Written by: Captain Tim Rourke (Church Army)

Luke 6 v 39-42
Jesus told them this story: “Can a blind person lead another blind person? No! Both of them will fall into a ditch. A student is not better than the teacher, but the student who has been fully trained will be like the teacher.

“Why do you notice the little piece of dust in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the big piece of wood in your own eye? How can you say to your friend, ‘Friend, let me take that little piece of dust out of your eye’ when you cannot see that big piece of wood in your own eye! You hypocrite! First, take the wood out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly to take the dust out of your friend’s eye.”

Notes
I am a great fan of reality television shows like “Big Brother”, “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.” And even “The Mole” on Channel 5. It is amazing how people who have been watched by TV cameras 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, think they have acted.

Even allowing for the power of the editor to make people into caricatures, the contestants seem always to claim to be straight, honest and true. However most of them are shown to talk behind people’s backs, gang up on others and generally act in normal human ways.

Sometimes people see Christians in a similar way. They claim that their reason for not becoming a Christian is their experience of Christians who “preach” about being good and yet fail to show Jesus’ love. They see the logs in our eyes, and feel hurt when we go on about the specks in theirs. In our desire to speak the truth into other people’s lives we can forget Jesus’ commandment to love them first – or, in “Big Brother” terms, they see us as two-faced and hypocrites.

In a survey looking at spirituality in mental health care, a patient described spiritual care as: “when you are confused someone stays by your side, when wanting to end your life someone gives you hope, when frightened someone calms your fear, and when no one cares about you someone holds your hand and gives you a smile.”

When you meet someone today and you begin to judge them, take a moment, remove the grit from your eyes and maybe try to give them a smile.

Luke 6 v 43-45
“A good tree does not produce bad fruit, nor does a bad tree produce good fruit. Each tree is known by its own fruit. People don’t gather figs from thorn bushes, and they don’t get grapes from bushes. Good people bring good things out of the good they stored in their hearts. But evil people bring evil things out of the evil they stored in their hearts. People speak the things that are in their hearts.”

Notes
The words of Jesus in this passage seem to be out of line with a lot of his other teaching. The man who gave Zacchaeus the opportunity to change his ways, who turned people’s expectations of life upside-down, seems to say, “You are what you are: a leopard can’t change its spots you know.”

When two people start going out they will often try to portray how perfect they are. They will control their tongue; they will dress smartly; they will be courteous to each other and even laugh at the other person’s jokes. After a few years however it becomes impossible to hide the real you – the truth will out, yet love means that it doesn’t matter.

Jesus’ words in this passage are a warning to us that however we might try to pretend with him, he knows who we really are. Even so, he takes us and holds us and helps us to change. If we want to speak good things in our hearts, we must put Jesus into our hearts first.

Most of us know that in our heart of hearts we say things and do things that give a clue to our true selves, but if we want to change, Jesus offers us the opportunity. All we need to do is ask.

Luke 6 v 46-49
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do what I say? I will show you what everyone is like who comes to me and hears my words and obeys. That person is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on rock. When the floods came, the water tried to wash the house away, but it could not shake it, because the house was built well. But the one who hears my words and does not obey is like a man who built his house on the ground without a foundation. When the floods came, the house quickly fell and was completely destroyed.”

Notes
We have just moved house, and like so many other thirty-somethings this gave us a great excuse to go to our favourite furniture shop (Swedish, flat-pack furniture?) and buy some bits and pieces for our new home.

One thing we needed was a new chest of drawers for our bedroom as our children are growing up and needed our old one for their bigger clothes. I brought the box home, carried it upstairs and dived straight in to self-assembly heaven.

Twenty minutes later there I was, up to my eyes in bits of wood, plastic screws and strange sinister bits of metal. It was then that I decided that I could do with some help, so after a look at the instructions and an embarrassing phone call to the helpline, I was back on track. Now I have a beautiful chest of drawers that is almost perfect except for the click when I open the top drawer.

Many people dive straight into life. They know how it’s meant to work, how it goes together. Then some time later they find themselves up to their eyes in trouble and they cry out for help.

Jesus showed his disciples how to live life and when the hard times came they knew he was with them. We need to be wise people and follow him; he really knows how life fits together. He designed it!

Luke 7 v 1-5
When Jesus finished saying all these things to the people, he went to Capernaum. There was an army officer who had a servant who was very important to him. The servant was so sick he was nearly dead. When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some older Jewish leaders to him to ask Jesus to come and heal his servant. The men went to Jesus and begged him, saying, “This officer is worthy of your help. He loves our people, and he built us a synagogue.”

Notes
What would you throw into “Room 101”? What would you choose to remove from this earth for good? Paul Merton presents this excellent show each week, inviting a special guest to answer these questions with their own lists of things they could definitely live without.

Some of the things that people have suggested have ranged from the comical to the highly insulting. Probably the most famous thing was when Anne Robinson, from “The Weakest Link”, suggested getting rid of Welsh people. Just before I wrote this someone else suggested getting rid of Anne herself. Other suggestions have included children in restaurants, customs officials and long gloves. If I were to choose I would probably go for tin openers, as mine always seem to break within weeks of buying them.

In the time of Jesus an ill slave would have been seen as a nuisance that could be got rid of as easily as we might throw away a broken watch. Slaves were “living tools”, to be used while they worked and discarded when they were no longer useful. A Roman officer certainly wouldn’t have to go to any trouble to help them.

And yet in today’s passage the officer, who was a good man, took his time to ask Jesus for help. He was a man with great power who showed love and care for someone lower in others’ eyes than himself.

Sometimes we might be tempted to ignore others who are weaker than ourselves, to push them away or put them down. This Roman officer placed love for others higher than his own status; maybe we can try to do the same.

Luke 7 v 6-8
So Jesus went with the men. He was getting near the officer’s house when the officer sent friends to say, “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, because I am not worthy to have you come into my house. That is why I did not come to you myself. But you only need to command it, and my servant will be healed. I, too, am a man under the authority of others, and I have soldiers under my command. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes. I tell another soldier, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and my servant does it.”

Notes
Today we carry on looking at the Roman officer who asked Jesus to heal his servant. He asked Jesus to help, but then in today’s passage he seems uncomfortable when Jesus responds.

The officer showed that he was a very powerful man, sending his soldiers where and when he wanted. He would have been in charge of around 100 men and would have had to work really hard to get where he had got. He probably was someone who was very ambitious and strong.

At the same time he was also a humble man who seemed to recognise in Jesus the immense power he possessed. He knew that Jesus only had to say the word and his slave would be healed. A simple word would be all that was needed.

The church is made up of more women than men. Sometimes this is because people think that to follow Jesus is all about being gentle, loving and caring - attributes that are seen as feminine. The assumption is that to be a Christian, things like strength, power and ambition need to be removed from our character.

The Roman officer shows us that the most important thing in life is to put our faith in Christ and be the person he wants us to be. Letting Jesus use us as we are is a releasing experience. He will change us for our good, because he knows who we are and he loves us along the journey.

Luke 7 v 9-10
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, “I tell you, this is the greatest faith I have found anywhere, even in Israel.”

Those who had been sent to Jesus went back to the house where they found the servant in good health.

Notes
I have a terrible fear of heights; I get dizzy walking up the stairs. When I was younger I went on an outward bounds course in Derbyshire. As part of this, we were expected to abseil off of a fifty-foot cliff. We all walked up to the top of the cliff and as we got higher I became more and more anxious. When we were standing about twenty-foot from the top of the cliff with our equipment on, I froze. The instructors on this course were quite pushy with some of the other people and eventually everyone else went over the cliff. I, however, was so scared that I wouldn’t go and eventually I returned by the path.

Last year I found myself on a similar course, helping with a group of year 6 (10 year old) children going bouldering near Leek in Staffordshire. As we walked we climbed little bit by little bit, trying different routes and gradually getting higher. I was still anxious, but the instructor was far more aware of how some of the kids and I were feeling. At the highest point of our climb I was asked if I wanted to look over the seventy-five-foot cliff and because of the care and gentleness of the instructor I did.

Jesus was amazed at the faith of the Roman officer. I think he amazed Jesus because, although he was a powerful man, he showed a straightforward and uncomplicated faith. He had a sick slave, who he cared about. He knew that Jesus could give the command and make him well, so he asked. Jesus promises that if we trust in him he will help us gently. We need to pray for the same faith as the Roman officer, a simple faith in an amazing God.

Luke 7 v 11-17
Soon afterwards Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his followers and a large crowd travelled with him. When he came near the town gate, he saw a funeral. A mother, who was a widow, had lost her only son. A large crowd from the town was with the mother while her son was being carried out. When the Lord saw her, he felt very sorry for her and said, “Don’t cry.” He went up and touched the coffin, and the people who were carrying it stopped. Jesus said, “Young man, I tell you, get up!” And the son sat up and began to talk. Then Jesus gave him back to his mother.

All the people were amazed and began praising God, saying, “A great prophet has come to us! God has come to help his people.”

This news about Jesus spread through all Judea and into all the places around there.

Notes
I have just been playing golf with my brother. He lives in London and I live in Stoke on Trent. We play a couple of rounds most weeks; it helps us to keep in touch with each other. However, neither of us has to leave the comfort of our own home and we can play come rain or shine using the Internet.

Mass communication is now so natural that practically every time we log on we contact computers and people throughout the world without even knowing it. We can find out latest news in Zimbabwe, the weather in Greece and even the name of a good Hungarian restaurant in New York (Mocca Hungarian Restaurant 1588 2nd Avenue (82nd and 83rd Streets. [apparently]). The difficulty of having this amount of information is being able to filter through it to find the important stuff from the rest.

In today’s passage Jesus raised a young man from the dead. This caused quite a stir; the news of the event spread like wildfire. Jesus still does amazing things in people’s lives and yet we can feel unable to share that information with anyone. In this age of information overload, where individual stories can become swamped by the mass media, let us celebrate together that the man who raised the dead and healed the sick so many years ago is still alive and well. How about that for news worth telling the world?


word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes