Wednesday, July 1
Read: Luke 10
Jesus sending the seventy-two is a very important illustration of ministry. This passage in Luke (v. 1-23) shows a missionary task and by no means does Jesus tell us of this being an easy task. In fact when he says “I am sending you out like lambs among wolves” (v. 3) Jesus is suggesting that there are risks that are involved. Yet, he keeps his encouragement that “the kingdom is near!” Each place we go on BOS, every corps we visit is where God is sending us for his ministry. And after this month is over, each of us will be sent to our separate corps, where God wants to continue to use you all for His ministry. And what joy we have in that! Just like the seventy-two, we have joy in God’s purpose for us. Not even Christ, himself, can refrain from being filled with joy and praising the Father! (10:21).
Jesus later lets his disciples know, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see” (10:23). Jesus is referring to seeing the messiah and the dawning of the kingdom. The disciples and the seventy-two that were sent out lived during a privileged time to see Christ living in the flesh and be with him directly in his ministry. Although the time of Jesus living on the earth as a human has long passed, we still have the gift of a personal relationship with Him on a spiritual level. Not only that, but the kingdom of God is among us! We live in a time where God’s kingdom is present in our reality we just have to notice it. We are blessed just like the seventy-two and the disciples for our eyes to see the kingdom in the ministry that sends us to do.
We then get this well-known parable of the Good Samaritan and the situation with Martha and Mary. Here we have an expert of the law asks Jesus a question of how to inherit eternal life. Now the expert knew for when Jesus asked what was written in the law, the Torah, he gave the correct answer. But when he asked Jesus to elaborate, the answer revolutionizes the perceptions of the expert of the law. In the parable, the first two that ignore the injured man (the priest and the Levite) are both considered higher up in the temple and educated in the law of God. Yet, they both ignore to have mercy on the man. There could have been a number of reasons why the failed to help this man. The priest could have thought he was dead and it was considered ceremonially unclean to have contact with the dead. This two may true for the Levite, or he may have even believed he was not a requirement to help the man since he was not a priest (although Levites were privileged, there were still inferior to priests). In any case, Jesus says that these are not appropriate responses. Then the Samaritan come in, a man who was despised by Jews for being a Samaritan, and helps this injured man. Jesus is telling the expert of the law that even though the priest and the Levite know the law, they failed to do what a Samaritan despised by the Jewish community was able to do. Show compassion on his neighbor.
Jesus is showing that the love for your neighbor is universal. There are no borders to which we must have compassion for people. The foreigners, the outcasts, the poor, and the humble may all receive the mercy of God! Loving your neighbor and loving God cannot exist separately, but by loving our neighbors, we are in turn loving God as well.
Luke is very smart to put this episode of Mary and Martha directly after the Good Samaritan. With the Samaritan we have an example of how to love our neighbor and with Mary, we are shown how someone truly loved God. Martha got so consumed with preparing things that she began to ignore Jesus, and Mary is listening to His every word. Mary becomes an example or someone who loves God above all else. She has this strong desire to be around Jesus and to learn his word, while Martha just got preoccupied.
“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way to the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 8:2-3)
Process
-How are you, as individuals, loving our neighbor and your community? How are we loving our neighbors as a church body?
-What are better way that we can show love and compassion to our neighbors in our church, schools, or community?
-Are there any aspects in your lives that keep you preoccupied from hearing the word of God?
-Mary was loving Jesus just by sitting at his feet and hearing his word, the word of God. How is hearing the word of God loving God?