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

Being People of the Word: Essenes, Zealots and Pharisees

Last week, I noted I’ve been listening to the Bema Podcast with Marty Solomon. Once again, this week’s material borrows heavily from his podcast, specifically episodes 73-81, which can be found at bemadiscipleship.com.

We started to look at what happened to the Jewish people before the arrival of Jesus, when they had returned from exile and splintered into 5 groups, all of which had reached different conclusions about how best to live as people of God in Greek/Roman culture. Jesus had a plan to build a group of disciples – that will become the church – from a potentially volatile mixture with representatives from all approaches. If we can learn from all of them, perhaps we will find a way forward during divisive political times that reflects the teaching and life of Jesus.

* * * * *

LAST WEEK

The Sadducees, the priests in the Temple, became corroborators with Hellenism, enablers who believed Alexander the Great’s euangelion: “Good news!  The Kingdom of Greece had arrived!” They loved the focus on self, wealth, power, and comfort. When their insider privilege was threatened by Roman advance, they invited the wealthiest man they knew (Herod) to keep Rome happy with his money and them happy with their continuing status quo by naming him the King of the Jews. They turned into corrupt bullies who were wiped out when the Temple fell. The encouragement: embrace the priestly role God has given to all of us. The caution: not like the Sadducees, whose love of the Empire corrupted their leadership in the Kingdom.

The Herodians were more the cultural version of the Sadducees. They liked the goodies of the self-centered Hellenism, and what had been a community of generosity for the poor and powerless became a community focused on all the pleasures this world had to offer. We said the good thing they brought was that they knew the culture. They were perfectly situated to have a Kingdom impact in Greek and Roman culture. However, they fell in love with the very worldview that conquered them and lived not only in the world, but as the world.[1]

This brings us to the Essenes, Zealots and Pharisees.  

Essenes

They thought the corrupt system of the Sadducees was inviting God’s judgment, so they went to the desert to spend what time they had left preparing. Well, most of them did. Priests like Zachariah, who likely had Essene connections,[2] stayed in the system and did his duty. Maybe this is a Group #6: those who believed the temple system was completely corrupt but felt like they couldn’t give up on the call that God gave to priests. Let’s call them the Zachariahns.

The Essenes liked Jeremiah 6:16: “Stand at the crossroads, ask for the ancient past, ask where the good way is, and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls.” The Essenes wanted to be ready for the day when God’s people would again ask about the good way. They went out to the desert to know the path and to walk the path by devoting themselves to knowing, writing, and living the text.

They were serious. Writing the text was a four-person job. One person recited the word from a scroll while another person stood behind that person make sure they got it right. The scribe writing the word had a person looking over his shoulder to make sure he wrote the right word in the right way. Every time they got to the name of God, they all would take a break for a ritual bath in a mikvah before they wrote what they were allowed to write for the name of God just to be sure they were clean enough to do so.[3]

The mikvah was done in a baptistry filled with ‘living water’, water that came from God and moved of its own accord, which meant from either an underground spring or rain. The minute they carried it in a bucket, it was no longer living water. So, they channeled rainwater from the local wadi (a dry streambed that would flood during rainy season) through a plastered canal that ran to the village. They needed to be clean. They were serious about responding to God properly (as they understood it). They were all in.  They also liked Isaiah 40:

“Comfort, comfort my people, speak tenderly to Jerusalem…tell her that her sin has been paid for… A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every mountain brought down and every valley raised up. The rough places made smooth and the rugged places a plain and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.’”[4]

So, what is the upside of the Essenes? They were all in when it came to knowing and walking the path. They would not put up with corruption in the Temple. They were preparing themselves to stand at the crossroads and speak tenderly to the people when they arrived so the glory of the Lord would be revealed, and they could help people find rest for their souls.

What’s the downside? They’re not talking to anybody. They wanted to stand at the crossroads, but they were not at the crossroads. They were in the middle of the desert waiting for the crossroads to come to them.

ZEALOTS

Remember, the Zealots are part of the Hasidim, the pious ones, who headed to Galilee with the Pharisees as they rejected the compromise of the Sadducees and dedicated themselves to a righteous, uncompromising life. To the Zealot, it was going to take bloody violence to solve their problems and pave the way for the Messiah as God saw how committed they were and responded to their zeal.[5]

They were zealous not only against the Romans but also against the corrupt temple leadership. At one point, a Zealot went into the Temple courts and stabbed a sitting High Priest to death in the Temple courts.

They became insurgents who often used the tactics of terrorists. #sicarri They attacked Hasmonean dynasty (both the priestly class and the Greeks) for an entire century. Jesus will warn his disciples prone to violence that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. The way the Zealot movement ended will prove his point.

A Zealot named Hezekiah led a revolt in 43 BC. Rome came after them. At first, they were just looking for the Zealots fighters, but those Zealots would just hide. So, Rome went after the women and children. In response, the Zealots hid their families in the Caves of Arbel.

The Roman army went to Arbel, set up scaffolding on the cliff face, then lit fires and blew the smoke into the cave so that everybody hiding inside had to come out. They grabbed them with pitchforks and threw them off the scaffolding to their death.

To give you an idea how this story arc ends, let’s skip to AD 66. Rome decided to put statues of Caesar in the Sadducee-led Temple. A bunch of Pharisees met the ships as they sailed into Caesarea and lay in the road to stop this from happening. Tensions were high. Eventually, a revolt that began outside of Caesarea ended up with 20,000 Jews executed in the countryside.

This started a revolution. At one point, several Roman legions found themselves trapped by the Zealots in a fortress in Jerusalem, so they negotiated a settlement to march out of the city to safety if they laid down their arms. As soon as they laid down their arms, the Zealots slaughtered every Roman soldier in the Fortress.

Eventually, Rome pushed them back to a city/fortress called Gamla. A Zealot fighter named Joseph told the residents how to fortify the city before going out to fight Vespasian. He got captured in Galilee[6] and apparently told them how to take Gamla. 4,000 Jews died in the fighting; 5,000 Jews jumped to their own death rather than be conquered.

Masada will be their last stand around AD 70, where close to 1,000 Jewish people led by the remaining Sicarri killed themselves rather than be taken alive. That will be the end of the Zealots.

So, what’s the upside for a Zealot? Zeal. Fire. They care enough about the cause of the Kingdom to give their lives. If God’s people were always committed to give their lives for the cause of Christ, our lives would serve as a powerful witness to the glorious truth for which we live.[7]

What’s the downside? They are fighting for the King the wrong way. There are killing people to expand and/or protect the Kingdom of God, and that’s not the way of the kingdom. The Messiah’s way happens when crooked paths are made straight, not when they are paved in blood. Zealots need to channel their zeal into holiness not expressed in ways that destroys the people who need to hear the message of the Kingdom.

PHARISEES

The Pharisees were Hasidim who decided to respond to the corruption of the priests by enticing the Messiah to come and cleanse the Temple thanks to their absolute devotion to the way of God. They were full of zeal for obedience, not attacking Rome. They were committed to the text, but they did not retreat from society. They lived in the culture, but did not think Hellenism was a euangelion. They were focused around the Galilee Triangle, which I only point out because it will come up later.

The Pharisees believed God would deal with Rome when God was good and ready. They had the entire Old Testament as proof. When God decided it was time to judge or reward a nation, God would make it happen. Meanwhile, they focused on absolute obedience to His commandments. They would develop the Mishnah, thousands of laws that acted like a fence around the 613 laws of the Torah. Surely, that much fencing would keep them safe from breaking the Torah’s laws! I found a PDF online. It was 780 pages long.

This is why the Pharisees were so hard on those who broke even the most minor law. If they could all just be obedient enough, God would save them. If they weren’t, He wouldn’t.

We see this once again in the architecture. Remember Zippori, the Herodian town with mosaic sidewalks and floors? Not so in the towns of the Galilee Triangle (Chorazin, Capernaum, and Bethsaida). Their synagogues have big, roughly cut stones. You won’t find mosaics on their floors or in their courtyards. They were not there to enjoy the luxury of Hellenism.

In the Herodian Quarter, we saw the outline of a Sadducee house with 17 bedrooms. The Pharisees, in contrast, lived in insulas, multifamily dwellings of up to 10 families. They weren’t trying to have their own house, or courtyard, or their own stuff. That was the siren call of Hellenism. The Pharisees believed God called them to share if they were committed to each other as a community. Insula living is a practical example of this.[8]

Jesus critiques the Pharisees, and rightly so. Yet they are his ministry focus for three years.He generally avoided the Sadducees.[9]He called and worked with Herodians, Essenes and Zealots. However, he only pronounced woes on the Pharisees. “Those whom the Lord loves, He chastens.” (Hebrews 12:6) He’s purifying one segment of Judaism: the Pharisees. As odd as this may sound, they have gleaned the best from the other groups. They are, however, missing two crucial things that really, really matter. Here, he addresses the Galilee Triangle to highlight what they still need.

Then He began to denounce the cities where most of His mighty works had been done because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon and than for you. And for Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? Will you be brought down to Hades? For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day, but I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment in the land of Sodom than for you.” (Matthew 11:20–24)

 The Tyre and Sidon reference goes back to a passage about arrogance in the book of Isaiah.[10]The Sodom and Gomorrah reference has to do with a failure of compassion and hospitality.[11] Two groups of people epically condemned for their pride and hostility are going to judge the Pharisees, the Hasidim, the “pious ones.”

The Pharisees had the Text; they had devotion; they had at least a stated commitment to obedience; they had zeal for the way of God and longed for the Messiah to arrive. What they didn’t have was humility/repentance and compassion.

• When we won’t eat with sinners like Jesus did; when we lack a life-orienting compassion for the poor, the outcast, the sick, the immigrant, the tax collectors and Samaritans in our midst, we are Pharisees who need to learn mercy and compassion.

• If we claim the name of Jesus and insist the 10 Commandments be posted so that American can learn Judeo/Christian morals, and we break those commandments consistently and even boldly, we are hypocritical Pharisees need to learn repentance and humility.[12]

* * * * *

So, disciples of Jesus, “What do we do with the United States?” How do we learn from and value each other in the midst of the different responses represented in this room? Is there a way to find unity in our diversity? Jesus thought so; we should too. Let’s focus on what was of value from the different approaches. Perhaps in piecing them all together we can find wisdom.

We need zeal, but it needs to be zeal for the written word of God and Word made Flesh, not a zeal for civil war and violence of any kind.  We don’t want that holy, zealous fire to go out, but we don’t want it to flare up such that it burns others. Zealotry requires observation, supervision, self-reflection. It requires us to see if we are scorching those around us. It’s probably going to take a community that cares about each other to help us figure out how to keep the embers from going cold and from starting a destructive wildfire.

We need to be committed to the Word, both written and made human in Jesus. We need Essenes whose love of the Word written and incarnate inspire all of us to love the Word as well.[13] If we all valued what God had to say as much as they did, and if we all let it order our lives like they did, that in itself would be huge. It’s probably going to take a community that cares about each other to make this a labor of love and not legalism, a community where we see the exciting Christ-like transformation that the Word brings to our lives.

We need to know the culture. The early church did not isolate. They boldly redeemed culture Hellenistic images.

• The church took the iconic kriophoros, or lamb bearer, and used it to portray Christ as the Good Shepherd.

• The church used the praying figure of the pagan orant to symbolize Christian piety.

• The classic image of Jonah under the withered vine was based on the story and popular pictures of Endymion, a young man who fell in love with a goddess.

• A fresco of Christ as Orpheus in the Catacombs of Peter and Marcellus in Rome dates from the 4th century. Clement wrote, “Orpheus pacified wild beasts by the power of his song…Jesus’ new song tames ‘the most intractable of all animals – man.’”

The first Christians didn’t move out of the neighborhood once they became disciples of Christ. They saw a broken and dying world often odds with their new citizenship – and it broke their hearts. They stayed there and sought to bring the reality of new life in the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. How do we do this without becoming Herodians? It’s probably going to take a communitywhere a lot of thoughtful conversation, prayer and study help to keep us in the world but not of it.

We must understand the effectual power of obedience.[14] The Pharisees were wrong to believe that they had to earn God’s return by being good enough. They were not wrong about the importance of a consistent, obedient walk in the path of God. When faithful obedience becomes the consistent rhythm of our life, we are free from the controlling power and the terrible harvest of sinful choices; we will increasingly understand why Jesus said God’s path brings life; and we will impact others in life-giving ways.[15] But…obedience can be hard, both knowing what to do in hard/confusing situations and acting on what we know. It might take a community of accountability, truth and grace with which to link arms so we can find the path and walk in it.

* * * * *

It turns out we need each other to mature and grow into the kind of church community that looks like a “new humanity” Jesus talked about in Ephesians 5. We are united in Jesus and filled with His Spirit so that this ‘body’ with many parts works together as God intended (1 Corinthians 12).

• We want Essenes with the Herodians to remind them to stay true to the Word; we want Herodians with the Essenes to get them out of their ineffective isolation.

• We need the Zacharians and the Essenes to be in communication: “You might need to get out of that corrupt system of politics and religious institutions.” “You might need to stay in it.”

• We want Pharisees with the Zealots to remind them to be zealous for obedience, mercy and holiness, not violence, antagonism, and revenge.

• We want the Zealots and Pharisees with the Sadducess to remind them that the Empire is not the Kingdom, and that the urge to compromise must be resisted.

 We need Jesus to remind us all that a lifestyle of repentance, humility and mercy must go with love of the word and The Word, so that we will be able to stand in the crossroads of the world with truth, grace, and integrity, preparing the way so that the glory of the Lord will be revealed.

We can do this. We have the text (Bible), the Word (Jesus), the Holy Spirit. We are equipped to be a new kind of humanity whose Jesus-centered community displays the loving power of God by demonstrating the miraculous power of a transforming Savior, who breaks down barriers and reconciles us to Christ and

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[1]We have to watch out for what Michael Gorman calls a set of myths that we can begin to believe about the empires in which we live. A “myth of righteousness” sets values of the Empire on par with the values of the Kingdom (in which both are seen as part of the euangelion, the good news of God’s plan for the world). A “myth of greatness” becomes defined by the standards of Babylon and Rome: financial, political, and/or military strength as the markers of success. A “myth of innocence” sees the power, prosperity, and peace of the (apparently) righteous and great Empire as achieved by and sustained by thoroughly righteous means and people. A “myth of worthiness” demands an appreciation of and allegiance to the state as a profoundly moral responsibility for Christians. (from Reading Revelation Responsibly)

[2] If his son, John the Baptist was trained by Essenes, Zechariah would have been the one to make that happen. “Everything about John the Baptist smacks and rings of Essene theology and worldview, except for the way that he engages the populist…The Essenes separated themselves and wanted culture to come to them when the end times came.” (Marty Solomon, bemadiscipleship.com)

[3] They had an error rate over a large amount of time of 2%. It’s remarkable.

[4] They believed that if they would stay true to their call, God would show up. Interestingly, the Jordan River flows into the Dead Sea less than three miles away. That’s where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Hmmm.

[5] This inspired them to buy into what some have called the ‘myth of redemptive violence,’ the belief that that evil can only be defeated by good people violently wielding power “Redemptive violence gives way to violence as an end in itself. It is no longer a religion that uses violence in the pursuit of order and salvation, but one in which violence has become an aphrodisiac, sheer titillation, an addictive high, a substitute for relationships. Violence is no longer the means to a higher good, namely order; violence becomes the end.” (Walter Wink, “The Myth Of Redemptive Violence.”)

[6] Vespasian adopted Joseph as a son, changing his name to Josephus Flavius, famed Jewish historian.

[7] The early church is going to be full of this kind of zeal. The blood of the martyrs, not the blood spilled by Zealots, will be seed of the early church.[7]

[8] Peter and Andrew, James, John, and possibly Philip were from Bethsaida.

[9] Generally. He cleanses the Temple at the beginning and end of his ministry.

[10] Isaiah 23-24

[11] “Ancient stories give hints about the evil in Sodom. Travelers who came into the city would be robbed, stripped, and held captive within the city. They would wander the streets slowly starving to death, to the great amusement of the citizenry. One account relates that visitors to Sodom were offered a bed according to the Middle Eastern laws of hospitality, but it was a bed of torture. Short people were stretched. Tall people had their legs cut off. If a traveler had no money, he would be given bricks of gold and silver with his name on them! But nobody would sell him bread and water, even for all that gold and silver, so the traveler slowly died of starvation. The Sodomites gathered around the corpse and took back the gold and silver.” http://www.susancanthony.com/res/dennis/canaan.html

[12] Another example is the (proper) denunciation of sexual abuse, grooming, human trafficking, etc. So… In a nine-week  period ending in April of 2023, attorney Kristen Browde kept track of all people arrested in the US for charges of child sexual abuse. Out of 308 cases…39% were in Christian ministry positions. In 2022, the SBC released a list of 700 pastors accused of sexual abuse. Over 7,000 claims of sexual abuse by church staff, congregation members, volunteers, or the clergy were made to just three insurance companies over a 20-year period (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2007). Add to it what happened in the Catholic church. Woe to those who call out the sexualization of our culture and the grooming of children in others when they do the same. It will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for those in Sodom and Tyre.

[13] 45%  of people who claim to be Christian in the US read their Bible at least once a week? 45%. Everyone else is once a month or less. 35% say they seldom or never read it.

[14] We also need to value the role we have as priests. We talked about this last week, so I’m going to refer you back to those notes J

[15] Add to that the idea that our life, not just our words, becomes a witness. When we say, “Good news! The Kingdom of God is here!” people will look at how our lives have been impacted to reach some conclusions about whether it’s good news or not. 

Being People of the Word: Sadducees and Herodians

Some of you have been asking if there is some way to talk about Christians and politics in preparation for what is sure to be another volatile election. A podcast I have been listening to covered some ground this week that I hope can lead us into introspection and discussion.

This involves what happened to the Jewish people before the arrival of Jesus, when they had returned from exile and splintered into 5 groups, all of which had reached different conclusions about how best to live as people of God in Greek and then Roman culture. I don’t usually do history, but this particular window of time seems relevant to where we are now.

* * * * *

 In 586 BC, the Jewish people headed into Babylonian captivity. While in exile – lacking a temple - the synagogue took root.[2] Synagogue was about an entire lifestyle centered around Torah symbolized by the very architecture of the synagogue. Yes, they had it before exile, but this is different. They assumed their exile was because they didn’t obey the Torah. This would not happen again. So text-centered synagogues developed in exile and continued when they returned to their land in 538 BC to rebuild, as recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah.

In 332 BC, approximately 200 years later, Alexander the Great began to conquer the West as a warrior/evangelist with a euangelion, the Greek word for gospel or “good news.”  This euangelionwas Hellenism, a worldview that is all about me. Previously, every worldview centered around the gods: what made the gods happy, or angry; what were the gods were doing? Hellenism changed all that. Pythagoras said, “Man is the measure of all things.” People are the new rulers; the gods bear their image, not the other way around. It’s no longer about what the gods  want; it’s about what I want. Ask not what you can do for the gods; ask what the gods can do for you.

Alexander’s “good news” was not always at the point of the sword. There were easier ways to conquer a culture. He asked for four things.

• Education: He can control what people learn, think and know.

• Healthcare: Everyone wants to be healthy, and the Empire will be their doctor.

• Entertainment: Distraction brings complacency as they are (once again) being educated

• Athletics: Competition and tribal identity will keep the adrenaline flowing.

Notice, none of those things are bad things. It was just that under Alexander’s Hellenism, it was easy to begin to love your conqueror, because he gave you comfort, leisure and luxury. His euangelion was simple: “Good news! The Kingdom of Greece has arrived!” and people believed it.

When he died, he handed this Greek empire over to four different rulers. Ptolemy ruled the area of Judea where the Jews had resettled. Much like Alexander, he didn’t need a big military show of force. He said, “Here’s Hellenism. I think you will like it.” They did, for the most part.

By 167 BC, the Seleucids (another of Alexander’s predecessors) had taken over Judea. Eventually they entered Jerusalem, and…..disaster. Seleucus sacrificed a pig on the temple altar. A group that will eventually be known as the Zealots were furious so they led the Maccabean Revolt (which is the story of Hanukkah).

They defeated the Seleucids in Jerusalem and got the temple back. When deciding who was going to rule now, they went back to the text (because they were people of the text) and decided God’s original plan was for priests to rule, not kings.  So, they handed the kingdom over to the priests – the Hasmoneans (167-63 BC = the Hasmonean Dynasty.)

Within 20 years, the Hasmoneans had became completely Hellenistic. They loved the power, money, luxury and entertainment. Josephus wrote that there weren’t enough priests to run temple services because the priests were at the Empire’s entertainment spectacles. This is the priestly class that will become known as the Sadducees. (The Herodians will be those who share their views to a large degree but are more of a political party.) The Sadducees are the one party that does not appear to be represented in Jesus’ disciples.

The Maccabeans did not care for this turn of events at all, and they and a lot of others headed to Galilee. These Hasidim, the ‘pious ones,’ intended to build a devoted Judaism totally committed to the way of God. Two groups emerged: Zealots and Pharisees. Both are devoted to following God, but Zealots were devoted with the sword, and Pharisees with absolute obedience.

Paul was a Pharisee, and likely Jesus and most of the disciples as well. Jesus had two followers who were Zealots: Simon the Zealot and Judas “the” Iscariot (sicarii, "dagger-men," a group of Zealots who carried a knife with them at all times and vowed that if they ever found a Roman soldier alone they would kill him.[3])

Meanwhile, the Essenes were a group of disenchanted priests who couldn’t stand the corruption. They moved to the desert and set up a places like Qumran. #deadseascrolls They were the Jewish Amish. John the Baptist was likely Essene; Jesus was baptized by him, which suggests Jesus trained at times under his teaching.

Rome eventually conquered Judea. Rome, by the way, loved Hellenism. They just added to it the “pax romana,’ the peace by the sword (an idea that the developing Zealots will embrace). Their euangelion was similar to Alexander’s: “Good news! The Kingdom of Rome is here!”

 When the Sadducees saw Rome on the horizon, they started working on a solution to stay in power because they didn’t want to lose all that stuff that the built up over the last century: buildings, luxury, power, advantage, privilege, comfort.

Enter Herod the Great, the son of the king of Idumea.  His people, the Nabataeans, owned the spice trade. The whole thing. Think of one people group owning all of the oil in our world.  Herod was by far the wealthiest man to ever walk the face of the earth.

The Sadducees knew they could never combat Rome’s power. But…Rome needed money. They went to the wealthiest man on the planet, and said, “If you’ll marry one of our daughters, you’ll be kind of Jewish? And you can be the king of the Jews.” So, Herod married into the priestly line and offered his wealth as an asset to Rome – specifically, to Julius Caesar – in exchange for being the King of the Jews. Julius liked that idea a lot. Herod’s reign lasted from 37 BC to 4 BC, approximately two years after Jesus was born.

When Herod died, he split his kingdom among his three sons: Philip got the north, Archelaus got southern Judea, and Antipas got central Judea (Galilee). Archelaus in southern Judea is a horrible ruler who almost immediately gets replaced by Rome with…. Pontius Pilate. 

That catches up the historical dynamics that led to the splintering of the Jewish community. They were all trying to grapple with, “What do we do with Rome? How do we live as people of God in this context? How will we usher in the age of the Messiah?”  Do you….

• run from it and focus on learning in order to be faithful (Essenes)

• ignore it and focus on obedience to entice the Messiah’s return (Pharisees)

• become a part of it and enjoy what it has to offer while waiting for the Messiah (Sadducees and Herodians)

• attack it and pave the Messiah’s way in blood (Zealots)

 This is the world into which Jesus is born. Galatians 4:4 says,

“ When the right time arrived, God sent His Son into this world (born of a woman, subject to the Torah) 5 to free those who, just like Him, were subject to the Torah. Ultimately He wanted us all to be adopted as sons and daughters.”

Of all the points in human history, this was just at the right time. Perhaps one of the reasons is because of the tension within God’s people. This was the time to unite them around the Word become flesh, the Text in bodily form. Fascinatingly, Jesus seems to have called disciples who represented all four of the approaches[4] with the plan to make them a team centered around The Living Torah, the Word in the Flesh.

 That sounds like a terrible idea to me, but not to Jesus. This would be a sign of the power of the Kingdom and its King. Jesus will show them how making peace with God will lead to making peace with others, breading down every barrier and creating one new humanity (Ephesians 2).

This sounds like a message we need in today’s political and religious climate. So, we are going to look more closely at these groups, try to find ourselves in them, looking at their strengths and weaknesses, and discern how to unite around Jesus. Today we will cover two groups that had a lot in common: Sadducees and Herodians. Next week, Pharisees, Zealots, and Essenes.

SADDUCEES[5]

When the now thoroughly Hellenistic Sadducees convinced Herod to be their king, he offered the high priesthood to the highest bidder from the 7 main families. Annas won the bidding. The Chief Priesthood will not leave his family until the temple is destroyed in AD 70. When we read about Caiaphas and Jesus clashing, Caiaphas is a descendant of Annas.

These seven families became a corrupt religious mafia. Josephus talks about the priesthood gathering in tithes and offerings and then not paying the other priests, just getting and more and more financially secure while their fellow priests suffered. They had their own Temple Guard, their muscle (think of Jesus’ arrest). They were corrupt bullies who used the cover of the temple to indulge in the power, prestige and luxury Rome offers at the expense of all those they exploited.

To give you an idea of the luxury of the priests, in the Herodian Quarter in Jerusalem archaeologists discovered a priestly home with17 bedrooms and 21 mikvah baths. In another priestly home they found a wine cellar full of bottles valued (when adjusted to our dollars today) at about $5,000 to $10,000 per bottle of wine.

Meanwhile, there were two Sanhedrins (the ruling body), a formal and informal one. The formal Sanhedrin was 70 or 72 people, half Pharisees and half Sadducees, to balance the Jewish leadership. The informal one met in the high priest’s house where this Sadducee Deep State made decisions that WOULD BE RATIFIED (#wink) by the formal Sanhedrin if the voters valued their lives. There corruption was so bad that some biblical scholars wonder if the “abomination of desolation” referred to in Daniel was not, in fact, the sacrificing of a pig on the altar (as is commonly assumed), but is this time of ruling by the Sadducees in which God’s house was profaned in more serious ways than pig’s blood.

Jesus spent three years with the Pharisees, and in spite of all their conflict they tried to save his life twice. He spent one week with the Sadducees before they kill him. I wonder if the many times Jesus told people not to report being healed was to avoid getting on the radar of the High Priests of the Sadducees.

So, what should we think of this group? The wrong is obvious: They are corrupt bullies. The power and luxury of Empires are corrosive partners with leadership of the people of God. It destroys the true faith, it creates terrible cynicism and frustration in those trying to do true worship, and it ultimately fails. When Rome destroyed the temple in AD 70, that Empire they tried to partner with wiped the Sadducess and the Herodians off the face of the earth.

The Bible describes Zachariah as a “righteous” priest, adding an adjective that shouldn’t have been necessary. Unfortunately, many in the role of priest weren’t righteous. To be a priest was a good thing, but to be a corrupt priest who loved the means and methods of Empire was horrible, and it goes against everything that the priesthood is supposed to represent and stand for. When those who claim Jesus and are supposed to embody holiness, servanthood and love become morally compromised, arrogant and selfish, we have lost the plot of God’s story.

The positive is they deeply desired to be in a role that was a God-ordained role. God has a role for priests. 1 Peter 2:9 reminds us, 

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation..that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

That’s us. There is a God-ordained role that we need to serve in well. What are you doing in your life right now? You are doing it in a priestly role as part of the priesthood of all believers, and God plans to use you where you are. What do we priest have to watch out for? The allure or power, luxury, safety, and comfort, especially when the means to get it involves collusion with the Empire.   

HERODIANS

If you weren’t a priest, but your approach to Hellenism was very similar to that of a Sadducee, you were a Herodian. This was almost more of a political party that said, “I can have a little bit of Rome – maayybe a lot of Rome - and I can have a little bit of God and Hellenism, and I can put the two together quite comfortably.”

To be sure, the core things Hellenism offered (education and healthcare, entertainment, athletics) were not in and of themselves problematic. The wealth available through the Empire was not the problem. The things aren’t necessarily the problem. However, Hellenism used good or neutral things to tell the wrong story: life is ALL ABOUT YOU.

This feels like it hits close to home. America has historically liked a definition of freedom that says it’s all about me. We love rugged individualism: “don’t tread on me”; “nobody puts baby in a corner”; “It’s my life, I can do what I want.” The right to pursue my happiness how I define it is right there in key American texts. We want to be able to sing “I Did It My Way,” and sing “I will Follow You, Jesus” without there being a conflict. Let’s not look away from how close this is to us as we talk about the Herodians.

Zippori is our poster city for what happened to Herodians. Zippori was a Jewish village that led a revolt against Rome. Rome destroyed it, then one of Herod’s sons rebuilt it as a Herodian colony inhabited almost entirely by Jews, who quickly embraced the goodies of Rome.[6] For example:

• Instead of giving their excess to the poor, they had sidewalks paved with mosaics, which would have been an unheard of distraction and waste of resources in a traditional Jewish village.

• The Jewish homes were full of beautiful mosaics in geometrical patterns (you weren’t supposed to make images of people) which would have been seen as selfishly lavish 50 years prior.  

Once again, it’s not that art is bad. Surely one can appreciate art and have money and love God. But to the Jewish population historically, this flourishes went against the ethic found in the text on how to use money and resources with an eye for the poor and powerless. And that compromise, though small, opened the door to some more compromising rooms. Literally.

• The geometric mosaics were in the public-facing area of the house. In the same house, in more private spaces, we see not just images (!) but images of Greek and Roman gods like Pan, the god of sexual fertility. Perhaps they were thinking, “I don’t worship that. I don’t go to the temple of Pan. I worship the God of Israel. It’s just a story.”

• Meanwhile, in the main living area, the centerpiece on the floor is a mosaic of the Egyptian mythology of the Nile.[7] Egypt. The nation that enslaved their ancestors and whose gods Yahweh humiliated.

• In the same town, different house, we find the Mona Lisa of the Galilee. This mosaic has 22.5 million pieces (!) in it. In the center is the lady of the house, but the spiral path around her tells the Greek mythology, with scenes of daily life connected with the rites of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and orgy. The story ends with Dionysus drinking Zeus under the table.

It’s in a Jewish home that’s supposed to be centered around the biblical text that is instead centered around the Roman story. What may have started as a relatively innocent compromise spirals toward serious spiritual compromise. Paul later writes to the churches about this very issue.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces (Galatians 4:8-9) 

The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? (1 Corinthians 10:19-22)

“Anthony, that reference is dated. Give us something more modern.” Can do. In the rotunda of the US Capitol building has a mural called The Apotheosis of Washington (1865). It depicts Washington as having ascended into the heavens and becoming exalted or glorified. He wears the colors of Roman emperors, with a rainbow arch at his feet, flanked by the Roman goddesses of Victory and Liberty. There are six scenes around him, 5 of which have Roman gods/goddesses:

• Science, Minerva, surrounded by inventors.

• Marine, Neptune, with warships in the background.

• Commerce, Mercury, giving a bag of gold to a financier of the Revolutionary War.

• Mechanics, Vulcan, with cannons and steam engines.

• Agriculture, Ceres, with a mechanical reaper.

• War, Columbia, the personification of America, aka Lady Liberty

 Can you feel the dissonance if we would ask to make sure a copy of the 10 Commandments or the Beatitudes were posted there along with a dare I say blasphemous image of Washington doing what Jesus did, surrounded by Greek gods and a freshly minted American god of war? That dissonance has not ended. We still put side-by-side thinks that don’t fit comfortably together. Methinks the Herodian urge remains alive and well.

Now, the positive. Jesus loves Greeks and Romans as much as He loved any person that’s ever been a part of this story, and He wants to redeem their story. Citizens of Herod mattered very much to God, and who knew this world better than the Herodians? They are perfectly placed for God’s mission.  

• You wanted to redeem theater? Who better than the Herodians?

• You wanted to use athleticism as a platform to tell God’s story? Who better placed to be an athlete than Herodians?

• Who was better placed to impact the Herodian world for the God narrative than the educator, doctor, artist or a mosaic maker?

 They are perfectly placed to impact the world around them because they understand it, they are in the middle of it, they engage it every single day. The challenge is not falling into it and letting it consume and compromise you. The danger is idolatry, serving Mammon rather than God.

We have to watch for the subtle shift in values that tripped up the Jewish people and the first Christians. Enjoying life can become indulging in life, which can become a gluttony of pleasures (feasting every day like the Sadducee in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus), which can become exploitation. “You’re heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,” the prophet Isaiah scolded in Isaiah 5, and it’s not a compliment. It’s a timeless warning.

That this is the danger of the Herodian. We want to talk about our worship of God while remaining comfortable in our wealth. We want privilege, influence and control while being able to think of ourselves as following in the footsteps of the one who came not to be served, but to serve. We want to feast on safety, comfort and pleasure without even thinking about what it costs to get what we want, who might be hurt in the process, and what we might be keeping for ourselves that the early church described as belonging to the poor.

Here, I think, is the bottom line dilemma for the Sadducees and the Herodians: They were gathered around the Roman mosaics rather than the biblical text. They forgot about the point of synagogue as a lifestyle, where their lives spiritually and practically centered around the text. Rome now guided their imagination and thoughts. Rome told them what the good life was like. Rome told them how to think about people, about God, and about themselves. They took their eye off the text.

One very important lesson we learn from them is that, as aliens and exiles sojourning through the life in the United States of America, the text that centers us is the Bible. It’s not the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. It’s not college professors or TV talk show hosts or politicians or conference speakers.

The church community is centered around the Word - both the text and the Word become Flesh – and like-minded followers of Jesus. The answer to “What do we do with Rome/the United States?” will not be found in the texts of the Empire. It’s found in the Word. We gather and study and pray week after week after week 1) to learn the Word of God so that we can walk in the life-giving path of God, and 2) to experience the life-changing reality of the Word made flesh.  

For the disciples, their goal was to know what their rabbi (Jesus) knew, in order to do what their rabbi did, for the reasons that the rabbi did them, in order to be just like the rabbi in their walk with God. 

Nothing has changed for disciples today. The goal is to know what Jesus knows, in order to do what Jesus does, for the reasons that the Jesus does them, in order to be more and more like Jesus in our walk with God.[8]

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[1] I am deeply, deeply indebted to Marty Solomon at Bema for almost all of today’s information. I am borrowing heavily from his podcast and printed notes, which can be found at bemadiscipleship.com, episodes 73-81.

[2] There are seven elements commonly found in synagogues. A mikvah was a ritualistic cleansing bath. The basilica, the pillared section of the synagogue both held up the roof and allowed for high windows, because “You read God’s Light by God’s light.” The bema seat was a slightly raised platform in the center of the room to stand on when reading the text for discussion. The chief seats were benches around the outside of the synagogue reserved for the more seasoned in the community, those who knew Torah best. The Torah closet held the few scrolls in each synagogue. The Seat of Moses is where a reader sat to give an introductory read to the text. Finally, every synagogue had a study room.

[3] There is a theory “that Judas, when he betrayed Jesus, was not just giving Jesus up for the sake of the money, not because Satan made him do it, not because he was possessed by a demon, and certainly not because God made him do it. Rather…Judas was trying to initiate a confrontation between Jesus and the authorities so that the war could begin.” https://revkevnye.com/2010/04/27/the-judas-theory/

[4] The Herodians represent the Herodians/Sadducees. There were no Sadducee disciples.

[5] The Sadducees came from line of priestly families that date all the way back to the time of David and Solomon. They get their name from being in the line of Zadok whose descendents are Zadokim in Hebrew. In English, we say “Sadducee.”

[6] Zippori is three miles away from the Nazareth of Jesus. In between Nazareth and Zippori is a stone quarry. Joseph was, in the Greek, a tektōn, likely working with stone more often than anything else. It is likely that Joseph worked in a stone quarry between Nazareth and Zippori that was owned by Herod. It is likely Jesus was raised in a household for whom Herod wrote the paycheck. There’s also good chance that Jesus was raised with Herodian exposure. Jesus at one point quote Euripides from a play called Trojan Women. “Troy, Troy, how I long to gather you as a hen gathered its chicks…” He talks about hupokrites, the word for actors. If he was Jewish and attended Roman theater, there was some Herodian influence there. It’s a good reminder that the things themselves (like plays) were not the problem. It’s the story you believed about them.

[7] “Now, again, do they worship the Egyptian gods? No. I can almost guarantee you, this family doesn’t worship the Egyptian gods, but this is what they put in their dinner table. By this point, most of my group is like, “Yes, they are compromising.”  I love to just lay it on my listeners and say, “Wait a minute, is this not exactly where you and I live?”  We watch (insert name of show or movie or song list here). Our centerpiece is a little different, but I have figured out in my mind, I can appreciate and think critically about art over here and I don’t worship this. What do we do with that? Most everybody that says, “Oh yes, they’re definitely compromising here,” will immediately have to backtrack when asked, “Wait a minute, isn’t this exactly what you do when you go back home?” And the answer is, “Absolutely.” This is where we live. We are Herodians.” (Marty Solomon)

[8] Once again, I am deeply indebted to Marty Solomon at Bema Discipleship for this material.

He, Too, Saved Israel (Judges 3)

We’ve been hearing in the past few weeks from Luke about how Jesus stressed the importance of valuing people who seem unimportant, unvaluable, maybe even bad. We have talked about the Great Reversal:

“Those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.” (Luke 13) 

“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 14) 

This is kind of the flip side of the coin, but it reminds me of other places where Scripture gives a really, really low priority to seeking earthly glory. 

“Do you think I care about the approval of men or about the approval of God? Do you think I am on a mission to please people? If I am still spinning my wheels trying to please men, then there is no way I can be a servant of the Anointed One, the Liberating King.” (Galatians 1) 

“That’s why it is hard to see how true faith is even possible for you: you are consumed by the approval of other men, longing to look good in their eyes; and yet you disregard the approval of the one true God.” (John 5:44) 

I’ve been thinking about this because it’s graduation season.

When I started teaching, I realized pretty quickly that graduates were often flooded with messages about how amazing they are supposed to be now, with “amazing” typically meaning that they chase after cultural markers of glory, value and importance. “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” I actually like that Dr. Seuss’s poem acknowledges the ups and downs and life, but the ending seems inevitable: you’ll move mountains that everyone will notice and applaud you for.

I’m not sure that’s the best message. It’s rare to hear a message that one of the most important “places you’ll go” is being a good friend, or volunteering to help those in poverty, or simply being a good parent or employee, or leading a small group at church, or being part of Big Brother/Big Sister, or babysitting kids for overwhelmed parents, or offering free help in your area of expertise, or simply being kind.

And yet there are mountains that need moving in someone’s life for which those are the tools. The Empire might not think it’s important, but I promise you the Kingdom does.

One of the books of the Bible that fascinates me is the book of Judges. It shows a cycle of God’s faithfulness to his unfaithful people, but that’s not what I’m thinking of today. It gives such different coverage to the Judges in a way that I think is meant to be revelatory about how God intends for us to think about our lives. It’s Old Testament – we don’t have time to unpack how to hear these stories like the original audience would have heard them – but some day we’ll get to these. But, here’s the story as found in Judges 3. 

“Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD [they were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years), and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud… The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.  Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing.

He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way the men who had carried it.  At the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king."  The king said, "Quiet!" And all his attendants left him.

Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, "I have a message from God for you." As the king rose from his seat,  Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly... Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it.  Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. 

While [the servants assumed Eglon was taking his good old time in the bathroom], Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them. 

"Follow me," he ordered, "for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands." So they followed him down and, taking possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab, they allowed no one to cross over. At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped.  That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.

Y’all, give it up for Ehud. Three cheers and a whole bunch of paragraphs for Ehud!

After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. He too saved Israel. (Judges 3: 15-31)

For some context:

Judges 4-5 – Deborah gets two chapters and a song (Shamgar gets, like, a ‘shout out’.)

Judges 6-8  - Gideon gets three chapters

Judges 9 - Abimelech gets a chapter (and he killed his own brothers, which seems like it should count against him)

Judges 11 and 12 – Jepthah gets two chapters (he made a terrible oath he should never have kept and ended up sacrificing his daughter)

Judges 13-16 – Samson gets 4 chapters, and he was hardly a role model.

Judges 3 - Shamgar gets one verse that almost sounds like it should be read with a yawn. 

Then we get some other references similar to the reference to Shamgar:

Judges 10: 1-5 “…a man of Issachar, Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim. He led Israel twenty-three years; then he died, and was buried in Shamir. He was followed by Jair of Gilead, who led Israel twenty-two years. He had thirty sons, who rode thirty donkeys.”

Tola rose to save Israel (cool!) and apparently did (?) and then the next guy had a lot of donkeys. Hmmm. Keep in mind, the beginning of Judges notes this:

“Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them.”

If you were a judge at all, God himself had raised you up to save His people, and He was with you as long as you lived. And some of them have their stories recorded for all the world to read, and some of them got a nod and a retirement watch.

Let’s say you’re Shamgar; you saved your nation by killing 600 enemy warriors with a big stick with a pointy end, and you basically get an “atta boy.” That’s like...

• giving a history of the NBA, and then saying, “And Michael Jordan also played basketball.” 

• or discussing a history of music, and saying of Beethoven, “He too wrote music.” 

• or saying of Ohio State, “They too had a football team.”

Tola and Jair were raised up by God himself, and all they get is that they lived, they died, and their sons rode donkeys from town to town, which seems like bit of really unnecessary trivia.

Today, when people are treated like this, they go on TV and say things like, “I’m being disrespected.”  We are a culture that increasingly seems to think that we all deserve our 15 minutes of fame, and if it doesn’t happen naturally, well, there are always reality shows, and YouTube, and blogs. Ashleigh Brilliant once wrote, “All I ask of life is a constant and exaggerated sense of my own importance.”  To whatever degree that’s funny, it’s probably because it is an accurate reflection of the natural human condition.

I think the Biblical narratives of stories like these point us toward a hard reality in the Christian walk:  Sometimes, God will raise us up, and use us mightily, and it will not be noticed, and we will never get the credit we think we deserve.   

Unsung Heroes, by Riva Pomerantz 

I was delighted when my husband bought a beautiful name plaque for our front door... until I noticed the door. Years of fingerprints, remnants of gummy tape, stickers, and I don’t even want to think about what else, had etched themselves onto the once-white door. A quick glance from beautiful nameplate to horrifying door brought me to the only possible conclusion: clean the door. 

So two hours later, the door was sparkling white and the nameplate was handsomely ensconced in its center. When my kids got up in the morning and saw the complete metamorphosis of the front door, they were—of course—awed.“Look Daddy!” they told my husband. “They cleaned the door.” My husband told me of their reaction with some amusement. 

“They cleaned the door?” I practically yelled. “They is me! I cleaned the door! What do they think? Magic fairies come while we all sleep and clean the furniture, put away the toys, bake cookies...” So in the grand scheme of door-cleaning, I remain an unsung hero.

Unsung heroes. One of the biggest hurdles to overcome is this role of unsung hero, because we have in us a drive to be noticed, to stand out, to be somebody in the eyes of other people.

For one, it’s hard for us to watch other people around us be ‘successful’ (by whose standard?) when we aren’t.

• Have you ever been playing a sport, and you are really struggling, but the rest of your team isn’t, and your team is still winning, but you have a hard time being excited because you personally aren’t doing so well?

• Have you ever gotten upset when the person who shares a testimony about God saving them from a particular sin or overcoming a tough circumstance in life, and everyone cheers and affirms them, and then invites them to speak in front of other groups, and they become a widely-known role model everyone admires, and you think, “Hey, that’s my story too, but no one knows…” 

• Or…there is a lot to feel good about in your life, but it’s not, “I was in a gang of cannibal human traffickers,” so you never get the spotlight. It’s more like, “I have struggled most of my life with low self-esteem – maybe even self-loathing – and I think I am finally starting to see myself as Jesus sees me.” And it’s hugely important. It’s life-changing. This healing is not only changing you, it’s changing how you are a friend, a child, a parent, an, employer, a sibling.

There are two equally subtle and dangerous temptations: to think you are just not important and no one can benefit from learning what God has done in our life, or that you are super important and everyone should know about what YOU have done in your life Both thoughts are toxic.

But the Bible is clear: In the Kingdom of God, God’s validation is the only validation we need.  

"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men.  

I tell you the truth; they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-4) 

The point is not that you should never do good deeds in public, and the point isn’t that people who do charity out of selfish ambition are going to hell. The point is that if you do good things in a really public way for the reward of the praise of people, you will get your reward. It just won’t be that great. It feels good in the moment, but it feeds an addiction for validation. Someone once said,

“None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.”

The applause of people is nothing compared to the rewards of the Father. An example from the Apostle Paul:

 “The Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth.” (2 Timothy 4:17) 

If Paul were alive today, we would all clamor to read the book or see the movie about his deliverance from lions, we would ask him to be on GodTube for an interview about the lions…but I suspect Paul would quickly lose his “celebrity” status, as he would ignore the lions and talk about the Lord who gave him the strength to fully proclaim the Good News to the world.  If he ever mentioned it, there would be one small comment or one small footnote that would start off,“Around the time I was delivered from lions...”

My hunch is that Paul knew that a story about Paul being delivered from the lions was going to become a story about Paul, not about the One who delivered Paul.  And in the kingdom of heaven, if the story glorifies us, why tell the story? 

Back to Paul. When Paul does talk about himself in the Bible, it is because his audience had become so caught up in Christian Celebrity Worship that Paul basically said, “Okay, if you want to play that game, I win. Here are my credentials.  Now settle down and get back to the things that matter most.” (See 2 Corinthians 10 and 11) Here’s a practical example of something Paul wrote in Philippians 4:22.

All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household.” 

Who converted a lot of Caesar’s household after Caesar threw him into jail in the Preattorian barracks attached to the palace? That would be Paul. How easily Paul could have written, “All the saints send you greetings, especially those I converted from Caesar’s household in spite of intense persecution to my personal self.”  But the story is not about Paul. There was no need for him to worry about whether or not people knew about what he did.  God knew, and that was enough.[1]

So the question today is this,

Can I live my life with no regard for the glory and recognition of others, but with complete focus on faithfulness and obedience to Christ wherever He leads me?

Are we willing to take the time to let God help us build our character –to address sin in our lives, and character flaws, and quirks that are maybe hindering our relationship with God and others – are we willing to do that when maybe no one will ever really notice?

Are we willing to work really hard to be a godly spouses and parents – setting priorities on our time, putting the needs of our spouse and kids above our wants, doing whatever we can to steward our household – are we willing to do that - and see it as part of our high calling in Jesus which has immense importance?

Can we go out of our way to volunteer – in kid’s ministry or nursery or committee work or cleaning the building or in the community - can we do that cheerfully even if nobody sees and applauds the way those moments are changing lives in ways that ripple into eternity?

Can we love the people who seem unlovable, embrace the people who seem unembraceable, forgive those around us who have done things that seem unforgivable…that’s hard enough, but can we do it knowing we might never get a pat on the back on this side of heaven?

Can we be broken, and spilled out, in the service of Christ, for our spouses, and our kids, and our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers, those people who make us take up a cross…Can we do that even if the only time we hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant” is on the other side of the grave?

What does a life look like…what does the world look like…when we embrace this view of the kingdom of God?

Maybe your life will be written in lights. And if so, and it was God who wanted your story known, then tell your story to the glory of God.  It’s not like Deborah and Gideon were bad people because their story was told. And I’m not suggesting we don’t try to give people honest recognition for their kindness and service.

It’s just that that won’t happen to everybody, and maybe the record of your life will be of the “He too saved Israel” variety.

Maybe “She, too, wrestled with/overcame addictions,” will be the most people say about you, which will never capture why that started in the first place and how profoundly hard the struggle was .

Maybe “He, too, had a family,” is the most that will register with people, which will never capture the self-sacrificial love that was necessary to make your family a success.

Maybe “She, too, overcame a difficult past,” is the most people will know about you, which will never do justice to the pain you experienced, and the long, slow process of healing that God has taken you through.

Maybe “They, too, were in ministry,” is all that people will note about you someday, which will never reflect the years of your life spent in quietly helping those who so desperately needed Jesus.

Maybe, “She, too, got out of bed yet again and did the next thing right,” is your legacy, and it will be profound by Kingdom standards.

Maybe, “They, too, didn’t know what to do with their life, but they knew how to live the day well,” resonates with you, and you are heroic in your faithfulness.

Maybe, “He, too, was such a good friend” is the primary eulogy at the end of your life, and that short sentence will capture a lifetime of kingdom witness that the Holy Spirit used to move mountains in people’s lives. Maybe “the places you’ll go” was too the side of other people, and all of heaven rejoiced.

In the Kingdom of Heaven, we have a Heavenly Father who is waiting for the day when we will enter into His presence.  And on that day, millions of unsung heroes will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your reward.”

____________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:5-6: “You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else…”

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.

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[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)

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[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.

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[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

Harmony #67: The First Shall Be Last (Luke 13:10-30)

Last week, we looked at the parable of a struggling fig tree assumed to be useless that was rescued by the one who has not given up on that tree’s future. Cue the story of Jesus healing a woman on whom society had given up.

 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, and a woman was there who had been disabled by a crippling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten herself up completely. When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said, “Dear woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” Then he placed his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

But the president of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the crowd, “There are six days on which work should be done! So come and be healed on those days, and not on the Sabbath day.”

Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from its stall, and lead it to water? Then shouldn’t this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be released from this imprisonment on the Sabbath day?”

We are still talking about the hypocritical nature of the Pharisees, as we have been for several weeks. This is all variations on a theme.

• Chapter 12: they could read the physical/earthly seasons but not the spiritual/heavenly seasons.

• Chapter 13: they were worried about physical death but not about their own spiritual death.

• Now, they would loose their donkeys on the Sabbath to get water but not loose a ‘daughter of Abraham’ from the power of Satan.[1] (Look for Abraham to get a shout out again shortly.) The spiritual leaders of the people have not been giving their people the spiritual food or moral leadership they need.

When he said this all his adversaries were humiliated, but the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things he was doing.[2]

Being a follower of Jesus does not always mean trouble and persecution. It also includes the rejoicing of those around us as the goodness and provision of the Kingdom of God spills over into the world. Jesus, his disciples, and the early church experienced both of these realities. Generally speaking, the average person seems to have been attracted to this loving, generous, transformed new Kingdom community. It’s why the church grew at a near miraculous rate. Generally speaking,those in the halls of power hated them. The loving, generous provision of those with servant’s hearts committed to a spiritual Kingdom with God as their King undermined the power and coercion of the Empire. Something to watch for:

• When people in the halls of power love us followers of Jesus, we should consider that perhaps we aren’t spiritually subversive enough when we offer a biblical, counter-cultural way of life.

• When our neighbors hate us instead of rejoicing that we are near, we should consider that perhaps we aren’t being ‘the hands and feet of Jesus’ in a way that reveals the heart of Jesus.

It turns out that people like to know they are worth caring about. One thing that strikes me in Jesus’ ministry as how he led with care that matched the situation: practical, emotional, spiritual. Someone once gave me a sign to put up in my office that read, “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Point taken. The Pharisees mockingly called Jesus a “friend of sinners” because He spent so much time with them - even having meals with them (which was a huge gesture of the honor and friendship). May we all earn the same label they gave Jesus.

Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.”

Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

In both cases the beginning is small. The mustard seed was considered ‘the smallest seed you plant in the ground’ (Mark 4:31). The yeast is only a tiny part of the dough. Both of them grew: the seed developed into a tree in which birds could take refuge (the Gentiles? The citizens of the Kingdom?). The yeast will double the size of the dough. #justaguess

This is how the Kingdom works: small beginnings, a few disciples, one life changed at a time. But, as Zechariah 4:19 says,  “Who dares despise the day of small things?” From this has grown the global Kingdom of God of which millions and millions have participated.

Don’t despise the small prayer. Don’t despise the small act of service. Don’t despise small times of devotions. Don’t despise the small act of kindness. Don’t despise small steps forward. Don't despise small victories in yourself or others.

You want to get ripped? One day at a time. Even small workouts. Get smart? The small moments of each day are filled with opportunity. Play an instrument? The small moments of practice matter. Strengthen friendships? Small acts of connection. Go deeper in Scripture? Any act of study is good. Have a stronger prayer life? Small prayers are fine. Fix your eyes on what Paul calls the “prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus,” and then take one right step at a time.

Then Jesus traveled throughout towns and villages, teaching and making his way toward Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?”

Okay, Jesus has just talked about the Kingdom of Heaven as small. This tracks with Jewish belief.[3]  Jewish people expected a banquet for the righteous few in the next age of God’s kingdom (Isaiah 25:6). Meanwhile, guess who that righteous few were? With a few exceptions, it was all the Jewish people. Jesus is about to upend this notion. The Gentiles will participate in the blessings of the kingdom even as some of the Jews do not.

So he said to them, “Exert every effort to enter through the narrow door (straight gate), because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, then you will stand outside and start to knock on the door and beg him, ‘Lord, let us in!’ But he will answer you, ‘I don’t know where you come from.’

Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know where you come from! Go away from me, all you evildoers!’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves thrown out.

Then people will come from east and west, and from north and south,[4] and take their places at the banquet table in the kingdom of God.  But indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

I think the first key to understanding this parable occurs here: “when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.” Jesus is talking specifically to the descendants of Abraham, the Jewish people, who assumed they would enter the kingdom. I suspect he is even more pointedly talking to the Pharisees, the ‘first’ part of group that was the ‘first’ (and perhaps the exclusive) recipients of the Kingdom.

Jesus shows them knocking at the door of the kingdom (they can see it: they are so close!) but they can’t access the Kingdom even though they (literally) ate and drank together with Jesus[5], and he literally talked in their streets.

It turns out that it will be those assumed to be unwanted or rejected who have really understood and responded to who Jesus is. #thewomanatthestartofthispassagewhopraisedGod

I think the second key is to ask when and where the Kingdom is. In just a couple chapters, Luke records Jesus making it very clear:

 Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (Luke 17:21)

The Kingdom had already started. The feasting had already begun.[6] And…oof…the Pharisees are missing out.

* * * * *

There are three other passages in which Jesus uses some of the same language and imagery.

In Matthew 7, Jesus used a similar analogy about a narrow path/door; in the context, it’s the path of humility, repentance and grace filled with people who will “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (7:12)

In Matthew 8, after a Gentile Roman centurion’s profession of Jesus’ authority and power when Jesus healed his son, we see familiar language. Jesus remarks on the centurion’s faith and says,

Many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.[7] But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:10-12) 

Matthew 19:27-20:16 uses familiar language and includes a whole parable. After the Rich Young Ruler refuses to follow Jesus because he loved his money, Jesus gave a teaching to his disciples on the dangers of wealth. He assures them there is a reward for following God (eternal life!), and then warns them that wanting to be ‘first’ – the best, the most favored, the elite – is going to mean they will be the last to appreciate the good gifts of life in the Kingdom. At both the beginning and the end he reminds them, ”The last will be first, and the first will be last.[8]

• In Matthew 7, the narrow gate/road is something chosen now. Missing the Kingdom now means missing out on the riches of the kingdom: salvation, repentance (and forgiveness), grace, truth, real communion with God. Plus, a community of humble and generous people, who are committed to love, whose lives are defined by the Golden Rule. #lifemoreabundant  

• In Matthew 8, kingdom life is now (the faith of the centurion and the healing of his son) and later (“many will come”) - the “now and not yet” aspect of the Kingdom. In this situation, the frustration and anger felt by the religious leaders seems to be the fact that they can see people living in the Kingdom of God right in front of them, but they can’t seem to experience it themselves.

• In Matthew 19, it’s about something later, a future kingdom reality.

So, the “not yet” part of the Kingdom of Heaven is - obviously - yet to come, but the feasting had already begun. It’s happening now. Remember what Jesus told his disciples last week: “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”

After a short interlude in which Jesus is warned that Herod is looking for him, he gives what seems to be his closing thoughts on the previous several chapters of material.

(Luke 13:34-35; Matthew 23:37-39)

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would have none of it!

Look, your house is forsaken and left to you desolate![9]  [The Shekinah – the glory of the Lord - has vanished from you now.[10]] For I tell you, you will not see me from now until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’ “[11]

May I point out the hope in today’s passage? It’s not just for those of who are like the woman whose story opened this section. It’s for us Pharisees.

In the Matthew 19 parable, Jesus called them all ‘friends’ even as he warned the grumbling ‘firsts’ that they would be the last to enjoy the goodness of the Kingdom. Today’s parable didn’t say, “The first don’t stand a chance.” It implies they will enter, but they will be the last ones to enter, perhaps “as those saved through the fire.”[12] Pride, power and hypocrisy are a tough combination to give up and replace with humility, servanthood, and integrity.

But remember last week when we talked about the farming analogy of Israel being grafted back into the Kingdom even after it had been cut off? Romans 11 again:

“Branches… were removed because they did not believe… If those branches that have been cut from the tree do not stay in unbelief, then God will carefully graft them back onto the tree because He has the power to do that...”

Hope remains. The people may be forsaken and desolate, but Jesus - the blessed one who comes in thename of the Lord -  will not leave them forsaken and desolate. Just because it’s their history doesn’t mean it’s their destiny. One day they will have the opportunity to say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Some commentators suggest he’s just pointing toward the moment when he enters Jerusalem to the Jewish people saying that line. Maybe, but I agree with the commentators who suggest this is primarily about the moment when people genuinely see who Jesus is, and recognize the goodness of salvation and life in the Kingdom offered on the other side of the cross and the empty tomb.[13]

God intends for His Kingdom to come, and His will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven. It begins now with our repentance, God’s forgiveness, and the resulting salvation as we are delivered from spiritual death and from chains of sins and given the freedom of life in Jesus with the family of God, the community of the church.

How does God intend that to look? Love. Care. Provision. Hope. Joy. Peace. Patience. Gentleness. Goodness. Kindness. Self-control. (You might be recognizing the fruit of the Spirit.) Being in a community of brothers and sisters united by Jesus who are committed to loving each other.

I invite you today to enter the Kingdom of God if you haven’t. Give your heart, soul, mind and strength to Jesus, and embrace the Kingdom of God in its life-changing beauty.

It is here, now.

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[1] The verb for “set free” concerning the woman is the same word used for untying the donkey (luō). (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament) 

[2] The next chapter in Luke has a very similar story. (Luke 14:1-6) “Now one Sabbath when Jesus went to dine at the house of a leader of the Pharisees, they were watching him closely. There right in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. So Jesus asked the experts in religious law and the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” But they remained silent. So Jesus took hold of the man, healed him, and sent him away. Then he said to them, “Which of you, if you have a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” But they could not reply to this.”

[3]  “The Most High made this world for the sake of many, but the world to come for the sake of only a few... . Many have been created, but only a few shall be saved.” (2 Esdras  8:1–3) 

[4] “They shall come from the east, and from the west” points to Isaiah 49:12; Isaiah 14:6.

[5] See my earlier footnote on Luke 14:1-6.

[6] “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” Luke 12:32

[7] Remember: “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”

[8] “That would be more similar to a saying found in the rabbinic literature: “Some obtain and enter the kingdom in an hour, while others reach it only after an lifetime” (b. ʻAbod. Zar. 17a).” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

[9] The language of being forsaken and desolate seems to refer Jeremiah 12.

[10] The Cambridge Bible For Schools and Colleges likes that as the translation.

[11] A quote from Psalm 118.

[12] 1 Corinthians 315

[13] “It is a most frivolous interpretation of these words to make them merely refer to the Hosannas of Palm Sunday (Luke 19:38)…They clearly refer to the future and final penitence of Israel. Hosea 3:4-5; Psalm 118:26 (Cambridge Bible For Schools and Colleges)

Bengel’s Gnomen sees his triumphal arrival in Jerusalem as “not the full and exhaustive fulfillment…the time is yet future when the Jews, according to Psalm 118:22; Psalm 118:26, Zechariah 4:7; Zechariah 12:10, shall recognize Him...”

“The promise… can only refer to the far future, to the day of the penitence of Israel…when the people shall look on him whom they pierced, and shall mourn. But that mourning will be turned speedily into joy.” (Pulpit Commentary)