A Year in Luke/ActsNäide

By now, it should hopefully become so clear just how often Luke emphasizes the aspect of Jesus’ ministry which is for the outsider. It seems as if every chapter is steeped with stories of Jesus surprising people, and this chapter is no different! Over the next three days we will look at each of them.

First, a tax collector is compared to a Pharisee in prayer. Shockingly, Jesus declared that it would be the tax collector who would go away justified because of their honest, humble prayer. The last line of this section is a classic:

“for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Second, infants are being brought to Jesus and the disciples “sternly” tell the parents not to do this. Jesus says to let the little children come and says that it is “such as these” that the kingdom of God belongs to.

The message is clear, the kingdom of God belongs to those who are humble and reliant on God.