What Would You do for a Friend?

According to one midwest “Burro Barn,” a self proclaimed last stop shop for donkeys, burros, jack asses and mules.... a donkey will cost you between $1000 and $2500, depending on its lineage and training....... but there is a word of caution.... if you find one for less than $1000, you really need to take it for a pre-ride just to be on the safe side......

I found that bit of significant information interesting, but I digress..... 

So, I was reading in my Bible in the start of the book of Acts.... the author Luke, mentions a guy named Theophilus, they must have been buddies cause Luke also mentioned this same cat in the opening of the gospel he wrote....there he calls him “most excellent Theophilus”, which because of my age, I naturally associated with “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” I was wrong...... Turns out, “excellent,” “most excellent” and “Excellency” are titles. Later in Acts, Luke's account identifies both Festus and Felix with the same title....In Roman culture there was this elite class, the “Equestrians.” Even though they were the lower half of the uppermost cast, they were still elite. Consider this, in order to qualify, you had to have a minimum of 400k Sesterces! .......yeah I didn’t know what that was either... thats where the donkey’s come in. See a Sesterces was the value of 2.5 asses. .......I will add...... that with my 6th grade mentality.....Its so great to get to legitimately use the word “ass”.....

So... if you average the present day cost of said ass at 2 grand, your talking $5k for one Sesterces...multiply by 400k, bingo....2 billion dollars! Now I realize thats all by today’s standards, but Theo had coin...and he loved God. In fact, his name, Theophilus actually means “friend of God”... its wild to me that Jesus was born into stark poverty, yet everyone needs the gospel, everyone needs Jesus, He is God's plan to make things right between Himself and man....and even though Theophilus was rich.....Luke set out to help his friend have “certainty” about Jesus, about what he had been taught.....at least thats what Luke wrote in the beginning of his gospel....

SO think about this for a second. This guy Luke, writes over 100 pages, according to my Bible-Luke and Acts, .......organizes all that into 50 something chapters, all so his friend can have certainty about Jesus....is it me or does that sound a little obsessive......

Actually........ I found it, well........ convicting.........especially when I ask myself......

“What would I do for a friend?” 

Now, I’m not a huge letter writer..... I do on occasion, mom says not enough....but 103 pages.......organized like that..... just so my friend can understand more about Jesus? Really? Even if you take out the hand writing part of all that, and cut and paste......just the time and energy that Luke put into speaking into Theophilus life is beyond remarkable. Sometimes I think, those guys wrote all that... they wrote knowing that what they wrote was gonna end up in the Bible, and they would be BIG SHOTS...... way, way, way.... in the future, but you know, they never knew that. He was just writing to a friend.....

So what would you do for a friend? 

What would I do for a friend? 

Even as I write this, I think....... really? Man I’m too selfish about MY time to give that kind of energy to anyone, let alone someone who just isn’t sharp enough to “get it.” I mean isn’t that God’s job anyway? 

No......no matter how long I think about this, I cannot escape the thought, I cannot rationalize, I cannot explain away.... the gospel is for ALL people regardless of gender, ethnicity, economics, or social classes, AND.... there are people in my life who I need to seriously consider giving that kind of energy to just so they can have certainty about Jesus... so....

What would you do for a friend?