Thank You for the blessings of friends, Father. A gentleman from church knew we burned wood and generously brought us a truckload. Friendship and generosity – twice blessed! Bless Him as well, I pray.

Luke 9:37-43 (<<click to read the passage)

I know I spoke of it just a couple of days ago. But as I have read through this passage and many things pertaining to it, my mind drifts to situations in which I found myself on my bus.

First, a humorous story in which I am the one who brought a smile to many…many…faces. As I have mentioned before, we had in place a safe behavior incentive program for our elementary buses that involved awarding a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” concerning behavior on trips to and from school.

Well, I was coming into school one morning and my kids had done fairly well for several weeks…but not this particular week. If I remember correctly, we had already gotten three “thumbs down”. I knew they were capable of much better behavior and in an attempt to alter the course of their trajectory – I laid into them!

I grabbed my mic and for a good solid five minutes, I let them have it! Pointing out their misbehavior, their flaunting of the rules, their outright disobedience, the dangerousness of the actions, etc., etc. Well by the time I had finished, we had been parked with the brake set for at least a minute or two. I hung the mic back up and they just all sort of stared at me. Within seconds, other drivers and the Transportation Director let me know that I had not been lecturing my bus. In my haste to set my kids straight, I had grabbed the wrong mic! Instead of the in-bus mic, I had grabbed the radio mic! I had lectured every bus in the fleet! And not just that – the radio also connects to every main office in the district – the elementary office, the middle school office, the high school office, the district office, the transportation office, and the bus garage, too! Everybody got an earful…except for my kids! Everybody had a good laugh!

I think this is what happened in today’s passage from Luke…except nobody was laughing.

Reading Mark’s perspective (Mark 9:14-29) on this incident fills in a few more details but all in all, I think Jesus had just had it! He is surely holy, and He is perfect but there is definitely such a thing as righteous anger!

Jesus comes down off the mountain after His meeting with Moses and Elijah with Peter, James, and John in tow and meets up with the other disciples. At that point, the other disciples seem to be in a shouting match with some teachers of religious law. (Mark 9:14) The crowds were clamoring for His attention. And in the midst of it all a distraught father, comes forward and pleads, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, my only child.” His son was possessed by a tormenting evil spirit. He goes on to say, “I begged your disciples to cast out the spirit, but they couldn’t do it.” (Luke 9:38,40)

That was it! Jesus let them have it! He exclaimed,

“You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you and put up with you?” (Luke 9:41)

He didn’t stop loving a single one of them (not even the teachers of religious law!) It didn’t give Him second thoughts about fulfilling His God-given mission. But sometimes, folks, you’ve got to stop and clear the air! You’ve got to get everybody’s attention and get them back in line! We don’t listen to whispers and a few kind words here and there. Oft times we have to be grabbed by the shoulders and looked square in the eye and be told in no uncertain terms to straighten up!

Lord Jesus, forgive us for our misbehavior, our flaunting of the rules…our outright disobedience. You’ve got our attention. May we clearly hear and abide by Your guidance for us all. Amen.

Apr 22nd, 2020, Wed, 7:49 pm