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Continuing our focus of Luke’s Gospel, this week please read Chapter 21 verses 25-38 every day this week and, if possible, use a different translation each day, asking God to open your eyes to fresh revelation from His Word.
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Luke 21:37-38 (NIV)
‘Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.’
A few weeks ago, in South Wales, the schools were closed for a half-term break. One of my colleagues has 2 sons of school age and one day I overheard a phone call he was making. It went something like this: “Wakey, wakey son. It’s time to get up. Have a good day see you later.” Now, there’s nothing particularly wrong with this other than the fact that the time of the call was almost 12 noon. We then had a conversation about how different things are today to years ago. I find that as I’m getting older, I’m having more conversations like this! School holidays meant that there was more time to be out and about. I can’t recall spending the time in bed but would be out playing football or something.
These days, children seem to spend more time indoors playing video games. That’s if they can actually get out of bed! We live in a culture that is becoming increasingly self-centred and lazy. We put off whatever we possibly can and in our pursuit of today’s pleasure, rarely plan for any kind of future. Instant credit means that we don’t have to save money. Interest free balance transfers mean that we can keep deferring any credit card debt. Society is storing up problems for itself and its children spend a lot their time sleeping.
The next chapter of Luke begins to detail Jesus’ final week on earth. The Passover is approaching and Jesus has just a few days left before His crucifixion. These couple of verses at the end of chapter 21 inform us where Jesus spent those last days. They stand in stark contrast to today’s culture. Instead of ‘chilling out’, He was devoting His time to teaching at the temple every day. He was more than aware of what was about to happen and He wanted to ensure that He made the most of time. In the previous verses, He’s warning His disciples not to be distracted by the things that this world has to offer and here He’s leading by example and showing what it really means to be devoted to the Father’s will.
He was spending every day teaching at the temple. We’ve already seen some of the contents of His teaching and I’m sure that the religious leaders were getting more and more irritated with every message that He preached. Their anger was increasing with every moment that He was teaching. Notice also that ‘all the people came early in the morning to hear Him’. The appetite to hear the teaching was also increasing. It is quite likely that there were thousands upon thousands of people in Jerusalem during this week. Not only were there the usual residents, but there would have been many visitors and pilgrims who had come from all over to attend the Passover. Jesus was using the opportunity to reach as many people as possible. If this had been me, and I knew what was coming, I think I may have wanted to stay in bed a little longer, to get some rest. I’m sure that this didn’t enter the Saviour’s mind. The timing of events is also important to note. Everything is being done to God’s timeline. I’m sure that the Pharisees wouldn’t have loved to arrest Jesus, but God has other plans. The crucifixion would take place when God decided and would not happen a moment before. As this week comes to a close, perhaps we’re looking forward to some extra time in bed this weekend. Just take a moment to think if that’s really the best use of the time that God has given us.
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