From 64687721d45011af6391df9f49ebdb62db1a6ab2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lyle Mantooth Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2022 10:29:10 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] Luke 15:1-10 --- content/bible_journal/luke_15:1-10.md | 44 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 44 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/bible_journal/luke_15:1-10.md diff --git a/content/bible_journal/luke_15:1-10.md b/content/bible_journal/luke_15:1-10.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..25f7ec0 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/bible_journal/luke_15:1-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ ++++ +title = "Luke 15:1–10" +date = "2022-12-31" ++++ + +### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Lk15.1-10) + +The entirety of chapter 15 has a single theme: God seeks out and saves sinners. +We are told that the reason it comes up is that the scribes and Pharisees are +harrumphing about Jesus teaching and accepting the company of tax collectors +and sinners. Remember that back in Luke 14:35, Jesus said, "He who has ears to +hear, let him hear." Now Jesus has a bunch of people willing to hear Him that +the Pharisees didn't want to teach. Before Jesus arrived, they were stuck in a +vicious cycle where they knew they were ungodly but didn't know what to do +about it, and the religious leaders wouldn't teach them anything because they +were too ungodly. + +So Jesus tells three parables to explain how God operates. I'll only talk about +the first two today, though. In the first, He asks the Pharisees whether they +would go out and search for their one lost sheep out of a hundred. And once +they have found it and brought it home if they would celebrate with their +friends that they didn't lose the sheep. In the second, He talks of a +hypothetical woman who has lost one coin out of ten. She searches through the +whole house with a lamp until she finds it, and then tells her friends to +rejoice with her because she found it. + +In both stories, the people had lost something valuable. Sheep were (and still +are) worth a good deal of money for the wool, milk, and meat you can get from +them. The _drachma_ coin the woman lost was the Greek version of the Roman +_denarius_, worth about a day's wage for a laborer. In both stories, Jesus +identifies the lost thing as a sinner who has gone far from God, but is then +found by God and repents. And when they do, there is much joy in heaven because +they did. + +Pay attention to sequence of events in these parables! God is the one who goes +out and finds the lost sinners, and He is the one who brings them back. The +Pharisees were wrong to expect people to clean up their lives before deciding +to follow God's commands better, and we are wrong to expect people to know and +apply the truth before they have heard it. + +* * * + +Give us the grace and humility to remember that we, too, are sinners who are +saved by grace, and if it weren't for You, we would be as evil as anyone else.