Unchained Challenge: Luke 20

Scripture: Luke 20:23 [Jesus] saw through their duplicity.

Observation: Luke tells us here that Jesus was fully aware of the tendency of the “teachers of the law” to be duplicitous. In the context of this verse these teachers are trying to appear sincere in their question to Jesus about taxes, but their ulterior motive is to trap Jesus not learn from him. Later in the chapter (vv.46-47), Jesus describes the duplicity of the teachers of the law in more detail. They may appear to be spiritual but they are motivated by pride and greed. They are two-faced, double-lifers who seem more focused on impressing people than glorifying God and helping people.

Application: On my worst days I can be pretty duplicitous. Although I may begin the day or the ministry task with a desire to glorify God, if I am not careful, I can quickly shift toward trying to impress people with who I am. Of course, they are never as impressed with me as they are with GodJ I may start out with pure motives to help someone but if I am not careful, my pure motives can turn into the kind of self-absorption that causes me to consider “what’s in it for me”? Academic achievement and ministerial success can become trophies on our fireplace mantle instead of markers of God’s unfathomable grace. Today, I will aim to be one-willed in my motives to glorify God and love people.

Prayer: Lord, make my life a standing stand of your grace that points to you. Amen

Unchained Challenge: Luke 19

Scripture: Luke 19:44b Jesus says, “…you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Observation: Jesus says this just after the people praise him upon his entry into Jerusalem. “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord” (v.38), they say. As I read this chapter it initially seems that the people did recognize “the time of God’s coming” to them in Christ. But upon further exploration it appears the people were expecting Jesus to align with their desires for a political, Roman-annihilating Messiah. Jesus, however, did not fit their messianic mold. And, because of this, these same people just a few days later shouted not praises to Jesus but “crucify him!” The people did not recognize “the time of God’s coming” to them because Jesus did not fit their messianic profile.

Application: While I am tempted to criticize the Jerusalem Jews of Jesus’ day, I am fully aware of my propensity to miss the “time of God’s coming” to me. I find myself waiting for God to show up over here, but he shows up over there. I am waiting for God to show his power this way, but he shows it that way. I am waiting for a powerful, warrior-like Messiah to beat the tar out of the “Romans” in my life, but instead I get a humble, peasant Jew who forgives his enemies and mine. During the season of Advent, a word that means “coming,” I am trying to abandon my preconceived and preferential messianic profile so that I don’t miss Christ when he comes to me in his way and in his time.

Prayer: Lord, I will wait and watch for you to show up in any place and in any way that you decide. Please give me an ability to discern your coming so that it don’t miss the joyful surprise of it. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 18

Scripture: Luke 18:11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men- robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”

Observation: Pharisees were the religious cream of the crop, and they knew it. Lots of people didn’t tithe, but the Pharisee did. Many people didn’t even try to keep the Torah, but the Pharisee did. The Pharisee was willing to make religious sacrifices that few were willing to make. But at some point Pharisees became motivated, many of them, not by love for God but by arrogant competitiveness. They were notorious for comparing themselves favorably to the sloppy sinners around them, which caused them to believe they were God’s gift to, well, God. Once they started to think they deserved God’s grace and mercy, the life-transforming power of God’s grace and mercy could not invade their lives.    

Application: On my best days, I realize how undeserving I am of God’s grace and mercy.  But, there are those days when I think of myself more highly than I ought. Usually, this arrogance surfaces when I compare myself to those around me who are not as committed or contrite as I am. I may go beyond the standard of robbers, evildoers, adulterers and tax collectors, but do I live up to the standard of Christ? This is the question that haunts and humbles me, bringing me back to the reality of my dependence upon God’s grace and mercy. Today, I will compare myself to the standard of Christ, which will help me avoid the Pharisee complex and keep me humbly dependent upon God.

Prayer: Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner. Remind me today that I am sinner saved by grace and that there but for the grace of God go I. no matter how good I may appear to be I will never ever outgrow my need for you to make up what I lack. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 17

Scripture: Luke 17:3b Jesus says, “If your brother sins rebuke him, if he repents forgive him.”

Observation: Jesus spoke into a fragmented culture. Jews and Romans hated each other. Pharisaic Jews despised the Jewish Sadducees. Zealots, another Jewish sect, allowed their ethnic pride to become an excuse to kill Romans and Jews who collaborated with the Romans. The rich and poor were divided as well. Into this fragmented world Jesus throws a command that has the power to build a new community of radical accountability and forgiveness. “If your brother sins, rebuke him; if he repents, forgive him.”

Application: We live in a fragmented world too; this fragmentation slips into the church so that even she becomes divided into camps based on age, ethnicity, income, and political affiliation. In other words, the dividing lines among the people of God in Jesus’ day are not all that different from the divisions among people in the church today. If we can just learn to lovingly rebuke each other, instead of gossiping about or avoiding each other, the fragmentation would stop. If we could learn the habit of forgiving those who hurt us, and let go of grudge-holding bitterness, the church would be united not fragmented. The way to foster the kind of intimate community that reflects Christ is to love the people around me enough to lovingly rebuke and graciously forgive them.  

Prayer: God, thank you for loving me enough to rebuke and forgive me…very, very often. May I be willing to do for others what you have done for me so that the world might know that you have sent the Son to be the savior of the world. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 16

Scripture: Luke 16:15b Jesus says, “What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.”

Observation: This saying from Jesus is contained in a chapter that focuses on the “detestable” things we humans sometimes crave. We often covet, or “highly value,” things and people more than we crave God and his will. Our desires and God’s ways are, at times, extremely incongruent. The things we value can become obstacles to God’s best work in and through us.

Application: Black Friday shopping, which some endured yesterday, in many ways epitomizes how what we value God detests. I understand that Black Friday bargains enable shoppers to get “bigger and better” for less. But there is a dark side to “Black” Friday. We are driven to purchase more than we need, to competitively keep up with the possessions of those around us, and to feed our consumeristic cravings, even if we have to literally trample on others to do so. The desire to “keep up with the Joneses” and to “get mine” could need be more counter to the Gospel of sacrificial love. It seems so odd that the Black Friday “get mine” mentality comes one day after we “give thanks.” These two days, I think, depict how what we highly value is often detestable to God.   

Prayer: Lord, help me to value what you value and to detest what you detest. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 13

Scripture: Luke 13:12b Jesus said “you are set free from your infirmities.”

Observation: Jesus came to set people free from illness, despair, regrets, sins, and the burdens placed on them by the religious leaders. The ministry of Jesus brought dignity to those who had lost it. The crippled woman was viewed as an outcast and sinner. “Surely she did something against God that brought that illness upon her,” thought the theologians of that day. Yet, Jesus saw past popular opinion to the deep need in this woman to be set free not only from her illness but the hopeless despair it caused her for nearly two decades.   

Application: On the eve of Thanksgiving day I am struck by the power of this verse. This saying from Jesus captures the story of my life. He has set me free from sin and despair by giving me the dignity of discipleship. Jesus saw past the popular opinions about me and loved me in such a potent way that my chains began to fall off. His love is disarming and chain-breaking! Although I am not as free as I can be, I am more free than I ever have been because Christ has set me free!

Prayer: Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you for breaking the chains that had wrapped themselves around my life. May the gratitude that wells up in me toward you lead to even greater freedom and the dignity that comes from a deepening relationship with you. Amen.

Unchained Challenge: Luke 12

Scripture: Luke 12:35 Jesus says, “Be dressed, ready for service and keep your lamps burning”

Observation: Jesus possessed a sense of urgency about the kingdom of God that drove him. He was a man on a mission to redeem and restore the world. Service to God, the master, is more important than the preservation of our possessions. There is no “union break” or “retirement” from God’s service. Jesus is suggested that we never “clock out.” Jesus was always on mission, even when he sat by a well in Samaria exhausted. He calls us to live with the same kind of urgency- “be dressed, ready for service and keep your lamps burning.”

Application: I have a tendency to coast a bit in my service. I have a propensity to forget the urgency of the Gospel. And when I do forget and begin to coast a bit, my lamp stops burning. I walk past opportunities to serve God’s purposes. I walk right past people in need of hope. As I switched from pastor to professor I wonder if it’s even more tempting for me now to talk about service instead of serving. Today, I will be dressed, ready for the opportunities God brings my way to serve him, and this readiness will keep my lamp of passion burning for God.

Prayer:  Lord, keep me lamp burning. As I draw close to you, open my eyes to see and seize those opportunities to serve your purposes in the world. Amen.