Something to Jog Your Memory

May 25, 2025

            Most of the time, when the New Testament speaks of the Holy Spirit it uses the Greek phrase πνεῦμα (new-mah) ἅγιος (ha-yos), πνεῦμα is “spirit” but also can mean “wind” or “breath” and ἅγιος is “holy”, so, πνεῦμα ἅγιος is Holy Spirit.  But John, and only John in the Bible, occasionally uses a different word.  In addition to that common πνεῦμα ἅγιος John also uses παράκλητος (pahra-kletos) which we transliterate as “the Paraclete” … or more accurately in John’s usage, as, another Paraclete.  And John uses this word not so much as a name for the Holy Spirit, as he uses it as a description of the Holy Spirit, and I think that today, we are going to find this description really helpful.

            There are probably few things in the Christian experience that raise more questions or engender more misunderstandings than the Holy Spirit.  To the non-Christian discussions about the Holy Spirit may sound a bit like hocus pocus or possibly create the impression that the speaker may just be a little bit off their rocker.  And frankly, Christians may find discussions about the Holy Spirit to be a little perplexing also.  But the simple fact is… the closest association with God that we as believers have, is found in the Holy Spirit.  When we talk about God living in us, it is the Holy Spirit about which we are speaking.  And so, I really wanted to take some time today to talk about the Holy Spirit, hopefully to give us a better understanding about this way in which God has chosen to interact with His beloved children… that would be us.

            And there is probably no better place to start this discussion than with John’s use of the word “Paraclete”.  When we look at different English translations of the Bible we find the word “Paraclete” translated as “Advocate” in the New International Version, as well as the New Revised Standard, and the New English Bible.  It is translated as “Comforter” in the King James, “Counselor” in the Holman Bible, and “Helper” in the New American Standard and the English Standard.  But I think that the New Jerusalem Bible has the best approach here, because they leave the word untranslated, just saying “Paraclete”.  Because in truth, the Paraclete is all of the above; counselor, advocate, helper, comforter, and more.  And it is here where John helps us to understand this because John doesn’t say “The” Paraclete, he says “Another” Paraclete.  And he says this because the original Paraclete is Jesus Himself. 

            And now, I need to back up for a moment because we need to talk a little bit about the Trinity.  The word, “Trinity” does not appear anywhere in the Bible, and yet the New Testament abounds in teachings that demand that we view the Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in completely trinitarian terms. 

Let’s take a quick look at three Bible passages.  First is 1 Corinthians 8:6A, which says “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live”.  Who is God in this passage?  The Father, right?  This passage incontrovertibly identifies the Father as God.   Our second verse is Titus 2:13 which says, “while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ”.  Who is God in this passage?  Now it’s Jesus, Right?    Now THIS passage incontrovertibly identifies Jesus as God.  And finally, we have Acts 5:3A-4B which says, “Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit?  You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”  And so, who is God in this passage?  Right!  The Holy Spirit.  And so here we have, in three different verses, each person of the Godhead individually identified clearly as God.

            Throughout the New Testament we find this teaching that God is one in essence and yet three distinct persons.  Perman tells us that, “The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God.” [1]  As difficult as it is for our finite brains to comprehend this, in light of this description it actually makes perfectly good sense that John referred to both Jesus and to the Holy Spirit as “Paraclete”, because though they are each individuals, they are indeed both one God, all sharing the same mind and the same will. 

            And so, what does this tell us about the meaning of the word “Paraclete”?  Well, it tells us that everything that Jesus did for the disciples the Holy Spirit is going to do for them also, and for us as well.  Klink tells us that, “Without exception, the functions ascribed to the Spirit are elsewhere in this Gospel assigned to Christ. [i]  The disciples (i.e,. all believers) will be granted the ability to know and relate to the Paraclete just as they have the privilege of knowing Jesus.  The Paraclete will indwell the disciples and remain with them just as Jesus is to remain in and with the disciples. [ii]  The Paraclete as the Spirit of truth [iii] will teach and guide the disciples into “all the truth” [iv] just as Jesus is the truth. [v]  The Spirit bears witness to Christ [vi] and glorifies Christ, [vii] just as it is Christ from whom the Paraclete receives what He makes know to the disciples. [viii]”  [2]  {and If anyone would like to dig further into the very rich teaching of this quote, please see to me later and I will give you the Bible references from which the author derived all of these comparisons}.

            I have more to say about today’s lesson, but I really wanted to give us this overview of the Holy Spirit first, and I would like to close this part of our discussion with a great quote from Chelsea Harmon, a person from whom I have quoted often.  “Remember that loving Jesus becomes a journey of having the fullness of God dwell inside of you… and the body of believers to which you belong. Remember that loving Jesus is about becoming God’s home: that your life and your church community is a space and reality that God LOVES to be a part of.

And Jesus doesn’t just describe this cause and effect, he tells us how we can give ourselves to it. He promises that God’s very self, the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, will teach us everything and remind us of all that Jesus has said to us. The Advocate will advocate for the Father and Son’s love just as much as the Advocate will act on our behalf with the Father and Son. The Holy Spirit is the way that the Father and Son make their home in us. The Holy Spirit helps [us to] feel and know and understand God’s love—[and also] gives us the power to actually be obedient to the kind of life the Creator has designed.” [3]

The disciples have just spent three years with Jesus.  They have traveled with Him, learned from Him, watched Him perform miracles, and they have each personally experienced the deep and abiding love that Jesus has for them.  Now, Jesus tells them that they will no longer see him, and they are deeply concerned, not only because they question what their direction will be without His presence, but also because they love Him as well, and are deeply grieved at the thought of losing him.  But Jesus is not willing to leave his beloved disciples with such thoughts. 

And so, God does remain with them, and with us, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  As the Holy Spirit becomes a part of us, the Spirit does for us exactly what Jesus did for the disciples, and more.  The Spirit teaches us, guides us, comforts us, strengthens us, and equips us for the tasks to which God will call us… Oh, and the Spirit takes care of that “calling us” part too!  Jesus also tells the disciples that the Spirit will remind them of everything He taught them.

Most of you have probably heard my story about how, when I lost my wife, the first thing that happened to me was that a verse of scripture popped into my head.  The interesting thing about this verse of scripture was the fact that I had never attempted to memorize this particular verse.  I had never really studied it; I had never taught a Bible study on the book from which it came.  In short… there is no reason that I should have known this verse verbatim, and yet, there it was, appearing in my mind just as if someone had spoken it to me, and as it turned out, when I looked it up, it had appeared in the exact wording of my main study Bible, an NIV translation.  This verse that I had read, probably several times, but in what could probably best be described as cursory readings, was called to my mind, by the Spirit.  The exact verse that I needed for comfort in that difficult time, came to me in the exact words of the Bible that I read all the time.  A reminder, a comforter, a strengthener, an assurer; the Spirit was all of these things to me at a time when I most needed it.

And so it is with the Spirit for all of us, if we are willing to listen.  “My peace I give you” Jesus said, and He does not give us His peace as the world gives us peace, because the peace that Jesus gives is rooted in love and buttressed by the promise that Jesus made right here in today’s reading, that He and the Father would make their home with us.  And as an aside, the word that John uses here that we translate “home” is actually a word that describes a lavish dwelling place, like a mansion.  The extravagant love of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, will dwell within us and fill our hearts with the same exact love that God has for us, a love that the faithful believer will return not only to God, but to absolutely everyone.  And we will do that because God will make that love a part of our essence; a part of who we are.  And God will accomplish that through the work of His Holy Spirit. 

To the earthly mind Jesus’ statement that the disciples should be glad that He is going away seems counterintuitive, but once we understand how the work of Christ brings the fullness of the Godhead to us through the inclusion of the Holy Spirt into our hearts, then not only does it make perfectly good sense, but it is a cause for rejoicing.  Thank you, Lord, for your gracious gift of your Holy Spirit. 

Klink tells us that “If the Paraclete is the manifestation of god’s presence, – then the Christian life MUST be a Spirit-filled life, just as our churches must be Spirit filled churches. The Spirit must stop being merely a debate of prayer languages and powerful healings and must become the constant reality, [both individually and corporately] of the Christian life and experience”. [4]

My dear sisters and brothers, welcome the Holy Spirit into your lives.  Listen, learn, be comforted and strengthened, and obey.  Let God live in your hearts in the person of the Holy Spirit, let God direct your steps, let God inspire you to love and to follow.  And let God, through the Holy Spirit, teach you what it means to be loved by God, and to love others as Jesus loved us.

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[1] Matt Perman, CRU.org, Understanding the Trinity: How Can God Be Three Persons in One

[2] Edward W. Klink III, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: John, Pg. 633

[3] Chelsea Harmon, CEPreaching.org, John 14:23-29 Commentary

[4] Edward W. Klink III, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: John, Pg. 645

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[i] John 14:7, 9

[ii] John 14:16-17, 20, 23; 15:4-5;17:23, 26

[iii] John 14:7; 15:26; 16:13

[iv] John 16:13

[v] John 14:6 (See also John 1:14)

[vi] John 15:26

[vii] John 16:14

[viii] ibid

A New Command I Give You

May 18, 2025

            I find it fascinating that the Lectionary chose to use this reading from John 13 today.  First of all, because this reading was just used on Maundy Thursday so, we’ve already talked about it, and second of all, because we are only in the fifth week of Easter and we have now cycled back to the time of Jesus instructing His disciples just BEFORE His arrest and crucifixion.  And so, we begin this morning with a little bit of bewilderment as to why we are where we are in the text.  Why are we choosing to return to this particular point in time?  Why are we not just continuing to celebrate Easter and the Good News of the resurrection?

            As is so often the case, if we look a little deeper into the text here, we can see the Good News just permeating Jesus’ words.   But it’s going to take a little bit of work to find it.  “Now the Son of Man is glorified”, Jesus says, “and God is glorified in him.  If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him at once.”  In our reading today, Jesus is about to be arrested, illegally tried, beaten, and crucified, and He is talking about glory!  What is that all about? 

            What exactly does it mean for God to be glorified?  Let me ask a question, is there a time in your life when you have experienced glory, personally?  Most of you know that quite a few years ago I wrote a Christmas Cantata called “The Holy Child”.  “The Holy Child” is about 20 minutes of music with another 10 minutes of readings and while I have never been able to get it professionally published, I have self-published the cantata and since I did that, it has been translated into at least 7 other languages and has been performed all over the world, and several years ago an internationally award winning choir from Norway contacted me for permission to record part of the cantata.  Their CD was released with the piece from my cantata included and they were kind enough to send me a copy of the CD.  When I received it, I told Jackie that I had never been so excited to see my name written in such a small font as it was on the CD cover.  Receiving that CD, and seeing my name credited for composing one of the songs on the CD is a moment I will always cherish; a moment of personal glory.

Do you have a similar experience somewhere?  I would imagine that most people probably have, or at least I hope so.  Glory is when you are at your very best, and you accomplish something as a result.  It’s having your music recognized after years of hard work, or having your book published, or receiving a sincere compliment about how beautiful your garden is, or how spectacular that dinner was that you just prepared, or it could be being named Teacher of the Year, or being recognized for your community service, or really just anything where you have worked hard at something, to the point where that something has become an important part of who you are, and now you are being recognized for the excellence of that work.

And so, when the Bible tells us that Jesus is glorified, we are being told that Jesus is being recognized for having done something exceptional, so exceptional, in fact, that through Jesus’ actions the Father is recognized as well.  And what is it that Jesus is doing that is so exceptional?  John 15:13… ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  Jesus loved so deeply, that He gave His life for us.  What He did that was exceptional; what He did that brought Him glory and in the process brought the Father glory also, was simply to love.  But it was to love with a love that was so extravagant, so selfless, so profound, that He gave up His own life so that we, in our sinful, imperfect, state could be reconciled to God, embraced by God, and restored to a right and loving relationship with our creator.  In all of human history, no one BUT Jesus could have accomplished this.  And even though He had asked the Father to take this cup of suffering and death from Him, Jesus, in His great love for us… for YOU, willingly endured the cross. 

Why would He do such a thing?  The simple truth is that He did it because it was His nature to do so.  Jesus knew that He was our only hope for salvation and so, even though He faced His death with the same trepidation that any human would, still He made the choice to go to the cross and to die for us.  Love is so deeply ingrained in who Jesus is that he couldn’t NOT give His life for us.  And since Jesus is the exact representation of who God is, that means that this same extravagant, selfless love, is an elemental part of who God is as well.  Klink tells us that, “The cross then is the authoritative expression of the love of God for the world” [1]

Jesus is glorified because His perfect love was displayed for all the world to see, as He gave His life for His beloved children. 

And here is where today’s lesson gets really interesting… and really challenging.  I really love how the First Nations Version of the Bible translates John 13:34-35, and this is Jesus speaking.  “I am giving you a new road to walk… In the same way I have loved you, you are to love each other. This kind of love will be the sign for all people that you are walking the road with me.” 

Jesus was glorified for the extravagant, selfless, love that He lived and exhibited to us in His death.  In the Greek, the word that we translate “glory” is δοξάζω (dox-ah-zo) which is where our word “doxology” comes from.  Chelsea Harmon tells us that δοξάζω “means a heaviness—like a presence that fills the space. Here, Jesus relates his glory with the act of loving others: when we love one another, the presence of God fills the space because God is love.”  [2]

In these verses, Jesus is calling the disciples and calling us, to have this same exact, extravagant, selfless, love to be every bit as much a part of who we are as it is a part of who Jesus is.  And we are called to manifest this same love in our lives, and when the love of Jesus is manifested in our lives and in our actions, God is glorified because when we show forth God’s love in our own lives, we are revealing His love to others; helping them to SEE for themselves what God’s love looks like.  This love, which is an essential part of who God is, through our sharing of that love, becomes a part of who we are, and then we take that love and we pour that love into the world that the world may see the glory of God, manifested in love.  Love that genuinely cares, love that heals, love that reconciles, love that seeks the best for others even when that best for others comes at a personal cost to us.

And this is why Jesus told the disciples that He had a new command.  Warren Wiersbe explains to us that, “The word ‘new’ [here] does not mean ‘new in time,’ because love has been important to God’s people even from Old Testament times.  It means ‘new experience [or] fresh.’ It is the opposite of ‘worn out.’  Love would take on a new meaning and power because of the death of Christ on the cross.   With the coming of the Holy Spirit, love [will] have a new power in [our] lives.”  [3]

And this “new” love; this love that has been reshaped and enhanced by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, who is teaching us HOW to love extravagantly and selflessly, is not an easy love to give because it is a love that goes beyond feelings.  This kind of love is not a noun, it’s a verb.  It is a conscious decision to place the needs and the wants of others ahead of our own.  And it is a love that can ONLY be attained through the influence and the power of the Holy Spirit, because it is not a love that is rooted in this world, but rather a love that springs in fullness from the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Taylor really does a great job of explaining the nature of this love.  “What is ‘new’ is the way this command teaches us to love our neighbors, not as we love ourselves, but as Christ loves us.  The command to love is not a command to feel something. It’s a command to do something.  It’s a command to serve each other, take care of one another. How we do that shows the rest of the world what it means to follow Jesus, and what it means to be loved by God.  We are to love the people we want to love AND the people we can’t stand.  We are to love the people who live the way we think they should, AND we are to love the people who don’t.  We are to love the people who are just like us, AND the people who are so different from us [that] we can’t see how we have anything in common.  We are to love as Jesus loved, including people in our lives, walking beside them, eating with them, caring for them, listening to them, including ‘them’ as an integral part of ‘us.’  Because that is what Jesus says. Love. Each. Other.”  [4]

            No one ever said that to love this way would be easy.  But the good news is that we do not have to do this on our own.  Jesus promised the disciples, and us, that He would send “The Counselor” or the Holy Spirt to lead us and to guide us.  As we grow in faith, we learn to listen to the Spirit who, more often than not, will speak to us in ideas, and notions, and feelings.  The more we listen to the Spirit and the more we obey the Spirit, the more the Spirit will transform our lives and shape our hearts into hearts that look like God’s heart.

            This is the quest, my friends.  This is that to which we have been called.  The evidence… the proof of OUR love for God, is exhibited every day in the way that we love others.  Not as we love ourselves, but as Christ loves us.  You know, that NEW love.

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[1] Edward W. Klink III, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: John, Pg. 603

[2] Chelsea Harmon, CEPreaching.org., John 1331-35-4

[3] Warren Wiersbe, “Be Transformed”, Pg. 29

[4] Jo Anne Taylor, PastorSings.com, Love Each Other Sermon on John 13:31-35

Do You Love Me?

May 5, 2025

            So, there is something interesting going on in theological circles with the end of the book of John.  A lot of theologians believe that the book of John is actually supposed to have ended at the end of chapter 20, and that chapter 21 was something that was added to the Gospel at a later date.  And this is a bit of a strange thing to think because ALL of our earliest and most reliable manuscripts of the Gospel of John include chapter 21 and so, one would expect that the consensus would be that chapter 21 is an original part of the Gospel but the support for it being an add on is pretty significant. 

It appears that the primary reason for this is that the end of Chapter 20 has the appearance of being an ending.  Let’s take a look at chapter 20:31: “But these are written that you may believethat Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”  It does kind of sound like John is wrapping things up, doesn’t it?  But Klink says, “The argument for [chapter 21 being an add on) can only be based on internal evidence, for there is not a shred of evidence from the manuscript tradition that suggests the Gospel ever existed without a chapter 21.  No existing copy of the Gospel ever ends at 20:31, nor are the [discussions] that are in chapter 21 ever found elsewhere in the Gospel.” [1] 

Now, the truth is,  this is a rather esoteric discussion, the likes of which I would normally not bother to include in a sermon because conversations of this nature can be unsettling to some folks, and we always need to approach these kinds of conversations about the authorship or the unity of a particular book with an understanding of the fact that ultimately, the Bible is exactly what God has intended for it to be regardless of the manner in which it has been transmitted to us.  But in this particular instance, I really wanted to make a case for chapter 21 not only to be original to the Gospel, but for it to be an integral, significant, and indeed critical part of the Gospel because of the richness of its teachings.

You see, Chapter 21 begins with the disciples in Galilee, where our parallel resurrection story in Matthew tells us that Jesus commanded the disciples to go.  And while the disciples are there, Peter decides that he is going to go fishing and several of the disciples decide to accompany him.  Now, this is not a recreational fishing trip.  Peter had interrupted his life as a professional fisherman for three years in order to follow Jesus, now Jesus was gone, or at least not currently present with him, and so Peter and his friends appear to be returning to their previous vocation.  Whether that was out of habit, or out of a need to produce some income, or just out of a desire to be productive and to be DOING something, into the boats they went.  But after an entire night of fishing, they caught nothing.  Sound familiar?  As the first light of morning broke the disciples noticed someone on the shore but they didn’t, at first, recognize that it was Jesus, and here is where things start to get really interesting.

In our NIV translation, Jesus says, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”, but a better translation would be “Children, you do not have any fish, do you?”  First, the word “friends” is translated from the Greek word, “Παιδία” (pie-dee-a) According to Strong’s, Παιδία “is used in the New Testament to refer to a young child or infant. It often conveys a sense of innocence, dependency, and the need for care and guidance. The diminutive form emphasizes the smallness or youth of the child, highlighting their vulnerability and the nurturing required.” [2]  Jesus is speaking to His disciples using language that would normally be reserved for a beloved young child.  Second, the word that Jesus uses for fish is not ἰχθύς (ick-thus), the standard Greek word for fish, He uses προσφάγιον (Pros-fag-ee-own) which is a word that means a small bite… an hors d’oeurve.  In other words, Jesus is really saying, “you haven’t caught a darn thing, have you?”

Jesus then tells the disciples to throw the net over the RIGHT side of the boat.  The disciples comply, apparently without question, and for the second time the disciples experience a miraculous catch of fish.  The disciple who Jesus loved quickly put two and two together and realized it was Jesus.  “It is the Lord” he proclaimed, and upon hearing this, Peter grabbed his shirt, put it on, jumped overboard, and swam about 100 yards to the shore to be the first one to be with Jesus.  Arriving at the shore, Peter and the disciples discovered the fact that Jesus already had a fire going and already had some cooked fish and bread to give to the disciples.

While this story seems on the surface to be a simple tale of Jesus greeting the fishermen, Jesus was well known by the disciples to teach by parables and examples and, with us recalling the fact that Jesus had told His disciples that they would become fishers of people, here, we realize that Jesus is doing two things.  He is reminding the disciples that without Him they can do nothing.  The disciples, professional fishermen that they were, were completely ineffective until they listened to, and obeyed Jesus.  And also, Jesus is reminding them that the task in front of the disciples remains that of fishing for people and not for fish.  Jesus is giving His beloved Παιδία (His children) a gentle rebuke for so quickly turning away from their responsibility as apostles to become ordinary fishermen again.  After all, Jesus has called them to much, much more.

There is a curious statement in this passage.  We are told that the miraculous catch of fish contained exactly 153 fish.  Why 153 fish??  Why the specificity?  It has been written that first century fishermen believed that there were 153 different species of fish, so if the disciples are to be fishers of people, this number is significant because it carries with it the idea of catching (or more accurately, reaching) the entirety of the people on earth, every tribe, every tongue, every nation.  When Jesus called the disciples His call to them was to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth.  This idea is reinforced by this miraculous catch of fish, where every known species of fish is represented.

After eating, Jesus turns His attention to Peter.  But before I begin to talk about this, I need to explain the Greco-Roman concept of love.  You see, the Greeks had four different words, all four of which we translate into the English word “love” but each of the words in the Greek have a different meaning.  First, we have φιλία (fi-leah) which describes a deep and abiding friendship, such as the love one may have for a sibling or a closest friend: φιλία.  Next, we have ἔρως (er-ross) which describes love with a physical component, such as the love that one may share with a spouse: ἔρως.  Next is στοργή (store-gay) which is love that is obligatory as the love one may have for a child, or that one may have for their country: στοργή.  And finally, we have ἀγάπη (a-gop-a) which is a completely selfless and unencumbered love such as described in 1 Corinthians 13 (You know, the wedding reading, Love is patient, love is kind, love is never jealous or boastful, love is never selfish or rude, etc.): ἀγάπη.

As Jesus turns His attention to Peter, Jesus asks Peter if he loves, and that is ἀγάπη love, loves Him.  Peter, apparently not confident in his ability to love Jesus with true ἀγάπη love, responds that he loves, and that is φιλία love, loves Him.  And then, Jesus says to Peter “feed my lambs”.  A second time Jesus asks Peter, this time calling him not by his apostolic name Peter, but by his original name Simon, son of John, if he loves, and that is ἀγάπη love, loves Him.  Peter again answers Jesus that that he loves, and that is again φιλία love, loves Him.  Jesus responds to him “take care of my sheep”.  And then a third time Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him, but this time it is φιλία love.  Peter, hurt by the fact that Jesus asked him three times responds once again that he loves, and that is φιλία love, loves Him.  Jesus then said to Peter “feed my sheep”.  This is a wonderful passage where Jesus restores Peter three times, once for each of his denials of Jesus.  After Peter’s failure on the night of Jesus’ trial, I would imagine that this restoration by Jesus is deeply needed by Peter.  But there is more going on here than just a simple restoration.

Today I am looking at this passage and I am asking US the question, “if we love Jesus, how do we manifest that love?  What do we do to express our love for God and our gratitude to God?  And it is here in the 21^st chapter of John that Jesus answers that question for us.  “Feed my lambs”, “Take care of my sheep”, “feed my sheep”.  God, in His great love, has chosen to graciously accept us and to embrace us in spite of all of our imperfections and all of our impurities, He loves, and that is ἀγάπη love, loves us.  When we love Him in return, even if we are only capable of loving Him with φιλία love, we are nevertheless called to express that love for God in the way that we love and care for all of God’s other beloved children.  For the way that we feed and care for His sheep.

And here is where I find the 21^st chapter of John to be not only a significant and critical part of the Gospel, but to be a beautiful, moving, and compelling statement about our standing before God.  You see, John’s entire Gospel is telling us the story of how God sent Jesus into the world that the world might be saved through Him.  The Gospel itself tells us that the reason that it was written was so that we “may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing [we] may have life in His name.  But now, in this wonderful, beautiful, last chapter; in John’s epilogue to his Gospel, something remarkable happens.  The Gospel of John becomes no longer about God sending Jesus, the Gospel has now becomes about Jesus sending US. 

The Gospel of John becomes about us accepting the love of God in Jesus and about responding to that love by letting the love of God, the ἀγάπη love of God, the amazing, extravagant, selfless, overwhelming love of God pour out of our hearts and into the world, letting the world see in us, the incredible love that God has for His beloved children.

This is the message of John, the disciple who is almost certainly the person to whom the Gospel is referring when it speaks of the disciple who Jesus loved. This disciple also wrote three of the Bible’s letters; epistles that are absolutely drenched in love, and he is showering the love of God that is in HIM onto his readers and onto us, and is calling us; exhorting us, imploring us, to take that love and to shower it upon all those that we meet. 

We don’t have to be eloquent of speech to share the Gospel, we may not even have to say anything at all.  Because if even a fragment of God’s amazing love pours forth from our hearts into the world, we may not need to say anything else.  Because in showing that love, we will have already revealed the greatest Good News of the universe… that God loves us.

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[1] Edward W. Klink III, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: John, Pg. 890

[2] Strong’s Lexicon, Word #3813

I Have Seen the Lord

April 20, 2025

I used to be pretty stubbornly closed minded.  I believed what I believed, and I didn’t leave much room, if any, for things that I considered to be on the fringe, or contrary to the neat little box into which I had placed my theology.  One of the things that I took a rather dim view of was speaking in tongues.  An early Christian mentor of mine had once explained to me that the tongue speaking, disease healing, demon exorcising, dead raising, first century apostles were specially gifted with the ability to do these things because some miraculous activity was warranted in order to “kick start” this new Christian faith.  These miracles, he told me, just weren’t something that happened anymore.  And I was perfectly content to live with this flawed and narrow-minded belief structure, until I made a friend.

This friend was a person who lived their faith beautifully.  And yet, they had a difficulty in their life that was far greater than anything that I could ever imagine trying to live with.  It was truly a burden on them, and a heavy one at that.  I often marveled at how this person was able to keep things together when everything about them seemed to be falling apart.  And then, one day, I found out that this person regularly spoke in tongues.  And surprisingly, the first thought that I had when I found this out was not one of skepticism, it was one of dawning comprehension.  In a circumstance where abundant grace was desperately needed in this person’s life, God granted that need with the gift of tongues.  In a person’s life that was so disrupted and so chaotic, God gently touched this person with a Spiritual gift that spoke volumes to them, re-assuring them that God was intimately active in their lives, that God loved them, and that God was walking every single step with them in their trials.

I also was often skeptical when I heard people say that God was talking to them.  Yes, I did understand the guidance of the Holy Spirit and how the spirit will lead us, mostly with ideas and notions and nudges in one direction or another, but I found the idea of having words coming to a person directly from God to strain the limits of credulity. 

Most of you know that in 2021 I lost my wife of almost 48 years.  I was 15 when we met, 16 when we had our first date, and 19 when we were married.  We didn’t have a perfect marriage, we managed to drive each other nuts on a pretty regular basis, but her love was everything to me.  On the morning that I lost her; the very first thing that happened was that a Bible verse just appeared in my mind.  It wasn’t a verse that I had ever memorized, it wasn’t a verse from a book that I had ever led a Bible study on, in all honesty it was a verse that I had never really paid much attention to, but on the morning that I lost her, there that verse was, plainly in my mind, as if someone had just spoken it to me.  The verse was from 1 Corinthians 15 and said “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.   And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”  At a time when I was in desperate need of comfort, God stepped into my life and reminded me of the incredibly Good News of Easter.  That Christ is alive, and that He has conquered sin and death, and that death no longer means “goodbye”.

In our story this morning we find Mary Magdalene on her way to Jesus’ tomb while it is still dark.  The other gospels tell us that other women went with her, and when Mary eventually speaks to the disciples she does indeed say “we” and not “I”, so, she wasn’t alone, but the author of John focuses his story on Mary. 

Because Jesus had died on the eve of the Passover his body was buried in haste.  Mary and the other women were going to the tomb to complete the burial ritual so that Jesus could have a proper burial.  When they arrived at the tomb Mary was shocked and dismayed to discover that the stone had been rolled away, and that Jesus’ body was not in the tomb. 

Possibly Joseph of Arimathea had moved the body, after all, it was a borrowed tomb.  Or perhaps the Jewish authorities had moved the body, not wishing for it to become a shrine for Jesus’ followers.  Or maybe grave robbers had vandalized His tomb.  Mary doesn’t know what happened.  All she knows for sure is that Jesus’ body is missing, and that the only logical explanation for this is that someone took it.  Distraught, Mary runs to tell the disciples what happened.  Peter, and the disciple who Jesus loved ran to the tomb to investigate and they found it to be exactly as Mary had told them.  But strangely, they found the burial clothes laying neatly in the tomb with the cloth that had covered Jesus’ face neatly folded and placed on the shelf where His body had laid.

Our story tells us that Peter and the disciple who Jesus loved, “still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead” and with nothing else that they could do there, they returned home.  But Mary stayed behind at the tomb, crying.  Mary was convinced that someone had taken the body.  And then, when she looked into the tomb again, she saw two angels sitting there.  But Mary just couldn’t shake the idea that someone had taken the body and so when the angels asked her why she was crying, she said it was because she didn’t know where they had taken Him.  And then Mary turned around and saw who she presumed to be the gardener, and she asked him if he knew where they had taken Jesus’ body. 

It took exactly one word from the supposed gardener for Mary to go from grief to joy.  Mary!  Jesus exclaimed.  And at once Mary recognized His voice.  And we recall the passage where Jesus taught us that His sheep know His voice.  Mary must have embraced Jesus because He told her “Do not hold on to me because I have not yet ascended to the Father.”  This seems odd because Jesus allowed Thomas to touch his wounds, but the word that Jesus uses here that we translate “touch” in the Greek is ἅπτομαι (hap-toe-my) which doesn’t so much mean “touch” as it means to cling to or to adhere.  Mary didn’t just touch Jesus, she clung to Him as if she wasn’t about to let Him go.  But now, Jesus had more important things for Mary to do than just to hold on to Him. 

Jesus told Mary to bring the news to the disciples and Mary went directly to them and proclaimed “I have seen the Lord”.  And in so doing, Mary Magdaline became the first evangelist; the first person charged by Jesus to bear the Good News that He was alive!  And please note the fact that Jesus didn’t wait for a man to come around to be the bearer of this news.  In fact, Peter and the Disciple that Jesus loved had already gone home.  It was Mary who waited, trying to solve the mystery of what had happened.  And though Mary’s proposed scenario of someone taking the body was completely wrong, she received the news of Jesus’ resurrection immediately and with great joy and rushed to bring the Good News to the others.

Mary did not keep her theology in a neat little box.  Mary instantly broadened her perspective with one word from Jesus.  Mary was not willing to put limits on the things that she believed God could do, even when one of those things was as completely impossible as a resurrection from the dead.  If we limit what we believe that God can do, whether it is having someone speaking in tongues or having God speak directly to our minds or to our hearts, or even God raising His Son from the dead, then we may miss out on some of God’s greatest blessings.  One could conceivably even miss out on the opportunity to become one of Jesus’ followers.  How many people in Jerusalem that week welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday and then called for His crucifixion on Friday because He didn’t meet their expectations?  We need to be willing to ask ourselves the hard questions, but then, after we ask them, we really need to stop and listen to what God has to say.

Theologian Karl Barth says we come to worship to answer this one, simple question: “Is it true?” Is it true that God exists? Is it true that he created a perfect world, and that humans were part of that creation? Is it true that he wanted us to love him the same way he loves us, freely, and of our own choice, so he made it possible for us to choose not to love him? Is it true that we broke his heart and the perfect world he created by choosing the wrong thing, and he’s been working to heal our brokenness ever since? Is it true that he loves us so much he gave his only Son to die, so that we could be reconciled to him? Is it true that this same Son not only died, but rose again, to give us eternal life?  Is it true?”  If we are not open to miraculous possibilities, we may never know; we may never find out. 

            But to the heart that is open, to the heart that believes in God without limits, the resurrection stands as a brand-new beginning.  Satan no longer has any power over us, because Satan stands defeated and because God’s Spirit protects us from Satan’s influence.  And death no longer has any power over us because we know that if Jesus was raised from the dead, those who belong to Him will share in His resurrection.  There is no greater Good News than this. 

And there is one more thing that I would like to point out about today’s lesson.  Throughout the Gospels Jesus refers to His followers sometimes as “disciples”, sometimes as “servants” and sometimes as “friends”.  When He speaks of the Father He refers to Him as “the Father”, or “the Father who sent me”, or as “my Father”.  But look at what Jesus does here in verse 17, “Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”  The word Jesus uses that we translate “brother” is ἀδελφός (a-del-fos) and ἀδελφός literally means “from the same womb”.  It is a word that expresses a deep familial relationship, and this is the first time that Jesus has referred to His followers as His brothers (or more correctly as His brothers and sisters!)  It is also the first time that Jesus has referred to God as “my Father and your Father, my God and your God”.  N. T. Wright says, “Something has altered, decisively.  Something has been achieved.  A new relationship has sprung into life like a sudden spring flower.  The disciples are welcomed into a new world: a world where they can know God the way Jesus knew God, where they can be intimate children with the Father.  [1]

This new type of relationship isn’t just for the disciples.  It’s for all of us.  When we read the story of the crucifixion we read that, at the moment that Jesus died, the curtain in the Temple was torn in two.  The most holy place in the temple was the holy of holies, which was the dwelling place of God’s presence.  The holy of holies was separated from the rest of the temple by a curtain that hung 60 feet from ceiling to floor.  The holy of holies was entered only once each year on the Day of Atonement, and only by the High Priest.  So terrifying was the prospect of entering the Holy of Holies that tradition tells us that when the High Priest entered there he had bells tied to his robe so that the rest of the priests could hear him moving, and he had a rope tied to his ankle so that if  the bells stopped ringing because he had been struck dead they could pull him out without anyone else having to enter.  It was this curtain, the curtain that separated the temple from the awesome place of God’s presence that was torn in two.  Through the work that Jesus did on the cross, no longer do we need to fear being in the presence of God.  We don’t need any ropes tied around our ankles.  Through Jesus we can come to God directly and be welcomed as treasured members of God’s beloved family.

This, my friends, is the meaning of Easter.  It’s a story of God refusing to let us go.  It’s a story of God pursuing us until His love finally touches our hearts and causes us to turn to Him.  It’s a story of a God who loves His children with a love that will stop at nothing in its quest to reconcile them to Himself.  And this wonderful, gracious, extravagant, love, He holds just for you.

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[1] N. T. Wright, John for Everyone Part 2: Chapters 11-21, Pg. 103

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

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