February 22, 2016: Day 50 – Luke 6

The wise man built his house upon a rock.  The foolish man built his house upon the sand.  I wonder if you have that tune going in your head just now like I do.  We sing that in chapel and the kids love the part when the house of the foolish man goes SPLAT!  Luke 6 contains the beatitudes that we looked at in Matthew but begins the chapter with healings that take place on the Sabbath.  Jesus makes the comment that the Sabbath was made for us to do good, not bad.  What is better than healing someone?  Jesus constantly shows how he is able to confuse his accusers and continue to live within the will of God to such a degree that all those around him could tell that he was sent from God.  

The difficult teachings that Jesus provides after the beatitudes cause us to pause.  “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.”  That is not normal for us.  We would rather avoid or not do anything to those who hate us.  It is not only safer but probably easier for us just to avoid those people with whom we have conflict.  If someone hurts us or is not our biggest fan then why not just avoid them?  Why put ourselves into a position where we are forced to interact with them?  Jesus tells us clearly that we are to take the initiative and do good to those who hate us.  That is so different from avoiding people that we would much rather not see.  I know that right now there are people who are popping into your mind as to whom you have been trying to avoid.  My suggestion is before you take that step to do good for them, first pray for them.  Shower them with prayer, ask God to bless them, and then you will find yourself prepared to do good to them.  The hatred that we feel does not affect the person that we hate.  The hatred that we feel toward someone, or even the dislike, will only affect us.