Luke 6:27…

Love is…?

As Jesus continues teaching His ‘sermon on the plain,’ He turns our thoughts to the subject of love.

There has probably been more written on the subject of love than any other topic. There have certainly been more songs written about love than any other subject.

What is it about love that so captures the human experience? We love love, we love to be loved, and we love to be in love.

For many people love is the answer, inevitably, to every human problem and need. If love could only be applied, all problems would be solved, they might say.

How is it then humans know so little about love, even though so much has been written about it, sung about it, and thought about it for so many thousands of years? Why is it with a knowledge ‘love is the answer’ humans act as if they have no answer at all for the needs that exist?

And we continue to ask the question, what is love, really?

And, since love is arguably the very thing humans need most, why is it that so little actual love is practiced? (Much is done in the name of love that neither love nor loving.)

We have to admit most of what we have called or felt as ‘love’ has actually been an emotional experience, either from us or for us. That definition of love makes us ‘feel’ good, so we seek it from others and desire to give it to others when we can, simply because it makes us feel so good - and because it makes us feel so bad to not be ‘loved’ or to be able to give ‘love.’ But all of this kind of love is based upon a bargain we work out pertaining to the worthiness of the other person to receive the ‘love’ we would give only if we could.

This definition of love is about as silly and frivolous as all the silly love songs written down through the centuries. It makes no logical sense to make love a bargain. Jesus says if love is a bargain, it isn’t love at all.

-Pastor Bill

Luke 6:12…

Again we see the issue of choice. Who would you choose to represent you?

This being such a serious issue, Luke notes Jesus continued in prayer all night about which disciples He would call to be apostles. (Interesting He chose twelve, knowing Jewish history as we do.)

Surrounded by many disciples, the calling to be apostles of Christ is a great distinction. A fine one. These, of all the men following Christ and hanging on His every word, would be those who were to continue His ministry after He was gone.

These were to be the men who would found His church, and set the course for all of Christian history. Apart from Christ Himself, these were to be the men who would set the direction we still follow today. If not for these very apostles, it is likely we would not be here right now.

How interesting it is we know so little about these men. Biographical data was not recorded during the time of Christ for any men, let alone these. Whatever biographical data may have existed was recorded by historians, and then only centering around events that transpired, rather than things like birth, childhood, adulthood, influences, death, etc. During these days no one had any interest in anything other than what had been done by that person.

The main reason we know anything at all about these men is because at this time they were called by Christ to be His apostles. The word ‘apostle’ means ‘sent.’ These were to be the men Jesus would send.

How overwhelming and yet exciting it must have been for these men to be called in this particular way. But also how sort of frightening it must have been as well. While this would mean you were to become one of those closest to Christ, it would also mean you were to be one of the ones bearing the greatest responsibility for Christ. You would be identified with Him through all the turmoil He would experience on earth, and then you would be identified with Him in all the turmoil to come after His departure. There would be no escape. A disciple may melt away into anonymity. An apostle never could.

Only Judas sought to escape. He was crushed by the weight of the responsibility he bore.

-Pastor Bill

Luke 6:1…

With no fast food or convenience stores available in those days, we find Jesus and His disciples cruising through a farm field on the Sabbath Day, and they are hungry.

There are a number of laws in play here, for those who govern themselves according to God’s Law.

The first law in play is that a farmer could only go through his field once, and would not glean every last leaving of his crop for himself, in order that passers-by and those who are hungry may be fed.

A second law in play was those who were passing by or hungry were not to make a harvest from the farmer’s field for themselves, as this would be stealing. A passer-by was only allowed to gather what he could with his hands to feed himself in the moment.

A third law in play was the Law of the Sabbath. This was the Sabbath Day. A man was not allowed to do any work on the Sabbath. Additionally, by Jesus’ time, the Sabbath Law had been extended to include what was known of as a ‘Sabbath-Day’s journey,’ that a man could only walk a certain number of steps on the Sabbath Day, and it would be considered a work to walk farther than the allowed distance.

For Jewish people in those days, as it is for Christians in our day, there was/is always to be a consideration of God’s desire for us in everything we do or say. The question is who is to govern this behavior? Is it to be an external person or governing body enforcing God’s Law, or is it to be our conscience guided internally by God’s Holy Spirit?

There is no question the ‘enforcers’ in those days were the religious leaders, be they Pharisees or Sadducees or religious lawyers. This is what is taking place here.

The question is: What were the Pharisees doing following Jesus? We know why His disciples were present. They had a genuine interest in Jesus ministry, and were being fed Spiritually for the first time in their lives. They were hungry for God.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, were only present to find fault. Their hard hearts prevented them from being fed Spiritually, and so they would seek to prevent others from being fed physically. In reality, their desire was to starve the ministry of Christ.

-Pastor Bill