When you pray…

Luke Chapter 11

LUKE 10:1-25

1It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” 2And He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

3’Give us each day our daily bread.

4’And forgive us our sins,

For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation.’”

5Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; 6for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8”I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

9”So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10”For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. 11”Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12”Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? 13”If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

LUKE 11:1

It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”

While Jesus was praying

Here is the prayer that has sustained believers for ages. It was a prayer taught to us because one disciple first saw John the Baptist praying and then saw Jesus praying. He asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray,” because two of the most courageous men that disciple had ever met both drew their strength from prayer.

How long has it been since my witness was so effective that an anxious, young heart asked me, “Please, teach me to pray.”

It seems — in my life — it is always the third time I return to visit someone who is incarcerated or homeless that they ask me; “Why do you care about me?”

First people look for my consistency, even persistence, that I will return to visit them despite the hurdles they face or the busy-ness of my schedule. That is what Jesus modeled to this young man. A consistent, persistent love centered in prayer. That is what the young disciple hungered to have and longed to learn.

I wish we knew the prayer John taught. A prayer so consistently humble that the summary of John’s life was to point to Jesus; “He must increase, but I must decrease [John 3:30].”

Would the private prayer of Jesus be all that different?

Matthew 26:42

He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.”

The prayer our Savior would teach us was consistent with John’s prayer and his private prayer. According to Matthew it went like this, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven [Matthew 6:10].”

Salvation will always be found in taking my focus serving myself and placing it on serving God. Two thousand years ago a young man went to Jesus desiring the unwavering peace of focus that he saw displayed in both John and Jesus. Jesus taught him — and through him us — “Make God the center of your universe, not yourself.”

LUKE 11:2

And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.’”

Father

God had become so distant, at least according to the priests who claimed to represent him. To buy the right to sacrifice to him cost the equivalent of thousands of dollars in today’s currency. There was the exorbitant price of the sacrificial animal, the overwhelming cost (in time and money) of journeying to Jerusalem, the rapacious fees to exchange any currency into the proper temple coinage. Worship had become the privilege of the rich and unreachable to the poor.

Jesus tore the fabric of religious elitism at its center with this one word, “Father.”

The levels between the needy and their God were stripped from the stranglehold of intermediaries. Anyone could talk directly to God, the worst sinner, the lowliest slave and the diseased leper. Any and all and they could leave their wallet at home. The cry, “Father,” was enough to turn the ears of the God of all Creation to the penniless widow on her knees.

Jesus could not have picked a more accessible or tender term for God. The birthright Jesus had to call God, “Father,” was passed on to us by our Lord. Jesus tore us free of intermediaries. The whole concept is unimaginable, the Prince of the Universe tells us to go directly to his King and say, “Father.”

Hallowed be Your name

There is a focus so pure or light so bright as to seem horrible to the jaded eye. Such is the brilliance of God and the only word adequate to describe him. Hagiazo [G37] not only means holy, but also purely focused. Sin cannot exist in his presence just as dross is burned from ore in intense heat. We have the contrast of an invitational Father and unapproachable purity in the same sentence and this is the mystery of God. However, we can understand the context of this apparent dichotomy if we understand what it is about God that is holy and intensely pure.

Jesus tells us the Creator’s name [G3686 Onoma] is pure. Yet, name was not simply a title to the Hebrew mind. It was how you lived; it was your bond, your character, your promise and your purpose. Nothing is more pure and purposeful than God’s promise and the character that backs it up. That promise, that Name, came to earth in the form of Jesus, the name above all names [Ephesians 1:19-21].

Jesus is the focus of God and our salvation is the focus of Jesus. To make hallowed the name of God is to live out his focus.

A theme carried out in the rest of verse two, “Your kingdom come.”

Matthew further elaborates upon Christ’s statement when he says God’s kingdom will come when God’s will is done. Even more, we learn the Kingdom and heaven are intertwined but not the same. The Kingdom is not something we will experience some day it is something we experience theday, beginning at the moment we start to live out God’s purpose in our life.

The kingdom of God begins when we bend our will to His. It begins that day and at that moment. It begins when God’s focus becomes our focus and his purpose becomes our purpose. Then, we are known by his name. Known by our holy focus, our singular purpose — the salvation of others.

LUKE 11:3

“Give us each day our daily bread.”

Our daily bread

Many of us think freedom is found when we have enough to buy daily bread for a thousand tomorrows and the steak to go on it, the china to hold it, the house to put it in and the SUV equipped to carry it to the top of Mount Everest for a picnic if we ever had such a whim.

Jesus had another framework for life, simplicity. It wasn’t really a new framework to the Hebrew psyche. In Proverbs we read of the prayer for simplicity [Proverbs 30:7-9]

To Jesus, ultimate freedom meant freedom from encumbrances, “Lord, give me enough bread to serve God on this day and enough faith to rely on God for tomorrow’s needs.”

Years ago, when I consciously chose mission work I began to grow in my understanding of the meaning of “daily bread.” I used the phrase “enough bread for the journey.” Sometimes daily bread would come in the form of a check when I simply didn’t have enough money for the bills. At other times, daily bread meant the strength to continue to minister even when it seemed as though I was on a fool’s quest. It was the inmate who said; “I couldn’t make without you.” It was the street youth who finally grasped how important he was and embraced his personal dignity. It was the laughter of a homeless child at evening chapel services.

That was bread for the journey. It melded my heart to God.

Our daily bread means, “Enough bread for today and enough faith for tomorrow.” It means stating, “Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny You and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’”

This prayer becomes increasingly important for our salvation at this time. For our world has enough food to feed its population and the technology to do so, but we lack the will. Increasingly our determination to hoard keeps others in poverty, a poverty that spawns desperation and a desperation that often causes violence.

We live in a global community connected by media, atmosphere, a limited oil reserve, a global labor market and the growing threat of violent ideologies. The choice for simplicity is more than a personal decision; it is a question of conscious and ethics. It is a question of inheritance.

When we pray, “give us this day our daily bread,” we should include, “and the freedom from wanting more.”

LUKE 11:4

“And forgive us our sins,

For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation.”

And forgive...

“Forgive us... for we ourselves forgive.”

How unabashedly can we say that to God? “Forgive me because I am always forgiving of others.”

The gospels are so filled with evidence of this one word that one could safely say there is no greater quality the Christian should strive for than forgiveness. Indeed, the command is for Christians to seek both personal forgiveness and corporate forgiveness (forgive us). Quite simply a Christian should live for only one purpose: To live for giving and never for taking.

In its fullest and strictest Hebrew sense, “forgive me,” is the cry of a tormented hostage. Kidnappings and hostage-taking were a frequent threat to the traveler and soldier of Christ’s day. Hostages were taken in war and made into slaves, as were those who could not pay their debts. Asking forgiveness [G863 Aphiemi] meant seeking relief from debt, to plead for ransom.

“Jesus pay my ransom as I pay the ransom for others.”

To be unforgiving is to hold someone’s ransom and yet, the one enslaved is I. I am the one held ransom when I cannot let go of my anger to others.

The Christian realizes his debt was paid by Christ and not for anything deserving we did or said. This is the forgiveness that becomes the framework of our life and our solitary purpose (name) for existence. God’s name (his Onoma, character) is forgiveness and to be “in God,” we must live for-giving.

Through Christ we too can experience the greatest liberation of life, the liberation of paying the ransom for others who are enslaved. And how about this, it is not even our account against we draw the ransom! We just carry the ransom money to the imprisoned. Christ pays all the bills. He is the guarantor.

“Be free of hatred. Be free of sin. Be free of possession. Be liberated of the judgmental attitude. Forgive your way into forgiveness.”

That should be our cry to the darkest corners of our communities.

In turn, Christ will call into our darkness, “Be free, you are forgiven!”

And lead us not into temptation

As we have studied before in the beatitudes, Luke had a way of telling the straight story with as little Jewish doctrine and cultural encumbrances as possible. His audience was philosophically Greek and politically Roman. In contrast, Matthew writes to a Jewish audience, often elaborating upon Christ’s teachings. Matthew doesn’t elaborate based upon his own conjecture but he often throws in additional points Jesus made about certain topics. For this reason it is very beneficial to read the Gospel accounts side by side for a greater fullness.

One difference you will see between the two accounts is Matthew sets this prayer at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, as part of the beatitudes (Matthew 5-7). Matthew also seems to include a teaching that John illustrates in the Last Supper Discourse [John 17:15].

The word that Matthew uses for evil is the same as the word John uses for the evil one [G4190 Poneros].

Good and evil were polar opposites in the Hebrew mind and they were represented by extremes. Evil was a living, malignant force, just as (to Jesus) there was only one, singular good; the Father himself:

Luke 18:19

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.”

What Matthew clarifies in his beatitudes is that temptation is not a crossword puzzle or heavenly SAT test. It is a malignant stealing of the joy of humanity for the purpose of our destruction. It is a devious and continual attack as was experienced by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane [Matthew 26:41].

The Evil One is a malignant force with a singular intent of destroying us to hurt God. We saw in the readings about the temptations of Christ how Satan used three levels of temptations to entrap Jesus [Luke 4:1-13]. Those levels were physical and material temptation, power and admiration and finally hubris (pride against God).

Simultaneously, we saw throughout Satan’s temptation he had a singular intent, to make Jesus question his relationship with God, “If you are the Son of God…”

Many of us are never tempted beyond square one. It is enough for Satan to offer us a beer and a channel changer and we are already out of commission. Yet, the more we make ourselves available to God, the more of a target we become to Satan and the more the Evil One turns up the heat in our lives. He never flees us; he just departs, “until an opportune time [Luke 4:13].”

The evil one is real; he is shrewdly focused on a singular intent. We are to be wary of his power! He is not a concept or a child’s story. He is claiming lives even as his dominion wanes. He is a power not to be underestimated.

Luke 12:4-5

4“I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. 5“But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!”

This intimate prayer our Lord teaches his disciple should wake us from our stupor. We are most vulnerable when we are most comfortable.

However (and this however is huge) although no one is safe from Satan’s deception we also need to remember he is not in ultimate control. He is fighting a guerilla battle and retreating in the process. God has already prevailed, in our universe and in our lives. Yet it is not an individual battle we can win.

To win against Satan requires

1. Constant prayer

2. Study of God’s word

3. Self-sacrifice and service

4. A no-nonsense community

Believers need each other in more than just Sunday pleasantries. Christians today suffer from a lack of credibility because we suffer from a lack of accountability. It is essential we ask each other the hard questions. The hard question is not, “Where were you last Sunday?” But, “Are you serving Christ in his vulnerable form? Are you Good News to the poor? Are you healing the sick and raising the dead? Are you ridding yourself of all distractions and choosing simplicity and seeking humility? Are choosing to be a lamb among wolves?”

We are accountable to and for each other. Not just a sheep under one shepherd but a family in one caravan. If women and children, the old or the infirm, the wounded and the vulnerable are being left behind, we are responsible to retrieve them. To battle the Evil One is to battle complacency, individualism and consumerism on all fronts. It is to question getting ahead if it means others are left behind. Am I brave enough for that battle? Can I resist those temptations?

Followers need each other, not in platitudes, but to keep each other to the task. We need honest, challenging, Christian community if we are going to bring our caravan home. It is an intrinsically communal prayer: Our Father, lead us not into temptation.

LUKE 11:5-10

Because of his persistence

I suppose that a man finds out who his real friends are after midnight. Who, in my life, would I feel comfortable calling if it was after midnight and my car broke down on some lonesome stretch of road?

That’s the sort of friend to whom the man in this story was seeking. Yet, it turned out he was not that kind of friend at all. Essentially, the friendsays; “Don’t you know what time it is? You should be ashamed to call on me at this hour!”

The key word in this story is not friendship, but persistence. According to this passage, persistence is even more important than friendship.

“I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”

The term for persistence [G335 Anaideia] is a wonderful term. It literally means the absence of shame. Shamelessly, this man pleaded to his so-called friend. Yet, what he pleaded for is also important. Bread for a weary guest! Who we plead for is as important as our persistence in pleading. This man wasn’t pleading for niceties, for Bon-Bons and Merlot. He was pleading for necessities, bread for the hungry. He wasn’t pleading for his own compulsions to be met. He was shamelessly standing for the needs of a weary pilgrim. And he wasn’t leaving until those needs were met.

Does that sound like my prayers? Do I shamelessly plead for the tired and hungry strangers in my community?

Will this week find me loudly asking, tirelessly seeking and shamelessly knocking on the closed doors around me? Or will I retire to my prayer closet and murmur, “God, would you send bread to those people?” Will I go to church on Sunday and lead the congregation in prayer and readings and sing the newest song about how there are no poor in heaven? How can I quantify those prayers as a just response to those who are tired and hungry in my community?

When the tired pilgrim shows up in my community, will I go to church and pray for the hungry?

For goodness sake, I should go to the baker’s and plead. That’s where the bread is! Maybe in the course of pleading the baker will be moved, if not by pity, then at least by irritation.

Here is the man who gets answers to his prayers says our Lord. Prayer is never just asking; it is acting on what we’re asking.

Am I the one who will ask LOUDLY, seek TIRELESSLY and knock SHAMELESSLY?

LUKE 11:11-12

11”Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12”Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? 13”If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

“If you then, being evil”

No one could ever accuse Jesus of being less than direct. This young disciple is asking how to pray and Jesus levels him; “If you then, being evil...”

Christ is comparing our goodness to God’s greatness and saying (basically) there is no comparison. However, the juxtaposition is critical for us to understand the nature of prayer. It is important for two reasons.

1. When we go before God we need to realize we cannot make demands. We have no claim to my rights or some false sense of deservedness. We go before God as sinners, not demanding an audience but pleading for one.

2. The comparison is important because it points to the surpassing goodness of God. Even within humans there is some semblance of God, some pittance of compassion. Yet that inkling, in even the most holy of people, is like a moon to God’s sun.

There is no love that can be compared to his love and Jesus wants us to wonder — to be in awe — of God’s infinite goodness.

Paul would put it like this, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us [Romans 5:8].”

This prayer our Lord teaches points us first to humility, to bow before the greatest force in all of creation and realize just WHO it is we are calling upon. It is not my worthiness that allows me to plead to the Creator of the universe, it is his mercy.

Give the Holy Spirit

What is it we should pray for, a new truck, a bigger house or a larger closet? Maybe we’re praying for God to do something or send someone to feed the tired wanderers. Jesus says we should pray for spirit, the Holy Spirit!

Like the man who hosted the unexpected pilgrim, he didn’t go to his closet to ask God for bread to magically appear. He went to his neighbor to shamelessly beg for it. We need to pray for the courage — the Spirit — to beg audaciously on behalf of the hungry and weary.

It is not as though the world lacks the bread to feed its masses. God made a fine world and modern science has done much to improve upon it. It is the spirit to fairly distribute the bread we have which we lack. We don’t need to conjure up more bread. We need to find more Christians who will valiantly, persistently, shamelessly beg on behalf of those in need. We need Christians whose prayers match their actions and that is where the Holy Spirit shines most brilliantly through us [2 Timothy 1:6-7].

Am I such a Christian? Will I cry out on behalf of the poor? Am I the one who will ask LOUDLY, seek TIRELESSLY and knock SHAMELESSLY?

God will give me the Spirit to be His advocate if I but ask. Here is the deepest sense of what the Holy Spirit brings us; the Encourager, the Comforter, the Advocate.

“Lord let these qualities be the focus of our prayer. Let them become the focus of our lives and our churches. Lord, let me be known as an encourager, comforter and advocate. And Lord, let me be shameless in this quest.”

A House Divided

LUKE 11:14-28

14And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute; when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed. 15But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”16Others, to test Him, were demanding of Him a sign from heaven. 17But He knew their thoughts and said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls. 18”If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. 19”And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? So they will be your judges. 20”But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 21”When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. 22But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. 23”He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.

24”When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’25”And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. 26”Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

27While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.”28But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”

LUKE 11:14-16

The mute man spoke…

There were three responses to this miracle of Jesus, responses to which we should be accustomed if we are doing the work of Jesus in the world.

1. Amazement

Some of the crowd see the wonder of Jesus’ work and are amazed. Herein is why Jesus tells his disciples they should become childlike and Nicodemus to become an infant again.

When we lose a sense of wonder in our world we lose the ability to see the miraculous. This is an issue in our society today because even our education system focuses on the accumulation and analysis of information. This isn’t inherently bad, but we do so at the expense of wonder. The greatest motivators in life are not test scores and degrees. That simply means you can repeat back what your instructor told you. Rather, intrinsic motivation lies in mastery, meaning and mystery.

We are grading the mystery out of learning and bleeding learning of its intrinsic value with an emphasis on extrinsic rewards. In short, we risk raising a generation that will miss the miraculous because we stole their ability to wonder. The goal of learning is mystery, not information. Yet I fear that what religion has become to spirituality, education will become to learning for this generation. Our young people are rejecting religion and also education. This trend will continue if we do not reawaken wonder and mystery as the core purpose of learning.

2. Cynicism

Cynicism disguises itself as wisdom but it lacks one of wisdom’s most important qualities; the ability to generate solutions, not just emphasize problems. There have been a few times in this study that I’ve said our culture often mistakes sarcasm for humor and cynicism for wisdom. They couldn’t be more different.

The people in this reading saw Jesus doing what they could not and rather than celebrate for the mute man, they attacked Jesus. This happens daily when people attack the effective to excuse their own impotence. When someone else’s effectiveness challenges us it means we must examine our own mindset, practices or work ethic. Some people, rather than question internally, prefer to cast spite externally. By the very nature of their response these people continue to insure their own incompetence and use sarcasm to pull other people into their viewpoint. They are toxic and it is not worthwhile to engage them. Rather, continue to let your effectiveness speak for itself and others will eventually tire of their folly.

3. Increased demands

Still others respond to Christ’s miracle by demanding more from him. Rather than respond with joy and gratitude, they believe it is now their right to receive the gifts of mercy. This ungracious attitude prevents a life of joy. No wonder Jesus sought to keep so many of his miracles silent.

Do I rejoice in the blessings of others or do I lose joy because I’m too demanding? Do I rejoice in the miracles of others or doubt because they weren’t given to me? Do I think that — as a follower — I somehow have more of a right to health, wealth or privilege? Then I forget the malaria of Paul, the cross of Peter and the suffering of Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t offer the privileged life; he offers the meaningful life. Any demands I make as a follower must be of myself, refusing to acquiesce daily to the whines of the demanding followers in this dramatic story.

Each response to Jesus’ miracle is an insight more into the observer than Jesus, whether I approach life in wonder and amazement or cynically and demanding. The key to my joy lies not externally but in the internal choice to celebrate with and for others while always paving the way for Christ to work in the lives of those around me. It is not wrong to ask for healing when we face physical challenges. It is just wrong to demand them and be cynical if that is not how God responds.

Though Paul implored the Lord for healing, but when it wasn’t forthcoming he still praised the Lord [2 Corinthians 12:7-10].

Sometimes our weaknesses are perfected and sometimes we are perfected in our weaknesses. Let us pray for the courage to always live in the gracious amazement that allows us to see wonder in each day.

LUKE 11:17-20

17But He knew their thoughts and said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls. 18”If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. 19”And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? So they will be your judges. 20”But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

A house divided

Jesus holds up a mirror to the cynics in the crowd. He points to their double standards. When their sons cast out demons to whom goes the credit? Why a different standard for Jesus? Notice Jesus does not say, “When you cast out demons...”

They had proven themselves incompetent in this area. Remember when Jesus first visited the synagogue in Capernaum and was greeted by a demon at the door [Luke 4:31-37]? There were demons “speaking out” in the synagogues. What a sign of failure on behalf of their institutions. Jesus doesn’t need to judge these religious leaders, their ineffectiveness already did.

We should remember this story because it reminds us we don’t need to judge others and usually those who are most judgmental are also least competent in their own work. We have no need to argue with the ineffectual, let our effectiveness speak for itself!

Jesus also uses the term here, “Beelzebul.” This is a historic term referring to a Philistine god, “Baal-Zebub,” worshipped at the city of Ekron [2 Kings 1:2, 3, 6, 16]. The term translates into “lord of the flies,” “god of dung,” “prince of demons” and “lord of the dwelling.”

Our Lord is probably relating to this final term as he refers to himself as “Master of the house [Mark 13:35].”

The effective work of Jesus proves who was the master of the house. Satan is a shyster of the worst form selling property to which he has no deed. His claims are false and his rewards are empty. These religious leaders could not see the falsity behind Beezlebul’s offers because they too ate at the table of empty promises.

The juxtaposition offered in this story by Luke is how the mute was given a voice while the leaders of the time were silenced. Are my words backed up by effective action or silenced by empty promises? Who is master of my house?

LUKE 11:21-23

21”When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. 22But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. 23”He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.

He who is not with Me

The word used for strong [G2480 Ischuō] refers to more than physical prowess. It means an overarching health of both mind and body. When Peter talks about dealing with Satan he brings a fullness to the gifts required [1 Peter 5:8-11].

Resisting the devil brings about perfection, confirmation, strength and an “establishment.” We might say our eyes become clearly focused and our feet firmly set in God.

The evidence of this strength (maturity) is that it gathers, it brings the house together. While the weak (immature) person scatters the house apart. Keep in mind the first word for church in scripture was Bayith. It meant “The house of...” It wasn’t a place; it was people. The mature leader gathers people, the immature person scatters them.

Taking it one step further look who Christ, the leader, gathered in this reading. He restored a mute who received his voice and the people who wondered at the miracle. If I look at the people around me, can I say they are gathered in wonder at the miraculous or divided by skepticism and cynicism? Do I think those gathered around me now will look any different than those gathered around me for eternity?

Build a network of mature gatherers at the heart of which are those still in wonder at the miraculous works of Christ’s touch.

LUKE 11:24-26

“I will return…”

This illustration is about the fate of all scatterers. Think of a cynical gossip in a healthy workplace. Making the rounds of the staff room, the copier and the water cooler and finding no one to listen to his biting sarcasm. In the end, he’ll want to transfer back or return to work at a place where gossip fuels the workday of employees instead of engagement, creativity and innovation.

Cynics need to commiserate in order to justify their lack of effectiveness. They don’t want to be isolated, they’re miserable with their inner self. Yet, that journey to waterless places (as in Christ’s intentional journey into the wilderness) is the only place we can confront those inner demons and examine our own soundness of faith and maturity.

It is healthy at times to thirst for the desert, to examine the inner stillness and see if we’re tempted by the cynical or sarcastic. By resisting the three temptations — immediate gratification, peer-based approval and manipulative power — we become strong people, mature people.

Our call is not to remain in the desert but to take the peace we find there back to the gatherers, to give voice to the mute and hope to the weary [Proverbs 25:25, Matthew 11:28-30].

God please help me be good news to those who feel distant. Help me gather the weary and give them your strength.

LUKE 11:27-28

“Blessed is the womb…”

This woman was offering Jesus and his mother, Mary, the ultimate compliment. Jesus deflects such adulation and instead points to those who hear and do God’s word. There were two words for “blessed,” which we’ve covered in another reading [Luke 1:39-55]. In this instance, the word used is Makarios [G3107], which is meant “happy,” “good fortune” and literally “the god’s must favor you.”

In essence, the woman is saying, “Your mom was lucky to have you.”

Jesus takes the blessing firmly out of the realm of luck and places it firmly into the arena of action. It is like telling her, “Quit waiting around for luck and take action. This firmly points us to the misnomer of, “Waiting upon the Lord.”

Some people think this means waiting for God to show you a direction or even, “I can’t help others until I get my act together first.”

Nothing could lead us further from the truth.

The word “Wait [G1247 Diakoneō],” means to be a servant — like the wait staff in a restaurant. Look at its usage in this verse.

Luke 12:37

“Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them.

This clearly shows us that our blessing comes not in standing idly by hoping for good fortune to smile on us. Our blessing comes when we roll up our sleeves and do the work of service to God’s people. We will discover our purpose through service. We will find our blessing in joyfully giving, joyfully gathering and miraculously wondering.