Luke

I started reading Luke this past Tuesday morning at a hotel where I was for some work meetings. I had time to get through the first nine chapters, but only was able to get back to it this morning to finish it.

I was struck by the emphasis on teaching in Luke. More often than not, the miracles seem to be an aside to what Jesus was doing. Often, he'd interrupt his teaching to heal someone, or heal them to make a point.

I was also struck by people's inability to grasp what seems to be obvious. On three occasions, Luke notes that Mary didn't understand what God meant when she was told about Jesus. Later, at the empty tomb, Peter saw it was empty, after the ladies told him about the angels' message, and he "wondered what had happened."

I can't imagine what it must have been like to people in Jesus' day to be listening to his teaching and watching his life. It was so against what the people were taught about God, and what they expected of God and his return, that it was clearly hard to grasp. I guess if you believed something all your life, even if you saw it with your own eyes, it would be hard to undo that previous understanding.

Of course, in Luke especially, it seems Jesus spent a lot of time devoted to telling the Pharisees and the leaders in the temple that they had gotten it wrong. They had the information to draw people to God (the Scriptures), but they we're holding it from them. They were not modeling the Law of Moses as God intended. They wanted to be honoured, but God wanted them to honour others. They wanted prominence, but God doesn't want to share that. Instead, he wants to give favour to "the least of these."

I find it interesting that in response to John's question about Jesus, Jesus says 'blessed are those who do not fall away because of what Jesus did.' I guess Jesus himself understood that people were finding his teachings and actions hard to take.

Jesus was a revolutionary. He healed when he wasn't supposed to. He ate with those he shouldn't have. He spent time with people that he was not supposed to. Of course, these rules were what the people had made up and / or believed. Jesus taught and showed that his people needed to look out for those in need, that that was who his father was after. In 10:21, Jesus thanks his father: "I am grateful that you hid all this from wise and educated people and showed it to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that is what pleased you." I like that, because I'm ordinary. I realize that the world looks at accomplishments, education and acclaim; God looks at people's dependence on Him.

I think the thing that struck me the most is Jesus' observation about the widow's offering in 21:1-4 -- "Jesus looked up and saw some rich people tossing their gifts into the offering box. He also saw a poor widow putting in two pennies. And he said, 'I tell you that this poor woman has put in more than all the others. Everyone else gave what they didn't need. But she is very poor and gave everything she had.'"

Jesus spent a lot of his time trying to debunk the teachings and lifestyles of the leaders of the temple. Here, he praises the widow for her offering, all she had, to the temple. I didn't see it before, but in other cases Jesus told his followers to sell everything and give it away. In some cases, it was to the poor, in other cases, it was to God, which I can only assume would be through the temple.

In spite of its shortcomings, and even corruption, Jesus must have seen that the temple was God's place and that there was still hope in it. He also spent a lot of time teaching in the temple, even though it was against the leaders in the temple.

If I were to translate that to today, it seems that although there may be some challenges within the structure of church, it is still a place where God wants to do something. I'm sure there's more there for me to learn, if I just think about it.