The Parable of the Dishonest Manager, in Luke 16, is an unusual one, in that Jesus is not giving an example of how one should act, or on the nature of the kingdom of heaven, but he is giving and example of how the people of this world are shrewd with their money. His point is not to tell us to do as the manager did–it was a dishonest thing! He is telling us that we should be just as shrewd with our money in the practice of good. When his point is learned, it brings great freedom!

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“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

These are the words of Jesus to his disciples in Luke 11 after he instructed them how to pray.

Again he uses the analogy of a father to his children, just as he does at the beginning of the prayer that he taught them. From a child’s perspective he does not know all that is good for him. He doesn’t know that going to the dentist is good, nor that homework, or hard work, or respect are good things. And yet without these things he would be left with an unhealthy body, mind, and unable to enjoy right relationships with the rest of society. These are good things, but as a child he only sees the here and now, and what makes him feel the way he wants to in this moment.

How difficult it is for a parent to get a child to understand the importance of life’s responsibilities and the necessity of unpleasant experiences. How much more difficult will it then be for us to understand the reason behind the struggles, pain, frustration, death, suffering and all other emotional and spiritual difficulties that God allows to enter our lives. Are we not his children who have “died to sin”? Does he not care for us?

We know from scripture that the ultimate reason that we experience suffering and death in this world is because of our own sin. Death is said in scripture to be the sting of sin. If we are in fact sinners (and we are!) then we are cut off from the life of God and thus already experiencing spiritual death. Is it not then gracious of God to allow us to feel the pain of this death so that we might flee it?

If he did not care, would he not simply let us remain in our complacent state of death until the ultimate end came without warning us? But rather he cares so deeply about his creation, that even after sin he desires to give us good gifts–but only through the Spirit that comes by faith in his son’s sacrifice on our behalf.

Sometimes the greatest gift could be in the form of suffering. For whenever we suffer we are jerked out of our blind selfish lives and forced to examine ourselves and atleast ask “why?”.

For this reason, we need to know how to approach God so that we know that we are atleast benefiting from the trial that we are going through so that it may indeed be a “good gift”. If we remain preoccupied with self pity we blind ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work.

For this reason the disciples ask Jesus: “Teach us to pray.” For the suffering is a good gift and this must be taken by faith. But to receive the good gift, we must learn to take on God’s perspective through the gift of his Holy Spirit. And this learning process is prayer.

Jesus is not telling his disciples to ask for anything that you find to be good and God will not refuse you. He is telling his disciples that whatever happens these are good things to ask for, for they are the gifts of the Holy Spirit which will cause all things to work out for good in your life if your eyes are on your relationship with him

What can be more exciting that being spoken to by an angel? How we would want to tell of it, to share the wonderful experience! Why is it then that the women who went to the empty tomb and saw the angel, and heard him tell them that Jesus was risen, and that they were to go tell his disciples, kept silent out of fear? Surely being spoken to by an angel was enough to convince them that an extraordinary thing had taken place. Jesus had risen! They saw the guards laying on the ground like dead men, they saw the empty tomb, and they spoke to a heavenly creature! How does this not turn their mourning into dancing?

Perhaps the answer is because of exactly what happened to Mary Magdalene when she finally did tell them; they did not believe. Nor did they believe when the two disciples who spoke with them on the road to Emmaus told them that they had walked and talked with him.

We can laugh at their hardness of heart and nod our heads in pious agreement when we read of Jesus rebuking them for their unbelief. After all, we have believed!

Or have we? Certainly for those who have faith that Jesus, the Son of God, died and rose from the dead then they believe. But is that it?

Notice what Jesus commands them to do once they have been shown and finally believe that he has indeed risen; he tells them to go tell everyone!

It is completely consistent with God’s life of self-expenditure. We have nothing, are nothing, and doubt even what is given, but who we are is what Christ has made us to be. Though we did not seek him; just as the disciples did not seek him even after he had promised them that he would rise from the dead, he still made a people out of us by uniting us with his death that we might share in the life of his ressurection. What he is he made us, though we were in opposition to it.

And the command remains; “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”. Is this just about preaching? Certainly that is the emphasis, and even that condemns us. For we are like the women who went to the tomb; we have been told, we know he has risen and his life is in us, but we fear the rejection. We tremble at people before we rejoice in the risen Christ.

And yet there’s more. We were not given this life only to talk about; but we were given it to pour it out. Jesus shows himself to the disciples, tells them the good news that he has risen, and then immediately sends them out to do the same: to give away what was just given them! That is the very essence of the gospel. It is the only thing that can be had for sure and for always, because it is the only thing that can truly be given away limitlessly.

So now believe truly in the risen Christ! Not just the empty tomb, but in the life that left that tomb and now dwells in us. This is a faith that embraces what is given to such an extent that no longer fears the reaction of people, but only desires for them to befilled with the same ressurection.

“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod'” said Jesus to his disciples.

Jesus had just fed four thousand people with seven loaves of bread and a few fish. He had gotten into a boat and sailed to another town with his disciples, and there the Pharisees had asked for a sign from him to prove that he was from God.

The Pharisees in this town had not seen Jesus feed the four thousand on the other side of the lake, but the disciples had. And Jesus’ warning was issued to them who had both seen his miraculous providence of bread and Jesus’ subsequent refusal to give the Pharisees a sign. The four thousand people wanted only full bellies and healed bodies, the Pharisees wanted to prove to themselves that Jesus was not who he said he was, but the disciples were the clay that Jesus was molding.

For their sake he worked miracles and refuted the Pharisees. But they did not understand. When he gave them this warning the disciples thought he was rebuking them for not bringing bread along in the boat. They also, had their narrow understanding of who Jesus was, but to them Jesus was compassionate.

He reminded them that when he fed the five thousand with five loaves there were twelve baskets left over, and when he fed the four thousand with seven loaves there were seven baskets left over. “Do you not understand?” he asked.

Do we understand? The people wanted to be provided for, the pharisees wanted to prove their spirituality, but what did Jesus want to teach the disciples?

Jesus did not come to fill us with what we think we need. He did not come to make us feel spiritually sufficient, he came to pour out his life for many. And in warning the disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees and that of Herod, both people who prided themselves in representing the Jews as God’s chosen people, he was warning them against a self-serving spirituality.

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“By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.”

This is the faith of one who has received a promise, the promise of Abraham, his blessing and his covenant, and who, without seeing whence it came nor where it was to go, held fast to it. He held fast not because God had spoken directly to him, nor because he himself knew where it led ultimately, but because it came from the mouth of God; he held fast. Certainly he had been blessed with the wealth of his father Abraham, had witnessed the provision of God on Mount Moriah, and had been prospered in his life-time, but as for the fullness of the promise that through the seed of Abraham all nations would be blessed, he was no closer to seeing than Abraham had been. And yet he believed.

But it wasn’t that simple either. According to his understanding the promise is to the first-born. Was this not the first fruit, what was offered to God? Was not Esau the strong one who conquered the land and brought home meat for the family? Esau was the one whom Isaac loved and cherished. It was for Esau that Isaac dreamt of God fulfilling his promises in a mighty way, conquering enemies and spreading God’s fame by his strength. If Esau had found favor in Isaac’s eyes as his first-born, then surely he had found favor in God’s eyes, had he not?

But Isaac lived by faith; not in his son, not in his beloved wife who had comforted him since his mother’s death, not even in his own blessing from God, but in the promise of God to whomever God chose to send it upon. And this faith produced a love that is stronger, more miraculous than any other love he had experienced on earth. It was a love that brought pain and sorrow in his old age and defied all human reason, but it was love that descends from heaven by power of God’s spirit through faith in his promise.

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In Jesus’ earthly ministry he did two sorts of miracles for the people: he healed and he fed. (He also walked on the lake, but this was only with his close disciples.) These are the most basic needs for human life. We need food to sustain the body and good health to prevent it from dying. God knows how to get our attention. He knows we are selfish and look for what will provide for us. These needs are not the problem; the needs are created by him! The problem is that we do not see that our physical needs are God’s tools of nurturing not just the body, but a means of allowing us to feel the lack of spiritual fulfillment. For in our physical need we look to God in faith for that relationship that will provide for us in every way.

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