#disciplemaking
#adventcalendarday6
#willyoujoinme

Go ahead and read Luke chapter 6

The Old Testament Law (which all Jews were supposed to live by) said that you couldn’t work on the Sabbath. Jews were supposed to live by those rules because they had come directly from God (via Moses). Now all reasonable people can’t really see anything wrong with picking some grains of wheat! It’s not really work. And surely, nor can healing a man’s withered hand?  But the real question is, who gets to decide the correct interpretation? If the maker/giver of the rules gives a direct interpretation, then surely that would be the correct one. And this is what Jesus is claiming for himself when he says “the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath”. (Which was scandalous unless Jesus is God!)

The way Luke recounts these events though is clever. We, the readers, immediately side with Jesus and against the Pharisees. We put ourselves in the “good camp” and them in the “bad camp”. But then we get “whacked between the eyes”, as it were, with this section of moral teaching in which frankly, most of us have to suddenly put ourselves in the “bad camp”. Vv27-36 are SO challenging – read them again – none of us have room to be smug about our standing in God’s eyes.

Especially v35 “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back”. That’s not really the way of the world, is it?

But it is the way of Jesus! And he says in v40 “The student (disciple) is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” In other words Jesus wants his disciples to become like him and v46-49 illustrate that we do that by putting his words into action.

• Which words, works or ways of Jesus are you being challenged to put into practice today?
• If you asked a trusted friend, how might they say you’ve become more like Jesus?
• If Jesus was standing with you today, what would you ask him to help you with?