Read Luke 6:12-16

Jesus prayed a lot, but He, like us, had issues from time to time that called for special prayer.

He prayed especially at His baptism, (3:21), as He was launching His public ministry (4:42), for refreshment after hard days of preaching, teaching, and healing (5:16).

Now we find Him praying all night before making a tremendous decision, selection of His disciples.
The disciples seem to have arranged themselves in three groups. First came Peter and Andrew, James and John, two pairs of brothers. Then came Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, and Thomas. Listed last are James (not the Lord’s brother), Simon, Judas (always carefully distinguished from the other Judas), and finally Judas Iscariot, the name of infamy.

Who is in the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples in our day? Some inconspicuous little lady who wears old dresses? A shut-in who spends her days in prayer? A quiet man nobody would think of for an office in the church?

Who are the Judas Iscariots of our day? We do not need to know. Did Judas start out to be a thief and a traitor? Probably not. His life stands as a stark warning. We can be called of God. We can make a show of walking with Him. We can still refuse His message and be lost. Jesus never forces Himself upon anyone. All members of His army are volunteers.

Read Luke 6:1-11

The further Jesus went, the worse it got.

The Pharisees were already ticked off because Jesus claimed to have power to forgive sins (Luke 5:21). Then He went to dinner with a bunch of tax collectors (Luke 5:29). Now his disciples began to pick grain for lunch right out of the field on the Sabbath (Luke 6:1). That was work under Jewish law, not done on the Sabbath.

But Jesus didn’t quit there. On another Sabbath, He encountered this man in the synagogue worship service with a shriveled hand. Jesus’ friendly enemies watched to see if He would do the “work” of healing on the Sabbath.

Jesus asked the man to do two things. To stand alone before the crowd (6:8), and to stretch out the crippled hand in plain view of everyone (6:10).

What do you think would have happened if the man had said, “Oh, no, I couldn’t do that, people will laugh at me”? He would have gone out still crippled. Without two good hands, how could he work? In desperation he obeyed.

“Show your poor withered hand to the world,” said Jesus. “Reveal your weakness.” And he went out healed, with two good hands.

What does this say to us? Jesus wants to meet us as individuals, standing alone. He asks us to display our weakness to Him. Confess our sins, whatever they are. When we come in repentance and honesty, He forgives and heals.

Christianity’s pervasive spirit is joy.

What message can we learn today from Jesus’ images of attempting to patch old clothes with new cloth or the folly of putting new wine in old wineskins?

The life of freedom and joy in Christ cannot be fully realized within any narrow system of religious ritual. Christianity cannot be limited by any system of forms. It will burst out of such confines. Christianity controls people not by external rules but by the motives of a changed heart.

Jesus came bringing new wine to be stored in a new organization, the church, where individuals and the institution of the church itself make Jesus Christ the center of worship, where His children love Him with all their hearts. The new wine was not cheap. Jesus’ shed blood made possible this new more personal relationship with God.

This does not mean our churches should not have liturgy, an organized order of worship. It does mean we should take heed lest we fall into the same trap the Pharisees struggled with 2,000 years ago where rituals became a substitute for personal knowledge of God.

Jesus’ new wine is still fresh as the sunrise to each new believer. But consider this. If our church’s worship service becomes all form and no substance, no blessing to anyone, do we not risk having God sweep it away?

Read Luke 5:27-32

Jesus never cut Himself off from the world.

We probably would have considered Levi (we know him better by his other name, Matthew) an unlikely candidate for discipleship. He collected taxes for the hated Romans and his fellow Jews heartily despised him for doing so. But that didn’t keep Jesus from calling Levi to follow Him.

Levi not only left a lucrative job when he accepted Jesus’ call, he made no secret of his new allegiance. He threw a huge dinner so his fellow tax collectors and other friends could meet Jesus.

When the religious leaders asked Jesus why He lowered Himself to eat with such trash, Jesus replied with a truism we all can understand: you see a doctor when you are sick, not when you are well. Does the physician love disease? Is that why the doctor sees you when you are sick?

Did Jesus love sin and enjoy being around it? Of course not. Jesus loved the sinner and hated the sin. Jesus neither took part in sinful activities nor compromised His personal ethical standard to be a jolly good fellow. His mission was to point sinners to Himself, call them to repentance, show them a way of redemption and release. Jesus was not afraid to rub shoulders with the world. But He did not let the world rub off on Him.

We should go and do likewise, don’t you think?