Gospel Meditation

Luke 10:28–11:13

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture. Two stories now.

1.         The first story: As Jesus was entering an unknown village (could it have been Bethany, the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus?) a woman named Martha invited Jesus into her home. There is no evidence to suggest the Twelve were there as well.

2.         Martha was bothered that her sister Mary did not help with serving a large meal to Jesus. Very gently Jesus tells Martha that her sister has chosen to do well, not better, and Jesus politely says He will not stop her.

3.         The second story: After Jesus was away praying, His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. (It was customary for Rabbi’s to teach their followers a special prayer.)

4.         Early on Jesus, as part of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 6:5–13, had instructed His followers how to pray, and this known as The Lord’s Prayer.

5.         Here now, in a setting different from that of Matthew’s, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. The result is a shorter and slightly different form of prayer than found in The Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew’s Gospel.

6.         Jesus relates a parable or story about a person who goes to a neighbor requesting help in feeding guests who had just shown up.

7.         The neighbor in need does not give up easily despite the rejection from the neighbor.

8.         Jesus then tells His disciples not to give up in their asking, seeking, and knocking–all referring to prayer, and the reason is that the Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

9.         Students of the Scripture, over the centuries, have given a number of different, even conflicting, explanations for the final verse, verse 13. And we likely will as well.

Luke 10:21-37

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.         At the return of the 72 disciples, and hearing of the success of their mission, Jesus rejoices in the Holy Spirit.

2.         His rejoicing is not in the numbers of those who received the 72 but in the fact that those who were reached was on the basis of nothing more than grace, something that could only come by means of revelation.

3.         At that point, it would seem, a lawyer (read scribe belonging to the Pharisees), in testing Jesus, asks Him how one can inherit, or receive, eternal life. The reason for and behind this query is not certain. It could be a taunt, an accusation, or a sincere longing.

4.         Jesus asks the scribe about what is written in the law and the response from Jesus is the two great commandments, love God fully and love one’s neighbor.

5.         Jesus proceeds then to tell a story, or parable, whether based on fact or fiction is unknown.

6.         It is the story of a certain man, most likely Jewish, who is robbed and beaten on the Jericho Road, not an unusual event, and left for dead.

7.         First a scribe (a descendant of Aaron), like the scribe Jesus is telling the story to, then a Levite (a descendant of Levi), sees the man and passes on without giving aid, likely to avoid becoming ‘unclean’.

8.         A Samaritan then comes along, and at considerable expense to both reputation and material possession, assists the helpless man.

9.         Jesus then asks which of the three was a neighbor to the robbed and beaten man. Of course, the answer is the Samaritan, the one who showed mercy.

10.       Jesus then says, “go and do likewise.” And we must ask, “Would the scribe standing before Jesus be able to do this?”

Luke 10:1–10

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passages of Scripture.

1.         Is it 72 or 70 that were sent out? Manuscripts differ, my guess it was 70, and these went out two by two, to areas where Jesus Himself would soon be coming to.

2.         There was a major harvest just ahead, but the workers were few. In addition, the work would not be easy, rather it would be dangerous, and as an example Jesus says it is like sending lambs out to wolves.

3.         The 70 were to travel lightly and accept whatever help people in the towns they would enter provided.

4.         At the heart of their work was healing and proclaiming that the kingdom of God would be coming near to them.

5.         Jesus issued a word of “woe” or dreadfulness on those cities who rejected His word. In fact, it would be better for cities like Tyre and Sidon, pagan areas, modern Syria, along the upper eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, than for those of the House of Israel.

6.         Lastly, Jesus states that those who will listen to the 70 are really listening to Jesus. But also that those then that reject the message of the 70 are in reality rejecting both Himself and the one who sent Him, that is, the Father.

Luke 9:49–62

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.   While Jesus and the disciples are traveling south to Jerusalem, now in Samaria, see a man casting out demons in Jesus’ name.  And they attempt to stop him because is not one of them. Jesus says, “Do not stop him.” Thus, he is not against you but for us.

2.    Along the way, Jesus sends messengers, some of His

apostles, into a city to “make preparations” so they may

 refresh on their journey. But they are denied such, as

 Samarians, and for many centuries, held to a rival faith and

 had a rival temple in the capital city, Samaria.

3.    James and John (the sons of Thunder), after being

 refused accommodations by the Sarmatians, asked Jesus if

 they could cast fire from heaven upon them. Jesus

 thereupon rebuked these brothers.

4.    Along the way a Samaritan wanted to go with Jesus,

that is, become one of His followers. Jesus, however,

 warns him of the troubles that he would encounter if he

did so.

5.    And there were more of these would-be followers, and

 in each case Jesus warns them of the “cost of discipleship,”

 as Diedrich Bonhoeffer so eloquently put it.

6.    The passage ends with Jesus making reference to a

 farmer who while ploughing a field, and that he must not

 look, evidently in order to plough a straight line, but if he

 did, he was not fit or qualified for the kingdom of God.

Luke 9:37–48

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.        Among those who had heard of the healing power of Jesus was a man with a son who had a series of difficulties, one of which was possession by a demon–he sought Jesus to heal this son. The disciples of Jesus, the nine who had not gone with Jesus up on the mountain, could not cast the evil spirit out but Jesus did.

2.        Then, Jesus for a second time (there would  be one more) told the twelve that He would be “delivered into the hands of men.” However, they did not understand Him, and Luke says this was due to the fact it was “concealed” from them.

3.        And of interest here, Luke reports that they were afraid to ask Jesus about what He meant.

4.        It is of interest also that Matthew’s (Matthew 18:1–6), and Mark’s (Mark 9:33–37) account of the twelve arguing about who is the greatest amongst themselves, both differ from Luke’s.

5.        Jesus’ reply to His disciples is that the one who receives a child because the child believes in Him, this one is the greatest and receiving the child is the same as receiving Jesus, and whoever receives Jesus receives the one who sent Him.

6.        This one, who is faithful in the small and seemingly unimportant ministry, is the greatest.