The gospel of Luke carefully records truth from eyewitness accounts of numerous historical citizens of the first century.
The following is a fictional representation continued from our previous episodes of eyewitness by one of Jesus’ first disciples.
More and more of us became convinced as we journeyed with Jesus that He IS the Christ, the Messiah Savior of Almighty God. His power to heal was overwhelming, convincing beyond a doubt.
17 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
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From among those of us who followed Him, Jesus had appointed twelve Apostles, an inner circle to help our Lord and Teacher to manage the crowds, by now hundreds of followers. Nothing like this had ever happened in Israel. No Prophet or Teacher like Jesus had ever appeared in Judea, not even John (who many thought preached as a Prophet). But it was much more than His miracles. It is Jesus himself who captivated our hearts and won back our souls to God.
Jesus taught like no other teacher, like no other Rabbi of Israel.
He taught many things which we saw our Master live. Though Jesus was humble as a servant, He was as perfect in authentic love for each of us as any man I have ever met. He was more than just a teacher, Jesus was our dear friend, one who cared for us in every way.
That is why after our Lord taught us about His teaching, we knew we had to change our lives to live like Him.
40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.
Imagine – me like Jesus! Fully trained in what our Lord taught. Fully trained in how our Lord lived each precious day. Me – living like God on earth… a seemingly impossible task. Yet our Lord called on us to do it.
We began to think about really trying to live like we saw Jesus living every day. We listened thoughtfully to what our Lord taught. We considered His words. We even finally prayed about how to do just with Jesus had told us.
Our Lord encouraged us when we did well.
43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit.
He let us know when our love showed the good fruit of His love. He also let us know when we strayed away from His challenging commands, His difficult teachings. He rightfully rebuked our ill-conceived actions.
46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
As I listened to Jesus’ parables I imagined where I fit into his less personal illustration of the kind of things we all do and so often get it wrong. We get it wrong every day. Sin. Uncoverable sin. And He made it so obvious in His most-loving way.
How could I ever become fully-trained to be like Jesus?
I thought and prayed about that increasingly in time alone, baring my own soul before God.
To be continued…
Simon Peter was a leading local fisherman. He and his wife eked out a tenuous living dependant on the winds of the sea, a few small fishing boats and hand-repaired nets which might hold a more than meager catch from time to time. Like so many of us, family members lived near by or even in our homes.