Good Morning!

Look back over your shoulder and see where we have been on this journey. . . you should have dust on your knapsack, and dirty feet too, considering how far we have come. Our author, Luke, penned this gospel with amazing attention to detail of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. While we know Jesus was born in Bethlehem, his homeland was Nazareth, a small town in the region of Galilee, about 70 miles north of Jerusalem. Let's reminisce a bit. . . Remember when the infant Jesus was visited by a ragtag band of awestruck shepherds? We agonized with Mary and Joseph, imagining what it must have felt like to lose God--when He was just 12, thought to be in the back of the caravan, when actually He had been left behind in Jerusalem, and was found talking with the rabbis and teachers. . . We peeked into the carpentry shop where Jesus learned the trade of Joseph, and grew to age with his brothers and sisters. . . We stood on the muddy banks of the Jordan River and looked on as John the Baptist baptized Jesus, and God's voice was heard saying to Jesus, "You are my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with You." Not too long after, we watched from afar in the desert as Jesus fasted for 40 days and endured temptation near unto death. From there, His ministry launched. . .

We saw Jesus call the disciples to "Come and follow," the same thing He says to you and me today. There is teaching, there are miracles, there is love--such love! Jesus embodied the love of God the Father and expressed it to those he met. He showed us our need to get alone and spend time with God; he taught us about the Sabbath--and we're reminded that maybe the most overlooked commandment of The TEN is--"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy"~ Friends, let's enter into Sabbath rest. We have resurrected a few archaic words--concepts we ought value and live--especially mercy. Mercy helps us forgive, allows us to be compassionate and tender, and believe the best in others. And let's not forget grace, as that is what the Lord gives to us, and what he wants us to give others--we have seen how sinners loved hanging out with Jesus. . . how bizarre. Well, it was no wonder--Jesus brought dignity even to women who were second-rate citizens in 1st century Palestine. Indeed, Jesus believed in bottom-up economics--the last shall be first, the first last, and the least among you will be the greatest. His was a case study in servant leadership, and the value of humility.

As I look back, I am challenged by how Jesus responded to people's faith--my favorite story the woman who had been sick and an outcast for 12 years, who had the faith that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus' garment, she would be well. She did. . . she was. Faith. . . Jesus saw it in her. (Luke 8) Let us learn from this desperate maiden, and reach out in faith to Jesus. . .

When you look back at Luke's telling of Jesus--what have you learned about the Messiah?___________________ What has provoked you to think deeper about this Jesus? _____________________What has caused you to love Him more? Has anything challenged you? 'Convicted you? What has moved you to tears? _______________________________________For me, while studying about Jesus these last five and a half months, what I have seen like never before is his humanness, the depths of his feelings, his emotions. Somehow, when we're thinking about God, it is weird to think about him having emotions. . . What brought me to tears? The loneliness He had to have felt on sharing Passover with the disciples for the last time, when though He was telling them that He was about to suffer and die, they just started vying for 'position'. . . how His heart must have broken inside. . . and then that one of them would betray Him. . . he had chosen Judas all those years before, just like the other eleven--how could it come to this? Well, I guess that pretty much brings us up to where we are in the narrative. Judas has left Jesus and the eleven, gone to tie up the details of his evil plan; then the rest leave, and go out into the night, and onto the Mount of Olives, stopping in the Garden of Gethsemane. While Jesus agonizes in prayer, his men drift off to sleep, leaving him alone. . .but not for long.

As we turn the page, there will be little time for solitude or reflection. The time of betrayal is near. Very soon now, Judas will lead the officers of the chief priests to Jesus and betray him in the presence of the apostles. So the stage is now set, and the arrest is soon to take place. It is my heartfelt desire that we will really meet Jesus in these last chapters of Luke's gospel; it is my hope that studying about prayer this past week--both how to express ourselves to God, and also how to discern His speaking to us, will enable us to commune with God as our hearts and minds are pried open to see the significance of the terribly costly events of the last days of the passion week.

"Be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God. . ." Romans 12.2

May your mind be renewed and your life transformed by seeing afresh the details of Jesus' life. . .

Christine