Teach us to Pray
Jesus answered the question his disciples had put to him, “Teach us to pray” (see last week’s article, The Lord’s Prayer). Along with his lesson on how to pray, Jesus relates a story and other principles that are instructive regarding the topic. He begins, as Jesus is want to do, with an illustrative example that puts each member of the audience in the middle of the action. “Suppose one of you…” he began, received an unexpected visit from a distant friend who arrived in the middle of the night. Being unprepared, you immediately visit a neighbor to ask for some bread.
Whom Shall I Fear?
When in college an instructor of mine informed me of a lie she was about to tell her superiors. She had let some important communications slip through the cracks for some time and she wanted to lay the blame at my feet. The lie was an attempt to keep her job. I warned her not to, that her best hope lay in telling the truth. “The truth always comes out,” I said. She proceeded with the lie. As I’d warned, the truth would not remain silent. She did not return to teach the next semester.
Signs and Repentance
A few years ago I attended a “Word of Life” church, simply to experience it firsthand. It is far more charismatic than I’m comfortable with, and the preaching a bit more sensational than I’m used to, but I walked away with a new appreciation for my Baptist roots. Throughout the sermon people were yelling “Amen” and “preach it” and clapping for various points made by the pastor. At one point the preacher stopped, looked out over the audience and proclaimed, “I’m preaching a whole lot better than you’re applauding!” I’ve never heard a preacher self-aggrandize to such an extent.
Surprising Truths
As Jesus slowly made his way toward Jerusalem, teaching from town to town, an unnamed man in an unnamed village asked a startling question: “Lord, will only a few be saved?” I don’t know what prompted the question, but I remember hearing something similar a few months ago. A friend of mine observed, “It looks like Satan is winning; there are so many going to hell.” How many are going to heaven? 144,000? Everyone except the really bad – the Hitler’s of the world? Can anyone be certain of their own eternal fate, much less that of others?
Two Kingdoms
The New Testament is replete with information about the existence of demons. Interestingly, there is no intention on the part of the authors to teach about the demonic, leaving us to work out what we can through the various accounts. On this occasion Jesus was casting out “a demon that was mute.” While the Greek is unclear we learn in the next verse it was not actually the demon who was mute, but was a symptom of possession the demon caused in its victim: “When the demon had gone out, the man who had been mute began to speak” (emphasis mine).
God’s Provision
Jesus continues his lesson on authority with a little help from the crowd. A man approached Jesus, perhaps with his brother in tow (we’re not told, but it would make sense given the context), and asks Jesus to command his brother to share their father’s inheritance with him. Some may take this as an acknowledgement of Jesus’s authority. Yet Jesus refuses to judge such matters not because he doesn’t have the authority to do so, but because he see’s such judgments as trivial distractions. Instead of issuing a verdict, he issues an edict through the form of a parable.
The Kingdom of God
This passage is the account of the last time Jesus will speak in a synagogue before his death and resurrection. From this point forward he is on a direct route to Jerusalem and the fulfillment of his mission. Luke doesn’t tell us what the sermon was about, but we might be able to guess based on the object lesson. At the end of his talk Jesus had a woman come forward who was suffering from what sounds like a spinal infirmity. Jesus tells us it was caused by an unclean spirit and that she had been under its oppression for 18 years.
The Banquette Parables
Together these two stories are known as the Banquet Parables, though the first one isn’t technically a parable. Parables are stories with a moral teaching that use fictitious (and unnamed) characters. This first story is more of a hypothetical scene whereby those attending the dinner are asked to picture themselves as the characters in the tale. On the surface, it teaches a simple wisdom of etiquette, that one should not exalt himself in a public situation or risk being shamed. As is often the case with Jesus’ teachings, however, there is a second and more important lesson to be learned.
Obedience Evangelism
Luke tells us that the crowds grew larger, and Matthew tells us that some teachers of the law asked Jesus for a sign to prove his message was from God. While Jesus could have proven his message through a sign, for he had done so many, many times before, he chose to give them no sign (which sparks a conflict that will continue to balloon until things get really intense). Instead he mentions two Gentile people, the people of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba, both of whom had believed God’s messengers (Jonah and Solomon respectively) without receiving a sign. These Gentiles believed and changed how they lived in light of God’s revelation alone.
Fire of Division
Still speaking to his disciples, Jesus tells us some truths about his mission that appear contradictory to how most view Jesus and his work. At Christmas we sing “Peace on Earth, good will toward men” but Jesus isn’t so gentle. “Do you think I’ve come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division!” He talks about “fire” on the earth and vitriol in the home and how it is all purposeful. Difficult teachings to hear, particularly to those who hold that the Old Testament is the anger and vengeful part of the Bible and the New Testament is full of puppies and kittens.
