#disciplemaking
#adventcalendarday11
#willyoujoinme

Ok – strap your boots on for chapter 11!

Broadly speaking there are two sections to this chapter. The first, (vv1-13) on Prayer (including the Lord’s Prayer) will be familiar and relatively easy to grasp. The second, (vv14-54) on demons and Pharisees is a lot heavier going and less familiar I suspect for that very reason! I found myself getting bogged down by the detail of some parts I just didn’t understand but as the chapter progressed it seemed to make more sense – so stick with it J

On prayer – it’s natural for anyone who believes in God, (or hopes there is a god), to want to know how to communicate with him. It always seems funny to me though that the disciples ask Jesus how to pray when they’ve been travelling with him and heard him, presumably, many times. Why didn’t they just copy him? I suspect though from the immediate context that unlike Jesus, they didn’t know how to relate/communicate to God as though he were their father. This was new and really different. No one before Jesus had ever referred to God as father, certainly not in any intimate way like Jesus was. And remember, this side of history, anything we know about prayer to God is completely influenced by this very interaction.

We think of God as: worth honouring; our provider; the one who forgives us; the one who protects us from the devil. We also think of God as: a good father, who only gives good gifts (including the Holy Spirit – His very own life-giving essence and power!); someone who responds to meet our needs, no matter how outrageous they might seem; and someone who will be found by anyone who seeks him.

But you wouldn’t want to be a Pharisee or a teacher of the law! This is not “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”! Frankly, it’s no wonder they ended up arranging to have Jesus killed. In my experience, no one likes getting told off – let alone adults – let alone leaders/teachers of adults.

According to the text though, Jesus is actually responding to their ridiculous notion that he was casting out demons by the prince of demons, Beelzebul. The Pharisee could have seen (and had) all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing. (Remember Jesus’ words to John the Baptist, Luke 7:22? Look at what I’m doing and make your mind up about who I am?).

The Pharisees were threatened by who Jesus was to such an extent that they were making up lies and trying to rap him into saying something they could prove was against their religious laws. But their real issue, as far as Jesus was concerned, was that they were making it hard for ordinary people to find their way into God’s kingdom. And that they were actually hypocrites with what they taught and actually did.

So here’s some thoughts for us:

• How does your idea of God measure up with the way Jesus speaks to him as father?
• Are you a timid or audacious pray-er? What could you be praying about that you haven’t thought was enough to worry God with?
• Is there anything you do or communicate about God that might be a barrier for those who don’t really know him yet? Do you start with rules or relationship? How can you foster your own relationship with God such that it might encourage others to do the same?