PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

Do you see what Luke does again at the beginning of this chapter?  Just like in chapter 1 and 2 he grounds the story that he is about to tell in history.  This time he gives two complete verses of historical figures to allow us to catch up to him as to when all of this took place.  I also like how at vs. 23 he states that: “Jesus was about thirty years old…”  As we begin this Gospel we can never lose sight of the fact that Jesus worked and lived and was our Savior in the midst of history.  It didn’t take place in a make believe time, but rather in a time in history to which it is attested that these events actually happened.  Faith is not in need of proof, but it sure doesn’t hurt to hear about the historicity of what we believe.

Like the previous two Gospels John the Baptist introduces Jesus’ ministry to the world.  Luke doesn’t care about what John wears or what he eats.  He does care about what he says.  Notice from vs.10 and following how he addresses the crowds, the tax collectors, and the soldiers.  He gives each of them a charge to live their lives generously by giving away what you have in excess, being fair, and not using violence and your power to get what you want…in that order.  That sounds like a great rule of thumb for any of us.  But apparently each of those groups of people needed that message at exactly that time.  The moral axioms of give away your excess, be fair, and don’t use violence is something by which we can all live.

Jesus, as he is in all the other Gospels, is called the Son of God, the beloved.  Upon his baptism he is introduced to the world by the voice from heaven who guides and directs him throughout his life.  Luke then contains a genealogy at this point.  It is important to note that the genealogies in Matthew and Luke are different.  They split off after King David, in Luke it is found in vs.31.  I have heard theories, and some may call this a bit of a harmonization but I like it, that Luke follows the line to Mary’s descendants and Matthew follows them to Joseph’s.  In either case we find that in Luke we have a much more traditional genealogy where only the men are mentioned, as opposed to Matthew which contains the women, even some of ill repute, that make up Jesus’ ancestry.  You also notice what Adam is called in the end of the genealogy here in Luke.  Adam is called the “son of God”.  Matthew doesn’t go that far down the line and begins his with Abraham, but we have to admit that it is a bit unusual, but very fitting, that Adam is called the son of God.  He was, after all, created by God.  Just as we are sons and daughters of God because we were, after all, created in the image of God.

We arrive at the birth of Jesus while the author nestles us comfortably within the confines of history.  I’m in the middle of reading Killing Jesus and while it isn’t one of my favorite books, there are aspects of history that are lifted up and emphasized.  I guess I see the book more as a historical Dan Brown than probably most.  But Luke, our Gospel historian, places Jesus squarely within the time of Emperor Augustus.  Vs. 7 gives us all there is about the birth.  Jesus was placed in a manger because there was no room for them in an inn.  It does sound cold and disconcerting to imagine that people would not make room for a woman in labor in their midst.  But in fact, I would think that a woman in labor would probably not want to be in the midst of people but rather maybe in the quiet of a stable where there is some privacy and where only the animals would be.  

The angels appearing to the shepherds is one of the favorites of every Christmas pageant.  The fact that Jesus appears first to the shepherds, the lowliest of all people on the earth, is significant.  Jesus could have chosen to have the wise men see him first, but instead we find those who were on the lowest rung of the ladder that were given the honor of seeing him.   That is how God works.  I do believe that in Jesus’ teachings he has a preference for the poor as we see played out in the beatitudes and in other places in Scripture.  

Mary and Joseph were a traditional family who followed the religious practices of that day.  Even though their first child was born in a very unorthodox fashion, they still felt obligated to follow through in what was required of parents in that day.  They had to bring Jesus after 8 days to be circumcised, and they did.  It is at this point that he was called Jesus.  And then when Mary’s time was over for her recovery and she was able to make it to the temple in Jerusalem within the 40 days a required by the law, it is then that their son’s status as Savior becomes even better defined.  Both Simeon and Anna proclaim the fact that the Holy Spirit rested upon this child.  

We then find the only childhood story of Jesus.  It is one where we see his love for his Father’s house, which would be the temple.  Of course Mary and Joseph were worried to death when they thought he was lost forever, and there is a side to the story that makes one think of a mischievous child, but then again it is Jesus.  Vs. 47 tells us that all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.  So apparently people were asking him questions.  Maybe it was the religious leaders of the day.  And people were amazed at his answers and his understanding.  I’ve run across a few children who grew into youth and one now is on track to be ordained in the Presbyterian Church.  When I first met them and spoke to them about God it was obvious that they were special.  Hear me well, I am not saying that they are better, just they have a grasp of the Almighty that children don’t normally have and have carried that into adulthood.  Jesus would have gone well beyond any earthly examples we can conjure.

The Gospel of Luke.  We have finally arrived.  While I have been on record as saying that John is my favorite Gospel, and it is, Luke nevertheless provides more historical data and more of a rounded approach to the life of Jesus than any other Gospel.  As legend would have it the author is the physician Luke, but there really is nothing to support that claim.  The details that he gives about healings and physical attributes are no more technical than any terms you or I might use in describing bodies.  What is crucial is that Luke is the author of not only the Gospel of Luke, but also the Acts of Apostles.  This author has composed more than 27% of the New Testament making him the most prolific writer of the New Testament, even more so than the Apostle Paul.  As we read along in Luke keep in mind the detail that Luke lifts up, from the birth, to his childhood (the only one containing a story about a 12 year old Jesus) all the way to his arrest, crucifixion, and then eventual resurrection.  It is the easiest of the Gospels to read because of its penchant to details.  Enjoy the ride!

Chapter 1 of Luke is the longest chapter in any of the Gospels.  We haven’t even arrived at the birth of Jesus yet, but it feels like God has already performed some mighty acts, and He has!  Luke begins his Gospel by giving us a reason for why he wrote it.  Notice in vs. 3 that he is addressing an individual (or is he) who is called Theophilus.  If you break that word down into two parts you get Theo, which means God in Greek.  We have the term theology, the study of God, which comes from that root.  We also have the term philus which comes from phileae, how about Philadelphia the city of brotherly love, which means love.  So the term Theophilus while potentially being an individual, could also mean “lover of God.  In essence it might seem like Luke is writing this Gospel to all who are lovers of God.  I think we can include ourselves in that one.  Because of his constant use of Greek terms I think we can safely say that Luke is writing to a Greek audience.  If you read on to Acts of the Apostles you can see that this theme continues.

Our first account is that of the foretelling of the birth of John the Baptist.  It is absolutely crucial to understand the key role that he plays in the life of Jesus and in the salvation story.  John the Baptist can be understood as the first century Elijah who foretold the coming of the Messiah, the one who was to prepare the people of Israel for the advent of the anointed one.  His father Zechariah was a priest and his mother, Elizabeth, came from the priestly class so he was really a PK (Pastor’s Kid) through and through.  It should be no surprise then that he took off for the wilderness as soon as he was old enough to decide for himself.  Those pastor’s kids tend to be a little different.  

In vs. 26 we find the beginning of the Jesus story with his mother, Mary, being visited by the Angel Gabriel.  More than any other Gospel Luke stresses the virginity of Mary.  This leads back to Isaiah 7:14 which in reality speaks about a young woman, but the Gospels have picked that up to mean a virgin.  It is important to note that the virginity of Mary speaks to the miracle that God is able to perform in the incarnation.  God became one of us, Emmanuel, in the most unlikely way possible.  And yet it was still foretold by the prophets.  This coming of Jesus, our Savior and our God, through Mary is not something which was simply created in the first century.  No, in fact, we read that just about everything that Jesus does and all that he represents is brought to us previously by the prophets.  

Vs. 38 really speaks to the demeanor that each one of us ought to take on. Mary states: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.”  That should be all of our calling cards.  In vs. 37 she is given the assurance that nothing will be impossible with God, and so that allows her to respond in kind.  As we go through life we have to keep that promise in front of us at all times.  Nothing is impossible with God, and at the same time, all things work for good for those who trust in the Lord.  These two promises, one found in Luke and the other found in Romans, ought to be able to propel us through any experience in life.  Nothing is impossible, and all that happens is for the glory of the Lord.  

The visit of Gabriel to Mary is sandwiched by the account of the birth of John the Baptist.  As we read about Mary we then transition to the birth of John.  No other Gospel has the birth of John like Luke does.  I gave you the heads up that we need to pay attention to the details of Luke.  There are many details and they are magnificent.  Zechariah’s prophecy reflects Mary’s magnificat.  They both lift up the lowly who are raised up.  I can’t help but think that both of these families came from poor backgrounds.  Both of these families needed to see the redemption of the Lord who would bring salvation to the nation of Israel.  Mary focuses more on those who physically are in need, the poor, and against those in power as she says God has scattered them from their thrones.  Zechariah does seem to focus more on the promises of old which are being fulfilled for the entire nation.  “The oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham” is underlined as a key component to the promises that are being fulfilled.  

So by the end of this chapter John the Baptist is in place, and now it is time to welcome our Savior.  In the middle of Lent, it is nice to see where it all started.

Now the controversy starts for some people.  The Gospel of Mark is said to have a shorter ending and a longer ending.  Most of the manuscripts that are of historical value end at vs. 8.  Keep in mind we do not have a single copy of any of the original Gospels.  What we have is a compilation of documents that have been gathered over time.  The oldest manuscript that we have of the Mark Gospel is from more than 100 years after it was written.  It is interesting to note that just recently this issue has been in the news.  

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/21/living/gospel-mummy-mask/

So what if Mark does end at vs. 8?  In essence we find the women afraid to tell anyone and that is where it ends.  This is at least consistent with the other Gospels where the women are filled with fear and then have varying degrees of success in convincing the male disciples of Jesus resurrection.  If we just stop at vs.8 then the story is left up to us as to whether we want to proclaim the good news of the resurrection, or keep it to ourselves.  I like Mark ending at vs. 8 for the simple fact that it puts the ball in our court.  We are the ones who then are required to carry forward the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.  No one does it for us.  

Notice that the person who gave the message to the women is described as a young man dressed in a white robe.  He seems to know what they were looking for and knows the dynamics of the disciples to point out Peter as the leader of the disciples since he is mentioned by name.  In some senses the young man is just telling them what Jesus had already told them.  What is it that Jesus has told us that nevertheless doesn’t provide enough impetus for us to go and proclaim his good news?  

We find Michelangelo’s Pieta` in St. Peter’s church in Rome.  It is stunning and it makes you realize the pain and the agony not only that Jesus went through but his entire family and those who followed him.  Even if Mary must have been a giant, if this sculpture reflects real life, her robe and her details are hard to believe that they are made out of marble.

I wanted to focus on what happens when Jesus is crucified and dies in vs. 38.   If you remember Matthew like Mark records that the veil of the temple, or the curtain, is torn in two.  This is a crucial part of our faith as Christians.  The curtain was found in the Temple in Jerusalem and the purpose that it served was to hide the Holy of Holies from the people.  The belief was that God resided in the Holy of Holies.  You can see this hashed out also in Hebrews 9:1-9.  With the tearing of the veil it means that no longer are we as a people separated from the living presence of God.  Rather, in Jesus Christ the veil is torn in two because he has become one of us and and we have direct access to him.  We are able to see through the veil, actually, we are now able to walk through the veil and into the Holy of Holies and be in the presence of the Lord through Jesus Christ.  The tearing of the veil was not insignificant.  It was a defining moment.

How quickly things can change.  These 72 verses reflect 48 hours that have the disciples on the top of the world at the beginning of this chapter, and then all of them end up scattering and abandoning Jesus as he is beaten and tortured.  In two days, you go from Jesus being the hero of Jerusalem to a criminal being tried for the death penalty.   The room pictured above is supposed to be the upper room where Jesus and his disciples met.  Now, to be honest, it is not a hard connection, but it has been considered that room for many centuries.  Before they make it to the upper room you have Jesus who goes to the house of someone who would have been considered unclean, Simon the Leper, and there he is prepared for his burial by the woman with the costly ointment of nard.  So many things that Jesus does in the Gospels would never have been done by someone of his position.  He doesn’t hesitate to spend time with those considered unclean.  I love that.  He is then anointed by someone who could possibly be a prostitute as she prepares him for his burial.  Again, not something that someone of his position would ever do.  But he does it, and it just seems right.

We have verses 22-25 as the Words of Institution that we use for communion, although, as I mentioned in Matthew, I tend to prefer the Apostle Paul’s words in I Corinthians 11.  Starting at vs. 32 we have Jesus and his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.  

This is what is thought to be the Garden of Gethsemane.  It is interesting because in many of the places where we went there is a church located smack dab in the place that is supposed to be where the biblical account takes place.  But there are then many alternate places that may be across the street or down the road that could also be the place.  This is the one that was across the street and down the road from the church that is supposed to mark the historical Garden.  I like this place better.  It was quiet and it just felt a lot like the original Garden where Jesus spends his time with his disciples.  

It is from this location where everything changes.  Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, which is not a strange form of greeting in Mediterranean countries.  When we were pastoring in Italy, we would always greet men and women with a kiss on the cheek, actually with a kiss on each cheek.  I know, it sounds very foreign, well, it is, it is in Italy after all.  So it would not be unusual for Judas to greet Jesus with a kiss.  That is pretty normal.  With that normal greeting everything changes.  A sword strikes off an ear, Jesus is led into the high priest house, he is tried for blaspheme, says some pretty blasphemous things and so is bound and readied for crucifixion.  

This is the longest chapter in Mark and since today is our first Sunday in Lent it is appropriate that we find ourselves in the arrest of Jesus which is part of this season.  

At our last Revelation Bible Study on the first Wednesday of the month we got into what do we believe, or probably better yet what do we know, about the end times?  Do we have a firm conviction that we kind of know how things are going to take place.  We looked at the term rapture and I made the statement that you don’t have to believe in the rapture in order to be a Christian.  If you want more information on the rapture as far as the Scripture that people use to back it up you can look closer at I Thessalonians 4:16.  Personally I don’t really believe that there is going to be a rapture.  I strongly believe in the second coming of Christ and that when he does come he will come back once and for all and set up a new heaven and a new earth.  The rapture kind of seems like a second coming lite.  I am perfectly comfortable in saying I don’t know what the end times are going to look like.  I don’t know if there is going to be a tribulation or not, a time when Christians are going to suffer and then make it through once Jesus comes back.  I do know that Jesus is coming back and the point of Scripture is that since he is coming back then, as vs. 37 states: we must “keep awake”.  

Mark, more than any other Gospel writer, chooses apocalyptic language in order to get his point across that Jesus is going to come back again some day.  Chapter 13 points to day when there will be hardship.  I am convinced that Mark was writing this to the community who was reading the Gospel in the first century who could totally relate to the hardships that he was talking about.  I am not saying that he was writing exclusively to the first century persecuted Christians, but I do believe that they understood what he was saying probably more than we do.  A proof of that is found in vs. 14 where he speaks about the desolating sacrilege.  We find that same term used in Daniel 9:27 and the reader in that first century would know exactly about what the author was speaking.  Would an idol or a false God be set up in the temple or on the temple grounds by the Roman government?  We know that Caligula tried to do such a thing in 40AD by building his own statue and trying to place it in the temple.  It didn’t happen.  That would be about the right time for Mark to know about it and write about it.  Daniel was speaking about the time when Antiochus Epiphanes set up a pagan altar in 167 BC in the temple.  That actually did happen.  So we have all of these historical precedents that have taken place.  We must ask the question do we really need to try to identify in our modern era what desolating sacrilege just might correspond to what God wants us to know about the end times today?  I don’t think so.  The point is stay awake, be vigilant, be ready for when Jesus comes and by the way, you are not going to know when that time is.  It is a waste of time trying to figure out how Jesus is coming back or point to events to say that this event means that Jesus is coming back sooner than we think because it corresponds to an apocalyptic event in Scripture.  Each day we are closer to the coming of Jesus, but we still know just as little as we did before today.

Jesus’ words to his disciples, and so to us as well, is that we must be ready.  

Chapter 12 contains some of the most important verses in the Bible.  Now that I have your attention let’s go through this chapter and point out those areas that you absolutely must know because they are pivotal verses in Scripture.  Jesus begins with a fairly vanilla parable that has the purpose of speaking against the religious leaders as those who are the evil tenants who have been given responsibility over the vineyard, or the people of God.  God has periodically sent prophets to warn them and instruct them but the religious leaders of the people have historically not paid attention to them.  Worse yet, Jesus says, they have even abused them and some they have killed.  But when the owner of the vineyard sends his Son, who would be Jesus, they scheme to kill him thinking that then they would be masters of their domain and be able to call the shots on how the religion of the day would be run.  We read in vs.12 that the religious leaders of that day fully “realized that he had told this parable against them.”

We then have the uber famous verse where Jesus makes the statement “render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s.”  His response, and I love this detail, was so insightful and so defused the situation that those who were sent to trap him “were utterly amazed at him.”  He goes on.  It is almost like there are a line of people taking their turns to take their shots at Jesus, and after each attempt more and more people gather to watch the spectacle.  So after the parable and after the tax statement (keep in mind that this verse absolutely does have Jesus support the paying of taxes.  Don’t let anyone tell you differently that Christians shouldn’t have to pay taxes.  Believe it or not that is a pretty popular statement in some Christian circles.  It shouldn’t be because it isn’t Scriptural), Jesus is asked about heaven and what is that going to be like.  If there were a widow who went through 7 brothers whose wife would she be?  Jesus’ response is also insightful here.  He tells us that we will not be given in marriage in heaven, but rather that we will all be “like angels in heaven.”  

Starting at vs. 28 we find what I think is the most important statement that Jesus makes in Scripture.  To the question: “which is the most important commandment of all”, Jesus replies with two commandments.  I know we already saw this in Matthew 22 but I want to repeat it.  This answer that Jesus gives comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and the second one, love your neighbor, comes from Leviticus 19:8.  We can never forget that the answers that Jesus gives more often than not are answers that are found in other places of Scripture.  He could make up answers on his own and be original with them, but he chooses instead to use Scripture to give his answers.  

Last, but not least, you find Jesus using a widow who gives two small coins and points her out for her faith.  Notice that in this Scripture he does not compare her to the religious leader who is brushed with the stroke of a hypocrite.  While he is not averse to doing that in Mark, he instead focuses on her as opposed to those others who were giving.  He states: “she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”  What do we really need to live on?  What do we really feel like is necessary in order to survive.  And how much are we willing to give in order to ensure that those who are not able to make it day by day have enough to survive on?  When we contribute out of our poverty it is an act of faith.  When we contribute out of our abundance we feel as if someone should be grateful, instead of us.  

What a great image.  I’ve always seen the widow as an elderly woman in the end of her life.  But the painting below gives a different perspective.  I had never thought of it this way, but why not.  Widows are not by definition old, but rather normally they are extremely needy according to Scripture.  What a wonderfully different perspective.

I hope you are hanging in there.  We are almost halfway done, just a week away, and I pray that these readings are not becoming a drudgery but rather something to which you look forward every day.  We find ourselves on Palm Sunday again and the story of the preparation of the colt is somewhat different, and little more understandable.  Apparently everyone knew who Jesus was and so the explanation that Jesus needs it and “will send it back immediately” is not far fetched at all.  

The timing of Mark is also a little bit different as he goes into the temple after he rides into Jerusalem and just kind of looks around (vs.11).  It isn’t until the next day that he enters Jerusalem and drives out the money changers.  The commentary on the religious leaders is that they were looking to kill Jesus but hesitated because the crowds were “spellbound by his teaching.”  That’s quite a claim.  Jesus was able to teach in such a way that people were personally affected.  They were spellbound, is what the Scripture tells us.  

If you look at vs. 25 you see Jesus’ addendum to what we must do in order to have our prayers answered.  We must forgive.  Maybe, just maybe, the reason that God doesn’t answer our prayers is because we are unwilling to forgive someone and that keeps us from being heard from God.  Okay, God hears, we know that.  But here in this verse we are told that every time that we stand and pray, we must forgive.  Hear this Scripture well.  It does not say that we must ask for forgiveness, but it says that we must forgive.  This is far more difficult than asking for forgiveness.  We can always approach God with our sin in silence and no one is the better for it and ask for forgiveness.  But to actually identify someone who hurt us, who took actions that were insulting to us, who really gets under our skin and forgive them, that’s a whole different story.  Answered prayer, it seems them, is impingent upon our forgiving those against whom we have something.  

On this Ash Wednesday, we keep in mind that Jesus died for us and that our sin caused God to grieve so much that he was willing to sacrifice His Son.  It is not a feel good story, or a feel good day.  It is a day to recognize our sin.  If you come to the services today you will notice that we don’t focus on the individual sin.  In the past Ash Wednesday and really the entire season of Lent has encouraged us to focus on how we fall short of God’s glory as individuals.  It is a pietistic laden season where we fast, give something up, and in the general think about how my personal relationship with God is.  The Scriptures point to a different kind of a Lent. Scripture points to one where we think about who we are as a community, or in our case, a church.

The dynamic of Jesus and his disciples, as a group, has always fascinated me.  These verses, especially,  create a question in my mind that you don’t see in other verses.  This is one of the few times, if not the only time, that you see some dissension among the ranks.  You see the disciples not being really happy with each other.  You would imagine that living together 24/7 for 3 years would create some feelings and some stressful times that just might translate into times and periods of animosity.  This was one of those times.

The desire of James and John to be given the seats of honor in glory is a strange request.  Jesus asks them if they are willing to die the type of martyr’s death that Jesus eventually will assume.  They say that they are.  Then we read that the other disciples become indignant with James and John.  At that point Jesus calls all of them together and teaches them about what it means to be the first in the kingdom of God.  It means that you are a servant, put yourself last.  You have already missed the point if you are asking to be put first, because that means that you have completely misunderstood what Jesus is all about.