This is a difficult reading. Let’s be honest. We have all struggled with this parable and with the teaching that follows it. Ask, and it will be given to you… Who has not felt abandoned by the apparent failure of this promise at an hour of need. Who has ever received whatever we asked for? What do we do with all this, then?

This is one of those difficult passages in the Bible. Be honest. How did you feel while you were reading it? Like this is a nice story, but really totally impractical? Be honest! Did you feel very cross with Mary in this story? Did you feel that Jesus was being unfair in how he treated Martha?

The parable of the Good Samaritan as it is popularly known is probably one of the best known parables of Jesus. I suspect people with no church connection know this and the Prodigal Son parable better than just about any other biblical story. I'd like to help you into it, today, from what may be a new perspective.

The military type of language that we used in yesterday’s reflection – invasion, bridgeheads, sleeper cells – is shown to be justified in today’s reading.

If you are looking for the “turn”, the pivot point, the fulcrum, of the book of Luke, you need look no further. This is it.

In yesterday’s reading Jesus gave his disciples the really startling news that he would be rejected by the religious authorities and killed. This was so surprising and so far away from the disciples’ opinion of his mission, that they simply didn't get it. Today's reading shows just how far away from getting it they really were.

How do you define yourself? When someone says to you, ‘Tell me your story’, or, ‘Who are you, really?’, what do you say? What are the events or people or circumstances that most define who you are? That question is worth a moment’s reflection.

Today’s reading is packed with events. As I said in the introduction to this series, Luke is a very long book, and we can't look too closely at each and every little story. For the discipline of Lent, we are trying to read the entire book, so we just have to accept that we will pass over some things. This is a Lenten reflection, not a commentary on Luke.

The most prominent part of today’s reading is the parable of the sower. This is so well-known, and in any event, Jesus explains it in our reading, that I am going to let it go by for our reflection today. Instead, I want to focus on some of the less-obvious sections.

I have to confess: this is one of my very favourite snippets (pericopes, if you like) of all the Gospel stories – not including the crucifixion and resurrection stories, of course.

You will recall that John the Baptist has been imprisoned by Herod. We must try to imagine him, languishing in a dungeon in Herod’s palace at Masada. This palace is well-preserved in the desert near the Dead Sea. In winter it is bitterly cold; in summer, unbearably hot. John will have been hungry, sore, uncomfortable, lonely and in deep despondency. Self-pity and self-questioning will have been his constant temptations.

Have you ever found yourself asking God to do something for you, perhaps a healing or a new job or something else that you really want, and thinking (in the back of your mind, even if you don't say it aloud or even think it too loudly): ‘After all, I really deserve this.’

This long reading will be recognised by many as being essentially the same as what we know as the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. But Luke tells us that this teaching was delivered on a plain at the bottom of a mountain.

In today’s reading, Luke shows Jesus to us being faced with three questions put directly to him by people who were inclined to be his antilogia – those who spoke words against him. Then Luke gives us a fourth question; no-one actually asked this, but Jesus pulled it out of the air in which it was hanging anyway.

Luke has not written a random history of Jesus’ ministry. In today’s reading, there are two healings. Each of them is quite different, in the way that Jesus manages them.

Luke has not written a random history of Jesus’ ministry. In today’s reading, there are two healings. Each of them is quite different, in the way that Jesus manages them.

This is a short reading today, but packed with so much material! Notice Luke’s introduction: ‘One day…”. We’ve left behind all the preparation now and we are in the middle of Jesus’ kingdom-shaping ministry. There were many days of miracles; this was just ‘one day’. We’re not getting the whole of Jesus’ biography – we’re getting the story about Jesus that Luke wants to tell.

Well! With today’s reading, it has all started in earnest now. Do you notice what is happening?

If you ever have the misfortune to watch one of Hollywood’s versions of the life of Christ, you can bet this story will be included. It’s great visual imagery. The Director will feature an emaciated Jesus, wandering around a stony desert, …

Today’s chapter contains the story of two preparations. Again, we will see the faithfulness of God’s promises in both. Luke is continuing the story of God’s careful management of his plan of salvation for the world.