This blog is about the major sermon in Luke found in chapter 6. As my goal for this writing is to assist the reader in understanding the thrust of Jesus’ sermon, I will not refer often to the text. After reading this blog, I hope that when you open your Bible, the truth of the text will become obvious.
Our daily passage through life route us by a wide variety of individuals –
-the poor beggar on the street
-the aristocratic lady of leisure at the club
-the alcoholic with bloodshot eyes
-the insolent man in handcuffs by the side of the road (which we pass by so quickly,his long troubled life seems but a flash to us – a blur out our window)
-the backsliding pastor striving to perfect his righteous front
-the unchallenged great-man at the gym
-the passive-agressive backstabbing coworker
-the unkempt college professor mocking God and loosing old-school moral chains
-the pickpocket who took your lunch money
-the friendly salesman who knows all of the people skills-tips-tricks but curses his wife and children at home
-the hippie beating his drum on the beach in frustrated attempt to call back a bygone era
-the self-help expert on television giving people yet another key to success
-the nice waitress who laughs at her customers behind their back
-the off-duty policeman speeding down the road with license and a smirk to go with it
Oh, and let’s not forget the millions of just really “good” people with empty souls encased with fears – then again, maybe they’re not good after all, just hopelessly codependent.
Yep, we’re all here on this planet called Earth – a planet treaded on daily by murderers drunk on human blood, despots, poor frail regretful elderly, orphans, businessmen. Oh, and the occasional mushroom cloud signifying the pulverization of some unfortunate nation by another.
In the words of Shakespeare from Macbeth, the lives of millions are full of sound and fury, and they signify nothing. Empty. Gone.
….their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands by their own names….like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd….Psalm 49 (ESV)
The apostle Paul says this about the human condition apart from God –
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions, and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
(Titus 3:3, ESV)
But we’re not ALL like that are we? Are we?? Think about it; if you don’t see the wretchedness of your own heart, ask God to show you the places in your heart that are dark, cold, desperately jealous, and even hateful. Look at yourself from the perspective of a God whose character is perfect.
What does it mean to have perfect character? Jesus tells us in Luke 6:35-36 (ESV)
“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
How kind is God to the ungrateful and the evil? And, WHO, are the ungrateful and the evil??
Let me tell you, its me, its you. I have been ungrateful to my own father and mother (whom I can see) who gave me life – do you think its possible that maybe I’m ungrateful to the One (whom I cannot see) who gives me each breath to breathe and created the things that I use for my own benefits at the expense of His purposes?
And how kind is God? Not only is he continually supplying those who hate him passionately with more breathing time, once upon a time, He gave it all – everything – His very life while enduring the shame and twisted emotion of torture at the hands of fellow humans (that he created); all the while, he is supplying them with more breaths to facilitate their cruel objective. Unbelievable.
Do you feel poor, lacking, and empty yet in the light of God’s beauty? If you do, hold on to that feeling.
Why? In the same chapter of Luke (Luke 6, ESV), Jesus says the following:
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
In the previous chapter, Jesus characterized Israel’s religious leaders (more specifically, Pharisees) as old wineskins that found their consolation in the law of sin and death – they gloried in the standards and felt themselves to be righteous.
So, if somehow in your twisted perceptions you surmise that the woeful world that I described earlier in this blog is somehow fulfilling and sufficient for your happiness, watch out. You are disqualifying yourself for something much greater. If somehow you are satisfied with your own level of goodness and believe it is sufficient to please God, watch out. You have the heart of a Pharisee and God will not make up the deficit for you, since you haven’t asked for Him to.
For better or for worse, mainstream medical practice has become largely the application of the correct drug for the malady at hand. Jesus identified himself as a doctor for the sick in chapter 5. What is the problem with mankind that Jesus is diagnosing and what is the medication that he is proposing?
He blesses those who are unrighteous and seems to be condemns the “righteous”. Its almost that those that are poor and sinners are better off than the spiritual elite. Why? Its because the “righteous” have a wrong perception of themselves – they aren’t really righteous (because they fall short of the standard of God’s character), they just think they are. They have a log in their eye that they don’t know is there, making them worse off them the unrighteous that they condemn.
There are only two categories in Luke – sinners and Jesus. Are tax collectors sinners? Yes. Do they think they are? Yes. Are pharisees sinners? Yes. Do they think they are? No. This is pretty easy material – the main line of discrimination between sinners in Luke is those who recognize their condition and those that don’t.
Jesus sees that the problem with mankind is sin and the solution is God’s vast stores mercy availed for us only through Jesus’ death on the cross.
Here’s the example. Let’s say that I’m organizing an afternoon of prison ministry….I have a burning passion to help those who are incarcerated on death row for committing some heinous crime. After sending around a signup sheet, Paul Pharisee has set his name down.
So I go with Paul Pharisee to death row. The first prisoner we encounter has a far away look in his eye as he tells us about his dear wife he murdered in a drunken stupor.
“She always went to church and took my dear children – she loved God, I am a hopelessly godless man.”
Being a good leader, I decide to let Paul Pharisee handle this one. To my consternation, he begins to berate the man for not going to church all of those times and exhorts him to face eternity in hell knowing he is getting well what he deserves.
I ask you – who is closer to spending an eternity in heaven? The condemned man, or Paul Pharisee? A self-righteous person has nothing of the mercy of God to offer such a man. Suddenly the meaning of this Proverb becomes evident:
“Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him!”
(Proverbs 26:12, ESV)
I turn to the poor fool in prison, open my treasure box given to me by my heavenly Father, and I begin to tell him the old old story of Jesus and his love. As tears stream down the man’s face, something like hope bursts across his weathered countenance.
Paul Pharisee is beginning to look angrier and angrier – “God cannot be like this – he is a just God and this man deserves eternal condemnation.” He’s right, but he forgot one thing – God has paid for this man, and Paul Pharisee truly deserves the same judgement that he just prescribed – the only difference is that he will not take hold of that expensive mercy offered freely to all men.
From that day on, that condemned man became a lighthouse in that prison – prisoners visited him regularly and implored him to pray for them – he shared his food with them while opening his box of new found treasure and with his own loosed tongue sharing a mercy that is beyond the understanding of this universe.
“The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence…”
(Proverbs 10:11, ESV)
Though the Pharisee probably received many accolades in this life (and he was honored with a well attended funeral), death was his sure shepherd, while the old fool in prison was escorted from a lonely execution chamber to his eternal home by a heavenly detail where he was welcomed by his wife and his dear children in a joyous reunion.
The man in prison in our story built his house on that what was true – the unshifting character of God (righteousness imputed to him); the Pharisee builds his life on the shifting sand of human perceptions and affirmations.
“When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous will stand firm forever.”
(Proverbs 10:25, ESV)
Build your daily deeds on a correct perception of God’s unfathomably merciful character and a correct perception of your character. If you do, you will think twice before passing on condemnation from your own “righteousness”, and you will be a wellspring of hope for fellow hungry souls around you.
“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
BUT when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.”
(Titus 3:3-8, ESV)
QUESTION: In reference to “the list” of various people that we pass by on a daily basis, what is the difference between us and them? There are only two categories,
1. those who recognize their need for mercy from God (and therefore freely give it and are given more) and
2. those who do not recognize their need for mercy from God (and therefore withhold it and are given nothing beyond themselves).
Which category are you?