Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled ...
Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The phrase "how they chose the places of honor" troubles me. In truth it comes way to close to my experiences growing up in my 20s, 30s and 40s in the body of Christ. Not sure why but I gravitated toward, and wanted, religious power. Sadly this is an all too real commentary on church life and how people are driven to acquire fleshly power. I wonder what it is that appeals most to us about religious power? Is it people that we admire or something a bit darker?
In contrast Jesus speaks to his hearers, and to us, about the end result of humility. Even so, I suspect that few people really understand humility - in my thinking it probably looks a lot more like humiliation than I want to confess to. In my life the path of humility has been a hard one. Time and time again I have had to eat the pompous religious words that I have spoken. Being confronted by my own arrogance and judgmentalism has been life changing. I have so far to go.
Help us all to be content to sit in the lowest place Lord.
Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?
One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things.
Dropsy is an acute disease that presents itself in swollen parts of the body due to an accumulation of fluid - Jesus would have been able to have seen that the man before him suffered from it. I think that, since the man departed after he was healed, it is reasonable to assume that the man was planted there to test Jesus in order to bring an accusation against him. Using a sick man is a sad commentary about the lengths this religious ruler would go.
What sort of competitive jealousy must have existed in this Pharisaical ruler to use a sick person in this perverted fashion? Was not this religious leader called by God to help such people? I wish that this passage was singular in history. Sadly people still use the poor and the hurting to achieve perverted goals. It is as if love had never entered their hearts. Thankfully Jesus would not be dissuaded. The compassion of Christ always trumps religious perversion.
Let compassion reign in me today Lord.
How often would I have gathered your children together ...
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
In passages like this Jesus speaks in a way that two meanings can be extrapolated from it. The obvious meaning is that his ministry would continue until that last day that he entered Jerusalem on a donkey as people shouted ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ The second subtler meaning is a bit more prophetic and speaks to the day of his second coming. Some feel that the days mentioned by him are an allusion to centuries. Always interesting to ponder.
In these few paragraphs we see the courageous and loving heart of the Son of God. Unafraid of a powerful king he continues on from town to town being moved by compassion to feed, teach and heel the people of Israel. You can sense the pain in his voice as he speaks of Jerusalem. It is like he knows that the city will be the end of his days and is so saddened that the people called to be a bright city on a hill have turned to something dark and sinister.
You have called us a city on a hill Lord. Help us to shine with your glorious light today.
Strive to enter through the narrow door.
He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’
I wonder what the person meant when they asked about "those who are saved"? Did they understand salvation the way that Christians do today or was the salvation they asked about referring to something more temporal than eternal? Whatever the case it is obvious that Jesus had eternity in mind when he answered. I wonder what they thought the narrow door was. The imagery of one knocking on that narrow heavenly door is a troubling picture.
It is sad to think about what Jesus says.. how many who dined with him and heard his teaching are shut out from heaven. The application for those back then was obvious. For us today it is a bit more subtle yet ever so compelling to consider the fate of those who say no to the wooing of the Holy Spirit. Sadly some today, who hear Christ's message and partake at his communion table, will experience a similar fate. These do not know God and are not known by Him.
Help us Lord to know you. Cause our hearts to bow down in worship.
What is the kingdom of God like?
He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”
I once heard it said that faith is all about the little things that we do when no one is looking. Like the mustard seed or a bit of yeast a small act can have an large result when it is done in faith. Consider how the shepherd boy slew the giant Goliath in the name of the Lord with just a stone. This one act of faith changed the destiny of a nation. And what of Esther's courageous act of faith as she risked her life to save her people? Amazing things have been done in faith.
This is what the kingdom of God is like. When Jesus says (describing how his true followers care for the poor) ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’ he speaks of a kingdom where love is actuated by faith and people's needs are met. Like the seed and the leaven, faith is an influence that causes life to be different in a wonderful way. Apart from faith the world would be a much smaller and darker place to live.
Cause faith to arise in us today Lord. Let us sow seeds of faith, hope and love in small ways today.
Woman, you are freed from your disability.
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.
The hardhearted callousness of religion and religious leaders prevails unto this day. Theologies and theologians who allow rules to trump grace and mercy must break the heart of God. It is hard to imagine how the religious ruler in this story could have criticized the Lord Jesus for doing something that only God could have enabled him to do. Sadly history is filled with such stories. Heavenly movements on earth have always been resisted by fleshly minded people.
Even so, it is impossible to minimize the glory of God as Jesus called to the disabled woman to come forward. What would it have been like to hear your name called by him? Can you imagine the joy that arose in her as she felt the healing touch of God? It reminds me of the day when the inner and outer eyes of my first wife, Ellen, were opened. It also reminds me that God is not too busy to notice the pain and suffering of his children.
Help me to be aware of those who are in pain today Lord.
A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard ...
I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
The transition in this passage from repentance to a parable about a tree that does not bear fruit is compelling. Do you find it interesting that Jesus used three years, the length of his messianic ministry, as the time that the owner of the vineyard came looking for fruit? I wonder how the crowds heard this parable and if they caught the connection between the barren fig tree and themselves? Do you think that they understood what he was teaching them in the parable?
On a more contemporary note, do you think that religious people these days are concerned about fruits of repentance or are they happy to merely produce the colorful leaves of religious activity. I wonder if the Holy Spirit responds in a manner similar to the vinedresser in the parable? How many years does He patiently dig around in our lives spreading heavenly manure hoping that we will respond and produce the spiritual fruit of love, joy, peace and patience?
Thank you Lord for your steadfast love that never comes to an end as you spread heavenly manure on my life.
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