Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Reflections on Luke 11


    Luke 11 (Contemporary English Version)
  1. When Jesus had finished praying, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his followers to pray."
  2. So Jesus told them, "Pray in this way: 'Father, help us to honor your name. Come and set up your kingdom.
  3. Give us each day the food we need.
  4. Forgive our sins, as we forgive everyone who has done wrong to us. And keep us from being tempted.' "
  5. Then Jesus went on to say: Suppose one of you goes to a friend in the middle of the night and says, "Let me borrow three loaves of bread.
  6. A friend of mine has dropped in, and I don't have a thing for him to eat."
  7. And suppose your friend answers, "Don't bother me! The door is bolted, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up to give you something."
  8. He may not get up and give you the bread, just because you are his friend. But he will get up and give you as much as you need, simply because you are not ashamed to keep on asking.
  9. So I tell you to ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you.
  10. Everyone who asks will receive, everyone who searches will find, and the door will be opened for everyone who knocks.
  11. Which one of you fathers would give your hungry child a snake if the child asked for a fish?
  12. Which one of you would give your child a scorpion if the child asked for an egg?
  13. As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks.
  14. Jesus forced a demon out of a man who could not talk. And after the demon had gone out, the man started speaking, and the crowds were amazed.
  15. But some people said, "He forces out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons!"
  16. Others wanted to put Jesus to the test. So they asked him to show them a sign from God.
  17. Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he said: A kingdom where people fight each other will end up in ruin. And a family that fights will break up.
  18. If Satan fights against himself, how can his kingdom last? Yet you say that I force out demons by the power of Beelzebul.
  19. If I use his power to force out demons, whose power do your own followers use to force them out? They are the ones who will judge you.
  20. But if I use God's power to force out demons, it proves that God's kingdom has already come to you.
  21. When a strong man arms himself and guards his home, everything he owns is safe.
  22. But if a stronger man comes and defeats him, he will carry off the weapons in which the strong man trusted. Then he will divide with others what he has taken.
  23. If you are not on my side, you are against me. If you don't gather in the crop with me, you scatter it.
  24. When an evil spirit leaves a person, it travels through the desert, looking for a place to rest. But when it doesn't find a place, it says, "I will go back to the home I left."
  25. When it gets there and finds the place clean and fixed up,
  26. it goes off and finds seven other evil spirits even worse than itself. They all come and make their home there, and that person ends up in worse shape than before.
  27. While Jesus was still talking, a woman in the crowd spoke up, "The woman who gave birth to you and nursed you is blessed!"
  28. Jesus replied, "That's true, but the people who are really blessed are the ones who hear and obey God's message!"
  29. As crowds were gathering around Jesus, he said: You people of today are evil! You keep looking for a sign from God. But what happened to Jonah is the only sign you will be given.
  30. Just as Jonah was a sign to the people of Nineveh, the Son of Man will be a sign to the people of today.
  31. When the judgment comes, the Queen of the South will stand there with you and condemn you. She traveled a long way to hear Solomon's wisdom, and yet here is something far greater than Solomon.
  32. The people of Nineveh will also stand there with you and condemn you. They turned to God when Jonah preached, and yet here is something far greater than Jonah.
  33. No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a clay pot. A lamp is put on a lampstand, so that everyone who comes into the house can see the light.
  34. Your eyes are the lamp for your body. When your eyes are good, you have all the light you need. But when your eyes are bad, everything is dark.
  35. So be sure that your light isn't darkness.
  36. If you have light, and nothing is dark, then light will be everywhere, as when a lamp shines brightly on you.
  37. When Jesus finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him home for a meal. Jesus went and sat down to eat.
  38. The Pharisee was surprised that he did not wash his hands before eating.
  39. So the Lord said to him: You Pharisees clean the outside of cups and dishes, but on the inside you are greedy and evil.
  40. You fools! Didn't God make both the outside and the inside?
  41. If you would only give what you have to the poor, everything you do would please God.
  42. You Pharisees are in for trouble! You give God a tenth of the spices from your gardens, such as mint and rue. But you cheat people, and you don't love God. You should be fair and kind to others and still give a tenth to God.
  43. You Pharisees are in for trouble! You love the front seats in the meeting places, and you like to be greeted with honor in the market.
  44. But you are in for trouble! You are like unmarked graves that people walk on without even knowing it.
  45. A teacher of the Law of Moses spoke up, "Teacher, you said cruel things about us."
  46. Jesus replied: You teachers are also in for trouble! You load people down with heavy burdens, but you won't lift a finger to help them carry the loads.
  47. Yes, you are really in for trouble. You build monuments to honor the prophets your own people murdered long ago.
  48. You must think that was the right thing for your people to do, or else you would not have built monuments for the prophets they murdered.
  49. Because of your evil deeds, the Wisdom of God said, "I will send prophets and apostles to you. But you will murder some and mistreat others."
  50. You people living today will be punished for all the prophets who have been murdered since the beginning of the world.
  51. This includes every prophet from the time of Abel to the time of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the temple. You people will certainly be punished for all of this.
  52. You teachers of the Law of Moses are really in for trouble! You carry the keys to the door of knowledge about God. But you never go in, and you keep others from going in.
  53. Jesus was about to leave, but the teachers and the Pharisees wanted to get even with him. They tried to make him say what he thought about other things,
  54. so that they could catch him saying something wrong.

    Jesus addressed the topic of prayer with His disciples in the first part of this chapter, while in the remainder of the chapter He came into increasing conflict with the Jewish leaders.

    The topic of prayer was raised by one of Jesus' disciples. In response, Jesus first highlighted some important elements of prayer and then pointed out the importance of persistence in prayer. Regarding the important elements of prayer, Jesus highlighted five. First, honor God's name, considering it to be holy. Next, consider important what is important to God - establishment of His kingdom on earth. Following these two means of establishing a proper attitude in prayer and identifying oneself with the One to whom we pray, Jesus then highlighted three specific and important requests in prayer: provision of our physical need for food, forgiveness of our sins, and deliverance from the evil one. This same account in Matthew (6:9-15) adds details to Luke's overview.

    These highlights are basic to prayer. Going beyond these, Jesus uses a couple of parables to emphasize the need for persistence in making our requests to God and the fact that God will give only good answers to our prayers. Persistence in prayer is not for the purpose of persuading God but is to keep us focused on God as the source and to demonstrate our sincerity. Then we can trust that God will answer our prayer with only good results. He will not give us what will harm us.

    Jesus' conflict with the Jewish leaders in this passage began when He was casting out demons. When faced with Jesus' miracles, the leaders were challenged either to acknowledge His deity or discredit Him in some way. They chose the latter. In this case they chose to credit His ability to cast out demons to having a demon Himself. In other words, their claim was that Jesus cast out demons by Satan's power rather than by God's. Jesus revealed the ridiculousness of this claim by pointing out that Satan wouldn't seek to defeat himself. "If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?" (11:18) Furthermore, He asked, if His power to cast out demons came from Satan, by whose power did their sons cast out demons? They couldn't claim their sons drove out demons by God's power and that Jesus did so by Satan's power. They contradicted themselves. Therefore, if they were forced to admit that Jesus' power came from God, they also had to admit that "the kingdom of God has come to you." (11:20)

    Following this encounter with the Jewish leaders the conflict intensified when Jesus on another occasion brought pointed accusations against the Jews in general. They were an evil generation, He said. They would not accept anything from Him without a sign. In so doing, they would be judged by the people of Nineveh who accepted Jonah's message without a sign and in Jesus they had someone greater than Jonah.

    The conflict further intensified when on another occasion Jesus dined at the home of a Pharisee. The Pharisee was amazed that Jesus did not observe the ritual washing before dinner. Jesus used this criticism to point out the hyprocracy of the Pharisees. While they might wash on the outside, they were filthy on the inside. While they made a show of tithing even of mint and herbs, they were full of greed and evil. When an expert in the law took offense to Jesus' charges, He included the law experts in His charges. They were guilty of loading people with burdens, He said, while they themselves did not touch those burdens themselves. His most serious charge was that "You have taken away the key of knowledge! You didn't go in yourselves, and you hindered those who were going in." (11:52)

No comments:

Post a Comment