Harmony #79: Fruit, Mold and Mountains (Matthew 21:10-22; John 12:17-19; Mark 11:11-24; Luke 19:45-46)

Let’s talk about figs and fig trees in the Bible.

·   “How miserable I am! I feel like the fruit picker after the harvest who can find nothing to eat. Not a cluster of grapes or a single early fig can be found to satisfy my hunger. The godly people have all disappeared; not one honest person is left on the earth. They are all murderers, setting traps even for their own brothers.” (Micah 7:1-2)

·  “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the ‘first ripe’ in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.” (Hosea 9:10)

·   “For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, the teeth of a great lion. He has laid my vine [Judah] waste, and barked my fig tree...” (Joel 1:6-7) 

·   “The one who guards a fig tree will eat its fruit, and whoever protects their master/lord will be honored.” (Proverbs 27:18)

So, figs and fig trees are used throughout the Old Testament as a symbol for God’s people, and sometimes very specifically the leaders. In addition, sitting under one’s own fig tree became a common OT image of the Israelite enjoying freedom and prosperity in the land (2 Kings 18:31; Isaiah 36:16; Micah 4:4; Zechariah 3:10); meanwhile, its destruction was a symbol of the nation’s judgment (Jeremiah 5:17; Hosea 2:12; Joel 1:7, 12).

We are going to read an interesting incident in the life of Jesus today, one in which he performs his only recorded “miracle of destruction.” He is going to kill a fig tree. It feels a little jarring because it seems petty and a little mean, like Jesus had a really bad day and he just did not have time for this stupid fig tree!

However, this story wraps around a visit to the temple where the “fig tree” of the leaders of His people are defiling the temple. I am going to suggest that Jesus’ treatment of the fig tree tells his disciples something very important about the future of the Temple and the Sadducees. Let’s read the passage, then talk about what Jesus was doing with the fig tree.

As he entered Jerusalem the whole city was thrown into an uproar, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” So the crowd who had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead were continuing to testify about it.

Because they had heard that Jesus had performed this miraculous sign, the crowd went out to meet him. Thus the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you can do nothing. Look, the world has run off after him!” Then Jesus went to the temple. And after looking around at everything, he went out to Bethany with the twelve since it was already late.

Now early in the morning  the next day, as they went out from Bethany and returned to the city, Jesus was hungry.[1]After noticing in the distance by the road a fig tree with leaves, he went to see if he could find any fruit on it.

When he came to it he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again. Never again will there be fruit from you!” And his disciples heard it.

Apparently, fig trees put out leaves and fruit pretty close together. If it has leaves, it should have some kind of fruit. Even before it is “the season for figs,” there are these little early figs that let you know the harvest will happen (the ‘first ripe’ in Hosea 9). They are like a teaser trailer for the upcoming show. This seems to be what is happening. Not only is this tree lying about its fruitfulness, it’s not going to bear fruit when the season hits.

Then they came to Jerusalem. Jesus entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple courts. He turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,[2] and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.[3]

Then Jesus began to teach them and said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a den of robbers!”[4] The blind and lame came to him in the temple courts, and he healed them.[5]

But when the chief priests and the experts in the law saw the wonderful things he did and heard the children crying out in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant and said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?”

Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of children and nursing infants you have prepared praise for yourself’?”[6] The chief priests and the experts in the law heard it and they considered how they could assassinate him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed by his teaching.

When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there. In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered to the roots.” When the disciples saw it they were amazed, saying, “How did it wither so quickly?”[7]

Jesus said to them, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and do not doubt in your heart but believe that what you say will happen, it will be done for you.[8] For this reason I tell you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”[9]

THE TEMPLE AND THE FIG TREES (SADDUCEES)

During Passover, hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims would travel to Jerusalem. They would have to exchange their own currency for temple currency and purchase animals and other items for sacrifices. Guess who controlled this whole process? The Sadducees.

You may remember that ever since the Sadducees asked Herod to be the King of the Jews to appease Rome, the priesthood was a political system controlled by Herod. Instead of priests descending from Zadok (1 Chronicles 24), the empire selected the high priests. As you might expect, this led to bribes and corruption, with the chief priests, captains and treasurers of the temple becoming wealthy and influential families who formed a small, powerful group within society with their own little group of thugs #templeguard to make sure they got their way.[10]

They raised the sacrificial animals, sold them, changed the money (for profit), etc. It was a huge money grift. And they did it in a part of the temple where the Gentiles were supposed to be able to worship.

It seems that Jesus cleared the Temple courtyards twice: once at the beginning of his ministry and once at the end. In Levitical law, there was only one scenario for which God’s people need to do a cleansing twice: mold. If after the first cleansing the priests found no more mold, the house was cleansed again and then the family can move back in. However….

If the mold has spread on the walls, he is to order that the contaminated stones be torn out and thrown into an unclean place outside the town. He must have all the inside walls of the house scraped and the material that is scraped off dumped into an unclean place outside the town.[11] Then they are to take other stones to replace these and take new clay and plaster the house.

If the defiling mold reappears in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house scraped and plastered, the priest is to go and examine it and, if the mold has spread in the house, it is a persistent defiling mold; the house is unclean.  It must be torn down—its stones, timbers and all the plaster—and taken out of the town to an unclean place. (Leviticus 14: 39-45)[12]

Or, to use Jesus’ fig tree imagery, it must be withered to the root.

It turns out that Jesus’ triumphal entry took Jesus to the heart of first-century Judaism: the temple, where Sadducee and Temple trees had lots of leaves - and mold, and no fruit. There was nothing to feed and nourish God’s people. It was maybe even toxic and destructive. They were clearly not being the “light to the nations” that God intended of His people.[13]

I believe the destruction of the fig tree was a tangible rabbinic parable that his disciples understood as pointing to the coming destruction of the priesthood and Temple, “withered to the roots.”[14]

This would indicate two things.

• The rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem will no longer be a goal of redemptive history. The New Covenant Temple is the church in which all are priests (2 Corinthians 6; 1 Peter 2) and believers in whom the Holy Spirit dwells (1 Corinthians 3).

• What we now call Judaism will no longer be the primary carrier of the good news that the Kingdom of Heaven is here. It’s meant to be the church: the new temple, with a new priesthood.[15] This does not mean we don’t appreciate and learn from the beautiful foundation of the Old Covenant – they were God’s chosen people - but the mantle has been passed, like Elijah to Elisha, to the New Covenant people.

We must take this seriously. We are not immune from the dangers facing the followers of God in the time of Jesus. We are called to ‘be fruitful and multiply,’ to produce fruit of righteousness that draws the nations to Jesus with words and lives free of hypocrisy, greed, and the love of power.

It struck me yesterday that the Jewish people’s greatest threat had never been other nations in the Bible. It was always themselves. Babylon could take their bodies into exile, and Egypt could enslave them, and Rome could kill them, but the mold that withered them to the root came from within. Say what we will about the course of this country depending how elections go and what the future may look like for followers of Jesus, but nothing out there threatens the church as much as the mold of false and corrupted worship threatens the church.

We are called to not only be God’s temple but to keep His Temple, the church, holy: set apart, pure, full of truth and grace, characterized by generosity, humility, and the kind of love that is will to be broken and spilled out for others in honor of our Savior.

We may will need His cleansing power at times to drive out sin from our personal and corporate temples.  The mold has got to go. Pride. Greed. Unforgiveness. Immorality. Gossip. Slander. Division. Judgment. Untruth. Meanness. Pettiness.

Nothing should get between us and our mission: to glorify the goodness of God with the entirety of our lives, and to demonstrate in all that we do the compelling message of salvation, life and hope that is grounded in Jesus and experienced in His church. I like how Adam Clarke summarizes what Jesus was doing here.

“Having condemned the profane use of the temple, he now shows the proper use of it. It is a house of prayer, where God is to manifest his goodness and power in giving sight to the spiritually blind, and feet to the [spiritually] lame. The church in which the [spiritually] blind and the lame are not healed has no Christ in it, and is not worthy of attendance.” (Adam Clarke)

That’s not scripture, but I think it’s inspired in its own way. I know I’m convicted as I apply that to myself.

• When people are around me who are spiritually struggling or lost, are they healed as I show the presence of Christ in me – God’s truth, grace, love, hope, kindness – or are they hurt?

• Did they pick up some mold from being around me? Or do they leave with maybe a little mold gone, or at least some tools to get rid of it, because the Holy Spirit has worked in our time together?

• Am I just leafy – because I can put on a show if I need to – or is the fruit of the Holy Spirit evident such that my attitudes, words, thoughts, and actions nourish those in my presence with the goodness of God’s provision?

I urge you to consider this for yourself. With your family, you friends, at work, when you are here on Sundays and Wednesdays,

What is the fruit you demonstrate in your character or offer as a service to those around you – not as a show, but as a gift of nourishment in Christ?

What might be the mold clinging to you that Jesus needs to cleanse? What needs to be driven out lest you begin to wither?

If you think this sounds like a daunting task, it is. Good news: Jesus tells his disciples what to do right here in this passage. If the disciples demonstrate faith in God – if they live faithfully - they can remove the mountainous problem of fruitlessness and mold.

When rabbis told parables[16], they wanted a physical representation to make their point. Jesus is likely standing on the Mount of Olives with the Herodian and the Temple Mount in sight. He is probably pointing toward one of these. I lean toward the Herodian, but it’s not a hill I will die on J Why? Because “faith” almost always means “faithfulness” – trust in action – and the Herodian gives a prime example of what seemingly insurmountable hurdles can in fact be conquered when we put one foot in front of the other over and over in the service of a cause.

The Herodian was a mountain fortress overlooking the town of Bethlehem built on a mountain Herod had commanded be literally moved from one location to the place he wanted it to be. One shovelful at a time. If you think of faithfulness as “steadfast commitment,” that’s what it took to literally move a mountain.

Jesus once told his disciples that faith as small as a mustard seed could move mountains. He wanted his followers to know that our lived out faith can accomplish far more than the most amazing earthly feats. You’re impressed that Herod, a ruler of the Empire, moved a mountain? Wait until you see what can be moved with the authority and power of the ruler of the universe behind the faithful witness of your life.

You know what’s more amazing than moving a mountain of stone?

• Being freed from addiction.

• Learning how to control your words.

• Having pride replaced with humility.

• Learning how to really, truly love that person.

• Becoming patient when you have been characterized by impatience for so long.

• Learning to see people as imago dei instead of objects of lust.

• Being moved from greed to generosity.

• Replacing a reputation for being caustic and rude with a reputation for being kind.

• Seeing the fruit of the Spirit[17] – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – replace the mold of sin.

To go back to today’s text, what about that mountain of fruitlessness, mold, and hypocrisy? Is it even possible to move that mountain? Yes, and the disciples will show that in the book of Acts. They will faithfully go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Historians believe the Christian population grew by 40 percent a decade: probably about 1,000 Christians in AD 40 to 33 million in AD 350.

Mountains are moved when Jesus works within our lived out faith. I like the old joke, “How do you eat an elephant? One spoonful at a time.” How do we move mountains? One faithful shovel at a time, one righteous moment after another, whether it’s in our individual lives, our church life, or our concern for our nation.

And may God, who is a Good Father, be so good as to cleanse His Temple for our good, the good of the world, and God’s glory.

________________________________________________________________________________

[1] “Recalls God’s statement that his bringing Israel out of Egypt was like the joy of finding early figs and his later complaint that Israel’s idolatry and injustice rendered the nation barren and without justice (Hos 9:7–17; Mic 6:1—7:6)…In spite of God’s gift of his law and the land, and his presence now in Jesus, Israel and its leaders have failed to produce the justice and mercy God desires…Jesus, as Israel’s Lord, enacts that image in fulfillment of Malachi’s threatened curse upon the land (Mal 4:6) and hence his following announcement of the destruction of the temple.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[2] The cleansing of the temple by Jesus is reminiscent of how kings like Hezekiah (2 Chr 29–31) and Josiah (2 Chr 34–35) repaired the temple prior to the celebration of Passover. (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[3] This is the second time Jesus has cleansed the Temple courtyard, reminiscent of Jeremiah twice cursing the temple (Jeremiah 7 and 26). There are soooo many Old Testament hyperlinks in the life and teaching of Jesus.

[4] “Perhaps ‘robbers’ should be translated ‘nationalist rebel’ (as in Jeremiah 7:11). The temple was meant to be a house of prayer, but… had become, like the first temple, the premier symbol of a superstitious belief that God would protect and rally his people irrespective of their conformity to his will.” (Expositors Bible Commentary)

[5] “Most Jewish authorities forbade any person lame, blind, deaf, or mute from offering a sacrifice or appearing before the Lord in his temple. But Jesus heals them, thus showing that "one greater than the temple is here" (12:6).

[6] Jesus here quotes the Greek of Psalm 8:2; Hebrew reads “strength” instead of “praise.”

[7] When they say, “How did you do it so quickly?” I tend to think they knew what Jesus was doing and are wondering how the Sadducees will be dealt with so quickly. They will be in AD 70, when the Temple and the Sadducees are destroyed.

[8] The Eastern Orthodox tradition is all in on the literalness of this. “While it is not recorded that an apostle literally moved a mountain, the Fathers are clear that they had this authority if the need had arisen (certain saints did make crevices appear in mountains). Furthermore, not everything the apostles accomplished was written down.” Orthodox Study Bible) I love the “not everything was written down.” This would suggest they might have moved mountains, but it never made it into the historical record, as if moving the mountain was never the point. I don’t prefer a literalist reading of this teaching, but I appreciate their bold and confident perspective.

[9] NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

[10] HT NIV Women’s Study Bible

[11] I suspect the ‘unclean place’ in Jesus time was the Valley of Hinnom, Gehenna, which Jesus references multiple times as a place of punishment and destruction.

[12] Side note: Jesus is about to tell some parables that include this kind of cleansing in which people are cast out to places of judgment, very similar to this scenario.

[13] “The tree is fully leafed, and in such a state one would normally expect to find fruit. This symbolizes the hypocrisy and sham of the nation of Israel. The “withered” fig tree likely stands for the nation’s coming destruction.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

“The tree with its leaves had the marks of fruitfulness, but it bore no fruit. Israel was likewise practicing hypocrisy (Mk 7:6)…Jesus might also have been illustrating religious hypocrites like the ones he had thrown out of the temple.” (NIV Women’s Study Bible)

“There were leaves, which speak of profession, but no fruit for God. Jesus was hungry for fruit from the nation.” (Believers Bible Commentary)

[14] HT NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

[15] ESV Reformation Study Bible

[16]  “Many of the rabbins are termed rooters up of mountains, because they were dexterous in removing difficulties, solving cases of conscience, etc. In this sense our Lord's words are to be understood. He that has faith will get through every difficulty and perplexity. Mountains shall become molehills or plains before him. The saying is neither to be taken in its literal sense, nor is it hyperbolical: it is a proverbial form of speech.” (Adam Clarke)

 [17] Galatians 5

Harmony #78: Mary, Martha, and Jesus (John 11:55-12:11; Matthew 26:6-16; Mark 14:3-11; Luke 10: 38-42)

Have you heard the phrase, “Can’t see the forest for all of the trees?” Today’s passage has a lot of trees. We will look at them first, because those trees have something to offer, and then the forest, because the Big Picture matters.

Now the Jewish feast of Passover was near, and many people went up to Jerusalem from the rural areas before the Passover to cleanse themselves ritually. Thus they were looking for Jesus, and saying to one another as they stood in the temple courts,“What do you think? That he won’t come to the feast?” Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should report it, so that they could arrest him.

Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom he had raised from the dead. While Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, they prepared a dinner for him there. Lazarus was among those present at the table with him. Martha was serving, distracted with all the preparations she had to make, while her sister Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he said. Martha came up to him and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work alone? Tell her to help me.”

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the best part; it will not be taken away from her.”

This incident apparently happens after Lazarus was raised from the dead. Martha is doing what anyone would do who had a distinguished guest: seeking to honor him by taking care of him. I mean, HE RAISED HER BROTHER FROM THE DEAD.

This was crucial. When Jesus talks with her, his approach suggests he is not mad or scolding. He may even be saying, “I see how much you are worried about honoring me well.” Mary “chose the best part,” as if what Martha chose was good, but not the highest good in that moment.[1]

Today, we might reference a personality test or a love language test to explain their different responses to Jesus. “Oh, Martha is acts of service. Mary is quality time.” Jesus, who knows how to love well, speaks their love language.  What did Jesus give Mary? Quality time. What did and will Jesus give Mary in raising Lazarus and dying on the cross? Acts of service. So I don’t think this is a blanket criticism of Martha. There’s something about the moment, the timing, the opportunity right in front of her.

I wonder if this has something to tell us about “be with” Jesus contrasted with “do for” Jesus. Both are good, but neither is a template for every moment. In that moment, it was better to “be with.”

We must remember that there is a place for “be with” and “do for” as we follow Jesus. Both honor Jesus. Both have an important place. We want to be with Jesus and live for Jesus, right? He’s going to give all the disciples marching orders when he leaves; he’s already sent them out on short missions. “Do for” is a good thing, but it’s not the only thing, and it can’t be isolated from “be with.”

It’s hard not to judge when we see others leaning into one approach when we really like the other. Martha thinks Mary should be “doing for” Jesus just like her, but that wasn’t true. Mary was in the right place. It’s easy to think the focus we choose (doing or being) is THE RIGHT WAY FOR EVERYBODY, but…we don’t know that to be true.

Sometimes, I need to do things for my wife: the dishes, put away my laundry, fix that sink, make smoked wings for the Ohio State game, give her my receipts from Menards so we can get that 11% back. Sometimes, I need to just be with her: watching The Great British Bake-off together, going on a date, collecting rocks at Point Betsie, going to the fair, watching Florida State football so she has a shoulder to cry on.

Both matter.

“Be with” and “do for” are intertwined when you love somebody. So, I think Mary and Martha show us two legitimate responses to Jesus. I wish I knew where to land this plane, but I don’t. Maybe this is a good topic to pursue during lunch today.

Then Mary came with an alabaster jar[2] of three quarters of a pound of expensive aromatic oil from pure nard.[3]After breaking open the jar, she poured it on his head[4] and anointed his feet, as Jesus was at the table. She then wiped his feet dry with her hair. (Now the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil.)

The Jewish people put nard on those who died to mask the smell, because there was a process of interring the body that lasted long enough to make you want to use nard. In the next paragraph, Jesus will affirm that she was, indeed, preparing him for his burial.[5]

Worth noting: nard in an alabaster jar like this was shipped in from a place that harvested (?) the nard before bottling it and sealing it. This bottle cost a year’s average wages. This bottle represented a plan for someone in the family of Mary. I wonder if it was what they had planned to use for Lazarus, but then didn’t need to. Or… Jesus will say shortly of Mary, “She did what she could.” I wonder if this was set aside for her?

And wiping his feet with her hair? It was unheard of for a Jewish woman to let her hair down in public, let alone wash the feet of a man not her husband, let alone with her hair. There is something going on here, but I am still working on this. This is the second time a woman has dried Jesus’ feet with her hair. (Luke 7)[6]

Whatever the case, Mary communicated something important: she believed Jesus when he said he was going to die. I doubt she anticipated crucifixion, as Jesus was not a Zealot, but she may have been connecting the dots and concluding that she wouldn’t be able to do this later. As Jesus points out, she was honoring him while she could.

Out of love, honor and the knowledge that “the end” was near for Jesus, she offered the lock of her hair with willing abandon to the one who is about to die in order to win the battle on behalf of a world that God loves. Bless the Lord.

But some who were present indignantly said to one another, “Why this waste of expensive ointment? It could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor!” So they spoke angrily to her. Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was going to betray him) said, “Why wasn’t this oil sold for three hundred silver coins and the money given to the poor?” (Now Judas said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money box, he used to steal what was put into it.)

When Jesus learned of this, he said to them, “Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a good service for me. For you will always have the poor with you,[7] and you can do good for them whenever you want. You will not always have me! She did what she could. When she poured this oil on my body, she did it to anoint my body beforehand and prepare me for the day of my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

In Matthew’s account of this story, Jesus had just taught them about reward and punishment related to caring for the needy (25:31–46). He concluded with, “Whatever you do to the least of these you do to me.” So it makes sense this was in the front of the disciple’s minds.

Jesus’ response pointed them back to the Torah. They were commanded to take care of the poor; Deuteronomy 15 uses the exact phrase Jesus used. This would probably remind them of not just all the teaching in Deuteronomy 15, but of all the times God told his people to care for the poor. It was baked into the rhythm of their lives. In fact, if they did everything the Old Testament commanded, it would be difficult for someone to remain poor in Israel.

• debts were forgiven every 7 years (Deuteronomy 15)

• land was returned every 50 years (Leviticus 25)

• food was shared (Proverbs 22:9)

• indebted servants were set free with provision after 7 years (Deuteronomy 15)

• the edges of their fields were left for the poor to harvest (Leviticus 23:22)

• fields were unplanted every 7 years so the poor could harvest volunteer plants (Leviticus 25)

• they were to “open their hand wide” to the poor (Deuteronomy 15:11)

• they were to practice generous giving (Psalm 37:21; Proverbs 14:21)

Bottom line: the disciples were not wrong in principle,[8] but in this moment they were wrong in practice. If Mary was preparing him for burial, she should not be criticized any more than we would criticize someone for purchasing a coffin for a loved one, even though there are poor that could be fed with that money.

Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

This is when Judas snaps. Different people have offered different reasons since the text leaves space to fill in the blanks.

• I noted last week that I suspect Judas was looking to spark an insurrection. Jesus has apparently resigned himself to die. Dead men can’t be kings. Let’s get this king on the throne before he dies!  Time to start the fight!

• Or….Judas knows Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Huge crowds were there because the word had gotten out. Maybe Judas thought there was nothing to worry about. Get the fight started; Jesus will be fine!

• Or… Judas betrayed Jesus because he had stopped believing in him. Something about what happened here convinced him not to back Jesus anymore.

 Whatever the reason, it’s interesting that this is incident that is the last straw for Judas. Meanwhile, the 30 pieces of silver he received has precedence.

• Exodus 21 demands this as payment if a slave is gored to death by a bull. So, perhaps we could think of this as the Sadducees giving Judas recompense for the person they are about to kill.

• 30 pieces of silver was also the wage paid to the reliable shepherd of God’s people in Zechariah 11,[9] a passage that also talks about throwing the money to a potter. Hmmm. 

These Old Testament connections are, in fact, both true.  Jesus is a duolos, a servant or slave depending on the translation you use. 

[Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant/slave (duolos), being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross! (Philippians 2) 

And, Jesus is a shepherd. 

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:14-15) 

Alright, let’s step back from the trees and look at the forest. There is this nagging voice in my head that insists there is a contrast going on, not of a good and bad thing but of a good and better thing. I’m not quite sure how to put words to it.

• The place for the practical (Martha) and the prophetic (Mary)

• The practice of stewardship by fasting (taking care of the poor) and feasting (honoring and celebrating)

• The ‘do for’ (Martha) and the ‘be with’ (Mary)

• Prudence (provision budgeted for charity) and extravagance (provision budgeted for honoring)

I wonder if we are supposed to be reminded that in the midst of a discipleship that is often characterized by prudence and the stewardship of fasting that includes setting up a budget from which we give generously from our resources to those in need, there is always going to be a place in the Kingdom of God for extravagant honor.[10] 

In this case, we see it bestowed on Jesus, and rightfully so. In Mary’s case, it’s an act of worship for Jesus. The King will be honored as a King. Bless the Lord with the best that you have. We can’t honor the physical Jesus like Mary did, but surely this challenges us to ask ourselves if Jesus is honored by the worshipful sacrifices that we do give.

I wonder if we are supposed to be thinking about how to honor the children of the King, too. We can become so caught up in fixing what’s broken in the world that we forget to celebrate what’s right in the world. Like Mary and Martha, this is not either/or. It’s both/and.  

God wants his people to learn how to honor what is good through celebration. God wants his people to know how to throw a righteous party that reminds people that they are precious, valuable and loved, not only by God but by God’s people.

• When I turned 50, friends threw me a party that was wonderfully extravagant. I still think about it. I have posters on my wall from it.

• I have helped friends with projects this summer, and they paid me wages that made me consider that I had undervalued myself.

• I have friends who bless us from their abundance by letting us stay for free in a wonderful Air B and B that brings us rest.

Helping those who are financial impoverish matters. Generous charity should be baked into the rhythm of our lives. But at times, extravagant celebration can be huge for those who are emotionally and mentally impoverished, struggling with all kinds of inner battles, desperately needing provision and rest of a different kind.

It’s the one to whom Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The Holy Spirit ministers in ways we never could; sometimes, gifts that cost time and money remind people that they matter not just in God’s eyes but in the eyes of God’s people. And some days, that’s a game changer, maybe even a life saver.

During our potluck, let’s feast together today in a way that shows the depth and breadth of God’s provision. Let the abundance of food remind us that we all need to experience an abundance of honor, or friendship, of community that reminds us constantly of the value of the imago dei, the image of God in us all.

_________________________________________________________________

[1] “Chosen the good part—not in the general sense of Moses' choice (Heb 11:25), and Joshua's (Jos 24:15), and David's (Ps 119:30); that is, of good in opposition to bad; but, of two good ways of serving and pleasing the Lord, choosing the better.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary)

[2] “The vessel is likely a long-necked flask made of translucent, finely carved stone standing some five to ten inches high. The perfume is pure nard (see Mark 14:3; John 12:3), an oil extracted from the root of the nard plant grown in India. This is not a typical household oil for anointing, but an expensive perfume oil used for a solemn and special act of devotion. By breaking the flask Mary…is performing the highest act of consecration to Jesus, even to the anointing of his feet (cf. John 12:3).” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

[3] An average year’s wages.

[4] “Such long-necked containers have been found in tombs from this period near Jerusalem; people apparently lavished the ointment on deceased loved ones. This expensive perfume may have been planned for a funeral, either a future one or one canceled because of Jesus’ healing ministry. Providing a guest with oil to anoint his head could be simple courtesy, but one could also anoint a king in this way (2Ki 9:6).” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[5] “The anointing…"prepares" him for his burial after dying the death of a criminal, for only in that circumstance would the customary anointing of the body be omitted.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary) 

[6] Because so much of Jesus’ life and teaching refers back to the Old Testament, here’s a thought. Judges records that after a woman named Jael killed the Canaanite general who was attacking Israel, the Israelites defeated Canaan. The judge at the time, Deborah, and her general, Barak, wrote this song: “When the locks of the women are long in Israel, when the people offer themselves with willing abandon - bless the LORD!  –Judges 4:18–5:2”  Read more at “Extravagant Worship: Mary Washing Jesus’ Feet.” Fruitfullywomen.com

[7] “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.” (Deuteronomy 15:11)

[8] This is how one of the early Church Fathers thought of this scenario. “If anyone had asked Christ before the woman did this, He would not have approved it. But after she had done it, He looks only to the gift itself. For after the fragrant oil had been poured, what good was a rebuke? Likewise, if you should see anyone providing a sacred vessel or ornament for the walls of the church, do not spoil his zeal. But if beforehand he asks about it, command him to give instead to the poor.” (John Chrysostom, quoted in the Orthodox Study Bible)

[9] I told them “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.” (Zechariah 11: 12-13)

[10] I’m thinking now of Ecclesiastes: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born, to die, to plant, to uproot, to kill, to heal, to tear down, to build, to weep, to laugh, to mourn, to dance, to scatter stones, to gather them, to embrace, to refrain from embracing, to search, to give up, to keep, to throw away, to tear, to mend, to be silent, to speak, to love, to hate, for war and for peace.”

Harmony #77: Parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-28)

While the people were listening to these things (“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost”), Jesus proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

Note that he told a parable because a) he was near Jerusalem and b) the people had some thoughts about the Kingdom of God appearing. We will come back to that.

Therefore he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. And he summoned ten of his slaves, gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to be king over us!’

When he returned after receiving the kingdom, he summoned these slaves to whom he had given the money. He wanted to know how much they had earned by trading. So the first one came before him and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made ten minas more.’ And the king said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you will have authority over ten cities.’

Then the second one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made five minas.’  So the king said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ Then another slave came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina that I put away for safekeeping in a piece of cloth. For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’

The king said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! So you knew, did you, that I was a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow? Why then didn’t you put my money in the bank, so that when I returned I could have collected it with interest?’ And he said to his attendants, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has ten.’

But they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten minas already!” He replied, ‘I tell you that everyone who has will be given more, but from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and slaughter them in front of me!’ “ After Jesus had said this, he continued on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

This parable just sits there between the calling of Nicodemus and the entrance to Jerusalem starting the final week of Jesus’ life. It feels awkward and disjointed. But, since Luke committed to writing “an orderly account,” there must be something here that’s an important part of an ongoing bigger story.

On the one hand, there’s a practical reading that looks at stewardship: If God gives you provision and talents, use them to multiply the kingdom. That’s a common teaching taken from this parable. I agree with the principle of that teaching, though I’’m not sure I would take it from this parable.

First, though it’s popular to see Jesus as the king figure in this parable, it is hard for me to conceive that Jesus would be the ruler who has left and then returns. His character and nature are not like the third servant describes (“a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow).

Second, if that ruler is Jesus, the parable suggests that when God gives the gifts of the Kingdom to his children, if they don't double what he gives them, God gets so angry that he destroys them. If Jesus is God in the flesh – so, God is like Jesus - that doesn't track with anything we have seen about Jesus so far.  We just read Jesus saying to Zacchaeus, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost,” not punish the fearful. 

Third, I'm not sure what to think about the teaching of those having much getting more and those having little losing what they have. Didn’t we just hear about the lost sheep, and lost coin, and the two lost sons, and God pursues and loves them? If the ruler is Jesus, this is joltingly the opposite. He has kept calling his disciples “you of little faith,” and he didn’t throw them away. He discipled them.

The best explanation I have found involves a historical event that happened around the time of Jesus. When Herod the Great died (this is the Herod the Sadducees convinced to be the “King of the Jews” and who controlled the Temple priests), he willed his kingdom to his three sons. The three sons sailed to Rome on three different ships to bring gifts to Caesar and ask him to honor their father’s will. The Jewish Pharisees sent a delegation on a fourth ship to plead with Caesar not to make Antipas king. 

As a result, Caesar decided to name Anitpas a “tetrarch” (just lower than a king).  Antipas blamed the Jews for the decision; when he got back, he made an example of the Jews who were left at home and slaughtered them by the thousands. When Jesus stands in front of Herod in the final week of his life, he is standing in front of (drumroll) Herod Antipas.

I am leaning heavily toward the notion that Jesus is challenging how those who “thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately” expected the kingdom of God to appear. I think they wanted him to take it like a Herod would take it, and Jesus is having none of it.

Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem for Passover. He has a huge crowd of disciples, and they lead the adoring crowds in welcoming him into Jerusalem as a king. All the kingly symbols are there:

• the cloaks on the ground (what the people did for Jehu in 2 Kings 9:13–14)

• palm branches (1 Maccabees 13:51 records the use of palm branches in a celebration of Judas the Hammer, a Zealot who led the Maccabean Revolt)

• crying Hosanna (“Help us!”)

• saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (also what they said of Jehu)

• Jesus riding donkey (Zechariah 9:9)

They thought they might finally be getting a King, a deliverer who would set up an earthy kingdom by copying Rome’s pax romana (“peace by the sword”). They didn’t like Rome, but they had no problem with THEIR guy using the tools and method of Rome to bring about THEIR own kingdom. But…this is the thing about Rome.

• Rome destroyed those would not help them expand their empire and the Hellenism of the Greeks. #parablereference

• Rome was violent and merciless to those who betrayed them. #parablereference

• Rome was all about the winners getting more winny and the losers getting more losery. #parablereference

When Jesus sees his people welcome him with a not so subtle reference to take out Rome with Rome’s methods, here is how he responds:

Now when Jesus approached and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you had only known on this day, even you, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. They will demolish you—you and your children within your walls—and they will not leave within you one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” (Luke 19:41-44)

Why is this going to happen? They have the wrong idea about what will bring peace because “they did not recognize the time of their visitation from God.” The visitation of God is Jesus; Jesus is telling them what will bring peace, and they are not picking up what he is laying down.

History had shown that, at the end of the day, the Jewish people kept defaulting to the path of the Zealots. When Jesus read from Isaiah in his hometown and declared the year of the Lord’s favor but left off the line about God’s vengeance,[1] his hometown tried to kill him because they knew what he was saying. God’s favor was going to become available to all, and they were not okay with that. God was going to bring peace by reconciling everyone first to Himself and then to each other, and that meant nobody was going to pay for the crimes done against them. 

For many of them (the Zealots for sure), the kingdom of God would arrive by taking the sword to those who hurt them. And that's what a Caesar or a Nero would do. That’s what happened in Jesus’ parable. That’s what Antipas did to those who displeased him. And this is the approach the Jewish people kept revisiting over and over. Even the non-Zealots seemed to keep rallying around the sword to solve their problems and usher in the Kingdom of God.

We've got good biblical reason to believe that this Zealot thread kept running through Jesus’ disciples no matter how often he taught and lived differently.

I’ve noted before that that Judas and Simon were both zealots. Judas had a nickname “Iscariot,” a nickname that seems to place him among the sicarii, one of the "dagger-men" of the Zealots who had committed to killing Roman soldiers whenever he could with his dagger that shared his nickname. I'm leaning more and more toward the idea that when we get to the last week in the life of Jesus, Judas was intending to be the spark that started the revolution.

Judas knew that if he went to the high priests, they would come for Jesus. Remember, the high priests are the Sadducees. They love Rome, and they have been trying to kill Jesus because Jesus is putting their status with Rome in jeopardy. At one point Caiaphas tells the Sanhedrin that it’s better to kill one person, Jesus, than to have them all killed.[2] Judas knows that the Sadducees’ private army of bodyguards will have no problem pulling a sword on Jesus. They had a reputation for doing that kind of thing to those who crossed the Sadducees.

It’s an odd collaboration. The Zealots hated the Sadducees because they were such compromisers. Clearly, Judas is just using them. The text doesn't say this, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were Zealots hiding nearby, waiting for the fight to begin. What a shock it must have been when Peter - who brought a sword to a garden prayer time? - starts the fight and Jesus promptly stops it.

Let's fast forward to the trial where Herod does what Herod always did at Passover, which was to offer a released prisoner to the Jewish people. He gives them the option of Jesus the Christ or Jesus Barabbas. The crowd chooses Barabbas, who had been arrested because he had already engaged in violent insurrection.  They want their Zealot who knows how to fight on their terms.

I suspect part of the reason Jesus wept was because he knew what would happen when God’s people try to bring about the Kingdom of God at the edge of a sword. He warned Peter: “You live by it, you die by it.” Why are the Jewish people slaughtered and the Temple destroyed in AD 70? The Zealots keep pushing and pushing and pushing until Rome snapped.

So, full circle back to the parable. I think Jesus knew what was in their hearts, and he reminded them of what Herod was like, and how empires work. He will never be that kind of King, and his kingdom should never be that kind of Kingdom.

* * * * *

I've been thinking a lot this week about what principles we take away from this. If you recall, the Jewish people wrestled with three responses to the question, “What do we do with Rome?”

• Compromise, embrace it, learn to love it (Sadducees and Herodians)

• Retreated and just focus on being holy (Essenes and Pharisees)

• Fight Rome with the weapons of Rome (Zealots)

Jesus has challenged all of these approaches throughout the course of his ministry. He doesn't retreat from the culture around him; instead he goes to the Gentiles (Samaritans and Romans). He doesn't embrace the culture; he embraces the people in the culture as individuals and calls them to follow him. He doesn't pick up a sword – unless it’s the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, which he seem him wielding in Revelation. Let’s go back to what characterized Rome and Herod Antipas.

• Rome destroyed those would not help them expand their empire and the Hellenism of the Greeks.

• Rome was violent and merciless to those who betrayed them.

• Rome was all about the winners getting more winny and the losers getting more losery.

  How is Jesus a different kind of King?

·Those outside the kingdom were not destroyed in the process of expanding the kingdom. They were literally still alive to have access to the Kingdom. Jesus just kept inviting himself to the home of the sinner, the Samaritan, the tax collector. He kept inviting people. The banquet table has enough seats for everybody.

On the cross, he asks God to forgive those who crucified him rather than asking him to smite them. He will restore Peter, who might have betrayed him more than Judas when he called down curses and said, “I don’t know my own rabbi.” Okay, important trivia (?) When Jesus rose, the women at the grave were told to take the news “to the disciples and Peter.”[3] It’s only been three days. Why isn’t Peter just assumed to still be a disciple? Because he denied and cursed his rabbi. He was done. There was no coming back from that. When Jesus sees him again, where is he? Back to fishing. He was done. AND JESUS RESTORES HIM. This is not an earthly kingdom; this is a heavenly kingdom.

Jesus was not about rewarding the competent and punishing the incompetent #peteronceagain. Remember the Parable of the Two Brothers (Prodigal Son). Remember the Parable of Workers working all day vs. one hour. Jesus is excited about giving everyone the spiritual spoils of the Kingdom, whether they are crushing it or floundering or lost like that sheep. Everybody sits at the banquet table. Surely there is reward in walking in the Path of Life as we harvest what we have planted, but God is not a stingy and petty God, turning his nose up at the Samaritan and tax collector and prodigal. He came to seek and to save the lost, after all. That’s what he loves to do.

Let's see if we can make this practical for our situation today.

We are not living in a nation that brings a sword against followers of Jesus like Herod Antipas. We do, however, live in a culture that will at times challenge us on aspects of what we believe or how we believe we should live our faith. How do we respond to living in spiritually occupied territory of Babylon/Rome (to use Revelation’s imagery)?

I'm hearing rumbles in some circles that we might be looking at a time that is ripe for a second Civil War. It's often accompanied with the stated desire to get America back to Judeo/Christian roots even if it requires violence, as if we can spread or solidify the Kingdom of God at the point of a sword. That just doesn't sound like Jesus. That sounds like Judas.

But there's also a level to this that stops short of violence physical violence. I'm thinking now of emotional, verbal and maybe even spiritual violence. When we talk about the culture wars, we can mean one of two things.

• We can mean that there is a clash anytime Christians live in spaces with non-Christians simply because we are going to value different things for different reasons,  and we are going to offer our worship and allegiance to different gods or idols. In that sense, yeah, there's going to be a war in the sense that there is conflict and tension. Legit. This has always been true.

• We can also use Culture Wars to mean it is time for us to get out there and fight fight fight – but…. it's not usually accompanied with language asking what it looks to fight like Jesus. It's usually much more pragmatic Zealotry, with a physical or symbolic peace by the sword in that the ends will justify the means if we aren’t careful. A public figure who aligns with Christians noted recently, in reference to the aforementioned culture wars, “We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing. Okay? It’s gotten us nothing…”

But here's the reality. The means determine who we are in the end. If we fight like Rome to further the Kingdom of God, the society we usher in will just be Rome by another name. And if this is our hope, we will constantly be searching for peace and not finding peace because we didn't fight like Jesus as we pointed toward Jesus. The apostle Paul – who knew a thing or two about fighting battles in the wrong way - reminded us how to fight like Jesus, for Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, draw your strength and might from God. Put on the full armor of God to protect yourselves from the devil and his evil schemes. We’re not waging war against enemies of flesh and blood alone.   No, this fight is against tyrants, against authorities, against supernatural powers and demon princes that slither in the darkness of this world, and against wicked spiritual armies that lurk about in heavenly places. And this is why you need to be head-to-toe in the full armor of God: so you can resist during these evil days and be fully prepared to hold your ground. Yes, stand—truth banded around your waist, righteousness as your chest plate, and feet protected in preparation to proclaim the good news of peace. Don’t forget to raise the shield of faith above all else, so you will be able to extinguish flaming spears hurled at you from the wicked one. Take also the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray always. Pray in the Spirit. Pray about everything in every way you know how! And keeping all this in mind, prayon behalf of God’s people. Keep on praying feverishly, and be on the lookout until evil has been stayed.  (Ephesians 6:10-18)

 ____________________________________________________________________

[1] Luke 4

[2] John 11:45-57

[3] Mark 16:7

Harmony #77: Parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-28)

While the people were listening to these things (“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost”), Jesus proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

Note that he told a parable because a) he was near Jerusalem and b) the people had some thoughts about the Kingdom of God appearing. We will come back to that.

Therefore he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. And he summoned ten of his slaves, gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to be king over us!’

When he returned after receiving the kingdom, he summoned these slaves to whom he had given the money. He wanted to know how much they had earned by trading. So the first one came before him and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made ten minas more.’ And the king said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you will have authority over ten cities.’

Then the second one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made five minas.’  So the king said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ Then another slave came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina that I put away for safekeeping in a piece of cloth. For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’

The king said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! So you knew, did you, that I was a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow? Why then didn’t you put my money in the bank, so that when I returned I could have collected it with interest?’ And he said to his attendants, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has ten.’

But they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten minas already!” He replied, ‘I tell you that everyone who has will be given more, but from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and slaughter them in front of me!’ “ After Jesus had said this, he continued on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

This parable just sits there between the calling of Nicodemus and the entrance to Jerusalem starting the final week of Jesus’ life. It feels awkward and disjointed. But, since Luke committed to writing “an orderly account,” there must be something here that’s an important part of an ongoing bigger story.

First, though it’s popular to see Jesus as the king figure in this parable, it is hard for me to conceive that Jesus would be the ruler who has left and then returns. I recognize that I am in the minority view here. But H=his character and nature are not like the third servant describes (“a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow).

Second, if that ruler is Jesus, the parable suggests that when God gives the gifts of the Kingdom to his children, if they don't double what he gives them, God gets so angry that he destroys them. If Jesus is God in the flesh – so, God is like Jesus - that doesn't track with anything we have seen about Jesus so far.  We just read Jesus saying to Zacchaeus, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost,” not punish the fearful.

Third, I'm not sure what to think about the teaching of those having much getting more and those having little losing what they have. Didn’t we just hear about the lost sheep, and lost coin, and the two lost sons, and God pursues and loves them? If the ruler is Jesus, this is joltingly the opposite. He has kept calling his disciples “you of little faith,” and he didn’t throw them away. He discipled them.

The best explanation I have found involves a historical event that happened around the time of Jesus. When Herod the Great died (this is the Herod the Sadducees convinced to be the “King of the Jews” and who controlled the Temple priests), he willed his kingdom to his three sons. The three sons sailed to Rome on three different ships to bring gifts to Caesar and ask him to honor their father’s will. The Jewish Pharisees sent a delegation on a fourth ship to plead with Caesar not to make Antipas king. 

As a result, Caesar decided to name Anitpas a “tetrarch” (just lower than a king).  Antipas blamed the Jews for the decision; when he got back, he made an example of the Jews who were left at home and slaughtered them by the thousands. When Jesus stands in front of Herod in the final week of his life, he is standing in front of (drumroll) Herod Antipas. 

I am leaning heavily toward the notion that Jesus is challenging how those who “thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately” expected the kingdom of God to appear. I think they wanted him to take it like a Herod would take it, and Jesus is having none of it.

Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem for Passover. He has a huge crowd of disciples, and they lead the adoring crowds in welcoming him into Jerusalem as a king. All the kingly symbols are there:

• the cloaks on the ground (what the people did for Jehu in 2 Kings 9:13–14)

• palm branches (1 Maccabees 13:51 records the use of palm branches in a celebration of Judas the Hammer, a Zealot who led the Maccabean Revolt)

• crying Hosanna (“Help us!”)

• ·saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (also what they said of Jehu)

• ·Jesus riding donkey (Zechariah 9:9)

They thought they might finally be getting a King, a deliverer who would set up an earthy kingdom by copying Rome’s pax romana (“peace by the sword”). They didn’t like Rome, but they had no problem with THEIR guy using the tools and method of Rome to bring about THEIR own kingdom. But…this is the thing about Rome.

• ·Rome destroyed those would not help them expand their empire and the Hellenism of the Greeks. #parablereference

• ·Rome was violent and merciless to those who betrayed them. #parablereference

• ·Rome was all about the winners getting more winny and the losers getting more losery. #parablereference

When Jesus sees his people welcome him with a not so subtle reference to take out Rome with Rome’s methods, here is how he responds:

Now when Jesus approached and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you had only known on this day, even you, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. They will demolish you—you and your children within your walls—and they will not leave within you one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” (Luke 19:41-44)

Why is this going to happen? They have the wrong idea about what will bring peace because “they did not recognize the time of their visitation from God.” The visitation of God is Jesus; Jesus is telling them what will bring peace, and they are not picking up what he is laying down.

History had shown that, at the end of the day, the Jewish people kept defaulting to the path of the Zealots. When Jesus read from Isaiah in his hometown and declared the year of the Lord’s favor but left off the line about God’s vengeance,[1] his hometown tried to kill him because they knew what he was saying. God’s favor was going to become available to all, and they were not okay with that. God was going to bring peace by reconciling everyone first to Himself and then to each other, and that meant nobody was going to pay for the crimes done against them.

For many of them (the Zealots for sure), the kingdom of God would arrive by taking the sword to those who hurt them. And that's what a Caesar or a Nero would do. That’s what happened in Jesus’ parable. That’s what Antipas did to those who displeased him. And this is the approach the Jewish people kept revisiting over and over. Even the non-Zealots seemed to keep rallying around the sword to solve their problems and usher in the Kingdom of God.

We've got good biblical reason to believe that this Zealot thread kept running through Jesus’ disciples no matter how often he taught and lived differently.

I’ve noted before that that Judas and Simon were both zealots. Judas had a nickname “Iscariot,” a nickname that seems to place him among the sicarii, one of the "dagger-men" of the Zealots who had committed to killing Roman soldiers whenever he could with his dagger that shared his nickname. I'm leaning more and more toward the idea that when we get to the last week in the life of Jesus, Judas was intending to be the spark that started the revolution.

Judas knew that if he went to the high priests, they would come for Jesus. Remember, the high priests are the Sadducees. They love Rome, and they have been trying to kill Jesus because Jesus is putting their status with Rome in jeopardy. At one point Caiaphas tells the Sanhedrin that it’s better to kill one person, Jesus, than to have them all killed.[2] Judas knows that the Sadducees’ private army of bodyguards will have no problem pulling a sword on Jesus. They had a reputation for doing that kind of thing to those who crossed the Sadducees.

It’s an odd collaboration. The Zealots hated the Sadducees because they were such compromisers. Clearly, Judas is just using them. The text doesn't say this, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were Zealots hiding nearby, waiting for the fight to begin. What a shock it must have been when Peter - who brought a sword to a garden prayer time? - starts the fight and Jesus promptly stops it.

Let's fast forward to the trial where Herod does what Herod always did at Passover, which was to offer a released prisoner to the Jewish people. He gives them the option of Jesus the Christ or Jesus Barabbas. The crowd chooses Barabbas, who had been arrested because he had already engaged in violent insurrection.  They want their Zealot who knows how to fight on their terms.

I suspect part of the reason Jesus wept was because he knew what would happen when God’s people try to bring about the Kingdom of God at the edge of a sword. He warned Peter: “You live by it, you die by it.” Why are the Jewish people slaughtered and the Temple destroyed in AD 70? The Zealots keep pushing and pushing and pushing until Rome snapped.

So, full circle back to the parable. I think Jesus knew what was in their hearts, and he reminded them of what Herod was like, and how empires work. He will never be that kind of King, and his kingdom should never be that kind of Kingdom.

* * * * *

I've been thinking a lot this week about what principles we take away from this. If you recall, the Jewish people wrestled with three responses to the question, “What do we do with Rome?

• Compromise, embrace it, learn to love it (Sadducees and Herodians)

• ·Retreated and just focus on being holy (Essenes and Pharisees)

• ·Fight Rome with the weapons of Rome.  

Jesus has challenged all of these approaches throughout the course of his ministry.

• ·He doesn't retreat from the culture around him; instead he goes to the Gentiles (Samaritans and Romans).

• ·He doesn't embrace the culture; he embraces the people in the culture as individuals and calls them to follow him.

• ·He doesn't pick up a sword – unless it’s the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, which he seem him wielding in Revelation.

 Let’s go back to what characterized Rome and Herod Antipas.

• ·Rome destroyed those would not help them expand their empire and the Hellenism of the Greeks.

• ·Rome was violent and merciless to those who betrayed them.

• · Rome was all about the winners getting more winny and the losers getting more losery. 

 How is Jesus a different kind of King?

·Those outside the kingdom were not destroyed in the process of expanding the kingdom. They were literally still alive to have access to the Kingdom. Jesus just kept inviting himself to the home of the sinner, the Samaritan, the tax collector. He kept inviting people. The banquet table has enough seats for everybody.

• ·On the cross, he asks God to forgive those who crucified him rather than asking him to smite them. He will restore Peter, who might have betrayed him more than Judas when he called down curses and said, “I don’t know my own rabbi.” Okay, important trivia (?) When Jesus rose, the women at the grave were told to take the news “to the disciples and Peter.”[3] It’s only been three days. Why isn’t Peter just assumed to still be a disciple? Because he denied and cursed his rabbi. He was done. There was no coming back from that. When Jesus sees him again, where is he? Back to fishing. He was done. AND JESUS RESTORES HIM. This is not an earthly kingdom; this is a heavenly kingdom.

• ·Jesus was not about rewarding the competent and punishing the incompetent #peteronceagain. Remember the Parable of the Two Brothers (Prodigal Son). Remember the Parable of Workers working all day vs. one hour. Jesus is excited about giving everyone the spiritual spoils of the Kingdom, whether they are crushing it or floundering or lost like that sheep. Everybody sits at the banquet table. Surely there is reward in walking in the Path of Life as we harvest what we have planted, but God is not a stingy and petty God, turning his nose up at the Samaritan and tax collector and prodigal. He came to seek and to save the lost, after all. That’s what he loves to do.

 Let's see if we can make this practical for our situation today.

We are not living in a nation that brings a sword against followers of Jesus like Herod Antipas. We do, however, live in a culture that will at times challenge us on aspects of what we believe or how we believe we should live our faith. How do we respond to living in spiritually occupied territory of Babylon/Rome (to use Revelation’s imagery)?

I'm hearing rumbles in some circles that we might be looking at a time that is ripe for a second Civil War. It's often accompanied with the stated desire to get America back to Judeo/Christian roots even if it requires violence. That just doesn't sound like Jesus. That sounds like Judas.

But there's also a level to this that stops short of violence physical violence. I'm thinking now of emotional, verbal and maybe even spiritual violence. When we talk about the culture wars, we can mean one of two things.

•  We can mean that there is a clash anytime Christians live in spaces with non-Christians simply because we are going to value different things for different reasons,  and we are going to offer our worship and allegiance to different gods or idols. In that sense, yeah, there's going to be a war in the sense that there is conflict and tension. Legit. This has always been true.

• We can also use Culture Wars to mean it is time for us to get out there and fight fight fight – but…. it's not usually accompanied with language asking what it looks to fight like Jesus. It's usually much more pragmatic Zealotry, with a physical or symbolic peace by the sword in that the ends will justify the means if we aren’t careful. A public figure who aligns with Christians noted recently, in reference to the aforementioned culture wars, “We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing. Okay? It’s gotten us nothing…”

 But here's the reality. The means determine who we are in the end. If we fight like Rome and get our way, we'll just be Rome by another name. And if this is our hope, we will constantly be searching for peace and not finding peace because we didn't fight like Jesus as we pointed toward Jesus. The apostle Paul – who knew a thing or two about fighting battles in the wrong way - reminded us how to fight like Jesus, for Jesus.

 Finally, brothers and sisters, draw your strength and might from God. Put on the full armor of God to protect yourselves from the devil and his evil schemes. We’re not waging war against enemies of flesh and blood alone. No, this fight is against tyrants, against authorities, against supernatural powers and demon princes that slither in the darkness of this world, and against wicked spiritual armies that lurk about in heavenly places.

 And this is why you need to be head-to-toe in the full armor of God: so you can resist during these evil days and be fully prepared to hold your ground. Yes, stand—truth banded around your waist, righteousness as your chest plate, and feet protected in preparation to proclaim the good news of peace.  Don’t forget to raise the shield of faith above all else, so you will be able to extinguish flaming spears hurled at you from the wicked one. Take also the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  Pray always. Pray in the Spirit. Pray about everything in every way you know how! And keeping all this in mind, prayon behalf of God’s people. Keep on praying feverishly, and be on the lookout until evil has been stayed.  (Ephesians 6:10-18)

 ________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Luke 4

[2] John 11:45-57

[3] Mark 16:7

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.

#75 A Ransom For Many (Mark 10: 35-45; Matthew 20: 20-28)

Once again, we are going to need to remember the context surrounding the section we will be looking at today in Mark 10 and Matthew 20. This context is from Mark’s account, starting in Mark 9.

·  The disciples try to cast out a demon but can’t. This apparently leads to some arguments among them.

·  On the way to Capernaum, they argue about who the greatest one is. Jesus said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

·  Then, Jesus gives the example of becoming like a child. ‘Whoever welcomes one of these in my name welcomes me.”

·  Then: “We saw someone actually being successful in driving out a demon and we told him to stop because he was not one of us.” Jesus: ““If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.” 

·  Then he is challenged about divorce laws (an ongoing argument between Shamai and Hillel). “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife so he can marry another woman?” I’ll summarize Jesus response: No, and focus on serving, not being served. Your hearts are hard if you are wondering what your rights are rather than your responsibilities.

·  Children show up again, and he blesses them. “The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.”

·  Then the Rich Young Ruler shows up (that was the sermon last week), and Jesus finishes his teaching with, “Many who are first will be last, and the last first,” and tells the parable about the workers in the field

We are hitting two themes. First, in the Kingdom of God, there should be no one overlooked and marginalized. Jesus elevates the cultural “lasts” to show their value and dignity. Second, God loves to be generous to all, especially to those who have been overlooked, abandoned, taken for granted, or considered undeserving. We should not be surprised if the next events and teachings continue on this theme.

James & John: Serving vs. Ruling (Matthew 20:20-28; Mark 10:35-45)

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, and kneeling down she asked him for a favor[1], saying, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” He said to her, “What do you want?” She replied, “Permit these two sons of mine to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in the glory of your kingdom.”

But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I experience?” They said to him, “We are able.”

Then Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism I experience,[2] but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give. It is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

Now when the other ten heard this, they became angry with James and John. Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them.

But it is not this way among you. Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the servant of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.[3]”

HE GAVE HIS LIFE

Empire leadership principles have two main pillars: the ones who are ‘first’ lord your power over others (throw your weight around) and exercise authority - literally, play the tyrant. Kingdom leadership principles have one key pillar: the ones who are ‘first’ take the lead in serving others.[4]

Among the unconverted, great men are those who rule with arbitrary power, who are overbearing and domineering. But greatness in Christ’s kingdom is marked by service. Whoever … desires to be first should become a [servant] to everyone. (Believer’s Bible Commentary)

We live in a world that tells us it is important to be in charge, to be first, to have power, and to wield it. It starts when we are kids and the place of privilege is to be the line leader. Nobody privileges letting everyone else go first. True followers of Jesus learn to love the beauty of humble service.

We must, must resist the urge to fall in love with exercising power. I think Scripture presents power similar to how it presents money: the love of power and money are the problem, not the things themselves. When Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek,” that word means power under control. The image is that of a mighty ox yoked into service.

And let’s face it: we all have some degree of power in that we have an impact on the world. You have physical power and could hurt people or protect and help people. Your words have power; you can hurt people or heal people. Your facial expressions have power; you hurt people or give them hope with a well-placed expression.

We are called to be people who love to use whatever kind of power we have in the humble service of others. In our role as salt and light, we can and should encourage in the church and in our culture those who know how to manage their strength, their words, their presence in such a way that whatever power they have is used in humble service of others to protect, to heal, and to give hope.

Even Jesus, God in the Flesh, was not exempt from the rule of humble service in the kingdom. He is, in fact, the ultimate example of it, especially in his redemptive mission. He did not come as a strongman to demand and control; he came as a servant, giving "his life as a ransom for many."

AS A RANSOM FOR MANY

·  The word translated "ransom" relates to the "redemption" or "release" of Israel's from slavery in Egypt.

·  The phrase "for many" is an Aramaic expression meaning “for all.”[5]

In his death, Jesus pays a ransom. Among different theories of atonement, this is called Ransom Theory. It is a way of looking at what happened on the cross. What happened on the cross if far too complex and deep to be captured in one theory. Ransom Theory was quite popular in the early church and into the Middle Ages, though other ways of thinking of the atonement emerged that displaced its popularity.

However, any way of looking at the Cross that has a biblical foundation has value, and since the idea of Ransom shows up here, let’s look at it more deeply, beginning with Isaiah’s reference to the Jewish people being ransomed from Egypt.

Isaiah 51:10-11  “Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep? Did you not make a path through the depths of the sea, so those delivered from bondage could cross over? Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return; they will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and suffering will disappear.” 

“For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you…” (Is. 43:3, 4). 

Concerning their return from captivity in Babylon we read,

"For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he." (Jer. 31:11)

On a more theological note,

"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death" (Hos. 13:14).

 “But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.” (Psalm 49:15)

Ransom theories focus on the fact that people are enslaved to the wrong master until, through Jesus’ death, they are set free. The dominant image here is “manumission”—the act of setting slaves free.[6] Notice how the Old Testament pairs redeem and ransom in parallel, so we can use them interchangeably.

The Hebrew word for 'ransom' never appears in the New Testament because, well, the NT was not written in Hebrew J However, it uses other words to refer to the same principle. Jesus uses the phrase anti lutron (lutron belongs to a family of words which convey the concept of redemption) to describe his death; Paul uses antilutron for the same purpose.

“The Son of man came ... to give his life a ransom for many.”

“Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all.” [I Timothy 2:6][7] 

The writer of Hebrews uses apolýtrōsis: “redemption – literally, "buying back from or winning back what was previously forfeited or lost."[8] 

“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:15) 

There are other allusions to the idea of ransom or redemption without naming it specifically:

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28) 

“You were bought [9] with a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23) 

And they were singing a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and bought people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation, and made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9–10)

When we see this term used for what Jesus does, it has to do with a dispossession where someone frees a person from the control of master or owner and brings them into a new place under the Ransomer’s protection and care.

A classic example from the Old Testament involves Boaz and Ruth. When Ruth asked Boaz to be her guardian/redeemer, he had to ‘dispossess’ another in order to bring her under his protection and care as the Kinsmen Redeemer.

I prefer the language of redeemer because the English word 'ransom' brings an image to mind that creates some tensions. A ransom is what we pay a kidnapper in exchange for releasing the kidnapped. This creates a problem: to whom does Jesus pay the ransom?

Is it paid to God? It’s not a good look for God to be a kidnapper needing to pay Himself to release people from Himself back to Himself. The early church never suggested this possibility: they primarily thought it was paid to Satan after Adam and Eve fell into the control of “the god of this world.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

Is it paid to Satan? That suggests God had to frustratingly pay Jesus to Satan to cover the cost. Yet Hebrews 2:14 tells us that “through death he destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil , and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” It sure doesn’t seem like a ransom would have to be paid to someone who has been destroyed.

Is it paid to death or sin? That seems the most likely because that is clearly stated in those two OT verses I quoted, but…those aren’t even ‘things’ that could accept a payment.

Bottom line: To whatever degree it’s a ransom, it’s not an exchange. It’s a deliverance from one kingdom to another. Notice that in the examples I gave, when God ransomed His people, there was a payment, but nobody is listed as receiving a payment. The ransom happened, but nobody was paid off.[10]

 This suggests to me that’s we are meant to focus on the change of possession as God’s people are moved from life in the land of the enemy into life in the land of God. It was costly – really costly – but now they have a new King, a new Lord. They are now children of God.

In the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Redeemer lawfully and properly paid the ransom so we could be His. Jesus dispossessed the owner (Satan, sin death, hell, the grave?), secured us into God’s possession, an dprovided a permanent place of safety

This constitutes the “ransom” aspect of redemption as it is set forth in scripture.[11] A church Father named Eusebius wrote,

The Lamb of God . . . was chastised on our behalf, and suffered a penalty He did not owe, but which we owed because of the multitude of our sins; and so He became the cause of the forgiveness of our sins, because He received death for us and transferred to Himself the scourgings, the insults, and the dishonor, which were due to us… And what is that but the price of our souls?

1 Peter offers a wonderful chapter that captures the beauty and power of what has happened as a result of Jesus paying our ransom.1 Peter 1:3-23

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, that is, into an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in heaven for you, who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. This brings you great joy, although you may have to suffer for a short time in various trials.

Such trials show the proven character of your faith, which is much more valuable than gold—gold that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away—and will bring praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.You have not seen him, but you love him. You do not see him now but you believe in him, and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, because you are attaining the goal of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who predicted the grace that would come to you searched and investigated carefully. They probed into what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified beforehand about the sufferings appointed for Christ and his subsequent glory.

They were shown that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things now announced to you through those who proclaimed the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things angels long to catch a glimpse of.

Therefore, get your minds ready for action by being fully sober, and set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed.Like obedient children, do not comply with the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance, but, like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of your conduct, for it is written, “You shall be holy, because I am holy.”

And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here in reverence. You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed—not by perishable things like silver or gold, but by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ...

You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to show sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart. You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.
____________________________________________________________________________

[1] If mom is asking, the odds are pretty high that James and John had not yet had their Bar Mitvah, the official entrance into adulthood.

[2] The cup, symbolizing trouble and suffering, is found in the OT (Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17; Jer 49:12; Eze 23:31-34 [see comment on 14:35-37]. Baptism is a symbol of a deluge of trouble (cf. Pss 18:16; 69:1-2). Expositor’s Bible Commentary

[3] “The phrase ‘for many’ is an Aramaic expression meaning “for all.” (Orthodox Study Bible)

[4] HT Africa Bible Commentary

[5] “The expression ‘the many’ is not to be understood in the sense of "some but not all" but in the general sense of "many" as contrasted with the single life that is given for their ransom (cf. Isa 53:11-12).” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

[6] “Thinking About The Atonement.” Mennonite Brotherhood Herald

[7] Elsewhere in the New Testament, the phrase is used to describe things like John being unworthy to remove his shoes and Jesus dismissing a crowd after preaching. It is sometimes described as 'loosing' or delivering.'

[8] HELPS Word Studies

[9] “Agorázō is properly, to make purchases in the marketplace ("agora"), i.e. as ownership transfers from seller to buyer. Agorázō stresses transfer – i.e. where something becomes another's belonging (possession). In salvation-contexts, agorázō is not redeeming ("buying back"), but rather focuses on how the believer now belongs to the Lord as His unique possession.” (HELPS Word Studies)

[10] The top possibility, as I see it, is sin, but sin’s not a being to pay off. It’s more like “the wages of sin is death,” and Jesus absorbed that cost to free us from it.

[11] From a post in the Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange

Harmony #71: Always Pray, And Don’t Lose Heart (Luke 17:11- 18:8)

Now on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, raised their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

When he saw them he said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went along, they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He fell with his face to the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (Now he was a Samaritan.)[1]

Then Jesus said, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to turn back and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to the man, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has saved you.”

Now at one point the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, so he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

This narrative stresses several themes we have been seeing in Luke’s gospel.

·  Jesus has mercy on social outcasts. Jews did not travel between Galilee and Judea by going close to Samaria. Jesus had no problem doing so.[2] Meanwhile, foreigners (allogenēs) were warned not to enter the temple past the outer court.[3] Jesus is sending a pointed message: you stop foreigners from entering the Jerusalem temple, but here is one of them worshipping Jesus, the Son of God.

·  On their way to the priests, the lepers were healed. File away somewhere that Jesus did not require saving faith from them to heal them. He just healed them without commenting on their faith.  So they were healed, but the returning Samaritan was saved: “used principally of God rescuing believers from the penalty and power of sin – and into His provisions (safety).[4]Literally, his response of faith (trust) brought him salvation from his fallen state.[5] He received the greater healing - that of his soul.

·  The Pharisees wanted a grand political upheaval or signs in the heavens – some impressive display of public power. Jesus said, “It’s not like that. The Kingdom doesn’t come with an outward show. It's not a visible, earthly, temporal kingdom which could be pointed out as being here or there.[6]  The kingdom of God, “the dominion of righteousness”[7] was being manifested in Jesus among them, right in front of their eyes. Ten lepers had been cleansed of leprosy, and they basically yawned.[8]  Do you remember Marvin the Martian? “There was supposed to be a kaboom!” They wanted political or cosmic fireworks that unleashed the power of God while failing to see the unleashing of power of God right in front of them.

So, Jesus told them the Kingdom of God had arrived. He followed this up with a cryptic warning/encouragement. This passage has been widely debated, along with the harmony passages in Luke 21, Mark 13 and Matthew 24 - 25. Jesus is talking to his disciples about how to prepare themselves for what’s to come, but his language is highly symbolic while referencing the Old Testament and Jewish colloquialisms.

Commentaries wrestle with whether or not Jesus, when referencing what will happen in “this generation,” was talking about spiritual realities, upcoming events within the lifetime of his audience, future events that usher in the end of history, or all three. I am increasingly of the opinion that he was prepping them for what they and the Jewish people would personally would face spiritually and physically,[9] so that’s how I’m going to approach it this morning.[10] I will include plenty of footnotes. Luke seems to focus on the implications of Jesus’ death and resurrection (spiritual realities), while the other gospels land more heavily on the coming destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.  We will reference both.

To be cIear, I could be wrong :) . This is a great passage that should lead us into discussion as we strive to understand God’s word together. No matter what, this message would end with the same timeless encouragement, so let’s work our way there.

* * * * *

 Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.”

Already, I have questions. Jesus just said the Kingdom is here. Then he told them they were going to long to see the days of the Son of Man, but they won’t, so that must be something different. Clearly, the disciples to whom he is speaking are going to go through a lot of difficulty as they wait for something in the Kingdom that has not yet happened. And yet…

‍Matt 10:23: "But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes."

Mark 14:62, Jesus tells the high priest, “From now on you shall see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

And here, I think is the interpretive key. Son of Man is a term Daniel is famous for using. Most commentaries will tell you Jesus is wanting his audience to remember this passage from Daniel 7:13-14: 

“I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”

When the Son of Man comes in Daniel, he’s not coming to earth. He’s coming to the throne room of God to take his place at the Father’s right hand and establish his heavenly Kingdom. This is not what people expect of a King taking his place on a throne.

People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. 

• In Acts 5, Rabbi Gamaliel speaks of two such messianic pretenders: Theudas, and Judas the Galilean, who led a revolt against the Romans.

• In Acts 21:38, Paul is suspected by the Roman temple guard of being the Egyptian who led four thousand Jews to the Mount of Olives.

• Josephus wrote of such prophets and messiahs as dangerous criminals bent on leading the nation to destruction. Josephus claims Felix executed imposters almost every day.[11]

For the Son of Man in his day[12] will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

That lighting imagery makes me think of the newly arisen Jesus.

“There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.” (Matthew 28:2-4)

Back to the text. Jesus must suffer many things and be rejected by the generation of people who crucified him. What will be happening in the world as these things happen? Nothing like some good Old Testament imagery to give them some hyperlinks.

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

 It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

People will be doing ordinary things, going about life, not aware that everything is about to change. In the two examples he gives, a judgment is rendered on the sinfulness of the world. This will happen on the cross. The ultimate judgment is rendered: the wages of sin is death. Of course, the ultimate salvation is offered at the same time: “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)[13] Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, he shows that He has conquered the devil, death, hell, and the grave (1 Corinthians 15:55-57; Revelation 1:18; Hosea 13:14; 2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:14-15). He takes captivity captive and gives good gifts to mankind (Ephesians 4:8-10). He crushes the serpent’s head (Romans 16:20).

 On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife!  Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. 

Choices will need to be made. What matters most: the things of this world, or the things of Heaven?  If you try to hang on to this world, you will lose your life. If you let go of this world, you embrace life in the most profound way possible.

I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” “[Taken] where, Lord?” they asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the eagles[14]/vultures will gather.”[15]

Those being taken are going somewhere with dead bodies and vultures. This is clearly a reference to judgment; the image is certainly not of “heaven.” Commentaries will tell you this is likely the valley of Ben-Hinnom (Gehenna), the city dump used for incinerating garbage, dead animals, and executed criminals. This is also where the poorest of the poor lived, having been denied housing in the city or the outlying villages connected with the city.

“On that day” during the days of the Son of Man, they will have to choose an empire of material things or a kingdom of spiritual things. “On that night,” the consequences of that choice begin. Some will stay and live within the provision of the Kingdom; those who reject the Kingdom will live outside the Kingdom, much to their grief (weeping) and frustration (gnashing of teeth).

The parallel section of Matthew 24-25 ends with the Parable of the Sheep and Goats by concluding, “And [the goats] will go to the chastening/pruning of the Age, but the just [sheep] to the life of the Age.” (Matthew 25:46, DBH translation).  That translation suggests there is something that happens now, in this age, that is a consequence of our choice of whether we want to enter the Kingdom or not. Jesus elsewhere (Mark 9)[16] described Gehenna as a place where “the worms that eat [the corpses] do not die, and the fire is not quenched.”[17] Then he adds,  “Everyone will be salted with fire,” which seemed to include something relevant to present reality if everyone gets it.

I wonder if there is some sense in which we choose our fire. We can accept the fire of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word to purify our hearts and minds – and that will be a fire. Repentance and reconciliation when we have sinned against others; practicing humility; embracing truth even if we don’t like it; extending grace even when we don’t want to; practicing the sacrificial lifestyle of agape love; being relentlessly honoring and kind. That will burn through wood, hay and stubble like a fire.  

Or… we can endure the wages of sin, reaping the consequences of sinful choices as we weep and grind our teeth. We can be the prodigal stuck in a sin-filled pig sty eating pig food until we come to our senses. That, too, is a fire. Everyone will be salted with fire.

Lk 18:1 Then Jesus told them a parable to show them they should always pray and not lose heart.

They need this right now. Following Jesus is going to be hard. Remember, they will be longing for a glimpse of God at work, to feel God’s presence, to know in the midst of trials that God is with them and for them. History tells us (and the parallel passages break it down more) how brutal life was for the Jewish people leading up to the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70: wars, famine, persecution, natural disasters. For Jewish people following Jesus, they are going to suffer for being Jewish and for following Jesus. Almost all of the disciples will be killed for their faith. They are going to need hope.

  He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. There was also a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

 For a while he refused, but later on he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, yet because this widow keeps on bothering me (“gives me a black eye”), I will give her justice, or in the end she will wear me out by her unending pleas.’ “

And the Lord said, “Listen to what [even an] unrighteous judge says! How much more will God give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night.[18] [Like a farmer waiting for a ripe harvest, he will not delay long[19] to help them when the harvest time has arrived]. I tell you, he will then vindicate them speedily.[20]

 Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes,[21] will he find [the kind of persistent] faith(fullness) in this land[22] that trusts God to [bring justice and vindicate his people]?”

“To show them they should always pray and not lose heart.” The lesson of the parable is not that God is reluctant to be bothered with our needs, so we should keep pulling on his arm going, “Dad, dad, hey dad, daddaddaddaddad” until he annoyingly yanks his arm away and says, “WHAT!?!?” His point is that if an unjust judge would answer the request of a widow he doesn't even know, how much more will a loving, righteous, generous God hear the prayers of his children?

Have times been tough throughout history for followers of Jesus? Have there been times when we have been tempted to lose heart, to wonder why on earth God is not showing up NOW in ways we want God to show up? Will we contribute to the persistent faith(fullness) in our land that trusts God to bring justice, to be faithful, to never leave or forsake us?”

Can we live in prayer-filled hope? The whole section we read this morning tells a crucial message: the Kingdom has arrived; Jesus is Lord; don’t lose hope. Keep praying. Stay in “constant involvement with God as we interpret and deal with the world in which we live.”[23]

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. (Romans 12:12)

_________________________________________________________________

[1]  “It echoes Elisha’s healing of a Gentile (2 Kgs 5:1–19a), which Jesus notes at the beginning of his ministry.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[2] As noted in the NIV Women’s Study Bible

[3] NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

[4] HELPS Word-studies

[5]  ESV Global Study Bible. “They all had faith to be healed but only one out of the ten turned back to thank the Lord… Your faith has made you well” suggests that whereas the nine were cleansed from leprosy, the tenth was also saved from sin!” (Believers Bible Commentary)

[6] Believer’s Bible Commentary

[7] Asbury Bible Commentary

[8]  Now, “The kingdom of God is a spiritual reality present within the Christian believer and within the community of the Church.”  (Orthodox Study Bible)

[9] Check out Adam Clarke’s commentary on Matthew 24. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/matthew-24.html

[10]  Jesus constantly references “this generation,” and it’s…that generation J Matthew 24:34  “Truly, I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”  Matthew 11:16 (cf. Luke 7:31) “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates.” Matthew 12:39 (cf. Mark 8:12; Luke 11:29) “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” Matthew 12:41 “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it…  Matthew 12:42 “The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it….”Matthew 12:45 “Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” Matthew 16:4 “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign…” Matthew 17:17 (Mark 9:19; Luke 9:41) “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? ” Matthew 23:36 “Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” Luke 11:50-52 “…so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.”

[11] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament

[12] ‘Notice that in this passage, the "coming" of the "son of man" is not a coming here, but rather a coming before the throne of God in heaven: he is "presented" before God and found worthy of authority. The “coming” described in Daniel 7 is not a descent or “return” from heaven to earth, but the opposite: the “son of man” is carried by clouds into heaven and enters into the holy presence of God, whereupon he receives an eternal kingdom.’ (“What Is The Coming Of The Son Of Man? https://www.mercyonall.org/posts/what-is-the-coming-of-the-son-of-man)

[13] I like David Bentley Hart’s translation: “For sin’s wages are death, but God’s bestowal of grace is the life of the Age in Anointed, Jesus Christ.”

[14] “Sometimes a reference is supposed to the eagle-standards of Rome. (Comp. Deuteronomy 28:49-52; John 11:48.) This is very possible especially as the Jews were very familiar with the Roman eagle, and so strongly detested it that the mere erection of the symbol in Jerusalem was sufficient to lash them into insurrection (Jos. Antt. xvii. 6, § 3).” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

[15] We find this phrase in Matthew 24 also, which concludes by saying “this generation will not pass away” before seeing the signs of the Messiah. As the Good News translation puts it, “Remember that all these things will happen before the people now living have all died.” 

[16] See notes from that sermon here: https://www.clgonline.org/sermonblog/2023/12/10/harmony-53-who-is-the-greatest-mark-933-50-matthew-181-14-luke-946-50-171-3?rq=salted%20with%20fire

[17] Isaiah 66

[18] Revelation 6:9-11

[19] “In James 5:7 it is applied to the husbandman waiting for harvest. Here it is applied to God’s…coming to the help of tried saints.” (Expositor’s Greek Testament)

[20] Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision points ahead to a time I have appointed; it testifies regarding the end, and it will not lie. Even if there is a delay, wait for it. It is coming and will come without delay.”

[21] “This probably refers to the approaching destruction of Jerusalem - the coming of the Messiah, by his mighty power, to abolish the ancient dispensation and to set up the new.” (Barnes’ Notes On The Bible)

[22] “The discussion had particular reference to their trials and persecutions in that land. This question implies that "in" those trials many professed disciples might faint and turn back.” (Barnes’ Notes On The Bible) 

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

Harmony #70: You Cannot Serve God and Money (Luke 16:1-31)

In the past several weeks, we have been reading through a portion of Luke that’s been telling a story within a story: the Great Reversal in the Kingdom of God, where the Pharisees’ religious markers of importance and success gets flipped on their head. Specifically, this revolves around religious and social status: the poor, the sick, the outsider, the sinner, the lost are not only valued and loved by God, but they might be closer to the heart of the Father than those assumed to be tight with God. Let’s see how this theme has been building before tackling chapter 16.

·  Luke 10 -The Parable of the Good Samaritan (“Who was his neighbor? The one who had mercy.”)

·  Luke 11:1-13 - After teaching the Lord’s prayer and talking about the generous provision of earthly father, Jesus says, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” So, our true wealth is spiritual resource.

·  Luke 11:37-53 – The ‘woes’ to the Pharisees: “You neglect justice and the love of God…you love the important seats…you don’t lift a finger to help burdened people…you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” They don’t take care of others physically or spiritually.

·  Luke 12: 13-21 – the Parable of the Rich Fool: “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

·  Luke 12:22-34 – “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

·  Luke 12:35-48 – two parables about faithful servants, concluding with, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

·  Luke 13: After the run in with the Pharisees for healing on the Sabbath, he tells the Parable of the Narrow Door, in which people who thought they were wonderfully religious are told by God, “I don’t recognize you/I never knew you.” He concludes the parable with, “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

·  Luke 14: When Jesus notices people choosing the places of honor at a meal, he rebukes them. He concludes with, “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Then he tells the Parable of the Great Banquet, in which those assumed to be invited didn’t care to participate, and those assumed unworthy were eager to join.

·  Luke 15-  “He eats with sinners.” The three ‘lost’ parables: the sheep, the coin, the sons, focus on the incredible value of each individual person, with the Parable of the Two Sons echoes the Parable of the Great Banquet, in which those assumed to be invited didn’t care to participate, and those assumed unworthy were eager to join.

Today we are on Luke 16. Luke has not lost his stride. He is still on the Great Reversal: what we expect to happen by worldly standards gets upended by Kingdom standards.

·  The last will be first and the first will be last.

·  The societal/religious outcasts that are more eager to join God’s feast than are the religious insiders.

·   Those closest to the heart of God are not there simply because they keep religious rules (specifically those that impress other people); they are those who are merciful, generous, kind, and committed to justice.

And the measuring stick Luke keeps coming back to is money. What we do with our wealth, the provision God has given to us, reveals how close we are to the heart of God. The passage we are going to read today wraps up this focus with two parables about money, and Luke is going to be more blunt and sobering than ever.

Parable of the Clever Steward: Handling Money (Luke 16:1-13)

Jesus also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who was informed of accusations that his manager was wasting his assets. So he called the manager in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Turn in the account of your administration, because you can no longer be my manager.’

“Then the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, since my master is taking my position away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m too ashamed to beg. I know what to do so that when I am put out of management, people will welcome me into their homes.’

“So he contacted his master’s debtors one by one. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ The man replied, ‘A hundred measures of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ The second man replied, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

 “The master commended the dishonest steward (steward of unrighteousness) because he acted with clever trickery.[1] For the people of this age are more shrewd in dealing with those of this age than the people of light (in living as those with their eyes set on the age to come).[2] And I tell you, make friends for yourselves (of God) by how you use worldly wealth,[3] so that when it runs out you will be welcomed into the eternal tents (of Abraham).

“The one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.[4] If then you haven’t been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will entrust you with the true riches? And if you haven’t been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you your own?

“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

This is jarring parable. At first glance, it sure looks like Jesus is commending a dishonest, conniving cheat for being smart enough to avoid the consequences of his cheating. It seemed to contrast with the challenge to faithful stewards of both a little and a lot. So, let’s chat.

I’ve been listening to and reading a dude named Marty Solomon a lot lately. He is really good at providing the cultural and Jewish context in which these parables (and Scripture in general) are written. I have found his explanation of the parable to make the most sense. He believes the parable is about learning to value people and relationships more than money. Let me explain (using his words).

The manager would have been taking a commission for administering the owner’s affairs: in this case, collecting debt. Much like complanies that help people pay off really high credit card debt, he would reduce the debt so it could be paid in a lump sum payment, then collect up to 20% or 25% of the debt collected. His boss gets money, he gets money, borrowers are happy. If he was really generous, he could wave his negotiating fee. That 25% can go toward the borrower, the boss, or a little of both.

Solomon thinks that is what is happening here. This manager has worked out if he sacrifices his commission for each of these debtors, then he can gain the payment of debts quicker for the owner. If that’s the case, this manager is not acting in some shady fashion to cover up his prior dishonesty. He is sacrificing his own commission to make things right, which is worthy of commendation. His rejection of the money he could collect does two very important things.

1. It builds the reputation of his boss. As far as the debtors know, this is the boss’s order. They would likely respond with gratitude and admiration, and the boss looks better than he ever has.

2. The manager will be popular with potential future employers. He wants to ingratiate himself into the townspeople’s homes so he can get a job in the town after this has blown over. Yes, he is a scoundrel, but he knows a clever way to set things right.

Basically (according to Solomon), he has figured out how to strengthen his relationships. He finally realized where the priorities ought to be: people, not things or money. Initially he was dishonest and greedy, but his solution is self-sacrificing in order to make things right. Now it makes sense for Jesus to commend him through this parable for finally seeing the light, so to speak.

To be sure, Jesus is clear that this is how “people of this age/generation” do things in contrast with the people of light. The manager’s life is not meant to provide is with a role model. However, even the pagan lover of money realized that, when push came to shove, it was his relational investment in people that mattered the most. The parable doesn’t say his heart changed in that he stopped loving money, but he eventually figured out how to use his access to money to strengthen his relationships rather than break them. Finally, right priorities.

Jesus, of course, moves it closer to home for his audience: If we are concerned about our well being in this life, how much more should we be concerned about our well-being in the next life?

“And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth,[5] so that when it runs out you will be welcomed into the eternal tents (of Abraham).”

Or,

“Put yourself in a good position through your use of money, which so easily leads you astray, so that when this age is over God will receive you into his eternal dwelling.”[6]

I don’t think Jesus is trying to say that the wise use of money somehow buys our way into heaven. Remember, “Where our treasure is, our heart will be also.” Being generous and not greedy with our money is a sign that we know that the things of God are true treasure – and that’s where our heart is. What we do with our money is a sign, not a bribe.

Between today’s two parables sit Luke 16:14–18, which show Jesus rebuking the Pharisees for loving money, exalting themselves in self-justification, and ignoring the Old Testament’s authority. All three themes are woven into the next parable,[7] that of the Rich Man and Lazarus.

The Rich Man & Lazarus (Luke 16:14-15, 19-31)

The Pharisees (who loved money) heard all this and ridiculed him. But Jesus said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight.

 “There was a certain rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen[8] and who feasted sumptuously every day. But at his gate[9] lay a poor man named Lazarus (“God helps”)[10] whose body was covered with sores, who longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. In addition, the dogs came and licked his sores. Now the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side [at the banquet feast of the righteous].[11]The rich man also died and was buried.

 In Hades, as he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side. So he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus[12] to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in this fire.’

“But Abraham said, ‘Child,[13] remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus likewise bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us,[14] so that those who want to cross over from here to you cannot do so[15], and no one can cross from there to us.’

 “So the rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, father—send Lazarus to my father’s house (for I have five brothers)[16] to warn them so that they don’t come into this place of torment.’ “But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they must respond to them.’

“Then the rich man said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ “He replied to him, ‘If they do not respond to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ “ [17]

This is another Great Reversal: it is the poor beggar who was ushered into the feast, not the rich man. That was NOT what his audience of Pharisees expected to hear. For any beggars within earshot, it would have been the most hopeful teaching they had ever heard.

Before we get to a couple key points, I should note that I don’t think this parable was meant to help people build a theology of Heaven and Hell (Paradise and Hades). A couple reasons.

·  First, it starts like previous parable Jesus has told (“There was a certain man….”

·  Second, Lazarus is nowhere said to be righteous; he’s a beggar, that’s all. That hardly qualifies one for Heaven.

·  Third, nowhere else does the Bible teach that those in Paradise will watch those in Hades suffer and be so bothered by it that they will wish to help them. That hardly sounds like a Paradise characterized by joy.

I think this parable is the finishing touch on the previous 5 chapters. It’s a framework that uses the Pharisee’s beliefs to tell a Great Reversal parable to the Pharisees “who loved money” [v.14) that brings home the seriousness of this issue. This is about the state of their souls both now and into the age to come.

So, what shall we take away from this?

First, Jesus portrays money as a competing master, a faux god, an idol that people worship. Messing with our wallets and bank accounts might say more about us than we know.

Is money a means to an end or the end itself? And if it’s only a means (good start!), what is the end goal? Accumulating wealth, or stewarding the wealth God gives us to help those around us?

Do we think wealth = importance and value? Because if we do, we will judge the importance and value of ourselves and others by this measure. Even worse, do we think money reflects something about our importance and value in the eyes of God, as if wealth or poverty are moral markers in people’s lives? Oof.

I suspect our view and use of money has something to do with a test of trust and value: do we trust God or money to take care of us, and do we value people more than our money? Over and over, Old Testament and New – and in the past few chapters in Luke - we hear that how we use our resources in the generous care and service of others is a window into our hearts. Are we serving God or money?

Second, the first words out of the Rich Man’s mouth ought to have been, “Please forgive me Lazarus, for the way I treated you.” The issue is not his money; the issue is his attitude and action toward his neighbor, the poor, the underprivileged, the sick and the lame. 

“The true test can never be a simple dollar amount. It must be our sensitivity to the poverty and pain we find around us. A heart unwilling to help others—because it might be risky, or they might not deserve it, or it might cost us too much—is a heart unwilling to recognize the desperate help we ourselves need from God.”

(“Is the Rich Man and Lazarus a Parable?” Peter Gurry)

“What this parable attacks is wealth that does not see poverty and suffering. It attacks the idea that possessions are…owned without responsibility to God and other people… The parable does not tell us how the wealthy are to help the poor, but it insists the poor are brothers and sisters of the wealthy and that the injustice of the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty cannot be tolerated… 

Lazarus is still at the gate. Parables like this one insist that Christians must not be like the rich man who cares only for his own kind and cannot see the poor until too late. We dare not have a gospel with an evangelistic emphasis and no concern for the poor Any gospel that is not good news to the poor is not the gospel of Jesus Christ (see Luke 4:18-22)… 

Kingdom-driven decisions regarding possessions…would lead to the reduction of hoarding and consumerism, change how we view and attain security, enable various ministries, and relieve the plight of the poor. Economic decisions are not easy, but the church should not only lead the way but demonstrate by its use of money the reality of its gospel…God forbid that we not see, not care, and not act to alleviate the plight of the poor.” (Stories With Intent)

I don’t think Jesus is just warning people here, though he is clearly doing that. I think he is offering life as well. How does one store up the kind of treasure that heaven values? By being generous, by actively looking out for the poor and needy, by using money/stuff to build relationships with people in a way that displays the heart of God and the values of the Kingdom.

God loves to give good things to us, even when it is at great cost to Himself (as seen through the death of Jesus). The more we begin to find pleasure and even joy in giving of our material things, the more our heart aligns with God’s heart, and the more we begin to understand why  it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the spiritual wealth of kingdom through Jesus.

___________________________________________________________________

[1] “The tricky cleverness, by which the steward had endeavoured at once to escape detection, and to secure friends who would help him in his need, was exactly what an Oriental landlord would admire as clever, even though he saw through it.” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges)

 “Prudently. I would suggest shrewdly… recognizing in it a skillful adaptation of the means to the end - affirming nothing in the way of moral approbation or disapprobation, either of means or end, but leaving their worth to be determined by other considerations.’" (Vincent’s Word Studies)

[2] “They make better use of their earthly opportunities for their own lifetime than the sons of the light (John 12:36; Ephesians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:5) do for their lifetime; or even than the sons of light do of their heavenly opportunities for eternity.” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges)

[3] “Be good stewards even of the lowest talents wherewith God hath entrusted you, and particularly of your property. Make yourselves friends of this, by doing all possible good with it, particularly to the children of God.” (Benson Commentary)

[4] “There are rabbinic parallels to this principle. One notes that God “does not give a big thing to a man until He has tested him in a small matter; and afterwards He promotes him to a great thing.” The illustration is then given of Moses and David, who were faithful with sheep and so were given leadership over the nation.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

[5] “Be good stewards even of the lowest talents wherewith God hath entrusted you, and particularly of your property. Make yourselves friends of this, by doing all possible good with it, particularly to the children of God.” (Benson Commentary)

[6] Stories With Intent, by Klyne Snodgrass

[7] There is a LOT of discussion about whether this is a parable or if Jesus is talking about an actual event. I think it’s a parable for a number of reasons. Ask me about it if you like J If it overlaps with real people, it’s probably still a parable that is stepping on the toes of some in his audience. See footnote #8 and #11.

[8] This is a description of the high priestly garments, according to Exodus 39.27-29.

[9] From Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange: “In Jesus' story, Lazarus was laid ‘at the rich man's gate’ (Luke 16.20). This could refer to the gate that guarded the temple. Perhaps not coincidentally, Luke mentions another beggar at the temple gate in Acts 3.2, 10.”

[10] Though Lazarus was a common name, the only other Lazarus listed in the NT is Lazarus, the brother of Mary Magdalene and Martha. (John 12:1–3; Matthew 26:6). See footnote #11 on the possibility of the Rich Man as Caiphus. Jesus may be giving them a hint that when he raises Lazarus from the dead, it won’t make a difference to Caiphus. See John 11.

[11] “The phrase probably alludes to a feast where guests reclined beside one another around a table. The place beside the host was the position of highest honor. Pious Jews expected to [be a part of this].” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

[12] “When the Rich Man…sees Abraham, he recognizes Lazarus. ‘Send Lazarus…’ Lazarus could have be forgiven for yelling out, ‘Oh, so you know me now, do you? ‘Clearly, Dives has known exactly who Lazarus was, he just chose to ignore him.” (Marty Solomon)

[13] “ ‘Child/son’ is [teknon] the equivalent of “my dear boy”. It is the same term the father used in in Luke 15, when faced with the elder son who has still not repented and is petulantly still holding out against what he knows he should do.” (Marty Solomon)

[14] “That gulf is fixed…by the justice of God and the obstinacy of the ungraced human heart. The rich man… cannot see - because he will not see it - that he is the cause of it…In this profound sense we can speak of God’s divine judgment as self-imposed. (“Is the Rich Man and Lazarus a Parable?” by Peter Gurry)

[15] Kenneth Bailey sees in “those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able,  a hint that there is, in fact, someone willing; specifically, Lazarus. If this is true, it speaks volumes about Lazarus’ long suffering and his willingness to forgive. In other words, the deplorable nature of the Rich Man did not give Lazarus a reason to stop having a heart of compassion for him.

[16] “Jewish historian Flavius Josephus stated that Caiaphas’ father-in-law Anas had five priestly sons; Jesus might have been stepping on some real toes (Israel Bible Center, https://weekly.israelbiblecenter.com/rich-man-lazarus-based-real-life) 

Also, see this. https://theopolisinstitute.com/the-parable-of-lazarus-and-the-rich-man/

[17] “The Pharisees believed in a future life and judgment, but did not live in conformity with that belief in the pursuit of wealth.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

“When in Hades, the rich man begs that Lazarus be sent to his five living brothers to spare them the same fate. Abraham denies the request, pointing out that they already have the Scriptures. Even if someone were to rise from the dead they would not believe. The statement is a veiled reference to the religious leaders, who are presently rejecting the scriptural prophecies concerning Jesus the Messiah and who will continue to reject him even when he rises from the dead.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

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 #68: The Feast Of The Kingdom (Luke 14:1, 7-24)

Imagine you are invited to a meal in 1st century Palestine. The fact that you are invited means several things:

1. You matter.

2. You are at least close to the same socio/economic class.

3. You are ‘okay’ in that the host doesn’t mind being seen with you.

But once you get there, it’s not just about the honor of being a guest. The game is afoot!

1. The closer you are seated to the host, the more important you are. You might get an almost entirely different meal consisting of much better food, or you might even be in a separate room with the host while everyone else is in a different room. If you are seated at the end – sure, it was good to be there, but stay in your last place lane if you know what’s good for you, and good luck with the Ramen noodles. A Roman poet named Martial who loved him some satire criticizes the different quality of food served to guests: “Since I am asked to dinner ... why is not the same dinner served to me as to you? You take oysters fattened in the Lucrine lake, I suck a mussel through a hole in the shell; you get mushrooms, I take hog funguses…Golden with fat, a turtle-dove gorges you… there is set before me a magpie that has died in its cage. Why do I dine without you, although Ponticus, I am dining with you?”

2. The closer you were, the later you arrived, just so everyone could see you get ushered to the front. If you assumed you would be last, you could get there early and try to claim a place close to the front, but you ran the risk that when the really important people got there later, they would move you to the bottom in front of everyone. Rabbi Akiba said, “Go two or three seats lower than the place that belongs to thee, and sit there till they say unto thee, ‘Go up higher’; but do not take the uppermost seat, lest they say unto thee, ‘Come down’: for it is better that they should say unto thee, ‘Go up, go up’; than that they should say, ‘Come down, come down.’” (Adam Clarke)

It turns out meals – especially feasts on special occasions – were a lesson in merit and distinction that revealed your social, economic and maybe even religious status in the eyes of others.[1] This brings us to today’s text.

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee…and noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, because a person more distinguished than you may have been invited by your host. So the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place.’ Then, ashamed, you will begin to move to the least important place.

“But when you are invited, go and take the least important place, so that when your host approaches he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up here to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who share the meal with you.For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” [2]

But when you host an elaborate meal, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then you will be blessed/blissful, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous/just.”[3]

I don’t think Jesus was saying that we shouldn’t invite our friends over for meals.[4] Luke’s story is about more than social circles or proper etiquette with guests. 

 In Jesus’ time, there were serious economic, political and religious problems wrapped normal-looking moments. What should have been a time of fellowship became a time of pride and competition. What should have brought people together pushed people apart. What should have added value to people’s lives actually judged their value.[5] Paul talks about this in his advice to the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 11: 17-33).

In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. 

So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. 

Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter...So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together.

Paul goes on to say that people are sick and some have even died because of this problem. There are a number of ways that passage has been interpreted; I lean toward a very practical application. People were having sometimes fatal health issues because they lacked proper nourishment – or had too much. Paul called this “despising the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing.” It is vitally important that church communities have a keen eye for those in need, while avoiding the kind of self-indulgence we see in this passage.

This leads to what is called The Parable of the Great Banquet.

When one of those at the meal with Jesus heard this, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will feast in the kingdom of God!” But Jesus said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many guests.[6] 

At the time for the banquet he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’ But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going out to examine them. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I just got married, and I cannot come.’ 

Okay, these are all terrible excuses.

First, there would have been an RSVP sent out far ahead of time for a date to which these folks committed. (Say, Tuesday, the 25th of June.) The servant went out on the day of the event to tell them it was time. This wasn’t a surprise. It’s just that the food was hot and it was time to eat on the previously agreed upon date.

Second, the quality of the excuses are terrible.

• “No one buys a field in the Middle East without knowing every square foot of it like the palm of his hand.” (Kenneth Bailey). This dude had certainly seen that land already.

• Same with the oxen. Five yokes was…a lot. Bro was rich. He did not get rich by not knowing what he was buying.

• No way was the marriage happening at the same time, because no one would schedule a major banquet at the same time as a wedding. Meanwhile, men were exempt from military service for their first year of marriage (Deut. 20:7; 24:5), but this is not a war.

 Bottom line: they didn’t want to go. They were fascinated by the things right in front of them and didn’t want to be distracted, so they made excuses. Jesus had just lamented this in Luke 13:34-35, reminding them “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.” 

“So the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the master of the household was furious and said to his slave, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ Then the slave said, ‘Sir, what you instructed has been done, and there is still room.’  

So the master said to his slave, ‘Go out to the highways and country roads and urge[7] people to come in, so that my house will be filled.  For I tell you, not one of those individuals who were invited will taste my banquet!’ “[8]

I think we have to be careful with this parable and not make it bear more weight than is intended. It doesn’t fit cleanly with “Jesus is throwing the party” because that would imply that Jesus first invited his friends and important people, and then when they couldn’t come, he went with his back-up plan of the marginalized and outcast. He had JUST WARNED against this kind of favoritism, so I am confident we should not read the parable in a way that supports a favoritism reading.

Some dude at the meal  - so, someone who is part of the “in” crowd - had just said, ““Blessed is everyone who will feast in the kingdom of God!” Then the text says, “But Jesus said,” as if he is going to contradict him. He doesn’t contradict his statement; he contradicts his expectations by clarifying who will be at that feast.

The audience expected it to be the deserving –specifically, them. But Jesus’ responded, “Everybody is invited to the great banquet.” It is the Father’s good pleasure to give the Kingdom to all who respond to the invitation of Jesus.  

But you have to accept the invitation to enter in. Your title, your family background, your standing in the synagogue, your reputation, your past good works, the fact that you are at that meal with all the prestigious folks – none of those things mean you are or will be at the feast of the Kingdom.

The point isn’t that the “poor and crippled and blind and lame” (v. 21) and those who live in the “highways and country roads” (v. 23) were a back-up plan. What was scandalous to his proud audience was that are just as welcome. They probably didn’t expect these people to even respond to the message when they heard it (like the “tax collectors and sinners” Jesus had been eating with recently). Twice already, we have read where the people assumed it was sinners who were sick (John 9) or on whom calamity fell (Luke 13).

The Pharisees were those who assumed they were invited to the feast of the Kingdom. They were put together, healthy, religious, prosperous. They sat at the top of the table. Of course they would be invited. God was lucky to have such amazing followers. Jesus is about to tell the parable of the Prodigal Son (The Two Brothers). This is the older brother in that parable, the one who lived on the father’s land and missed the feast.

Then there are the Prodigal sons, those who assume they would not be invited: poor, crippled, blind, lame, living on the margins of society where unwanted people lived. This invitation was too good to be true.

When the parable says they were urged (‘compelled’ in many translations), they weren’t forced; a better translation is that they were lovingly persuaded to join the feast. There was a place already prepared for them. They were wanted. They mattered.[9]  It was the Father’s good pleasure to give them the Kingdom.

Side note: we might be shocked to know who is ready to respond to the invitation of the Kingdom. Our culture is a spiritual battlefield, no doubt, but it’s also a relational mission field that’s ripe for harvest. I love how Jesus embodied how to do both when he ate with tax collectors and sinners. Surely, the Kingdom of God was storming the gates of hell in that moment.

“The witness of the church should be characterized by the joy of inviting people to the banquet God has prepared…both present and future.”[10]

We see in this parable that the law-keepers who knew the most in their heads about the kingdom were the most calloused and non-committed to the invitation to actually “taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)  It was those they assumed who knew the least and lived the worst who turned out to be hungry for the goodness of the feast that is Christ and his kingdom.

I wonder how much the church would grow in the United States if we were characterized by going out of our way to befriend those who look to be the furthest from Christ, who appear to be the least likely to follow Jesus, and joyfully inviting them to the feast that Jesus is hosting?

• What if we worked with and cared for mothers considering abortion and offered them physical, emotional and spiritual hope rather than putting a sign in their face and yelling at them? Which approach matches the approach of Jesus?

• What if we brought a loving, engaged presence full of truth and grace to schools whose curriculum or philosophy concerns us – mentoring kids, helping in the library, being a teacher’s aide, helping with a campus ministry – rather than angrily disrupting school board meetings?

• I wonder how Jesus would be present with people wrestling with gender identity? I just can’t picture him as a keyboard warrior posting snarky memes. I can picture him inviting them to a meal, validating their worth as an image bearer of God, and introducing a righteous presence full of grace to walk with them through their confusion and into the freedom of truth.

Surely, in those moments, the servants of the king are going into the highways and country roads and offering a compelling reason for others to join the feast Jesus offers in the Kingdom.

Let’s talk about that feast and the Kingdom. In the Kingdom, God gives us a feast of salvation and sanctification, the guidance of His Word and His Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the beauty of living in communion with God and righteous community with others.

“Whatsoever things are true, honest (honorable), just, pure, lovely (acceptable and prized), and of good report (repute)…think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)

“The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

“Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.” (2 Peter 1:5-7)

That’s the kind of thing that characterizes the Kingdom.  That’s a compelling list. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give us these things when we follow Jesus into the Kingdom of God in response to the Spirit and the Word of God.

It doesn't’ mean that life will be easy or perfect. It’s just that the more we experience the work and presence of Christ in our life, the more these things will begin to characterize our life in Christ and with others. And when entire communities begin to increasingly be characterized by these things, we start to see what it means that “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

We are going to share communion today. From 1 Corinthians 11:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

The early church combined communion with fellowship meals. The wealthy brought more or all of the food in that setting; I suspect those struggling to eat well got to take the leftovers home. It’s a practical image of how God gives provision in His Kingdom. It’s a reminder that God’s plan for provision through Jesus’ sacrificial death was meant to be embodied by the generous, loving, sacrificial presence of His people: financially, emotionally, relationally, practically.

We are a body, together. As we take communion today, let’s remember that that the sacrifice of Jesus has made us onewithChristwhile drawing us into a Kingdom that makes us onewith each otherthroughChrist. And in righteous church community, we will see why God is so pleased to give us the Kingdom as we experience God’s provision.

_______________________________________________________________________________

[1] “The early church struggled against traditional and societal pressures to maintain such social distinctions (see 1 Cor. 11:17–34.)” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Of The New Testament) Keep in mind that the Gospels were written after the letters of the New Testament. I suspect certain episodes from the life of Jesus were highlighted for a reason.

[2] His words echo the prophecy of Ezekiel, who predicted that there would be a day when, “the lowly will be exalted and the exalted will be brought low.” (Ezekiel 21:26) Similar guidance appears in a popular Jewish book at that time. “The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself; so you will find favor in the sight of the Lord.” (Sirach 3:18)

[3] The first clear reference to the resurrection of the righteous appears at Daniel 12:2

[4] “What he [inspires] here is charity to the poor and what he condemns is those entertainments which are given to the rich, either to flatter them or to procure a similar return; because the money that is thus criminally laid out properly belongs to the poor.” (Adam Clarke)

[5] “Experience has shown that seeking the chief seats leads to corruption, with exploitation of the poor and oppressed.” (Africa Bible Commentary)

[6] “On this mountain [Zion] the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples ...” (Isa. 25:6) Isaiah makes it clear that the messianic banquet is for “all peoples,” there was a tendency in Judaism to reject the notion that Gentiles would be included. The first-century b.c. Psalms of Solomon offers a prayer that the Messiah will “purge Jerusalem from gentiles” and “will destroy the unlawful nations with the word of his mouth. At his warning the nations will flee from his presence.” Jesus is about to radically alter this exclusive view of messianic salvation. (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

[7] “By prayers, counsels, entreaties. No other kind of constraint is ever recommended in the Gospel of Christ every other kind of compulsion is antichristian, can only be submitted to by cowards and knaves, and can produce nothing but hypocrites.” (Adam Clarke)

[8] An interesting parallel to this story appears in the Jerusalem Talmud. When a village tax collector named Bar Ma’jan dies, the whole town comes out to mourn. Why? He had invited the city officials to a banquet, and when they failed to come, he gave orders that the poor should be invited so that the food would not be wasted. (Adam Clarke)

[9] Believer’s Bible Commentary

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