Luke 18:1–14

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

1.         The opening parable, about a persistent widow, is intended by Jesus that His followers make prayer a central part of their lives and thus not give up to despair.

2.         In the parable there was a judge who was essentially an atheist and uncaring. There was a widow, obviously poor and powerless, who continually approached the judge and asked his help. The judge refused at first, but after a while, due to the constancy of the widow, he grants her request.

3.         The intent of the parable is that for Jesus’ followers (His elect), they are to continue in prayer and God will give them justice, answering their prayers.

4.         Secondly, a Pharisee and a tax collector, are at the Temple praying. The Pharisee does not really pray but boasts of how superior he is in comparison with a despised tax collector, who is obviously Jewish.

5.         The self-righteous religious Pharisee boasts of how wonderful he is while noting the despised tax collector. With five “I’s” the Pharisee lets God know how different he is from the tax collector.

6.         This man, standing a good distance from the Pharisee, beats on his chest in his misery, and asks for forgiveness identifying himself as a “sinner.”

7.         That “bad” man went home “justified,” that is, forgiven of his sin. Not so the Pharisee.  

Gospel Meditation

Luke 17:20–37

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.         Pharisees ask Jesus as to when the kingdom or reign of the Messiah would begin, and Jesus says that it will come but without it being seen.

2.         Instead, the kingdom of God was already present, and indeed, was right in front of them.

3.         Then to His own disciples, Jesus says that they will desire to see the Son of Man, meaning Himself, but they will not see Him, thus referring to the ascension, His return to heaven.

4.         But others will come claiming to be the Christ; these are to be rejected. A day is coming however when they will see Him. Yet, before that time, He will be rejected, meaning the cross.

5.         In fact, life will go on as normal, but as in the days of Noah and Lot, speaking of the great flood and Sodom being destroyed, He will return or be revealed as the Messiah.

6.         People will seek to preserve their lives meanwhile, but they will lose them, yet those who will lose their lives, by means of following Jesus as the Christ, these will live. Here is an allusion to the reality of heaven and hell.

7.         Indeed, life on the planet will continue, and it will be clear and plain when the Kingdom of God does in fact appear.                                 

Gospel Meditation

Luke 17:11–19

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.         It is thought that Jesus, with His disciples, were on the Galilean border with Samaria and Jesus, instead of traveling south through Samaria, headed east to cross the Jordan and proceed south along the Jordan River on the way to Jerusalem.

2.         In an un-named village, 10 lepers, standing at a safe distance from Jesus and companions, loudly called out to Jesus to have mercy on them.

3.         Leprosy, very contagious and without a means to treat it, meant a slow miserable and painful dying. Lepers were not allowed to mix with the general population and were forced to live apart, usually in caves and forests.

4.         Jesus, without seemingly coming near them, told them to show themselves to the priests. There was a procedure conducted by the priests to declare a formerly ill person with leprosy to be able to enter back into his or her community. We find these arrangements in Leviticus 14.

5.         Though all were healed of their leprosy on their way to find the priests, only one returned to thank Jesus and this was a Samaritan. By the way, it would be quite unusual for a Samaritan to be with Jews.

6.         Jesus told the now cured former leper to rise, go his way, because his faith had made him well.

7.         Our key point is that the leper did what Jesus said to do, and then came back giving thanks to the Healer.

Gospel Meditation

Luke 17:1–10

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.

1.         These three stories may or may not be connected.

2.         In the first, “temptations to sin,” was spoken to Jesus’ disciples, likely more than just the Twelve. He warns them that they will be tempted to sin, and it is awfully wrong to tempt another person to sin.

3.         There will be wrongdoing and sinning, and when this happens, the sinner must be spoken to, and just as important, forgiveness is to be given, and repeatedly.

4.         Then the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith, they must have felt that the faith they had could not be sufficient. Jesus then, using a parable says that even if their faith seems small or weak, even then still that faith is powerful, and this taught by using what is termed “oriental hyperbole,” meaning reference to a tiny little mustard seed and the uprooting of a tree that was known for its strong roots.

5.         Now a separate story, Jesus speaks of a servant whose master does not invite that servant to dinner when the servant has completed a task. And does the master even thank the servant for his work? No is the answer, and the lesson is that as His servants His disciples are to consider themselves to be unworthy, as the labor they engage in was only their duty.