When I was a boy, my grandad would often say to me and my brother, “Boys you better leave that ________ alone or you’ll get more than you bargained for.”  Fill in the blank with dog, cat, rooster, sow, pony, etc. You name it, we probably pushed it to its limits at one time or another. And, never being sure of what Grandad Ben meant by that phrase, we always seemed to get what he promised in the end. I can still see him shaking his head from side-to-side when it finally happened. He must have thought to himself, “those boys will never listen and learn.”

No doubt, we were hardheaded little rapscallions and we often “got what was coming to us,” as he would have said. But then there were plenty of times when we got a whole lot more than what we expected. When the kick from the pony was a tad bit more than expected after we tickled its flank one too many times with wheat stray…

Okay, so what does this have to do with our Bible study this week? More than you might think. You see, Jesus had come to the end of a very long day of teaching and debating on the Temple grounds. The religious leaders had been vanquished, for the day at least, and it was now time to adjourn for the day. So, Jesus started making His way out of the courtyard and was headed up to the Mount of Olives for the night. Probably on His way to Mary, Martha, and Lazarus’ house for the evening. They were great friends, after all.

On the way out, someone tickled the pony if you will. They made a seemingly innocuous comment about the beauty of the Temple, and they got a whole lot more than they bargained for in Jesus’ response. In fact, you might say, some of them got kicked. No doubt, the response from Jesus infuriated the religious elite even more, if that was even possible, and it likely started to turn some of the crowd away too. What was it that Jesus had to say; what was the kick? You will have to join us for the discussion to find out the answer to that question. But I promise it will be worth it, it will open your eyes to see why some in the crowd may have started falling away and turning against Jesus.  

For those unable to join us in person, please feel free to download the Bible study materials for your personal use by following one of these links:  PowerPoint Slides, PDF File. Also, you can download files for previous weekly studies by visiting the following page on my blog: Doubtless Living: The Gospel of Luke.