The disciples seemed to live one day at a time with little thought of the future, except they felt that Jesus would be great, and they would have important roles (Luke 9:46). They did not understand that He would leave them to finish the work of establishing the church under the direction of the Holy Spirit. They would be 'put in charge' of the church and prepare the generations of believers to eagerly anticipate His return.
People always care about what is important to them; but in other matters they are either indifferent, care-less or exploitative. Although Jesus used parables, many of which may have seemed to have a general moral meaning, the disciples had started to realise that Jesus was speaking to them (Luke 12:41). Jesus would be going away (John 14:28) but would return for those who were expectantly waiting for Him (Hebrews 9:28). The task of the disciples, in their calling to be Jesus’ apostles, was to prepare His church to be ready for His return.
What is worse: doing wrong or failing to do what is right? The answer is simple - they are both equally bad. Jesus was addressing His trainee apostles and He wanted to ensure that they understood the magnitude of the responsibility of the commission they had received. Walking out was no option! If employees who fail in their tasks are disciplined even though they may claim ignorance, and those who know what they should do are punished more severely, what about the foremen? They will surely face a much greater punishment for their failures. As for the mana
Some sentimental people think that God's job is to be nice to everybody, so that they can enjoy His blessings and get His help when they want it, ignoring Him when they are managing fine (Mark 7:6). However, that is no way to relate with the God revealed in the Bible, whose character and nature is seen in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-4)! God is loving and kind and caring and compassionate (Psalm 116:5); but He is also true and just and righteous (Psalm 145:17) and hates evil (Proverbs 6:16-19). All those who seek His Kingdom will love Him, but others will resist His Kingly de
Everybody likes to be an expert in their own area. The British seem to have an obsession with the weather, and enjoy finding ways of predicting what it will be. The same was true for Jews in Jesus' day. The signs of tomorrow's weather were easy to detect, and brought satisfaction to the self-styled meteorological expert.
There is a time for every decision: miss it and the opportunity has gone. Jesus was telling the religious leaders that they could not tell the signs of the (spiritual) times (Luke 12:54-56). Although they were good at forecasting the weather, they could not recognise the Light of the World even when He was standing in front of them! Then Jesus changed the metaphor: the little story focuses on two men - one has done wrong against the other.
This is a beautiful world, but it has been terribly spoiled. Although the kindly fingerprints of God's creative majesty are everywhere, so too is the ugly wreckage caused by sin. Jesus was not indifferent to the tragedy of Paradise Lost; indeed, that was the purpose of His coming – that He would redeem a people for Himself (Titus 2:14) and bring everything under His authority and make them new (Ephesians 1:10).
We are often in too much of a hurry. We plant and then immediately want the fruit. But trees need time to develop in strength. The background to this parable is in Leviticus 19:23-25, which says, "‘When you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, regard its fruit as forbidden. For three years you are to consider it forbidden; it must not be eaten. In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit. In this way your harvest will be increased.
Jesus came to release people from the grip of Satan's power, and from the curse of sin (Hebrews 2:14-15). The demons knew it too (Luke 4:34). But how could anybody really know that He had power over the devil and all his bad works? Today's passage was a living parable. By calling the bent-over woman to the front of the synagogue, He not only tested her faith but also challenged the assumption that women and the sick should be kept out of sight because they were less worthy before God than the religiously self-important men (Matthew 20:29-34).
Jesus had just healed a crippled woman; but it was on the Sabbath and in the synagogue (Luke 13:10-13). It seems that He was deliberately provoking a confrontation, because the synagogue ruler could not contain his outburst. In his religious rule book, healing was work and therefore forbidden on the Sabbath. He challenged Jesus to stop healing on God’s day of rest; and other religionists joined in to condemn the Saviour. All the time His trainee apostles were watching on, learning why Jesus’ ministry was so different from the formal religionists.
