Week 4 May 2025, Devotion Part 2

Will any one of you, who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep, say to him when he has come in from the field, “Come at once and sit down at table?” Will he not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, and gird yourself and serve me…”?  Luke 17:7-8

Elsewhere in the gospels – with only eight exceptions, six of them in Luke – these followers are always identified as disciples, meaning learners. In this particular story Luke, who also wrote the Book of Acts, calls them apostles. It designates Christ’s intimates as officially sent commissioners of the gospel – with miraculous powers. In Acts 14:3 Luke clarifies the concept while reporting on the persecuted Apostle Paul and Barnabas, “So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders.”

 “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘increase our faith!’” After the perplexing pep talk, He gave them a crash course in miracles and healed ten lepers. Only one, a despised Samaritan at that, came back to thank Him. After tending Israel’s sheep in the day of His flesh, Jesus by nightfall prepared for the Passover of His broken body and shed blood. He girded Himself with a towel and washed His disciples’ feet. Uprooted from heaven’s native majesty and thrust into our unlikely existence, He modeled the active faith of astounding obedience. If we imitate this Christ, His matchless humility will transpose our servanthood from scrupulous duty to sacred honor.  Part 2 of 2

Comment:  If I mentioned starting my day with a filling breakfast, please don’t spy on me when I eat granola.  Perhaps I actually mean “grace” as I measure it into my bowl of immediate needs.  Oddly, when I want to pour a perceived excess back into the box, no matter how I try, I can’t.  After having opened up myself to the God revealed in Luke 17, I can’t stuff Him back into the box where formerly He fit in comfortably at the level of my understanding.  If at first I correctly surmised that the text had more to do with my obedience than me curing lepers, I seemed to understand that it needed to be patterned on Christ’s. That’s when the writer of Hebrews 5:8 lowered the boom on me for starters: “Jesus learned obedience through suffering.”  This didn’t imply that He was once disobedient and then became obedient. Rather, it meant His obedience, which was always perfect, was fully tested and proven through the trials and tribulations He experienced.  We all have those and “therefore” rejoice that we have in Jesus a High Priest who invites us to approach His Throne of Grace to get the help He freely offers.  As for the deep-rooted Mulberry tree, we also deal with obstacles that mire us in defeat.  Paul counsels in 2 Cor.10:4-6 to “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”  This is how we obtain divine power to “demolish strongholds” of earthly origin or outright demonic design.  Dr. Luke prescribes it as a first good step on our “wonderful” road as God’s consecrated and purposefully “sent” bearers of His Good News.  Luke 17