Surprise a neighbor
Daily Scripture
Luke 5:27-6:11
During Lent, we are using short videos to share a daily idea (linked to the gospel of Luke) on how to grow spiritually. Watch today’s video. Click here or on the image below:
Note: We are reading the entire gospel of Luke in the GPS. Some day’s readings are longer than usual. We hope you’ll have an extra cup of coffee, or use your lunch break, and read Luke’s entire story of Jesus.
27 Afterward, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at a kiosk for collecting taxes. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”
28 Levi got up, left everything behind, and followed him. 29 Then Levi threw a great banquet for Jesus in his home. A large number of tax collectors and others sat down to eat with them. 30 The Pharisees and their legal experts grumbled against his disciples. They said, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Jesus answered, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. 32 I didn’t come to call righteous people but sinners to change their hearts and lives.”
33 Some people said to Jesus, “The disciples of John fast often and pray frequently. The disciples of the Pharisees do the same, but your disciples are always eating and drinking.”
34 Jesus replied, “You can’t make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you? 35 The days will come when the groom will be taken from them, and then they will fast.”
36 Then he told them a parable. “No one tears a patch from a new garment to patch an old garment. Otherwise, the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t match the old garment. 37 Nobody pours new wine into old wineskins. If they did, the new wine would burst the wineskins, the wine would spill, and the wineskins would be ruined. 38 Instead, new wine must be put into new wineskins. 39 No one who drinks a well-aged wine wants new wine, but says, ‘The well-aged wine is better.’”
6:1 One Sabbath, as Jesus was going through the wheat fields, his disciples were picking the heads of wheat, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. 2 Some Pharisees said, “Why are you breaking the Sabbath law?”
3 Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read what David and his companions did when they were hungry? 4 He broke the Law by going into God’s house and eating the bread of the presence, which only the priests can eat. He also gave some of the bread to his companions.” 5 Then he said to them, “The Human One [or Son of Man] is Lord of the Sabbath.”
6 On another Sabbath, Jesus entered a synagogue to teach. A man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 The legal experts and the Pharisees were watching him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. They were looking for a reason to bring charges against him. 8 Jesus knew their thoughts, so he said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” He got up and stood there. 9 Jesus said to the legal experts and Pharisees, “Here’s a question for you: Is it legal on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 Looking around at them all, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he did and his hand was made healthy. 11 They were furious and began talking with each other about what to do to Jesus.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Jesus’ challenge to the status quo made the religious leaders afraid and angry. Luke 5:36 was the first of 14 uses of the word “parable” in Luke. People in Palestine often used goatskins to hold wine and other fluids. As new wine fermented, it would burst a rigid old skin. Jesus said God’s new ways of working in the world would burst old cultural norms. The response to Jesus’ Sabbath healing was one sign of how his work and his message stretched old, rigid spiritual ideas to the breaking point.
- Old ways are neither necessarily bad nor necessarily good. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God was setting up new ways to pursue his eternal mission to bless the whole world. Israel had 12 tribes. Jesus chose, not 8 or 10, but 12 people as “apostles,” a word that meant “an emissary of God…with special authority and status in Christ for the sake of the gospel.” * It was a clear sign that his followers would embody God’s original mission for Israel (cf. Genesis 12:1-3). How has God transformed you from old ways of living to new ways? How does living out God’s mission to the whole world shape Resurrection’s international mission work?
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Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me to respect and value all that is good in tradition. And guide me to also value and respect the newness and fresh energy you keep bringing to human life. Amen.
GPS Insights
Mindi McKenna
As I read Luke 5:27-6:1, one word comes to mind. Freedom! In those 24 verses, Jesus teaches us vividly with actions and words that He wants us to enjoy freedom.
- Freedom to have fun with people. In Luke 5:29-30 we read that Levi held a great banquet for Jesus, and a large crowd ate with Him. But the religious leaders complained about Jesus and His disciples’ eating and drinking with sinners.
- Freedom to help people. In Luke 5:31-32 we read that Jesus responded to criticisms of His activities by comparing Himself to a doctor who is needed – not by the healthy, but by the sick. He explained, explicitly, that He came to call sinners (that’s all of us!) to repentance.
- Freedom to use the resources available to us. In Luke 6:1-4 we read that Jesus defended His buddies (the disciples) who had picked grain on the Sabbath. He cited Old Testament Scriptures and explained what now seems so obvious – He is Lord of the Sabbath (or, as a friend of mine says, “Jesus is the boss of everything!”)
- Freedom to do the right thing, even though others might criticize us for it. In Luke 6:7-11 we read that Jesus knew some people were looking for a reason to accuse Him, and so He asked them to choose between doing good or doing evil, saving life or destroying it. Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath, even though He knew it would upset His critics.
As I think about those verses, and the freedom that Jesus brings, I ask myself:
- Am I freely engaging with people, regardless of their social status or past shortcomings, or what others might think of me?
- Am I freely helping people change their hearts and lives, regardless of others’ criticisms?
- Am I freely using the resources that God has made available to me so that I can help others?
- Am I freely doing the right thing, regardless of the criticism it might trigger?
I pause now to thoughtfully consider-–am I doing all of those things? And I ask you the same question: are you?
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Robert Mounce, Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2006, p. 27.
