Luke

No. 24 Luke 9:23-27
In Luke's account this saying comes at a hinge point. Just before it, Peter has said out loud that Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus has told the disciples for the first time that he is going to suffer, be...
No. 32 Luke 19:1-7
Jesus is passing through Jericho on the road up to Jerusalem, in the last week of his life. Jericho was a wealthy town on a trade route, and a customs post. Zacchaeus is a chief tax collector there, which...
No. 137 Luke 11:27-32
Jesus has been arguing with a hostile crowd, and this passage begins with an interruption from someone friendly. A woman calls out a blessing on his mother: blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts...
No. 227 Luke 22:1-6
It is the run-up to Passover, when Jerusalem fills with pilgrims and the population multiplies. The chief priests and scribes have already decided that Jesus has to die, but they are stuck on one thing, and...
No. 268 Luke 2:33-38
Mary and Joseph have brought the infant Jesus to the temple, and an old man named Simeon has just taken the baby in his arms and praised God for finally seeing the one he had waited his whole life to see. This...
No. 274 Luke 15:1-7
The setup to this famous parable matters as much as the story. Tax collectors and sinners are crowding in to hear Jesus, and the religious experts are muttering about it. This man, they say, welcomes sinners...
No. 411 Luke 24:36-41
The risen Jesus appears suddenly among his disciples and says, peace to you, and their reaction is not the joyful embrace you might expect. They are terrified. They think they are seeing a ghost, a spirit, and...
No. 413 Luke 7:41-50
Jesus is at dinner in the house of Simon, a respectable Pharisee, when a woman known in the town as a sinner comes in and does something scandalous: she weeps at Jesus' feet, wets them with her tears, wipes...
No. 435 Luke 22:7-12
On the surface this is a small logistical passage: Jesus sends Peter and John to get the Passover meal ready, and they ask the obvious question, where do you want us to prepare it? But his answer is strangely...
No. 437 Luke 13:31-35
Some Pharisees come to warn Jesus that Herod wants to kill him and that he should flee. Jesus is entirely unintimidated. Go tell that fox, he says, that I will keep casting out demons and healing today and...
No. 489 Luke 1:61-66
Zechariah the priest had doubted the angel who promised him a son in his old age, and for that doubt he had been struck silent for the whole length of his wife Elizabeth's pregnancy. Now the baby is born, and...
No. 598 Luke 4:28-34
Two scenes sit side by side here, and their contrast is the point. In the first, Jesus is in Nazareth, his hometown, among the people who watched him grow up, and when his teaching challenges them they are...
No. 669 Luke 23:32-37
Luke has brought the story to its end. Jesus is led out with two criminals to the place called the Skull and crucified between them, one on his right and one on his left. And the first thing Luke records from...
No. 670 Luke 2:21-32
Luke follows the newborn Jesus through the rites of a devout Jewish family. On the eighth day he is circumcised and given the name the angel had chosen. Then his parents bring him up to the temple, for Mary's...
No. 675 Luke 18:1-5
Luke tells us the point of this parable before he tells the parable, which he rarely does. Jesus spoke it, he says, to teach them that they should always pray and not lose heart. Then the story: a judge in a...
No. 696 Luke 6:27-31
This is from Luke's Sermon on the Plain, and it is the teaching people most admire from a distance and most avoid up close. Jesus states it without cushioning. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you....
No. 710 Luke 14:6-11
Jesus is at a dinner given by a leading Pharisee, and he is watching. He notices the guests angling for the best seats at the table, and he turns what he sees into a parable. When you are invited to a wedding...
No. 756 Luke 18:26-30
Jesus has just watched a rich and religious man walk away unwilling to give up his wealth, and has said that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom than for a camel to go through a needle's eye. The...
No. 760 Luke 4:8-12
Luke's account of the temptation in the wilderness includes a moment that should unsettle anyone who trusts the Bible. The devil has already offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he will only worship...
No. 782 Luke 10:13-17
As he sends his messengers out, Jesus turns and pronounces woes on the towns that had seen the most of him and changed the least. Chorazin and Bethsaida had watched him do wonders up close, day after day, and...
No. 786 Luke 16:1-7
Jesus tells a parable that has puzzled readers for centuries. A rich man's manager is reported to be wasting his master's property, and the master calls him in: give an account of your management, for you are...
No. 802 Luke 2:1-5
Luke sets the birth of Jesus against the largest possible backdrop. In those days, he writes, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be registered. The master of the known world...
No. 803 Luke 5:17-21
Luke tells the story of the paralyzed man with an eye on the people carrying him. Jesus is teaching in a house so packed that Pharisees and law-teachers have come from every village to sit and listen, and...
No. 807 Luke 12:13-19
Someone in the crowd tries to pull Jesus into a family money fight: teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Jesus refuses the role of arbiter and goes after the thing underneath the...
No. 818 Luke 9:46-50
Two arguments happen back to back among the disciples, and Jesus treats them as the same problem. The first is a dispute about which of them is the greatest. Jesus answers it by setting a little child beside...
No. 821 Luke 23:6-12
In Luke's account of the trial, Pilate, eager to be rid of the case, learns that Jesus is a Galilean and ships him off to Herod, who happens to be in Jerusalem for the feast. And Herod is thrilled. He had...
No. 830 Luke 19:25-31
The parable Jesus has been telling ends on a hard, memorable line. A nobleman gave his servants money to put to work while he was away, and on his return the ones who traded and multiplied it are rewarded,...
No. 858 Luke 13:6-13
Jesus tells a short, unsettling parable. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and for three years he came looking for fruit on it and found none. Cut it down, he tells his gardener; why should it go...
No. 895 Luke 3:7-11
John the Baptist is preaching at the Jordan, and he does not flatter the crowds who come out to be baptized. He calls them a brood of vipers and asks who warned them to flee the coming wrath. Do not lean on...
No. 926 Luke 4:1-7
This is Luke's account of the temptation. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, is led into the wilderness for forty days, eating nothing, and at the end he is hungry. The devil moves first on that hunger: if you...
No. 936 Luke 9:1-5
Jesus gathers the twelve, gives them power and authority over demons and disease, and sends them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal. His instructions for the trip are austere: take nothing, no staff,...
No. 1043 Luke 24:30-35
Two disciples walking to Emmaus on Easter, crushed by the crucifixion, have been joined by a stranger who explained the scriptures to them along the road, though they did not recognize him. Now, at the table,...
No. 1060 Luke 10:28-36
A lawyer, wanting to justify himself, has asked Jesus, who is my neighbor? Jesus answers with a story. A man is beaten by robbers and left half dead on the Jericho road. A priest comes by, sees him, and passes...
No. 1176 Luke 19:20-24
In the parable of the minas, a nobleman gives his servants money to invest while he is away. Two put it to work and gain more. But a third comes with the money untouched, wrapped in a handkerchief, and...
No. 1212 Luke 4:13-19
After the temptation, Jesus returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and comes to Nazareth, where he grew up. On the Sabbath he stands to read in the synagogue and is handed the scroll of Isaiah. He finds...
No. 1275 Luke 8:9-15
Jesus explains the parable of the sower to his disciples. The seed is the word of God, and it falls on four kinds of ground. The path is those who hear, but the devil snatches the word away before it can take...
No. 1283 Luke 9:34-40
On the mountain of the Transfiguration, a cloud overshadows the disciples and they are afraid as they enter it. A voice comes from the cloud: this is my beloved Son; listen to him. When the voice ceases, Jesus...
No. 1320 Luke 19:32-36
As Jesus approaches Jerusalem for the last time, he sends two disciples ahead to fetch a colt they will find tied, one that has never been ridden. They go and find it exactly as he said. As they untie it, the...
No. 1340 Luke 14:1-5
Jesus is invited to dine at the house of a leading Pharisee on the Sabbath, and the guests are watching him closely. In front of him is a man suffering from dropsy, a painful swelling. Jesus puts a question to...
No. 1365 Luke 20:39-47
After Jesus has silenced his questioners, so that no one dares ask him anything more, he puts a question of his own about how the Christ can be both David's son and David's Lord, and then, in the hearing of...
No. 1437 Luke 10:23-27
Turning privately to his disciples, Jesus says something that puts their moment in perspective: blessed are the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings longed to see what you...
No. 1441 Luke 15:8-19
Jesus tells of a woman who loses one of her ten coins and lights a lamp, sweeps the whole house, and searches diligently until she finds it, then calls her friends to rejoice with her; so, he says, there is...
No. 1456 Luke 20:8-13
Jesus tells a parable against the leaders who have questioned his authority. A man plants a vineyard, rents it to tenant farmers, and goes away for a long time. At harvest he sends a servant to collect his...
No. 1464 Luke 8:21-25
After teaching that his true family are those who hear and do God's word, Jesus gets into a boat with his disciples to cross the lake, and falls asleep. A fierce squall comes down, the boat begins to fill with...
No. 1467 Luke 23:1-5
The council brings Jesus before Pilate and begins to accuse him. Their charges are calculated to alarm a Roman governor: we found this man subverting our nation, forbidding the payment of taxes to Caesar, and...
No. 1485 Luke 23:26-31
As Jesus is led out to be crucified, the soldiers seize Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and lay the cross on him to carry behind Jesus. A great crowd follows, including women who mourn and wail...
No. 1530 Luke 11:33-44
Jesus speaks of the lamp and the eye, and then, invited to dine with a Pharisee, is criticized for not washing before the meal. He answers with a rebuke of a religion of appearances. You Pharisees clean the...
No. 1545 Luke 9:11-17
A great crowd has followed Jesus to a remote place, and as the day wears on the disciples urge him to send them away to find food. But Jesus says, you give them something to eat. They protest that they have...
No. 1572 Luke 12:49-53
Jesus speaks words that unsettle any comfortable picture of him. I came to cast fire on the earth, he says, and how I wish it were already kindled. He speaks of a baptism of suffering he must undergo, and his...
No. 1586 Luke 8:40-44
A crowd presses around Jesus. Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, falls at his feet, begging him to come and heal his dying daughter, and Jesus goes with him. But on the way, in the crush of the crowd, a woman...
No. 1599 Luke 12:41-48
Jesus tells of a steward set over his master's household to give the servants their food at the proper time. Blessed is that servant, he says, whom the master finds faithfully doing so when he returns. But if...
No. 1683 Luke 22:31-35
At the table, Jesus turns to Peter with a warning and a promise. Simon, Simon, he says, Satan has demanded to have you all, to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and...
No. 1700 Luke 10:18-22
The seventy return elated, having found even the demons subject to them in Jesus' name. Jesus affirms their authority, I saw Satan fall like lightning, he says, and I have given you authority over all the...
No. 1758 Luke 24:42-53
The risen Jesus, eating a piece of fish before his startled disciples to show he is truly raised, reminds them that everything written about him in the law, the prophets, and the psalms had to be fulfilled....
No. 1760 Luke 16:19-24
Jesus tells of a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and feasted in luxury every day, while at his gate lay a beggar named Lazarus, covered in sores, longing for the crumbs from the rich man's table....
No. 1770 Luke 6:38-42
Jesus teaches about giving and about judging. Give, he says, and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. He warns that the blind cannot guide the blind. And then a...
No. 1778 Luke 1:1-7
Luke opens his Gospel by explaining his careful method: having followed everything closely from the beginning, drawing on eyewitnesses, he writes an orderly account so that Theophilus may know the certainty of...
No. 1779 Luke 22:13-18
The disciples prepare the Passover as Jesus directed, and when the hour comes he sits down with the twelve. And he says something that reveals his heart: I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you...
No. 1799 Luke 21:19-24
In his discourse about the trials to come, Jesus speaks a short word of encouragement to his disciples: by your endurance you will gain your lives. He goes on to foretell the coming distress upon Jerusalem,...
No. 1830 Luke 5:11-16
The first disciples leave everything to follow Jesus, and his ministry begins to draw crowds. He cleanses a leper, and though he tells the man to keep silent, the report spreads all the more, and great crowds...
No. 1862 Luke 2:15-20
After the angels depart, the shepherds hurry to Bethlehem and find Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger, just as they were told. They spread the word of what they had seen and heard, and all who...
No. 1912 Luke 17:11-16
As Jesus travels toward Jerusalem, ten men with leprosy meet him, standing at a distance, and cry out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. He tells them to go and show themselves to the priests; and as they go,...
No. 1922 Luke 22:66-71
At daybreak, the council of elders, chief priests, and scribes assemble and lead Jesus before them. If you are the Christ, they demand, tell us. Jesus answers that they will not believe him, but declares: from...
No. 1925 Luke 6:17-26
Jesus, on a level place amid a great crowd, teaches his disciples with a series of blessings and woes that overturn the world's values. Blessed are you who are poor, who hunger now, who weep now, who are hated...
No. 1926 Luke 1:34-38
When the angel tells Mary she will bear the Son of God, she asks, how can this be, since I am a virgin? The angel answers that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Most High overshadow her,...
No. 1934 Luke 9:51-56
As Jesus sets his face resolutely toward Jerusalem, he sends messengers ahead into a Samaritan village to prepare for him; but the village will not receive him, because he is heading for Jerusalem. When his...
No. 1948 Luke 16:25-31
In the parable, the rich man, now in torment, begs Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his five brothers, lest they too come to this place. But Abraham answers: they have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to...
No. 2004 Luke 3:12-17
As John the Baptist preaches repentance, different people come asking what they should do. Tax collectors ask, and he tells them to collect no more than what is appointed. Soldiers ask, and he tells them to...
No. 2024 Luke 21:34-38
As Jesus closes his teaching about the last things, he gives a warning about the state of the heart. Be careful, he says, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of this...
No. 2104 Luke 23:38-42
Two criminals are crucified beside Jesus. One joins the mockery, sneering, if you are the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other rebukes him: do you not even fear God, since you are under the same...
No. 2109 Luke 6:12-16
Before Jesus chooses the twelve apostles, the men who would carry his mission into the world, Luke records how he prepared. In these days, he went out to the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in...
No. 2115 Luke 21:1-6
Jesus watches people putting their gifts into the temple treasury. The rich put in large amounts; then a poor widow comes and puts in two small copper coins, worth almost nothing. And Jesus says something that...
No. 2143 Luke 18:6-14
Jesus tells a parable to some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One, a Pharisee, stood and prayed about himself: God, I...
No. 2172 Luke 23:50-56
After Jesus dies, when his disciples have fled and all seems lost, a man steps forward. Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the council that condemned Jesus, but a good and righteous man who had not consented to...
No. 2190 Luke 20:14-18
In the parable of the wicked tenants, the vineyard owner sends his beloved son, and the tenants kill him to seize the inheritance. Jesus asks what the owner will do, and answers: he will destroy those tenants...
No. 2195 Luke 3:1-6
Luke situates the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry precisely in history, naming the rulers of the time, and then describes John's work: he came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of...
No. 2210 Luke 13:14-19
When Jesus heals a woman who had been bent over and bound for eighteen years, the ruler of the synagogue is indignant, not with joy at her freedom but with anger that Jesus healed on the Sabbath. There are six...
No. 2221 Luke 9:41-45
After Jesus heals a boy and all the crowd marvels at the majesty of God, he turns to his disciples with a hard word: let these words sink into your ears, for the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of...
No. 2233 Luke 4:35-44
After a day of teaching, casting out demons, and healing all who were brought to him, Jesus withdraws at daybreak to a solitary place. The crowds seek him out and try to keep him, urging him not to leave them....
No. 2245 Luke 7:21-27
After John the Baptist's disciples leave, Jesus turns to the crowd and praises John with a series of questions. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? he asks. A reed shaken by the wind? A man dressed...
No. 2294 Luke 7:9-15
As Jesus approaches the town of Nain, he meets a funeral procession coming out. A young man has died, the only son of his mother, and she is a widow, now bereft of her only child, with a great crowd...
No. 2302 Luke 8:16-20
After teaching about the sower and the different soils, Jesus draws out a lesson about hearing. No one lights a lamp and hides it, he says, but sets it on a stand to give light; nothing hidden will fail to be...
No. 2319 Luke 13:1-5
Some people tell Jesus about Galileans whom Pilate had killed as they offered their sacrifices, a terrible calamity. The unspoken assumption behind their report is that such a fate must mean these people were...
No. 2331 Luke 5:22-26
When a paralyzed man is brought to Jesus, Jesus first says something unexpected: your sins are forgiven. The onlookers are scandalized, for who can forgive sins but God? Jesus, knowing their thoughts, asks,...
No. 2369 Luke 15:20-24
This is the turn of the parable of the prodigal son. The younger son, who had demanded his inheritance and squandered it, comes home rehearsing a confession. But while he is still far off, the father sees him,...
No. 2372 Luke 14:25-35
Great crowds are traveling with Jesus, and instead of thinning his message to keep them, he raises the cost. Anyone who will not put him ahead of father, mother, spouse, and even his own life cannot be his...
No. 2380 Luke 22:59-65
Luke records the moment Peter's courage collapses. For the third time he denies knowing Jesus, and as the words leave his mouth a rooster crows. Then the line that carries the whole scene: the Lord turned and...
No. 2391 Luke 6:32-37
Jesus presses past the ordinary limits of decency. If you love those who love you, he says, what credit is that? Even sinners do that much. The distinctive thing is to love your enemies, to do good and lend...
No. 2478 Luke 9:6-10
As the disciples fan out preaching and healing, word reaches Herod the tetrarch, and he is deeply unsettled. People are saying John the Baptist has risen, or Elijah has come, or one of the old prophets. Herod,...
No. 2504 Luke 5:33-39
Asked why his disciples do not fast like John's, Jesus answers that you cannot make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them. Then he tells two small parables: no one sews a piece of new cloth...
No. 2547 Luke 14:19-24
In Jesus's parable of the great banquet, the invited guests all beg off with excuses. One has bought a field and must go see it; one has bought five yoke of oxen and must try them out; one has just married and...
No. 2552 Luke 9:18-22
Jesus is praying alone with his disciples near, and he asks who the crowds say he is, then who they say he is. Peter answers, the Christ of God. But instead of celebrating the confession, Jesus warns them to...
No. 2611 Luke 18:31-43
Luke sets two kinds of sight side by side. First Jesus tells the twelve plainly that he will be handed over, mocked, killed, and rise again, and the text says they understood none of it; the meaning was hidden...
No. 2669 Luke 2:39-52
The one story we have of Jesus's boyhood ends not with the temple but with Nazareth. At twelve, he astonishes the teachers in the temple and tells his worried parents he must be about his Father's business....
No. 2693 Luke 2:6-14
Here is the center of the Christmas story, told with almost no fanfare. Mary gives birth, wraps her firstborn in bands of cloth, and lays him in a feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the inn....
No. 2757 Luke 14:12-18
At a dinner Jesus turns to his host and says something that upends the usual rules. When you give a feast, do not invite your friends or your rich neighbors, who will just invite you back and repay you. Invite...
No. 2769 Luke 18:21-25
A man who has kept the commandments since his youth asks Jesus what he still lacks. Jesus names one thing: sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and then come and follow me, and you will have treasure...
No. 2791 Luke 7:28-35
Jesus gives John the Baptist astonishing praise, no one born of women is greater, and then a twist, yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. The common people and the tax collectors, already...
No. 2793 Luke 20:19-24
Stung by a parable aimed at them, the chief priests send spies who pretend to be sincere, hoping to trap Jesus in his words and hand him to the governor. They flatter him first, then spring the question: is it...
No. 2794 Luke 12:1-5
A crowd of thousands is trampling to get near him, and Jesus turns first to his own disciples with a warning: beware the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing covered up will stay hidden;...
No. 2811 Luke 12:20-28
God calls the man who filled his barns a fool: tonight your life is required of you, and the things you stored up, whose will they be? So it is, Jesus says, with anyone who lays up treasure for himself and is...
No. 2816 Luke 22:24-30
Of all moments, it is at the last supper that a dispute breaks out among the disciples over which of them is the greatest. Jesus does not so much scold them as redraw the whole picture. The kings of the...
No. 2862 Luke 10:37-42
Two scenes sit side by side. Jesus finishes the parable of the good Samaritan with a command to active mercy, go and do likewise. Then he enters a village where Martha welcomes him and busies herself with much...
No. 2879 Luke 24:6-12
At the empty tomb the angels tell the women, he is not here, but is risen. Then they add a pointed reminder: remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be crucified and...
No. 2886 Luke 16:8-13
Jesus draws the lessons out of the parable of the shrewd manager. The people of this world, he notes, are shrewder in dealing with their own kind than the children of light are. Use worldly wealth to make...
No. 2887 Luke 6:43-49
Jesus offers two images with one point. A tree is known by its fruit; a good tree does not bear rotten fruit, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Then, sharply: why do you call me Lord,...
No. 2907 Luke 11:1-8
A disciple watches Jesus pray and asks, Lord, teach us to pray. Jesus gives them the pattern: Father, may your name be kept holy, your kingdom come, your will be done; give us each day our daily bread; forgive...
No. 2953 Luke 17:17-21
Ten lepers were healed, but only one came back to thank Jesus, and he was a Samaritan. Were not ten cleansed? Jesus asks. Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this...
No. 3010 Luke 9:57-62
Three would-be followers meet Jesus on the road. One eagerly says he will follow anywhere; Jesus warns that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Another Jesus calls, but the man asks first to go and...
No. 3024 Luke 17:22-37
Jesus warns his disciples about his coming day. It will not be found here or there for the pointing; it will be sudden as lightning flashing across the sky, and first he must suffer and be rejected. As it was...
No. 3061 Luke 9:28-33
Jesus takes Peter, John, and James up the mountain to pray, and as he prays, the appearance of his face changes and his clothing turns dazzling white. Moses and Elijah appear in glory, and, of all things, they...
No. 3094 Luke 1:8-17
The old priest Zechariah is serving in the temple, chosen by lot to burn incense while the people pray outside. Suddenly an angel appears beside the altar, and Zechariah is afraid. But the angel says, do not...
No. 3140 Luke 23:43-49
To the dying criminal beside him, Jesus says, today you will be with me in Paradise. Then darkness covers the land, the temple veil is torn in two, and Jesus cries out, Father, into your hands I commit my...
No. 3163 Luke 11:9-13
Jesus teaches persistent prayer: keep asking, and it will be given you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and it will be opened. Then he reasons from the human to the divine. If your son asks for...
No. 3216 Luke 20:1-7
As Jesus teaches in the temple, the priests, scribes, and elders confront him: by what authority do you do these things, and who gave it to you? Jesus answers with a question of his own: John's baptism, was it...
No. 3245 Luke 1:67-80
Zechariah, silent for nine months, is filled with the Holy Spirit and bursts into prophecy, the song we call the Benedictus. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people,...
No. 3263 Luke 8:45-49
As Jesus makes his way through a pressing crowd, a sick woman touches the edge of his garment and is instantly healed. Jesus stops and asks, who touched me? Peter protests that the whole multitude is jostling...
No. 3279 Luke 22:54-58
Jesus is seized and led to the high priest's house, and Peter, who had sworn to die with him, follows at a distance. In the courtyard they kindle a fire, and Peter sits down among them to warm himself. A...
No. 3341 Luke 7:16-20
After Jesus raises the widow's son at Nain, the crowds glorify God, saying, a great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people. But then, from prison, John the Baptist sends two of his...
No. 3362 Luke 12:54-59
Jesus points out an odd blindness in the crowds. They can read the sky, a cloud in the west means rain, a south wind means scorching heat, and they are usually right. Yet they cannot read the far more...
No. 3386 Luke 16:14-18
The Pharisees, who loved money, scoff at Jesus, and he exposes the root of it: you are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an...
No. 3394 Luke 5:1-10
Peter, an expert fisherman who has toiled all night for nothing, is told by Jesus to let down his nets again. His answer holds both weariness and faith: Master, we worked all night and caught nothing, but at...
No. 3407 Luke 19:37-48
At the height of the triumphal entry, with the crowds praising God and hailing him as king, Jesus does something unexpected: he sees the city and weeps over it. Even as they cheer, he grieves, saying, if you...
No. 3474 Luke 1:56-60
When Elizabeth's son is born, her neighbors and relatives rejoice, for they hear that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, giving a child to a woman long barren and past hope. Their joy is a shared joy: when...
No. 3481 Luke 1:46-55
Mary's song overflows with praise for a God who overturns the world's order. My soul magnifies the Lord, she sings, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant, a lowly girl, and done great things...
No. 3488 Luke 12:35-40
Jesus calls his followers to a posture of constant readiness: stay dressed for action, keep your lamps burning, be like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding feast, ready to open the door...
No. 3507 Luke 22:36-40
On the night of his arrest, Jesus says a puzzling thing: let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. He is not calling for armed resistance, as he will show moments later when he heals the ear of...
No. 3520 Luke 6:1-5
When the Pharisees accuse the disciples of breaking the Sabbath by plucking heads of grain to eat, Jesus answers by pointing to David, who, when he and his men were hungry, ate the consecrated bread that was...
No. 3555 Luke 11:45-54
Jesus pronounces woes on the religious lawyers, the experts in the law, and the charges are searching. They loaded people down with heavy burdens, rules and requirements, but would not lift a finger to help...
No. 3569 Luke 17:1-5
Jesus gives two hard commands about how we treat others. First, a solemn warning: it is a terrible thing to cause one of these little ones to stumble; better a millstone hung around the neck than to lead a...
No. 3580 Luke 10:1-12
Jesus sends out seventy others ahead of him, two by two, and his first words to them are both a burden and a prayer: the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of...
No. 3595 Luke 24:18-24
Two disciples walk to Emmaus, downcast, and tell the stranger who joins them, not knowing it is Jesus himself, about the crucifixion. And they voice their crushed hope: we had hoped that he was the one to...
No. 3597 Luke 11:21-26
Jesus uses two images. First, a strong man fully armed guards his house until one stronger overcomes him, disarms him, and divides his spoil, a picture of Christ, the stronger one, overcoming the evil powers...
No. 3615 Luke 22:41-46
In Gethsemane, Jesus prays with an agony that shows the full weight of what he faced: Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. His human will recoils from the horror of the cross, and he does not...
No. 3632 Luke 12:6-12
Jesus grounds our freedom from fear in the detailed care of God. Not one sparrow, sold five for two pennies, is forgotten by God; and even the hairs of your head are all numbered. If God attends to the...
No. 3659 Luke 20:34-38
Answering a trick question about marriage in the resurrection, Jesus lifts the discussion to a higher plane. Those raised to the age to come neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they can no longer die;...
No. 3661 Luke 22:19-23
At the Last Supper, Jesus gives his disciples the bread and the cup with words that would nourish the church forever: this is my body, given for you; do this in remembrance of me; this cup is the new covenant...
No. 3712 Luke 13:20-30
Asked whether only a few will be saved, Jesus does not give a number but a challenge: strive to enter through the narrow door, for many will seek to enter and will not be able. There is urgency here; entering...
No. 3720 Luke 5:27-32
Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector, one of the despised collaborators of his day, with two simple words: follow me. And Levi leaves everything, rises, and follows, then throws a great feast for Jesus, filling...
No. 3762 Luke 24:25-29
On the road to Emmaus, the risen Jesus, still unrecognized, gently rebukes the two downcast disciples: O foolish ones, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Their despair came from not...
No. 3764 Luke 24:13-17
Two disciples walk the road to Emmaus, talking over the crushing events of the past days, their hopes in Jesus apparently buried with him. And as they talk, Jesus himself draws near and walks with them, but...
No. 3765 Luke 4:20-27
In his hometown synagogue, Jesus declares that the Scripture he has just read is fulfilled that very day in their hearing. At first the crowd marvels at his gracious words, but then a note of skepticism creeps...
No. 3768 Luke 17:6-10
Jesus teaches two lessons that at first seem unrelated but belong together. First, that even faith as small as a mustard seed can do what seems impossible, uprooting a tree at a word; it is not the size of our...
No. 3775 Luke 8:26-30
Jesus steps ashore into the country of the Gerasenes and is met by a man in a wretched condition: possessed for a long time, wearing no clothes, living among the tombs, so tormented that chains and shackles...
No. 3781 Luke 24:1-5
At early dawn the women come to the tomb with their spices, expecting to tend a body, and instead they find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. As they stand perplexed, two men in dazzling clothing ask...
No. 3794 Luke 22:47-53
In the garden, Judas approaches to betray Jesus with a kiss, a sign of friendship turned into the mark of treachery, and Jesus meets it with a piercing question: Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a...
No. 3807 Luke 18:15-20
A prosperous ruler comes to Jesus with an earnest question: Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus responds first by testing the man's easy use of the word good: why do you call me good?...
No. 3810 Luke 3:23-38
Luke traces Jesus' family line backward, generation by generation, not stopping at Abraham as Matthew's genealogy does, but going all the way back through David and Abraham to Noah, to Seth, to Adam, the son...
No. 3815 Luke 1:26-33
The angel Gabriel comes to a young woman in an obscure town with an announcement that will change the world: Mary will conceive and bear a son, Jesus, who will be great, the Son of the Highest, given the...
No. 3841 Luke 12:29-34
Jesus addresses the anxiety that gnaws at us over the basic needs of life, what we will eat, what we will wear. He does not dismiss the needs as unreal, but reorders them: your Father knows that you need these...
No. 3846 Luke 19:15-19
In this part of the parable of the minas, a nobleman returns as king and calls his servants to account for the money he had entrusted to them. Two faithful servants have put their master's money to work and...
No. 3870 Luke 21:7-18
Jesus warns his disciples about the troubled times ahead, wars, disasters, and persecution, and tells them not to be terrified or led astray by those who claim the end has come. Then he turns to their own...
No. 3880 Luke 1:39-45
Mary hurries to the hill country to visit her relative Elizabeth, and the moment she arrives and greets her, the baby in Elizabeth's womb, John the Baptist, leaps for joy, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy...
No. 3907 Luke 23:20-25
Pilate, convinced of Jesus' innocence, tries three times to release him, but the crowd, stirred by the chief priests, shouts him down, demanding crucifixion, and their voices prevail. And so a startling...
No. 3936 Luke 6:6-11
In the synagogue on the Sabbath, Jesus sees a man with a withered hand, and he knows the scribes and Pharisees are watching, hoping to catch him healing on the Sabbath so they can accuse him. Rather than avoid...
No. 3975 Luke 15:25-32
The parable of the prodigal son does not end with the younger son's return; it turns to the elder brother, and his response is troubling. Hearing the music and dancing of the welcome-home feast, he is angry...
No. 3979 Luke 8:31-39
After Jesus casts the legion of demons out of the tormented man and they rush into the pigs, the townspeople come out and find the man who had been possessed sitting at Jesus' feet, clothed and in his right...
No. 4009 Luke 20:25-33
Cornered with a trick question about whether to pay taxes to Caesar, Jesus asks whose image is on the coin, and gives an answer that has resounded ever since: render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and...
No. 4036 Luke 11:14-20
After Jesus casts a demon out of a mute man, some accuse him of driving out demons by the power of the prince of demons. Jesus exposes the absurdity: a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand; if Satan is...
No. 4080 Luke 1:18-25
When the angel Gabriel announces that the aged, childless Zechariah will have a son, Zechariah responds not with faith but with doubt: how can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in...
No. 4104 Luke 3:18-22
At the baptism of Jesus, before he has performed a single miracle or preached a single public sermon, heaven opens, the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove, and the Father's voice declares: you are my...
No. 4132 Luke 8:1-8
As Jesus traveled through the towns preaching the good news, the twelve were with him, but so were some others often overlooked: certain women who had been healed by Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and...
No. 4142 Luke 8:50-56
Word comes to Jairus that his daughter has died; there is no point troubling Jesus any further. But Jesus, overhearing, speaks a word of quiet strength: do not fear; only believe, and she will be well. He goes...
No. 4152 Luke 23:13-19
Pilate, having examined Jesus, declares him innocent, and not once but repeatedly: I found no guilt in this man; nor did Herod; nothing deserving death has been done by him. Even the Roman governor and Herod,...
No. 4161 Luke 21:25-33
Jesus describes a time of shaking and distress, signs in the heavens, nations in anguish, people fainting with fear at what is coming on the world. And then, at the climax, the Son of Man coming in a cloud...
No. 4197 Luke 19:8-14
Zacchaeus, the wealthy tax collector who had grown rich by cheating, stands before Jesus a changed man. Look, Lord, he says, half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I...
No. 4259 Luke 7:36-40
At a Pharisee's dinner, an unexpected guest appears: a woman known in the town as a sinner. Uninvited, she comes to Jesus, weeping, wetting his feet with her tears, wiping them with her hair, kissing them, and...
No. 4274 Luke 7:1-8
A centurion's beloved servant is dying, and the centurion sends to Jesus for help. But as Jesus approaches his house, the centurion sends word: Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you...