Category: Advent 2025 – Luke’s Gospel

Advent 2025 – Day 14

Emily Chase December 13, 2025 0

Take a seat and slow down for a moment while we continue our Advent adventure in Luke 14 today. Once again, Jesus is teaching and telling stories. And once again, two unique parables appear in this chapter, stories not found in the other gospels. Can you identify them?

Today, however, we will focus on the scene where Jesus visited in the home of a Pharisee. Jesus observed that the other guests were vying to sit in the seats of honor at the head of the table. “When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? The host will come and say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then you will be embarrassed and have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table.”

Of all the people who might have shown up as guests for dinner in that Pharisee’s home, who was more distinguished than the Son of God?

And of all the important people who attended that dinner, how many of them had ever humbled themselves to the degree of being born in a manger or mingling with shepherds?

And according to Philippians 2:5, whom has God now elevated to the place of highest honor, with a name above every other name?

Think back to one honor, small or large, in your past that you are proud of – an educational degree, an award at work, a difficult task completed. Can you humbly offer that accomplishment to God and lay it in the manger this season?

Advent 2025 – Day 13

Emily Chase December 12, 2025 0

The Christmas story is unfolding as we progress through Advent. Today you will find us in Luke, chapter 13.

Did your parents ever tell you stories before bedtime? My mother read me stories by Thornton Burgess, a series of books that each featured a different animal in the forest and meadow. Reddy Fox tried to catch Peter Rabbit, Grandfather Frog pontificated wisdom, and Bowser the Hound chased Happy Jack Squirrel.

We all love stories. In fact, even when my step-mom was 96 and in nursing care, she loved stories. Before she died, I called her each day to read a chapter of Luke’s gospel to her aloud.

Jesus often told stories to his disciples and the crowds. He used parables, simple stories, to communicate complex truths about God’s Kingdom. He could have given a theological discourse on predestination and freewill, but he knew that truth is best absorbed through stories. And in chapter 13, we find four more parables, one of which is unique to this gospel: the parable of the fig tree. This is a story about patience and mercy.

Where did Jesus learn to tell stories? Is it possible that, when Jesus was a small boy, Joseph told his son about the battle between David and Goliath? Or before tucking Jesus into bed, did Mary recount the events of Jonah and the whale? We don’t know about those bedtime stories, but we do know Mary told Luke plenty of stories about the birth of her son.

Why not call a child, a grandparent or a friend and read the Christmas story to them today?

Advent 2025 – Day 12

Emily Chase December 11, 2025 0

We are halfway through Advent already! Thank you for continuing to visit with me here. Have you found it helpful to read a chapter of Luke each day?

In Chapter 12, we find three parables that are all unique to Luke’s gospel. One of them is about the faithful servants being ready and alert when their master returns. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, the master will seat the servants, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat! He may come in the middle of the night or just before dawn. But whenever he comes, he will reward the servants who are ready.”

Even as you and I are preparing to celebrate Christmas and Jesus’ birth, we should also be anticipating his return. Do you remember two people we met way back in chapter 2? Anna and Simeon were looking forward to seeing the Messiah. Simeon got up that morning anticipating just another ordinary day. He ate breakfast. He walked to the Temple, just as he had many other days. He had no email or text alerting him that Mary and Joseph would show up in a few hours with the infant Jesus. But Simeon was there, obedient and waiting. He held this baby and knew that this was the promised Messiah.

Anna, too, had been anticipating the coming Messiah. After seeing Jesus, she talked about the child to “everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.”

What are you waiting for? Will the Lord return to find you ready?

Advent 2025 – Day 11

Emily Chase December 10, 2025 0

As Christmas draws nearer, have you been praying for your family gatherings? Some people love the holidays, but others dread the prospect of being cooped up with relatives. Advent offers an opportunity for prayer and preparation for those holiday gatherings.

In Luke 11, Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray. Have you ever looked at the pronouns in the Lord’s Prayer? Note how many are first person plural…”our Father,” “give us this day our daily bread,” “forgive us our trespasses,” and “lead us not into temptation.” Remember that Jesus is praying this prayer along with us. “Our Father” refers to our Father but also his Father.

Jesus was fully human. Like us, he required daily bread. He needed strength to resist temptation. He extended forgiveness from the cross, saying, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Thus, this prayer is truly our Lord’s prayer, not just our own.

Who taught Jesus to pray as a child? I’m confident that Joseph prayed, but Luke only recorded one prayer. It was Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1. Her prayer is quite different from the Lord’s Prayer, but they both express praise and faith in the power of God to care for his people.

With Christmas at our doorstep, take some time today to pray the Lord’s Prayer out loud. Say it with Jesus, remembering he too depended on the Father’s strength while he lived in human flesh.

Advent 2025 – Day 10

Emily Chase December 9, 2025 0

Welcome back to another Advent thought from Luke’s gospel. Do you remember being a child at Christmas and poking at gifts under the tree, asking questions like, “Is this the Lego set I wanted?” or “Is there a doll or a truck in that box?”

Luke 10 is also full of questions. A man approaches Jesus and asks, “Who is my neighbor?” In response, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan and then asks a question of his own.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is found only in Luke’s gospel, not in the other accounts of Jesus’ life. Jesus tells us of a man traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho. Thieves attack the man and leave him for dead. Two religious leaders walk by, ignoring the man bleeding on the ground. But a despised Samaritan sees the man, stops, and offers help. Then Jesus asks his listener, “Which of the men in the story was a neighbor to the man set upon by thieves?”

The Samaritan in the story didn’t ask, “What will happen to me if I get involved?” Instead, he thought, “What will happen to this injured man if I don’t help?”

Jesus’ mother Mary asked questions too. When the angel told her she would bear God’s son, she asked, “But how is that possible?” Then, like the Samaritan, she chose to serve. What might have happened to us if she had chosen not to “get involved”?

Who is your neighbor? And like Fred Rogers, I ask you one more question, “Will you be my neighbor?”

Advent 2025 – Day 9

Emily Chase December 8, 2025 0

Christmas is coming, and we are celebrating Advent by reading the gospel of Luke. Today, let’s see what Luke 9 tells us.

In this chapter, Peter, James and John followed Jesus up the mountain and saw him transfigured before their eyes. His face gleamed and his body glowed with his original heavenly glory. Did you know that Luke used the same Greek verb to describe the cloud descending on Jesus at the Transfiguration as he used to describe the Spirit descending on Mary when she conceived Jesus in chapter 1:35?

Moses and Elijah suddenly appeared in that cloud, talking with Jesus. Yes, Moses represented the Law, and Elijah represented all the prophets, but these two men shared something else in common with Jesus. Both Moses and Elijah departed this earth in miraculous ways. The Lord led Moses up a high mountain to see the Promised Land from afar before he died; no one ever saw him again. The Lord carried Elijah away in a heavenly chariot.

Have you ever wondered what the three men talked about? Luke’s gospel is the only one that records the topic of that conversation! They spoke about Jesus’ departure from Jerusalem, his upcoming death. As Jesus neared the cross, Moses and Elijah could assure Jesus that the Father had been faithful to them as they departed this world, and the Father would do the same for the Son.

From birth to death, the Father watches over his children. One of my favorite promises in scripture is in Isaiah 46:3-4. There the Lord says, “I carried you before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime, until your hair is white with age.” No matter what difficulty lies ahead of you today, that promise is for you as well!

Advent 2025 – Day 8

Emily Chase December 8, 2025December 8, 2025 0

Ready for another peek into Luke’s gospel? How will chapter 8 relate to Advent and to our lives today?

Luke 8 contains parables, miracles and teaching. Still, a thread pulls us through the different events. As a storm races across the sea of Galilee and threatens to flood their boat, the disciples are afraid; when Jesus calms the storm, they are terrified. After Jesus casts demons out of a Gerazene man, the townspeople are afraid and ask Jesus to leave. A woman with a hemorrhage trembles when Jesus calls her forth from the crowd. And Jairus fears when he hears his daughter has died.

Fear is a powerful emotion. Decades earlier, Zecharias feared when he saw the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:12-13), Mary was afraid when the same angel delivered a message to her (1:30), and shepherds in the field feared when a host of angels appeared in the heavens (2:9-10).

The fact that all these people experienced this basic emotion encourages me. They were human. They had real fears. I can identify with their fears.

Did Jesus ever experience fear? Was he truly as human as you and me? In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed fervently, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” On the cross, he shouted out, “Father, why have you forsaken me?” Both incidents speak to that essence of humanity: when our lives are threatened, we cry out in fear.

What fears beset you this season? What keeps you from joyously celebrating the events of Christmas? Jesus understands. And he challenges us to pray as he did: “Not my will, but yours.”

Advent 2025 – Day 7

Emily Chase December 6, 2025December 6, 2025 0

Today, we are completing our first week of Advent as we read Luke’s gospel.

How hard it must have been for the disciples to look at a man standing in flesh and blood before them and believe that he was the Son of God, the Messiah. Would it be even harder to believe if that man turned out to be your younger cousin, someone you’d known all your life?

In John 1:32, John the Baptist was confident. “I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. I did not recognize him, but the one who sent me to baptize in water told me, when you see the Spirit coming down and resting on him, you will know this is the one who will baptize in Spirit. I saw it myself and I have borne witness: This is God’s chosen one.” John knew Jesus was the Messiah!

But in Luke 7, John the Baptist was not as confident. He sent a message to his cousin and asked, “Are you really the One we are awaiting?” What made John lose his confidence? After all, his disciples had just reported all the amazing things Jesus was doing, including raising a widow’s son from the dead, a story unique to Luke’s gospel. But John now sat alone in prison; his life was on the line.

Does the Christmas story ever seem hard to believe? Would God truly become man? Won’t the Lord toss us aside if you or I admit we have doubts? No. As with John, the Lord patiently assures us that everything the scriptures say about Jesus is true. Walk forward today with confidence!

Advent 2025 – Day 6

Emily Chase December 5, 2025 0

Are you busy getting ready for Christmas? Do you wish you had several elves to help you accomplish all that needs to be done before the holiday arrives? Thank you for setting aside time to join me in our Advent study of Luke, chapter 6.

Jesus had no elves as helpers. He had only three years to accomplish God’s plan of salvation. In heaven, Jesus could have called upon thousands of angels to assist him with the work, but on earth, he had only a dozen disciples. In this chapter, Jesus chose twelve apostles to help get his message out to towns all over the region of Galilee.

These young men were of dubious help, kind of like a young child trying to “help” Grandma make Christmas cookies: Flour gets everywhere. The kitchen is a mess. There is even more work for Grandma to clean up.

The disciples often wanted to do things their own way. The disciples pushed aside small children and tried to ignore a blind man. They forgot the lessons Jesus taught about humility. James and John wanted the biggest portions of glory for themselves. And their companions became jealous. Not a great success story.

Look back at all the angels in the Christmas story. Gabriel carried news to Zecharias and Mary. Heavenly hosts announced a birth to shepherds. A star led magi over 800 miles directly to Bethlehem. All these heavenly elements accomplished their assigned tasks perfectly.

In contrast? The disciples were ordinary fallible men. When Cornelius knelt to worship Peter in Acts 10:25-26, Peter responded, “Stand up! I am an ordinary man just like you.” Just like you or me? Consider the things those twelve ordinary disciples went on to accomplish. What might God want to accomplish through ordinary you today?

Advent 2025 – Day 5

Emily Chase December 4, 2025 0

Welcome to those joining us today for the first time, and welcome to all the “vets” too as we continue exploring Luke’s gospel in this Advent series of devotionals. Today, we are focusing on Luke 5.

If you have already read today’s chapter, perhaps you have noted how many miracles take place in this section. We see Christ providing a miraculous catch of fish, healing a leper and then restoring a paralytic. Jesus says, “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” Both are miracles.

Think back to Jesus’ birth. How many miracles occurred at the time of his birth? Can you name them? Here are just a few: Elizabeth becoming pregnant in her old age, Zechariah losing his voice, Elizabeth feeling John leap in her womb, a virgin giving birth, angels appearing all over the place, including to shepherds, the messages of Simeon and Anna, the arrival of magi following a star, the escape to Egypt…and these all took place before Jesus was old enough to perform a single miracle. God the Father was busy!

Have you considered miracles that have occurred in your life? Has God protected you or healed a family member? Did any of these occur when you were an infant? How has the Lord provided for you in a time of need? Why not pause to make a list and thank him for his watchful care?