SATURDAY 3.18.23: Share God’s Forgiveness with Yourself – Luke 11:37-12:7
As Jesus moved steadily toward Jerusalem, the tension between the status quo and God’s kingdom kept building. Jesus challenged religious and political leaders who fixated on washing for ritual purity (not for hygiene—they didn’t yet know about viruses). Their only response was to plot against him. Jesus gave a wide-ranging set of warnings against a “mismatch between…hearts and lives” (12:1). He knew that faithfulness and trust flow from the inside out.
Reflection
• With powerful people plotting against him, we might think Jesus would be afraid. But he defined “security” very differently than humans typically do. Scholar N. T. Wright summed up his teaching: “One should recognize who the ultimate enemy is. In this picture, God is not the enemy to be feared; he is one to trust, the one who values his children more highly than a whole flock of sparrows, who has the very hairs of our head all numbered.” 1How does Jesus’ teaching challenge our culture’s messages about how to attain true security?
Prayer: King Jesus, it’s hard for me to make the inside of me match the outside sometimes. Help me desire your kingdom of eternal security and fulfillment above all else. Amen.
1 N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, pp. 149-150.