Today’s reading: Psalms 98-101; Luke 14
I don’t have much to say about Luke 14 this morning, I mostly am just realizing how much I can be like the foolish man at the table that ignores all of the uncomfortable words of Jesus and tries to just latch on to what he already knows and likes.
Luke 14 opens with a whole lot of silence from Jesus’ audience. When he asks those dining with Him about healing on the Sabbath, as much as the Pharisees would speak boldly against it in other circumstances, here they won’t say a word. Then as Jesus goes on, basically teaching directly against how the men He is speaking to are conducting themselves in that moment, none of them say a word. It’s not until the end of one of those indictments, about not inviting exactly the kind of people who were sitting around the table over for a meal, that one of the men first speaks up. Jesus mentions being rewarded in the resurrection, and this is what the man latches on to, finally speaking up, blurting out, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
Jesus goes on to tell a parable to warn the man who spoke up, as well as all the rest present, about who will actually be present in the kingdom, but the attitude is what stood out to me this morning.
No matter that Jesus’ mention of the resurrection was in the context of essentially telling them they were missing out on being rewarded in the resurrection, all that seems to have registered was that He mentioned the resurrection.
It is so easy for me, like this man, to hear Jesus’ less comfortable teachings and have them go in one ear and out the other. I’m not trying to ignore anything, but I think it is human nature and tendency to just skip right past the areas of struggle and inability, and focus instead on the areas of strength. So the teachings of Jesus that I feel I’m doing well in, I tend to notice and think about just how great I’m doing at them, but then there are other teachings that I don’t seem to notice at all unless I really slow down and pay attention. Or there are times when the Holy Spirit draws my attention to something incredibly convicting and I think, “I’ve read this passage literally dozens of times, how have I never noticed this???”
This is honestly one of the reasons I think daily time in the Word is so important. I know that my heart is significantly more fickle even that I give it credit for, and I need God’s truth and Wisdom in front of me, day by day, for the Holy Spirit to use and draw my attention to the things that my errant heart wants to ignore. I want to see those things and be challenged and changed by them, but that’s only going to happen if I take the time to steep myself in the Scriptures.
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