Wait! Where Are You Going with That Donkey?

April 13, 2025

            It’s curious, you know, this thing with the donkey?  Jesus knew exactly where there would be a young donkey upon which no one had ever sat.  He sent His disciples to the place where He knew this young donkey was and He told His disciples to simply take it.  It didn’t belong to them but just take it anyway.  Jesus told His disciples that if anyone questioned them, they should just say, “The Lord needs it”.  Someone did indeed ask them, and the disciples answered as instructed.  And apparently, that was all they needed to say because Jesus did indeed go riding into Jerusalem on that very donkey… that borrowed donkey.  So, what exactly is going on here?  I’ve read here and there that Jesus might had pre-arranged this with the donkey’s owners, that maybe they were friends of His, or possibly one of His followers.  But I think that that thought might possibly be missing an important point. 

            The Shema is a familiar Jewish prayer found in Deuteronomy, that begins with, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  The Shema is the cornerstone of Jewish prayer and continuing on in Deuteronomy, the Shema contains the commands both to hold the Law in your hearts and also to “Impress [the law] upon your children” and so, from the very earliest times in Judaism, children have been taught the Torah.  Sutton tells us that, “Rabbinic literature is filled with references to schools and schooling and to teaching and learning taking place at all levels, and for all ages from the youngest children through adulthood.” [1]  The earliest Jewish records attest to schools being built at the time that the Israelites were just entering into The Promised Land during the time of Joshua and just after Moses had died.  This is somewhere on the order of 3500 years ago.  Education in the Torah has been a passion of the Jewish people since the beginning and so, even the most average inhabitant of first century Jerusalem would have been well versed in the Law and the Prophets, and as a people under the thumb of the Romans, longing for their Messiah to free them from their current captivity, the apocalyptic verses of prophets such as Zecheriah would have been well known, if not downright popular.  Zechariah 9:9 says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.” 

            And so, here we have Jesus, who has attracted a lot of attention, healing people, driving out demons, preaching with authority, and now, folks are hearing that He has raised someone from the dead.  Already, people are thinking that perhaps Jesus will declare Himself King, and the disciple’s request to the owner of the donkey to borrow the animal because “The Lord needs it” would have almost certainly brought to the mind of the donkey’s owner that Zecheriah passage, and almost certainly would have fanned the flames of the anticipation of Jesus’ declaration of kingship.  I can’t imagine that the donkey’s owner, in his excitement to play a part in this extraordinary Biblical event, didn’t tell everyone he saw about this Jesus who just borrowed his donkey, and his enthusiasm could possibly have contributed to the size of that immense crowd that welcomed Jesus as He rode that donkey into Jerusalem.

            But there is something that our excited friends in first century Jerusalem were missing.  I’d like to read a short passage from Revelation 6.  “I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!”  I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.”  This, according to Revelation, is a future event; a part of the end times where the kingdom of heaven will finally be inaugurated among humankind.  But it surely sounds to me a lot more like what our first century Israelite friends were expecting of their Messiah.  But they didn’t get what they were expecting, did they?  In fact, their expectations were quite far removed from the reality of a loving, patient, compassionate, forgiving, king who came not to conquer, but to be a gentle and loving persuader of willing hearts.

            And truthfully, they probably should have known that something was up.  You see, in ancient times, a conquering king would enter the city on a horse, probably carrying a sword or a spear, and he would have been accompanied by a large entourage, soldiers and horsemen and archers.  But when a king came in peace… when the king’s intentions are benevolent, the king would enter the city not on a horse but on a donkey.  The ancients didn’t share our modern opinion about donkeys as being dumb and obstinate creatures.  They regarded Horses and donkeys both as noble animals.  But the horse was an instrument of war and the donkey was an instrument of peace.  Everyone knew that when the king was entering the city on a donkey it meant that he was coming in peace.   

            But we can’t entirely blame the folks in Jerusalem for their expectations.  Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was carefully planned to fit exactly the messianic prophecies.  We’ve already spoken about the Zecheriah reference to the donkey, and we note that it was a young donkey upon which no one had yet ridden.  This also had meaning as the fact that the donkey was unridden meant that the donkey had been set apart for this exact holy purpose.  Also, according to Zecheriah the Messiah would enter Jerusalem by way of the Mount of Olives and so our story tells us that Jesus began His procession on the Mount of Olives.  And it was at this point that the disciples began singing, with others joining in the song as they joined the procession.  And the song that they sang was “Baruch Ha’ba B’shem Adonai, a phrase that we translate as “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”.  But there is more to this than meets the eye also.

            Baruch Ha’ba means “welcome”, but it is a welcome with a blessing attached to it.  In first century Jewish weddings the rabbi would greet the guests and the bride and groom with Baruch Ha’ba.  As the bride and her bridesmaids, waiting for the groom, suddenly saw the groom approaching, the bridesmaids would greet the groom with shouts of Baruch Ha’ba.  The book of Revelation speaks of the church as being Christ’s bride.  According to Baysinger, “This scripture certainly sounds like it is a welcome given to the bridegroom by the bride. Come Bridegroom! Baruch Ha’ba B’shem Adonai.” [2]

            And so, through His actions, Jesus has left no question in the minds of the people of Jerusalem that He was entering the city as a king.  And now, the task for the Jerusalemites, and for us, is to determine exactly what kind of king Jesus is.

            So, let’s take a look at one more thing.  Way back at the beginning of Advent, we had a discussion about preparing the way.  We spoke about the meticulous preparations that preceded a visit by the emperor, making sure that the roads and accommodations were perfect.  And the emperor would have arrived in a grand procession, surrounded by dignitaries and elite military units.  Even if the emperor came in peace riding a donkey, it would still have been an occasion of great pomp and dignity, and also almost certainly there would be tokens reminding the people of the great wealth of the emperor.  Jesus began His procession in Bethphage, a small and very poor town on the outskirts of Jerusalem situated on the Mount of Olives.  With His ride into Jerusalem originating in this poor town among the common people, Jesus entered Jerusalem with a motley collection of very blue collar disciples.  This was not a procession extolling wealth and privilege, this was not a procession extolling power and influence, this was a procession that, for anyone who had been paying attention (those with ears to hear?) reflected exactly the life and ministry of Jesus as He had ministered to the poor and the marginalized, lifting them up to a position of dignity and fellowship with God and with others. 

            And so, we see that not only did Jesus plan His entrance to fulfill the prophesies about the coming of Messiah, He also planned His entrance to send a strong message about just what kind of king He is to be. 

            In five short days much of that crowd in Jerusalem would go from shouts of “Baruch Ha’ba”, to shouts of “crucify Him”!  The crowd was expecting a different kind of king.  The crowd was expecting a king who would bring triumph to the Jewish people, who would dispatch the hated Romans and restore the glory of King David to Israel and to the Jewish people.  I think it is safe to say that when Jesus was arrested and publicly beaten as if He was a common criminal, the people were disillusioned.  “This is no king”, they thought.  This is just another pretender, another wannabe.  To all but a few, the miracles, the healings, the exorcisms, even the raising of the dead are forgotten in a sea of disappointment because the Messiah wasn’t who they THOUGHT He should be.

            We don’t get to follow God on our own terms.  When God introduced Himself to Moses at the burning bush, He identified Himself as ἐγώ εἰμι (ego eimi).  We translate this as “I Am”, but a better translation would be “I will be who I will be”.  In both the books of Job and Habakkuk, God rebukes those who question His actions, essentially asking them “who do you think you are to question the author of the universe?”  But surprisingly, in neither of these instances was this a response that God made in anger or in frustration.  It was simply God trying to help us to understand the depth and the breadth of His holiness; trying to help us to understand what it means to trust Him… to truly trust Him.  And a huge part of that trust is about us believing that God always has our best interests at heart.  That all that He does is done out of love for His beloved children.

            And only when we get to the point where we can begin to understand THAT, will the way that Jesus entered Jerusalem begin to make sense.  Only when we begin to trust God’s plan implicitly, can we begin to understand the actions of a loving, compassionate, and forgiving king whose entire objective is the reconciliation of His beloved children to Himself.  A conquering king rules through force, through intimidation and coercion, through fear and threats of violence.  But God rules through love.  God’s rule takes place in our hearts when we are willing to align with Him, when we choose to follow His call to become people of love and grace and compassion ourselves.  And when we share His love with the world, teaching the truth of a king who comes having justice and salvation.  A king who comes humbly, riding on a donkey; a colt, the foal of a donkey.

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[1] Robert E. Sutton, AMIT Children.org, https://amitchildren.org/ancient-jewish-education/

[2] Leisa Baysinger, OurAncientPaths.org, https://www.ourancientpaths.org/post/baruch-ha-ha-b-shem-adonai

When the Signs Become Unmistakable

April 6, 2025

            There is a British company that sells perfume, and I’m not going to advertise them here, but their flagship, non-custom perfume is called, “Imperial Majesty” and it sells for $215,000.00 an ounce. I wish I was kidding… I’m not.  If we don’t count the million-dollar custom perfumes that they make that come in solid gold and diamond encrusted bottles, I believe it is the most expensive commercially available perfume in the world.    Compared to perfumes like these, the perfume that Mary used in today’s story is somewhat of a bargain. 

            Nard is an extract of oil from the Nardostachys Jatamansi plant (maybe?).  This plant grows only in the Himalayas, and only at altitudes above 10,000 feet, so it’s not hard to imagine why this perfume, harvested two miles up a mountain, and transported 3,000 miles on foot, might have been a bit pricey in 1^st century Palestine.  Nard is light red in color and very thick, more of an ointment than an oil, and it has an extremely strong, yet pleasingly fragrant aroma.  In the first century, nard was almost always mixed with other, inferior oils to lower the cost, which is why our text today makes it a point of telling us that the nard was pure and not diluted.  The pound to which our text refers was a Roman measure and was not weight but was volume and it was equivalent to what today would be about 12 ounces, and anyone who has bought perfume or cologne can tell you that enough perfume to fill a soda can is a LOT of perfume.  In fact, Judas was kind enough to do the math for us and determined that the perfume was worth about 300 denarii.  Since a denarius was a standard day’s wage for a common worker, that means that Mary’s nard cost nearly a year’s salary.  The median annual income in the United States in 2024 was $80,610 just to give us a point of reference.  So, Mary’s nard was not quite as expensive as Imperial Majesty, but it was still some pretty darn expensive perfume.

            Our story today tells us that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, Jesus’ dear friends were giving Jesus a dinner in His honor, not too long after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.  We read that Lazarus was reclining with Jesus at the table and that Martha was serving.  Back in Luke 10 we had another dinner at the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and perhaps you remember that Martha was upset with Mary because Martha was doing all of the work while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and listened.  Jesus told Martha that to take the opportunity to learn at His feet was one of the “few things [that] are needed – or indeed the only one”.  And yet here we find that Martha is again serving.  But I think that we need to understand that people are different and that they have different ways of doing things.  Martha saw her gift to Jesus as being one of service.  Her preparations and her hosting of the meal, and her desire to make everything perfect was her gift to Jesus.  Or as modern counselors might say, serving was Martha’s language of love.  It’s for this very reason that God gives different gifts to different people, that all of the different needs in this world, and in the world to come, may be filled by those who feel drawn to, and indeed enjoy serving in that particular way.

            But Mary’s language of love is different.  And she who has sat at Jesus’ feet and listened appears to have understood what His disciples had yet to figure out.  Mary appears to have understood the truth about the fact that Jesus was soon to give up His life for the life of the world.  And so, Mary, in an act of unimaginably extravagant love, takes what is probably her most valuable possession, a container of that incredibly expensive nard that we just talked about, and poured the entire container over Jesus’ feet.  And as if that wasn’t enough, she then let down her hair and wiped His feet with her hair.

            And before Judas even said a word, I can assure you that every single person at that table with the possible exception of Jesus, was shocked.  A woman’s long hair was said to be her glory, and Jewish women wore their hair long.  But traditionally, a Jewish woman’s hair would be uncovered and let down only for her husband, and so, Mary’s choice to uncover her hair, to let it down, and to wipe Jesus feet with it was not something that was generally socially acceptable, and so it almost certainly would have raised some eyebrows.  However, Klink tells us that, “Evidence from the ancient world suggests that a lowering of one’s hair in this manner could be a sign of extreme gratitude and an expression of humility.” [1]  Extreme gratitude may be an understatement as Jesus had just recently raised Mary’s beloved brother, Lazarus, from the dead.  But I do believe that there is more to this story than just gratitude over Lazarus. 

            Last week in the story of the Prodigal Son I explained how the word, “Prodigal” can mean “having or giving something on a lavish scale” and I remarked that our story wasn’t really about a prodigal son, but about a prodigal father; a father who had offered lavish and undeserved love and grace to his son.  And so, the question becomes, to a God who gives so extravagantly to us of His love and His grace, what is our proper response?  Time and time again, Jesus tells us that He wants all of us.  In Mark 8 Jesus said “If anyone would come after me, let [them] deny [themselves] and take up [their] cross and follow me. For whoever would save [their] life will lose it, but whoever loses [their] life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”  Jesus asked the rich young ruler to sell everything he had, and of course Jesus tells us that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.  And so, our call, of course IS to make Jesus our treasure.

            In light of that call, we have to ask ourselves, what is OUR appropriate response to God’s extravagant love?  For Mary, it was to love extravagantly in return… to give extravagantly in return.  Carter and Wredberg tell us that, “The example of Mary forces us to consider what a right response to Jesus looks like.  If we really see Jesus for who He is – the almighty, infinite God of the universe who condescended to take on human form so that He could die a brutal death in the place of His rebellious creatures – if we understand His beauty – that He is the all-satisfying wondrous, joyful God who promises to give peace, blessing, and satisfaction in Himself to those who come to Him – if we get this, how can we possibly withhold anything from Him?”  Is there anything in our lives that is more meaningful to us, more valuable to us, more impactful upon our lives, than God’s gracious love and forgiveness? 

            This isn’t a stewardship sermon.  I have no interest in talking about material gifts today.  I am talking about what we give of our lives.  I am talking about Martha serving at the dinner because that is what she loves doing, and that is what she does best.  It is her gift, and she gives it joyfully, pouring out her love for Jesus in her service.  Lazarus was one of Jesus’ closest friends and as Jesus’ soul was troubled over the events that would transpire over the next two weeks, His dear friend reclined at the table next to Him giving his love, support compassion, and friendship.  This is what Lazarus loves to do and what he does best.  It is his gift of love being poured out for Jesus.  And of course, Mary gives her extravagant gift.  And it is also an act born of love and devotion. 

            And so, we have to ask, what shape does our love and devotion to Jesus take?  I would imagine that most of us know what our gifts are.  What do we love to do?  What brings us joy?  Those things are the gifts with which God has blessed us, and those things are the most appropriate gift for us to return to the One who has given us everything.

            As the fragrance of Mary’s perfume permeated the house, a dissenting voice arose.  “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?” Judas asked.  “It was worth a year’s wages.”  Judas might have had a point.  Selling the perfume would have been able to help a lot of people and probably help them pretty significantly.  But a parenthetical statement in our text tells us that Judas didn’t actually care for the poor, he just wanted the money in the disciple’s treasury so that he might be able to help himself to some of it.  But that fact didn’t make his question entirely invalid.  And it doesn’t really help us that Jesus responded with an answer that was somewhat cryptic.  “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.  You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

            And there are two things in Jesus’ statement that we need to address.  The first is the comment about His burial.  And we first must realize that Mary wasn’t washing Jesus’ feet, she was anointing them.  In the ancient world, one was anointed to set them apart for service in a particular role, almost always a really important one like a king or a prophet or a priest.  And anointing was almost always done on the person’s head.  There are, however, extremely rare historical examples of anointings of people’s feet.  And in the ancient world, this was considered to be an act of extravagance.  And so, in the story that we have just witnessed we have Mary, making an extravagant gift, in an extravagant manner, and doing so with extreme gratitude and humility.  In her heart, Mary has anointed Jesus as king; a coronation that will happen on Calvary in two short weeks.

            Jesus’ gentle rebuke of Judas pointed to the different ways that Mary and Judas viewed the extravagance of Mary’s gift.  Judas valued the gift in terms of its financial worth; how much could have been raised by selling it and what potential good may have been done with those funds.  Mary valued the gift as the best and most appropriate offering she could make to her Lord and Savior.  For her, it wasn’t about the value of the perfume, it was about the value of Jesus in her life and the gift that she was able to give, especially in light of the fact that it appeared that Mary had at least some level of understanding of Jesus’ impending sacrifice.

            The second thing that Jesus said is a little problematic.  “You will always have the poor among you” Jesus said.  Over the centuries, this passage has been misinterpreted by some as being an excuse not to help the poor, as if Jesus is somehow being dismissive of the need to care for “the least of these”.  But here, Jesus is echoing the words of Deuteronomy 15:11 that says, “There will always be poor people in the land.  Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land”.  R. C. Sproul explains, “Jesus’ words here may sound callous, but He was not saying the poor should be ignored.  Rather, He was saying that the opportunity to serve Him in a tangible way would not last for long, while ministry to the poor would always be in demand.” [2]

            Yes, Mary’s gift was extravagant, almost beyond measure.  Not everyone has the resources to gift Jesus with something that expensive.  But every one of us has been blessed with gifts of the Spirit, and every one of us has the capacity to give of that gift extravagantly and lovingly.  Today, let us let Mary’s gift be an example, an inspiration, as we each ask ourselves what could be our own extravagant response to the love and forgiveness that God has so abundantly showered upon us. 

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[1] Edward W. Klink III, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: John, Pg. 526

[2] R. C. Sproul, John, Pg. 205

A Contrast in Opinions

March 30, 2025

After all these years and as many times as I’ve heard this story, I never knew what the word “prodigal” meant, I had to look it up.  And it turns out that there are two related meanings for the word “prodigal”.  The first definition is “spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant.”  And the second definition is “having or giving something on a lavish scale.”  I never knew that.

Today’s story might be familiar to some of us.  A father with two sons had his youngest son come to him and ask him if he could have his inheritance now, while his father was still alive.  In our culture, we might find that request to be a bit unusual, though possibly pragmatic depending on circumstances.  We are accustomed to children leaving home, possibly moving far away, and making a life for themselves, and often, parents do help their children with these initial expenses. 

But having a child leave the home in first century culture was not only unusual, it was an affront to the family.  The youngest son’s actions in our story today were shocking and just incredibly rude.  N. T. Wright explains, “The shame that this would bring on the family would be added to the shame that the son had already brought on the father by asking for his share before the father’s death; it was the equivalent of saying ‘I wish you were dead’.” [1]  Scott Hoezee is a little less charitable when he says, “Please note: the younger son is a jerk.” [2]  Nevertheless, his father bore the insult and agreed to give his son his share of the inheritance.  Our text tells us that the son “got together all he had”, probably meaning that he sold his share and consolidated his earnings and left for a “distant country”. 

In that distant country the son squandered his resources.  While his older brother will later insist that his younger brother spent his money in illicit ways, our text here gives no hint of that.  The two Greek words διασκορπίζω (dia-skor-pee-zo), meaning to scatter or disperse and ἀσώτως (ah-so-tos) meaning recklessly or wastefully give us a picture not of debauchery, but of irresponsibility.  And so, before long the younger son faces the consequences of his carelessness.  There’s a great Billie Holiday song that became Blood Sweat and Tears first big hit, and the chorus of “God Bless the Child” says, “And when you’ve got money, you’ve got lots of friends crowding around your door.  But when the money’s gone, and all your spending ends, they won’t be around anymore.” [3]

Our younger son found this out the hard way.  And with spectacularly lousy timing, his money ran out just as a famine hit the land where he was living.  Now, famines cause recessions, and recessions result in unemployment and a greatly reduced availability of decent jobs.  And so, our son takes what work he can get… a job feeding the pigs of a Gentile farmer.  The wages were so low that the son was starving and wished that he could eat the carob pods that he was feeding to the pigs.  And in his hunger, and in his disgust at feeding these unclean animals, the son reached what the 12 step programs refer to as “rock bottom”. 

Our text tells us that “he came to his senses” and in that process, learned a couple of things about himself.  First, he realized that his father took much better care of his hired hands than the son’s current employer did.  Second, he realized that he had sinned against his father.  When society expected him to stay home, to support and to care for his family, and to Honor his parents, he had done none of these things.  And further in failing to honor his father, he broke one of the commandments and sinned against God as well.  Lastly, he realized that he had abdicated his position of privilege and was no longer worthy of being called his father’s son.  But still, with an empty stomach, he decided to go home in the hopes that his father would allow him to work as one of the hired hands. 

On his long journey home.  I can’t imagine that he didn’t spend days or even weeks walking all day every day.  And I would imagine that a lot of that travel time was spent rehearsing the speech that he was going to give his father, accepting responsibility for his actions, apologizing to his father for having treated him so poorly, and begging for a job as his father’s hired hand.  Garland tells us that, “It would not have been unrealistic for the father to kill the son rather than the fattened calf.  The son fit the category of a rebellious son, a glutton and a drunkard, who [according to Deuteronomy 21:18} could have been stoned.” [4]  And so, there were no assurances that he would be welcomed home.

I have fond memories of family vacations when I was a child.  Once a year we would hop in the station wagon and drive from our home in Columbus, Ohio to my mom’s parents house in Memphis, Tennessee.  This is a journey of almost 600 miles and with today’s highways the drive would take about 9 hours.  But in the late 50’s and early 60’s when the interstate highway system was just beginning to be built, the majority of our drive was on two lane roads and the drive took us almost twice that long.  One of my most vivid memories of those trips was traveling behind trucks that were carrying livestock.  To be stuck behind a truck that was carrying pigs, potentially for miles, is an experience one would not soon forget.  The stench was unbearable, and we often had to wait for miles before we had a chance to pass the truck and escape the smell.  There is a reason that the Jews viewed pigs as unclean animals.  It’s because they are.  Many animals will designate a section of their living area as their bathroom.  Pigs do not.  They eat and sleep in the same place as their waste.  Which would explain why those trucks were so unbearably offensive.

When our prodigal son arrived home, his father saw him coming from a distance and ran to meet him.  In the culture of the ancient east for an adult to run was undignified, and an older man, especially a land owner, would not want to be seen demeaning himself by running, and yet that is exactly what the father did.  He then embraced his son, kissed him, and gave a flurry of orders to his servants to bring the finest robe, a ring, sandals, and to prepare a feast.  But did you notice what he didn’t do?  He didn’t say to his son, “man, you are ripe.  Go take a bath!” 

The prodigal son came home wearing rags that almost certainly bore the stench of the pigs that he had been caring for.  He was filthy from the long journey, he wasn’t wearing shoes, he was exhausted and defeated.  But he wasn’t even able to make the speech to his father that he had been practicing for days.  His father interrupted the beginning of his speech with an avalanche of love and compassion.  His father was so delighted at his son’s return that he didn’t just forgive him, he restored him.  The robe, the ring, the sandals, were all symbols of the fact that the father had fully returned the prodigal to his status as a beloved son.  And then, the father threw a banquet to celebrate his beloved son’s return.

And so, this really isn’t the story of a prodigal son who wasted his resources.  This is the story of a prodigal father lavishing grace and forgiveness on his beloved son.  And that grace and forgiveness, those hugs and kisses were not contingent upon his son taking a bath first.  There was no requirement that he clean himself up before his father would accept him.  His father welcomed him, hugged him, and kissed him in spite of the filth and the stench on his clothes and his person.  Because all that mattered to the father was the fact that his son had returned to him. 

And in our story today, Jesus teaches us something incredibly important about God’s love, because in this story, the father plays the part of God.  And here Jesus is making a powerful statement about the depth of God’s grace and the absolute joy with which God welcomes every one of His beloved children that turns to Him. 

But this is not the end of today’s story. 

The older brother heard the commotion from the banquet and asked one of the servants what was going on.  The servant told the older brother about his younger brother’s return and told him about his father killing the fattened calf to have a banquet to celebrate.  The older brother refused to enter the banquet.  And for the second time in our story, the father shows grace and compassion.  He could have simply directed one of his servants to go and tell his son that his presence was demanded at the banquet, but instead he graciously goes out to meet his older son to talk to him.  And when he does, he gets an ear full.  “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!” 

If the father in our story is playing the role of God, then the younger son is the tax collectors and sinners and the older son is the Pharisees.  Morris tells us that the older son, “saw himself as the model son, but his use of the [word ‘slave’] gives him away.  He did not really understand what being a son means.  He could not see why his father should have been so full of joy at the return of the prodigal.  He complains that his father had never given him a [goat] for a feast with his friends.  The proud and the self-righteous always feel that they are not treated as well as they deserve.” [5]

The younger son had had an opportunity to examine his life, to see how his sins of rebelliousness and selfishness had ultimately led to disaster.  The older son had yet to have that opportunity.  The older son’s words reveal his heart.  He was resentful and jealous, but he was the responsible one.  He was the one who was dutifully working for his father, but as it turned out, he didn’t view himself as a partner in his father’s work, he viewed himself as a slave.  There was no joy in his heart over his partnership with his father, there was only a grudging sense of obligation.  And as a slave to his responsibilities he viewed the irresponsibility of his younger brother as unforgivable.  He refused to join in the celebration of his brother’s return; indeed refused to even recognize him as his brother, calling him “this son of yours”.  And while his life seemed to reflect a laudable sense of duty and honor, his lack of love for his brother was clearly and painfully evident. 

Garland tells us that, “Repentance may be most difficult for the righteous, who seemingly need no repentance. Prodigal sinners leave the filth of the pigsty behind.  Righteous sinners, however, must leave their imagined righteousness behind.  It requires abandoning self-assured boasts about obedience and a preoccupation with rewards.  It requires giving up their disdain for others who seem, less obedient and their expectations that these deserve to be rejected by God.” [6]

The older brother’s statement that he, “never disobeyed [his father’s] orders” mirrors the attitude of the Pharisees who believed that they were blameless.  In both cases their blind obedience to the law caused them to believe that they were righteous and yet their hearts were filled with resentment.  Neither the older brother nor the Pharisees were willing to enter the banquet, but it is at the banquet where God’s love blossoms. 

After his son’s tirade the father answers tenderly.  Instead of addressing his son with the standard Greek word for “son”, υιός (wee-os) he uses the word Τέκνον (tek-nohn) which would best be translated as “beloved child”.  “You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” The father said, “But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”  And hidden in the translation is a profound truth, because the word that we translate as “had to” is the Greek word ἔδει  (ee-die) which gives the sense of a God-ordained imperative.  The celebration isn’t optional because the heart that is aligned with God’s heart cannot help but join in the celebration and the joy over a repentant sinner.

            Again, Garland says, “Joy is the only option.  Grumbling cuts one off from the salvation that comes in Jesus.  The older son represents those who resent heaven’s joy and resist it on earth.  He must do more than keep commands but must join the party and learn that forgiveness is greater than justice.” [7]

            My dear friends, there’s a party going on, and everyone is invited.  And all that is required for entrance is hearts that are filled with love.

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[1]  N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, Pg. 139

[2] Scott Hoezee, Center for Excellence in Preaching, Commentary 2019, 03, 25

[3]  “God Bless the Child” by Arthur Herzog Jr. & Billie Holiday, Edward B. Marks Music, 1939

[4] David E. Garland, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg. 628

[5] Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Luke (Revised Edition), Pg. 267

[6] David E. Garland, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg. 634-635

[7] David E. Garland, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg.633

Borrowed Time for the Fig Tree

March 23, 2025

            Sometime around the year 26 of the Common Era, the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate decided that he needed to build an aqueduct in Jerusalem.  The Romans were famous for building aqueducts, and these aqueducts generally led to a better quality of life for those who lived in the areas that were served by them.  Choosing to build this aqueduct was the act of an efficient administrator and the aqueduct stood to provide much benefit to the people of Jerusalem.  There was just one problem.  Pilate decided to fund this aqueduct by taking money from the temple treasury.  Oops! 

A massive revolt occurred as a result of this and while there is no proof of a direct link between this event and today’s story’s description of Pilate mixing the blood of Galileans with their sacrifices.  Pilate’s response to the revolt over the taking of temple funds resulted in numerous deaths.  And so, it is entirely possible that it is to this event that today’s story refers.  In first century Palestine, the Galileans were known to be short tempered when it came to enduring Roman oppression.  Josephus described the Galileans, saying, there were many that were “ever craving for revolution, [and] by temperament addicted to change and delighting in sedition”.  [1]  And so, the residents of Jerusalem did not exactly hold Galileans in the highest esteem, viewing them as being a bit backwater, shall we say?  Unruly… maybe?  Understanding this mindset will become important shortly.

            But regardless of whether our passage today is speaking to this event or another similar occurrence, there is an interesting dynamic here, and it is one that Jesus did not miss.  “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way?” Jesus asked.  It’s a common human trait to try to justify ourselves by pointing out the greater sin of others.  If I am driving 75 MPH on the Parkway (who? Me?) and someone passes me doing 90 MPH or so and then a few moments later I get pulled over for speeding, my first thought is going to be “what about that other guy??”  Yes, I was breaking the law, but I wasn’t breaking it as badly as he was!  We can always find someone else who does what we think to be worse things than what we do, and we like to call out these actions of others so that we can feel better about ourselves.  “Well, at least I’m not THAT bad!”

            But Jesus wasn’t having any of that.  And what He did was to take this statement and to turn it around completely.  You see, the Galileans who were killed by Pilate were killed because they were violently resisting the Romans.  Jesus’ questioners were actually posing a political trap for Jesus.  If Jesus supported the actions of the Romans who may very well have been doing nothing more than defending themselves, then Jesus would appear to be sympathizing with the Romans, which would have been problematic to His Jewish audience, to say the least.  But if Jesus supported the Galileans in their violent revolt, it would have created problems for Him with the Roman authorities.  Well, not only did Jesus’ answer move the conversation into an entirely different theological direction, Jesus also, very cleverly, addressed the political issue as well.  You see, the men who were killed by the falling tower that Jesus mentioned were most likely men who were working on Pilate’s aqueduct.  And so, if tragedy had befallen those who were opposing Rome, tragedy had also fallen upon those who had been working FOR Rome.  It’s not like God was playing favorites here.  People on both sides of the political spectrum, tragically, and unexpectedly, lost their lives.

            John 9 tells us the story of Jesus encountering a man who had been born blind, Jesus was asked if the man’s blindness was a result of his sin or his parent’s sin.  But Jesus made it clear that neither the man’s personal sin nor the sins of his parents were responsible for the man’s blindness.  For those asking the question about the sins of the Galileans or the sins of the man born blind, Jesus’ response sees right through their attempts to justify themselves, and His answer is essentially “well, what about you?”  Garland says, “The absence of any concrete signs of judgment in one’s life is not a sign of one’s righteousness or that a reckoning is not right around the corner.  One may not distance oneself from the victims with such remarks as ‘We are all sinners of course, but not as bad as some’”.  [2] We are not to concern ourselves with the sins of others.  Period.  We are to center our concern on OUR relationship with God, because having a right relationship with God means that our sins are forgiven; gone, no longer of any consequence.  There is no further need for us to justify ourselves, because we have been justified by God the Father Himself.  And further, a heart that is right with God will have no desire or need to disparage another person or to call attention to their sins in contrast to one’s own.

            Many years ago, I planted a dwarf apple tree in my yard.  For quite a few years I enjoyed plentiful harvests of apples, but eventually the tree began producing fewer and fewer apples.  My son, the biology teacher, suggested that the tree and the apples might be healthier if the tree was not only pollinating itself and that, essentially, I needed another apple tree.  I bought another dwarf tree and planted it in my yard, but three years after planting the new tree I moved and the new owners cut down both trees.  In the three years that I had it though, that 2nd tree that I planted never produced any apples.  While dwarf apple trees are expected to bear fruit sooner than full sized apple trees, there is still an expected three to five year wait before a new tree begins to produce apples. 

For those who aren’t in the know about fig trees, fig trees tend to produce fruit a little sooner than most other fruit trees, but there is still an expected two to three year wait before a fig tree will begin to bear figs.  In fact, according to Jewish law, figs from fig trees are not to be eaten for the first three years and the figs from the tree’s fourth year are entirely dedicated to God, so the fig tree legally won’t produce usable fruit until the fifth year.

            But in our story today, it would appear that the fig tree owner was maybe just a bit impatient because it had been three years and there were still no figs.  Now, I’m sure that he knew much better than I about what to expect from a fig tree, but apparently the man who took care of the vineyard agreed with me that maybe the fig tree just needed a little bit more time.

            Interestingly, our story never tells us about what happened to that fig tree the following year, but the parable still tells us a lot about the fig tree and about how it relates to us.  You see, the point that Jesus made in speaking about the Galileans and the workers at the Tower of Siloam is that there is an urgency in the need to turn to Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Those killed in the shadow of the temple and those killed when the tower fell all died suddenly and unexpectedly.  And if any of those who died had initially rejected Jesus, their options for changing their minds came to a sudden and tragic end.  And so, our first lesson from today’s reading is a reminder of the pressing need, not only for us, but for our friends and our families and our acquaintances, to make the choice to become followers of Jesus.

            But our lesson doesn’t end there.  Why was the vineyard owner going to cut down the fig tree?  It’s because it wasn’t producing any fruit.  This tree was drawing nutrients from the soil, nutrients that would have been put to better use by nourishing something that WAS producing fruit.  To leave an unproductive tree in the middle of the vineyard would be a poor stewardship of resources.  And yet in spite of that, the tree is given more time to become a productive part of that vineyard.  William Barclay tells us that, “The fig tree was drawing strength and sustenance from the soil; and in return was producing nothing.  That was precisely its sin.  In the last analysis, there are two kinds of people in this world – those who take out more than they put in and those who put in more than they take out.  In one sense, we are all in debt to life.  We came into it at the peril of someone else’s life; and we would never have survived without the care of those who loved us.  We have inherited a Christian civilization and a freedom which we did not create.  There is laid on us the duty of handing things on better than we found them.” [3] 

Just like the fig tree, God’s children also are called to bear fruit.  And just like the fig tree, in spite of the grace that gives it another year, there will come a time when the options of God’s children to become bearers of the fruits of the Spirit will end also.  This isn’t a pleasant thought but nevertheless it is one that we need to face. 

The lessons of the last two weeks are probably not the most popular lessons of the Gospel.  We don’t really like to think about judgment.  Our faith lives are much more pleasant when we are focused on the grace and forgiveness and love of God.  And I suspect that God also finds it much more pleasant when He is able to be the source of grace and forgiveness and love.

And so, we as believers, come face to face with what appears to be a dilemma.  Because we have a loving, gracious, and forgiving God, but we also have hell, a place where unbelievers are eternally separated from God.  And if we are to trust God; I mean truly trust Him, then we need to resolve this apparent dichotomy in our minds.  And the answer to this question began to take shape in last week’s discussion about the narrow door.  If you will recall, we talked about how the narrow door is not easily entered and how those who want to enter on their own terms will find themselves unable to enter.  Only those who are willing to enter on God’s terms; only those who are willing to live lives of compassion and love and justice will be able to enter. 

I quoted 2 Peter 3:8-9 last week, a passage that says, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”.  The Calvinist in me understands the fact that God has foreknowledge, He knows who will choose to enter and who will not, but ultimately the choice to enter will be made by those who agree to enter on God’s terms.

And entering on God’s terms means being willing to have God change our hearts.  It means being willing to become people of kindness and grace and compassion.  It means becoming people with a heart for justice and an appreciation for the beauty of God’s diverse creation in all of its splendor.  And the best part of all of this is, when our lives are given to Christ, we find fellowship, peace, joy, fulfillment.  When our lives are given to Christ, we are given the opportunity to become the people that God has always intended for us to be.  And what could possibly be better than that?

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[1] Flavius Joseph, Life of Josephus, 17

[2] David E. Garland, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg. 538

[3] William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, Pg. 175

No Prophet Can Die Outside Jerusalem

March 16, 2025

            Anyone who is familiar with farms or raising chickens knows how aggressively mother hens protect their chicks.  As for me, well, I’m not a farm boy, so I had to look it up.  If there is an approaching storm, or if there is cold weather, or if there is a threat from a predator, a mother hen will cluck at her chicks to call them, then as she spreads her wings, her baby chicks will gather under her wings and find protection there.  Protection from the storm, or the cold, or protection from the predator, from whom the mother hen will fiercely defend them.  But there is one even more poignant example of a mother hen’s devoted protection of her chicks.  Sometimes there are fires in barns or in chicken coops, and when the fires have been put out, it is not at all unusual to find mother hens that have died in the fire, but under whose wings are their still living chicks.  The mother hen will literally give up her life in the fire to save her chicks.

            When we read in today’s lesson about Jesus’ longing to gather the children of Jerusalem together as a hen would gather her chicks under her wings, we see in this simile, a picture of the depth of Jesus’ love and care, as He also offers up His life for the protection of His beloved children.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

            In today’s story, a group of Pharisees come to tell Jesus that Herod wants to kill Him and that He should leave Galilee.  Scholars disagree about the meaning of this passage.  Some say that the warning comes from a group of Pharisees who are, secretly or otherwise, followers of Jesus and that the warnings are sincere.  Others say that the warnings, while possibly accurate, are a ploy by the Pharisees to trick Jesus into going to Jerusalem where the Sanhedrin is waiting to arrest Him.  Fortunately, as far as the story goes, their motives are completely irrelevant and Jesus answers them in the most defiant way imaginable. 

            First, Jesus responds to the Pharisees by calling Herod a fox.  Now, given the fact that the 21^st century English speaking world views a fox as being a cunning and resourceful creature, this could appear to be a compliment of some kind, but it is nothing of the sort.  Our first century counterparts lived in a much more agrarian society, with much more familiarity about the difficulties of raising livestock, and people knew that farmers and shepherds had to protect their animals from foxes, and so while there may have been a grudging respect for the fox’s clever ways, these first century folks viewed foxes as being a nuisance and generally as being worthless creatures, as in, the world would be a better place without them.  Sort of like how I feel about wasps and hornets.  And so, Jesus calling Herod a fox was anything but complimentary.  It was, in fact, a derogatory statement by Jesus that Herod was worthless and irrelevant. Given the fact that Herod had only recently beheaded John the Baptist, this was a bold and insolent statement that would have infuriated the already dangerous Herod. 

            But let’s look at the rest of Jesus’ response.  ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.”  What do we think Jesus meant by this?  Jesus meant that there was absolutely nothing that Herod could do that was going to interfere with Jesus’ goal of accomplishing His Father’s mission.  Jesus continued his statement by saying “In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!” 

            In spite of Herod’s well-deserved reputation for a violent temper and a vindictive nature, Jesus is completely unconcerned because, in the end, Herod will be only a pawn in the grand redemption that is soon to take place on Calvary’s hill.  Back in Luke 9 we read that Jesus had resolutely set His face to Jerusalem.  Jesus would see to it that His Father’s will would be accomplished exactly as planned, and there was nothing… nothing that was going to prevent that from happening.

            Next, Jesus gives a glimpse into His motivation for completing His unimaginably difficult mission as He expresses His deepest desire to gather the children of Jerusalem as a mother hen would gather her chicks under her wings.  Like the mother hen that we discussed earlier who gave up her life to save her chicks, so it is that Jesus, out of His extraordinary love for His beloved children, was willing, and indeed did, give up His life for the lives of those He loved so deeply. 

            Over the last few weeks, after having touched on the subject during a sermon, I have been giving a lot of thought to the idea of loving one’s enemies.  I’ve always believed that Jesus had an unfair advantage when it came to this because He knew the hearts of all people.  Jesus knew all of their extenuating circumstances and all of their trials and traumas, and we all know that to have empathy; to take the time to understand the difficulties and challenges that others face can help us to have more compassion and indeed more love for those who might otherwise be really difficult to love.  But it never crossed my mind until recently that there are people here and there who are just unredemptively evil.  During the Nuremberg trials after the 2^nd World War, where Nazi leaders were being tried for their war crimes, an army psychologist, Captain G. M. Gilbert, who had been assigned to work with the accused, wrote, “In my work with the defendants I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it.  A lack of empathy.  It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men.  Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy”. [1]  And yet here’s the thing, Jesus knows the hearts of these people also.  He sees within them their total lack of compassion, and yet still, Jesus loves them and is willing to give His life for them.  So much for my idea of Jesus having an unfair advantage.  He loves them even when they have a complete lack of redeeming qualities, save one.  They were made in God’s image.

            And here, in today’s story, the Bible speaks volumes about the nature of God’s forgiveness.  Jesus was willing to forgive everything, to gather all of His beloved children under His wings, as it were, and to save them; every single one of them.  But some were not willing.  And to those who were unwilling Jesus pronounced judgment: “Look!” He says, “your house is left to you desolate”.  We don’t know if the “house” to which Jesus refers is the Temple or if it is the “House of Israel”; those of God’s chosen who have rejected Jesus, but the outcome is the same.  They, and their house have been separated from God.  And there is a difficult theology here, because even though those rejecting Jesus have succeeded in separating themselves from God, God still hasn’t turned His back on them.  Forgiveness and reconciliation to God are always just as close as a repentant heart.  But Jesus’ last words in today’s reading speak an ominous message.   “I tell you; you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” 

            These words will be spoken at Jesus’ second coming, and so His message is one of an urgent nature.  The time to turn to God is now.  The time to accept Jesus is now!  Just before our reading today, Jesus told the parable of the narrow door. “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door,” Jesus said, “because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.  Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’”

            God IS patient with us.  2 Peter 3:8-9 says, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”. And so, God has patiently waited for millennia, giving His children time to turn to Him and to be saved.  But God’s patience will not last forever.  At some point, known only to the Father, that door is going to close.  Manson says, “God opens the door of salvation for us to enter, but it is narrow.  One has to struggle through rather than stroll in.  If people fail to enter it, it is not because God refuses to admit them.  It means they want to enter on their own terms, and not on the only terms on which entrance is possible.”  [2]  Garland continues this thought, “The strength to enter comes only from God.  [Jesus’] lament reveals God’s passion to save, but salvation requires accepting God’s offer of grace through Jesus and heeding His teaching by reorienting one’s life accordingly.   It is not that God decides who will be allowed to enter and who will be shut out but that God acknowledges who has entered and who has refused to enter.” [3]

            As we look at today’s lesson, we find Jesus, inexorably heading to His death on a cross.  Jesus has selflessly followed this road for three years and will complete His work in a few short weeks.  Jesus would not let the temptations of the devil deter Him.  He would not let the threat of violence by Herod deter Him.  He would not let those who rejected Him deter Him.  And the reason that Jesus persevered through these difficulties is because of love; selfless, extravagant, agape love.  In this lesson we also find the contrast between those who have accepted Jesus and those who haven’t.  Throughout our study of Luke we have seen that the people flock to Jesus, often mobbing Him, and yet when Jesus’ teaching becomes too difficult or too demanding, people walk away.  Just like the rich, young ruler who walked away sad because he didn’t want to part with his fortune, or the Pharisees who were too caught up in their power and influence to follow Him, those who wanted to be associated with Jesus but didn’t want to make the commitment to love selflessly, ended up rejecting their only chance at salvation.

            For us, right now, the door to salvation is open, but it is not a wide door, and it isn’t entered effortlessly.  Entering the door requires a reset of our attitudes and our actions.  It’s not that our actions save us; please understand that clearly.  Salvation is entirely of God and is entirely of His doing.  It’s just that the evidence of our accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior is the fact that He actually BECOMES our Lord and Savior.  Which means that we see the wisdom, indeed the necessity, of allowing God to transform our hearts into hearts of love and compassion and empathy.  To transform our hearts into hearts that long for justice and fairness, to transform our hearts into hearts that demand equality for all and hearts that embrace diversity as the God breathed thing that it is.

            No, we’re not going to be perfect.  We won’t love perfectly, we won’t act perfectly, we won’t think perfectly.  But together, as Christians, we have embarked on a journey.  One that the Methodist theologian John Wesley described as “going on to perfection”.   A process whereby throughout our lifetimes we grow in faith and in faithfulness, to the end that our hearts will increasingly look like God’s heart.  Let us accept Jesus!  Let us walk through that narrow door! And let us learn to become a people after God’s own heart.

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[1] Gustav Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary

[2] Manson, The Sayings of Jesus, Pg. 125

[3] David E. Garland, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg. 561

Wrong Ways and Right Ways

March 9, 2025

So… How do we think it happened?  Was it a guy in a red body suit with horns and a tail and a pitchfork?  How about, maybe a talking snake?  Or perhaps it was a slick Madison Avenue type in a three piece suit ala Al Pacino in the movie, “The Devil’s Advocate”?  Or just maybe Satan “spoke” to Jesus in the same way that he “speaks” to us; or more accurately in the same way that he seeks to influence us.  I think that if we are to understand today’s text that we need to engage with it honestly, and that means trying to come to some understanding with what we believe about Satan. 

One popular thought is that Satan isn’t real, or that he is simply a representation of the penchant for selfishness that lives in all of humanity.  But the Bible doesn’t allow us the luxury of such a thought.  The Bible speaks openly and often of Satan.  I found over 100 references to Satan in the Bible with just a cursory look.  And while we know very little of how Satan came to be what he is, what IS clear is that he is real, that he is in direct opposition to God, that his intent is to turn as many people away from God as he possibly can, and that, unfortunately, he has power to influence us.  In the book of Job, God gave Satan the power to afflict Job.  The result to Job was devastating.  Jesus, just before He was arrested, told Peter that Satan had asked to “sift [the disciples] as wheat”.  And we all know that the result of that, was Peter’s three denials of Christ.  And so, we dismiss Satan at our peril because Satan asks to sift us also.

I would imagine that a guy in a red body suit with horns and a tail and a pitchfork would be relatively easy to resist.  I mean, we may be intrigued by what he has to say, but he definitely looks sketchy.  But Satan’s real methods are much more subtle.  When, in the past, I’ve discussed how the Holy Spirit speaks to us, I have said that having the Spirit speak to us in an audible voice would be highly unusual, though not impossible.  But that the Spirit mostly speaks to us in ideas and thoughts and notions.  So it is with Satan, who simply makes suggestions, most of which, at least on the surface, seem somewhat reasonable.

 Jesus had just spent 40 days in the desert fasting and praying.  And after 40 days without food, he was hungry.  The Judean wilderness is so desolate that, throughout all of history, it has been mostly uninhabited.  It is a harsh and unforgiving place and very little grows there.  I am told that the desert floor is covered with limestone rocks and that these rocks resemble loaves of bread, probably even more so when one hasn’t eaten in 40 days.  Satan could have used his influence simply to cause Jesus to visualize these rocks as being bread, and it’s not hard to imagine how Jesus might have thought that using His power to satisfy His hunger was probably a pretty harmless thing.  Maybe even something that he could justify because if he died of hunger, what good would He be to the world then?  And I think that this temptation is indicative of how Satan works.  Give someone an idea, then give them a justification for the idea, and then let human nature take its course. 

But of course, Jesus knew that the effects of this temptation would run much deeper than just this one simple event.  James Laurence explains, “This is a temptation [for Jesus] to use His divine power for Himself… not for His heavenly Father, not for humanity, but for himself. And I suspect that the devil knows that if he can get Jesus to think about himself, even just a little, then the devil has won. Because there is no way that Jesus will be crucified for our sins, if he begins thinking about himself in any way.” [1]  So, Satan seeks a toehold with one little temptation, but Satan has a long game.  The little, seemingly innocuous ideas he gives us are designed to erode our faith and lead us into a life of compromises with that faith. 

Laurence continues, “And there is something universal in this. Because once we decide to live for ourselves, and not for God, even just a little, we have begun wandering away from the faith. Because there is no way that we will do anything sacrificial – for God or for others, if we are thinking about ourselves.” [2]

And so, how DOES Jesus resist this temptation?  His response is directly from scripture: Jesus said, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.”  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8, but there is more to the verse than what Jesus quoted.  The verse as it appears in Deuteronomy 8 is, “[We] do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”  Jesus had recognized the subtext of Satan’s temptation and had spoken to it directly.  Jesus knew that He needed to follow God’s plan precisely, and that meant that there was absolutely no leeway for Jesus to act in His own behalf.  Can we look at this and see how incredibly subtle this temptation was?

In the second temptation Satan showed Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world and offered them all to Jesus in exchange for Jesus’ worship.  Well, this one doesn’t seem subtle on first glance, does it?  But do we understand the extent of what is being offered here?  Imagine what might have happened had Jesus accepted this offer.  Jesus could have created a society of love and compassion.  All of the wars, all of the pain and suffering, all of the diseases, all of the hate and misogyny and bigotry of the last 2000 years, gone.  Jesus could have created a perfect society, BUT… for those who didn’t want to participate in a society of love and compassion; for those for whom what they had simply wasn’t enough, some force would have had to have been applied to keep these people in line so that the perfect society would work for everyone else.  Ultimately, it would have been a society based on coercion, not on love.  Miller says, “No rule based on eternal authority ever truly wins the allegiance of [people], nor can it last… God wants the will of [humans], [their] hearts, [and their] free obedience in love.  When these are given, then, and only then, is His kingdom at work.” [3]

Jesus answered Satan, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”  And once again there is depth to this answer.  Worshipping the Lord presupposes that we will follow Him also… and follow Him completely.  If we are to place our trust in God, that means that we trust that God knows what He is doing, and we are willing to follow exactly that which He calls us to do.  Jesus knew that there is no plan B for God’s kingdom.  Jesus must do exactly what His Father calls Him to do.

I saw a pretty funny cartoon last week.  Two people were standing and were beginning to be covered with what looked like ashes falling from the sky.  One person says, “What’s this? Why didn’t someone warn us about this?”  The other person replies, “We were warned”.  In the next frame they are knee deep and the first person says, “They saw this coming, why didn’t they tell us?”  the second person says, “They told us”.  In the third frame they are waist deep and the first person says, “They should have said it in a way that we would believe it.”  The second person says, “Some did believe, but some didn’t.”  In the fourth frame they are neck deep and the first person says, “I blame them for letting us not believe them”.  The second person says, “They saw that coming too”.  When Jesus was asked by the Jewish religious authorities to show them a sign, Jesus’ reply to them was that even if someone returned from the dead they wouldn’t believe.  As it turned out, He was exactly right, wasn’t He?

I would imagine that Jesus’ consideration about how to go about His ministry in a way that would reach as many people as possible was an extremely difficult one.  At this point, Jesus already knew that He had the power to do miraculous things.  And so, the temptation to do something spectacular and attention grabbing must have been significant.  Herod’s Temple stood at the precipice of the Kidron Valley, so the fall from the tower at the northwestern corner of the temple to the floor of the valley below would have been some 450 feet.  That would be like falling from a 34-story building.  To have leapt from that corner and landed lightly on His feet would certainly have attracted attention.  Perhaps He could then have taken a bow and said “ta-da”. 

With my apologies for making a sarcastic joke, the temptations of Jesus were very, very, real, and in each instance, a decision was made by Jesus as to what the shape of His ministry would be.  His ministry, formulated during these 40 days of trial, would eventually be exactly as God intended it to be: selfless, compassionate, and faithful. 

One thing that I hope no one missed in our reading today is the fact that Satan quoted scripture.  In asking Jesus to jump from the highest point of the temple, Satan quoted Psalm 91:11-12, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”  Jesus replied, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”  And for the third time this morning Jesus’ answer is deeper than it seems.  Jesus clearly saw the distinction between faith and presumption.  Jesus, and we, are called to live faithfully and to trust in God to care for us and to provide for us, but at the same time, we can’t expect that God will protect us if we choose to do something stupid.  There are still consequences for actions, and so taking that leap from the temple wouldn’t have been something done in faith.  Just like Jesus said, it would have been an attempt to test God’s faithfulness.  And that is NOT faith.

And so, what does today’s story have to say to us?  In recognizing Satan’s deceptive use of scripture, we have been given a warning.  No single verse of the Bible is intended to stand on its own.  Every verse, every word, needs to be understood in the light of the witness of the entire Bible.  N. T. Wright says, “It is a central part of Christian vocation to learn to recognize the voices that whisper attractive lies, to distinguish them from the voice of God, and to use the simple but direct weapons provided in scripture to rebut the lies with truth… At the heart of our resistance to temptation is love and loyalty to the God who has already called us His beloved children in Christ, and who holds out before us the calling to follow Him in the path which leads to the true glory.” [4]

The good news is, Satan was defeated at the cross.  Jesus has triumphed and Satan’s fate has been sealed.  The bad news is, Satan is still active in the world and is still able to influence humans.  I’d like to close with some wise words from David E. Garland, “One resists Satan when one is more concerned with serving others than serving oneself.  One defeats Satan when one knows and accepts one’s place in the order of creation and trusts God’s promise to save.” [5]

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[1] James Laurence, MyPastoralPonderings.com, “When We Are Tempted”

[2] ibid

[3] Donald G. Miller, The Layman’s Bible Commentary: Luke, Pg. 55

[4] N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, Pg. 33

[5] David E. Garland, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg. 188

Πραΰτης (Prow-teese)

Ash Wednesday Homily

March 5, 20258         

   In his book, Confessions, Augustine of Hippo said, “God, you were within me, but I was outside of myself.  And I searched for you in the things of the outside world.”  So often people seek meaningfulness in their lives by turning to the things of this world.  Blaise Pascal once said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each [person] which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”

            People try to fill that vacuum with all manner of things.  Some of those things can be innocuous and some not so much, but all of it is harmful to us if it is an activity designed to fill the space in our hearts that rightfully belongs to God.  In one of that great sage Stevie Wonder’s songs, he said “Always reaching out in vain, accepting the things not worth having”. [1]  Those are wise words, as the world, seeking fulfillment from the things of this world, will never find satisfaction in any of them.  Have you ever wondered why so many millionaires and billionaires can just never seem to have enough money, no matter how much they already have?  It’s because the vacuum that they are trying to fill with money can’t possibly BE filled with money but can only be satisfied by being filled with the love of God. 

One of the most common human temptations is the seeking of the approval of others, and it is this idea that our story today focuses on.   In our story, Jesus is telling us that when we give to the needy, the purpose is not to be giving in order to gain the approval of others; to show others what good people we are.  When we pray in public, the purpose is not to show people how pious we are or how smart we are.  If we are fasting, the purpose is not doing it for show so people will think how spiritual we are or how faithful we are. 

            As is so often the case, our story today goes deeper than appearances.  What we really have here is a question of what is motivating one’s spiritual activities in the first place.  Is someone donating money to seek the approval of others?  If so, I say knock yourself out!  There is no reason why someone can’t make a donation in order to have their name plastered on the front of a building.  Philanthropy accomplishes a lot of really good things that benefit a lot of people.  But there needs to be a level of honesty about whether one is giving out of the kindness of a Godly heart, or out of a desire to be recognized by the world, because when one gives out of a desire for recognition, one needs to understand that that recognition will be their only reward.  On the other hand, the one who gives as a result of a heart that has been transformed by God’s love has no need of recognition from anyone BUT God.

            And so, asking ourselves the tough question of are we seeking approval for our actions, can help us to evaluate whether we are following the call of our transformed hearts or just seeking to fill that God shaped vacuum with recognition and praise.  The simple truth is… the worldly heart basks in the adoration of others and acts in a manner that allows that worldly heart to receive as much adoration as is possible.  But the transformed heart is so deeply moved when it sees another human in need or in distress that the transformed heart will act to fill that need, according to available resources, because it is the nature of the transformed heart to seek to alleviate that need.  And the transformed heart finds no need to be recognized for its actions, because it has only sought to do what Jesus would have done. 

            This self-effacing attitude is characteristic of the faithful Christian and is consistent with the Biblical call for meekness as the Christian seeks not to be recognized for simply acting as the Spirit has moved them.  It is here that we see this Biblical concept of meekness in action as this person’s motivation is not a desire for self-gain or self-aggrandizement, but simply a selfless act that is born of love.  Now, I seriously do not want for us to misunderstand Biblical meekness.  In the Greek, the word that we translate as “meek” is Πραΰτης (Prow-teese), and Πραΰτης is a word that the ancient Greeks used to describe a horse that had been trained.  Πραΰτης is not describing weakness; it’s not the definition of a wall flower or a 98-pound weakling.  Πραΰτης is the definition of something or someone possessing great power… but power that is under the control of a master.  The meek Christian is one who carries within them the immense power of LOVE.  And it is that love; the overwhelming power of God’s love living within us, that is, more often than not, the source of every good thing that Christians do. 

            Jesus ends this part of His sermon by telling us that, “Where our treasure is, there our heart will be also”.  If one’s treasure is recognition and admiration, then what their heart is doing is seeking to fill that God shaped vacuum with worldly things.  But for those for whom God is their treasure, for those who have allowed God’s Holy Spirit to begin that process of transforming their hearts into hearts that look like God’s heart, then their actions will be the tangible proof that God Himself is their treasure.

            As we enter into this season of Lent, there will inevitably be much discussion among our families and friends about who is giving up what for Lent.  My question this evening isn’t what are we giving up, it’s WHY are we choosing to give up whatever it is that we have chosen to give up.  Are we giving up something in order to show our faithfulness to the world?  Or are we making a quiet sacrifice, known only to us and to God; a sacrifice made in meekness?

            In speaking of meekness, C. S. Lewis once said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less,” [2] It is important that we, as Christians, make Jesus the focus of our efforts.  It is important that we as Christians recognize the power of God’s love being manifested in our day to day lives.  That love has the power to do unimaginably good things.  And that love dwells within the hearts of each of us.  Imagine what we might accomplish this Lent if, rather than giving something up, we were to resolve to live and act in light of that love that lives within us.

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[1] Stevie Wonder, “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”, (Universal Music Group) 1973

[2] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The Booths that Never Were

March 2, 2025

            Most of you probably know that I am a huge baseball fan and that I follow the New York Mets.  A few weeks back I was reading one of the Mets blogs and they were talking about who were the greatest Mets of all time.  The conversation took shape responding to a question about which Mets should be enshrined on the Mets version of Mount Rushmore (Would that be Mount Metsmore?).  This is not an unusual comparison. We often will find discussions of greatness in one field or another when the greatest of the great are named to the “Mount Rushmore” of that particular field.  And then, of course, we have the REAL Mount Rushmore.  In 1927 the United States decided to commemorate 4 of the great presidents, and so, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt had their images carved into the face of the mountain.  The monument is an enduring testament to the excellence of four presidents who shaped our nation.  And I suspect that this monument, already nearly 100 years old, will continue to testify to the greatness of these presidents for a good long time to come.

            In our story today we read about The Transfiguration.  Jesus, accompanied by Peter, John, and James, ascended a mountain so Jesus could find some solitude to pray.  It’s possible that this happened at night, or perhaps really early in the morning because the text tells us that the disciples were sleepy.  But pretty soon the disciple’s sleepiness would be interrupted as Jesus’ face and clothes became dazzlingly white.  The NIV does a great job of translating the Greek ἐξαστράπτω (ex-as-trap-toe) as “bright as a flash of lightening”.  The King James translates this as “white and glistening” but ἐξαστράπτω was actually used by the Greeks to describe a flash of lightening, and so, here we have a really good description of the transformation that took place as Jesus’ face and clothes became just blindingly white.

            And as the disciples recovered from their sleepiness, they noticed that Jesus wasn’t alone.  Unfortunately, the NIV offers an incomplete translation of the next part of the passage as the NIV reports that the disciples see that Jesus had been joined by Moses and Elijah, who also appeared in “glorious splendor”.  The NIV omits the Greek word “ἰδοὺ” (ee-doo).  The New King James version more accurately translates this passage as, “And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah”.  That word “Behold” is the Greek word, ἰδοὺ, and this is a word that means not simply to see something, but to examine something for the specific purpose of understanding it.  The text tells us that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were discussing Jesus’ “departure [that] he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.” and Luke is asking us to pay specific attention to what they are saying.  Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were discussing Jesus’ impending death.  But curiously, they were not using the word that was most commonly used to describe “death”.  In fact, the word that they used was Exodus.  Yes, the same word that was used to describe Moses’ God empowered miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, was now being used to describe an even more miraculous deliverance.  That of the deliverance of humankind from sin and death through the work that would soon be accomplished by Jesus on the cross. 

            And so, let’s take a moment to understand this event through the eyes of Peter, John, and James.  To the Jewish people, Moses and Elijah were, and still are, rock stars.  Moses is the giver of the Law, the man who met God face to face and whose own face was illuminated, brightly reflecting the glory of God.  A man who wore a veil over his face to hide that shining so as not to frighten his people.  Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, guided them through 40 years in the wilderness, and was the person through whom God worked the miracles of providing water from a rock and manna from, well, nowhere.  Moses was kind of like our George Washington… if George had maybe performed a miracle or two.

            Elijah is the preeminent prophet of Israel. A prophet who boldly spoke truth to power.  During Elijah’s time the Israelite King Ahab’s wife was not Jewish, she was Phoenician and was a princess.  Ahab’s marriage to her was a brilliant stroke of political strategy, forming an alliance with a former enemy, but his wife Jezebel didn’t worship God, she worshipped the Phoenician deities Baal and Asherah.  During the reign of Ahab, Ahab, and many Israelites turned to the worship of these idols also.  Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal in a challenge in which Elijah successfully called down fire from heaven to consume a sacrifice after 450 prophets of Baal failed to do so.  In doing this, Elijah returned most of Israel to the worship of the one true God.  Elijah also asked God to bring about a drought, which He did.  Elijah provided miraculous food to a widow, her son, and himself, raised that widow’s son from the dead, and then had God end the drought.  Elijah did not die but was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind.  Elijah was kind of like our Abraham Lincoln… if Abe had maybe performed a miracle or two.

            When I was in college at Berklee, I was a fairly decent trombone player, and I was blessed to be able to play in the best student big band in the college.  One late spring day we were playing, and it was hot in the room, so we had the doors open.  This band was quite good, and so there were crowds gathered at the open doors at both ends of a fairly large room listening to us play.  Suddenly, the crowd at one of the doors parted like Moses parting the Red Sea, and in walked the president of the college with Duke Ellington.  The band fell apart and stopped playing as each of the members, myself included, just kind of stared in open-mouthed astonishment at this legend who had just entered the room.  I mean if there were a Mount Rushmore of Jazz, Duke would certainly be on it.  Our director greeted Duke and then restarted the song that we had been playing, Duke listened for a moment or two, then nodded his head in appreciation and left the room.  That brief moment has remained one of the highlights of my college experience and is a memory that I will always cherish.

            And so, in a way, I can identify with the disciples; even though my experience was completely worldly, and their experience was miraculous, and astounding, I can still understand how they must have been awe-struck.  As Moses and Elijah departed, Peter had what he thought was a brilliant idea: “Hey Jesus, let’s make a Mount Rushmore here with you and Moses and Elijah”.  Well, he didn’t ACTUALLY say “let’s make a Mount Rushmore”, he said let’s build three booths.  But the idea is the same.  The idea is that he wanted to commemorate this miraculous event with some sort of monument.  I don’t find it difficult at all to identify with Peter here.  The desire to remember something momentous, to have a physical reminder of something amazing that happened is completely understandable.  In fact, the United States is absolutely full of monuments that commemorate one event or another, as are, I am sure, most countries.  There seems to be a peculiar human need to memorialize important events with monuments of one sort or another.  But before Peter was even finished making his remark a cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 

            And I really see this voice as a sort of a wake-up call to Peter and the other disciples.  Our faith is not a static thing.  It’s not something that we get figured out and then have the luxury of sitting back and enjoying our acquired knowledge.  We can’t take our faith and cement it into a single mountaintop experience, because ultimately, our faith is something that will never stop growing.  And our faith grows only through listening to Jesus. 

            We all know Peter’s story.  We know about his abject failure when he denied Jesus three times.  And yet, we also know that Peter overcame his failures to become one of history’s most effective messengers of the Gospel.  Peter, just like the rest of us, needed to continue to listen, continue to learn, continue to grow in faith and in obedience; Peter had a momentary thought that he wanted to bask in the experience of witnessing Jesus’ glory and seeing Moses and Elijah in person, but Peter had a far more important call that wasn’t at all related to his thoughts or his feelings or the peaks of his experiences.  Peter had a call to serve God; to be the hands and feet and voice of Jesus in the world after Jesus had ascended.  And we have the exact same call.  If the world is going to hear the Good News, from whom are they going to hear it?  They need to hear it from us.  They need to hear it from our lips, and they need to see it in our lives.

            Peter became a faithful witness.  His sermons literally brought thousands of People to a saving faith in Jesus.  But in order for him to accomplish that, Peter needed to come down from that mountain top.  He needed to fail.  He needed to fall down, and he needed to be picked up and he needed to be forgiven, and he needed to be renewed.  In the last chapter of the Gospel of John the Bible relates the deeply touching story of Jesus restoring Peter.  And through that restoration, through Peter’s experience of being forgiven, through Peter’s experience of Jesus picking him up and once again asking Peter to follow Him, Peter experienced the depth of God’s grace, and he responded to that grace with a devotion to Jesus that literally changed the world.

            I’ve never seen it, but I am sure that Mount Rushmore is quite impressive.  And I would imagine that Peter’s Mount Rushmore of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah would have been quite the tourist attraction for the last 2,000 years.  But we are not going to get where we need to be by clinging to our past.  Jesus is God’s son, and we need to listen to Him.  We need to let Him pick us up and restore us when we fall.  We need to listen to Him as He draws us forward into faithfulness, into obedience, into discipleship.  Let us leave our monuments behind us as together we walk into a future of love.  Love for God and love for others.  It is that to which He calls us.

I’m Supposed to Love WHO?

February 23, 2025 Luke 6:27-38

            I would imagine that most of us learned about the Golden Rule as children.  “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”.  The Golden Rule is actually REALLY old.  There is an Egyptian story called “The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant”.  The story dates from around 2040 BCE; a story that is over 4,000 years old.  The story is about a servant who was mistreated.  The servant responded to the mistreatment with grace and forgiveness and was eventually compensated for the mistreatment.  In a speech given by the servant, he commented “That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another.”  This is likely the first recorded statement of the Golden Rule.  Over the millennia philosophers have often cited the Golden Rule.  About halfway around the world from Egypt, the Analects of Confucius from about 500 BCE contain a version saying, “Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.”  And the renowned Jewish rabbi, Hillel the Elder was once asked to explain the Torah while standing on one foot.  Hillel replied, “That which is hateful to you, do not do unto your fellow. That is the whole Torah, the rest is the explanation, go and learn.

            It is clear that this altruistic idea has been a part of the human experience for a very long time, and has been present in vastly different cultures, and so it is not at all surprising that Jesus would have repeated the Golden Rule Himself, but has anyone noticed a difference in the way Jesus expresses the idea?  Luke 6:31, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  Jesus takes this thousands of years old idea and turns it upside down.  It becomes, not a matter of avoiding doing things that you would not like having done to you and rather becomes a matter of living in such a way that your actions towards others are shaped by how you would like for them to treat you.  Can we see the difference?  It is a positive expression of the adage and not a negative one.  And in the process, Jesus has made this rule far more impactful, for there is a world of difference between avoiding the occasional hurtful act to another and living in a constant attitude of treating others kindly and justly. 

            Our story today is a continuation of The Sermon on the Plain that we began last week.  After pronouncing the woes, Jesus begins to teach about HOW to implement the things than bring blessing.  Now, I seriously doubt that Jesus said “Well, I have good news and bad news”, but He certainly started with the bad news first.  “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”  Jesus wasted no time in jumping right into the teaching that “those who listen” are called to love others without exception, even their enemies.  And as an aside, did you all happen to pick up on the little preface to Jesus’ statement?  “To you who are listening”.  Garland says, “Whether they truly listen will be determined by their obedience”.  [1]

            When I think of scripture there aren’t many things that are more difficult for me to comprehend, or more challenging for me to live, than love of one’s enemy.  For those of us who are accustomed to the world’s way of doing things, this is a difficult thing to accept.  And when people are mean, or arrogant, or hurtful, or dismissive, or any one of hundreds of ways that people can express their disdain for another, it becomes even harder for us to believe that we are supposed to love these people.  But when we are thinking that it is us who have to force ourselves to do this, then we are approaching this in the wrong way.  First of all, there isn’t a one of us who has the power to do this effectively on their own.  This is something that can only be accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit.  But beyond the Spirit simply helping us to be loving to the unlovable, the Spirit also helps us to see how loving our enemies helps to bring about that little corner of God’s kingdom in our lives that we keep talking about.  Hutchings gives us a wonderful insight into this when she says, “Jesus understood that peace is achieved by seeking justice, not just for those of our own tribe, but justice for all. Justice is the social dynamic of LOVE. Justice for all tribes, all nations, all races, all genders, justice for those on the left and justice for those on the right.  Justice-seeking [and] peace-making [are] a Way of being in the world which has the power to transform enemies into Lovers. It is not for the faint of heart, but for the fierce. Not ferocity, which is born of self-interest, but the ferocity born of LOVE [and] compassion.” [2] 

            Simply put, we make the choice to love because God loves us.  We make the choice to be gracious because God is gracious with us.  N. T. Wright, one of the most brilliant theologians of our generation says, “God is generous to all people, generous (in the eyes of the stingy) to a fault: He provides good things for all to enjoy, the undeserving as well as the deserving.  He is astonishingly merciful (anyone who knows their own heart truly, and still goes on experiencing God’s grace and love, will agree with this); how can we, His forgiven children, be any less?  Only when people discover that this is the sort of God they are dealing with will they have any chance of making this way of life their own.” [3]  This is what I am talking about when I talk about the Holy Spirit transforming our hearts.  As we allow the Spirit to make these changes we discover the fact that it is not our behavior that is changing, but our attitudes.  This new heart that God gives us causes us to think differently about the world and our role in it; and these new attitudes mirror the things that Jesus taught and lived.

            Not too long ago I was having a discussion with a friend about a political issue; the subject of which is inconsequential to this discussion, but I was taking a theological view of a situation where some people are viewed as being, shall we say, less than good people BECAUSE of their political stance.  I raised the point that if Christians are to approach this situation with compassion for these supposedly less than good people, there is a chance that these people may be influenced by the unmerited love shown to them, and that that love may possibly lead them to a saving faith.  If, on the other hand, they are treated judgmentally and disrespectfully by those brandishing the name of Christ, the end result will be to drive them away from Christianity.  And so, from a kingdom perspective, it makes perfectly good sense to love your enemy.  How else are we going to reach them with the Good News that they TOO have been reconciled to God and are loved by Him?  The believer who is willing to stand in the gap and take the potential abuse from those who are alienated from God and don’t understand His love for them, may be the very ones who lead these people to Christ. 

            Next Jesus discusses giving and tells us that when we give something we should give without expecting anything in return.  Among the Israelites, alms giving was regarded as a virtue and as we have discussed at other times… many Israelites liked to make a big show of their giving to the poor.  But for the Greco-Roman world things were very different; and remember, Luke was writing to a predominantly Greco-Roman audience.  The Romans lived by the rule “Do ut des” (Doe oot dayz) which roughly translates “I give so that you may give”.  According to Garland, “Showing sympathy for the poor was alien to Greco-Roman ways of thinking, as was the notion of private or public assistance to the disadvantaged”. [4]  In Roman society, giving always involved a quid pro quo, an expectation that the recipient of the gift would reciprocate in some significant way.  If a giver did not stand to gain in some way by giving something to someone, they simply would not give.  Luke is calling gentile Christians to have a different attitude about giving.  Christians give, not because they stand to gain from giving something to someone in need, but because they have already gained by receiving God’s grace, and their hearts… transformed by the Holy Spirit, seek to reciprocate to God, by giving to God’s children.

            Jesus wraps up this second section of His sermon by telling us not to judge or to condemn.  The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  I have said many times over the years that if the goal of the Christian is Christ-likeness, then we also are not in the world to condemn the world, we are here to show the world the way to the savior, Jesus. 

            When we don’t judge; when we don’t condemn; when we forgive, God returns to us ever so much more than the little that we are able to give others.  This part of the sermon ends with a little parable. 

When you went to market to buy some grain in first century Palestine, the merchant would pour the grain into a measuring cup and then you would pay for the grain based on the size of the cup. 

Well, have you ever bought potato chips?  They always have a disclaimer on the bag that reads “This package sold by weight, not by volume.  Contents may have settled during shipment”.  Then you open the bag and it’s probably not even half full.  Right? 

Well, that grain that you just bought at that first century market hasn’t had a chance to settle yet, but by the time you get home and that grain has settled, that cup will probably only be about half full too.  But Jesus tells us that when God measures that grain for us, He pours it into the cup, then he shakes it to settle it, and He presses it down to compress it.  And when He’s shaken all that He can shake and pressed down all that He can press down, then He just keep pouring until the measuring cup overflows. 

This is how God responds to us when we show kindness to His children, especially to those in need.  We talked last week about God’s abundance.  Here, in this parable, Jesus shows us the depth of God’s desire to fill us to overflowing with good things.  And as those of us who have experienced the depth of God’s grace and the abundance of His love, the call to us is to reciprocate, by showing that grace and that love to the world. 

This is what God is calling us to do, this is what Jesus is teaching in this part of His sermon.  God will put people in our path, and our transformed hearts will lead us to meet the needs of those who God sends to us in order that we may help them.  Most of us are not called to be missionaries or to try to help the whole world; most of us are just called to create our own little corner of God’s kingdom in our lives.  Just as God fills our cups to overflowing, let us choose to do for others, what we would wish to have others doing for us, and fill their cups to overflowing as well.

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[1] David E. Garland, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg. 278

[2] Dawn Hutchings, PastorDawn.com, Progressive Sermon: Luke 6:27-38

[3] N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, Pg. 55

[4] David E. Garland, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg.280

Blessings and Woes

February 16, 2025

            There is an African American Spiritual called “Steal Away”.  It’s a song with a beautifully haunting melody, and these words:

Steal away, steal away, Steal away to Jesus!  Steal away, steal away home, I ain’t got long to stay here.

My Lord calls me; He calls me by the thunder; The trumpet sounds within my soul, I ain’t got long to stay here.

Green trees are bending; Poor sinner stands a-trembling, the trumpet sounds within my soul, I ain’t got long to stay here.

Tombstones are bursting; Poor sinner stands a-trembling, The trumpet sounds within my soul, I ain’t got long to stay here.

Steal away, steal away, Steal away to Jesus!  Steal away, steal away home, I ain’t got long to stay here.

            There is a rich tradition of African American spirituals.  We have several in our hymnal.  But we can’t forget that these songs originated out of slavery, and they give us a deep insight into the thoughts and hopes of those who were living in the most hopeless of circumstances.  Spirituals can be lamentations, like “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen’, or they can be joyous like “Every Time I Feel the Spirit”.  But often, they are a combination of the two, starkly facing the reality of the difficulty of their lives and yet at the same time triumphantly proclaiming the coming of God’s kingdom.  It was a remarkable faith that conceived and sang these songs, and a faith that probably understood the message of today’s story, maybe better than we will ever be able to.

            “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”  In the Greek the word that we translate as “blessed’ is Μακάριοs (Ma-car-i-os).  A word that is also sometimes translated as “Happy”.  It goes without saying that there probably aren’t many people who are happy that they are poor or hungry or mourning, but that actually isn’t the message here.  We aren’t happy because we are poor, we are happy that the kingdom of God belongs to us.  We aren’t happy because we are hungry, we are happy because we will be filled.  And we aren’t happy that we are mourning, we are happy because joy is coming

            To study the spirituals is to see the profound understanding of these things held by our African American brothers and sisters who lived through some of the most unimaginably difficult times.  For them, the idea of the kingdom being both now, and not yet defined their hope that, in the end, God’s justice will prevail.  And that hope permeated their lives and gave them strength to endure the injustices that were so much a part of their day-to-day existence.  No, they were not happy with their circumstances.  But they were joyful in the knowledge that they were beloved of God and joyful in the knowledge that there was a home prepared for them.  But there is one more thing that we need to understand.  When the spirituals use the word “home”, this word actually has two potentially different meanings.  Yes, they are talking about a heavenly home, but that word “home” also referred to the ever-present hope for freedom in this world as well.  Going home reflected the idea of going to a place where they could be free and safe.  It could have been a heavenly home, or it could have been an earthly home, but it was coming, and they knew that it was coming.  And so, to them, the now and the not yet made perfectly good sense, they were two sides of the same coin.  “Steal away, steal away home, I ain’t got long to stay here.”

            Our reading today is called “The Sermon on the Plain”.  It shares some similarities with Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount’ but also has some differences.  Matthew, writing to a predominantly Jewish audience, focuses on the Law where Luke, writing to a predominantly gentile audience is more focused on how Christian love is to be manifested through the actions of believers.  While there is some scholarly debate as to whether Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts are reporting the same or different events, the more likely scenario is that Jesus spoke the words of these sermons multiple times to different audiences and that Matthew and Luke have summarized His teachings in a way that best fits their intended audience. 

            One notable difference between the narratives of Matthew and Luke is Luke’s inclusion of the woes that don’t appear in Matthew’s version.  Again, looking at the Greek, the word that we translate “woe” is οὐαὶ (oo-i).  Morris tells us that our word, “Woe does not convey the exact force of Jesus’ οὐαὶ.  It is more like “alas” (as translated in the New English Bible) or “how terrible” (as translated in the Good News Bible).  It is an expression of regret and compassion, not a threat”. [1]  Perhaps a better translation for us might be “How sad that you are rich”.  It’s not that there is anything wrong with being rich, there are plenty of faithful rich people in the Bible.  But it is a tragedy when your wealth separates you from God.  “How sad that you are rich.

            I have, on several occasions made the comment that the kingdom of heaven is eschatologically here, meaning that, while the kingdom of heaven exists as the future hope of the believer, it is also manifested now in the lives of those who live according to kingdom principles.  It is this dichotomy of the now and the not yet that helps us to place today’s story in its proper perspective. 

            In our story today, Jesus is speaking directly to His disciples as he pronounces the blessings and the woes.  The authors of one of my lectionary commentaries offer this great insight on this passage when they say, “Things are not always what they seem.  Those who seem to be prospering may not be… not in God’s sight.  Those who seem to be suffering may be blessed… at least in God’s sight.” [2]  The question that is raised today by our study of these blessings and woes is: are we living our lives for self or are we living our lives for God?  Just as Peter left behind the miraculous catch of fish, we also are called to leave behind our self-serving ways in favor of lives that serve and glorify God.  When Jesus tells us that all of the Law and the prophets are summed up in the commands to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself, the lesson for us today is for us to understand that it is not possible for anyone to love if they are putting their own interests first. 

Miller explains this beautifully when he says, “The heart of the law of the kingdom is love.  Christian love is not to be confused with sentiment, a way of feeling.  It is rather the will in action for the good of others.  Love is, therefore, the opposite of self-centeredness, which is the law of this world estranged from God.  To show how thoroughgoing this love is, Jesus commanded, ‘love your enemies’.  Sentiment might motivate members of the kingdoms of this world to [self-denial] for those they love.  But Christian love is the denial of the self in the interests even of enemies who hate and curse… Love is not mere passive acceptance of affronts, but positive, aggressive action designed to redeem those who offend”. [3] As bearers of the Gospel, this is our goal: the redemption and the reconciliation of the doubters and the seekers to the God who loves and adores them.

But here is the problem that we face.  This call to love, this call to forego our own comforts and the trappings of affluence, is completely contrary to the way that the world does things.  Leon Morris says, “Together with the following woes, these beatitudes make a mockery of the world’s values.  They exalt what the world despises and reject what the world admires.” [4]   Michael Marsh asks the question, “What if the goal of life is not happiness but meaning?”  In Matthew 16 Jesus said that “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” 

Believers read this and the simple truth is that this is not any easier for a believer to accept than it is for an unbeliever.  It seems for all the world that we are being asked to give up something in exchange for nothing but this is missing the point.  Over the last few weeks, we have looked at two of the first reported miracles of Jesus.  The turning of water into wine, and the miraculous catch of fish.  Over and above the lessons that we learned in studying these events, there is one more thing that we didn’t really focus on.  When Jesus turned the water into wine, he made about 180 gallons of wine.  When Jesus asked Peter to put his net down, Peter caught two tons of fish.  When God meets His children’s needs, He meets them with astonishing abundance.  There will not BE shortages in heaven!  There will be more than enough… far more than enough for everyone.

But now, we need to cycle back to that now and not yet thing, because in this world there certainly isn’t more than enough, at least not in the way that we distribute things.  But as believers, we are called to create little corners of God’s kingdom in our own lives right here and right now.  And so, how do we do that?  I believe that when the Bible tells us to feed the hungry or to house the homeless that Satan loves to convince us that the problems of this world are insurmountable.  And when we are faced with the magnitude of these problems, we can easily become overwhelmed and believe that there is nothing that we can do.  And so, we may become paralyzed, and do nothing.  But here is how it is supposed to work.  God will put people in our path.  And when the opportunity arises and when we have the resources to act, we help that one person.  And when we do that, we show that one person our little corner of God’s kingdom.  And when all of God’s children are doing this, the amount of help that is provided for those in need becomes truly significant.

Theologians often say that living in God’s kingdom is like “flying upside down” because God’s wisdom is foolishness to the world and so God’s children act in ways that are contrary to the ways of this world.  But when you stop and think about it, it’s really the world that is upside down.  For the believer, this all boils down to a matter of the heart.  When our hearts are right with God, we see the wisdom of living for others.  And we act accordingly.  When our hearts are right with God our mournfulness is a result of sadness over the world’s brokenness When our hearts are right with God we are merciful because we share the heart of Jesus. As believers, we live the life of the “not yet” in the “now” because that is who we are; because the Spirit has created in us a heart that honors God’s priorities and lives according to His precepts.

            When we read today’s story, it’s a lot easier to identify with those who are blessed than it is to identify with those to whom the woes are addressed, but let us take to heart both teachings.  Let us live into the hope of our blessedness before God but let us also live into our responsibility to be agents of change, to be a people who, through our words and our lives and our actions, show the world what the kingdom of God has in store for those who choose to say “yes” to Him.

            Like those who conceived and sang those spirituals, let us have an understanding of the now and the not yet.  And let us not wait for God’s justice to happen, let us make that justice happen… now.

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[1] Leon Morris, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Luke, Pg. 140

[2] Cousar, Gaventa, McCann, & Newsome, Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV-Year C, Pg. 150

[3] Donald G. Miller, The Layman’s Bible Commentary: Luke, Pg. 81

[4] Leon Morris, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Luke, Pg.139