Luke

By Joyce Webb 2020

Chapter 10 Vs. 38-42          Chapter 11 Verse 1-13

Verse 38 Jesus and his disciples went to a town. (We read in other books of the Bible that the town was Bethany. Lazarus, Mary, and Martha lived there. They were friends of Jesus.)

Martha welcomed them into the house.

Her sister Mary came and sat at Jesus’ feet. She wanted to hear everything he said.

Martha was busy getting food ready and other things for her guests.

She was a little angry that Mary was not helping.

Martha said to Jesus, tell Mary to come help me.

Jesus said to Martha—You are worried about all those things about serving us, but one thing is the most important—-and Mary has chosen to do that.

In other words—Mary wanted to hear the words and teachings of Jesus. To Mary –this was more important than serving food to the men.

Martha was more worried about being a “good hostess” and doing what she thought was the right thing–to serve food to her guests.

But Jesus reminded her—that hearing his words was more important than feeding them.

 

Chapter 11 Vs. 1-

Verse 1 Jesus had been praying. When he was finished, one of his disciples said, “Teach us to pray.”

Jesus said: Say this:

Our Father, who art (old word for ‘is’) in heaven.

Hallowed (holy) is your name.

Thy (your) kingdom come.

Thy will be done –as in heaven—so let it be done on earth.

Give to us—day by day—our daily bread.

Forgive us of our sins, for we also forgive everyone who has sinned against us (in debt to us).

Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

(In other books of the Bible—Jesus tells them—if you do not forgive others who sinned against you—-God will not forgive you of your sins.

Jesus said that several times. We must forgive others of their sins against us—-if we want God to forgive our sins.

It is not easy to forgive others —especially those who have hurt us deeply. But we must forgive them.

Forgiving them—does not mean that we think what they did was ok. It does not mean that we have to let them do it to us again.

It means that we have decided in our minds and spirits that we will not keep hard feelings in our hearts against them or try to punish them for what they did.

This is hard to do by our own strength. We will need to ask God to help us forgive them. In our minds, we need to put that person into God’s hands—for God to pay them back.)

 

(Jesus prayed—Give us –day by day–our bread. Each day, we pray that God will give us what we need for that day.

Jesus did not say— pray that God give us bread for a week. God may decide to give us– the bread that we need for that day.

The next day–we have to trust God again –for bread for that day.

This is hard to do. We like to have things planned out and know ahead of time that we have what we need. But “walking by faith“ sometimes means —every day—we have to look to God to give us what we need.)

Vs. 5 Then Jesus said to them, If you have a friend—and you go to him at midnight and call to him and say—I need 3 loaves of bread because I have someone who has traveled a long way to come to me. I have nothing to give him.

But your friend says—Do not bother me. The door is shut. The children are in bed. I cannot get up and get bread now.

(In those days, in those homes, there may not have been many rooms. It could be that the family slept on the floor of the main room and for the man to get up and get the bread would wake up everyone on the floor in the room.)

Vs. 8 Jesus said—The friend may not want to get up and get the bread—but because the friend at the door keeps asking– the man gets up and gets the bread to give to him.

Vs. 9 Jesus said—So I say to you—Ask (God—your heavenly Father) and it will be given to you. Seek (keep looking) and it will be given to you. Knock (keep knocking) and the door will be opened to you.

(Jesus is telling them how to pray. To keep asking, keep expecting the answer, and the answer will come.)

Vs. 11 I a son asks you for bread, would you give him a stone?

If he asks you for a fish, would you give him a snake?

Vs. 12 If he asks you for an egg, would you give him a scorpion?

Vs. 13 You, being a human man, know how to give good gifts to your children,—-so much more —your heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.