STUDY
NOTES on previous study
Kingdom Neighbors (Luke
This past week’s reading has been
unusual. Wednesday had you reading only
one verse. There is a reason for
that. Forgive me if I am being too
judgmental, but this lawyer (expert in the law of God) reminds me too much of
myself. This lawyer was confronting and
questioning Jesus for his own self-serving purposes. While we may never think we would “test
Jesus”, I am afraid we do this often without realizing it. We want to justify our own living instead of
seeking life as God designed it to be lived.
I am asking us to evaluate how we
approach Scripture. If we are looking
for reasons to justify ourselves, we will seek verses that affirm what we are
doing is right. But we will avoid the
bigger issues. Think about it – this was
the basic problem of the Pharisees. They
were consumed by wanting to justify themselves.
They had developed elaborate systems of protecting the laws they deemed
most important, only to miss the most obvious one – submitting oneself fully to
God. What Jesus does in this passage is
absolutely fascinating – because He refuses to allow the man to find the
self-justification for which he was looking.
Instead, Jesus offers him what he really needed – life!
It is important to understand the
nature of the legal expert’s question.
He was not asking about life after death. “Eternal life” was the Jewish designation of
life in the messianic kingdom – life in the end-time
Jesus chose to answer the question
with a question. This is a fascinating
technique that Jesus used often. People
want quick and easy answers, Jesus wanted to give them what they most
needed. By allowing the expert of the
law to respond, Jesus affirmed that which He himself believed. Jesus was not working against the Law, He was
fulfilling it. And so the lawyer
responded, “Love the Lord with all you heart, soul, strength and mind, and love
your neighbor as yourself.” He knew the
answer. Jesus said, “You are right on
target – do this, and live.” Notice that
Jesus’ response indicates a present tense life.
He was answering the lawyer’s question about life in the kingdom –
now!
Again, I see ourselves in this
lawyer. Our problem is not that we do
not know enough about God. We do know
the answers. It is very interesting to
see how many students I have that can pass a test about Christian ethics, or
Christian evidences, but they do not see the application of the information in
their own lives. Our problem is not that
we do not know, but that we do not do.
Jesus ends His good Samaritan story with these words, and we must take
them seriously – “Go and do likewise.”
Knowing the answer is not the same as living the life. Faith is an active expression of living
consistently with that which we believe to be true. Authentic discipleship – the focus of this
study – is simply living faithfully to that which we affirm to be truth.
So, the lawyer is seeking life and
wants to test Jesus to see if He knows where it is to be found. Of course, when the lawyer himself indicates
that he knows the answer, he must now justify himself, and so he asks a
“limiting” question. “If I have to love
my neighbor, who, then, is that?” I
believe he fully expected Jesus to draw a fairly small circle. “Your neighbor is the one who believes what
you believe.” No, Jesus would not answer
the question. The question itself was
wrong. And so He tells a story.
I love this story. It is a masterful telling of a story to make
an incredibly profound point. The crowd
would have been very interactive with Jesus as he told this story. It was one they could relate to and
understand. They would’ve “oooed” as he told them of a man going from
The crowd had to have been puzzled
when Jesus told of the Samaritan’s extravagant generosity. But they could not help but see His point –
if one wanted to enjoy life in the messianic kingdom, the question could not be
“who is my neighbor” – rather, it would be “to whom shall I be a
neighbor.” Kingdom life involves
generous mercy. That is, by the way, the
road on which we enter such a life. By
God’s extravagant mercy, he heals our wounds and gives us rest. Why should we think life would be found in
leaving the hurting around us to die – or looking for reasons not to help those
in need.
Do not miss the point here. Do you, like the lawyer, want to find true
life in the kingdom? Then love God
completely, and dispense His endless love wherever it is needed. Jesus meant it when He said, “Go and do
likewise.”
We all know this next story quite
well, I would guess. Good ol’ Mary and
Martha. Might this be another of Luke’s
comparative stories? He just finished
telling us of Jesus’ magnificent view of life in the kingdom – one of generous
and abundant serving. Now we find Martha
wanting to serve – and wanting Mary to help her serve – and Jesus says that’s
not what’s important! I do think it is
important to realize “serving” can be as “self-serving” as anything else. When we serve with the thought of what we are
doing, the good work of serving can become a distraction to the more important
things in life – such as living in the kingdom.
I don’t want this to be overly complicated, but authentic discipleship
cannot be reduced to a list of certain activities or rules. It is rather a mind for God that is flexible
– allowing for that which is important in the moment to win over the lesser
good. Oh, and by the way, if the only thing that was
important was “hearing the voice of the Lord” and living on an exalted
spiritual level (as one might conclude from the story of Mary and Martha), then
the priest and Levite would have been justified in their behavior. Rightful behavior in the kingdom calls for
appropriate decisions based on the need of the moment.
The first surprise of this story is
that Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet with His approval. Women, in Jesus’ day, were not considered
worthy of learning. But clearly, Mary
was invited to be at the feet of the great teacher. In anyone else’s way of thinking, Martha had
a legitimate point – Mary’s place was in the fulfillment of the domestic tasks
involved in hosting the teacher. But the
Lord gently corrects Martha. Calling her name gently, He reveals that her way
of self-focused service leads to a life of frantic distraction. Physical food was not the greatest need at
the moment, and Jesus had better food to offer – that was the “one thing” that was
needed. Mary had indeed made the right
choice.
I cannot leave this story without
reinforcing one of the most practical outcomes of authentic discipleship. All of us are in danger of falling to
Martha’s fault – living a desperately frantic and uncentered life. Have you seen City Slickers? It’s an old movie now, but it is the story of
a man whose life is so complicated he decides to head out west and join a
cattle drive in order to “find himself.”
An old crusty cowboy delivers the gag of the movie as he continually
tells the “city slicker” that life is “about one thing.” Of course, he never tells him what that
is. Jesus came to tell us this amazing
truth. If we would believe Him and
embrace the teaching, what a difference it would make!
Seek first the kingdom. We are in need of only one thing. Everything else just causes distraction and
worry. Seek first the kingdom. Eat at the feast table of God’s abundant
mercy and love. Mary chose the better
part. Have we?
Kingdom Neighbors (Luke
After having read the study notes, answer the
following questions:
1. How
do we sometimes “test Jesus” in our approach to the biblical text?
2. Why
did Jesus answer the expert of the law’s question with a question?
3. What
question did Jesus really answer with the story of the Good Samaritan?
4. What,
in our lives, keeps us distracted and worried like Martha’s concern for serving
food?
Lord, Teach Us to Pray (Luke 11:1-13)
Read Luke 11:1-4
1. What
had Jesus been doing when the disciples asked him to teach them to pray?
2. Why
do you think Luke mentions so often that Jesus prayed?
3. What
do you think might have been the difference between the way John the Baptist
taught his disciples to pray and how Jesus prayed?
4. What
strikes you most about “the Lord’s prayer”?
Read 11:5-8
1. Why
would a man ask another for bread late in the evening?
2. What
do you think these verses teach us about prayer?
3. Are
you persistent in your prayers?
Read 11:9-10
1. Why
is it important to ask?
2. What
do you think Jesus is encouraging us to search for?
3. What
is the door at which we are to knock?
Read
1. What
was Jesus telling his disciples about God’s response to prayer with his example
of a fish and snake?
2. Why
would Jesus call us “evil”?
3. Why did Jesus tell us God would give
us His Holy Spirit as an illustration of God’s gracious response to our
requests in prayer?