Luke Part 4 - What Happens When We Fall Off Our Bicycles

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I remember when I was first learning how to ride my bike without training wheels. I was about four years old. I was geared up with my pretty pink bicycle with a white wicker basket and silver sparkly tassels dangling off the handlebars. I was appropriately donned in a matching helmet and so excited I could have peed myself. I was finally a big girl. Ridin’ mah bike. No training wheels. And I was going to own it like a boss.

Dad and I trotted down to the sidewalk (because riding in the street was just plain nonsense, not to mention unsafe.) My dad lovingly instructed me to saddle up, and I was all too willing to take off.

I climbed aboard, and heeded Dad’s final warning.

“Remember, Lil’ Bit, don’t go past the boundaries, ok?”

I nodded in excitement. And then I was off. It was the most exciting thing EVER. 

Until...

 

The results were catastrophic…and pokey…and painful…and traumatizing…

What does this illustrate? (other than the fact that cacti are the devil and cacti + beginner cyclist = recipe for disaster)

That we’re going to fall off the bike.

In our spiritual walk, whether we are willing to recognize it or not, there are going to be times when we are going to fall off and fall head-first into a spiritual cactus. We’re going to fail and fall short. We are going to sin and we may even turn our backs on Jesus for a while.

If we’re being honest here, chances are it’s already happened before, and it will most likely happen again. That’s the thing about being fallen humans. We’re predisposed to suck it up once in a while. If you’ve been a Christian for longer than 2 minutes, you’re probably already well aware of this fact.

The question then becomes how do we deal with that?

We come from a past that feels like it will always stand between us and leading the life of a disciple.

We love God but have sin in our lives we can’t seem to shake.

We’ve wandered so far off the beaten path it feels like there’s absolutely no way we can ever find our way back to God – and even if we did, He probably wouldn’t want us back anyway because we loused it up so bad.

What then?

Dr. Luke spells out this scenario for us in three different ways in chapter 15 – which is probably one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible. Chapter 15 is about how the lost get found and how to run back to Daddy when we fall off the bike and mess everything up. He gives it to us in a three-in-one parable from the lips of Jesus.

Point 1: The Lost Sheep[1]

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together saying ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep!’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

Did you catch that? Heaven rejoices when the one who is lost gets found again.

Did you also notice that the shepherd went actively looking for that one lost sheep until it was found? He didn’t just sit idly by until the sheep wandered around a while and found its way back to the flock. The Shepherd looks and looks, and is pleased as peaches when He finds his lost little sheep.

When we fall off our bikes head-long into a pile of cactus, Jesus comes looking for us to pick us back up again.

Point 2: The Lost Coin

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me! I have found my lost coin!’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Same situation here. When we fall away or get lost, heaven rejoices when we get found again.

Probably my favorite parable is that of the Prodigal (Lost) Son. It breaks down like this:

 

 

 The son lives it up until he runs out of money and finds himself eating scraps from the pig slop on someone else’s property before he snaps out of it and comes to his senses.

So the son swallows his suuuuper sore pride, and heads home. He’s naked, he has squandered all of his father’s inheritance away, he’s filthy and probably stinks like nobody’s business…he’s basically in dire straits with nowhere else to go.

Have you ever fallen away that bad? I know I have. And I can think of one other person who has as well.

Peter failed pretty hardcore, right? It doesn’t get a whole lot worse than that.

I think when we fail like that – well, ok, at least I know when I fail like that – I’m often too scared and ashamed to even consider going back to my Daddy. I’m bruised and beat up, and it’s because I did something wrong. Because I know I’m at fault, I expect Him to greet me like this:

But that isn’t what Scripture tells us. Scripture clearly says that when we return to our Father, when we wander off but come around and come home, he greets us like this[2]:

So the moral of the story, dear readers, ends up being this: Jesus came to save the outcast – anyone and everyone who would believe in Him. He trained up those who dedicated their lives to being His disciples, preparing them for a future where He wouldn’t be tangibly among them. This includes us here, right now, as disciples. Jesus is completely prepared for us to fail, to fall away and fall off the bicycle. Into a cactus. He’s ready for that – in eternity past He knew every sin we would ever commit, and He decided to take that punishment of His own free will on the cross. There is no sin we can ever commit that will surprise, shock, or even catch Jesus off guard.

And when we do, He is waiting for us to come back to Him in repentance, so that He can throw a great big party in heaven – each and every time one of us falls off the bicycle, gets up, dusts ourselves off, and gets back on to keep riding where He wants us to go.

That’s it for us from the gospel of Luke. I hope it was beneficial to you as a discipleship manual. It’s been a blast. Until next time…stay classy. :)

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[1] If you are interested in reading a short creative story expanding on this parable, click here.

[2] Luke 15:22-24

Luke Part 3 - Taking Off the Training Wheels

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So what does that look like in the gospel of Luke?

Up to this point we’ve seen Jesus not only instruct His disciples, but He’s given them a solid example to follow: 

Exhibit A: Prayer

  

Exhibit B: Loving and serving people

 

Exhibit C: Matters of the heart

 

Exhibit D: Preaching the Kingdom

And now, Jesus decides, it’s time for the Apostles to give it a go on their own.

 

 

From now until about chapter 23, Jesus gives the Apostles and the disciples more and more opportunities to serve and to lead without Jesus at the forefront. As far as leading goes, Jesus moves subtly from leading from the front lines to leading from the rear. As the disciples grow stronger and stronger in their faith, Jesus gives them that liberty to be leaders within the community of believers while Jesus continues on with His calling.

Returning to the bicycle analogy: we can almost see Jesus helping the disciples mount their bicycles, holding their shoulders tightly while they find their balance, and run alongside them as they start pedaling those first few times without the training wheels.

And what happens when Jesus feels like they’ve gotten the hang of it?

Jesus lets go, allows his disciples to experience leadership, then he brings them back to encourage them and sow more into them so that they’re even better equipped for the next round.

Why does it matter so much that the disciples are so ready to lead?

Jesus is preparing to go to the cross. His life’s journey has been about revealing the kingdom of God to anyone and everyone around Him who would accept it, and then sacrificing His life to pay for the sins of the world. It would make sense, then, to see Jesus preparing leadership within His following for when He’s no longer around to run beside the bicycle, to grip the handle bars for them, to keep them steady while they figure things out. He has spent His ministry not only bringing people into Himself, but then preparing and equipping the ones who love and follow Him to continue His work after He’s gone.

Taking the text from this aspect, it makes a lot more sense as to why the apostles and disciples look less like failures in Dr. Luke’s gospel than in, say Matthew or Mark. They aren’t bumbling idiots or faithless deadbeats who follow Jesus around – they are merely immature leaders who Jesus isn’t finished growing and refining.[1]

By the end of the narrative (and leading into the book of Acts) the Apostles and the disciples are ready to be the leaders Jesus needs them to be for the early church…or, at least they will be ready enough for Jesus to be comfortable sending them out to do His work.

But please hear me clearly that the disciples were by no means perfect. Even the apostles experienced moments of crushing failure AFTER Jesus decided they were ready for leadership. Check out the next post for more on how to deal with the occasional failure – falling off the spiritual bicycle.

Stay classy, folks!

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[1] Mark L. Strauss, Four Portraits One Jesus. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2007) 282.

Luke Part 2 and a half - Jesus' Method of Leading

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When I was in the marching band in high school, I attended a leadership workshop lead by Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser[1]. The main objective was to teach a bunch of high school kids how to lead within a group of our peers. I always came away from those workshops ready to be a better leader, and eager to put into practice the concepts he shared with us.

“That’s nice, Kara. But what does that have to do with the gospel of Luke or the price of tea in China?”

Well, my beloved reader, one of the leadership concepts he shared popped into my head while working on the previous post. Jesus is the ultimate leader in our discipleship manual, right?

So to understand the caliber of leadership we as Christians have in Jesus, I thought it would be nice to see His style matched against other styles of leadership explored at these workshops.

The exercise went something like this: the “Leader” and the “Follower” are to stand facing each other, and the Leader sticks a hand in the air and waves it around, trying to get the Follower to…well follow. The results were often catastrophic and hysterical. Good for a laugh.

 After everyone got their giggles out, better ways of leadership were explored. What does it take to lead? How do you decide what pace to take task x, y, z at? How do you communicate effectively as you lead? The following is an example of better leadership.

Bringing it back into the world of the gospel of Luke, throughout the pages Luke portrays Jesus as leading in a way that's similar to this exercise. He shows and explains. He answers questions. Then He lets the apostles and disciples have a go, but leading and providing for them by keeping His hand constantly upon them. And when they are ready and the time is right, Jesus steps away and lets the apostles do some leading, lets the disciples try their hand at flying solo. 

This is no different than how He leads us today. This is what it generally looks like in my life:

 In Jesus we have a leader who (1) shows us what we’re supposed to do and how we’re supposed to do it, (2) goes with us as we give it a try, constantly guiding and correcting and encouraging us along the way as we try to figure it out, and (3) steps back and allows us to fly solo. Sometimes He has to step back in and bring us back on track. Sometimes He doesn’t. But He’s never far away, and all the while, no matter how dumb we might look trying to imitate what He did with stunning grace, He stands there loving us unconditionally.

The thing that makes Jesus’ way the best way to lead is that the whole time He is more concerned with who we are, rather than the task we’re trying to accomplish. This was true of His disciples, and it’s just as true today. His primary focus is on us as people, our character, our hearts. Not what we’re doing. Not how well we can flap our arms to look just like the way He did it. At the end of the day, Jesus’ focus is on how we’re doing as people, not on our to-do lists.

And that, to me, is mighty comforting. 

 ONWARD!

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[1] He was/is a great big deal in the music education community, as well as a talented public motivational speaker. Attended a workshop led by him from 2003 – 2006.

Luke Part 2 - Follow the Leader

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Everything I ever needed to know about discipleship I learned from Peter Pan.

 …well, ok, not really.

But I can’t deny that Walt Disney was onto something here. I mean, it doesn’t get much simpler than that, does it? “We’re following the Leader, wherever He may go.” If we break this statement down, there are two characters. Leader and Follower.

I think we’ve already established who the leader is in this scenario, right? Just in case not (or in case you brought a friend who’s new to the Jesus thing like you were supposed to):

Which brings us to the next category of players: the Followers.

Jesus is picking up people left and right who follow Him around to see what He’s going to do next. And around chapter 5, Luke shows us that these are no longer just people who follow Jesus around because they like what He has to say. When Jesus calls Peter, James, John, and Levi/Matthew, He is calling them to be like Him. To watch His every move carefully and do like He does.

As Jesus continues His ministry, He has now developed such a following that He is able to break down this massive crowd of people into “concentric circles”[1]. They bust down like this[2]:

Time and time again (whenever Jesus speaks, in fact) Luke distinguishes between when Jesus is addressing The Crowd, which are the people who are really only interested in the magic show and/or what THEY can get from Jesus, and when He is addressing His disciples. His “mini-me’s”. For the crowds Jesus often speaks in Parables. For His disciples, He teaches and explains and answers their questions. He instructs. He nurtures. He encourages. He gives them examples. He points them in the right direction.

Case in point: Luke 6:17-49.

When Jesus addresses the crowd, He ministers to their needs. He heals the sick and wounded, He casts out the evil spirits and allows Himself to be touched by the hurting who are in need of His healing power. He meets their immediate needs, which is incredibly important. But notice the shift in audience around verse 20:

“Looking at His disciples, He said…”

 

Jesus sows into His disciples. He feeds not only their physical needs but their spiritual needs. This is what sets the disciples apart from the crowd. They are seeking Jesus out to be like Him in their spiritual life, whereas the crowd too often only seeks Jesus out to get their immediate fixes. Jesus, being the awesome and merciful God that He is, meets all of those needs. But it’s clear to see that He sows into His disciples something much deeper, something intended to last much longer than just the temporal circumstances.

Chapters 6-8 of Luke showcase Jesus’ teaching style in two critical points: Jesus telling, and Jesus DOING.

So what does it take to be a disciple of Jesus? Well, we’ve learned that it’s a journey that can’t be walked alone. It just flat doesn’t work if we don’t have to answer to anyone but ourselves.

More importantly though, we have to spend significant time with our Teacher. Look at the text: Wherever Jesus was, His disciples were not far behind. Whatever He did, they did. Whatever He said, they took note of and asked questions when they didn’t understand. Sometimes they had to obey when it didn’t make sense.

Do you think the disciples would have followed Jesus without knowing Him at all?

Nope…I don’t think they would have, either.

What does that mean for you and for me as disciples? It means we need to spend some significant time getting to know our Teacher, so we can do like He 

does and be like He is.

How do we do that? Well, we have to get our noses in the book for that part.

(1) Learn about who He is. It’s His CHARACTER we’re trying to emulate, right? Well, that starts with getting familiar with His character.  

(2) Learn about His priorities and how they differ from yours. Because, you and I both know that most of the time our priorities are different than Jesus’. This was an exercise I had to sit down and force myself to do, and it was rather humbling:

(3) Pray for God to show us how to become more like Him. I’ve learned that I don’t function well without specific instruction. But I have to be willing to LISTEN to that instruction. When I recognize that my priorities are off the radar from God’s priorities, I find myself praying through Psalm 139:23-24.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensiveness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Search me. Try me. See me. Show me. Lead me.

Be prepared though…when you ask God to do stuff like that, He’s more than happy to oblige, and more often than not…it’s kind of a painful process. Rewarding, but painful.

(4) Recognize this truth that Jesus Himself tells His disciples:

“A student cannot be above his[/her] teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his[/her] teacher.” LK 6:40

Confession: I struggle with the sin of perfectionism. If I can’t be as good as Jesus, often times I give up and don’t try to be like Him at all, because I feel set up for failure. If I can’t get something done perfectly, I’d rather not try at all. Failing to live up to my own expectations hurts. That’s my sin. Yaaaay being human.

But Jesus makes it very plain and very clear that His expectations are not perfection. I as a student will never be above my Teacher. I will never be as smart at Bible as my pastor, John Correia. I will never be as skilled at working on my car as my Dad. I will never be as literature-savvy as my English Lit. professor[3]. That’s just the way it is. These teachers in my life have years and years on me in experience. Even if I can keep up with them someday in their field of expertise, I will never surpass them. That doesn’t make my efforts any less valuable. When I get caught up in trying to “best my teacher”, I totally miss the point. The point isn’t to one-up my teacher, it’s to be like my teacher.

Same thing with Jesus. I will never be perfect like Jesus. I’ve already sinned WAAAAY too much to even come close to that caliber of holiness. BUT. He isn’t asking me to BE Him. He’s asking me to be LIKE Him. They’re different. And in this one verse, Jesus makes it very safe for me to fall short sometimes because I’m a student. I’m learning. So are you.

I’m going to try and compile a simple-for-you-to-view-but-kind-of-complicated-for-me-to-put-together picture series on this concept, which I will post in the near future. It’s based off of something I learned at a leadership workshop in high school, and now that I’m going through this text it is remarkably similar to Jesus’ model of leadership and discipleship.

Try not to burst at the seams with anticipation.

Until then, stay classy, folks!

NEEEEXXXXTTTTT!

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[1] Concept learned in Gospels class, Prof. John Correia, Fall 2011

[2] Note in the picture how the closer the circle is to Jesus, the lighter it is…the farther out from Jesus, the darker it is…booyah, color symbology…

[3] Professor Kimsey is my literature professor…and listening to him analyze literature makes me feel like I should go back to reading Dr. Seuss…

Luke Part 1 - Some Assembly Required

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If there had been email back in the day of Luke and Theophilus:

 

Why does Luke start the story the way he does?

Did anyone else ask themselves that? Why did he include this story of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth? Who the heck is this guy Gabriel? Why is he such a busy character in this story? Why don’t we even see a peep about Jesus’ birth until after 80 verses? Why is chapter 1 SOOO LONG?

Option 1: Luke is a verbose and wordy writer (just like his buddy Paul)

Option 2: Luke found it really entertaining how Gabriel interacted with Zechariah and put it in for a laugh[1]

Option 3: Luke is showcasing the type of people who were prevalent in Jesus’ life, and they were good, godly Jews who sought after God and followed His commands with their hearts and their actions.[2]

I'm going with option 3.

And it doesn’t end with Zechariah and Elizabeth. Luke notes that Mary is also a good, godly woman, which is precisely why God chose her to be His sacred vessel. He notes after the birth of Jesus that Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple to be circumcised on the 8^th day[3], where the family encountered even MORE good, godly people who had been waiting on Jesus’ birth, namely Simeon and Anna. Both of these individuals are described as being (1) older (2) devout and righteous, and (3) having had the Holy Spirit come upon them. Now, this third point was a big deal. The Holy Spirit was interacting and moving and shaking all over the place, which was something Israel hadn’t seen in a long time (click here for some of the background on that, if you haven’t been with us through this whole series :) ).

Jesus was raised by parents who loved Yahweh and honored His commands. He had people all around Him who loved Yahweh and honored His commands. As He grew up and developed into a young man, He was raised to love Yahweh and honor His commands. So much so that when His parents accidentally left Him in Jerusalem after a Passover feast (way to go, Mom and Dad…) He stayed at the Temple and wowed the officials with how much He…

[everyone, now, all together:]

Now, Luke tells us that Mary pondered and treasured all these things in her heart. To me, that sounds like she was even amazed at the boy Jesus was becoming. As Jesus grew into a man, he had favor in the sight of God and in the sight of men. 

But it shouldn’t have been a big shocker! Jesus was constantly surrounded by a community of people who feared God and showed Him by example how to live like someone who fears God. His own cousin was the last of the Old Testament prophets, for goodness sake! Jesus had solid examples to follow.

I can almost hear you asking – did Jesus NEED an example? Wasn’t He God? Didn’t He know all of this stuff already? Well…yes and no. In the words of a dear professor, “Jesus didn’t pop out of the womb spouting parables.”[4] He grew. He developed. He learned. And He needed people in His life to teach Him how to be the man God was preparing Him to be.

That translates pretty clearly to you and me, doesn’t it? We don’t pop out of the womb exactly who we’re supposed to be, knowing everything we need to know, do we? We have to learn. We have to grow. We need teachers and mentors and peers in our life to teach us what we need to know. That’s why kindergarten is so important and awesome.

Let’s bring it in even further – at the moment of conversion (the instant you go from non-Christian to Christian) do you automatically know EVERYTHING it takes to be the “perfect Christian?”

I certainly didn’t. 

It wasn’t until I surrounded myself with people who knew Jesus and knew what was important to Him, and were willing to teach me and walk with me down the road of what that looked like in my life that I began to actually grow as a Christian. It’s a long jump from being an infant in Christ to being a mature adult in Christ, and without GOOD. GODLY. PEOPLE. in our lives to show us how to get from point A to point B, we don’t ever really make any progress towards being the people God wants us to be.

Jesus’ early years gave us a great example of that first step – surround yourself with godly people, because when we get isolated, that’s when the devil tries to tempt us off the path that God wants for us. Once again, this was no different in Jesus’ case[5].

So what we’ve learned so far: it is SUPER important to be a part of a community who knows God, loves God, and follows God. We are going to start to see Jesus develop and hand pick His community of godly people, and step by step by step, we’ll get to see Him groom and train and prepare them for a life of full-blown discipleship.

Be seeing you at the next post – put this post into practice and BRING A FRIEND!

Stay classy!

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[1] Luke 1: 11-20

[2] A word to the wise – if you have multiple choice answers and you’re just not sure…go with the longest answer. 66% of the time, it works every time. Thank you, Anchor man.

[3] This is an indicator of the type of people Mary and Joseph were – they were following the letter of the Mosaic Law with their/God’s son. Good. Godly. People.

[4] Quote stolen from professor John Correia…because the imagery tickled me.

[5]  We see this very clearly in Luke 4:1-13. Granted, Jesus was led out into the wilderness for the expressed purpose of being tempted by Satan, but this doesn’t make the fact that isolation is Satan’s favorite place to attack us any less true or significant.

Gospel #3 - OK, Luke, So NOW What?

So far we’ve seen the gospel story presented from two very different angles.

Angle #1: Jesus the Messiah in Matthew

Angle #2: Jesus the Son of God in Mark

But now we’re on the third account of the life and works of Jesus – and I can almost hear you, my beloved audience, groaning and mumbling under your breaths: “So what?” Believe me when I say I understand. I can only hear the same story so many times before I feel like the horse is dead and I’m ready to move on. More than that, after a while I begin to ask myself:

This is where the gospel of Luke is so special and awesome, for a plethora of reasons:

#1 – Luke writes his book to a very VERY specific audience: his name is Theophilus. (We’ll call him Theo for short.) Theo is a Gentile believer, who just needs some confirmation and encouragement about the things he already claims as a believer.[1] Hmm…what does that sound like to you? To me, it sounds like good, down-home discipleship between believers. You might even go as far as calling the gospel of Luke a “Discipleship Manual”[2] If we understand the gospel of Luke this way, it becomes super uber applicable to you and me today as believers.

#2 – Luke was a doctor and close companion with Paul – they were traveling buddies.[3] And because of Paul’s status as the world’s greatest apostle in the history of ever, Luke then had access to pretty much every person who had close contact with Jesus while He was alive. Which leads us into reason…

…#3 - Luke took advantage of the access he had to witnesses such as Mary (Jesus’ momma), the other apostles, and many of the people whose lives Jesus was involved in. He conducted personal interviews, recording details meticulously. Think of Luke as Indiana Jones or one of those super-dedicated investigative journalists you see on Dateline. Case in point:

Luke 6:6
“On another Sabbath He went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled.”

…now, I ask you…how would Luke have known which hand was shriveled, if Luke wasn’t there to have witnessed it himself?

Luke is about getting the facts – because his whole objective is to make sure that the person he’s writing to can trust the things he has claimed faith in. We’ll talk about this aspect more in the next post.

#4 - Luke takes us through the gospel story step by step, laying out very clearly how to live the life of a disciple. Did you catch that? This is the HOW-TO gospel, for anyone and everyone who reads it. Luke makes it a point in his book to show us not only that salvation is extended to anyone and everyone who believes in Jesus, but how to live as a disciple.

I don’t know about you, but I operate so much better when I have specific instructions to follow. So I plan on giving Luke a great big thank-you-high-five when I finally get to meet him. :)

So in the coming posts we’re going to explore each step-by-step that Luke takes us through. Be ready for an adventure. And stay classy. 

Click here for next post! 

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[1] Luke 1:1-4

[2] Phraseology taken from John Correia’s gospels class…Not to be confused with the infamous Discipleship Manuel.

[3] We see this spelled out in Acts – also written by Luke. Spoiler alert: Luke-Acts is like a double feature, prequel and sequel, both written to Theophilus. I got this information from my Acts-Rev class with John Correia spring 2011.