October 21, 2011 – Luke 13:10 - 14:6

Twice we have Him healing on the Sabbath. The first appears much more controversial. The second, His opponents are not able to give any answer. It is a brilliant response to their questioning. If you have a child in need of assistance, but you are not suppose to do any work on the Sabbath, can you help your child. The reason it is brilliant is because of the absurdity of the person saying I wouldn’t help even my own child on the Sabbath. Christ, being God, all humanity are His children, so healing one of them is no different.

In verse 31 it says that some Pharisees came to warn Him about Herod. That doesn’t appear to fit with the fact that groups of Pharisees are part of the plot to get rid of Him. I guess I don’t know how many Pharisees there were and that there might have been different groups or factions and some might not have been against Jesus. But I don’t remember ever seeing this verse and don’t remember a Pharisee acting in this way before.

Jesus talks about a definite end, a time when the gates to Heaven will be closed, at the end of all things. For those not going to Heaven and that being their choice, it appears that after the gates are closed they will have a change of heart. Recently I have had the understanding that those in Hell would not want to be in Heaven. They would understand why they were in Hell and not want Heaven because they do not want to be with God. I guess it does make sense, if Hell is all about suffering, then they would wish to be with God and not able to do so.

Also with the gate being closed, that works both ways. I was thinking about the “once saved, always saved” and I guess that is true, once you make it into Heaven. I think it should be “once in Heaven, always in Heaven”.