Giving Praise Back

Luke 9:10
(10)  On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida.

(10)  Καὶ ὑποστρέψαντες οἱ ἀπόστολοι διηγήσαντο αὐτῷ ὅσα ἐποίησαν. καὶ παραλαβὼν αὐτοὺς ὑπεχώρησεν κατ' ἰδίαν εἰς πόλιν καλουμένην Βηθσαϊδά.

Every time I read about this I have a sense of the apostles coming back with a mixture of righteous pride and surprise.  The righteous pride is being proud of what God has done.  It is not pride in themselves, but in their God.  Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but that's kind of how I picture it.

I also imagine a little bit of surprise.  They had to have been at least a little bit amazed the first time they were able to cast out a demon or heal someone who was sick.  They had seen Jesus do it, but now they had that authority too as delegated to them by Jesus.

I also think of them like proud children coming to their dad when they do something big.  It could be like riding your bike without training wheels.  Or maybe it's swimming around the pool.  The point is that it is something that dad had encouraged you to do and you were able to do it for the first time.

I take this as something of an imperative for us to offer back praise to God when He answers prayers.  It's so easy to get caught up in what we want next that we may forget that He is the source.  I think that He must appreciate it when we give Him the glory for what He has done in our lives.

Witness at Home

Luke 8:39
(39)  "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

(39)  Ὑπόστρεφε εἰς τὸν οἶκόν σου, καὶ διηγοῦ ὅσα σοι ἐποίησεν ὁ θεός. καὶ ἀπῆλθεν καθ' ὅλην τὴν πόλιν κηρύσσων ὅσα ἐποίησεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς.  

This may be one of Jesus' toughest teachings.  At least it can be for me.  This is addressed to the Gerasene demoniac after Jesus cast Legion into the herd of pigs.  This man was understandably very excited to be free from this demonic oppression.  He wanted to go and follow Jesus.  Jesus instead told him to go back home and tell what had happened.  This man was obedient.

So why is this so hard?  We know from earlier studies that a prophet is without honor in his hometown.  Yet Jesus told this man to go back to his hometown.  I don't know what effect he had on the people, but I can tell you from my own experience that I have not had much success with this so far.  I have told my family all that Jesus has done for me and they think I'm a nut, even those who claim to know Him.  That is discouraging, but it shouldn't stop me from being faithful.

On a side note, I think that this verse gives us some insight into Christology.  Jesus told the man to διηγοῦ ὅσα σοι ἐποίησεν ὁ θεός.  God is the clear subject of that clause.  It was God who did things to the man.  So what did this man do?  He κηρύσσων ὅσα ἐποίησεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς.  What is the subject of that clause?  Jesus.  This gives us one of two options.  Either the man was mistaken in thinking that Jesus is God or Jesus really is God.  It's hard to think that Luke would let such a grave heresy go without comment, doesn't it?  Therefore, I think it's safe to assume that Luke is equating Jesus with God in this narrative.

We are Family

Luke 8:19-21
(19)  Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd.
(20)  And he was told, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you."
(21)  But he answered them, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it."

(19)  Παρεγένετο δὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἡ μήτηρ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ἠδύναντο συντυχεῖν αὐτῷ διὰ τὸν ὄχλον. 

(20)  ἀπηγγέλη δὲ αὐτῷ, Ἡ μήτηρ σου καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί σου ἑστήκασιν ἔξω ἰδεῖν θέλοντές σε. 

(21)  ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς, Μήτηρ μου καὶ ἀδελφοί μου οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ ἀκούοντες καὶ ποιοῦντες.

I have always found this passage to be fascinating.  Jesus' family came to see Him.  Someone, perhaps a disciple, told Him that his mother and his brothers (αὐτὸν ἡ μήτηρ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ) were outside to see Him.  It is most reasonable to assume that οἱ ἀδελφοὶ refers to men that grew up in the same house He did.  They had the same mother, but of course they had different fathers.

One might think that He would be glad to see His family.  After all, He was extremely busy with His ministry.  However, a parallel passage tells us that they wanted to have Him committed because they thought He was insane.  Nevertheless, you would think that He would at least meet with them to explain His ministry to them.  After all, they needed to believe in Him as much as anyone else.

But what did He do?  He put them off.  His mother had no special influence with Him.  Instead, He called His followers His family.  

Where does this put you?  Are you in His family?  Are you one of His brothers or sisters?  Or are you still on the outside?  If you are not in the family I urge you to start following Jesus.  It's not easy, but you will never regret it.

The Non-Metro Prophet

Luke 7:25
(25)  What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings' courts.

(25)  ἀλλὰ τί ἐξήλθατε ἰδεῖν; ἄνθρωπον ἐν μαλακοῖς ἱματίοις ἠμφιεσμένον; ἰδοὺ οἱ ἐν ἱματισμῷ ἐνδόξῳ καὶ τρυφῇ ὑπάρχοντες ἐν τοῖς βασιλείοις εἰσίν.

This verse comes in Jesus' discourse with the people regarding John the Baptizer.  He is asking them what they expected of John.  I find the word μαλακοῖς fascinated based on its glosses.  Thayer has the following:

1) soft, soft to the touch

2) metaphorically in a bad sense

2a) effeminate

2a1) of a catamite

2a2) of a boy kept for homosexual relations with a man

2a3) of a male who submits his body to unnatural lewdness

2a4) of a male prostitute

This is the same word used in 1 Cor 6:9 that is usually translated as "men who practice homosexuality."  Here it is used to describe the garments that John did not wear.  We know that he wore a coat made of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist.  Basically, he was dressed pretty roughly.

I don't think that this leads to a theology of dress.  I don't want to commit the exegetical fallacy of using the semantic range of a word inappropriately.  In the context of clothes it does refer to soft.  However, I find it interesting that it is also used to describe men who are homosexual.  Maybe it's a stretch, but I would see this today as saying that John was not dressed like a metrosexual worship leader.

Plotting in Rage

Luke 6:11
(11)  But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

(11)  αὐτοὶ δὲ ἐπλήσθησαν ἀνοίας, καὶ διελάλουν πρὸς ἀλλήλους τί ἂν ποιήσαιεν τῷ Ἰησοῦ.

This comes right after Jesus healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath.  The Jewish leaders were so zealous about the law that they forgot that healing was a noble task.  It wasn't like Jesus made some poultice and spread it on the man's hand in hopes that something might happen.  He powerfully healed this man with a useless hand.  Yet this enraged the leaders.

This is interesting from a Greek perspective because the word ποιήσαιεν is in the optative mood, which we don't see a whole lot of.  This is the mood of hope.  Basically, they were dreaming of how they might get rid of this Jesus who was rocking their collective worlds.

We may look at these folks and mock a little bit.  However, doesn't this even happen to us who call ourselves Christians?  We don't like it when Jesus pushes us outside of our comfort zones.  You mean we have to serve in our community?  You mean we have to forgive people who wronged us?  You mean we have to love our enemies?  What is that all about?

We still do this to a degree.  Obviously we don't try to have Jesus crucified, but effectively we do try to find ways to push His teachings out of our lives.  Or is it just me?