This week’s readings are chock full of those “more important things.” Can you list some of them?
Blessings, Steve
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We’re reading The One Year Chronological Bible, New Living Translation (Tyndale). It’s best with your own copy. Or, paste in this link to the daily reading schedule:
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This week's highlights:
Jesus has more conflicts with the religious leaders. Sending out the 72 disciples. Satan’s fall from Heaven. The greatest commandment. The Good Samaritan. Mary, Martha, & Lazarus. Money, possessions, inheritance. Another mustard seed reference. The Good Shepherd. The Prodigal Son. The rich man and Lazarus. Divorce and Marriage. The Rich Young Ruler. Eye of the Needle.
Comments:
October 15th — John 8:44 — we have a little primer on Satan this week, and from an unimpeachable source! Satan loves “to do evil things,” is “a murderer,” is a liar who “always hated the truth,” and is “the father of lies.” Later on the same reading day in Luke 10:18, Jesus states “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.” His disciples would know He was referencing Isaiah 14:12-17 and Ezekiel 28:11-19.
October 16th — Luke 11:29-30 — People are sometimes confused by this passage. The “sign of Jonah” just means that the people of Nineveh knew all about what God did to Jonah before he finally came and preached to them. Jonah’s travails were a sign to them that he was sent by God. The people of Nineveh repented when they (finally) heard Jonah’s message from God. Jesus is telling the crowd that what will happen to Him will be a sign to the Israelites that God sent Jesus to them ... also, Jesus compares his upcoming death/resurrection to Jonah spending three days inside the great fish.
October 17th — Luke 13:18-21 — The Kingdom of Heaven explained in two illustrations. Both are about starting small and then expanding. Mostly, though, we miss the point: we think there is something we are going to do that establishes the Kingdom. A careful reading reveals that it is in the nature of the mustard seed and in the yeast to expand ... all on their own. The Kingdom will start small and keep on expanding because that is how the Kingdom works. By the way: the mustard seed illustration is meant to be shocking (and possibly humorous). No one would plant a mustard seed in their garden! It would push out every other plant until only the mustard plant remained.
October 18th — John 10:16 — Other sheep: most scholars believe this refers to all the non-Jews who have elected to follow Jesus over the millennia. Xr Luke 13:29-30 for more.
October 19th — Luke 15:20 — “While he was a long way off....” One of the best parts of the Prodigal Son Parable is that the father was watching for the son’s return, that he loved his lost son so much he had positioned himself in such a way (perhaps in a tower or on a hillside) that he could see “a long way off” in hope that his son might someday come to his senses and return. If that happened, he didn’t want to miss it! Call this “leaning in” to forgiveness. It’s how God acts when we are wayward.
October 20th — John 11:47-48 — Their faith in God had fallen so low, to the point that they no longer believed God could protect them as a nation. They concluded that, if “everyone will believe” in Jesus, such an event would lead to the destruction of Israel. If only they could have seen just who it was they were planning to kill “for the good of the nation.”
October 21st — Mark 10:23, Luke 18:24-28 — His disciples, like most people those days, equated wealth with God’s pleasure. In other words, if you were wealthy, it was because God looked upon you with favor (i.e., you couldn’t possibly be a sinner). It was a nifty bit of circular reasoning that had been around since the days of Job (at least!). But, as we know from the book of Job, and from these teachings of Jesus, wealth is no insulation from hard times and it can be even harder for a wealthy person to get into heaven. They can fall prey to their “things” or their social position slipping into first place in front of God, turning their wealth into an idol. This is not a foregone conclusion, as some would have us believe. But, like anything in our lives, the potential is there for idolatry ... just a bit more so with wealth. Eye of the needle, you know.
Next week:
Zacchaeus (that wee little man). An anointing at Bethany, Triumphal entry to Jerusalem, Pay taxes to Caesar (the government)? Moneychangers in the Temple. The greatest commandment. The widow’s mite. Jesus prophecies about the future. The final judgment.
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