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DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

WELCOME

Luke 9:10-17

10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, 11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing. 12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here." 13 He replied, "You give them something to eat." They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish — unless we go and buy food for all this crowd." 14(About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each."  15 The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

NIV

We certainly could focus on the miracle of feeding the five thousand men. We should also note that it was only the men that were counted, but we can be sure there were women and perhaps even children in this crowd that had learned about him being there. But instead of looking into this miracle itself we should first take notice that Jesus withdrew with his disciples to a lonely quite place. We could suppose he wanted to spend some alone time with them, perhaps to teach them more truths, to hear more about their travels, to fellowship with just them and pray together. But his plans were invaded by thousands of people. He could have sent them away or he could have tried to get further away from them, but he welcomed them, spoke to them about the kingdom and healed all those who needed healing. Here is our life lesson. We might make our plans, have something specific we want to do, but sometimes people may have some expectations from us and invade our plans. How we respond to this type of invasion is up to us, but we have the example of Jesus as our guide. He welcomed them, and we should also have that same attitude, even if those who interrupt our plans also want something from us. We have to assume all these people who found out Jesus was there came to him because they wanted to hear what he had to say, or wanted a healing, or to see a miracle. So when we have our plans and along comes someone or even a couple of people looking for something from us, we need to welcome them, making them feel welcomed, as if we were looking forward to seeing them and doing for them whatever is needed. It certainly coincides with the rest of the teachings of Jesus. Love your neighbor as yourself. Consider others before yourself and all the other scriptures which deal with that same sort of attitude. Welcome.