Congregational Bible Experience Day #19: Luke 7-8

 After 2,000 years of church history, it is perhaps, difficult for us to appreciate how Jesus' contemporaries struggled to understand and appreciate who Jesus was as He lived among the people.  They heard His teaching, they saw His miracles, they saw Him give the religious establishment a 'right poke in the eye' (and probably inwardly cheered!). But He remained an enigma, an unknown quantity, because He didn't fit into any of the pigeon-holes people made for Him. It was impossible to say what he would do or say next because He defied their expectations. Even His closest friends and confidantes, such as John the Baptist, were confused (7:18-23).  Was He, or wasn't He the promised Messiah?  He didn't seem to do what Messiahs were expected to do. But yet He does do what the Bible said He would (v22; see 4:18-19).  If only people knew their Bibles better…

Which is why so much of the Gospels are written to clarify the issue of Jesus' identity, as here in Luke 7-8.  We've already noted His authority over people, turning their lives upside-down (see Day #18). Now once again we see Jesus' authority over disease (7:10; 8:47-48), demons (8: 26-39), death (7:11-17; 8:52-56), disturbed nature (8:24-25) and spiritual defilement (7:36-50).

But Jesus is more than just a wandering miracle-worker indiscriminately curing anybody of anything that comes across His path. He's in pursuit of our committed hearts, which is probably why Luke inserts the Parable of the Sower, or Soils, or 'Hearts' at this point in His Gospel (8:1:1-5). As the parable highlights, people see and hear Jesus but respond to Him differently:  some are amazed (7:16; 8:25), some scornful (8:53), some are contemptuous (8:44-46), some fearful (8:25, 47), some are outraged (7:49), some confused and doubting (7:20); but some 'believe' (7:9, 50; 8:48, 50), while others, who should have known better, fail to believe (8:25).  Some even show extravagant love to Jesus (7:47) not just because of what has done for them, but because, in His graciousness towards their need they have sensed His love being poured into their lives. He has secured their trust. Now He's capturing their hearts. It's the way it should be.