Hard Words of Jesus

12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 13 This will be a time for you to bear testimony. 14 Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer; 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; 17 you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your lives. (Luke 21: 12-19 RSV)

12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 13 This will be a time for you to bear testimony.

Have you noticed that persecution comes not just from the secular, godless government (prisons) but from religions like Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, humanism, animism, etc. (synagogues) as well?

That is what Jesus said in this verse.

All this is here, with us, amongst us, today, just as it was in Jesus’ time.

We tend to think of persecution as coming only from the world.

But the “world” is in the church as well!!

Religion without inner transformation and true faith persecutes, just as much as the government and national leaders.

But, no matter where it comes from, for us, who follow Jesus, this all has a purpose.

To testify about Him, our Lord, our Saviour, our Redeemer - Jesus.

In some cases this testimony will look like activism. In some cases it will look like defiance. In some cases it will look like surrender. In some cases it will look like peacemaking. In some cases it will be defensive. In some cases it may be silence. In some cases it will look like correction.

Whatever the method used, the Truth of God, Jesus Christ, is to be shown and witnessed.

And He will give us the truths to share through the guidance of His Spirit.

14 Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer; 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. [says Jesus]

Have you ever worked out a worried conversation in your mind beforehand? Mulled and worried over possible solutions to the issue that is before you? I have.

When I meditate on an issue beforehand and work out different scenarios in my mind, none of them seem to materialize.

It is like I had wasted my nervous energy for not.

And Jesus concurs that it is a waste of time and nervous energy.

He says, “Settle it therefore in your minds, NOT to meditate beforehand how to answer;”

It’s like Jesus is saying, “It’s a waste of time. Don’t worry about it.”

Upon reflecting about what I actually said during those times of challenge, many times I do not feel like I did an adequate defense for You, Lord.

It seems I was not open enough or convincing enough as a witness for You.

And yet You remind me that neither Moses or Paul were the greatest orators but knew what needed to be said.

Have I been bold enough to say what needed to be said?

Help me to listen more closely to You during those stressful times.

Or help me to sense Your assurance that what was said was what You desired.

I know that what I would consider the best defense may not be what You consider the best defense because You look at the heart of man, not the intellect of man...

..and what the listening heart needs is completely foreign to the intellect many times.

In fact, what the heart needs can sound stupid to the mind.

19 By your endurance you will gain your lives.

The New Revised Standard Version uses the word “souls” instead of “lives”. This is a more accurate translation because the Greek word used here is “psyche” from which we get the word psychology.

The word “lives” could mean spirit or eternal life, but that Greek word is “pneuma”. And Luke does not use that word here.

I was struck as I read this verse today because I have always considered Jesus referring to my eternal life.

That if I endure, I will gain eternal life.

Jesus said that through trials, you would gain your psyche (soul), not you would gain your pneuma (spirit).

Is this significant or is it just a lack of understanding the difference for Luke, the author?

And yet, if Luke truly recorded Jesus’ words as soul, we can see a profound truth.

Luke is not alone in recording it as “soul” because the Epistles are full of statements saying that through trials of many kinds we would gain our character, our life, our personality (soul).

For example Paul said in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Life experiences show that to be true.

We can unconsciously confine the transformative power of Christ to the realm of the spiritual (pneuma) but this same power can and does transform our mind and personality (psyche) as well.

It seems self evident when you think about it.

Unfortunately, our present secular society attempts to hide this fact from us.

How?

By keeping religion confined to the “church”, not the secular realm where psychology, philosophy, science, and activism attempt to transform people into their own image.

By creating policies that muzzle proselytizing, or laws that consider some truths as hate speech.

In so doing, they make the “church” and the transformative truths of Jesus irrelevant.

But the reality is that a truly freed “psyche” comes through the transformative power of the Creator, not through human hypotheses or studies.

Let’s not fall for the world’s attempts to confine Christ to just our spirit (pneuma) but open Him up to our soul (psyche) as well.

Just as a truly freed “pneuma” comes through the breath of God.