Luke 18 Round Two: Jesus Knows Us

What if waiting wasn’t wasted but the exact place where faith grows roots? We open Luke 18 and follow a vivid path—from a widow who won’t quit, to a Pharisee and a tax collector whose prayers reveal their hearts, to children welcomed with open arms. Along the way, a wealthy ruler meets his roadblock, Jesus clears up the myth of buying your way into the kingdom, and we hear a passion prediction so clear it confronts our expectations of victory.

We share why the story of the persistent widow isn’t about pestering God but trusting His character, and how humility—not spiritual résumé—opens the door to grace. The moment with the children reframes access to the kingdom as receptive, simple, and dependent. Then we sit with the rich ruler’s question and Jesus’ surgical answer about surrender, wealth, and the “eye of a needle,” pushing past popular misconceptions to the core truth: salvation is miracle, not transaction. We also explore the possibility that the rich man may have been Joseph of Arimathea, a reminder that grace keeps pursuing even the hesitant.

As Jesus predicts His suffering and resurrection, we name the gap between our expectations and His mission. And on the road, a blind beggar’s desperate cry—“Son of David, have mercy on me”—becomes a model of clear-eyed faith. He asks for sight; Jesus restores it; praise ripples through the crowd. Through each scene, one theme holds: Jesus knows. He knows our motives, our fears, our attachments, and our needs—and He keeps inviting us to pray longer, bow lower, release what binds us, and see more clearly.

If this journey through Luke 18 stirred something in you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. What part challenged you most—the waiting, the humility, the surrender, or the seeing?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Luke’s Lens: Why This Matters
• 1:44 The Persistent Widow and Justice
• 6:40 Pharisee vs. Tax Collector
• 11:30 Let the Children Come
• 13:40 The Rich Ruler’s Roadblock

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the Biblebreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's word together. Hello and welcome back to your tour through the Gospel of Luke. Today, Luke chapter 18. This is a really, really good chapter because we're going to get to see both on one end Jesus telling some parables to help us understand some complex spiritual principles, but then he's also going to have a conversation with someone that there's kind of some interesting tradition behind who this may very well be. And so we're going to jump into this, and we want to always remember that this is the first century equivalent of investigative journalism. Don't forget that Luke was trained as a doctor, yet he has been commissioned by a guy named Theopolis, a high-ranking Roman government official, to go into the Judean countryside and to inspect and investigate all the things that Jesus or the claims that have made about Jesus, and he comes back and he says, He's real, everything is real. Here's the receipts to prove it. And I wonder in this chapter who Luke might have been talking to. Maybe he was talking to the parents of the children that Jesus blesses in a moment, or just maybe, and I can't help but wonder, if he was either talking to the rich young man that we're going to hear about in a minute, or a blind beggar that was actually healed along the way. So let's jump into this and then we're gonna go through this and talk about some of these ideas. And once again, this this idea we just want to break down the Bible to its lowest common denominator, the pieces of the Bible, so that we can build back up a strong faith in who God is. Because I'm gonna tell you, the more we dig, the more we find. So let's jump into this together. Luke chapter 18, verse 1 says this. One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. There was a judge in a certain city, he said, who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy. The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, I don't fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I'm going to see that she gets justice because she is wearing me out with all her constant requests. Then the Lord said, Learn the lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don't you think that God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly. But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith? Now, the idea behind this is that there is this judge who is not just at all, but yet he does the right thing for a lady because basically she won't leave him alone. She just keeps after him, keeps after him, keeps after him. And for his own sake, he brings her justice. And what Jesus is saying is if that's what an evil person does, how much more will a wholly good father do good things for his children? So it's not an idea that we should pester God. And there's nothing wrong with continually being persistent in prayer, and I think that the Bible teaches us to do that. But if you think that's all this is, you're kind of missing the point that if bad people do things for, you know, their selfish motivation, how much more will a holy good God do things out of a selfless motivation? So it's really not a matter of if God will answer your prayer, it is how many of us will stay faithful until the answer comes. Because the idea is that God always answers every single prayer you ever pray. It's either a yes, a no, or a wait. But the thing is, is that we only seem to count the yeses. But often God doesn't say no. He does say wait because he is many times doing things we don't see at the moment. And that's what Jesus is saying is he says, How many will stay faithful or have faith when God says wait? Alright, the next parable Jesus is going to tell is the contrast between two different conditions of the heart. He says this in verse 9. Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else. Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other was a despised tax collector. Now pause for remember. Remember that a tax collector was considered to be the most terrible individual in the culture at the time. Like I don't know what you would consider to be like the worst person, like other than cat owners, whatever you whoever you would think would be like the worst, like lowest person in your world, you know, and no offense to cat owners, that was a joke. But whoever that is, that is a tax collector. Because you think about it for a moment. A tax collector partnered with the people that had come in and destroyed your country. Like the Romans had come in, destroyed the country, they had taken over everything, and now uh people who were part of your community was now partnering with the enemy to come and take your money away. These are the worst people, and so Jesus is using this contrast between the Pharisees, who are supposed to be the most righteous among us, within the lowest people among us. Okay, so now you got these two contrasting things. Let's read it again. Two men went to the temple to pray. One, a Pharisee, the best of us, and the other was a despised tax collector, the worst of us. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer. I thank God that I am not like other people, kind of side-eyeing, you know, everybody else, cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I am certainly not like that tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income. But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, Oh God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner. I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exhausted, exalted, almost said exhausted. But the the idea behind this is on the Day of Atonement, everyone was required to go to the temple, and they actually would have to spend time, or they were told to spend time thinking about their life. Had they sinned in any area, had they come short. That's what sin is, it's coming short of the mark of perfection that God requires. And so they were required to sit and to think on it and to think on it and then confess their sin to the Lord. And so Jesus is saying that the Pharisee came in and he just confessed his awesomeness. God, I really am thankful that I'm I really am that awesome. Thank you, God, for making me so awesome. But the tax collector said, God, I know I'm messing up. I know I'm getting it wrong, but I want to get it right. And what Jesus said is, you know who the one I like? The one who admits he's not getting it right, but wants to. And that's a wonderful lesson for us, is to make sure that we always keep that humble heart of saying, God, I want to be pliable, I want to be usable in your sight. Verse 15 says, One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering them. And then Jesus called the children to the and said to the disciples, Let the children come to me and don't stop them. For the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth. Anyone who doesn't receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it. And then once again a religious leader asked Jesus this question, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? He said, Only God is good. Pause. I wonder, Jesus is almost kind of like tongue in cheek saying, you know, you're telling me that I'm good, but you do know only God is good. So it's almost like Jesus kind of wink wink, are you saying I'm God? So he's kind of putting this uh this rich man in kind of a position that only only God is truly good. Verse 20. But to answer your question, you know the commandments. You must not murder, you must not commit adultery, you must not steal, you must not testify falsely, honor your father and your mother. Then the man replied, Ah, I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young. But then Jesus answered him and said, There's still one thing you haven't done. Sell all your possessions and give your money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. But when the man heard this, he became very sad, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw this, he said, How hard it is for a rich for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. For those who heard this said, Then who in the world can be saved? Jesus replied, What is impossible with people is possible with God. Peter said, Hey, hey, hey, we've left our homes to follow you. Yes, Jesus replied, and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will be repaid many times over in this life, an eternal life, uh in this life and an eternal life in the world to come. I'm sorry, I'm I'm I was distracted because of the idea that for a long time I believed that Jesus was talking about a literal place when he says the eye of a needle and the camel. There was some um idea that the eye of a needle was a place, an entrance into the city of Jerusalem. And so there was actually a theology that was out there that Jesus was actually talking about how it's possible, but what you had to do with the camel is you actually had to put the camel down on its knees so it could get under this low overpass. And so Jesus was actually saying it's possible for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, but they have to stay humble. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Problem is it doesn't exist. Hey man, I'm gonna tell you the truth. It doesn't actually exist. What Jesus is actually saying is no, no, no, it is impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of heaven by paying their way. You can't be generous enough to enter the kingdom of heaven, you can't be good enough to enter the kingdom of heaven. You can only enter the kingdom of heaven through Jesus, because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Notice that's why the disciples were saying, Is it then impossible to enter the kingdom of heaven? And that's when Jesus said, Yes, you know, with man, things are impossible. But with God, all things are possible. And there's a little bit of some tradition here that says, we don't know exactly who this was, but there's some tradition that says that this might have been Joseph of Arimathea. We're going to learn about him a little bit later because he actually had the courage that when all the disciples left Jesus, other than John, John was at the foot of the cross when Jesus was dying, but all the other disciples left Jesus. But a guy named Joseph of Arimathea actually went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, which was a risk because not only could he have been just put out of the local community by the Pharisees, but he could have been listed as one of Jesus' followers and put to death himself. So it took a great cost for him to do this. But the reason why Joseph of Arimathea could have gotten away with it is because tradition says Joseph was one of the most rich people in the entire city. He would have been worth uh probably close to a billion dollars in today's currency, like like several, several, several, several million dollars. Well, there is some tradition that says that the rich man in this story might have been Joseph of Arimathea. And so he would have walked away at the time, saying, No, I can't do that, but later would have become a follower of Jesus anyway. And so it's amazing to realize that even if we walk away in that moment, Jesus never gives up on us. Let's finish reading and finish this today. The Bible says in Luke 18, verse 31, taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said, Listen, we're going to Jerusalem where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true. He will be handed over to the Romans, and he will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon. They will flog him with a whip and kill him. But on the third day he will rise again. But they didn't understand any of this. The significance of the words were hidden from them, and they failed to grasp what he was talking about. Now pause one more time, because it sounds extremely straightforward. Jesus just said, Hey, these jokers are going to arrest me, they're going to beat the soup out of me, and then they're going to kill me. And I'm going to rise again. And it's so it's odd, right, that they would say that Luke would write, they didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Well, I mean, were you listening? Here's the reason why. It's because during the time, they were certain that the Messiah was going to be a political ruler that was actually going to take over the Roman Empire. It was going to set them free from Roman oppression and take over the world. So they had no idea that Jesus was actually going to be crucified. And it was so far from their mind that even when Jesus continually told them, I'm going to go to Jerusalem. Listen to me, boys, listen to me. They're going to arrest me. I mean, he just says it straightforward, but they're so focused on what they think Jesus is supposed to do that it blows their mind when Jesus is arrested, crucified, and put in a tomb. Now he's going to be he's going to rise again, and he tells that as well, but they are just so focused on something else. But can I can I say this? It was so amazing. Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen, and he went anyway. It would be one thing if he was surprised, but he knew every step of the way was leading him to a terrible death, and he never stopped walking. I think that's amazing. Let's finish this up, verse 35. As Jesus approached Jerusalem, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road. When he heard the noise of a crowd going past, he asked what was happening. They told him, Jesus of the Nazarene was going by. And when he began to shout, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Be quiet, the people in front yelled at him. But he shouted even louder, Son of David, have mercy on me. When Jesus heard him, he stopped and ordered that the man be brought to him. And as the man came near, Jesus asked him, What do you want me to do for you? Lord, he said, I want to see. And Jesus said, All right, receive your sight. Your faith has healed you. Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus, praising God. And all who saw it praised God too. I love that we end with, even though we're going back and forth, all these different things, it ends with Jesus. He even on the way to this certain fate, he stops to bring healing to everyone around him. And if I were to give this chapter an overall principle, it would be that Jesus really knows what's going on. Jesus knows. We got to see the first part of it that Jesus knows the hearts of those two men in the temple. That Jesus really knew what was the sticking point for the rich man. Jesus knew that he was on his way to a certain death. And then Jesus knew the heart of this blind man. And the wonderful grace about this is Jesus knows me and he knows you. And even though maybe that may make you a little bit nervous, here's the thing: he knows all your worst attributes and he loves you anyway. He's not ashamed of you. And he wants to be your forever friend. He wants to walk with you through every stage of life. I think that's amazing. So I want to pray for us. We're going to end our time together, and I just can't wait to get into the next part because we're getting into just some of the my favorite parts of the entire gospel. So let me pray for you. Father, thank you for your goodness, your kindness, your mercy. Thank you that you lead us and that you know us in all areas of life. I pray you'll open our eyes to see you more clearly, and that Lord, today we will apply this to our life so that we can walk closer to you in all things. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, God bless you. I'll see you next time for Luke chapter 19.