Luke gives us so much go learn about Jesus, and the hits just keep on coming. This past Sunday we looked at ch. 7 where Jesus accepts the invitation from the enemy Roman soldier, to heal his servant. Jesus will love the enemy really, and heads for his house. Before he can get to the house, the soldier has begged Jesus to stay away because he is unworthy. He tells Jesus that all Jesus has to do is say the word, a lot like his own power to send orders, and he knows the servant will be healed. WOW, Jesus says, he has never seen so much faith in all of Israel.
Jesus lets us know two or three great things here. Faith is believing without seeing, and without even being present, which will be very important to those who live after the time of Jesus. We don't have to be in the very presence of Jesus to be healed, encouraged or blessed. Jesus just says the word. We are going to be touched by his words, even when we live years later. It's also very important to learn that our prayers travel a lot further than we think they do. Actually we can pray about people, situations, world issues and challenges, from a distance, and it's still a very powerful prayer. So the next time you hear about horrible events in the news, from somewhere very far away, lift that situation up in prayer, knowing that God can work there as well. We can make a difference, more than we thought.
Jesus then stops a funeral procession and raises the dead man, to give him back to his widowed mother. In the first century the care of the parents was in the hands of the children. This was her only son, she was going to be without support. So Jesus shows compassion and heals the son, so that he can go on taking care of his mother. I'm particularly touched by this story, as Elaine and I are in the process of helping her mother move from a group home in Florida, to a group home near us. Her dementia is getting worse. Caring for parents has become more and more a responsibility for us Baby Boomers than we at first realized. My parents didn't have to worry about my grandparents, so this is a new level of involvement and responsibility now. Seeing that Jesus get's involved and helps out is good news for us too.
John the Baptist gets back into the picture here. He is concerned from his prison cell, that Jesus isn't doing what he expected Jesus to be doing by now. To prepare the way for the Messiah, was like getting ready for a great war that would take away the enemies of Israel, expecting someone like David to be a great warrior and re-establish the nation of Israel. John the Baptist hasn't seen any of the sweeping away the enemy yet, and was wondering what was going on. So he sent some of his followers to go check this out. Jesus invites the followers to hang around for a bit, so they can see what Jesus is doing.
After a while, Jesus tells John's followers, "Go tell John, what you see and hear." take a look at what is really going on. The blind can see, the deaf can hear, the lame can walk, and good news is being proclaimed to all people. The real work of the Messiah this first time, is to work on the far more important mission of recovering the relationship to the Creator, not restoring the flag to the capitol, the real mission is to see the relationship is an eternal one, not for a brief reign of a king to the palace. Jesus asks us to look at what we are really accomplishing with our ministry. Are people really being transformed and connected to our God? It's not about buildings but about lives being brought closer to the Creator and what God hopes we will become.
So I pray that your reading the Gospel of Luke one chapter a week with us, will begin to help you discover what the essentials of our ministry is, "We are partners in the ministry of Jesus, to connect people to God, to one another, and to a broken and hurting world, so that future generations will praise the Lord." (from our Vision Statement.) May you see the part you can play in helping people get closer to God.
Later this week we will look at the diner party with Simon the Pharisee and the woman who was washing Jesus feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. Great stuff there too, about the great mercy and grace of God for us all.
May God bless your journey of faith and discovery.
Pastor Jeff
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