Day 21: Teach us to Pray, and Die, and Live

So chapter 11 begins with Jesus teaching his disciples the Lord's prayer.  (You may want to turn back to Matthew, chapter 6, for another version of this prayer.)  Only in Luke's Orderly Account, the disciples observe Jesus in prayer, and ask him, "Teach us to pray."

I love this.  (I think that I love the simple, but not easy, sentences in scripture, sentences like "Love your enemies."  "Pray without ceasing."  "Jesus wept.") 

Luke just keeps reminding us not only that Jesus saves, but that Jesus prays.  Afterwards, Jesus tells a story about a man who goes to his friend in the middle of the night begging for bread.  Even if the friend doesn't want to get up, the noise of his friend pleading from out in the courtyard where everyone can hear will finally convince him to get up and give him what he wants.   (This is another one of those stories unque to Luke.) 

If you remember Jesus saying really recently, "Whoever is not against us is for us" really recently, you might be surprised that now Jesus says that 'whoever is not for me is against me.'  However, this is a different situation, when Jesus himself is being accused of using the power of the devil to cast out demons.

Jesus speaks out against the Pharisees here in Luke, but it doesn't seem quite as over-the-top as in Matthew somehow.  And please note, that at the end of chapter 13, it is some of the Pharisees who warn Jesus about Herod. 

It's interesting to me that Jesus places the warning about the unforgivable sin in this section of Luke, in the middle of his warnings about persecution, and at the same time as he assures his disciples that, when persecution comes, the Holy Spirit will give them the words to speak.

Another parable that only Luke tells is the one about the man with many barns, who accumulates a lot of "stuff" and then finds out it won't help him in the world to come.  Afterwards, is the familiar teaching about the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.

And in chapter 13, the story of the  bent-over woman (another healing on the Sabbath) only Luke tells.

The fig tree parable might sound familiar from Mark, but notice that in Luke, Jesus is willing to give it another year to bear fruit.

I also like the story about the faithful servants who the master finds hard at work.  Did you notice that in the end, the master will serve them?

What are some of the details and the larger themes that you are noticing in Luke?