Luke 8:1-3

“Notice what you notice.” A very short passage today. My Study Bible tells me that these verses are from Jesus’ second journey into Galilee, so if true my chronology is messed up. Still, we do have Jesus in Galilee going throughout the “cities and villages” (v. 1).

So three women (“and many others”, v. 3) are mentioned as accompanying Jesus on his journeys (along with the twelve disciples) and providing for Him/them out of their means. Two of these three women, Mary Magdalene and Joanna were also with Mary the mother of Jesus when they went to the tomb on Easter morning (Luke 24:10). So these two clearly were very devoted followers, all the way from Galilee to Jerusalem!

Joanna is curious in this mix. Luke has her as the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager (v. 3). A CNN special series in 2015 said that this Herod was Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great (https://www.cnn.com/2015/03/31/living/funding-jesus-ministry/index.html). So Joanna was probably both wealthy and well-placed – not that Jesus needed any political connections!! Luke writes that these were women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities (v. 2), so presumably Joanna’s following Jesus was an expression of her appreciation for Jesus’ ministry toward her.

Luke is the only writer who mentions this financial support for Jesus and these three women are his only mention. It is likely, however, that Jesus had other support, including Lazarus’ family (John 11) plus Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea (John 19:38-40). Luke otherwise had a lot to say about wealth and poverty, so it’s strange that he had so little to say about financial support.

It just dawned on me that we (as faithful givers) are followers and financial supporters of Jesus’ ministry. We belong in an updated version of Luke 8:1-3!

Slava Bohu!

Matthew 12:46-50, Mark 3:31-35, and Luke 8:19-21

“Notice what you notice.” Two things strike me today. The first is very simple, one word – outside. I’ve always pictured Jesus preaching out in the open air with crowds all around Him. But each of these writers today has Jesus inside (presumably a house) with His mother and brothers “outside” wanting to speak to Him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd (Luke 8:19). Right away I recall the lame man and the “pallet through the roof” story. And there have been a number of similar occasions where we have seen Jesus “inside”, again presumably a house, possibly Simon Peter’s. I recall an earlier passage where it even mentioned that Jesus “went home” (Mark 3:20). So it appears that in Galilee, especially in Capernaum, Jesus had a “home” and spent time inside.

The second item is Jesus’ answer to His own question, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” Mark writes, “…whoever does the will of God”, Matthew writes “…whoever does the will of My Father in heaven, while Luke writes that My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. (Luke 8:21) Matthew expands on Mark a bit, while Luke takes them both a step further, joining us to the Father when we hear and do His word. So there’s the challenge – hearing and doing. Thankfully we are in a church where we “hear the word of God” every Sunday. That leaves us the other 166 hours in the week for our “doing”. It’s Monday morning, let’s do it!

Slava Bohu!

Matthew 12:43-45 and Luke 11:24-28

“Notice what you notice.” We’ve probably all heard sermons on today’s topic, that someone has an unclean spirit cast out, but the person does not replace the unclean spirit with “something positive” and the unclean spirit returns “en force”. Jesus’ comments are perfectly in line with Samuel’s sermon today on discipleship. Samuel spoke of conversion, but no follow-up – of salvation without sanctification. We all need to fill those empty spots that are created when we walk away from troublesome areas in our lives.

David’s sermons the past two weeks have offered wonderful insights on repentance. Samuel’s sermon today on discipleship is a natural follow-up to David’s repentance sermons. So listen online to Samuel if you missed church today – and to David’s previous sermons if you missed those!

Slava Bohu!

Luke 11:33-36

“Notice what you notice.” Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness (v. 34). I have always read this verse with a major focus only on the first eight words, “Your eye is the lamp of your body.” Essentially I had in mind, “Watch out what you are looking at.” Mostly that’s what online commentaries were saying also. What you are looking at affects the rest of who you are. Mostly it’s an external focus, our eye looking out and affecting our entire being either for good or for bad.

But today I looked at that whole verse differently. Instead of our eyes looking out, I imagined others looking in at “our soul”. What do others see when they look at us, when they look into our eyes? Re-read the second part of that verse. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. What do other people see when they look into our eyes? Do they see a shining, radiant being or do they see a soul clouded in darkness?

This latter understanding is more consistent with the first verse, No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket… (v. 33). The whole purpose of lighting a lamp is to see whatever is inside the room where the lamp is located.

Metaphors always fail at some level, but the Holy Spirit today put a different light (pun intended) on Jesus’ words in this passage.

Slava Bohu!

Matthew 12:38-42 and Luke 11:29-32

“Notice what you notice.” Asking for a sign… There is one major difference between Matthew and Luke with respect to Jonah. Both writers focus on the repentance of the men of Nineveh. However, Matthew also added the three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish (v. 40). It’s surprising that Luke would have left that out, given that it was Jesus’ prophetic insight into His own resurrection. Which brings me to wonder, how much did Jesus, in His humanity, truly understand about his death and resurrection? Clearly in this Matthew passage He knows something about His resurrection. Later in Matthew 16:21 Jesus again foretells his death and resurrection to His disciples (repeated in Mark and Luke). But in detail, how much did He know? And did His knowledge of His future resurrection affect His going to the cross? Could He endure the cross better knowing that the cross was not the end for Him? Does our own “resurrection from the dead” – into Jesus’ presence when we die – affect how we live our lives today? …or how we share with those around us? Interesting.

There is something else futuristic in these passages that I had not seen before. Matthew and Luke both write that the “men of Nineveh” (~750 BC) and the “queen of Sheba” (~950 BC) …will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it (Mt. 12:41-42; Lk. 11:31-32). Jesus here is speaking of the Last Judgment, but He makes it clear that this Judgment will be universal in both space and time. I fear for what Jesus would have to say today about our own evil and adulterous generation (Mt. 12:39), which will also participate in the Last Judgment.

Slava Bohu!

Matthew 12:31-32, Mark 3:28-30, and Luke 12:10-12

“Notice what you notice.” Something new today, all three Synoptic Gospels (imbedded below) on one short topic — blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin…!!

Matt. 12:31-32, Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Mark 3:28-30, Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin — for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Luke 12:10-12, And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 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.

I daresay that most every Christian who has read one, two, or all three of these accounts has asked him/herself if he/she has committed that unpardonable sin. I would think in particular that someone who came to the Lord later in life, especially someone who had been involved in cult or Satanic rituals, might wonder about anything they might have said in their younger years that would qualify as this blasphemy. And no, I don’t have the unqualified answer. However, I must say that every pastor that I have heard speak on this topic seriously discounts that unpardonable possibility for a very large majority of believers.

So what is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? My Study Bible points to the last of Mark’s verses above and suggests that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is giving Satan credit for the works of Jesus (whose works and miracles were done in the power of the Holy Spirit) – they were essentially accusing Jesus of being demon-possessed instead of Spirit-filled. An online source has a different, interesting explanation, that “The unpardonable sin is any sin that a person doesn’t want to give up, confess, or even ask forgiveness for and additionally doesn’t want to hear any more about it from the Holy Spirit”. (https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/why-blasphemy-against-holy-spirit-unpardonable-sin) These two explanations are seemingly vastly different, although someone wiser than I could probably bring them together nicely. I’ll probably just go along with past preaching that I’ve heard, that most of us have not likely committed that “unpardonable sin”.

And I must say a word about Luke’s last two verses. Read Acts 3-4, Peter and John before the Sanhedrin!

Blessings!

Mark 3:20-27

“Notice what you notice.” I never really understood verse 28: But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. That is, I have understood the content of the verse but not the context, as to why Jesus said it. But today a note in my Study Bible helped me. Jesus is speaking of Himself as that person who enters that strong man’s house, where the house is a metaphor for the demon-possessed man and binding the strong man is Jesus overwhelming the demon. Plundering the house, then, is clearing out all the evil the demon left behind and freeing the man from his mute and blind condition. Now it makes sense!

Three other items…

First, we now have Jesus’ family showing up for the first time (v. 21), likely having come from Nazareth some 30 miles away. We will have this confirmed later in verse 31. I’ve always wondered about their perspective, He is out of His mind. Verse 31 refers to his family as “his mother and his brothers”. What troubles me about that verse is that His mother, Mary, is there with the rest of the family, coming “to seize Him”. But Mary knows more about who Jesus is, so it’s hard for me to imagine that she thought that He was “out of His mind”. Rather, I presume that she wanted to talk with Him and to learn more about where He was headed. So, reading between the lines, I imagine it’s Jesus’ brothers who have come to take Him away and Mary is there to intervene.

Second, Mark again offers us some details in today’s introductory verse 20 that the other writers do not, with some very different understandings depending on the translation. The ESV translation says, Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. I have always read that verse as Jesus simply returning to Capernaum, His “home” and that it was a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, such that even eating bread would have been difficult for the crowd. However, the NASB translation says, And He came home, and the crowd gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. Reading this translation I can see Jesus inside Peter’s home in Capernaum and sitting down to eat, but with people so crowded in that they could not even eat. A very different comprehension from what I get from the ESV…!! And certainly more vivid!

Finally, a small item. Verse 22 has scribes who have come from Jerusalem. This wording contrasts with “the people” in Luke and “the Pharisees” in Matthew. Again, more detail from Mark!!

Blessings!

Luke 11:14-23

“Notice what you notice.” All too often in past readings, when two or three Gospel writers repeated the same story I would look for differences between these accounts. That was interesting to a point, but does not really get very deep into the heart of the matter before us. So I won’t be doing that much more, unless the differences are particularly striking.

For example, in today’s reading Luke has “the people” saying He casts out demons by Beelzebul… (v. 15), while in Matthew it’s the Pharisees who bring this charge. However, who said it is not a major point here. What is interesting is that the charge is brought against Jesus at all. In Jesus’ reply He asks …by whom do your sons cast them out? (v. 19), suggesting that casting out demons was not uncommon among the Jewish people – and possibly even commonplace. So why would the Pharisees (or the people) bring a Beelzebul charge against Jesus when He can respond with the same charge against them? It’s like me charging you with not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day when I don’t have green on myself. The counter-charge is obvious.

Then in Luke we also see the people asking for a sign from heaven (v. 16) when Jesus had just performed a healing miracle – a mute (and blind?) person speaking (and seeing?). What other kind of sign could they have been seeking??!!

In Jesus’ closing statement for today’s and yesterday’s readings, both Luke and Matthew draw a clear dividing line between Jesus’ followers and everyone else: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters (Lk. 11:23, Mt. 12:30). Jesus is not allowing for middle-roaders, for agnostics. Effectively He is labeling everyone else as His enemies, since they are undoing (scattering) what He has put together (gathered). It makes me want to be careful in sowing any kind of dissension in the Body. Pray about it, find support in Scripture, and close off any discussion with “Your will be done, O Lord”.

Matthew 12:22-30

“Notice what you notice.” Have I not noticed before that Beelzebub (Beelzebul) is basically a “Baal” derivative, in this case from Baal-Zebub/Zebul – the God of the Philistine city of Ekron (II Kings 1:1–4)? Thanking my Study Bible notes for that insight…

Abraham Lincoln quoted Jesus’ “house divided” item. I offer his entire quote, spoken a full two-and-a-half years before he became President: “A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.” (June 16, 1858, at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield)

I see divisions in our country in both political parties today, the hard-rights and the hard-lefts against the more moderates in each party. And each party seems to be caving to its’ extreme instead of working toward bipartisanship legislation following the moderates’ leadings. I mention only the divisions within the political parties. There are so many other divisions that we could also name. Sad.

Blessings!