Luke 17 & 18

Luke 17 kind of reminds me of a Reader's Digest version of things Jesus is trying to tell the disciples as his time grows short.  Or if not Reader's Digest, then a great Power Point presentation.  I can imagine a big screen with a lake shore background and the following bullet points flowing in...

• Trials and Temptations are bound to happen - but woe to those who cause them
• Better to swim with a weight around your neck than to give these "dear little ones" a hard time
• Tell you friend when you see them doing wrong. If they reject you several times during the day, keep forgiving them.
• There is no such thing as "more faith"  You either have it or you don't.
• If you have faith, you can tell a tree to jump in the lake
• Don't expect lavish praise for doing what you're supposed to be doing (OUCH!)
• Do your job well, put in the hours you've agreed to and then leave it for the day (Not directly written, but makes sense to me)

After this collection of to-do's, Jesus is called to by ten lepers. They don't approach him, but call to him from a distance to have mercy.  He heals all ten of them and tells them to go show themselves to the priest. (This was an important step in proving their health and being allowed back into daily society.)  Only one of them comes to Jesus to thank him and kneel at his feet. This does not go un-noticed.  Jesus tells him to get up and go on his way. His faith has not only healed him - but saved him as well.  I don't know how many times I've read that sentence and always glided over that "saved him" portion.  This man that remembered to say thanks was not only healed and would be accepted to society, but was saved and will be with Jesus in heaven.  A double blessing for doing so simple as remembering to show his thanks.  Wonder how many double blessings I could have had if I had remembered to thank God for the small blessings he gives me each day?

The last section is Jesus trying to explain to the Pharisees and others gathered when the Kingdom of God was going to arrive.  We don't have a Google Calendar to mark the arrival.  We won't have an early detection system that will go off and tell us to prepare.  Gary England won't be on News 9 tracking his arrival.  But when he does arrive, we need to be ready to drop everything and go with him.  No running back into the house for our cell phone or our camera.  No stopping by our friend's house one last time to try and save them.  

In Luke 18, Jesus encourages us to be persistent in our prayers. He uses the story of a widow who continues to ask a judge for favor in a situation, until he relents and gives her what she's asking for.  I equate this to our fuzzy dog Anders.  When he wants outside, he will walk to the door, walk back to you, do a complete circle around you and then starts all over again.  After a few circuits, I get dizzy watching him and let him out to bark at what ever he's watching.

Later in the chapter we're reminded to pray with our hearts and not with an outward show.  The purpose of prayer is to have a heart to heart chat with our Father. If I was to make a show of talking to my dad, with big words, big gestures and melodramatic inflection, he'd tell me to straighten up and fly right. He much prefers having a nice long conversation over a cup of coffee or tea.

Jesus again makes it plain to the disciples that he has a special place in his heart for children.  If we can't believe in him like a child believes in him, then we're missing out.  It may go against our nature, but I think if we picture ourselves wrapped in Jesus's embrace and tackling the day together, then things won't seem so bad.

Next in the chapter, a rich official asks Jesus what he needs to do to get into the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus replies that he needs to give everything away and follow him.  This is pretty painful for the rich man as he is very rich and very happy with his life.  Jesus then says that it will be easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven.  I've heard a story in the past that this story was a little more true to reality than we may think.  From what I can remember, there is/was a pass in the middle east that locals called "the eye of the needle".  It was along a caravan route, and when the loaded camels neared this pass, the caravan leaders had to unpack the camels, lead them without their load through the pass and then reload them on the other side.  That means that the materials the camels had been carrying had to be moved by human power though the pass.  That's a lot of work!

The last section reminds us again to be persistent when asking God for what we want - and to not be shy about it.  As Jesus is nearing Jericho a blind man hears the commotion and calls out from where he is, "Son of David - Mercy, have mercy on me!"  The people around him try to shush him, but he calls out even louder "Son of David - Mercy, have mercy on me!".   Not only is this man calling from where he is, but he's calling out to the Son of David.  The blind man knows exactly who Jesus is - the Son of Man who is our Lord and Master.  

Jesus asked that the man be brought over to him.  I'm sure that this meant that friends of the blind man had to help him up and guide him to Jesus.  I wonder what they were thinking?  "Oh wow - now he's done it. This Jesus is going to strike him for being obnoxious".  Or perhaps "Why didn't I stay in bed longer today?  Then I wouldn't be mixed up in this."  I'm hoping that there was at least one friend who thought "This is the day that my friend will be able to see. I'm so blessed to be part of this!"

As the man is brought close, Jesus asks him what he wants.  He replies that he wants to see and Jesus tells him that his faith has saved and healed him - go on about your life.  There's that "saved" word again.  A spiritual two for one!  Everyone in the street saw the miracle and began praising.  My guess is that the crowd was quite a bit louder than the lone blind man had been just moments before.  

So....when we receive our heart's desire from Jesus, what do we do? Nothing? Tell a few select friends how we have been blessed?  Or....do we share the good news with many people - giving them hope that our Father knows each and every one of our needs and is just waiting for the right time to bless us?