57 “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? 58 As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way, or your adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59 I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”
I used to wonder what this passage meant. Here, Jesus is talking to a crowd of people, and he begins to talk about a person and their adversary going to court, and being reconciled before reaching the magistrate. Initially, my impression was that Jesus is talking about us and our neighbors being reconciled. However, I’m always discovering new things as I read the Bible. I can have read a passage 1000 times, and then see something new the 1001th time I read it. This time I read this passage, I had a better understanding of what Jesus was referring to when he talked about us and our adversary in this passage.
Since the context of the overall passage was about readiness and reading the times, I realized this time in reading the passage that Jesus is talking about we and our relationship with Him. In life, we must make sure that we are reconciled to God. We are all sinners, and our sin has separated us from God (Romans 3:23-26). And God, being perfect and holy, must punish sin. But God, in His mercy, gave his Son, Jesus, to die in our place (Romans 5:8). Jesus paid the debt for our sin so that we may be reconciled to God. Reconciliation of all people to God is not something that occurred for everyone automatically when Jesus died and rose again. The ability to be reconciled to God by inviting Jesus into our hearts and lives to be Lord – is something that we must act upon. We act upon this by confessing our sins to God, repenting of our lifestyle away from Him, and making Jesus the Lord of our lives (the prayer of salvation).
In Luke 12:57-59, I believe Christ is telling the crowd to be reconciled to God today. We are all on our way to meet the judge – God. He has shown, through His Word, that He desires reconciliation with us (2 Corinthians 5:19, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Colossians 1:15-23). He has paid for our sins with His own blood. Now, we must take His hand, which is reaching out to us. Without being reconciled to God, we are saying we can fend for our own sins before the judge, or that we can try our own case. Sin is a debt no one can pay. Trust in Jesus!
Trust in Him, and let Him pay your debt today.
Shelly Nyo 
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