I've had this explained to me as having blind faith leads to God and then in turn to heaven.... That's never sat well as in RS (my teacher was epic) he always said that we should question the teachings and even more so our faith... Your explanation makes more sense to me as it explains it was knowledge which led to faith which led to Jesus and his healing...
Do a little of something that makes you happy every day!
I take comfort from Gideon in Judges, who asked God to prove who he was by performing some small miracles - even one of Israel’s saviours doubted at first!
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
Suzi (13-03-21)
Luke 19:1-10
[1] Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. [2] A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. [3] He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. [4] So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. [5] When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” [6] So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. [7] All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” [8] But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” [9] Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. [10] For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
I love this story! It’s one that I heard so many times in Sunday school. But I had always took it as a story about Zacchaeus, when I should have focussed on Jesus.
Tax collectors in 1st century occupied Palestine were universally disliked. They took taxes from the Jews to pass to the Roman occupiers, and were able to self determine their percentage. So, many tax collectors made themselves wealthy at the expense of their fellow Jews. Regardless of this, Jesus had made a point, many times, of including tax collectors among his followers - in fact one of his 12 disciples/apostles was a former tax collector (Matthew, formerly Levi).
Zacchaeus got up into the tree just because he wanted to see Jesus over the crowds. But Jesus knew he was there, knew his name, and, without any request or prompt from Zacchaeus, invited himself over ‘to seek and save the lost’.
“Jesus was seeking Zacchaeus. He knew where to look for him. And he found him. He always does”.
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
OldMike (18-03-21)
I too, have always heard this as being about Zaccheaus, but it really changes it thinking of it as about Jesus totally changes things. Thank you...
Do a little of something that makes you happy every day!
Luke 20:1-8
[1] One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. [2] “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?” [3] He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me: [4] John's baptism---was it from heaven, or of human origin?” [5] They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Why didn't you believe him?' [6] But if we say, 'Of human origin,' all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” [7] So they answered, “We don't know where it was from.” [8] Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
Jesus knew the Chief Priests wanted a reason to arrest him, but the crowds loved him and they were scared they’d be attacked if they did. So they wanted to trick him into blasphemy (saying his authority to do all he had had come from God). This would give them a legitimate reason to have him executed - and is in fact what happened a few days later.
Jesus also knew that the time for his arrest hadn’t yet come (this incident happened in the final week of his life). So he answered their question with a question they couldn’t answer without getting themselves in trouble. This wasn’t about Jesus evading the truth and not wanting to say he was of God, in fact when he was finally arrested, at the right time, he answered their accusation:
Mark 14:62
[62] “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
I think this shows his cleverness and yet his vulnerability, knowing that no answer was ever going to be OK...
Do a little of something that makes you happy every day!
Luke 20:19-26
[19] The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people. [20] Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. [21] So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. [22] Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” [23] He saw through their duplicity and said to them, [24] “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” “Caesar's,” they replied. [25] He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.” [26] They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.
The teachers of the law and chief priests were, again, trying to trick Jesus into saying something that would mean they could hand him over to the Romans for treason. Again, he answered in a way they hadn’t anticipated. What is extraordinary is that he answered with his knowledge of the Old Testament, a subject they were supposed to be expert at!
Genesis 1:27
[27] So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
The image on the denarius was of Caesar. If he’d have answered the question with a ‘yes’ to paying taxes, the Jews would have questioned his loyalty to Israel. To answer ‘no’ and he would have been dragged before the authorities for treason. So, he says, ‘By all means let Caesar have the denarius if his likeness and inscription are on it. But only if you’ll let God have what he has stamped his likeness on and written his inscription on - you’.
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
This passage and the one yesterday show how people are there to trick Jesus into trying to say something wrong. Proves that people can't be trusted....
Do a little of something that makes you happy every day!
Sounds like the snakes on social media who are constantly looking to take offence by your words and bully you because of it
Human nature doesn’t change, not without God, anyway
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
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