In Luke 13, Jesus used two contemporary catastrophes (the massacre at the temple mount and fall of the Tower of Siloam where 18 died) to draw attention to man’s need to repent. In other words, Jesus used a well-known current event, that everyone was talking about in order to make a spiritual application.
In 2018 I wrote 3 blogs about the 12 Thai soccer players trapped in a cave in northern Thailand since most everyone I spoke to was riveted on every phase of their rescue.
In 2017 I wrote a blog about Vichai, the billionaire owner of the Leicester City football team who died in a tragic helicopter accident.
This year I got news of the death of Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter in a similar helicopter crash. A few days before I was training a group of students from Dallas Theological Seminary who go out in street evangelism each week. The parable I taught them was about the foolish farmer from Luke 12:16-21, who was so wealthy that he tore down his old barns to build new ones and prepared for retirement, but is told, “You fool, this very night your soul is required of you..” This parable was in my mind as I prepared to exercise in the gym today. In the locker room, I sat next to a man and asked if he had heard about Kobe. He knew all the facts about this tragedy and so I asked if I could tell him the Luke 12 parable. He listened attentively and even commented on the dangers of unusual wealth and the fact that a 16-year-old girl he knew had just died unexpectedly of the flu just a few days ago.
This discussion reminded me of the need to read daily, not only our Bible but also a reliable news feed as we seek ways to bring the Bible and gospel in a winsome way into our daily conversations.
Note: The blogs mentioned about were posted on April 4, 2017, and Sept. 11, July 4 and July 12 of 2018.
