Selections from the chapter. Luke 6.

On Wednesday, we were to read Luke 6. And I did. But early in the day, my brain changed holiday into weekend. No posts on the weekends. No post on the holiday. I even thought about writing a special post (not on Luke 6) about an encounter I'd had with a bookstore owner, and how our 5x5x5 read through was impacting lives, but not the daily post. As it turned out, our holiday was busy and filled with solid family time. I hope your holiday was similarly blessed. Some time in the middle of the fireworks extravaganza at our daughters' house (40 or so fairly tame, legal, fountains, ground flowers, and monster trucks), I realized, "hey, I need to update the blog." After arriving home at 11:15 pm, I knew I was just too tired to even finish a post before midnight. So I decided to wait until the weekend to write about Luke 6. So, think of this post as a make-up quiz.

In thinking about all of our reading for the week in Luke, something that really stands out is how artificial the chapters separations are in this gospel. As we've discussed before, chapters and verses are artificial divisions added to the Bible, to help us easily refer to the same location in a given book. It's not that the chapters in Luke are unreasonable divisions, but clearly the chapters are longer than most of the chapters we've read in the rest of the New Testament. And there's a lot packed into them. Luke could easily be several chapters longer with each chapter containing less material, and the groupings would then be more logical.

Said another way, it's our adherence to reading one chapter a day, rather than logical blocks of text, that puts some episodes next to others, that may or may not be logically related in Luke's telling. Keep in mind that generally speaking, the fact that one story is right next to another should always be looked at carefully to determine if the writer wants us to look at those stories in relationship to one another to get additional meaning not contained in each individual story. We often describe this as the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. But a chapter division doesn't necessarily mean all the events should be considered together.

I find that to be the case in these long chapters of Luke. There are three main sections to chapter 6: the Sabbath incidents, the calling of the twelve, and the sermon on the flat place on the mount. If we look at the first and last sections, we might be tempted to think that because they are in the same chapter, Luke wants us to see something more than what is contained in each separate section. I don't think that's the case here. However, if we step back and look at several chapters together, then it's possible to see big themes which relate many incidents to one another. For example, we could talk about what's taken place from somewhere in the middle of chapter 4 extending at least through chapter 6 under the broad idea of Jesus' authority. In that case, the Sabbath incidents in chapter 6 might be described as Jesus demonstrating His authority over the Sabbath, and the sermon as Jesus demonstrating His authority in teaching (or understanding the Law). But this relationship has little to do with the fact that they're in the same chapter.

Therefore, the next couple of thoughts are just random responses to Luke 6. No particular connection to one another, except in the sense that they're both about Jesus. Heh.

I love the detail Luke gives us concerning Jesus' choice of the 12 apostles. "Now it was during this time that Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and he spent all night in prayer to God. When morning came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:" (Luke 6:12,13) A careful reading in all the gospels show that this happened often in Jesus' life -- time spent in solitude and prayer, in preparation for, and followed by, significant decisions in His ministry. This is what Jesus did. This is what we should do.

And speaking of what we should do, Jesus more or less sums up His sermon with these words in v.6:46, "Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do what I tell you?". He then goes on to describe what it's like to obey or not in the rest of the chapter, but the question alone ought to be enough for us. What do we mean when we say, "Lord?" Is it just a word? A meaningless sound that tumbles from our lips effortlessly, while the living out of its meaning remains the effort we're unwilling to exert? Let me remove the "our" and "we're" from that question, and replace them with "my" and "I'm". What areas of my life remain outside His Lordship by my choice? Is it time for my night of prayer to God, so He might illumine them? And if I'm submitted to follow Him, however imperfectly, am I challenging others to do likewise? Am I, by example and by speech, helping others to grow in their understanding of what Jesus taught and exhorting them to obey, as Jesus said to do as recorded in Matthew 28:18-20? Jesus left no doubt here. Either stop calling Him Lord, or do what He told us, in word and deed.

Time's up. I'm turning in my makeup quiz now. Out of all of Luke 6, what were you challenged by? Or inspired to?