THE Gospel (Lk 11:42-46) presents one of Christ's most penetrating critiques of religious life. His words are directed not against religion itself but against a distorted way of living it. The Pharisees and the lawyers were diligent in observing external prescriptions, yet they failed to cultivate...
THE dinner invitation in Luke 11:37-41 quickly turns into a spiritual checkup. A Pharisee is shocked because Jesus skips the ritual washing before eating. The issue, however, is not hygiene. It is hypocrisy. Jesus immediately exposes a perennial temptation: "You clean the outside of the...
THE complaint of Christ in Luke 11:29-32 is one of the saddest moments in the Gospel. "This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given it except the sign of Jonah." Notice what grieves him. It is not ignorance....
TRUE Christian love has a remarkable breadth. It refuses to build little fences around the heart. It reaches family, friends, strangers, the grateful, the difficult, even those who disagree with us. Why? Because Christian charity is not merely natural affection. It flows from God, who loves...
THE parable of the wedding banquet (Matthew 22:1–14) presents one of the most searching images of God's plan of salvation. A king prepares a wedding feast for his son and extends repeated invitations to those who were first called. Yet the invitation is met with...
THERE is no such thing as spiritual Switzerland. That is the uncomfortable truth Christ drives home in Luke 11:15-26. Faced with the undeniable miracle of a possessed man being set free, some people refused to rejoice. Instead, they twisted the evidence, claiming that Jesus was...
CHRIST has an interesting habit of encouraging what polite society usually discourages. In the Gospel (Luke 11:5-13), he practically tells us to keep knocking, keep asking, keep pestering heaven. Not because God is hard of hearing. Not because he enjoys making us wait. But because persistent...
THE disciples had watched Jesus preach to crowds, calm storms, heal the sick, and even raise the dead. Yet they never asked, "Lord, teach us to work miracles." Instead, they asked, "Lord, teach us to pray." (Lk. 11:1-4) That says a lot. They had figured out...
WE live in an age that celebrates multitasking. The busier a person is, the more important he appears. Calendars are packed, phones never stop buzzing, and the to-do list grows faster than it shrinks. We have become experts at doing many things at once, yet...
THE lawyer in Luke 10:25–37 thought he had Jesus cornered. "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" It sounded like an honest question, but there was a catch. He wanted the minimum requirement. He was searching for the finish line without running the race. Jesus...