#disciplemaking
#adventcalendarday22
#willyoujoinme

Hi Everyone – will you join me reading through Luke 22?

We’re back into the more familiar passages from Luke’s gospel but it does feel a bit bizarre to be reading them today! And yet, especially over these final three days, this is what Christmas is really all about. The birth of Jesus without everything that follows would be meaningless.

The word Satan means enemy, and more particularly – the enemy of God. The bible makes clear that whilst he is God’s enemy he is not God’s equal. So whenever it appears as though Satan is prevailing it is only temporary and only ‘allowed’ by God until his ultimate purposes are achieved. And you can see this most clearly in Judas. Satan gets involved, it looks like the enemy is winning, only to be thwarted later on when God’s plan is fully revealed.

We probably don’t spend quite enough time reflecting on this and as a consequence find ourselves perplexed and discouraged when our godly plans seems to get ‘derailed’. And let’s not beat around the bush . . . as the next few days play out in the life of Jesus there will be what seems like some horrific ‘derailment’ including personal betrayal, denial, trumped-up charges, ridicule & physical torture and ‘finally’ death.

• When have you seen your own plans derailed by the enemy? How did you cope? What sense of God’s bigger picture have you been able to identify subsequently?

As we move into the Luke’s account of the Last Supper we again see Jesus’ exquisite planning and timing, (which is worth remembering even with regards to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus). The words of Jesus reveal the approaching climax of the new covenant (promise) between God and humans. The shedding of blood was like signing a contract. And this contract was for you and me.

• Just for this moment, pause and give thanks that God loved you enough to forgive your sin and sign the promise in his own blood. You. Me. All people.

And before we finish today, I want to think briefly on Peter, who is the character so many of us warm and relate to. Fiercely loyal, brutally fragile, fallen and restored. He’s like an archetype for all that we aspire to be for Jesus, all the ways we let him down and all the ways Jesus knows our true heart and loves us anyway. Notice that Jesus never condemns Peter – he certainly drills him with a piercing look and it’s that look that Jesus gives to us too – and he dies for us anyway.

• What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done? Do you think Jesus knows? How is he looking at you right now? What is he going to go on and do?