Luke 5:8–11

Luke 5:8-11 

English Standard Version 

  Grace is disorienting.  We see this several times throughout Scripture.  Isaiah has a similar reaction when he gets a view of the throneroom -- he thinks it is his end.  When we get a glimpse of the holiness of God, we cannot help but be humbled and feel unworthy.

  This is the beautiful story -- we are unworthy, but Christ, by his blood, makes us worthy to stand before God.  It's all a free gift.  Simon, James, and John recognize the immensity of the gift, and they follow Jesus, wherever he will lead.  I don't think they fully grasp the next steps, but they grasp the power and holiness of Jesus, and that is enough.

  In the same way, we often don't understand all the next steps that are before us.  But when we realize the perfection and love of Jesus, we can be emboldened to follow, trusting in God to sustain us along the way.

Luke 5:4–7

Luke 5:4-7 

English Standard Version 

  Jesus sends Simon right back to where he had just failed -- and not just a short effort.  Simon had toiled all night and caught nothing.  

  But Simon recognizes wisdom, and he obeys.  He has every reason to stand fast in a refusal to go back to where he just came from, but he's willing to trust in the commands of Jesus.  He's just heard Jesus' teaching, so his obedience follows from listening to the Word of God.  

  Jesus sends us to strange places sometimes.  He sends us back to places where we have failed, and we often want to say no.  But if we're willing to listen to the commands of Jesus, we'll hear the compassion and understand the wisdom, and then we go.  We follow where he sends us.  

  And when we go under the grace of Jesus, we find things that we never find on our own.  Unimaginable riches, thanks to the grace and power of God.  It may not be worldly riches, but to be rich towards God is the one wealth that we can take with us beyond the grave, and that is gold that lasts forever.

Luke 5:1-3

Luke 5:1-3

English Standard Version 

  Imagine you're Simon, and there's a huge crowd pressing in on a teacher, and suddenly he's in your boat, teaching the crowd.  The Gospel comes to you in the midst of ordinary life.

  This is how the Gospel so often works -- it comes to us, in the midst of the ordinary.  There can be noise and crowds, and sometimes we miss it, but other times... it breaks through, and suddenly Jesus is there, leading us, teaching us.  God comes to us in the ordinary, transforming moments, transforming us.  This is one of the beautiful things about the Gospel -- it's full of stories we can relate to, where grace meets people in circumstances we understand, filled with vulnerability and tenderness and beauty.  The Gospel is real, and it's for real people.

Luke 4:42–44

Luke 4:42-44 

English Standard Version 

  Do you withdraw to pray?

  I get so busy, so caught up, that I forget to.  Often.  I'm not proud of it.  

  Jesus withdrew to pray.  Think of the endless streams of sick people coming to be healed.  There was no end of work for Jesus to do, between healing and teaching and ministering... but he made time to pray.  It was a priority.  

  If Jesus wasn't too busy to pray... then I ought to learn from him.  No matter what, this is a core piece of what it means to be a Christian, to build a rhythm of life around setting aside time to pray.  May we follow the example of Jesus and make room for God to speak to us.