to follow God so they, too, can be blessed. To put it bluntly, I think that viewpoint is completely off base and, if you read and study how Jesus lived and instructed his followers to live, it appears to be un-Biblical as well.

I think the story of the rich man and Lazarus addresses this topic wonderfully. Here’s a rich man, comfortable and smug in his possessions and money. And right there at his gate, right in front of him, is a poor, sick, hungry man who, in the world’s eyes, has nothing. The God-blesses-his-followers-with-prosperity line of thinking is turned on its head if you keep reading. If that were true, then it would stand to reason that the rich man was following God and was righteous, so God was blessing him—and Lazarus’ hardships would have been God’s punishment or withholding of blessings because of his sins. But that isn’t what we see at all. Instead, Lazarus dies and is carried to Abraham’s side, and the rich man dies and finds himself tormented in Hades. Suddenly the whole situation seems tragically ironic—a man who spent his life enjoying the riches of the world is now in torment and begging for even a drop of water, and a man who spent his life in torment and begging is now being comforted.

The point here is not “Rich people are going to hell.” No, the point is that true riches from God have nothing to do with the money and possessions of the world—or as Jesus puts it, “unrighteous wealth.” In Matthew 6, Jesus told his followers, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” It is clear that the treasures and blessings and riches of God are not worldly possessions, material things, and money. It goes so much deeper than that. I prefer the treasures, blessings, and riches that come from following God—even if it means looking to the world like I have nothing—rather than the money and possessions the world seems to worship. I want to be sure that I am serving God, that I am fully devoted to following him. Jesus says, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” I want to be sure that God, not money, is my master.

Just Checking In...

I realize I haven't posted much in the last week; I apologize. Things have been kind of busy around here, and I've been trying to keep the computer turned off for most of the day so I can focus more on my family. I'm planning to get back to my daily posting next week; I'm excited about finishing up my Luke study!

Luke 15- Unconditional Love

We are so important to God. Every single one of us. That's hard to remember sometimes, I think. In Luke 15 Jesus makes it clear that, no matter how many other "righteous" people are following him, God is still very concerned about the "sinners" and he rejoices and celebrates when even one person repents. That is just amazing, isn't it? So many times people screw up and feel so rotten about themselves, so worthless, and convince themselves that God could never love them. I want to tell you, that is not the case at all! God's love is unconditional, which is so, so hard for us to wrap our minds around, especially when most of the love we encounter in this world is conditional. When we feel like we are only loved by people if we please them, do things just right, and meet their standards, it is so easy to apply that same assumption to God and his love. It has taken me years to really understand and believe that God loves me unconditionally- even when I screw up majorly. It doesn't matter what you've done or what you haven't done- God loves you. He rejoices when you come to him; he desires a relationship with you that much. You are so indescribably special to him.

Luke 14- Emo Jesus

For a while in this chapter, Jesus sounds like he’s gone emo. Check out what he says: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Whoa, wait a minute—this sounds pretty depressing. And it doesn’t sound much like the Jesus I’ve been reading about for 14 chapters now, the Jesus who taught love.

But let’s take it a little deeper. Personally, I don’t think Jesus was laying out a requirement that, to follow him, we have to literally hate our families and our lives. I don’t believe for a minute that he would tell us to love our neighbors and even love our enemies, but hate our families. So what does he mean?

If you read the rest of this passage (Luke 14:25-33) he gives examples of a person building a tower and a king preparing for war, and points out that these people would not jump right in until they had counted the cost and weighed out whether they were able to accomplish their goal. So it is with following Jesus. It’s easy to say, “I’ll follow you,” but as I’ve talked about before in these posts, it’s not always as easy to actually follow him.

I think Jesus was issuing a reminder that people who want to follow him need to be aware of what it will really be like and they need to look at what it may cost them. After all, to truly follow Jesus means recognizing that even the most important things have to become less important than him. We have to follow wholeheartedly, without excuses, and I think he’s telling the people to consider whether they are able to do that. It can be extraordinarily hard to let go of even the material things in life, like money and possessions, to follow him—but it is even harder to be willing to say, “Yes, Jesus, I will put you above everything else in my life, even my own family and myself, because I love you that much.” No, that’s not always easy. But is following Jesus worth the cost? Is it worth giving up our false sense of control and putting him first? Yes, I think it is.

Luke 13- Do We Judge or Love?

We’ve all heard reports in the news of Christian leaders or groups claiming that bad things have happened to certain groups of people (Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, for example) because of their sin. At the beginning of this chapter Jesus gives some examples of awful things that had happened—like a tower falling on and killing a bunch of people—and he basically says, “Do you think that, because of what happened to them, these people must have been worse sinners than everyone else?” And you just know that some people in the crowd were thinking (or saying), “Yes!” and recalling the sins of the people who had died tragically. But Jesus answered his own question. “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Wow. What a great reminder that we need to be more concerned about identifying and repenting of our own sins, instead of ignoring our own and pointing out others’ sins. In fact, Jesus talked about this before in Luke 6:41. “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” As long as we’re trying to judge how sinful other people are, we are too busy focusing on their “specks” instead of focusing on removing our own “logs.”

I know I’m guilty of this, so I’m certainly not pointing my finger at everyone else by writing this. (How ironic it would be if I were!) It can be so much easier and more comfortable to sit back and look at everyone else, and to try to judge how sinful or how righteous they are. It’s easy to talk about someone else’s mistakes and wrongdoings, and to gossip about them and vilify them. It’s a lot harder and a lot more painful to honestly take a look at our own selves, though, isn’t it? It’s not so easy to put ourselves under our own magnifying glass and identify our own shortcomings and sins. It’s uncomfortable and it’s painful, because it forces us to realize that we are not perfect either, that we are broken on the inside.

But Luke 6 also says “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” That reminds me that when I judge or condemn others, then I must turn that magnifying glass on myself, and I will have no choice but to judge and condemn myself just as harshly (and other people will as well)—but when I am forgiving toward others, I can also forgive myself and be forgiven.

I also find myself reflecting on the fact that, even with all my imperfections and screw-ups, God loves me unconditionally. That has taken me a long time to learn and understand, because for so long I believed that he didn’t love me much at all if I wasn’t doing things just right. But at the same time, I think it’s important to remember that just as God loves us unconditionally, he also loves other people unconditionally. Those other people whose sins we judge harshly, who we condemn, who we gossip about, who we make nasty jokes about, who we avoid—he loves them unconditionally too. If we are striving to be disciples of Jesus and to be Christ-like, wouldn’t it be a good idea to love them also, to show them mercy and grace?

Luke 12- Are We Hoarding or Providing?

Luke 12:15 says "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." That is exactly one of the things that I feel like God has been telling me lately, through this study and in so many other ways as well. My life does not consist in the abundance of my possessions; there is more to life than money and stuff. Then Jesus tells about a rich man whose farm produced more food than he had room for. So what did he decide to do? Build even bigger barns so he could store up the food for himself. What he didn't know was that his life was about to end, and keeping those things for himself did no one any good.

And that is something that's been on my mind a lot lately- if I have extra stuff, why on earth should I keep it stored up for myself? Why not keep what I need and give the extra away to help people who don't have what they need? For the past few weeks, we have been going through a lot of our stuff and deciding how much we actually need- things like clothes, towels, blankets, dishes. A lot of that extra stuff that we don't need is about to be donated to various organizations so they can go to people who actually do need them. Sure, we won't have an "abundance of possessions" anymore, but isn't there more to life than that? I think there is.

The passage about the rich man storing up his food seems to go along with the next passage, where Jesus tells his disciples not to be anxious about things like food and clothing. He tells them that God knows what they need and he will provide; they should be more concerned about seeking God's kingdom and living the way he's telling them to live. Instead of hoarding extra for themselves, they could sell those things and give the money to the needy. And he reminds them not to treasure and put their hearts into things, but to treasure and put their hearts into God and other people. That is life.

To be honest, telling someone who has a diagnosed anxiety disorder (like me) to not be anxious and expecting those words to solve the problem is like telling a nicotine addict not to smoke and expecting that advice to solve the problem. No, I am not comparing anxiety disorders to addictions- I'm just saying that in both situations, hearing those words sounds laughable. "Don't be anxious? You're kidding me, right? Do you know how hard that is?" So I absolutely understand that hearing someone, even Jesus, say not to be anxious doesn't automatically stop the anxiety. It's not always that simple.

However, when I think about what Jesus is saying, I do feel calmer. God does know what I need, and he will provide. What I need may be far less than what I want or what I think I need, but I believe that one way or another he will provide. I can't even tell you how many times people in our lives have blessed us with a little money or a meal at a time when we really needed it. God does use other people to provide.

And that is something I am trying to keep in mind in my daily life- is there something I can do that may provide for or help someone else? Does God want to use me to provide for someone? In the Christian community as a whole, how good are we at letting God use us to provide for people's needs? I think the Christian community does some wonderful things to meet needs, but when I think of how many people in the world are starving, and how many people have to rely on government assistance because their neighbors- meaning us!- are hoarding our food, money, and possessions instead of doing everything we can to meet people's needs, I can't help but think that the Church could do so much better. Let's treasure God and treasure people; let's put our hearts into them, not possessions. "For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

Luke 11- Me, Myself, and the Pharisees

I'm no Biblical scholar, and I know there are plenty of people who could tell you more than I can about the Pharisees and the lawyers. But I'm going to write out my thoughts anyway. ;)

There is something in me that loves reading the passages where Jesus puts the Pharisees in their place. I love how clearly he points out that looking good on the outside and doing everything "right" on the outside is not what God wants. I love how he reminds them that God wants people to clean up on the inside too, to purge the greed and wickedness from their hearts and to practice justice and love. And I get a little bit of satisfaction when he lets the lawyers have it, too- people who expected others to live up to the letter of the law without understanding God's grace and mercy.

But then I wonder if I should really like that so much. I wonder how often I read these words- how often Christians read these words- and think, "Yeah, Jesus, you tell 'em!" without ever questioning whether we look like the Pharisees or the lawyers ourselves. How often do we slip into the mindset of striving to make ourselves appear holy and righteous while on the inside we are a greedy, angry, bitter mess? And how often do we expect other people to flawlessly live up to an impossible standard without showing any mercy or grace (and without helping them understand God's mercy and grace)?

I don't want to be smugly satisfied and say, "Yeah, Jesus, you tell 'em!" when I read passages like this. Instead, I want to seriously look at myself and see if Jesus could be speaking to me along with the Pharisees and lawyers.

Luke 10 Again- Who Is My Neighbor?

Yeah, I know, I already posted about Luke 10 last week. But there’s more I want to say, so consider this a bonus post. ;)

I want to write about the parable of the good Samaritan. But I don’t want to focus on the parable itself, although it does a fantastic job of making a point about who was neighborly and who wasn't. No, I want to focus on the lawyer who was talking to Jesus. Jesus agreed with the lawyer’s assessment that the Law instructs people to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” But after that, Luke tells us that the lawyer, “desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”

That is what I want to talk about.

The summary of the Law all sounds great and wonderful and poetic in theory, but then we start thinking about how we practically apply it and we want to know who, exactly, our neighbor is. Surely Jesus means that our neighbors are the people around us, the people who agree with us theologically or politically or in other ways, the people we’re comfortable with, the people whose lifestyles look like ours. Right? If so, we’re probably doing a pretty good job of loving our neighbors as ourselves—because, after all, it isn’t hard to love people who are like ourselves!

But if Jesus actually means that our neighbors also include the people we have nothing in common with, the people we don’t like and who don’t like us, the people who make us uncomfortable, the people whose lifestyles are nothing like our own—if those people are the neighbors we’re supposed to love like we love ourselves, well, we’re screwed. In that case, many of us have done a crappy job of loving our neighbors as ourselves.

So we, too, seek to justify ourselves, asking “Who is my neighbor?” We are so good at explaining why we just can’t love that person the way Scripture tells us to. "I’m a Christian, I can’t be seen with the drug addicts or the homosexuals or the sex offenders or the Wiccans or the Democrats (or the Republicans)! People might think I’m approving of them!"

But guess what? Here’s the uncomfortable truth: that is exactly what Jesus meant. They are our neighbors. Do we love them as we love ourselves? We might say we do, but what if someone asked them—would they say that we love them as we love ourselves? Because saying it with our lips and living it with our lives are two very, very different things. We can say it until we're blue in the face, but if we're living it then our neighbors- all of them- will know that we love them.

Luke 10- The Laborers are Few

The beginning of this chapter is kind of funny to me. Jesus had just made some pretty radical statements about what following him would be like, and in short, it ain't easy or comfortable. He reminded the people that even the most important things in this life would have to become less important than following him. That's hard to hear. What's funny to me is that at the beginning of this chapter, Jesus then says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." Don't you know the disciples were probably thinking, "Well, yeah, Jesus- not many people are gonna stick around when you tell them that it's not easy!" Common sense would say that there was probably no one left standing there ready to follow him after hearing all that- but there were. Luke tells us that Jesus sent out 72 people into the places he was about to go. Seventy-two people stuck around.

What were they, crazy? Some people probably thought so. But I don't think they were. I think they were finally beginning to see something in this crazy world that made sense to them. Maybe it didn't seem logical, maybe it seemed counterintuitive, but God was awakening something in them and they were ready to follow him no matter what the cost.

Jesus immediately reminded them of the cost in a very real way- he sent them out with instructions not to bring money or extra clothes, and to find strangers to live with for the duration of their stay. He wasn't sending them out with a bunch of money and things, with power and prestige- he was sending them out in about as humble of a way as you can get, with nothing extra at all and no place lined up to stay either.

How well do we do this today? How are we humbling ourselves as we go out and live for Jesus? What do we have that we don't need? What are we doing that will turn people away because we appear to be making ourselves out to be well-off and polished and put together? How much of a difference would we be able to make if we would humble ourselves in such a radical way, if we would strip away all the facades and show that we are human, that we are not above anyone else, and that we are ready to serve others?

Luke 9- What Does Following Jesus Look Like?

Every night, by the time I sit down to read, I feel like I am having doubts about it all. Is God really telling me anything? I keep thinking he is, but is he really? Does he really want my family to do some of the things we think he wants us to do? Are we just crazy? And every night I read something else that confirms it for me—yes, he is telling me something, he wants us to do some things that may look crazy and may not be easy, and no, we are not crazy for following him. Today there were two particular statements in Luke that reminded me, yet again, of these things.

I’ll start with verses 23-25: “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?’”

To truly follow Jesus with everything in us involves denying ourselves. We can choose to wrap our lives up in material things—houses, cars, electronics, money, clothing, you name it. But when our eyes are focused on the things of this world, that means we’re not giving Jesus our full attention. It’s just like what I posted yesterday, the people who hear God’s word but are “choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.” We could have lots of money and nice things, and the power and prestige and popularity that seem to come with those things—but at the end of the day, would we still feel empty inside? Would we still feel like something was missing? I am being reminded over and over, so I will keep saying it over and over—if we do not have those things, and are not consumed by trying to get them, we can fully focus on God and pursue him and really live.

Then Luke 9: 57-62 says, “As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, let me go first and bury my father.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Yet another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’”

I’ll be honest, that’s not exactly easy to hear. Jesus is reminding those who want to follow him that it isn’t going to be the easy, comfortable life they’re used to—he doesn’t even have a place to live. And then there are the people who say the infamous words that I have uttered myself: “Let me go first and…” or “I will follow you, but let me first…” I know I’ve done this, and I know I’m still doing it, as much as I try not to. I don’t think Jesus is saying that we should just say to heck with things like our families, and I don’t think he’s saying we’re hopeless and pathetic if we don’t immediately drop every single thing. I think he’s pointing out that at some point we have to stop making excuses for why we can’t follow him right now, and that even the most important things in life are still not as important as following him. And I think he knows that it will take some people more time than others to get to the place where they are spiritually “ready” to leave everything to follow him—and it is important, I think, to be in that place because to follow him wholeheartedly means there is no room for longing for the way things used to be.

Luke 8- Seeds and Storms

Lots of things happen in this chapter, but there are two situations described that really spoke to me when I read them.

The first is the parable of the sower. Jesus tells a story about a sower who was sowing seeds. Some fell on the path, got stepped on, and were eventually eaten by the birds. Some fell on rocks and ended up withering away because there was no moisture. Some fell among thorns that ended up choking the plants. And some fell into good soil, grew, and produced food. Then Jesus goes on to explain this parable to his disciples, and I'll just use his words since he explains it pretty well. ;)

“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”

When I think back to the times I’ve heard sermons on this parable, I never remember questioning which of the above examples applied to me. Instead the parable seemed to explain how differently people may react when they hear God’s word. But as I was reading it, I realized something: I have been, at one time or another, all four. There have been times in my life that I heard God’s word and just didn’t believe it. There have been times that I’ve heard it and believed it, but my faith didn’t have the roots it needed and eventually I fell away. Most recently, though, I feel that I am teetering between the last two examples Jesus gave. I’ve realized that for some time now I have, unknowingly, become too consumed and weighed down by the “cares and riches and pleasures of life.” It is so tempting to rely too heavily on money and stuff, because those are the things that get you “ahead” in this world. But the other side to becoming too focused on those things is that they take my focus off of God, and in the end, my fruit does not mature. I have good intentions, there are things that are important to me, I want to follow God—but I can’t if my focus is divided. Lately as I have been reading and studying, I feel like God is telling me to focus on him, not the other things. And I believe that if I do, if I put my focus on him and on living the way he is calling me to live, then I will bear the fruit he wants me to bear.

I know this is getting long, but I just can’t leave the second thing out. Later in the chapter, Luke describes how Jesus calmed a storm out on the lake. I think it is interesting that the disciples, who had seen him do so many miraculous and seemingly impossible things—like healing people and raising a guy from the dead—were so panicked during the storm and so shocked that Jesus was able to command the winds and water. Don’t we do this too? I know that even when I’ve seen the amazing things God has done in the past, all too often when I’m in the middle of a crisis I panic and wonder if he can or will come through. Yet he has proven himself to be amazing and faithful.

Luke 7- Faith and Questions

Let’s revisit our friend John the Baptist. If you’ll remember, John was prophesied about in scripture as being a messenger who would prepare the way for Jesus. John had radically set himself apart from the way the rest of the world was living, and was baptizing people and telling them that true repentance would cause them to change their lives. John had been following God and had done some wonderful things.

In Luke 7, we see that John heard about the miraculous things Jesus had been doing and he sent two of his disciples to Jesus, asking him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” In other words, “Hey, are you the guy that God has been leading me to prepare the way for? ‘Cause it sounds like you could be, but I want to be sure.”

I find two things really interesting about this.

First, when I read this I realized something I had never thought about before. John had been baptizing people and preparing the way for someone greater—without even knowing who, exactly, that person would be. It turned out to be his own cousin, but that’s beside the point. This left me thinking, how often do we step out in faith and do what God is calling us to do, even when we can’t see the bigger picture or know what the end results will be? I, for one, am the type of person who wants to know exactly how things are going to turn out and then I carefully plan before I jump. But sometimes (most of the time?) following God means you just have to let that go and jump in faith, being sure of only one thing—that he is leading you where he wants you to go and that he knows what the plan is.

The other thing I find interesting is Jesus’ response. Notice that he didn’t respond with something like, “Dude, I thought John was supposed to have all this faith and that he was committed to doing what God told him to do. How could he possibly not know that I’m the one who was to come? Maybe his faith isn’t that strong after all. What a disappointment he’s turned out to be.” No, Jesus praised John as a great prophet. I believe God knows that even when we have faith and are following him, we will not always understand and that we’ll have questions—and he’s okay with that. I don’t think it offends or angers him when we have questions about what his plan is; I think he is more concerned with whether or not we are following him even with our questions.

My desire is that I will be faithful enough to follow God even when I can’t see the bigger picture and even when I have questions about his plan. That can be scary sometimes.

Luke 6- Blessings and Woes

The thing that stood out to me most in this chapter was Jesus pronouncing blessings and woes. I find it interesting that he named some of the things that people tend to look down on and strive not to be—poor, hungry, weeping, hated by others—then called those things blessings. And then, to turn things upside down even more, he pronounced woes on those who are rich, full, happy, and well-liked by others. At first glance, you might think that Jesus was either a) bitter because he wasn’t rich or full or well-liked, or b) saying that in order to be a part of God’s kingdom, you had to be poor and hungry and miserable and hated. But I don’t think that was the case.

It seems that the more a person focuses on themselves and their “quality of life” by the world’s standards, the harder it is for them to focus on God and rely on him for a completely different (and better) type of richness, fullness, happiness, and acceptance than the world could ever offer. It can become so easy to rely on the things we have in the here and now—money, good food, the pursuit of happiness, popularity—that we completely miss out on the fact that it is God alone who can truly meet our needs, satisfy us and give us joy in all circumstances, and accept us even as broken as we are. I know that when I become focused on money and things (either having them or striving to get them), "happiness" by our country's standards, and how well I'm liked, I am so much further from feeling satisfied and joyful on the inside and from having a close relationship with God than when I am not focusing on those things. So I think that Jesus was saying that by the world's standards a person may look poor when they are actually experiencing a fuller and more joyful life than those who, by the world's standards, look rich and successful.

I Will Run After You

It's hard to put words to what has been happening lately.

It all began when I read what is probably the best book I've ever read, The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. That book changed the way I looked at a lot of things in life and it made me want to live a simpler life, one that was focused less on stuff and more on people. I read that book over a year ago, but the past few weeks are when things really started happening all at once.

At the beginning of June, I started reading a book co-authored by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, Jesus for President, and became involved with a book study on a message board. I am about halfway through the book and I have realized that, although it isn't perfect (what book written by human beings is going to be?) God has been using some of the themes in it in a very powerful way. This book is a great reminder that as Christians, we are not called to change the world politically or to live our lives the way the rest of the world does; we are called to love others and to live the way Jesus told us to live.

I have also started this study of Luke; I actually started it about a week before I started posting about it here, so I'm further into Luke than 5 chapters. And as I am reading, so many things are jumping out at me, to the point that I cannot ignore them. Just from Luke 1-5, I am seeing certain themes and messages over and over. For example:
- How great God's plans are, even when they seem crazy, impossible, or scary.
- How God does things in a way we would never expect.
- Reminders that when we are following God, we are supposed to live lives that are less self-focused, we are supposed to focus on others, serve others, give to those who are in need, take less for ourselves, want less for ourselves, and be satisfied with simply having what we need.
- That even things that aren't inherently bad or wrong can take so much of our focus that they become sinful.
- That throughout Jesus' life, people left everything (their jobs, their ways of life, their plans, their dreams) to follow him.

It seems that everything lately is giving me the same message, pointing me in the same general direction. I read Luke 5 and began wondering if I would leave everything and follow God if he asked me to. Clark and I were talking about money and life in general, and we came to the conclusion that we have, very unintentionally, bought into the idea that life is about money; we are always so focused on paying bills, buying what we need, getting things we want. And we're sick of living that way. There's more to life than this. I read in Jesus for President, "Jesus is ready to set us free from the heavy yoke of an oppressive way of life. Plenty of wealthy Christians are suffering from the weight of the American dream, heavily burdened by the lifeless toil and consumption we embrace. This is the yoke from which we are being set free." No, we're not wealthy, but this quote describes so well the way of life we are tired of. We took Elijah to see Wall-E, and one of the characters was longing for a different way of life, a way that he knew would be harder but it would be so much better and more fulfilling, and he cried out, "I don't want to survive; I want to live!" I don't remember the last time I felt so overwhelmed with emotion; that was exactly the sentiment I had been trying to put words to. It seems that everywhere I turn, God is whispering, "There is more to life than this. I don't want you to just survive; I want you to live."

I know that God has a plan, but I don't know the specifics yet. I have a feeling it is going to involve the things I've mentioned above- changing our focus in life, leaving it all to follow him. I have a feeling the plan is going to look and sound crazy or impossible to many people- and maybe even us at first!- but that God has a great plan. And we are coming to a point where we're going to have to choose whether to keep living life the way we do now, or whether we are going to follow God. I'll wrap this up with a song we sang at church on Sunday, a song that has been my prayer all week:

Give me one pure and holy passion,
Give me one magnificent obsession,
Give me one glorious ambition for my life-
To know and follow hard after you.

To know and follow hard after you,
To grow as your disciple in your truth.
This world is empty, pale, and poor
Compared to knowing you, my Lord,
So lead me on and I will run after you.
Lead me on and I will run after you.

Luke 5- Would We Leave Everything to Follow God?

So picture this. Simon, James, and John had been fishing all night. Fishing was their job; not just a hobby. They knew fishing very well. But they had been out fishing all night and had caught absolutely nothing. Then Jesus came by and and hung out on the boat and told them to put their nets down for a catch. I don’t know about you, but I would have been tempted to say something like, “Um, Jesus, in case you didn’t realize, that’s exactly what I tried to do all night long. Didn’t work out so well.” And that is basically what Simon said. But he did it, because Jesus told him to—and they caught so many fish that the nets were breaking, and when they got the fish onto the boats, both boats were so full they started to sink. When God decides to do something, it doesn’t matter how impossible or illogical or downright weird it seems—he can do it and do it above and beyond what anyone ever would have expected. When God does something, he does it way better than anything we ever could have done on our own.

Twice in this chapter, something happens that absolutely amazes and frightens me. The first time was right after the fishing incident; Luke says that James, John, and Simon Peter “left everything and followed him.” Later in the chapter, Jesus saw a tax collector, Levi, sitting there in his tax booth. He simply told Levi, "Follow me." And Luke says, "And leaving everything, he rose and followed him." Wow. You know, these guys had normal, everyday lives. They had jobs, they had plans, they had dreams—just like we do. But when Jesus told them to follow him, what did they do? They left it all and followed him. This is so amazing, and scary, to me. I cannot help but ask myself—and have been asking myself this question for a few weeks now—if Jesus said “Follow me,” would I be willing to leave the way of life I’ve known for so long, my plans, my comfort zone, and follow him? I’d like to say yes, but here’s the honest answer: I hope I would, I think I would, but it wouldn’t be easy. The thought of leaving it all is a scary prospect, especially when I know what I know about God and his plans—his plans are wonderful, but they usually involve doing things and living in ways that other people will think are crazy. Following God means sacrificing self and serving others. It means drastically changing your life, the way you interact with people, the way you view the world. Awesome stuff, but a huge shift from what most people are used to. Deep down, I want to leave it all and follow him, but the unpredictability frightens me a bit.

Tomorrow I'm going to post about some things that I feel like God has been telling me over the past couple of weeks in what seems like a hundred different ways- through this study, other books I've been reading, conversations I've had, sermons I've heard, songs I've sung, movies I've watched. I don't know what is going to happen, but I have a feeling some big things are about to change. It's exciting and it's scary. Tune in tomorrow for more...

Luke 4- Temptation

I used to read about Jesus being tempted and think, “Okay, seriously- he’s God. It couldn’t have been that hard to resist temptations, could it?” But the more I think about it, the more I realize that even though Jesus was indeed fully God, he was also fully human—and his full humanity would have made withstanding temptation just as difficult as it is for anyone else to withstand temptation. I think it's easy to forget that, just as temptation is real and powerful to us, it was also real and powerful to Jesus. I doubt that it was easy and simple for him to just say, “Nope, not gonna do it.” Resisting temptation can be a real struggle, and he knows that.

So what exactly was Jesus tempted to do? Luke 4 tells us about three specific temptations he faced; I imagine there were more temptations throughout his life. But here are the big three that we see in Luke.

First there was the temptation to prove himself as the son of God and to provide food for himself. He had been fasting in the desert for 40 days; of course he was probably pretty hungry by then. We don’t know what exactly went through Jesus’ mind, of course, but I imagine it could have been something like, “Man, I am really hungry. And I am the son of God; I could just turn those stones into bread for myself.” Let’s take it a step further—do you think perhaps he might also have thought of other people, past, present, and future, who were hungry? People who were literally starving to death? If you go on to read about the rest of his life, you will see that he really cared about people who were hungry—and he could have chosen right then to end hunger for everyone, forever. But he didn’t. He knew that bread alone would not give anyone the life God desired for them. Feeding hungry people would not atone for their sins, and feeding himself just to prove he was God did not fit with the humility he purposefully displayed throughout his life.

Then there was the temptation to take power of the world politically. Think about it—Jesus could have taken over the kingdoms of the world and ended all kinds of violence and oppression. But he didn’t, because his power was not meant to be political. Taking over the kingdoms of the world was not the goal; instructing his followers in how to live as citizens of God’s kingdom was. And he wasn’t about to worship anyone but God, no matter how tempting the political power may have been.

He was again tempted to prove himself as God, but this time by performing a spectacular public feat—jumping from the top of the temple and having his angels save him. He could have made a big spectacle and proved himself to be God’s son right there in front of everyone; that would get people to believe in him and he wouldn’t even have to worry about any physical harm or pain. But he didn’t. He wasn’t looking to put on a big public show in order to get people to believe him.

I wonder if his thought process went something like this: “I could prove myself as the son of God by doing something huge and public—then people would believe and I wouldn’t have to go through the pain and humiliation I know I’m going to face otherwise. And I could take power politically and do miraculous things for the good of everyone—I have the ability to end so much suffering, violence, oppression, poverty, and hunger.”

There is nothing wrong with ending hunger and oppression, and there is nothing wrong with believing in God—but this was not how God planned to go about it. No, his plan was even greater. He wasn’t just going to free people from their suffering in this life; God himself was going to take on their sins, sins that the people never possibly could have paid for themselves, and he was going to atone for them. Jesus read later on from Isaiah, telling the people that he was sent to “proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” He wasn’t just going to set them free physically; he was going to set them free spiritually. And not just in his hometown, not just in Israel, but everywhere. The people were pretty pleased with what he was saying until he got to the "not just Israel" part—then they ran him out of town and were planning to throw him off a cliff!

This passage left me asking two questions: How often do we take things that, in themselves are not sinful, to the point that for us they become sin because they take our eyes off the real goal of following God and his plans? And how often do we get upset when God’s plan isn’t what we were expecting, and want to "throw him off a cliff" in our lives? He probably has an even greater plan, but it may not look the way we expected it to look. We certainly want God to do good things—but he is going to do great things.

Luke 3- Bear Fruits In Keeping With Repentance

This chapter tells us about John and his instructions to the people who came to be baptized by him. He tells them, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.” It sounds to me like John was basically calling them out on outward repentance; he was letting them know that halfhearted repentance and relying on their status as Abraham’s children is not what God is looking for; after all, God could make children for Abraham out of anyone or anything if he wanted to. God did not intend for them to be a people who used their standing as Abraham’s children as an excuse for not changing their actions and hearts.

So, naturally, the people asked John what they should do; he responded by telling the people to share their extra clothing and food with people who were in need, telling the tax collectors not to take extra for themselves, and telling the soldiers to be happy with their pay and stop extorting money. In other words, he told the people to quit being so focused on themselves, their stuff, money, and getting more, and to start focusing on giving their extra stuff to others, treating everyone fairly, and appreciating what they had. The words from Isaiah at the beginning of the chapter seem to point to this too:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Isaiah’s imagery seems to speak of people changing their ways—crooked becoming straight, rough places becoming level. At the same time it seems to speak of essentially leveling the playing field among the people—valleys being filled and mountains and hills being made low. If the people did as John instructed them, those who were better off would change their ways, humble themselves, and give to (or stop taking from) those who were in need, while the needy would have more.

Isn’t this something God still wants today? Surely he did not mean for only the Israelites who were hearing John’s message to follow these principles. Halfhearted outward repentance with the attitude, “Well, I’m a child of God, so I’m good” is not what he is looking for. I believe he still wants his people to bear fruit in keeping with their repentance. I believe John’s instructions to the people still stand today; if we have extra, let’s give some away to those who don’t have. All anyone actually needs is enough for themselves/their families, right? We don’t need all the extra clothing and food and money—yet there are people all around us who don’t even have enough for themselves/their families. Let’s level the playing field a bit. I believe God’s desire is for his people to quit focusing on themselves, their stuff, money, and getting more, and instead to focus on giving to others, treating everyone fairly, and appreciating what we have.

Luke 2- Humble Beginnings

It seems to me that the theme running throughout Luke 2 is Jesus’ humble beginnings. The night he was born, his family was away from home and couldn’t even find a place in an inn. And then the angels made their appearance—but not to the political rulers or religious rulers or other prestigious folks of the day; no, they delivered the good news of Jesus’ birth to a bunch of shepherds. And such began the life of the son of God, the infant who would grow up to become our Savior—lying in a manger surrounded by a crowd of shepherds, ordinary people who listened to a message from God and left behind everything they had been doing just to see this humble infant, a Savior.

I find it amazing that God chose to send his son in such a humble, lowly, human way. He could have sent Jesus as a powerful ruler with an army of angels, liberating Israel from their suffering. But that was not God’s plan. He came just as the rest of us do, a normal human being, an infant with humble beginnings—yet even then, ordinary people got an extraordinary message from God and left everything to seek him.