Harmony #76: Zacchaeus - In The Apple Of God’s Eye (Luke 19:1-10)

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. Now a man named Zacchaeus was there; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to get a look at Jesus, but being a short man he could not see over the crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, because Jesus was going to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, because I must stay at your house today.” So he came down quickly and welcomed Jesus joyfully. And when the people saw it, they all complained, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”

But Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, half of my possessions I now give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone of anything, I am paying back four times as much!” Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this household, because he too is a son of Abraham! For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

We are going to come back to this story. Meanwhile,

Psalm 17:8: "Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me under the shadow of thy wings."

David asked to literally be the "little man of the eye,” the tiny reflection of yourself that you can see in other people’s pupils because you are being watched so closely by that person. David was asking God to be close, to keep an eye on him, to keep him safe. David wanted God to be near him, to focus on David such that his eyes were full of him, and to be for him. Deuteronomy 32:10 uses the phrase this way:

“In a desert land he found him (Israel), in a barren and howling wasteland. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye…”

We land here first. I can’t stress this enough. God is that close to his children. Whether that’s just those who follow Jesus or all of humanity (Paul said at Mars Hill that “we are all his offspring/children/ descendants“ ), God is near and God sees us. You might feel like you are overlooked, ignored, or unseen, but God is “apple of the eye” close. You are not alone. You are seen. You are loved.

It’s got me thinking about an implication of being God’s ambassadors, God’s representatives. We land here second.

We talk about being the hands and feet of Jesus, going places and doing things on behalf of God that reveals that the Holy Spirit has taken up His dwelling in us so that when people experience us they experience “Christ in us” (Colossians 1:27). I wonder, then, if we are meant to represent God by going into the “barren and howling wasteland” around us to guard and care for the “little people in our eyes” as well. If people are wondering, “Does God even see me and care?” that question is often answered when God’s people see them and care.

I’ve been thinking about this recently because of some realities of life that have highlighted the Christian burden of caring. When we are so close to people that they are the “little man in our eye,” we weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15) as we move through this barren and howling wasteland – and everyone weeps at some point. We will help each other carry burdens (Galatians 6:2) - and everyone carries burdens.

Doing this for everyone is an impossible task that only one person in the history of the world was able to do (let alone do perfectly) and that’s Jesus. But we, who as humans are God’s image bearers, and who as believers are ambassadors indwelt by God’s spirit; members of God’s body, the church – we must go into the wasteland and weep for more than our own sorrows and carry more burdens than our own.

But really engaging this can feel…unsettling. There was a reason Jesus’ audience wanted clarification on whom their neighbors were (Luke 10:25-37). The Bible says the man asking this question of Jesus was “seeking to justify himself.” I mean, it was one thing to consider your Jewish friends and family to be the neighbors to whom you extended the kind of love Jesus talked about when he summarized the Law, but….

• that Samaritan (Luke 10)?

• that Roman centurion (Acts 10)?

• that prostitute (Luke 7)?

• that tax collector we read about this morning (Luke 19)?

Yes indeed. That’s what “friends of sinners” do (Matthew 11:16-19). Those using that label thought they were mocking Jesus, but Jesus embraced that term: he was and is a friend of sinners.

So this tension of the Christian call to genuinely care about others including “the other”, to be so close that they take up that “apple” spot in our eyes, often places us in tense spots.

• Samaritans were aligned with blasphemy, and caring about them as neighbors made it look like Jewish people supported blasphemy.

• Roman centurions were aligned with the political oppression of God’s people; accepting them into the church could look like overlooking Roman sin.

• Tax collectors like Zacchaeus were traitorous enablers of economic oppression. Having a meal with them could easily look like enablement.

• Prostitutes were an obvious face of sexual immorality (and often fertility cult worship at that time). Spending time with them looked like you were minimizing or even overlooking their sin.

Yet God has his eye on them; he “came to seek and to save the lost.” And if he was in they eye of Jesus, he should have been in the eyes of God’s people. Wastelands have never been meant to stop Christians, no matter how barren and howling they are.

The God who created us, loves us, and offers salvation to us has a vested interest in His world. It groans because of the devastation that sin has wrought in everything. We are called to collectively groan as a church as we recognize the brokenness that has infiltrated everything God has created. In that shared weeping we represent the Immanuel part of how God is described - God with us, felt strongly because God’s people are with people in whatever wilderness they find themselves.

I have been thinking about this a lot since the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Parts of it were beautiful and entertaining; parts of it were a celebration of Dionysian or Bacchanalian revelries; a part of it (at least initially) seemed to parody Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, whether that was the organizers’ intent or not (they claim it wasn’t; some of the actors claim it was).

And I found in my reaction that I was not drawn to think of how I could get closer to people who live in a worldview that to me looks like an extravagant and howling wilderness so that they could see the love of God for them through me.

How do I want to see them? Like God sees them: with the kind of love Jesus showed Zacchaeus. With the kind of love that wants to invite them to leave the wilderness and join the banquet feast of the kingdom.

Where will I have to go? Into even barren and howling wildernesses, places that are uncomfortable and maybe even hostile.

How close will I have to get? Apple-of-the-eye close.

I think of Jesus looking at Jerusalem and weeping that the people keep looking for peace and not finding it. The organizers of the Olympic opening ceremonies have said they were trying to send a message that violence was foolish. It was apparently their (confusing and vulgar) attempt at a call to peace. Yet there will be no peace when the exploitative and even violent legacy of Dionysian revelries sets a moral compass.

So what did Jesus do when the Jewish people got their search for peace all wrong? He invited them to the banquet table.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:10-13)

We also see the heart that motivated him.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.” (Matthew 23:37-38)

He wept for those living in desolation. In fact, He gave His life so they could have access to the peace that eluded them and take their place at the banquet table of the Kingdom of God.

What should we do when cultures or individuals get a search for peace all wrong, perhaps even shockingly so? Weep, and offer our lives to God as ambassadors engaged in a ministry of reconciliation as recorded in 1 Corinthians 5:11-21.

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others…For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all who are dead, which is all of us. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again…

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

That, I think, should have been my first thoughts and emotions. I should have seen an opportunity for a ministry of reconciliation, and prayed that the Dionysian fields within my sphere of influence would be ripe for harvest.

* * * * *

I have been the apple in the eyes of many, thank God. I have had many people be the “little people in my eye.” Some dwell in the land of promise, some in the wilderness. I must choose not to look away. Lots of people should be reflected in my eyes, because they are in the eyes of Jesus. I was writing a list this week at stuff that came into my mind. There is plenty more that could be added.

• God’s people should be able to see those in poverty and sickness in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see those fighting mental and emotional battles in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see the reflection of those rejecting Jesus and accepting Jesus and wrestling with Jesus in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see those who love the church and those who have been traumatized by the church in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see the immigrant and refugee in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see the reflection of those dying of starvation, natural disasters, persecution, and wars in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see those who think Dionysian revelry will bring peace in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see those who support Trump and Harris and any third party candidate in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see the reflection of those who are broken or confused or even defiantly sinful as they wrestle with questions of sex and gender in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should work to see the reflection of their neighbors in this church in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should work to see the reflection of their family members in the apple of their eye.

Why? Because we want to be like Jesus.

Who is my neighbor? Everybody.

We start with family, then friends and church family, but eventually anybody we know is fair game. We are just looking at the world and asking what breaks God heart. We pray. We intercede. We petition God to heal us and our broken land. We move closer to those who are hurting, because it’s hard to carry a burden from a distance.

This is not limited by party, organization, religion, nationality, social status…. I went through my list and color coded the people in my eye: red and blue for situations that, fairly or unfairly, are associated with the Right or Left; purple for stuff everyone agrees on. It’s a mix, because everybody is my neighbor.

Who needs to be “the little people” in a Christian’s eye? Everybody.

We know the power of the gospel. We understand salvation, and healing, and renewal, and grace, and hope, and peace and joy, and the beauty of righteousness. We are outposts of the Kingdom: wherever we go, we take the presence of Jesus and set up camp. And that camp is full of truth, love, and the message of a Creator who is in the business of redeeming broken things. And we can’t do that from a distance.

Choose your analogy: we run to the battle; we go to the fields in need of harvest; we sow the seed of the gospel in every soil we encounter; we love our broken and fallen neighbors just like Jesus has loved us.

Now….we can’t be equally invested in all of these things. God has placed us in certain places or with certain people or given us certain gifts and oriented our broken hearts in certain directions such that some things will move front and center in our attempts to bring gospel healing to the world. We will gravitate more towards specific causes (with the hope that as the church body works together we're covering our ground as a whole fairly well).

We should be careful not to dismiss those in whom God has place a different weight of gospel mourning. Not everybody can or will be in ‘your’ eye they way they are in someone else’s, but everybody should be in the eye of somebody in the church who sees the world with the eyes of Jesus.

Let’s start with us, here, in the church. Can we commit to being engaged with this church family so that everybody here has the privilege of is in the apple of someone else’s eye?

I know we are in that privileged position with God; I also know it feels practically real to me when I experience from the image bearers of God. We can’t possibly engage with everybody in the same way, but we can be praying and watching for opportunity to make sure no one is being overlooked or ignored.

We talk about being the hands and feet of Jesus. Let’s be the eyes of Jesus too. Simply caring for each other is a really, really practical way to embody the presence and love of Jesus.

Harmony #69: Parables of the Lost Son, Lost Sheep & Lost Coin (Luke 15:1-32)

Last week, we read in Luke that Jesus had just told the Pharisees that when they host an elaborate meal, they should be inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind: basically, those that polite religious society had written off for reasons we talked about last week. Then he told the parable of the Great Banquet, where he showed that even though all are invited to the spiritual feast at God’s table, those who look to be the most obvious guests aren’t that interested, and those who look to be the least likely guests are elated to join the feast. Cue 3 parables.

 Now all the tax collectors[1] and sinners were coming to hear him. But the Pharisees and the experts in the law were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Sharing a meal was regarded as a sign of social acceptance in Eastern culture.[2] To the Pharisees, this kind of gesture appeared to validate the sin of those with whom Jesus was eating.[3] Jesus is having none of it. He is valuing people by giving them the dignity of treating them as image bearers of God, worth relational investment simply because they have an inherent value and dignity given to them by God.

Clearly, his presence changed people as his character and teaching introduced them to the Kingdom of God. #Zaccheus  However, the text doesn’t say everybody he ate with began to follow him. It doesn’t mean everyone we ‘share a meal’ with will want to follow Jesus. That didn’t stop Jesus from dining with all, and it shouldn’t stop us either.

To be sure, Scripture warns against too close of fellowship with those who revel in their sin (Psalm 1:1; Proverbs 1:15; 14:7) out of concern it might draw us into sinful, destructive behavior (as the parable of the Prodigal Son will make clear today). We need to know ourselves, our weaknesses, our boundaries. But in this instance, the influence is going the other direction.[4]  #salt #light

So Jesus told them this parable: “Which one of you, if he has a hundred sheep and he loses one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go look for the one that is lost until he finds it? Then when he has found it, he places it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

 Returning home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, telling them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost.’ I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent. [5]

“Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one of them,[6] does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search thoroughly until she finds it? Then when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”

These coins, by the way, were probably worn as a headdress or on a necklace. They represented her savings and perhaps formed part of her dowry. Losing it would be shameful as well as financially problematic (it’s 10% of her wealth).[7]

Then Jesus said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that will belong to me.’[8] So he divided his assets between them. After a few days, the younger son gathered together all he had and left on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered his wealth with a wild lifestyle.

Then after he had spent everything, a severe famine took place in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and worked for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He was longing to eat the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. [9]

“But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food enough to spare, but here I am dying from hunger! I will get up and go to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.[10] I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired workers. So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way from home his father saw him, and his heart went out to him; he ran and hugged his son and kissed him. Then his son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

But the father said to his slaves, ‘Hurry! Bring the best robe, and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet! Bring the fattened calf and kill it![11] Let us eat and celebrate, because this son of mine was dead, and is alive again—he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.

Now his older son was in the field. As he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the slaves and asked what was happening. The slave replied, ‘Your brother has returned, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he got his son back safe and sound.’

But the older son became angry and refused to go in.[12] His father came out and appealed to him, but he answered his father, ‘Look! These many years I have worked like a slave for you, and I never disobeyed your commands.[13] Yet you never gave me even a goat[14] so that I could celebrate with my friends! But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’

Then the father said to him, ‘My son,[15] you are always with me, and everything that belongs to me is yours. It was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.’ “ [16]

There are so many things one can take away from this story.

1.  Note the different circumstances:

• the lost sheep wandered and gave up (lost sheep usually lie down and gives up on trying to find its way back)[17]

• the lost coin ‘fell away’ from a necklace or a headdress

• the lost son rebelled (both sons did, actually, but in very different ways).

 It’s a good reminder that there are different reasons why people are far from the Father or not in fellowship in the household of His Kingdom. Their reason for being where they are is not as important as the response of the God character in all the parables. God is portrayed as both seeking them out and waiting eagerly for their restoration.

2.  They are all precious.

“We should also recognize that our search is for something precious, costly and dear just like the coin the woman has lost…She does not argue that the loss of one is not a tragedy, because there are still nine left. It is not the quantity that counts, but the value of each coin as an individual piece. It does not matter whether it was a large or small coin…all are her coins!  

Likewise, as individuals we are each valued by God. Each of us is a unique being because of the dignity and value that God has conferred upon us. Nobody should regard herself or himself as low, useless, rotten and unproductive. And because each of us is unique, it matters deeply when one of us is lost. The loss of one is as serious as the loss of all…  Because each of us is so precious, we must also constantly be searching for ways to guarantee that no human life will be lost, degraded, exploited, abused or violated.” (Africa Bible Commentary)

3.  God is a seeking, caring God.

“What is revealed about the character of God is value he places on even the least deserving and the care he extends to such people. God is not passive, waiting for people to approach him after they get their lives in order. He is a seeking God who takes the initiative to bring people back, regardless of how ‘lost’ they are.”[18] 

And if we take our cues from God, that’s our position also. We are not called to be judgmental, dismissive, cold, or aloof toward those who are lost, wandering, fallen or rebellious. We are called to move closer to them, to seek them out, to run toward them and embrace them when we see them, and to rejoice in restoration.

4.  The lost things did not lose their status; they all remained within the claim of the owner:

• it was still the shepherd’s sheep, just lost in its wandering;

• it was still the woman’s coin, just lost in its hiding

• the boys were still their Father’s sons, just lost in their own unique rebellions

 God is not only searching for them, He is longing for their return into fellowship. This gives hope not only to the “tax collectors and sinners,” but to the very Pharisees who are bringing charges against Jesus. These are parables of hope, after all. God’s heart is restoration.

5.  The prodigal son had insulted his father. Asking for that which you would normally get when your father died was viewed as wishing he was dead. Then, he sold what his father gave him (including land!) and left the household (think ‘lived outside the parameters of the Kingdom’). He indulged himself on extravagant sin, thinking that was the path to the good life (#Solomon #Ecclesiastes), but it led him to pain, loss and shame. Even all the friends he had when he had money left him. He appears to experience regret because the consequences of his sin have left him destitute.[19] It wakes him up.

6.  His rehearsed speech was this:” “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired workers.” The hired worker was a day laborer. He wasn't asking to live in the house. He’s just asking for provision from the Father that he earns and takes with him. However,

“The prodigal declares that he is not worthy of his own identity and wants something less, but he is no hired hand. Grace lets you be who are supposed to be even though you do not deserve to or may not want to.”[20]

7.  His father begins running toward him before he can say a word. In the context, it sure looks like the father has been faithfully watching the road. The father ran. That’s embarrassing already, be he would likely have lifted up his robe to run better, which is even more embarrassing. Kenneth Bailey, author of The Cross & the Prodigal, explains that if a Jewish son lost his inheritance among Gentiles, and then returned home, the community would perform a ceremony (kezazah) in which they would break a large pot in front of the prodigaland yell, “You are now cut off from your people!” So, why did the father run? He probably ran not only because he was glad to see the son returning, but also in order to get to his son before the son entered the village and was rejected by the people.[21] 

8. The son manages to say the first part of his planned speech (“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”) The Father cuts him off before he can make the request to be merely a servant and basically yells, “Son!” before giving him the clothes of a son.

“He receives [him] cordially, affectionately - takes [him] to his bosom; for so the word implies. What mercy! Jesus receives sinners in the most loving, affectionate manner, and saves them unto eternal life! Reader, give glory to God for ever!” (Adam Clarke)

9. Note the elation/celebration for the 1 in all three stories. It wasn’t as if the other 99, or 9, or the older son didn’t matter. As the father tells the son, “You are always with me, and everything that belongs to me is yours.” Sounds a lot like, “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”

There is something here that calls out jealousy, pride and entitlement. When we have lost the ability to let the spotlight shine on someone else and to join in a celebration of the lost being found or the spiritually dead finding new spiritual life, we are really far from the heart of the Father. We have lost the heart of the Kingdom.

Those who are not lost wandering, fallen away or rebellions have been living with full access to all that belongs to the Father. They were living in a Kingdom full of the resources of the King. The idea that Older Son here can’t rejoice is a tragic commentary on his heart. In fact…he may be as prodigal as his brother. It’s just not as obvious.

10.  Note the way entitlement, pride and jealousy bring out the worst in the older brother.

He refuses to enter the home during a village-wide celebration, which shamed his father.

• He calls his own brother “your son” rather than “my brother” – which the Father corrects by calling the Prodigal “your brother.”

• He complains about not getting a goat; meanwhile, “All that I have is yours!” Like, he could have had a feast anytime.

• ·    He doesn’t address his Father properly when he speaks to him. He starts with, “Look!” which to Jesus audience was very disrespectful.

• Also, note that once the party started, no one went to get him. Everyone else seems very comfortable not having him around.

 The entitlement, pride and jealousy of the Older Brother are just as destructive as the kind of living the Prodigal embraced. The destructiveness just isn’t as easy to spot, because it exists behind a façade of good works. Yet in the end, who is rejoicing to be with the Father? The son who experienced forgiveness and grace.

11.  Note how the Father says to the older brother, “‘My son, you are always with me, and everything that belongs to me is yours. It was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.’” He doesn’t reject him. He pulls him closer, reminds him of his status, and corrects him oh, so gently. Both sons were wrong. Both need correction that leads to repentance to redirect their hearts and hands into that which brings life, not death. Both sons remained loved by the Father. Don’t forget, it’s the kindness of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4); we see it demonstrated here for both sons.

12.  The parable ends on a somber note. It’s not clear if the older son joins the banquet of celebration. He can – he is welcome and wanted. Will his injured pride and sense of entitlement stop him from rejoicing and feasting because his own younger brother, who was lost and dead, is now found and alive? Will he be able to see the miracle in front of him – the spiritually dead was brought back to life; that precious family member presumed lost is now back and ready to live fully in the Father’s house?

“While the ending is disappointing, the image people are left with at the end of this parable is an image of the waiting, running, embracing, kissing and partying One who has compassion for the lost who are still a long way off (15:20) and for those who have always been near (15:31).  

A banquet of great joy is provided by this waiting One, who is none other than the waiting, running, embracing, partying and kissing God. The parable describes God’s goodness, grace, boundless mercy and abundant love.” (Africa Bible Commentary)

_______________________________________________________________________

[1] “Tax collectors were regarded with special contempt as they were widely considered by the people to be agents of their oppressors.” (NKJV Evangelical Study Bible)

[2] NKJV Evangelical Study Bible

[3] Rabbi Ishmael wrote in Mekhilta Amalek, “Let a man never associate with a wicked person, not even for the purpose of bringing him near the Torah.” (Stories With Intent: A Comprehensive Guide To The Parables of Jesus, by Klyne Snodgrass)

[4] NIV Cultural Background Study Bible

[5] “Walking in his footsteps as he searches for the lost is not easy in a world burdened with lost sheep in the form of refugees and those affected by slavery, colonialism, dictatorship, the debt burden, HIV/AIDS, unemployment, homelessness, sexual abuse and gender inequality. (Africa Bible Commentary)

[7] NIV Women’s Study Bible

[8] “Demanding one’s share of the inheritance before the father died was tantamount to saying, “I wish you were dead”; an ancient audience might have expected the father to discipline the son, perhaps by beating him.” (NIV Cultural Background Study Bible)

[9] “Moralists commonly observed that those who were friends only for the sake of pleasure would abandon one when the money ran out. A normal ancient story might have ended here, with an obvious moral for listeners: don’t disrespect and abandon your father, or you might end up like this! Yet Jesus’ story continues.” (NIV Cultural Background Study Bible)

[10] A very different phrase from King David after his sin with Bathsheba and killing of her husband, when he wrote in the Psalms, “Against you only (God) have I sinned….”

[11] “Would feed the entire village. A person of means invited as many people as possible to a major celebration.” (NIV Cultural Background Study Bible)

[12] “Ancient hearers might have expected the father to discipline this son. The father…going outside to entreat him reinforces the humiliation.” (NIV Cultural Background Study Bible)

[13] “Failure to greet his father with a title (“Father” or “Sir”) was offensive.”  (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[14] “ ‘The one who seems to himself to be righteous, who does not see the beam in his own eye, becomes angry when forgiveness is granted to one who confesses his sin and begs for mercy.” (Ambrose, quoted in the Orthodox Study Bible)

[15] “The father reaffirms his love for the elder brother; the way is open for him — and for Jesus’ religious critics - if they are willing.” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[16] Interesting take from Eastern Orthodoxy: “The [shepherd], the woman, and the father are seen as representing Christ, the Church, and God the Father. ‘Christ carries the sinner, the Church seeks and intercedes, and the Father receives.’” (Orthodox Study Bible)

[17] Stories With Intent: A Comprehensive Guide To The Parables of Jesus, by Klyne Snodgrass

[18] Stories With Intent: A Comprehensive Guide To The Parables of Jesus, by Klyne Snodgrass

[19] One of the forms of the “wrath of God” is reaping what we sow. See the Bible Project’s “Saved From God’s Wrath.” https://bibleproject.com/podcast/saved-from-gods-wrath/#:~:text=God%20demonstrates%20his%20wrath%20by,which%20ultimately%20leads%20to%20death

[20] Stories With Intent: A Comprehensive Guide To The Parables of Jesus, by Klyne Snodgrass

[21] https://www.biola.edu/blogs/biola-magazine/2010/the-prodigal-sons-father-shouldnt-have-run

Harmony #14: Mercy and Sacrifice (Mark 2:1-17; Luke 5:17-32; Matthew 9:1-13)

Healing & Forgiving a Paralytic – (Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26; Matthew 9:1-8)
Now after some days, Jesus got into a boat and crossed to the other side and came to his own town. When he returned to Capernaum, the news spread that he was at home. 

 On one of those days, while he was teaching, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting nearby (who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem), and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 

So many gathered that there was no longer any room, not even by the door, and Jesus preached the word to them. Some men came bringing to him a paralytic, carried on a stretcher by four of them. They were trying to bring him in and place him before Jesus.  

But when they were not able to bring him in because of the crowd, they removed the roof tiles above Jesus. Then, after tearing them out, they lowered the stretcher the paralytic was lying on, right in front of Jesus. 

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Have courage son[1], your sins are forgiven.”

Time out. This guy’s friends didn’t knock a hole in the roof for him to get his sins forgiven. He was there so this miracle worker could make him walk again. Yet Jesus offers the best miracle: the forgiveness of sins.[2]

Now some of the experts in the law and the Pharisees were sitting there, turning these things over in their minds: “Why does this man speak this way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 

When Jesus saw their reaction, he immediately realized in his spirit that they were contemplating such hostile thoughts, he said to them, “Why are you raising objections within yourselves and thinking such evil things in your hearts?  Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up, take your stretcher, and walk’? 

But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—he said to the paralytic— “I tell you, stand up, take your stretcher, and go home.”

I’ve noted this before, but it’s worth noting again: Physical miracles serve a greater purpose than simply the healing of the physical infirmity (though that’s also a gift of grace). Ultimately, forgiving sins is a greater act than a healing miracle (“Only God can forgive sins.”) The miracles are meant to reveal the power of God to do the greatest miracles of all in the realms we cannot see: the salvation and restoration of our hearts. Miracles confirm or affirm the Jesus is God, the Messiah, the long-awaited King and Redeemer.[3]

Immediately he stood up before them, picked up the stretcher he had been lying on, and went home in front of them all, glorifying God. Then astonishment seized them all, and they glorified God who had given such authority to men. They were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen incredible things today. We have never seen anything like this!”

No, they haven’t, but wait until they see what comes next. 

Notice their awe, though. It wasn’t that a man’s sins were forgiven. It was that he could walk again. And they glorified God “who had given such authority to men.” Glorifying God is good, but they still didn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah. And they seem far more fascinated by the potential to have physical diseases cured than to have their sins forgiven.

So Jesus is going to make the point really clear. He’s about to transform a man whose occupation made him a social pariah—a known sinner and an associate of publicly known sinners.[4]

Calling Matthew/Levi, Eating with Sinners (Mark 2:13-17; Luke 5:27-32; Matthew 9:9-13)
Jesus went out again by the sea. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them.  As he went along, he saw Levi, or Matthew, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him, leaving everything behind. 

Jewish people viewed tax collectors as traitors. When harvests were bad, it was not unheard of for the population of an entire village to leave town and start a village somewhere else when they heard that a tax collector was coming. Later rabbis sometimes contrasted Pharisees, as the godliest Judeans one would normally meet, with tax collectors, as the most ungodly one would normally meet.[5]

Then Levi gave a great banquet in his house for Jesus, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 

When the experts in the law and the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they complained to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 

When Jesus heard this he said, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do. Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

So Jesus said to Matthew/Levi – while he was sitting in his tax collecting booth – “Follow me.” And Matthew did. And then threw him a banquet and invited all of his sketchy friends.

THE BANQUET

Table fellowship was an important social and even religious event. Eating with someone established a covenant of friendship, which normally also signified approval.[6] Boundaries designated who was included and excluded and outlined religious and ethical obligations toward the participants.

Within Judaism, the Pharisees were well known for the role that table fellowship played in defining their group identities. They consumed food made sacred through various ritual practices such as ceremonial washings or tithing. Participants needed a prior initiation.[7]

In Judaism a scrupulous Pharisee would not eat at the home of a common Israelite (am ha’aretz, “people of the land”), since he could not be sure that the food was ceremonially clean or that it had been properly tithed. To avoid ceremonial defilement, a guest at the home of a Pharisee would be required to wear a ritually clean garment provided by the host.[8]

THE GUESTS

"Sinners" could have just been those who did not share all the observances of the Pharisees, but it seems to be prostitutes, tax collectors, and other people with publicly bad reputations. The term “sinner” (hamartōlos) was often used by the Pharisees to point to an identifiable segment of the people who were opposed to God’s will, but “sinner” is normally used more generally to designate the person who commits acts of sin defined by the law.[9]

The derision that many felt generally for tax collectors was aggravated because they were regarded as ceremonially unclean due to their contact with Gentiles and their compromise of the Sabbath.[10]

Though eating with them entailed dangers of ceremonial defilement, Jesus and his disciples did so. He became known as "a friend of tax collectors and `sinners" (Matthew 11:19).[11] In the minds of the Pharisees, for Jesus to share a meal with these types of persons indicated that he not only included them within his own fellowship, but also that he condoned their behavior.

But that’s in the mind of the Pharisees. Jesus will clarify what’s actually going on.[12]

THE PHARISEES’ BLIND SPOT

I don’t want to completely throw the Pharisees under the bus. They were trying. If Nicodemus is any indication, there were certainly Pharisees who were sincerely dedicated to pursuing the Kingdom of Heaven. As they understood it, getting all 600+ laws right and following all the details added by tradition were the key. But…they couldn’t see the forest for all the trees.

They had lost a key aspect of the heart of God for the world as expressed in Jesus: mercy.

THE PROVERBS JESUS QUOTES

“Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.”

Jesus' quotes about the doctor connected his healing ministry with his "healing" of sinners. The physically sick need physical healing; the sinfully sick need the spiritual healing of mercy and forgiveness.

“I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”

This is a quote from Hos. 6:6.  In the context of Hosea, God’s people were keeping up on their sacrificial duties but living terrible lives.

• Mercy here means benevolence or kindness toward others.

• Sacrifices were offerings made to God on account of sin or as an expression of thanksgiving.They were always costly, usually crops or animals. You couldn’t offer a sacrifice without being reminded of what kind of penalty sin deserved.[13]

“I desire mercy and not sacrifice” is a Hebrew way of speaking in which an order of priorities was contrasted with really stark language (like saying you have to hate your family to love God).[14] It means:

"I am more pleased with acts of benevolence and kindness than with a mere external compliance with the duties of religion."

The sense in which Jesus applies it is this:

"You Pharisees are exceedingly tenacious of the "external" duties of religion; but God has declared that he prefers benevolence or mercy to those external duties.” [15]

There is a danger revealed in this story: even those most dedicated to religious observance will fail to see their own need for healing, and thus fail to understand the mercy God has shown them and expects them to pay forward.

The Pharisees were not only in need of the Great Physician, they were nowhere near as healthy as they thought. They had missed the importance of mercy. They didn’t understand how much they themselves still needed it. Jesus was doing more than telling them to be more sympathetic to outcasts; by quoting Hosea, Jesus was connecting them with the apostates of ancient Israel whose worship God rejected.[16]This us why Jesus challenged the Pharisees to "go and learn" what it means to live out what they claim to believe about what kind of people God calls his children to be.

They were baffled that someone demonstrated mercy and compassion to such blatantly obvious sinners while dismissing the "righteous" as hypocrites because they didn't understand that how showing mercy is more important than going through the motions of ritual worship. Your hands can be the most ceremonially clean hands in the history of the world while your heart is desperately unclean.

And what ‘furniture of the heart’ do the Gospel writers spotlight in this incident? The merciful heart of Jesus for sinners that motivates him to go to them. The Pharisees were concerned about righteousness (right living) and holiness (being separate as those called out by God), but they misunderstood what that meant.

Righteousness is not just withdrawal from; it’s active engagement to.

Righteousness is not just walking from sin; it’s walking to sinners.

Holiness isn’t meant to isolate us from the world; it’s meant to preserve us as we go in to the world.

The righteous should be known for modeling Jesus-inspired mercy to the despised, the unclean, the rejected. There is something about that posture that reflects the priority of the heart. Who is today’s tax collector? Who is the person or group of people you think so unclean, so unsavory, so wrong that the best thing to do is isolate them, avoid them, and paint them in the worst light possible when we talk about them? Who are the ones we think don’t deserve the dignity of being treated as image bearers of God?

The Pharisees were known for all the outward conformity that kept them clean through avoidance and distance. They were also known for their haughtiness, isolation, and hardness. They did not understand how God intended all the ceremonial rituals they loved to remind them of their sinfulness, their need, their inability to generate their own righteousness. They were supposed to see the deep and ongoing mercy of a God who continued to offer grace and forgiveness to them. Read Galatians 3. The Law was there to identify sin and constrain its impact. The Law was inspired behavior modification in a world that desperately needed it: it told God’s people what not to do and what to do. They were saved fromand to.

Simultaneously, there had to be a system for forgiveness of sins because nobody has the power to keep the law as God intends for it to be kept. Nobody. Unfortunately, the Jewish leaders thought the solution was to just keep adding details to the Law. And over time, keeping the Law became what we now call “virtue signaling”  - publicly displaying how their personal behavior and opinions deserved the praise of people while totally missing the heart of God for all the people they were throwing under the bus.

 These distortions of what God intended for the Law are tragic, because neither Hosea nor Jesus were saying God desired mercy and NOT sacrifice. The sacrificial system was put in place by God. The Law was from God. They were good things. It was just that if doing the rituals and sacrifices did not lead to a righteous heart of mercy that guided holy hands of mercy, the sacrifices were wasted.

 There are times when the prophets told the Israelites that their sacrifices were a stench in the nostrils of God because their hypocrisy was so bad. They thought going through the motions in the areas that impressed their community would appease God.

 Nope. He wasn’t a pagan God to be bribed, and he wasn’t impressed by the pious holiness that impressed people. He was a holy God to be worshipped with heart, soul, mind and strength.[i] Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 to them. Here are some excerpts about what’s going on with God’s people from Hosea 5:

There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground… There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth. You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain… 

For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts… 

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. 

Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream… 

Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

 God is serious about religious hypocrisy. He doesn’t want us to go through the motions of worship to Him if they are not accompanied by merciful actions to others. Both are good; both are deeply intertwined.

And then notice… Did you see how tax collectors were called out in Hosea 5? And then Jesus quotes Hosea 6 to defend feasting with a tax collector whom he had just called to be a disciple? That, friends, is called “making a point.” The God who demanded justice on oppressive taxation demonstrates through Jesus that God extends mercy toward those on whom justice was going to roll over like a river.

Sacrifice without mercy is no acceptable sacrifice. To love sinners is a better fulfilling of the law than to stand aloof from them.[17]

So, let’s note what Jesus did and didn't do by eating with sinners and scandalizing the Pharisees.

He feasted with them without fraternizing in their sins. Interesting: Jesus was without honor in his hometown, but sat in a place of honor with the despised and unclean. He didn’t help Matthew collect unjust taxes; he didn’t enable whatever it was he and the other guests were doing. He wasn’t there to tell them their lives were just fine. But he did eat a meal of friendship. They were, after all, created in God’s image, and he was there not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.[18] All of Matthew’s sinner friends were introduced to Jesus’ mercy over a good meal.

He invested relational time without compromising His integrity. Jesus wasn't worried about being made impure by being around impure people, as if sin were spiritual Covid. Granted, we have to be more careful about how easily impressionable we are because we are not God in the Flesh. Wise boundaries matter. But there is a principal here” We are not called to withdraw and circle the wagons in the face of an impure culture full of impure people. We either believe God has the power to preserve and protect the sanctity of our souls when we are on mission, or we don’t. And if we do, then we should have the boldness and peace to be sitting around tables, building friendships, investing time with those both near and far from Christ.

He affirmed people’s value as people while calling them to repentance. It is possible to simultaneously validate the worth of people as people without that meaning we have somehow affirmed everything about that person. I have had so many friends who have affirmed me as a human being - and called me to repentance in areas of my life. They love me at my worst - and hold up a mirror (uuuggghhh). We do this all the time with our friends, our family, with each other inside the church. We know what this tension is like. Surely it is possible to do that with those outside the church.  Surely we are not called to be less Christ-like when people are far from Christ.

His message of mercy was effective with those who knew they needed it. I suspect he didn’t have to tell the sinners at the banquet about their sin. I’m pretty sure they knew their reputation. If they were Jewish people living in a Jewish community, they knew. Jesus was there not to condemn them – the Law had done that part already - but to demonstrate that ‘the world through him might be saved.’[19]  

No wonder Matthew was so excited that he threw a feast (with all his ill-gotten gain, I might add). He knew what kind of guy he was. Jesus didn’t need to tell him that he needed help. But who in his adult life had shown him this kind of mercy? Who had treated him like a human being with worth? What rabbi in history had called a tax collector actively collecting taxes to be a disciple? History is not destiny when Jesus is involved.

No wonder Matthew threw a feast and invited all his sketchy friends. People long to be known and loved, and that love is felt strongest when that which is known is the worst.

What has lingered with me this week is the kindness and mercy of Jesus to those who did not expect it. Paul – who also new something about the kindness and mercy of Jesus - wrote about it later:

Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)

If we plan to call others to follow Jesus, I suspect this model ought to be formative in our plans. If God’s kindness, forbearance and patience is intended to lead people to repentance, our kindness, forbearance and patience should be on full display when we lift up Jesus to others.

 ___________________________________________________________________________________

[1] “ In the N. T., pupils or disciples are called children of their teachers, because the latter by their instruction nourish the minds of their pupils and mold their characters.” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon)

[2]  “Jesus was illustrating an OT claim that human suffering rests in separation from God. Thus forgiveness is our deepest need.” Expositor’s Bible Commentary

[3] It’s also possible that Jesus was making a point that would have established his Messianic claims to his Jewish audience. “In the Talmud, we find a tradition that “a sick man does not recover from his sickness until all his sins are forgiven him, as it is written, ʻWho forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases” (Ps. 103:3).’ ” In another place, the rabbis appealed to Psalm 103:3–4 to explain why the prayer for forgiveness precedes the prayer for healing: “Redemption and healing come after forgiveness.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Of The New Testament)

[4] Expositor’s Bible Commentary

[5]  NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

[6] NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

[7] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Of The New Testament

[8] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Of The New Testament

[9]  Luke 7:36–50; Matt. 26:45

[10] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Of The New Testament

[11] Expositor’s Bible Commentary

[12] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Of The New Testament

[13] Having something that could pay the penalty for them pointed to the great sacrifice or offering which Christ was to make for the sins of the world.

[14] Luke 14:26

[15] Barnes’ Notes On The Bible

[16] Expositor’s Bible Commentary

[17]  Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges

[18] John 3:17

[19] The Holy Spirit will do Holy Spirit work in people’s lives. Part of the mission of the Spirit is to convict the world of sin. See John 16:8.

* * * *

[i]Here are a couple other times in the Old Testament where the prophets beat the same drum about the foolishness of sacrifice when the heart and hands are compromised.

Jeremiah 6:20: “What use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.”

Isaiah 1:11–15: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations. I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.”