2018 Easter Devotional — February 17

Luke 5:27-32 (click to view Scripture below)

Jesus is in a time of ministry where people are simply amazed at the extraordinary things He is doing. In this passage, He is making friends with tax collectors; a group that exploits people for personal gain. The religious crowd, who gives Jesus fits, complains that Jesus is spending way too much time with folks who simply don’t measure up religiously. Jesus pulls no punches and simply says, I’m not here to work with respectable people, I’ve come to “call sinners to repentance.”

Jesus’ ministry is not limited to where things are secure and comfortable. And so it is that we have ChildHope schools in some of the most violent areas of Central America, where MS-13 gangs wage war. Our teachers are facing danger, but do so knowing that, like Jesus, they must serve where comfort and security are not present. The Gospel is most powerful where it is most resisted. Jesus the Teacher is the model for ChildHope teachers who have been called to serve in difficult places because that’s where the Gospel is most needed.

Byron Klaus
Vice President, ChildHope
Prayer: Lord, protect those ChildHope teachers today who faithfully do their work and bring the Gospel to those where comfort and security are in short supply!  

See other devotionals in this series.


Luke 5:27-32 (ESV)

27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

See other devotionals in this series.

 

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),
copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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