October 31 / John 9:1-10:21; Matthew 8:18-22; Luke 9:51-62

John 9:1-10:21; Matthew 8:18-22; Luke 9:51-62

How is our eyesight? Are we blind? Do we need Jesus to anoint our eyes? Are we willing to follow His instructions to “go and wash”? Do we perceive the Light of the world? Or are we so sure that we see that we think we have no need of His healing touch? Do we, then, confidently remain in darkness?

Or how about our hearing? Do we perceive the voice of the Good Shepherd? Do we follow His voice? Or do we listen to all the other voices clamoring for our attention? To whom do we listen?

Do we have eyes to see and ears to hear?

See also:

October 30 / John 7-8

John 7-8

Do you want to know whether Jesus speaks Truth with a capital “T”?

You could study His words intently. (And you should.) You could compare what He says with what is written in the Old Testament. (And you should.) You could learn Hebrew and Aramaic and Koine Greek. (Interesting!) You could delve into Biblical archeology. (Fascinating!) You could learn all about customs and beliefs of the ancient Near East and compare what you learn to what Jesus says. (Informative!) You could learn all sorts of facts about Jesus, His heritage, His geographical environment, His political environment, His religious environment, His friends and family. (Illuminating!) In short, you could become a true Biblical scholar. (Bravo!)

And you could still be missing the key to unlocking true knowledge and understanding.

If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on My own authority.

John 7:17

Volition is that key — specifically, the willingness to do God’s will. In other words, if we truly want to know Truth, we must first surrender to God’s will and choose obedience.

So if you find yourself to be skeptical of Jesus’ claims, if you feel a bit of cynicism creeping in, then ask yourself: Are you willing to do God’s will?

See also:

October 29 / Matthew 17:14-18:9; Mark 9:14-50; Luke 9:37-50

Matthew 17:14-23; Mark 9:14-32; Luke 9:37-45;
Matthew 17:24-18:9; Mark 9:33-50; Luke 9:46-50

And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to Him and, kneeling before Him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.

Matthew 17:14-18

So, despite the fact that the Lord previously gave the disciples the power and authority to heal and to cast out demons (Mt. 10:8; Mark 6:7; Luke 9:1) the disciples cannot quite manage it with this case. And when Jesus arrives, we get to the heart of the problem.

“Bring him here to Me.”

It seems evident from everything else that Jesus says here that the disciples’ problem is one of unbelief. (Mt. 17:20) I expect that the disciples’ prior experiences on their mission trip(s) gave them a good deal of confidence, so I don’t think we can equate “unbelief” with a lack of confidence. But there is every chance that the unbelief amounts to misplaced confidence, relying perhaps too much on themselves, and not on Jesus.

“Bring him here to Me.”

This, of course, is essentially what Jesus said about the loaves in feeding the 5,000. Perhaps we should listen.

“Bring him here to Me.”

See also:

October 28 / Matthew 16:1-17:13; Mark 8:11-9:13; Luke 9:18-36

Matthew 16:1-12; Mark 8:11-26;
Matthew 16:13-28; Mark 8:27-9:1; Luke 9:18-27;
Matthew 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36

And He said to all, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Luke 9:23-26 (cf., Matthew 16:24-27; Mark 8:34-38)

These are some of Jesus’ most challenging words. They are so challenging that we have a tremendous tendency (and capacity) to immediately water them down. We interpret “denying oneself” to mean “foregoing dessert” occasionally or maybe avoiding chocolate during Lent. Or we think of “taking up one’s cross” as merely putting up with difficult circumstances.

So let’s see if a little paraphrasing can jolt us back to reality: “If anyone would come after Me, let him utterly renounce himself and take up his electric chair and follow Me…”

We all have to die. The only question is whether we die when we draw our last breath on this earth or whether we instead choose to die now, well ahead of that point of physical departure. And yes, it is a daily choice.

See also:

October 27 / Matthew 15:1-39; Mark 7:1-8:10

Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23;
Matthew 15:21-31; Mark 7:24-37;
Matthew 15:32-39; Mark 8:1-10

Then Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” And the disciples said to Him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?”

Matthew 15:32-33

What a dumb question, right?! The disciples previously witnessed Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000, so how can they possibly wonder where they can get enough bread? And so we chuckle to ourselves, thinking what numbskulls the disciples must be. But don’t we act the same way? Don’t we look around at our circumstances, virtually every day, and fail to factor Jesus into the equation?

In defense of the disciples, we do not know how much time has transpired between the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000. It is at least several days, probably weeks, perhaps months. In that time Jesus has presumably given them no hint of a repeat performance. It is not like He opened up a side business of a daily all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant, complete with a water-to-wine beverage upgrade option. The disciples are surely instead quite reaccustomed to getting their meals in the usual way, buying their food in the marketplace like the rest of us. And besides, this is all new to them. These guys did not grow up reading the Gospels in Sunday School.

We, on the other hand, know these stories already, or at least we have the opportunity to know them. And we know (or can know) the rest of the story, too. And yet we, like the disciples, grow so used to doing things “the usual way” — the steady, practical, tried-and-true, daily-grind kind of way — that we forget that Jesus is here at hand. OK, maybe you don’t, but I do. So I, for one, have no business laughing at the disciples for their “dumb” questions.

See also:

October 26 / Matthew 14:34-36; Mark 6:53-56; John 6:22-71

Matthew 14:34-36; Mark 6:53-56; John 6:22-71

Once again the Gospel of John overwhelms us with what Jesus has to say:

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God the Father has set His seal.

John 6:27

Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He has sent.”

John 6:29

For the Bread of God is He Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

John 6:33

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst.”

John 6:35

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out.

John 6:37

For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6:40

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6:44

I am the bread of life.

John 6:48

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.

John 6:51

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

John 6:53-58

None of this is easy to understand, much less swallow. (Pardon the pun.) If Jesus is not God in the flesh, then His words are more than a little audacious. They are outlandish. Ridiculous. Crazy. And the crowd reacts accordingly, asking, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:52) and “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60) As a result, many fall away and stop following Jesus. (John 6:66)

So what about us? Do we believe what Jesus says here? How literal are His words? How are we to understand them? Of course, we have the advantage over the crowd, who at this point knows nothing of the Cross, nor of the Last Supper — what would become Holy Communion or the Eucharist. But do we then try to explain away the Eucharist as poetic metaphor, with no real relation to eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood — simply a sentimental memorial devoid of His Presence? Or does Jesus mean what He says here? Does that offend you?

See also:

October 25 / Matthew 14:13-33; Mark 6:30-52; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-21

Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15;
Matthew 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-52; John 6:16-21

Now when it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to Him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And He said, “Bring them here to Me.”

Matthew 14:15-18

How often do we come to Jesus, all tired and worn out from all our labors, and tell Jesus what to do? We recognize a problem, we size up the situation, we figure out a reasonably practical solution, which we convey to Jesus, giving Him instructions for how to take care of the problem. But then He declines to follow our plan and tells us to try again. But how? We already know we don’t have sufficient resources. How can we possibly handle the problem with the resources we have on hand?

“Bring them here to Me.”

We’re bumfuzzled. We can’t conceive of what the Lord is thinking. Maybe He does not properly understand the situation. Do we persist in pursuing our original plan? Or do we trust Him and offer up what meager resources we have into His hands?

“Bring them here to Me.”

If we trust and obey, we might just find that His plan is better than ours.

“Bring them here to Me.”

See also:

October 24 / Matthew 9:35-11:1, 14:1-12; Mark 6:7-29; Luke 3:19-20, 9:1-9

Matthew 9:35-11:1; Mark 6:7-13; Luke 9:1-6;
Matthew 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-29; Luke 3:19-20; 9:7-9

Jesus is the ultimate Realist. He does not sugar-coat what the Apostles have ahead of them. As He sends out the Twelve in pairs on a preaching-healing-and-deliverance tour He warns them to expect persecution and deadly opposition:

Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for My sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.

Matthew 10:17-18

Although the Gospels are silent as to any opposition to the Disciples during this current short-term mission, the sequel to Luke’s Gospel, the Book of Acts, indicates plenty of opposition in the long term, and so do the Epistles. Lest we think that Jesus’ warning is limited to the Apostles and the early Church, we need only review history to see that it is replete with Christian martyrs and the suffering of saints at the hands of evil men. This persecution continues to this day all around the world.

With religious freedom secured by the First Amendment to our Constitution, we in the U.S.A. have long enjoyed legal protection from various persecutions, and for that we should all be extremely grateful. But we should also guard against the delusion that we are somehow thus immune from violence. As it is, those who take a firm stand for Truth may well face being “canceled” or shouted down in the public square, or they may face harassing litigation with its attendant high legal expenses. That, of course, is bad enough, but do we think it is going to end there? No. It won’t. So we should not be surprised when violence against Christians increases in this country. And we should not be surprised when that violence is sanctioned — or even promoted — by the very institutions that we currently might trust to protect us. Nor should we be surprised when some of that persecution comes from those whom we now imagine to be in our own ranks. (Remember, one of the Twelve is Judas Iscariot…)

Does Jesus warn of persecution just to frighten us? No, on the contrary, He specifically says not to fear such opposition. (Mt. 10:27-31) But, as I said, He is the ultimate Realist and He wants us to face reality, too. He does not want us to be deluded into thinking that following Him is to be a cakewalk, all happiness and sunshine, warm fuzzies and hot cocoa. If that is what we are looking for, then our faith will not withstand the slightest difficulty. No, Jesus calls us to face reality and trust in His Father, to take up our cross now (Mt. 10:38) and thereby disarm any threat of a cross later.

See also:

October 23 / Matthew 13:53-58; Mark 6:1-6; John 5

Matthew 13:53-58; Mark 6:1-6; John 5

Let’s get a few things straight right up front:

  • Jesus never Himself breaks the Sabbath (not the Sabbath God intends, at least)
  • Jesus never causes anyone else to break the Sabbath, either (e.g., telling the healed man to pick up his bed and walk)
  • Jesus never abolishes the Sabbath (even though we act as though He does)

But Jesus most certainly breaks down the excessively burdensome rules and regulations heaped up by the scribes and Pharisees surrounding the Sabbath, rules that ostensibly help protect the Sabbath but which in fact run completely contrary to the spirit of Sabbath rest. It is Jesus’ violation of those rules that inflames the Pharisees against Jesus and draws them into a confrontation. But what really gets the Pharisees riled up (and rightly so) is Jesus’ assertion of Divinity. (John 5:18) (I say “rightly so”, because any such assertion by a mere man would be utter blasphemy — far worse than treason, murder, or any other crime — and should induce such a response. By the way, every now and then I hear someone say that Jesus never claimed to be God. Ha! I can only assume that such folks have never read the Gospels…)

We could probably spend the rest of our lives contemplating what Jesus says in John 5:19-47 and still not plumb the depths of Truth revealed here: Jesus’ relationship with God the Father; His role in giving life; His authority and role in judgment; the reality of our own eventual resurrection, either to life or to condemnation; the fourfold witness to Jesus of John the Baptist, Jesus’ miraculous works, the Father’s own voice, and the (Old Testament) Scriptures. What can I possibly say about such things?

So I leave you to prayerfully meditate on Jesus’ words today. Do you believe what He says? What, then, does that mean for you today?

See also:

October 22 / Matthew 8:23-34, 9:18-34; Mark 4:35-5:43; Luke 8:22-56

Matthew 8:23-34; Mark 4:35-5:20; Luke 8:22-39;
Matthew 9:18-34; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56

And they … said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Mark 4:41 (cf. Mt. 8:27, Luke 8:25)

Who is this Person Who has power over the forces of nature? Who is this Man Who heals multitudes? Who is this Person Who drives out demons, even so many at once that they call themselves “Legion”? Who is this Man Who heals even those who seek Him surreptitiously? Who is this Man Who makes the blind see, the deaf hear, and the mute speak? Who is this Man Who raises the dead?

Who is this Jesus?

See also: