PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2025-2026

Jesus makes a very firm and decisive statement that seems like a command and yet we consider it as a suggestion, or something that can be done in moderation. But Jesus’ statement is definitive and without wiggle room. Look at vs.33 where Jesus says flat our, none of you can become my disciple if you do not sell all that you have. Now, yes, we can say that he was only talking to the 12, but it does seem that whenever Jesus makes a definitive statement we would be willing to listen and follow along in pretty much every case. But this is the cost of discipleship in the eyes of Scripture. If we are wanting to follow Jesus not only must we be willing to sell all that we have, but we must actually do it. If that is the case, and I do believe that it is, no one of us has met the bar for being a disciple of Jesus. What to do? Is there something where incrementally we can be like a disciples, just not a good one, not according to this Scripture. The harsh realities of being a follower of Jesus is often soften to give us bite sized pieces of teachings that are palatable. This one is not.

We find quite a few chapters in Luke where Jesus covers a whole variety of teachings interspersed with miracles and healings, and we find ourselves again in one of those chapters. I do love the last scene where Jesus is looking over Jerusalem and weeping over it because of how the people there have historically turned their back on God and on the people of God, and he lays out a vision that he has for them which is that he would be able to cover them, protect them, as a mother hen protects her chicks. Jesus as the mother hen who protects her chicks is pretty significant here.

If you focus on vs.22 and following you will see what is at the core of how to live a life without anxiety. Jesus begins by saying do not worry and he lays out how we can go about our life without worrying. Jesus describes the life of birds and flowers and underscores how God takes care of them, so how much more do we serve and worship a God who takes care of us? There should be a sense of comfort and relief in knowing that God will take care of us, even as we pursue those things that often take the place of God in case he doesn’t take care of us. But he does, so we should focus our time and our energy on those things.

In this very long chapter we find the way in which Jesus insists that his disciples and all those who would love him persevere in pursuing his presence, even if we do not seem to hear from God in a long time. The story of the friend who badgers his friend until he gets what he wants is Luke’s rendition of the persistent widow who badgers a judge. This story follows Luke’s rendition of the Lord’s prayer, which is the shorter version which is used consistently in the Roman Catholic Church.

There was one section that caused me pause, and that was the section about the eye being that which allows light or darkness into the body. If we are fooling ourselves into thinking that as long as we are good people and continue along with those actions that would define oneself as a good person, but our eye is taking into our body as the portal that which is not healthy or good, Luke calls it darkness, then there should be a change. If your eye is healthy then your whole body is healthy, that is quite some power for the eye to have, but it is pretty spot on.

We have a similar sending of the disciples which we saw in the previous chapter. The whole shaking off the dust of your feet is seen in both as well, but this chapter contains the success stories of Satan falling from heaven, and snakes and scorpions and demons submitting to the discipls. We also get the parable of the good samaritan in this chapter. It is the only place in the Bible where we find it. I would ask that instead of a Samaritan you interchange it with, I don’t know, maybe an Iranian, or a Palestinian, or some people group that historically we do not look kindly upon. That is what the Samaritan was, and that is the purpose of this parable. The individual who is least likely to help, is the one who helps, he is the neighbor, and he should be our neighbor, in the words of Mr. Rogers.

When we look at Peter’s declaration of who Jesus is we find ourselves in the crux of Jesus’ ministry. Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah which is at the root, at the base of all that we do around here. The Messiah is the one who brings the kingdom of God to earth through the sacrifice and death of himself for all of humanity. The Messiah is God incarnate, or as John 1 state, the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Jesus is that Messiah, Jesus provide salvation for all of humanity, Jesus gives us reason and purpose.

The chapter contains a lot more than a single declaration of Peter. After that declaration we have the transfiguration. One thing about that which I probably knew but hadn’t really paid attention over is the fact that Jesus had gone up a mountain to pray with his three favorite disciples. The going up the mountain to pray had escaped me, but this is what we read in vs.28. Also, the 5,000 people were there to see Jesus. That is a megachurch! Jesus’ disciples were much more than just the 12, as we saw earlier, and he knew and loved each one of them.

Parable of the sower, calming of the storm, healing of the Gerasene demoniac, haemorrhage stopped, raising of a young girl from the dead, all of these things took place in one chapter. But what is most interesting to me and that I am just discovering in this Gospel, is the presence of the “other” disciples. We don’t hear about others who are following Jesus, crowds even, like we do in Luke. Look at the beginning verses of this chapter, away from all the popular verses that we could talk about, and we read that Jesus was going through the country side with a whole crowd of people, including the twelve. So it wasn’t just Jesus and the twelve schlepping around, but here there are also women specifically mentioned were journeyed with Jesus, as disciples, and they were bankrolling the whole operation. We even read in verse 4 that a whole crowd had gathered. We see that his family becomes concerned because they comet to gather him, in other Gospels we read that they had heard he had lost his mind. Jesus is always surrounded by people.

I had completely forgotten about the raising up of the son of the widow from Nain. Jesus brings a young man back from the dead, similar to what we read about with Lazarus coming up out of the grave. Lazarus is not a one off, but rather a consistent pattern of Jesus’ power being able to be revealed in even raising others from the dead, much less himself. Also, where we see the sinner who is forgiven by Jesus, did you notice that this took place in the house of a Pharisee who had asked Jesus to eat with him? We even know a name for this Pharisee, it is Simon. He doesn’t seem to appear again, and Jesus does kinda call him out for not having the best manners in not welcoming him by washing his feet, or greeting him with a holy kiss as was the custom, or giving him a balm, or lotion for his face and head after his journey on the dusty roads. He uses a sinful woman, someone who was known in the town as a sinful woman, as an example of who we ought to be like, even in the midst of our sin. Beware of embracing the status quo, for Jesus likes to work outside of the status quo.

Two thing happen in this Scripture that I want to pass by you. The first is the choosing of the disciples. Notice that there are many, and I mean many many discipls that are gathered around Jesus, way more than 12. You can read that in vs.17 that there was a great crowd of disciples, but the 12 that he chose we read he called them apostles. This is the distinguishing feature in the many, or the crowds who followed Jesus and were his disciples and the 12 that he called who became his apostles. The second thing is this is the beginning of the section entitled the sermon on the mount. The Gospel of Matthew has the more famous rendition of it, but this isn’t too shabby. In the sermon on the mount we find the beatitudes, which are sayings where Jesus begins the sentence with the words “blessed are…” In Latin this is beatitudine, which means blessing, hence the name of this section.

I noticed for the first time in the calling of the disciples how much the disciples left behind. Jesus is teaching from the boats of Peter and his partners James and John and they catch so much fish that both of their boats almost sink. They hadn’t caught anything all day, and now here they were, finally hit the jackpot which would have placed them financially in a position that potentially they had never seen nor experienced before. They were young, probably late teens, just starting off, and this catch, with both boats filled to the brim, could have set them up for life. But they leave it all behind and follow Jesus. As soon as they get to the shore. We catch a glimpse of the character of Peter when he tells Jesus that he is not worthy to be his disciple, but Jesus assures him that from now on he will be partnered with Jesus to catch people for the kingdom of God. There is more, but this concept of literally leaving behind two boats full of fish, enough to set them up financially for the future, struck me this time.