Hanging on

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

HANGING ON

Luke 19:47-48

47 Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. 48 Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

NIV

Just a little simply conclusive statement about Jesus being in the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was at the very place Solomon built to signify the presence of God with the people of Israel, yet they did not recognize that God was in the temple teaching them. In fact as we see here the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. The established religious leaders who we supposed to be guiding the people in spiritual matters were trying to kill Jesus. That is false religion at its finest. They were more concerned about their own control over the people than the spiritual welfare of the people. They were living the highlife at the expense of the people. It is no wonder they wanted to kill Jesus, he was teaching the truth about God, about relationships with God. But they could not kill him, at least not until he was ready for them to do that. They could not find a way to kill him, because the people, all the people hung on his words. This is what we need to see here. Hanging on the words of Jesus. The world today is trying to kill Jesus, at least the idea of Jesus, the idea of God, the idea of heaven and hell, and all that God represents, and a standard of living based on the word of God, the words of Jesus. They try to kill anything that has to do with the truth. But we must hang on his words. We must hang on every one of his words, keeping them alive in us. Even if all the bibles in the world were destroyed, his words are written on our hearts and they could not be erased. Instead of discussing which the best translation is or finding all the points of difference in beliefs we need to be hiding all his words in our heart. We even have those false teachers, like the chief priest, the teachers of the law and supposed spiritual leaders of the people, who teach other than the truth for their own personal gain. They use Jesus, but at the same time are trying to kill the truth of his words, twisting them for their own purposes. If we have his words, if we hang on his words, the world will never find a way to kill him. We should not ever let go, but keep on hanging on.