Luke 20
Bible Passage: Luke 20
As I read today’s chapter, there’s only one question that haunts me: What do we see?
Do we see the physical or the spiritual? Do we see the world or do we see Jesus Christ, our God and Creator and His mission for us?
My New King James Bible entitles Luke 20 as “Disputes in Jerusalem”, referring to the verbal conflict between Jesus and the chief priests, scribes and elders, some of which were Pharisees and others Sadducees. These people belonged to the high society of Jesus’ time. They were educated, rich, highly respected and admired by many. They were regarded as spiritual people. But were they indeed spiritual?
In fact, if we take a closer look at this chapter and the questions which they posed, we will notice that they focused very much on the physical realm, e.g. authority (Luke 20:2), money (Luke 20:22) and relationships (Luke 20:28-33).
Today, are we like them? Do we pay more attention to status, gain, pleasure and happiness in the world? Or do we care more about spiritual matters? Do we only have a form of godliness or do we have the true substance of faith?
The chief priests, scribes and elders indeed appeared very godly and spiritual on the outside. Yet, they were full of selfishness, pride and sin, which they needed to cover up with their religious acts so that they would not loose their face. For this reason, they could only see what is physical.
In contrast, Jesus’ answers reveal that He is looking at the spiritual side of things. What He sees is the spiritual kingdom of God, where power, status, money and relationships have no significance at all. What He sees is mercy and kindness. What He sees is humanity’s need for salvation. What He sees is His mission to save mankind.
Luke describes Jesus Christ as the Son of Man, a person like you and me. As such Jesus is the perfect role model for every single one of us.
So what do we see?
One Comment
appleofHiseye
First I see the chief priests, scribes, and elders, and me. Seeing how they reacted towards Jesus, reflected how I react to others sometimes…I judge out of my pride, selfishness, or sin. I cover up my wrongs with a mask of goodness, but in the end Jesus will tear it down with His righteous words.
It’s bad enough to judge Jesus, and then they go on procrastinating, covering up lies with lies to save face, their status, their reputation. So I hope that in the things I do, I do so out of sincerity with a genuine heart to please God and not for man’s praise.
A good principle to live by inspired by Romans 14 (:
quoted from a friend…
“Don’t judge others in whatever they do,
and don’t stumble others with whatever we do.
We have the responsibility ourselves
to make sure that our good is not spoken of as evil by others.
If there is any slight chance of a misunderstanding,
it is better not to do at all.”