By Annette Brownlee
A Reading from the Gospel of Luke 11:27-36
27 While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”
29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. 31 The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed, something greater than Solomon is here! 32 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and indeed, something greater than Jonah is here!
33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket; rather, one puts it on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is unhealthy, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. 36 But if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”
Meditation
“Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” Why is this Jesus’ response?
In Luke 11:14-26, there has just been dissension over Jesus casting out a demon. Some say he cast it out through Beelzebul. Others use this situation as a chance to test him, asking for a sign (vv. 14-15). Knowing their hearts, Jesus will have none of it. He exposes their fallacy. It’s contradictory to say that Satan works against himself, he asserts. Anyone who knows Israel’s history of two kingdoms knows that a house divided cannot stand.
He then teaches about the ongoing power of Satan’s house, which is still standing. He tells the parable of the strong man fully armed who guards his palace.
This passage is central to Martin Luther’s thesis in the human will (On Bondage and the Will). Scholar Gerhard Forde summarizes Luther’s thesis for us: “If you begin with the assumption of freedom, the preoccupation is always how to keep freedom in check, how to bind; But if you begin with the assumption of bondage, the preoccupation is always how to set out the word that frees” (The Captivation of the Will: Luther vs. Erasmus on Freedom and Bondage (ed. 2005) 21).
Jesus describes reality. There is no neutral world. This is God’s world, and the powers of Satan fight against God. You and I, the nations and our families, have no neutral place to stand and from there to decide which way to choose. We are in bondage to the “strong man”: either to the gods of this world or to our Creator. If we start with the assumption of bondage, Jesus offers us true freedom in him. As he says to the attentive woman who praises the womb who birthed him, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”
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The Rev. Dr. Annette Brownlee is chaplain, director of field education, and professor of pastoral theology at Wycliffe College, Toronto. She also assists and preaches at St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux in Scarborough.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of New Busa – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
The Diocese of Iowa
