Read: Luke 14:25-17:10; John 11:37
Jesus teaches them how much you must love God to be his disciple - above the love of family and even yourself. Then he told them how much the Father loved them. He would leave 99 to find one sheep that had gone astray. He explained further in the parable of the prodigal son. God had chosen Israel to give his name to and call his family. They were his sons in the parable. Some of them were faithful like the son who stayed with his father and the others were rebellious like the son who left. The prodigal son finally came home but the faithful son had a problem with the lavish feast the father gave to celebrate his homecoming. He felt like the father was rewarding his disobedience but the father was really celebrating his rebirth. God is calling prodigals home and we need to rejoice with the father and not judge.
Next, Jesus gave them a lesson in business but I have to admit I don’t understand it. The man was deceitful and crude and yet Jesus commended him for being wise. It looked like manipulative and wrong to me. I do understand that if you are deceitful in the little things, you will be deceitful in the big ones and if you are faithful to your boss and his money, then God will know he can intrust to you his riches.
Lastly, I want to bring up the fact that John is the only one of the gospels that tells the story of Lazareth being raised from the dead. We know that John wrote to the Church so it is particularly important to us. Jesus was just a few miles from Jerusalem when he had been slowly approaching knowing well what was to await him there. I think it is interesting that one of the last miracles he did was to raise a man from death. Nazareth was a precursor of what Jesus was about to do. He would also be dead and placed in a grave, only to rise to new life. Nazareth was the picture.
Lord, help us to walk in your resurrection power.
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