For a full description of the (Y3) reading plan, see the “About” page.
- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Luke 14
When Jesus was dining at a Pharisee’s home, presumably with several other important religious leaders, one of them said, “Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” (Lk. 14:15b). Jesus responded with a parable about a wedding banquet. In His parable, all of the invited guests had excuses for not attending the banquet. Thus, the master pulled all the riffraff in off the streets to attend his banquet.
I think Jesus, in telling this parable, was pointing out their – and our – idols. Like the man who made the statement, we claim to desire the kingdom of God. But do we really? Or do we let life get in the way? There is nothing necessarily wrong with the things the un-attending guests used as excuses. The problem comes when we allow those things to make us forget our first love. If we really believed what the man at the table with Jesus claimed, why would we push God aside in favor of everyday things; things God provided for us in the first place? God has invited us to His table. We need to be ready and willing to set aside absolutely anything that might keep us from it.
Luke 15
The lofty religious leaders didn’t like the fact the Jesus welcomed the lowly dregs of society into His company. Righteous people shouldn’t defile themselves by hanging out with such crowds, after all. And the entire Bible, in both Old and New Testaments, stresses the truth that we, as God’s children, should not yoke ourselves in close fellowship with those who oppose God. Ahh…but there is a BIG difference between being among people and being in close fellowship with them.
I realized a few days ago that witnessing to others isn’t meant to be the daunting task of convincing them of God’s truth. Rather, it is more like an Easter egg hunt or the like. We don’t have to be great orators or scholars to find people with a positive response to God’s truth. We merely need to present it in whatever way we can and see who is open to hear more. The thing is, while we should indeed find eggs in our collection basket, we will never add to the collection by looking there. For that, we need to venture out into the big, bad world. We need to extend God’s love out to the masses non-discriminatorily and welcome in whoever responds. That’s the example Jesus lived out for us.