Daily Bible Reading 10th September 2026 // Luke 11:27-36
27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgement with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”
The reference to 'signs' in 29-32 has deep and far-reaching implications that need to be looked at with care. First of all, the demand for a sign was, in this instance, the demand for something so unmistakeable that faith itself would be abolished and made unnecessary. And, of course, such a demand was necessarily refused. They had had so many signs! Jesus' signs and wonders had been designed to lead men to faith - and would have led to faith if they had had any will to believe. But this was a demand which in its very nature was impossible - and for this reason: to have faith means that you submit yourself and give over your independent existence to Christ (it is the will to independence that constitutes our sinnerhood); it is to burn your boats, to give yourself away. Only thus can a man enter the kingdom of God. The signs wrought by Jesus are designed to give us confidence that the One to whom we are thus to commit ourselves is worthy of our trust and faith. But this kind of demand - for an unmistakeable proof that would make faith unnecessary - means that, deep down, we want the kind of knowledge, conviction, assurance that can come only by making this surrender, without making that surrender, without entering in. And it is an impossibility. It is the desire to be a Christian without being a Christian, to have the blessings and benefits of Christian experience without making the commitment which alone enables one to enter these blessings. It is, of course, true that one seeks as much evidence as possible on which to make up one's mind about Christ; but there comes a time when not only no more evidence is needed, but also no further evidence is possible, and the only thing left to do is to make that committal and taste and see that the Lord is good. When this point is reached, and still a man does not enter in, then we must conclude that there is no will to be converted, no desire or intention to believe.