Tuesday, March 21: Luke 12- Vintage Jesus.

This chapter is chock full of Jesus’ teachings. I could spend a week, even more on this lone chapter. So much good stuff.

It was Jesus’ opening that grabbed me and never let me go. Verses 1-3: Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

Hypocrisy… Selling a ‘self’ that isn’t true. Professing one thing yet doing another. In the last month a high ranking White House advisor resigned because he had inappropriate conversations with Russians before President Trump took office. As the story unfolded he denied it. Other officials even defended him as a man of character. However the wire taps on the Russians showed that he did in fact have those inappropriate conversations. The result… his resignation and egg on the face of those who defended his character.

How many people have been exposed living a lie by a cellphone picture?

Jesus reminds us that [t]here is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. While the truth doesn’t always come out that quickly it does have a habit of revealing itself. As people of faith we believe that God knows everything, so even if we get away with some hypocrisy this side of eternity, God knows and God will deal with us when this life ends.

Jesus warned Be on your guard against… hypocrisy.

His warning is as fresh and true today as it ever has been.

Are you listening? God whispers to me… “Am I listening?”

Lord, show me my failings, my inconsistencies, my areas of weakness so that I will grow. Train me to guard my lips and my heart that I might be a person of integrity rather than falsehood and hypocrisy. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

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