Luke 12:13-21

     Jesus is by now a known and respected speaker. A man in the crowd spoke up and asked Jesus to require his brother to divide with him the property their father had left for them. It has been speculated that this would have been the younger brother. The larger share of property always went to the eldest son in the family. Although this seems unfair to most people today, it was the accepted practice in many cultures throughout history. Scholars say that it was to ensure the maintenance of larger estates for social stability.
     This isn’t to say that the younger brothers enjoyed the situation...as this story and the tale of the prodigal son both illustrate. In this particular situation, the elder brother has apparently refused to give the younger sibling his allotted share and this defrauded man looks to Jesus to remedy the situation.
      From a certain perspective, this may have seemed right. Jesus was respected. He clearly had an air of authority that impressed the crows and made his opponent nervous. Perhaps the brother had even come and joined the crowd, thereby acknowledging some sense of respect for Jesus’ opinion. Yet, from the perspective of time, we might look at this man and wonder why he was bothering with physical property when he had the lord of life in front of him.
     The response of Jesus doesn’t appear to be scornful, but more sad when he asks who had given him the right to judge the matter. Then he used the moment to pass on a teaching to the entire crowd when he warned them to beware of greed, for their true and genuine life was not summed up in what they owned.
      Jesus proceeded to tell the parable of the man with the bigger and better barn. He’d had a great harvest and decided to tear down his barn and build one good enough for his harvest. Once it was done he congratulated himself and decided he could be at ease. But God tells him he’s a fool, for he would die that night and what good would his barns or harvest be?
     This is how it was, Jesus said, with those who pile up earthly riches, but are not rich with God and spirit.
     Jesus had a clear sense of priorities. A person grasping after wealth was missing out on eternal riches. Most spiritual paths have tended to raise concern over those who emphasize the physical over the spiritual. A Hindu fable ends with the comment that those who live only for bread will do anything to attain it.
     One wonders if the man wanting his share of the his father’s property understood, or rejected the teaching. Certainly, Christians have not always had a comfortable relationship with the physical world. Responses range from ascetics who reject all physical pleasure or comfort, to those who have convinced themselves that being a Christians is a path and justification for affluence.
     It is true that Jesus’ words can be taken in more than one way. He doesn’t necessarily say that wealth and spiritual riches are necessarily exclusive. That is, perhaps someone can be rich in both ways. The dangers of it are clear--the temptation to forget priorities in the pursuit of worldly gain. On the other extreme, few Christians have gone the path of someone like Mother Teresa, and many feel a sense of spiritual angst in observing that sort of consecration.
      It is not a subject that is or should be easily resolved.

What is your relationship with money?
If you were brutally honest with yourself, how important is physical wealth to you?
Would your attitude toward worldly security lead you to be blind to the treasure of Jesus standing in front of you?

Luke 12:4-13

     Please Note:  After today, the Bible Study will be taking a 2-week break - and will be back on May 4.   
    No doubt because of the gathering enmity, Jesus talks about priorities to his disciples. At this point he may also be addressing the crowds who’ve come to hear him. They need to keep priorities straight. Ones who can hurt or kill the body can do nothing more than that. They need to keep their eyes on eternity and the one who presides over it. Though he uses a fearful image of hell here, he goes on to speak of the more tender compassion of God watching over the sparrows that from a human aspect are sold for almost nothing. Even the hairs on a perso’s head are counted by God. He ends this little teaching by saying they should not be afraid, for people are of more value than many sparrows
    Note the use of the image of fear. Jesus spoke of “fearing” God who has charge of eternity, yet a few sentences later tells them not to be afraid. There are, of course, two kinds of fear. There is the kind we feel at pain or loss or approaching danger or disaster. But fear as the bible speaks of it in relation to God is something different. Respect and aw are closer in meaning here. In other words, we should feel tremendous respect and breathless awe for the lord who made heaven and earth, and who presides over eternity. But we need not tremble with any other kind of fear because of that. We are valuable to that same God.
     Jesus promises to represent his followers to God. His words are difficult to understand about forgiving those who speak against him but not those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, especially as elsewhere the impression is given that a loving God is prepared to welcome and love the returning sinner. One scholar suggests that the attitude of blaspheming the Holy Spirit is to be in a state in which no forgiveness is wanted nor could it be communicated to such a person. That might more sense in the context of the larger picture of God’s love. A person might voluntarily separate him/herself from God and forgiveness would mean nothing to this person in that state. But if the state would change, (as in the prodigal who came home) then a new possibility might present itself.
     Jesus goes on to speak of what seems to be another subject, related only by its connection to the Holy Spirit. When brought before the powerful of the world, they should not worry about what to say, because the Holy Spirit will teach them in that hour how to respond. In its own way, these words of Jesus are equally challenging. Many who have faced a difficult question or confrontation on their faith look back and wish the answers had come more easily and had been more effective or meaningful. Although Jesus could have been directing these words solely to his first set of disciples and the special challenges they would face, it seems unlikely it would have been recorded in the bible if that was the case. We generally have a conviction that what Jesus said to his first followers applies to all those who have sought to be his disciples.
     It is all right to have questions and not neatly package up something from the Bible as ‘understood and dealt with.’ In fact, nothing should be--we should always remain open for further growth and understanding. A passage we never “got” may suddenly gain meaning in certain situations. A passage we have loved but thought had nothing new for us may come to challenge us or raise new questions. It is a process of growth. One of the possible ways to approach these particular words is to remember that we can’t anticipate the times Jesus was saying his followers would meet. Our answers in such situations can’t be canned or said by rote. We can only prepare by trying to grow in God’s spirit and trusting in God rather than ourselves.

What things are fearful to you?
How do you discern the activity of God’s spirit in your life?

Luke 12:1-3

     What Jesus said to the Pharisees was in a private home, though the dinner party likely wasn’t private in the way we think of privacy. Scholars tell us that in a situation where such a dinner was held with a guest like Jesus, the home was open for people to come and listen to the dinner conversation. No doubt it was a mark of distinction if your home was a popular spot for those who wanted to be aware of the intellectual life of the community. And it probably added to the ire of the Pharisees that Jesus’ criticisms of them were not kept for their ears alone.
     Now Jesus has left the home, the Pharisees are looking for ways to catch him up, and the crowds have gathered in large numbers to see him. Jesus speaks first to his disciples, telling them to beware of the “yeast” of the Pharisees. They had not, apparently, been invited to dine along with Jesus, although some of them likely did join those who stood on the edge of the room to listen. But Jesus’ warning gives the impression that others may not have been there, and perhaps without thinking were considering Jesus’ presence in the prominent Pharisee’s house as a climb up the social scale for the ministry. Perhaps they thoug ht it was, by extension, a mark of distinction for them. But Jesus did not want them led astray by hypocrisy, which was common amongst many Pharisees. He told them that things that are hidden or covered and anything secret will become known. He applies it to the disciples saying that anything they have said in the dark will be heard in the light, anything they have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the rooftops.
     Jesus was not all about pointing fingers at other people. It’s easy to talk about other people’s hypocrisy and forget your own. Jesus seems to be seeking to guard his disciples against it by reminding them that you can’t count on anything remaining unknown. If there is something disjointed between what they claim to believe, and what they actually do, then they also will be discovered to be hypocrites.
      There was a time when Christians wanted to guard themselves against charges of hypocrisy or self-righteousness. There was an attempt by any Christians to prove that they were just like other people and didn’t consider themselves any better. One way some did that was to let their public behavior reach some of the lower common denominators. But the effort to prove they were no different from other people as Christians inevitably raises another question. Why be a Christian if Christians are no different from other people? Jesus called his followers to follow--not the standards of other people--but a higher internal one. It isn’t about being better than other people, but about continually becoming a better person than you were the day before.
     One of the more modern definitions of integrity is doing the right thing even when no else knows you are doing it. The words of Jesus here tell us he could approve of that definition.

If someone called you a hypocrite, how would you respond?
Has the hypocrisy of “Christians” ever bothered you?
Have you known people who used the hypocrisy of Christians/church-goers as an excuse to avoid church or active faith involvement?
What efforts do you make to lessen the hypocrisy in your own life and actions?

Luke 11:36-54

     A Pharisee invites Jesus to a meal and Jesus seems to court controversy and conflict. Upon arriving at the home, he does not do the ceremonial washing that was customary at the time. The Pharisee notes this with surprise. Although Luke doesn’t tell us that the host comments, Jesus responds in any case. His words are bold saying that the Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside there was nothing but greed and wickedness.
     It is hard not to wonder if part of the story has here been left untold, since the launch into woes to the Pharisees comes so fast and with seemingly little provocation from the man who had invited Jesus to dinner.
     For Christians, “Pharisee” is a symbol of opposition to Jesus, for hypocrisy and enmity to the truth of God. Yet, this may not be a completely accurate picture of the time or their relationship with Jesus. There are some scholars who have speculated upon whether Jesus began himself as a Pharisee, but came to call them to account for their religious and spiritual faults and abuses. This would raise particularly negative emotions on the part of the Pharisees since it would have come off as disloyalty and ‘treason from within.’ There is no evidence, however, so this remains speculation. It is known that the Pharisees were largely responsible for sustaining the faith of Israel through and after the fall of Jerusalem and is remembered positively for the part it played. And it should be remembered that there were Pharisees who believed in Jesus.
     That isn’t to minimize pharisaic abuses and problems. The religious elite of Jesus’ day were often elitist. The ritualistic part of Jewish life was often emphasized far out of proportion than it should have been. If a person didn’t have the time (working class) or the money (again, the poor and the working class) to maintain all the rituals, such as ritual cleansing, then they were often defined by the Pharisees as sinners and unacceptable.
     It is a temptation of religious minded people to emphasize rules and outward regulations or some other specific issue when under duress or other forms of stress. Christians today sometimes pinpoint one or two issues, neglecting many other things Jesus called us to do in the same way. It is easier to define who is acceptable if there is a simple yardstick. But Jesus tended to avoid these. It was that we can be satisfied with a simple seven times forgiving our neighbors, instead should forgive a ridiculously large number of times (implying a number too large to count). It is spiritual and moral cleanliness on the inside, instead of rituals on the outside. Jesus accused the Pharisees of using the tithe of herbs and spices as the measurement, while neglecting justice and the love of God. Why couldn’t they do both?
      Jesus is not here rejecting rituals or things like the tithe. He would himself follow them in a wholesome manner, not for the sake of a rule, but become the ritual can be a healthy and wholesome aid to the spiritual journey.
     To emphasize the appearance of faith with nothing on the inside backing it up is hollow and dangerous. Jesus said the Pharisees liked the places of honor, but they are like unmarked graves.
     At this point, the lawyers got annoyed and spoke up, feeling they’d been insulted as well. And Jesus said it was no better with them. They load people with terrible burdens and give no aid to help people bear it. They are no different than their ancestors who murdered the prophets (who also called Israelites to repentance).
      It is controversies such as these that got people mad enoughto want Jesus dead. No one likes being called a hypocrite. No one wants to be told that their way of doing things has gone off the tracks of what it should be.
     What those who stereotype the Pharisees (and lawyers) of these biblical controversies is that if they didn’t care on some level about being right with God, they probably wouldn’t have been so offended. But it is also instructive that even those who do have this desire can still be on the wrong track in how they act upon it. Is it any wonder that Jesus spent so much time on the sins of self-righteousness and judgmentalism? These are the sins of the religiously inclined - including Christians.
      Sadly, rather than taking his words to heart and seeing to their own faults, these Pharisees and lawyers became his enemies, trying to trap him with his own words.

Who are the “Pharisees” of our world & church today?
How much “Pharisee” lies within you?
For what would Jesus call us to account today?

Luke 11:33-35

     Jesus begins here by pointing out the obvious truth that no one lights a lamp just to hide it in a cellar; you light a lamp and put it on a lampstand so everyone can see its light. In the Sermon on the Mount as recorded by Matthew, Jesus said something similar to this occasion, but used the image of hiding the light under a bushel (bushel is the familiar translation, though, for example, the New English Bible uses “meal tub.”). Some translations of Luke show Jesus saying you don’t light a lamp to put in a cellar or a bushel. The second image, of hiding one’s light under a bushel has become proverbial, even for people who are unfamiliar with the bible.
     Jesus then relates light to the eye. The body’s lamp is the eye. When the eye is sound the whole body is full of light and the opposite is true as well, when the eye isn’t sound, the body is in darkness. Therefore don’t let the light in you be darkness.
      Verse 36 is left out of some ancient manuscripts. It points out that if the whole body is fully light, it will be wholly bright, etc. One scholar suggest there is a mistranslation from the ancient Aramaic and it should say “then all about you will be light.” This would accord with Jesus’ use of the same imagery in the sermon on the mount, that the light we carry can give light to those around us.
     It may be no wonder that the first image has become used as a metaphor or proverb, yet this portion is less so. While seemingly obvious, it has subtleties that need deeper examination, although the first statement shouldn’t be passed over as easily as it sometimes is, either.
      Jesus is not talking about physical blindness (and he certainly isn’t judging anyone who is physically blind), though it probably does relate in his discussion, because sight makes use of light and light is unavailable to the one who is blind. But Jesus is certainly pressing for a more spiritual discussion. Jesus seems to be warning against spiritual blindness. On another occasion he also spoke of “blind guides” amongst the spiritual leaders of his people. Luke will next record a controversy in which Jesus speaks a number of “woes” to the Pharisees, a group which largely (though not entirely) was in opposition to him.
     Spiritual blindness is still prevalent. Ironically, many religious folks of today tend to disagree on what constitutes blindness, or rather, in what subjects are some blind while others see the truth. John Wesley tried to cut through that by finding union through love for Jesus while letting Christians disagree in other matters.
     Jesus had the right to look at others and suggest they need to be more careful about discerning the light. His followers should be cautious in doing the same. And witness should not be confused here with argument, which can become judgmental. A person may assume that it is witness when he/she goes out to convince others of their understanding of the truth. But the light a Christian bears is not from peripheral matters, but the love of God and the good news of Jesus. Jesus was gracious, in the Sermon on the Mount to say his followers were the light of the world. But we know that his followers are only bearers of light (and sometimes poorly) and the source is from God.
      Barclay concentrates also upon the individual, suggesting we look at ways that we have allowed the inner light to be darkened. Have our hearts become hard, dull or rebellious?

How do you discern the light within?
What is it that keeps you perception and transmission of light from being completely sound?
As Holy Week begins, what does the stark pain of the cross say to you?

Luke 11:29-32

     This is going up a day early, due to a District Meeting tomorrow.  Scroll down for last week's study.


     This could have been at the same time Jesus talked of the evil spirits, or could refer to another time. We hear that when the crowds were increasing he began to say that this generation is evil, it seeks for a sign. In Matthew, he is asked specifically for a sign. The answer is the same. The only sign that will be given is the sign of Jonah. In the way Jonah became a sign to the people of Ninevah, the son of Man will be a sign to this generation.
     Today, some people interpret the reference to Jonah as referring to Jonah’s three days inside the fish. That is, Jonah spent three days inside a fish and Jesus will spend three days inside a tomb.
     Yet these aspects of the stories do not otherwise relate to each other.
     Jonah was inside a fish because he was reluctant to do the will of God and preach repentance to his enemy (for fear that his enemy might repent and God would forgive them). So he tried to run away from God and the days inside the fish were to teach him obedience. After being spit up on shore, he reluctantly goes to Ninevah, gives a brief message and hopes for fire and brimstone. Instead, the people repent and God relents.
     Jesus would spend three days inside a tomb after he was crucified. While he would have preferred not facing the cross, and prayed that he might not, he nonetheless said he’d do whatever God willed. So it is hard in this context, to connect Jonah and the resurrection. Jesus himself did not do so. He said that the Son of Man will be to this generation as Jonah was to the people of Ninevah (who hadn’t known about the fish at all.)
     Jesus would more appear to be saying that repentance is the key. That is a less popular concept for some religious people, especially today, and the non-religious folks of today might regard it as archaic concept. Yet even psychiatry has recognized the need of people to deal with their past, what others have done with them and what they have chosen to do themselves.
     Repentance is not simply feeling bad over what we’ve done (and all respect to the movies, love doesn’t erase the need to say we’re sorry). To repent means being sorry and choosing to do things differently. There’s a story of a brother and sister and the brother kept hitting his little sister. She’d cry and he’d quickly say ‘I’m sorry, don’t cry.” But he’d do it again and again. Finally, when she was crying, and their mother was coming, he frantically said he was sorry and didn’t she believe he was sorry. Her answer? “When are you going to be sorry enough to stop hitting me?” Her answer could apply to situations of domestic violence, but to all situations requiring repentance. That is, repentance means being sorry enough to stop doing it. But, to apply the earlier parable (last week’s study) about the evil spirit, perhaps we should add that repentance could mean stopping, but then putting a positive action and attitude in place so that the impulse to do something bad will have no welcome.
     Jesus combined his imagery about Jonah with a reference to the Queen of the South. This would be Sheba, generally identified as having come from Ethiopia to hear the wisdom of Solomon. While many in Jesus generation are not listening to someone in their midst, the Queen came many miles to hear someone who was even less wise than Jesus. If the people of Ninevah where on the jury, they’d hardly be impressed. They’d repented at the preaching of Jonah and many were ignoring something far greater than Jonah.


How have you heard or understood the word, repentance in the past?
What do you think people in today’s world would think of it?
It’s been said that one goal of psychiatry is to free people from the tyranny of the past. Regarding some aspects of a person’s life, could repentance do the same?
In a world in which many people are ignoring Jesus, or treating his truth in a trivial manner, how can committed Christians share the message in a way that people can understand his relevance?

Luke 11:24-28

     After talking of unclean spirits and who had the authority to deal with them, Jesus postulated a situation in which an unclean spirit has been driven out of a man. But the spirit goes here and there, but finds no rest. So it decides to return to its original home. There he finds it swept and put in order, so the spirit gets seven other spirits even worse than himself and they enter the man so that his later condition is worse than the first.
     This is an odd story. One commentator says it could simply be a warning to those who’ve been healed to be on guard against the danger of relapse. But it could also be a parable. In Matthew it is linked with a comment that the people’s response to Jesus will only be temporary. But in Luke (and Jesus could have told stories at many occasions, applying them differently), there is a sense that when an evil spirit has been driven out, it is not enough to simply put things in order. A beneficial and new dynamic has to occupy the empty space. (This could be applied to church life. Churches sometimes concentrate on fixing the negative things that bother people, but may not give enough attention to creating positive programs or attitudes that make the negative less powerful.) At the very least, in a world that wants quick fixes and easy answers, this story can remind us that few things are that easy and taking that kind of approach can lead to greater problems down the road.
     The idea of evil spirits aside, this story might be applied to any situation where choices are made to get rid of something negative.
      At this point, a woman in the crowd has been listening and is impressed with Jesus. She shouts out a compliment, couched as awareness of how blessed the mother of Jesus is to have such a son. It would be phrased differently today, more likely as saying it outright, ‘your parents must be proud.’ (It is hard not to be imaginative, particularly with the woman’s more elaborate statement. Was she a mother whose child had gone on a negative path and she was experiencing some angst as she looked at Jesus. Or was she a new mother, with a child at her breast and thinking how her own little one would turn out?
     Whatever the woman’s particular condition, Jesus turned it around into a teaching, as he so often did. Blessed is his mother? A mere physical relationship is not enough. Admiring someone isn’t enough. The real and greater blessedness is found in those who hear God’s word and keep it.

Have you ever known someone who made a good decision, then backslid to worse than they were before?
What could they have done that might have helped them end in a better place?
As Jesus wisely linked hearing and doing, where in your life can that link be discerned?