Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Choosing the apostles was one of the most important things that Jesus could do for His lasting ministry. If the apostles were characterized as super heroes, instead of flawed humans, they would have had little impact on us. These chosen followers of Jesus fell asleep when He asked them to stay awake, jumped to judgement when it was improper to do so, made blow hard promises and didn't back them up, watched miracle after miracle while in the company of Christ and when given the same power by Him had great doubt in themselves and who Jesus was failed them miserably. To top it all off, they all ran away and hid in fear when Jesus was murdered and the critics of the bible attack from the standpoint of saying that 50, 60 or even 90 years passed between the events happening in the new testament and when it was written down. If the apostles were depicted as all knowing and righteous believers who did nothing wrong, making them into perfect intercessors, I would say that such criticism could be valid. Instead, the writers who had all of that time to edit the story of what happened gave us frail people described in the previous sentences. Just who these followers of Jesus were makes a big impact on us and our present day faith.

At the beginning of chapter five, Jesus is preaching on the shore and the crowds were pressing in on Him so that they could hear better. Jesus sees two empty boats and notices that the boats owner, Simon is washing his nets nearby. Now, Simon had to remember that Jesus came to his house and healed his wife's mother, so when Jesus asked him to push the boat out a little so that He could teach to the crowd, he complied. After speaking to the crowds, Jesus told Simon to go out a little further and to lower his fishing nets. Simon responded that he and his crew had been out all night and caught nothing, inside his head he was probably thinking, look - I took you out so that you could speak, I appreciate what you did for my mother-in-law, I'm tired and I want to go to bed after I finish cleaning my nets, but I can't do that because I am out here on a boat with you! That may have been in his head, but what came out of his mouth was compliance as he dropped the nets over the side and found that they were full of fish to the point of breaking.

Fisherman in this period of time were true entrepreneurs who took high risks in their business every day. There were no guarantees of income and all it took was a failure of equipment, manpower or bad weather to ruin your business as there were no government loans designed to bail you out. To purchase boats, nets and other fishing equipment, took money. To hire employees to help you do the business meant that you better be good at what you do or you will go broke. I have always felt that it was and is important that the first people Jesus built his ministry with were business people. He didn't go out and find the lowest person on the social ladder to start with, He began with those who knew how to raise capital, take risks and to get things done all with the eye on them being able to help the less fortunate with their success. The first message He gave them was one of accomplishment and prosperity by filling their fishing nets. We can share that faith daily by having the confidence to take Jesus at His word and lower our nets and expect that they will be full when we pull them up. In the case of the apostles, Simon fell to his knees before Jesus and thanked Him for the bounty and confessed his unworthiness to receive it. We, myself included, receive equal and more than this in our lives and we can't wait to take credit for the skill and cunning it took to accumulate it, bypassing the relation of blessings from God, with that prosperity.

When the business partners of Simon saw the size of their catch they were also amazed. Jesus then told the men that they were going to be part of His ministry and Jesus used the reference of catching men, not fish in the future. With that, the bible says that when they got back to land, they left everything and followed Jesus. As I study this event, I am struck with the realization that those men were just doing their job and along comes a popular preacher who needs their help for a moment and even though they were tired they probably thought that it was pretty cool to have a "back stage" look at what the commotion was all about with this guy. As Jesus was speaking to the crowds from their boat, they were probably thinking, "blah, blah, blah.... boy I can't wait to go home and go to sleep after a lousy night of fishing". Then Jesus tells them that they should drop their nets and they were probably thinking how little this guy knows about fishing and then to their surprise, their nets are full. They could have chocked it up to good luck, said goodbye to the preacher and made plans to sell their catch for the most amount of money and moved on. If this were to happen today, these guys would have bought television and radio time in the middle of the night to sell their " How To Make Millions, Fishing Our Way" DVD's. If they had, Jesus would have probably moved on to another fisherman and these men would have missed the opportunity. Something I would have probably done in that situation would have been to assume that since God gave me this miracle of success that He must want me to be a successful and rich business man and to serve His kingdom in that capacity. Instead, these men chose the day of their greatest material success, a day where all of their positioning and hard work had placed them to catch more fish than they had probably ever caught, they chose that day to leave it all behind and follow Jesus. The lesson that we can take from this example is that we do our job and live our life and the opportunity will come to serve God. It's our duty to recognize the opportunity and do something with it.

The word "leprosy" is derived from the ancient Greek words lepros, a scale, and lepein, to peel. The word came into the English language via Latin and early French. In the Middle Ages, people with Leprosy, would walk along with a bell or a clapper announcing their approach so that others could scatter or give a charitable contribution to the poor unfortunate soul who was afflicted. Those who had leprosy during that time were considered by some to be going through Purgatory on Earth and had somewhat of a spiritual connotation applied to their fate. An effective way to contain the disease was for the isolation of the infected, away from those not afflicted in the form of leper colonies. In terms of the bible's description of leprosy it is possible that it was different from the aforementioned, more modern one and it may have had different symptoms like dry, rough, scaly skin. The term Tzaraath, from the Hebrew bible was, erroneously translated as leprosy and the symptoms were unlike the more modern ailment known as Hansen's disease. In any case, what was translated in the Septuagint as lepra, was probably a bad case of psoriasis, very dry skin or could be describing any disease that produces sores or eruptions on the skin.

I give you that background because the next verse in the bible tells us that Jesus met a man with a bad case of Tzaraath and the man, upon seeing Jesus, bowed down and asked for healing. Jesus healed the man and instructed him to follow Mosaic law and tradition and for him to go to priest in his temple and along with the offering required by the law, present the proof of his healing. The man, being a typical child of God, didn't follow these instructions and told everybody what had happened and pretty soon, Jesus has an enormous crowd following all of the time, listening to His sermons and asking for healing. This account says that Jesus often withdrew from the crowds and went in to the wilderness to pray.

When the man didn't do what Jesus told him to do, it created problems in the religious community and the beginnings of anger against Him by the priests and religious leaders probably started with misunderstandings such as this one. The priest probably heard about the healing through the grapevine and got offended because religious protocol wasn't followed and instead of blaming the man who was healed, for not following Jesus's instructions, they most likely jumped to the conclusion that Jesus was operating outside of the law of Moses and was the enemy. In any case, word of mouth advertising is always considered to be most effective, and now Jesus had large crowds following Him making the religious leaders more anxious as they watched their followers desert them, taking their financial security with them.

Finally, regarding the fact that Jesus would go into the wilderness to pray, it brings two important points home to the believer. The first is an indicator again as to who Jesus was and is. He is God who became human. He walked this earth as a man and ascended into heaven as a man and when we, as believers, see Him in heaven, He will still look like a man. When He took on the human form it came with all of the traits both good and bad and He gave us a perfect example of how we should live our lives. He could have come to earth with anything He wanted in the way of powers and weapons but chose to come as a simple man who only had the weapon of prayer. All through the earthly ministry of Jesus, He gave us the example of prayer to the Father as His only resource to give Himself strength to complete His ministry and this human life. Secondly, Jesus gives us an example of where to pray. He got out of Dodge so to speak and went someplace quiet and spoke to the Father and more importantly listened to what the Father had to say. I have had people tell me that they have never heard God speak to them and my answer to them is that God is probably speaking to them but they can't hear Him because of all of the noise around them. God is not going to yell over the television, radio, Ipod or stereo and we need to go someplace where things are quiet to hear Him. When we follow God's laws regarding tithing, we are to give ten per cent of what God has given us, back to God. He doesn't want what is left over, He wants the best of what we have to offer and if our day consists of fifteen hours of human activity, we should probably be prepared to give Him an hour and a half of prayer and reading time. If we do this in a quiet environment, we will hear Him speak to us.

The author goes on to say that while Jesus was teaching to the crowds, He was shadowed by religious leaders and lawyers. The bible says that they followed Him everywhere and they were undoubtedly making their case against Him based on words that Jesus said and the reaction of the crowds that followed Him. The next point to be made was that Jesus was filled with the power of the Lord and that with this power, He healed the sick and injured. This again is an example of who Jesus was and is as He did not claim to have supernatural powers as a man but instead, drew those healing powers from His Father in heaven.

The next account is that of some men carrying their paralyzed friend on a stretcher to be healed by Jesus and being unable of going through the front door, took him to the roof and lowered the man from the ceiling into the midst of the crowd and Jesus down below. I know that I am weird, but before I can wrap my brain around the concept of the miracle part of this account, I picture myself as being that man on the stretcher. First of all, he didn't have any choice but to go along for the ride and what a ride it must have been. He had to undoubtedly be tied to the litter he was on and I bet things got a little shaky for him as his friends pulled him up the vertical wall and tied rope to that same platform and started lowering him into the crowded room. I do know this, he had great friends who cared enough about him to not give up on him and were willing to do anything in their power to help him get better. The other person that I think about is the owner of the house and what he was thinking as his home is packed to the rafters with people, already giving up on any crowd control and then to his surprise, there are people on the roof taking off the tiles and lowering a paralyzed man through the opening. Try explaining that to your insurance agent.

In regards to the miracle part of this account, the bible says that Jesus saw the faith of all of those involved and He forgave their sins for their effort. He didn't just forgive the sins of the afflicted man but forgave all of his friends too. If you remember, Jesus had this group of religious leaders following Him everywhere and taking notes about everything that he said and they must have blown a gasket when Jesus forgave the sins of these men. Among themselves they were talking in hushed tones thinking that what they just heard was blasphemy, as only God could forgive sins. Jesus addressed them and asked if they thought it was easier to forgive sins or heal the man's body? And before they could answer, He turned to the man and told him to get up and go home because he was healed. Immediately, the man jumped to his feet, picked up his litter and went home praising God. The crowd was then completely freaked out by what they saw, praised God and repeatedly told everyone who would listen that they saw some freaky deaky stuff on that day. How about being a fly on the wall when those religious leaders filed their report with their bosses? There was probably a whole bunch of, He said what...?, He did what...?

We have this vision of Jesus being meek, which He was, except when He faced evil. He undoubtedly took these religious leaders to be enemies of His ministry and showed repeatedly a willingness to confront them when necessary. One of the most important things to know about Jesus is that He never denied being God during His entire earthly ministry. In fact, in the book of John, right after Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes, He told the apostles that He was God. When they heard this, the bible says that many of them left Him, unable to accept His words. The truly amazing thing is that these people were witness to the miracles of His ministry just as those people in that house and still they couldn't accept His deity.

Another thing to think about in regards to the miracle healing of the paralyzed man is the fact that the writer says that after being told to get up, and take his stretcher and go home, he did. The paralysis was one thing but the atrophy of the muscles were quite another. We don't know how long the man was disabled, but we do know that astronauts who experience weightlessness for only a few days can develop decreased muscle tone and loss of calcium in their bodies. If this man was paralyzed for a good portion of his life, his muscles were jello and to stand was one thing and to carry his litter out of the building was quite another. God is very detailed in His miracles and it is up to us to discover and appreciate that detail as it broadens our understanding of who God is.

Moving on in the book of Luke, we read how Jesus called Levi, the tax collector, to be His disciple. Tax collectors were considered to be the lowest level of Jewish society.
In that group were the poor such as orphans and widows, the blind and the crippled as well as the mentally ill. There was another part of this lower level that included prostitutes, sexual deviants, cheats, swindlers and tax collectors. Tax collectors were held with low esteem because they collected the Roman taxes, added a little for themselves and were viewed as traitors against their own people. If you were going to write or edit a story about the messiah and want to encourage belief that He was both man and God, you would not include this account of Levi, the tax collector.

Moving on, the bible says that Jesus went to parties, dinners and banquets with these people. The Pharisees were furious because Jesus accepted these people as they were and that He didn't have dinner with them or court their favor from a social standpoint. The religious and political leaders of that day had too much to lose if they followed Jesus and later on in Luke 7:34 they called Him "a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners". It is no wonder that they were upset with Him because later in the book of Matthew 21:31, Jesus told them that "The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of heaven ahead of you", a statement that no doubt filled them with anger and confusion. When Jesus went on to explain that He came for those who wished to turn from their sinful life and not for those who were convinced that what they were already doing was good enough for salvation, His religious enemies burned and planned how to eliminate this threat to their power and religious existence.

In the final words of chapter five, the omnipresent religious critics of Jesus and His ministry are watching and reporting not only on Him but also His apostles. It really bugged them that these followers of Jesus enjoyed being around the celebrity environment that existed where ever He went. They pointed out to Jesus that the followers of John the Baptist were solemn people who fasted and that the followers of Jesus were always partying and feasting. In Matthew 11:18, Jesus reminds His critics that when John the Baptist didn't drink wine and fasted, they called him "demon possessed" and when it came to Jesus and His disciples who would feast and drink, they were referred to as "gluttonous winebibbers" or "gluttonous drunkards". He pointed out further, that it was impossible to win the hearts of those who judged Him and His followers on a sliding, moving and adjustable scale. This advice is still valid today as we find that people trying to impose non existing religious law seems to be equal in number to the amount of people who are trying to disassemble the valid, relevant word of God.

Jesus went on to explain that the apostles were like guests at a wedding, celebrating with the groom, and that there would be plenty of time to fast after the groom was gone. He also addressed new believers and old believers and made reference to putting new wine in old wineskin or using new cloth to patch an old garment. These references required me to read them over and over so as to understand them. I believe that Jesus is saying that His message is compatible with the old message (new testament and old testament) and even though you may cling to the old, you can accept the new in a progressive manner and it is not necessary see them as some seamless entities.

God is and has been logical in His approach to man. In the old testament, God took an unruly man and put upon him a harsh training schedule, like a boot camp. When a recruit starts boot camp, they are out of step, know nothing about marching, drills or formations and must have an unbelievable set of rigid laws and commands imposed so that they become disciplined and can have a chance to survive in battle. Those rigid and defined guidelines are temporary and designed to change their way of thinking. When the trained soldier is out of boot camp and on the battle field it isn't quite as necessary to have such stringent guidelines, allowing the soldiers to be reasoned with and giving them the opportunity to take what they have learned (the old) and apply it with (the new). Critics and believers alike, apply their time lines, schedules and priorities to God, and God continues to move according to His plan and timeline, much to the consternation of the aforementioned objects of His creation. I saw a bumper sticker one time that summed this point up very well. It said, "I make plans, and God laughs".

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

The Hebrew name for wilderness is midbar which means a "desolate and deserted place" and also "that which is beyond". This refers to a place that is beyond organized settlements, the control of government and traditional civilized norms. In fact the word wilderness originally meant a "place of herding" and may have been pastoral land with plenty of water and vegetation without a lot of people or settlements around. Wilderness was also considered to be a place where evils spirits resided and was for sure a place where bandits hid out.

The bible has multiple examples of prophets and holy men wandering in the wilderness and for that matter a whole nation wandered together for forty years! The prophets went to the wilderness to be tested or tempted so that they could overcome physical and psychological dangers as they were cut off from food and water as well as their community.
In our secular culture we hear references to the wilderness as being a place where we wander in our careers and our personal lives, constantly seeking the right path to success relating to business, family or marriage. In that wilderness arena we are tested and we are able to find out if our instincts and values are the same leaving as they were when we went in.

Luke tells us that Jesus, being full of and being led by the Holy Spirit, went into the wilderness and ate nothing for forty days. It should be noted that Moses and Elijah endured similar fasts before receiving divine revelations from God. If you will visit Exodus 34:28 and 1st Kings 19:8 you will find an account of these fasting events. In the case of Jesus, many critics and believers who don't understand who Jesus was and is, may say, big woop! He's God, how tough would it be for God not to eat for a while? The truth is that the bible tells us that Jesus is God and became man and in this particular case, and many others, He faced the obstacles that we face as humans and did it without super powers or an advantage. I like to think of it like when we hear of a good boss, supervisor or leader that doesn't just tell you what to do, but leads by example and does the task along side you, showing that it can be done in an efficient manner. In this case, Jesus had fasted and prayed for forty days and the devil shows up and tempts Jesus. Just like the devil tempts us at our weakest point, he thought that he had Jesus in a vulnerable position.

According to the bible, the devil prowls the earth like a lion who is looking to pick off the weak and the sick. Despite the power that the devil has in this world, he lacks spiritual vision and he probably wasn't that impressed with the human form that he saw that day. After all, I'm sure that he had tempted countless prophets and holy men and history is full of accounts of these people succumbing to his temptation. The man before him that day may have looked unremarkable to him and at first glance looked weak and emaciated after such a long ordeal. Since the devil can't read our mind but can hear every word that comes out of our mouth it is probable that Jesus said something to himself about being hungry after His fast and the devil thought that he found an opening for attack. The problem was that Jesus may have had physical weakness as a result of the lack of food and water, but He was spiritually strong because and the devil had no idea of His fortified spiritual position.

Using the hunger card, the devil tells Jesus to perform a miracle by turning a rock into a loaf of bread and to add insult to injury pulls the ego card by questioning if Jesus truly is the Son of God anyway. Jesus answered with scripture from Deuteronomy 8:3, saying that man does not live by bread alone but by every word and expression of God. Next the devil took Him to a high mountain and showed Him the kingdoms of the habitable world and offered Jesus dominion over all of it if He would just worship him just once. Luke tells us that Jesus must have been losing patience because He quotes Deuteronomy again (6:13 and 10:20) and tells the devil to get behind Him and if anyone is going to be worshipped, it will be God that is worshipped. Now, up to this point, the devil has questioned whether or not that Jesus is the Son of God and during the third temptation he throws all of that out the window and takes Jesus to the top of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and tells Him that scripture (Psalm 91:11,12) says that if Jesus is the Son of God, He could jump and that the angels would catch Him before He hit the bottom. The bible makes no mention of this, but Jesus probably looked at Satan and probably said or wanted to say something sarcastic like, "Are you a moron, have you been listening to yourself?", but the official response noted by Luke was according to Deuteronomy 6:16, "You will not tempt the Lord your God". Luke tells us that at this point, the devil gave up and quit tempting Him and stood off waiting for a more favorable time to pursue temptation in the future. An important side lesson to be learned by this confrontation is that the devil knew scripture enough to quote it line by line. Proving that even if you know scripture verse by verse, it doesn't make you holy or Godly.

The value of the bible as a blueprint for life seems obvious to me and while there are many reasons for God to maintain His word throughout history, examples of those who did it right and wrong are essential tools to live a successful and Godly life. From the scepticism of Zechariah, the faithfulness of Elizabeth, the example of Mary and Joseph as they submit to God's will, the arrogance of the Roman leaders and their assigned minions as well as the political incorrectness of John the Baptist, all can be used as sign post examples of how to and not to live our lives. We see their reflection in our day to day lives and the lives of others and are struck by the irony that the examples they give are alive and well today and will remain constant in the future.

One of the most telling and shared examples of this kind of biblical lesson is the wilderness adventure of Jesus. Everyone is either currently in a "wilderness" experience or still has the figurative scratch marks and blisters from the last time they went through it. Believers and non believers all this type of experience and if you don't know how to act in this environment, you may never escape it and will be forced to live within it's confines seemingly forever. As I write this book, I am drop dead in the middle of my own wilderness adventure and if I didn't have the example of Jesus to follow, I truly wonder if I make it.

In our lives the devil attacks us at our weakest point whether it be a financial, legal, marital, social or a parent related issue of vulnerability. He doesn't seem to mess with us when everything is going right but when things go south, he makes his presence known by attacking us in what he perceives as our weakest point. He encourages us to question the strategies that we used to put ourselves in a financial bind, or the details that led up to a lawsuit, as to why you deserve to be happily married after all or torment you with the mistakes you have made in regards to your children. If we don't know the word of God that spells out the promises of God, it is at these weak moments that the devil can claim victory over our weakened position.

We live in a world of hybrid Christianity that is all based on the word of God, but twisted to serve man and the devil. By twisting the bible to meet their theology, man and the devil have concocted everything from mild deviations to outright cults, all claiming to be Christian churches. They have managed to take Jesus from His status as God and turned Him into a prophet or holy man and in some cases placed historical figures in his place or designed a false office of high priest, prophet or leader who speaks in binding authority for God in matters of faith. In almost all cases they have managed to place "holy" intercessors between God and man, unsurping the direct contact that God gives us in the bible.
The tragedy to all of this is that people who are hurting and are in the wilderness, are given a false set of religious values to stand on and will not have a fortified spiritual position. Instead of having strength in the word of God, they will see their tithe and offering money go to pay off lawyers for the latest sex scandal, watch their church leaders fight over whether an immoral person has the right to be a church leader or will have to watch the media document the financial ruin of a ministry because the founder and their spouse ransacked the treasury and storehouse, spending the money on every type of vain and sinful endeavor all the while preaching a self serving version of God's message.

When you are in that spot of vulnerability and the devil is hunting you, it is not just enough to have your spiritual weapon with you if you brought the wrong ammo and if your compass is modified or broken, you can declare a north and south all that you want, but you will always be off course.

After the wilderness temptation and spiritual battle with the devil, Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke tells us that Jesus was getting pretty famous throughout the country as a result of His public teaching. When He came to the village of Nazareth, His boyhood home, Jesus stood up and read from the book of Isaiah and basically outlined His ministry with these old testament words. Acknowledging that the spirit of the Lord was upon Him, he told the crowds that He was appointed to preach the good news to the poor, proclaim that those that are held captive must be released, the blind will see, the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors and finally that the favor of the Lord was upon them. He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the temple assistant and with every eye in the place apparently fixed on Him, told the crowd that scripture was just fulfilled before their eyes. It is an understatement to say that this was a very dramatic moment.

After being stunned by His teaching and speaking complimentary words regarding His message, the crowd began to ask questions like, "isn't this Joseph's son?, "how can he be who he says he is?" Jesus hearing the remarks, commented that the crowd was probably wondering why He performed miracles elsewhere but never in His home town? He answered by telling them that a prophet not accepted in their home town. Because these folks watched Jesus grow up among them, they had a hard time accepting Him as the Messiah. As far as I can tell, Jesus never did perform any miracles in Nazareth.

When I became a Christian at the age of 47, my wife rededicated herself to Christ and my three grown children all accepted Jesus as their Savior. The friends and family who had known me my whole life were and are unconvinced and skeptical of my my new walk even ten years later. They knew me when I was a sinful man operating outside of the influence of God and they just have a hard time believing that the imperfect man that they know could possibly be who he says that he is now. I once stood up at a family reunion and told everyone that I had accepted Jesus as my Savior and that it was important that we all love one another in the same way that Jesus loves us. I should note that this little speech was given after a Catholic mass service conducted by my older cousin who was a priest and attended by everyone at the reunion. After I was done sharing my message, which was not very well presented because I was so choked up looking at the faces of my sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, I sat down to a thundering silence and was looked at like I was a crazy person. It was a good thing that I chose to do this on the last day, just before I left to come home as the mood shifted towards me, although still friendly, but suspicious, like "I always knew that boy wasn't right in the head".

My pastor tells the story of a young man who was addicted to drugs, found Jesus and was delivered from his addiction. This man had stolen money and possessions from his family just so that he could buy drugs to feed his habit, they saw him do horrible and unspeakable crimes in his drug induced fog but when he announced that he had become a Christian, his mother said that she would rather he stay on drugs if that was the price of his cure. I try to remember always, that whatever life throws at me and as disappointing as it can be at times, our Lord and Saviour experienced it all before me and gave me a perfect example on how to adjust to it all.

As Jesus went on to speak to the crowd about why He performed no miracles in Nazareth and compared His situation to Elijah who was sent to minister to an unlikely widow or to heal a Syrian instead of Jewish leaders who were also in need of healing, the crowd became furious. The mob jumped up and took Jesus to the edge of the city and intended on killing Him by throwing Him down the hill, but Jesus slipped away and left them standing there, confused.

There is a recent example that can help illustrate the importance of what Luke is telling us here. Martin and Gracia Burnham were missionaries in the Philippines and were held captive by Abu Sayyaf, a guerrilla group linked to the Al-Qaeda terror network. During their 376 day hostage dilemma, the couple were beaten, starved and threatened with death constantly. When they were told by their captors that they were about to be killed, Martin told them that while the person who was threatening was capable of killing them, it would be God's choice when they would die. Martin was killed during the rescue operation by Philippine special forces and Gracia was wounded in the leg, a wound that she did recover from and is still involved in missionary work. Man may be the instrument but God knows the day and like the example of Jesus in this chapter in Luke, the crowd would have their day, but just not that day.

Having your neighbors and boyhood friends want to throw you off of the nearest cliff would make any of us want to get out of the town we grew up in. Jesus chose to leave Nazareth and move to Capernaum, a village situated on the edge of the Sea of Galilee with a population of about 1500 people who were fishermen, farmers, artisans, merchants and publicans. The people of Capernaum were a homogeneous lot who, judging by the excavations that have been done, seemed to live a life without strident economical inequality. In other words, no one seemed to be showing off with a opulent life style and it appears that all of the classes got along well. In fact, it was such a laid back place that, the locals got along well with the Romans who were stationed there at the military outpost. The fact that there was a Roman contingent stationed there indicated that Capernaum had some strategic value to Herod Antipas and his government. Because this town was located on the Beth-shan or Damascus highway, visitors came and went with ease offering the opportunity for the Herod to pick up scuttlebutt and rumors, the foundational mortar needed to build a wall of reason to attack your enemies or limit your allies. I have read the opinion of several biblical scholars that feel that the Centurion, a Roman military leader who commanded a contingent of 80 to 160 soldiers, featured in the seventh chapter of Luke who asked Jesus to heal his servant, was the same Centurion who built a synagogue for the Jewish population of Capernaum. By the way, the ruins of that building are still there today as the second synagogue was built upon the foundation of the first.

Whereas Nazareth was a mountainous and isolated hamlet, well off the beaten path, Capernaum's location allowed Jesus a twofold advantage as far as His messianic activity was concerned. First, because it was on a main road, the message of Jesus was able to travel great distances quickly. Secondly, the population was open minded, energetic and almost 100% Jewish believers who understood the scriptures quoted by Jesus and could relate the teachings to their lives. Thirdly, Capernaum was sufficiently apart from the big cities like Tiberius where Herod had established his capital and Jesus could work "under the radar" so to speak without raising early suspicion or incurring immediate official oversight. The original name for Capernaum was, Kefar Nahum which has been interpreted through history as "the village of consolation" and the "the beautiful city" but was probably just the name of the first person who settled there. In any case, this community was commercially linked in a prominent way to the northern regions of upper Galilee, Golan, Syria, Phoenicia, Asia Minor and Cyprus and was considered to be a vital hub of business, art and politics in its day.

The fishing along the 8 km of shoreline, even to this day is bountiful and it is possible that the abundance of fish on this side of the lake is what drew Peter and his brother Andrew to leave their hometown of Bethsaida to set up their fishing business in Capernaum. It should also be mentioned that James and John were also fisherman who may have been drawn to the good fishing conditions. Agriculture was highly developed, proven by the modern day excavations of olive presses, grinding stones for wheat and cereals, mortars, stone bowls and craters etc. There was a strong manufacturing base in the town also, as the aforementioned tools were probably manufactured there along with a variety of glass vessels. It was because of this manufacturing base that drew tax collectors like Matthew who was drawn to Capernaum by a different type of abundance, tax money.

Lastly, I would like to point that Capernaum, is one of the three cities cursed by Jesus for its lack of faith and by the time just prior to the Jewish revolt of 135 A.D., and because a majority of the Jewish population accepted Jesus as the Messiah and were known as Minim's, there was heavy religious condemnation passed down on the town by the Jewish leaders against "the sons of Capernaum". Minim's challenged the fundamental dogmas of Judaism and its whole ritual life. The religious leaders held minim on a level equal to pagans and instituted laws prohibiting commerce and certain interrelationships with them. Later on the religious leaders outlawed the writings of the early Christians declaring that Torah scrolls or texts with divine names copied by Christians had no sanctity and the Gospels that must have been widely circulated at this point, would have also been outlawed. Those religious leaders were incensed with the idea that the Jewish people would accept the teachings of Jesus and a notation in Jewish scripture (Midrash Qoh Rabba 1:8) details how even a sect Rabbi named Hanina had a "spell" worked on him by the wicked one (i.e.Jesus) and later in the same scripture (Midrash Qoh Rabba VII:26) cursed Capernaum and referred to the population as "bad". This small town was the starting point of the Christian faith and a precursor to all future societies that had its values based on Christ and His teachings and later watched those values dissipate over time.

In Capernaum, Jesus taught in the synagogue and Luke writes that Jesus confronted a demon possessed man who began yelling at Him during the sermon. The demon screamed that it knew who Jesus was and started to tell Him to go away. Jesus cut the demon off in mid sentence and, told it to shut up and leave the man and the wicked entity did as it was told. The crowd that was watching all this were amazed that this rabbi had the power to tell evil spirits to flee and that they obeyed. The bible says that this account in the synagogue spread like wildfire throughout the whole region. It should be noted that this synagogue can be seen today if you were to visit Capernaum as its remains were used as a foundation for the existing that was built on top of it. Jesus had a vibrant healing ministry in Capernaum where He healed the mother in law of Simon (later named Peter) in his home by breaking her high temperature and fever. Jesus had people touch His hand and they were healed and with a word from Him, evil spirits went out of them. The interesting thing about the healing ministry of Jesus Christ is that He was (and is) God, walking the earth as a man, having no divine powers in His human body and was able to heal because the Father provided the healing power and used the human body of Jesus to deliver it. It is difficult for me to understand why God would love us so much so as to put a part of Himself at risk for us. It took me a long time to get it through my thick head to see Jesus in this way as I always wanted to view Him as God who kept all His powers as He walked as a man during His earthly ministry. When Jesus healed, He gave us the example of faith in the Father and the example of our equally inherited ability to heal in the same manner. Because we have allowed religion to build walls between the gifts that God has given us and their daily use, we don't exercise these inherited spiritual muscles and they wither away.

Luke then tells us that Jesus went out into the wilderness and the crowds searched for Him and when they found Him, they begged Him not to leave again. Jesus told them that He was called to preach the Good News everywhere and that He had to move on. These sentences helped to prove to me that Jesus was, who He said He was. If He was just a charasmatic religious leader just starting out, He would have stayed and worked the locals a little bit more. Maybe hustle a little money from them, talk them out of a beach house and a boat perhaps or at least consolidate His power base before moving on. Instead, Jesus pursued His ministry throughout the countryside and visited temples and synagogue's throughout Judea which if you will remember was included, by the Romans, within the province of Syria and governed by a procurator - Pontius Pilate being the most well known.

It should be noted, that in my research regarding this book of Luke, throughout time there has been a constant drone of negativity regarding the historical facts connected to Jesus's ministry and the bible in general. For centuries, naysayers wrote at length about Capernaum and the physical places mentioned by Luke and how they did not exist. My first question that came to mind when I found this was, why do you care? What is the value of denying that Jesus was and is who He says He is? I have read nothing about the discussion of the existence of Muhammad or Confucius or where they taught and if the geography matched their spiritual movement. I did come across lively discussions on the internet regarding the reasons that these men existed as historical figures but the true venom and nasty discussion was associated to the existence of Jesus. The reason I believe that the name of Jesus gets the enemies of God riled up is because of who He was and is and the redemptive message of His ministry. You can visit Capernaum and see the house that Jesus healed the mother in law of Peter, stand in the synagogue that was built on top of the one that Jesus taught in or view the ruins of the Roman outpost commanded by the Centurian who asked for healing, from Jesus, for his servant. These places exist and like the details of Jesus's ministry will be denied by the unbeliever with great energy.

Chapters Two and Three

Chapter Two

Luke writes that a decree went out from the Roman emperor, Augustus, that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire and that Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to fulfill this lawful obligation. Critics of the bible from a historical standpoint have a field day pointing out perceived historical inconsistencies related to this account. If you will Google this subject, you will find a lively debate. Those critical of Luke's account point out that there is no written historical accounting of a census ordered at this time in history, that Joseph was not a Roman citizen (therefore exempt from a census obligation) and Mary would never have gone with him because women had no legal status per say, and it wasn't important enough to count how many women were in the kingdom. From a social standpoint, these same critics point out that if Joseph was going back to his home town he would in accordance with middle eastern custom, would have stayed at the home of a relative no matter how distant. He would have never looked for a rented room at an inn mainly because Bethlehem was off the beaten path so to speak and only had a population of around 1,000 people at the time and probably didn't have an inn.

History points out that counting people and collecting information about the population goes back to the Egyptians who used this information to build the pyramids and to appropriate land following the annual flooding of the Nile. In fact, the Romans were big believers in keeping track of its people, specifically because it enabled them to maximize their tax revenue from a far flung empire. Those critics of the historical value of Luke's account also point out that there are no written accounts of many of the day to day business functions of the Roman government so they have no written or substantial proof that such a census did not happen when Luke said it did.

Why is all this conjecture important to believers and non believers? The simple answer is that by being born in Bethlehem, the Messiah fulfilled the old testament prophecy in Micah, Chapter 5:2. In this verse, the bible points out that the "ruler of Israel" will come from this small village. The reason that the enemies of the word try to pick apart this part of the bible is because of this foundational fact, if you disprove that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, you disprove Him as the Messiah. I find this interesting that people who don't believe in the veracity of the bible, attempt to use that very bible to disprove it and by removing this linchpin foundational belief, they believe that they remove who Jesus is. It is also very interesting that these enemies know the bible better than most of the faithful.

It should also be noted that many of these critics focus only on Jesus and avoid other religious icons and base religious beliefs. It is difficult to find passionate disbelievers of other faiths and the related miraculous events in that religion. The simple reason for this is Jesus Himself. Religions that acknowledge Him such as Islam, Mormonism and Jehovah Witnesses only do so from the standpoint of His stature as a prophet who was not God but instead a religious creation of God. Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses use their limited recognition of Jesus as a marketing ploy to attract uninformed believers who don't know what the bible says about who Jesus is. Mormons reject what they call creed influenced accounts of Jesus as being tainted by man but will accept the creed and interpretation of the bible according to Joseph Smith. Muslims believe in the virgin birth, they believe that Jesus was a human prophet and as with all of the other human prophets, must be revered and they believe that he performed miracles while on this earth. Followers of Islam do not believe that Jesus died on the cross or that the Trinity exists or that in any shape or form that Jesus is God. I would like to know just how the understanding of who Jesus is got so complicated?

In the book of John, Jesus tells His disciples that they believe (in Him) because they have seen Him and those that will follow and believe without seeing Him will be blessed because they believe based on faith. We can secure our faith in Jesus through the account in the bible of how the apostles changed after seeing and interacting with the risen Christ. They went from spineless, stressed and unsure followers of a now dead spiritual leader to powerful men of God who all suffered (with the exception of John) horrible, lonely and singular deaths. If Jesus wasn't who He said He was, and these men were part of some huge farce, one of them would have broke and confessed that it was all a joke. That man would have been cleaned up, wounds treated and carted around for his whole life speaking to everyone who would listen about what a phony Jesus was. The truth is that we would be reading the accounts of that person's testimony today as it would be included in the words of the detractors of the bible but the reality is that all of those bold believers praised God through the Son up until and including their deaths.

Getting back to Luke, I think that Joseph was glad to get out of his hometown and go to Bethlehem. No doubt that people being people from a small town like Nazareth, asked a lot of questions about Mary and her pregnancy. Even though Joseph knew what the truth was, the angel didn't explain things to his neighbors and relatives for him and they were left to their own conclusions. No, he and Mary were probably glad to get out of Dodge for a little while and figured why not go stay with distant relatives who didn't have so many questions? It was during this time that Mary gave birth to her first son, wrapped Him snugly in strips of rags and laid Him in a manger. This is a very real description of the times and customs as the manger was part of the main living quarters for the family and the animals who had real monetary value ate in the center of the home.

In regards to the criticism of Luke's writings from a historical standpoint, we have a choice of either accepting the written account of a believing eyewitness to the miraculous ministry of Jesus Christ or to believe the doubtful word of a person who wishes to dilute the legacy of Jesus Christ through the filtered interpretation of history. I know this for a fact, if you doubt who Jesus is you will have plenty of company but if you believe that He is the son of God, you will have no doubt that the bible is the true word of God. If you have doubts, doubt your doubts.

After the account of the birth of Christ, Luke tells us that an angel appeared to the shepherds in the field and again we find that they were terrified when it happened. Shepherding is one of the oldest professions that dates back over 6,000 years. Those who did this work were usually children or the elderly and almost always the offspring of a poor farming peasant class that had little or no status or standing in society. Working for wages in most instances, this solitary profession was practiced in rugged and mountainous areas of Israel and Greece. The angel told them of the birth of Jesus, told them where He was and after revealing the armies of heaven all praising God, the angels returned to heaven. It was then that the shepherds went to find Jesus for themselves and after doing so went and told everyone what had happened as they returned to their flocks praising God.

In effect, these people who were probably young, poor and part of a disenfranchised segment of society became the first Christian evangelists. Surely if a revisionist writer were to be documenting this account of the birth of the Messiah, he or she would have picked a locale that made more sense and the first evangelists to be more important people of society. The fact is that this is how God did it all through the whole earthly ministry of Jesus as He used those people who responded to the call without concern for their status among people.

Luke then tells us that in accordance with the law of Moses, the baby Jesus was presented as the first son of Joseph and Mary in the temple. They offered a sacrifice of two young pigeons or turtledoves to fulfill the Jewish law of the time. Imagine the priest in the temple that day, going about the business of his official work, taking the child of these two and obviously poor Galileans dressed in the humblest of garments and lifting up their child before the altar and inscribed the name "Jesus" on the roll of the first born. Little did he realize that he held the babe that Moses wrote about as "A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever He shall say unto you" The priest didn't see the this babe as He whose glory Moses asked to see and the fact that this infant who was greater than Moses lay in the priests arms; and when he was enrolling the name of the One who was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy. The name of this child was to be the death warrant for the system of sacrifices and offerings that had existed from the time of Moses until then. How many times does God put the spectacular in our hands and mind and we fail to recognize it as such?

In His word, God never seems to fail to add an exclamation point to the prophetic obvious. In this case, the affirmation came in the form of Simeon and Anna. Simeon was apparently a devout lay person who lived near the temple and under the influence of the Holy Spirit went to see the baby Jesus and to pray over Him. Recognizing the child to be the Messiah who was to come to rescue Israel, Simeon felt that God had delivered on the promise to allow him to see the Messiah and that he could now die knowing that the prophecy was true. As Simeon was praying over Jesus, Anna was also in the temple. She had been widowed for some time and spent all of her time in the temple, worshipping God. After seeing the infant, she went to spread the word of the birth of the rescuer of Israel.

God seems to use a wide cast of characters all through the bible to confirm His word and events. In the case of Simeon, who according to tradition in the Eastern Orthodox Church was one of the seventy two translators of the Septuagint, a translated document written in Koine Greek of the old testament between the 3rd and 1st century BC in Alexandria. "Septuaginta" means "seventy" in Latin indicating the seventy two Jewish scholar - translators. Tradition tells us that Simeon, during the performance of his translation duties, was struck by the prophetic words of Isaiah regarding the Messiah and as he lingered over the translation of Isaiah 7:14 ("Behold, a virgin shall conceive...") an angel appeared to him and told him that he would not die until he had seen the Christ born of a virgin. This would have made him well over two hundred years old at he meeting described in the book of Luke.

It should be noted that the language of Koine Greek was used in that translation and interpretation. It is believed that the language was written by Alexander the Great for the practical purpose of giving concise and correct direction to his army in the heat of battle. Alexander's armies were made up of people who spoke many different languages and if soldiers were told to advance or turn right as a group, precise commands that could not possibly be misunderstood, were essential. Thus the language of this important translation was made up of that concise and clear language. I find it amazing how God works with man for the betterment of His kingdom. Out of all the accomplishments of the young Macedonian king, this Hellenic language was his most enduring achievement and was a natural choice for the transmission of the "Good News" of Jesus Christ, by His disciples as it was the common language of the Roman Empire at that time and because of its precise nature, allowed for a flawless interpretation of God's word to be shared with the masses.

In regards to Anna, this is what is known. She was the daughter of Phanuel whose old testament name meant "the face or appearance of God" and a descendant of the tribe of Asher. Luke also tells us that she was a prophetess, a designation given because she may have been the wife of a prophet, she may have prophesied herself or was just given that name by Luke himself. The bible says that she was very old, either 84 years old or she has been a widow for 84 years, in either case she spent a long time in widowhood as she was married for only seven years of her life. She was free to marry again after her husband died but instead chose to devote her life to God while serving in the temple. This patient woman who fasted and worshipped God daily, trusted that same God for her every need and served that same God with patience and self control and was guided to the place to be a confirming witness to who the son of God was and is.

The enemies of Christianity, both subtle and overt, point out the many failings of the social customs that Christians participated in during biblical times. They fail to recognize how God handled things and how His actions validate the truthfulness of the bible. If the bible was a loose interpretation of the social views of the writer alone, it would have been written to reflect the times and how society viewed the characters in the bible. No writer of this period would give importance to a woman or assign her authority to be a witness to this great event. All through the bible great women of God are documented including Miriam, Deborah, Ruth etc... If it was a contemporary writer in charge of editing and not God Himself, Anna would have been replaced by another male character to stand along with Simeon. And if a woman was mentioned in this story she sure wouldn't have been a widow simply because a woman of that social station would have no influence for the intended reader. It is in these details that we are able to build our faith stone by stone in the veracity and truthfulness of the bible.

The next part of Luke's account of the life of Jesus details a time where He became separated from His mother and father on their return home from Jerusalem after the feast of Passover. Luke tells us that as a youngster, Jesus was strong and filled with wisdom and when they back tracked their journey, they found Jesus listening and asking questions of the teachers in the temple. They asked Him why He had eluded them and He answered that He was going about His Fathers business in His Father's house and basically, what's the problem? We apparently had a bunch of confused adults, the teachers were startled by the boy's questions and answers and Joseph and Mary, who were concerned for their lost son, had no idea what His answer meant and we read that they just went home and that He was obedient to them.

It took me a long time to get a grasp on just who Jesus was and is. I don't claim to have every answer but here is the bare bones outline. He is God who became man, He was a human being made of flesh and bone and as God, had everything, but gave it all up to experience being a human. It is a total case of immersion reduction so as to rescue you and I from a sin and a fate that we were incapable of saving ourselves from. He felt hunger, pain, loneliness, temptation, joy, sorrow and rejection like any other person living on this earth. He was and is the only perfect and sinless person to walk as a human being. That sinless behavior and example was achieved without any special powers of determination brought with Him or given to Him. Any powers that He exhibited in His life came from the Father, a fact that He repeatedly tells all who would and will listen. As a human being, Jesus knew friendship, studied and learned (as in this example) from religious leaders, went to social gatherings where He enjoyed food and wine as well as the company of close friends. All of the good and bad of our lives was experienced by our Lord and Saviour and currently He is in heaven, reclaiming His position as God, the Alpha and the Omega.



Chapter Three

In chapter three, Luke introduces us to the ministry of John The Baptist and gives us some timeline references in the form of historical figures. The first mentioned is Tiberius who was a Roman emperor, A.D. 14-37, during Jesus' adulthood and crucifixion. He is also mentioned again in Luke as well as the books of Mark, Matthew and John. Tiberius was preceded by the emperor Augustus and followed by Caligula and died three or four years after Jesus, murdered at the age of seventy seven. He was recognized as one of Rome's greatest generals responsible for the foundational building of the Roman Empire in the northern frontier. He oversaw campaigns throughout what is now Poland, Switzerland and victory over the very people who hundreds of years later invaded and conquered Rome, the Germanian's.

Tiberius was known as a tristissimus hominum, the gloomiest of men who never really wanted to be emperor. He exiled himself from Rome after the death of his son and left the administration of the government in the hands of his assistants who misused their power, murdered and plundered to get in positions of power (including the murder of the son of Tiberius, a real piece of work known as Julius Caesar Drusus) and were either executed for their crimes or committed suicide before they got caught. After the death of Tiberius, Caligula, who was the adopted grandson of Tiberius and rumored to be the very one who smothered the emperor as he slept, accepted the powers of the Principate conferred by the Senate and entered Rome as the crowd hailed him as "our baby" and "our star". The people loved him like a rock star and one account says that over one hundred sixty thousand animals were sacrificed during the three month party to usher in his reign. During his tenure as emperor, Caligula reduced taxes, built roads and many buildings, literally turned his palace into a whore house and almost bankrupted the Roman empire. A big part of the problem relating to people accepting Jesus as the Messiah, then and now, is found in the historical sketches that are drawn of emperors, kings and powerful public leaders that existed and exist. Jesus didn't act like any king before Him as He didn't conquer earthly principalities, wage war against human armies or accumulate worldly treasures. He simply came from heaven and engaged spiritual principalities that if they had any idea what He was really up to, would have never allowed their minions to murder Him and allow Him to have victory over death and devil himself.

The next person listed is Pilate who was the governor over Judea. As governor, he was responsible for the collection of taxes and was considered to be the emperor's personal financial agent who supervised the local authorities in this endeavor, as well as the publicans or private tax collectors. In his official role, he could mint coins and negotiate with wealthy institutions like the Temple in Jerusalem that could advance the money needed. The governor took the roll as a public accountant who inspected the books and supervised large scale building projects and public works projects. He commanded an army of auxiliary troops, a force that was small compared to other more important provinces, but he had the power to call on his superior, the governor of Syria for backup if things got out of hand. The only problem with this part of the story is that during the first six years of Pilate's tenure as governor, he didn't have a superior in Syria to back him up or to oversee his performance. For whatever reason, this governor of Syria was called to Rome during this time and he died in the year 33. As governor, Pilate also also involved the courts in Judea as he was considered the province's supreme judge and appeal to his judgements required a journey to Rome which wasn't very practical at all.

Pilate took money from the Jewish holy ministry and spent it on the construction of an aqueduct designed to bring water into Jerusalem. This riled up the Jewish people and when they would gather to protest his actions. Pilate had his troops dress in traditional Jewish clothing and would give them the "high sign" at the height of the crowds frenzy and thereby ending the uprising as the troops would drop their disguises and beat the protesters. The interesting thing about this whole incident is that technically, Pilate didn't do anything wrong as the money that he used was earmarked for social welfare and public works projects. Historians believe that the problem was that Pilate took the initiative and the religious leaders in the province didn't, and the end result was that they didn't get the proper credit for the project, so they were upset and complained.

Pilate served an unusually long tenure of ten years as governor covering the whole active ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus and the infamous action that he took during that period seemed to appear to him to be of small importance even though history views those actions as more severe. His rule came to an end when he overreacted to an uprising in Samaria killing a great many people who Pilate thought were going to undermine him and his authority. The survivors appealed to Pilate's boss in Syria and he was sent to Rome to answer charges for the mistakes made during his administration but before he could appear before the emperor, Tiberius died.

From an official historical standpoint, Pilate at this point falls off of the map and the last written account of him says that he had fallen into great misfortune under Caligula and eventually committed suicide. Legend tells us that his body was thrown into the Tiber river but that the waters were so disturbed by evil spirits that the body was moved two times with the same results and eventually was sunk into a deep lake in Switzerland. An interesting side note to this is that the Abyssinian Church recognizes Pilate as a saint along with Claudia Procula, his wife because they believe that they accepted Christianity and the Greek Church assigned a feast day for Pilate's wife due to her attempted intercession on behalf of Jesus. In any case, this man stood at a crossroads of history and probably never understood, that what he saw as common events, were far more important than they appeared to be.

The next historical figure mentioned at the beginning of the third chapter of Luke is Herod Antipas. This ruler was the son of Herod the Great who ruled through Rome and Augustus himself. He was a despicable historical figure who murdered his wives, sons and other members of his family on a whim. Augustus was quoted as saying, "It would be better to be Herod's pig than to be his son". Herod the Great was an agressive builder of public works projects and building including Herod's Temple, that history records as a marvelous achievment. After the Temple was built, Herod the Great placed hugh Roman eagles over the entrance doors infuriating the pious Jews. A group of Torah students smashed them and Herod had them hunted down, drug in chains to his residence in Jericho, and burned alive. He murdered forty six leading members of the Sanhedrin, the rabbinical court and kept one of them alive where he pushed a crown of porcupine quills on the man's head, blinding him. As a result of his interference, the Temple hierarchy became corrupt. The Sadducees, a religious group of the wealthy,who collaborated with the Romans in order to keep their power base, now controlled the Temple, much to the chagrin of the Jewish majority, the Pharisees, and the extreme religious minority, the Zealots.

It is believed that Herod the Great died of a cancer like infection and shortly before his death had his most logical heirs to the kingdom, Aristobulus and Antipater executed because he did not want them to rule and designated his other sons, Herod Antipas and his stepbrother, Philip as his successors. It is recorded that Herod the Great died a painful death and that it was unlikely that his subjects mourned or missed him at all.

Back to Herod Antipas and Philip. After Herod died, these two brothers along with another brother by the name of Archelaus traveled to Rome to have their fathers will verified by Augustus. Since none of these heirs were Herod's first choice to succeed him and since he killed his favorite potential heirs, these survivors made their case before the emperor. Augustus made a few changes to the will and guided by what was good for the Roman empire, designated Antipas and his half brother Philip to share the power over the kingdom and Archelaus got the short end of the stick and was later deemed incompetent by Augutus and replaced by a prefect, he was denied the title of king and forced to accept the lessor designation of a ethnarch. After all this drama, Philip was put in charge of Iturea and Traconitis, Antipas was to rule over Galilee. It should be noted that Luke mentions an additional ruler by the name of Lysanias who had jurasdiction over a part of the kingdom known as Abilene but I found very few mentions of him in secular historical research information.

Herod Antipas ruled for forty-two years and when he took over, he realized that he inherited an uneasy political situation. While he was in Rome, pleading his case before Augustus, dissidents attacked the palce of Sepphoris in Galilee, abscounding with weapons and money and proceeded to go on a crime spree throughout the kingdom. The Roman governor of Syria counterattacked and burned the town of Sepphoris down and sold all of the inhabitants as slaves. In the middle of this revolutionary mood, Antipas decided to follow his father's example and became a builder. He started in Sepphoris, rebuilding and fortifying it, and later built important stadiums, palaces, public buildings and sanctuaries for prayer. His first wife was Phasaelis, a daughter of a neighboring king and after divorcing her, married Herodias who was the wife of his half brother, Philip. After an unusually long sixty year period of rule, Antipas was exiled by Caligula to Lugdunum in Gaul where he was followed in death by his wife.

The names Annas and Caiaphas are also mentioned by Luke and they were the high priests of their geographical area at the time. Apparently, Annas, the father in law of Caiaphas, was the real power behind the scene. They belonged to the Sadducean aristocracy who were known to be arrogant, astute, very wealthy and ambitious and their families were very well known for their greediness. They seemed to acquire their wealth through the sale of required sacrifice material such as sheep, doves, wine and oil required to be used by the faithful at the temple. During the great feasts they were able to extort high prices for their goods because they had a monopoly on them. Because of their actions they were denounced in the Talmud (Pes 57a) "Woe to the family of Annas! Woe to the serpant like hisses" and by Jesus in the book of Mark (Mark 11:15-19) when He called them out as those who turned the house of prayer into "a den of robbers". I tell you this, the Godfather, all of the Mafia and Tony Soprano had nothing on these folks. In fact, later we will find that secular writers of this time period reflect that Annas himself had the most responsibility for the death of Jesus above Caiaphas and even Pilate. We find that Annas is mentioned several times in the New Testament and was present at the meeting of the Sanhedrin after Pentacost when Peter and John defended themselves for preaching the gospel of the resurrection (Acts 4:6).

Luke now turns his attention to the ministry of John the Baptist who Luke describes as a person who is living in the wilderness. Secular scholars and experts believe that Luke was embellishing the relationship between Jesus and his cousin. In fact, these experts believe that this account of Luke was designed for the convenience of the young Christian church. I don't know about you, but I have gone camping for several days and when I got home I really couldn't wait to shower and get right with the world, so to speak. Can you imagine this wild man walking out of the woods, hair going everywhere, maybe wearing animal skins and then he starts telling you to get your act together? Secular historians feel that John was a prophet who lived this life of denial and sacrifice as a way of pleasing God, I have a different theory. If you look at the situation, and realize that you have an Emperor who is suffering from depression and was probably murdered by his adopted grandson, throw in a crazy governor of Judea, a wingnut of a king who killed his children and wives on a whim and a group of criminal and religious elitist zealots who controlled the economy and lives of the people, who are you going to call to do the job? In this case God called on an outsider who had no connection to anyone, didn't owe anyone anything and didn't care what they thought of him. He had a clean slate to work with.

It is the rhetorical style that the bible assigns to John, that I love the best. He starts out by calling them what they were, "You brood of snakes!". Anyone else would have had to speak in a more gentile manner because if they didn't the very least that would happen would involve being shunned by the rest of "polite" society, maybe you and your family would be banned from the temple or maybe you or a family member would get hurt or lose their life as a result of your preaching. I believe that God knew what He was doing by calling in someone who had nothing to lose. It is safe to say that John the Baptist came out of left field and the status quo really didn't know what to do with him at first, God's version of "shock and awe" if you will.

John continued to call on the people to avoid the legalism position regarding faith, just because they were sons and daughters of Abraham would not secure them salvation and further more, God was ready with the proverbial ax of His judgement, poised to sever those roots as well as any other metaphysical tree that wasn't bearing good fruit. His continuing message was consistent with the book of Acts as he called on believers to be kind, honest and loving to one another. It was during this period of John the Baptist's ministry that he criticized Herod Antipas for marrying Herodias, his brother's wife. John's candor got him thrown in jail. Herodias was related to Antipas in another way as she was the daughter of one of the sons of Herod the Great, a son who was unfortunatly murdered by his father for purported treason. Even though he murdered their father, Grandpa Herod took a shine to his grandchildren and raised them as his own, including Herodias.

After John went to prison for being critical of the marraige of Herod Antipas and Herodias, Jesus was baptized either by John before he went to prison or by one of John's followers as Luke was mum regarding the details. There has been quite a discussion throughout history as to why Jesus was baptized at all. Unbelievers say that it would have been unnecessary since He was without sin and didn't need baptism, so why do it? My question to that is, He didn't need to become human at all or to die on the cross either?
The truth is that God loves us so much that He became one of us to give us a perfect example of how to live this human life. As man, Jesus was vulnerable to everything that we are and like us, needed the Father's blessing and the infusion of strength and wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit. At this time of baptism, the Father speaks from heaven saying, You are my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with you."

In verse 23 of the third chapter of Luke, we are told that Jesus started His earthly ministry. After that, the geneology of Jesus is detailed and in this case, the geneological line appears to be Mary's and not Joseph's even though Jewish tradition did not recognize the mother in family records like these. Matthew has a similar lineage chart that is designed to reach the Jews while Luke detailed the chart with the Gentile in mind. Luke inserts Joseph's name as the son of Heli when in fact Heli was Mary's father and that Joseph was his son by marraige. Early enemies of Christianity pointed out the discrepencies between Matthew and Luke and wanted to stir doubt about Christ's lineage. It is things like this that help me to understand the truthfulness of the bible as discussion of a topic like this can be understood and if it was written by man, to suit man, this would have been edited a long time ago to avoid perceived bumps in the story line.

Chapter One

Note: This is the third book that I have written. I am posting this book in an unedited format. I make this point because you will notice writing errors as it is a work in progress. After it is completed it will be edited and published in printed book format.

Chapter One -

Just to give you a little background on this book of the bible, Luke is believed to have been a doctor and an educated man who wrote in a higher form of the Greek language. His book was well planned out with a preface, dedication and accounts of sources used. He traveled with the apostle Paul who called him "the beloved physician" and it is believed by some that Luke did much of Paul's writing for him. Luke also wrote the book of Acts and between these two books much of our specific knowledge of Christianity comes from these gospels. Written around 90 A.D. this "social gospel" as it is called because it is part biography, proclamation and theological history tied with social history. Specific to the book of Luke is the birth of John the Baptist, the Christmas story of the shepherds, the parables of the Good Samaritan, the lost sheep and the prodigal son and both Acts and this book account for a quarter of the New Testament.

Now, those who do not believe in the bible, point to the time lag between the end of the ministry of Jesus and the first written account of what He accomplished. These critics say that too much time may have passed and the authors may have embellished their writings. While some may have problems with the word of God for this reason, they seem to have no problem with books written on secular history that are written thousands and hundreds of years after the fact. I believe that the reason that the new testament books were written 60 and 70 years after the fact is because the writers were involved in ministry, doing what God called them to do and as they approached an advanced age they decided to write an account of their work. Another reason is that they were living in that historical time with people who had a fresh accounting of details and facts and books like Luke and Acts were written to give an accounting for future generations. After all, a majority of the new testament was made up of letters of encouragement and correction, written by Paul, to the Christian churches of his day. In the very beginning, Luke states that he is writing a careful summary to reassure the reader of the truth that we are taught.

As stated in the introduction, Luke opens with the birth of John the Baptist. Like other times in the bible, God uses the impossible situation, in this case the infertility of Elizabeth, who was old and barren and without child. From an economic standpoint, not having children meant that you had no one to take care of you in your old age. Since there were no government programs to fund a retirement, your sole source of protection and support in your old age came from your children. From a social standpoint, not being able to bear children was considered to be an example of God's disfavor and without a doubt those around Zechariah and Elizabeth must have wondered what they had done wrong to have been so cursed. Luke tells us that both Elizabeth and Zechariah were righteous in God's eyes and that they were careful to obey all of God's commandments and regulations.

Once a year, Zechariah would leave Elizabeth and walk to Jerusalem and would perform his duties in the temple with the other priests. He lived at the temple for a week lighting candles, burning incense, participating in the sacrifices. Each morning all of the priests would cast lots to see what their duties were that day and on this day Zechariah drew the prize that everyone else lived for, the lighting of the incense in the sanctuary just outside of the holy of holies, at days end. This duty was so special that a priest was limited to being able to do it just once in his life and most priests were never fortunate enough to do it at all in their whole life. When a priest performed this duty he would know that a large gathering of worshipers were gathered outside to watch the incense rise up to God and they would pray while breathing in the wonderful fragrance that came from the house of worship. And after the priest performed his duties in the temple he would emerge and bless the awaiting crowd. It was in the middle of this once in a lifetime experience that destiny visited Zechariah in the form of the angel Gabriel.

When the angel Gabriel appeared to him, the bible describes that he was overwhelmed with fear. I think that would be an understatement as the angel tells Zechariah that he will have a son who will be "great in the eyes of the Lord". "He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah, the prophet of old and he will precede the coming of the Lord, preparing for his arrival". While this was processing in his head, Zachariah did what most of us seem to do when we are on the spot, we ask a dumb question. His was, "How can I know this will happen? I am old and in case you haven't noticed, so is my wife?" Now, this was a logical question, but given the fact that you are talking to an intimidating angel of God, in the temple, and he is telling you good news you might just want to say "thanks" and leave. But no, the words were out there and Zechariah, I'm sure knew he goofed up when he heard the angel tell him, "since you don't believe me, you will not speak until after the child is born and my words come true at the proper time".

So, now our man, Zechariah, wins the spiritual lotto of his day and knows that right after he is done with his duties that he will be able to walk out and bask in his fifteen minutes of fame, share a few pearls of wisdom with the adoring crowd maybe give a few autographs but instead his world is turned upside down and he can't speak to anyone at all. The bible says that he was unable to confer the blessing and when he emerged he just stood there with a bewildered look on his face. I always wondered why Zechariah was struck dumb by the Angel. I accepted it as truth but didn't understand that by having his voice taken away, Zechariah had his glory taken away that day. Kind of like Babe Ruth hitting a home run but breaks an ankle before he can touch home plate and receive the glory attached to the act. It wasn't until after the birth of his son, who he wisely followed the words of the angel and named him John, that Zechariah could speak and give an accounting of that day in the temple. There is an old saying that "Old Zechariah may not have been able to talk when he got home from temple duty, but apparently he could do something else!" Christian humor, who knew? It should be noted that any scepticism that lived with Zechariah did not exist in Elizabeth. She was happy to be pregnant and thanked God for removing the disgrace of being childless. After all she just had to put up with a non speaking husband, not a terrifying angel.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth to appear to Mary. The bible says that Mary saw Gabriel and she was troubled, confused and disturbed. This seems to be a consistent reaction of people who see this archangel, going all the way back to the days of the Babylonian captivity, where Daniel said that he terrified and fell on his face in the presence of Gabriel. Mary was told that she was favored by God and was going to have a son who she would name Jesus. The bible says that Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph who was a descendant of King David.

In doing my research for this book, I read commentary from several sources regarding this important event. I have read articles saying that Matthew and Luke were wrong and that the old testament was misquoted, that this was an invention of the early church and other articles and papers that document a loss of faith among some and others who have gained faith as a result of the account of the virgin birth. The virgin birth theory can be found throughout history starting with Greek mythology where Zeus, in the form of a serpent, cohabited Olympus, the wife of Philip of Macedon. This scenario is repeated several times in Greek legend and Zeus is always depicted as some form of animal or even as an inanimate object like foam on the sea. In regards to the earlier account, the child of Zeus and Olympus was Alexander the Great and as much as the authors try, Alexander is hardly worthy of being compared to Jesus. It is interesting that when I read critical papers of the virgin birth, the author always seems to demand that you accept their interpretation to be the correct one and invariably they ask that you reject the idea of Christ based on their interpretation. Another thing that strikes me is that when someone like Alexander is mentioned, or a theory relative to Greek mythology is brought forward, it is done with assurance that the written historical word is correct and the discussion related to it is usually dispassionate and measured. It is only when the name of Jesus is brought up that the discussion become animated and heated.There are few things that can get people really riled up by simply mentioning them and the name of Jesus seems to be one of them.

According to a Newsweek article from December 2004, 79% of all Americans believe that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, without a human father. 67% say that they believe that the entire story of Christmas including the Virgin Birth, the angelic proclamation to the shepherds, the star of Bethlehem and the wise men from the East is historically correct. In general, 55% of all those polled believe that every word of the bible is literally accurate. In that same poll, 93% of Americans say that they believe that Jesus Christ actually lived, 82% believe that He is God or the son of God, 52% believe that He is coming back and 15% believe that, that will happen in their lifetime.

These are astonishing numbers when you consider that the bible has been eliminated from the classrooms of the public schools for over fifty years.

Lets get back to Mary and her predicament. Here she is, a young girl who is engaged to be married, living a pretty normal life for the times and with the appearance of a terrifying angel has her world dumped upside down. She finds out that she has been chosen to be the mother of the Messiah and will be pregnant before her marriage to Joseph.
In biblical times, any married woman who was proven to have had premarital sex was stoned to death at the door of her father's home by the men of the city. If an engaged woman was seduced by one other than her fiancee, she and the man who seduced her were also stoned to death for not screaming for help, and because he'd violated the virginity of another man's fiancee. It is with these realities that Mary answered the angel with a logical question, "But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin? Gabriel answered that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and pointed out that her cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant, a miracle that Mary understood.

One logical question that may be asked at this time is, Zechariah asks a question and is struck dumb, Mary asks a question and nothing happens? The way that I see it, Zechariah, a trained priest who was in the temple and should have anticipated a Godly encounter at a moments notice asked his question in disbelief and might have been ready to ask more questions before the angel struck him dumb. Mary, being a lay person asked her question out of fear for her personal safety and the honor of her family, and accepted God's promise after receiving the answer from Gabriel. In both cases God had a plan to move forward with His promise despite the reaction of the intended receiver of that message. As has been pointed out by other authors and bible commentaries, when Mary accepted His promise to be the mother of the Messiah, she became the very first Christian by accepting Jesus literally. Soon after her angelic encounter, Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth and the bible says that the baby "leaped in her womb" and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit upon seeing Mary. This is an excellent example to use when we are in a discussion regarding abortion as it shows the cognizant nature of a baby in the womb.

When John the Baptist was born, it was a big event in the village where they lived. People praised God because He allowed Elizabeth to become pregnant at that stage of her life, and the bible says that everyone got together for the circumcision ceremony and celebrated the arrival of the baby. At this gathering Zechariah followed the "suggestion" of the angel and wrote down the name "John" when asked to name his son, and he was then his speech was restored.

In the process of writing this book, I couldn't help but think what I would do if I was visited by an angel and told to do what I thought to be the impossible? Knowing myself, I would have asked much more irritating questions than Zechariah and (if I was a woman) would have totally freaked out if I was in Mary's place. Not knowing what I would do for sure, I did meet a woman in 2001 who told me what she did when God told her to do the impossible. Prior to that meeting, Jackie Hodgkins spent years following the call of God to minister to children in Mexico by establishing orphanages along with her sister, Virginia. My wife, Susan, came home from a gathering at church where Jackie had been a guest speaker and told me that this woman had a great story and that we needed to help her in her mission. I contacted her through our church office and arranged for an interview so that I could see how we could fit in and after a quick meeting we agreed to meet again after she returned from the east coast where she going to speak to groups and churches to raise money for her current child rescue project.

Jackie had the unfortunate timing of visiting the east coast just as the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked. Her whole itinerary collapsed and she came back without being able to raise much of anything. It was with this curtain of financial uncertainty as a back drop that "Mommy Jackie" allowed me to interview her on camera and she told her whole story from the beginning.

She told me that she built the orphanages in Mexico simply by heeding God's call for her to go. She had a little support from her friends and her church but as she always said, "these are God's children and it is up to him to provide for them". She told me once, that her and Virginia were sitting and praying for the children because the orphanage was out of food and the children were hungry and a man with a truck full of groceries pulled up and started to unload them. He told the sisters that he had a vision that there were to women and a bunch of children in Mexico who needed food and supplies so he felt compelled to buy the provisions and drive to the main town and asked the townspeople to direct him to the children, which they did. I asked, "are you pulling my leg?" and Jackie laughed and said, "no, it was a true story". She had numerous stories like that that showed the provision of God in her ministry.

It seemed that while the sisters were willing to work in an impossible situation, the Mexican government and influential citizens allowed the orphanage to stumble and survive on its own. When it grew to include a great many children who were taken in by the Hodgkins sisters, all children who had fallen through the cracks of Mexican society, the government and the social elite got involved and encouraged the founders to accept a more detailed infrastructure. Like most adventurers, Jackie did well working on the fly with God but when it came to running an "efficient" social organization with earthly rules and guidelines she tried but found it difficult to be molded into the new organization and with that she turned over the administration and daily duties to a board of directors and moved on to her next project, Africa.

Now, you have to understand my impressions of who I was interviewing, here was a woman who was all of 5'5" and by any medical standards or guidelines had to be considered very overweight and by her own admission had a plethora of physical ailments that included diabetes. As she is speaking, I'm thinking, why God? Why would you choose this woman to do these impossible things and I questioned His judgement as to why He didn't call upon someone who was in perfect health?. For the sake continuity, the same thing could be said for Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary. Surely He could have found a young and fertile couple to be the parents of John the Baptist or located another older lady who would be able to handle the criticism and social pressure better than a young teenage girl. Is it possible that God did and does ask the most qualified but they say no or don't respond at all and the ones that do take the opportunity to serve may be the least qualified? In fact, I know that if God called me to go to Africa, I would probably ask for sign after sign until one of them didn't happen and be relieved that God really didn't want me to go after all. When it came to Jesus earthly ministry, the majority of the well connected and religious people of the time refused to hear His word while the unqualified listeners responded. The end result was that Jesus built his church with less than qualified people who became qualified through the experience.

Jackie told me that she went to Africa with a one way ticket and started her ministry in Rwanda during the end of the war in that country. She really couldn't have picked a worst place to be because in a three month period of 1994, 800,000 were slaughtered just because they were from the wrong tribe. Jackie always put her faith in God and really believed that whatever she was doing in regards to the helping of orphans in that country was the will of God and that He would keep her safe. She recalled in the interview an incident where she was trapped in a small hut with children and machete wielding criminals burst through the door just as she hid the little ones from view. Jackie told me that they were there for money and valuables and she didn't have much of either and she was afraid that if they discovered the children, they would take them away or kill them. As she told them repeatedly that she had no money, they struck her with the broad faces of their weapons while they decided what to do with her. She said that she thought just as she was about to die, they gave up and left.

Since there was no stability in Rwanda so as to even rent a building and to start taking in children safely, Jackie felt that she was going to need a safer environment to set up the orphanage. Uganda was a reasonable choice as the situation was much more stable and their were plenty of children in need. Jackie settled in the town of Jinja, north of Lake Victoria and east of the capital city of Kampala. Keeping in mind that Jackie was not backed by any influential organization and basically alone in a strange country, I asked her how she knew where to go and who to talk to? She told me that God took care of everything and as an example she said she got on the plane to fly to Uganda and happened to be seated next to an influential government official who knew the President of Uganda. To top it off, the woman was a Christian and took Jackie under her wing and helped her to obtain a building and start the orphanage. Welcome Home Ministries, Africa was founded in 1995 as a home for dying and destitute babies who were born prematurely, or with AIDS, Tuberculosis, Measles or Starvation. She told me heartbreaking stories of babies being abandoned in dump areas and pit latrines and she said that many of these children died later but she was able to show them love and affection while they lived. The ones that did survive were cared for in a loving environment.

Whenever Jackie came back to the United States to do fundraising and gather support or corral new volunteers, she would always drop by for a visit and I would be in awe of this seemingly disorganized dynamo who was constantly expanding her mission field operation by faith and grit alone. She had no paid staff, (other than the Uganda caregivers) a family friend of hers, Bill Henning, wrote the newsletter and others that believed in her mission helped put together a patchwork of informal support groups of churches and friends. At the time of her last visit in 2003, I saw an exhausted friend who, little did I know, would be dead within the month. She seemed to know that something wasn't right and her focus to get things done had a sense of urgency. This woman who listened to the word of God and let Him direct her to do his work, passed on July 22, 2003 from diabetic complications.

Welcome Home Ministries, Africa has grown since Jackie's death and currently meets the needs of up to 60 babies. This organization helps to arrange adoptions of these orphans and also works to reunite children with their families throughout Africa. Jackie had no real succession plan for her ministry but God did and the organization that Jackie started with the mission "to love children to health or into the arms of Jesus", is thriving today. To find out more about this ministry, you can visit them at www.welcomehomeafrica.com .

In the book of Matthew, Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant and made an effort to break their engagement quietly, so as not to disgrace her publicly. As he considered this, he fell asleep, and an angel appeared to him in a dream. The angel told him to not be afraid and to go ahead with his marraige to Mary, that she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit, she would have a son and his name would be Jesus and He would save His people from sin. With that, Joseph was on board with this divine plan and brought Mary home to be his wife. I find it interesting that all through the bible, man is so involved with being the doer of God's plan but in the instance of Zechariah and Joseph, they play a somewhat secondary role in this important part of faith history.

In finishing out chapter one of the first chapter of Luke, we find an observation that John the Baptist grew up and became strong in spirit and that he lived out in the wilderness until his public ministry began. In my earlier book, "Doing Business With John", I point out that God used John to be His manager of publicity and marketing with the specific task of introducing Jesus as the Messiah to the nation of Israel. We sometimes miss the logic in God's plans, His example on how to relate to us as humans. The role of introduction that John played was bookended with the role that Paul would play later as he would bring Christianity to the world outside of Jerusalem thereby fulfilling the role of manager of new market development. The relative point that everyone mentioned here has in common is that they were submissive to the word of God and did what He asked of them.

When I hear a theologian or a church tell me that God doesent speak to His people or that there are no more miracles, I think of Jackie and how God worked and continues to work miracles through people like her to this day. Simply because they listen.