For Christians, the resurrection of Jesus is not something that is celebrated once a year but a moment that forever changes your life.

In a few weeks, many will celebrate the completion of their high school or college studies. To recognize these achievements, schools will host graduation ceremonies, called commencement exercises. Because these ceremonies celebrate the completion of a course of study, most people think of a commencement service as a ceremony to mark the conclusion of something.

However, to commence means to start. Commencement exercises are intended to mark the beginning of something. For high school graduates, that is the beginning of their life as adults and entering the workforce, and for college graduates, that is the beginning of the career they trained for.

This is similar to how many think about Resurrection Sunday. In many ways, Resurrection Sunday can feel like the conclusion – the big event. And thus, the Sunday after is more about getting back to normal. The family pictures have been taken and posted to social media. The new clothes are now just another piece in your wardrobe. All of the candy has been eaten. And now things are back to a regular routine and norm.

For those who have confessed Jesus as Lord and believed that God raised him from the dead, the resurrection is not the conclusion but the beginning. For Christians, Resurrection Sunday is not an event that comes and goes; it is a celebration of a moment that forever changes their lives.

Luke 24:13-35 recounts the experience of two men who seemed very familiar with Jesus and what He taught. They seemed to have had high hopes that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah. Yet they are perplexed because of the events that led to Jesus’s crucifixion and death. They have heard reports that His body is no longer in the grave and that He is, in fact, alive.

These are amazing and perplexing things to these men, but at the point that we meet them in Luke 24, these events have had no impact on their lives. They are walking home and getting back to their regular lives. But as they walk home, they meet Jesus, and everything about their lives changes.

The resurrection forever transforms your understanding and your life.

This is not the same parable as the parable of talents. Here Jesus is distinguishing between three types of people. The ten servants represent those who profess to serve Christ, but all who profess are true. So the three types of people represented in this parable are:

1. Faithful followers – these are represented by the servants who invest and earn a return with the nobleman’s money

2. False followers – these are represented by the servant that does nothing with the nobleman’s money

3. Enemies of Christ (unbelievers) – these are represented by those who oppose the nobleman’s rule

I am going to give the majority of my attention to the first two groups.

1. Be about the Father’s will

2. Faithfulness pleases God

3. Disobedience reveals falsehood

We are constantly comparing ourselves to others. At the gym, at work. online, and even at church. When we find ourselves among those who we judge as less than us, it makes us feel good. When we find ourselves among those who we judge as greater than us, it can make us ashamed or self-conscience. Jesus exposes the arrogance of our flesh in this parable and demonstrates the only way one can come and know the salvation of God.

What tempts you to give up? All of us have, at some point in our lives, been tempted to give up. Sometimes it happens in the context of sports. Sometimes it seems like you just cannot get a break. Other times it seems like your opponents are so far above you that you have no hope of being competitive. Sometimes it happens in the context of work.

Maybe you are struggling to keep up with the demands of your job. or maybe the stress of your job is overwhelming you. Sometimes the temptation to give up is even more heart-wrenching than normal difficulties. It could be that those in authority are not adjudicating righteousness. It could be that your boss is treating you unfairly. It could be that others are exploiting and taking unfair advantage of you. And all of this leads to the temptation to give up.

This temptation is present in our walk with the Lord as well. Many are tempted to give up and give in to the world's demands because of the hardships and sufferings that come with following Jesus.

In this parable, Jesus teaches us how we are to pray and not lose heart.

This parable is unsettling. And I believe the more we understand it, and the more we rightly identify with the characters in it, the more unsettling it will become. Jesus tells this story to teach major themes about eternity, heaven, and hell. This parable is intended to teach, warn, and to encourage the wayward to repent.

In these two parables Jesus tells the story of two lost items – a sheep and a coin. Everyone hearing this story can identify both with loosing something and the effort of looking intensely for a lost item.

Jesus uses this familiar experience of losing items and the joy of finding them to respond to the grumblings of the religious self-righteous who were complaining about Jesus spending time with and eating with sinners.
With these parables Jesus teaches two things that reveal the character and heart of God toward sinful man.

The people in the room cared very much about the law and about their place in society. Most in the room were confident that they were right with God. It is in response to this outburst recorded in verse 15 that Jesus tells this parable about the invited guests not responding to the master’s invitation. Verse 16 begins, not with Jesus affirming this declaration but with an indication that Jesus responded unexpectantly. To this triumphant remark, Luke records, “but He (Jesus) said to him.”

The invitation to come to salvation is present. But the invitation alone is not enough. The invited must come to the event. To be saved, you must do more than acknowledge that Jesus saves. You must come to Jesus.

We live in a world that values things. The sales pitch is always the same, “more things equal more happiness.” We like to hear that we “need” more things, or we “deserve” more things. So often, the temptation to judge our own value or success by the number of things we have collected overwhelms us. And as a result, we pursue an unattainable goal to have enough. The tragedy of all this striving for more is that we invest our resources, talents, and efforts in the attempt to attain things that will never be able to hold the value that was spent pursuing them.

There are riches that brings blessing, but these are not recognized by the world nor celebrated by men. The true treasures that bring true blessings are the things of the Lord. Seek after true treasure and being rich toward God.

Jesus tells these two parables in response to his disciples asking Him to teach them to pray. First Jesus gives an example prayer in verse 2-4 then He tells two stories to illustrate how we are to approach God in prayer and how God responds to our prayer.

As we consider this passage, I want you to see that we are to approach the Lord in prayer like children, that God will answer your prayer, and that the Lord’s heart toward His children is to give good gifts.

Are you justified by your own actions or are you justified by the merciful salvation of Christ? Are you concerned with how much you must do to be right or are you overwhelmed by the limitless mercy expressed through the cross of Christ?

Dear friend – all those who have known the limitless, overwhelming fountain of the mercy of God that flowed through the veins of Jesus on the cross will “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself”