February 19 / Luke 8:19-21, 11:24-36, 12:10-12

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Luke 8:19-21, 11:24-36, 12:10-12

Today, Luke’s writing on a number of items that we have covered the past few days in Matthew and Mark, with a number of my 2019 comments repeated in the links below…

And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. (Luke 12:11-12) Jesus’ prophetic words were realized a few years later when Peter and John found themselves in front of the Sanhedrin, defending themselves from a baseless charge in that they had done a good thing by healing a lame beggar in Jesus’ name (Acts 3). After hearing their testimony, the Jewish leaders were perplexed: Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13) These uneducated, common men, filled with the Holy Spirit spoke powerful words, just as Jesus had foretold! But one more item – these last few words from Luke are powerful for us today – do people “out there” recognize that we are living with Jesus? In my comments below I mention people looking into our eyes – what do they see? Do they see a body full of light? Do they see Jesus in us? Again, repeating Archbishop Beach, “If not, why not?”

See also: April 4 / Matt. 12:31-32; Mark 3:28-30; Luke 12:10-12; April 5 / Matt. 12:38-42; Luke 11:29-32; April 6 / Luke 11:33-36; April 7 / Matt. 12:43-45; Luke 11:24-28; April 8 / Matt. 12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:19-21

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2 Comments

  1. As soon as I finished posting today I opened Archbishop Beach’s podcast, “A Word from the Lord”. His first sentence was another God’s echo:

    You will never be more like Jesus than when you are serving others; and your best way to witness to non-believers is for them to see Jesus in you.

    “…for them to see Jesus in you.”

    1. As another of “God’s echoes”, The Book of Joy that I am reading suggests the “Eight Pillars to Joy”: Perspective, Humility, Humor, Acceptance, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Compassion, Generosity.

      Archbishop Tutu offered the following:

      “Taking a God’s-eye perspective, allows us to transcend our limited identity and limited self-interest. We must shift our perspective from focusing on I, me and mine to we, us and ours. Self-centeredness is our default perspective; we must also have the ability to take on the perspective of others. We look at all the calamities in our world, and then we look again, and we see all those who are helping to heal those who have been harmed. This allows us to reframe life more positively, based on a broader, richer, more nuanced perspective.”

      I am amazed, daily, by the correlations found in our New Testament readings, Archbishop Foley Beach’s “A Word From The Lord”, and the thoughts of both Archbishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama in the book I am reading!

      I can only hope that when others “look into my eyes”, they will find more humility, humor, acceptance, forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, and generosity; that they will see more of what Jesus has shown us to be.

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