Day 25 - Luke 13-14

Chapter 13 opens with an interesting teaching from Jesus. The basic premise is this - tragedies happen, people die, and if you don't repent you will perish as well. Some years ago someone wrote a book entitled, "Why Bad Things Happen to Good People." Apparently, Jesus would rather have the title read, "Why Bad Things Don't Happen to All Bad People." What is clear from this text is the mercy of God. God is longsuffering. He is allowing time for people to repent of their sin before the final judgment. The call to repent is clear. The themes of the mercy and patience of God with sinners continues in the next parable of the fig tree as the owner of the tree allows time for the fig tree to produce fruit after cultivation. God, thank you for your mercy! May your goodness lead many to repentance and subsequent fruit-bearing!

After the insight Jesus gives on the invitation to the nation of Israel to come and their rejection of the invitation at the end of chapter 13, the next chapter has a parable of the great banquet. The picture couldn't be clearer. The first ones invited to the banquet were the Jews, yet they did not come. The ones who were invited later are the Gentiles--that's me and probably you too!

Again, Jesus points His disciples to the great cost of following Him. In this section, Jesus uses some pretty controversial words. Whoever does not "hate" his family cannot be His disciple. Of course, Jesus is not advocating "hate" in the sense that we generally think of it, but rather He is saying that the one who would follow Him must be ready to put Him first, far above any other relationship. He must be supreme!