Letting It All Go ...

What is the chief priority of your life?  To answer that, you might consider what thing, activity, or even person it is, that you are most invested in.  Sometimes the answer might surprise you.  We get so involved in what we do, our routines, that we stop thinking about what is most important to us, and just go about life.  But take a step back from it, and think about it for a few minutes and the answer begins to emerge.  You would think that for Christians, the answer would always be Jesus.  But if you measured your answer against what you actually do with your time, it is hard to say Jesus and back it up with what you do.  Or if you measured your answer with love for others, it is hard to truly say, that outside of your immediate circle you truly love “all” others the way Jesus truly loves them.  Finally if you measured your answer against where you spend the bulk of your money – does Jesus truly emerge as your number one financial priority.  It is the routine that deceives us.  We love our spouse, sometimes with great passion, or our children and families, and think that our love for others is what Jesus intended – how could it not be.  We give our tithes and offerings faithfully to the church, and then think we have met the Lord’s requirements and so our financial “obligations” have been met.  Many other believers do not give at all, let alone systemically.  And as for time, we make time to go to church, or to watch it online, and once again consider ourselves “good” Christians as a result.  Again, many other believers don’t even go or watch at all.

But what if I told you that all those efforts, while a good start, are nowhere near enough?  It is not the beginning of being a Christian that is so condemning, it is that we let ourselves become fully satisfied with the beginning of Christianity and never take one step farther in it.  Once more, the devil knows all this.  The devil may not be able to prevent you from becoming a Christian, but the next best thing he can do, is get you to become fully complacent in your Christianity.  Cause you to focus on what you do for Jesus, not who you are inside.  Once you buy in to the argument that you are “good” enough, you shouldn’t need to try any more than that right?  I would offer, perhaps it is the “trying” that is the fundamental cause of the disconnect.  For as we “try” to be Christians, we begin to see the cost of being a Christian.  Our time spent on spiritual things is measured.  Our money given to ministry or the poor, is ever measured in order to satisfy what we think is “appropriate”.  And our love offered to spouses and children and families is thought to ever be enough.  But to “try” reveals one fundamental flaw, it is action of effort, not behavior that is natural to “who” you are.  Jesus is trying to change “who” you are, He is not focused on the actions, until the motives drive the behavior naturally.

There is a recipe for what it meant to follow Jesus, to be a true Christian.  It sounds harsh, but let us give it a second look and see if what we first read as harsh is not meant to be so.  Luke records the very words of Jesus Himself on this topic in his gospel letter to his friend on what we believe and why.  It begins in the fourteenth chapter picking up in verse 25 it reads … “And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, [verse 26] If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”  Yikes.  Hate your mom and dad?  Hate your wife and kids?  Hate those you call brothers and sisters?  All this sounds way more like Satan talking that Jesus.  But Jesus does not end his list there, it continues to the main point of this passage.  We are to “hate” our own lives.  What does that mean?  I ask again, what, or who, is the chief priority of your life?  Go back and take a quick look at the Law, and you find to love God comes first.  How you love mankind comes second.  Why?  Because you cannot do the second half of the Law if you have neglected the first half.  To truly follow Jesus requires we let it all go.  It means we allow Jesus to transform “who” we are.  That is a very personal transformation.  And nothing else can be more important to us than that.  Not friends, or even family, but beyond both of those things, - not even ourselves.

Clinging to “who” you are right now, will be the death of you.  We come to like ourselves.  All the self help books in the world teach us to do this very thing.  Love yourself.  Do this before you can love others, or have a good life.  But here is Jesus saying – come to hate yourself.  Stop clinging to this person you are and valuing, the current you, at the cost of who you could be post the transformation Jesus longs to bring to you.  What needs to change in your life, is not a deeper love of self, but the total absence of it.  A willingness on your part to let your whole life go.  Let go those priorities you maintain today, for whatever priority Jesus lead you to.  Let go those relationships today if they stand in your way.  Especially the one of fondness for who you are as you sit today.  In truth you are not “good enough” today.  You are nowhere near as “good” as you need to be.  But way beyond that, you are nowhere near as “good” as you will become if you let Jesus run the “who” you are, and “who” you are yet to be.  The “trying” just fades away and is replaced by actions you are unaware of, even if the world around you cannot believe them with their own eyes.

The goal is not to truly hate mom.  But the priority must ever be Jesus first.  If I allow my relationship with mom to get in the way of Jesus first, I do mom a disservice, I destroy myself, and I cripple the transformation of me, that Jesus so longs to create in me.  Ultimately, for what I think is love for mom, becomes my undoing and hers.  Case in point, our first forefather Adam.  Adam let his perfect love for Eve, become more important to him, than a perfect love for God.  In so doing, he was undone, Eve was undone, and his perfect love was immediately corrupted by a new “love” that was ever aware of self-interests.  When Jesus comes for his evening walk with Adam and Eve, they hid from Him.  They were aware of their nudity.  They were ashamed of what they had done.  And when Adam is questioned about this, he does not recite a noble love of sacrifice for his beloved.  Instead he blames Eve for “making” him eat, it was her fault, not his.  Where was all the love for Eve then?  Tossed right out the window, in an effort to keep God from killing him on the spot.  Even though that would never be the plan of Jesus.  It is no different with you or I today.  We allow ourselves to claim that family is more important than Jesus to us in a pinch when things are desperate, and in so doing, we undo ourselves, and family we claim to love.  Better to hate who we are, and keep Jesus first, to give Him the clay of our lives to start over with.

Jesus continues in verse 27 saying … “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”  Yikes.  The analogy of serving Jesus compared to a torturous death that takes days to finally bring the end.  Not terribly appealing is it?  And here is where the rubber meets the road.  Who you are is not so willing to be transformed.  That love of self hangs on as if we would have to crucify it to get it out of here.  For days it struggles to find breath, maybe for years.  The carnal nature of 6000 years is deeply rooted in us, and is not inclined to go quietly.  Add to that the interest darker forces take in any person even glancing at Jesus to enact this kind of transformation and you get a perfect storm of self-love and self-interest trying desperately to avoid transformation and convince you that you just don’t need it.  And that is where most of Christianity just quits trying to let go, and settles in to a complacency about who they are, content to move this far and no farther.  But the cross is not an eternal torture device, it hurts more than anything, and then you die.  That is the hard part.  To truly be a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Jesus, the “who” we are today is destined to die.  No other way around it.  A hard truth, but a truth of hope beyond all imagining.

Jesus continues in verse 28 saying … “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? [verse 29] Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, [verse 30] Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”  Here is Jesus Himself looking through the ages of time to a church of today, that is so content with itself.  We laid a foundation, we began through the faith of our forefathers, we rest on their accomplishments, and we move no farther.  And the devil, and the world, and our neighbors mock us saying that we have no real faith, for our lives look just like their lives, it is impossible to tell us apart, for we have no more love than they do, and we love all the same things.  We blend in so well, there is no distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian.  Worse, very often Christians are known for their condemnations and judgments of others.  Imagine that, what Jesus wanted was for the world to know us by our love.  And now they know us only by our judgment.  The church may be the greatest place for hate-speech the world has ever seen – not hate of sin, but hate of the sinners themselves.  For we offer them no plan of escape from lives burdened with pain of sin, just look at us, we have found no plan ourselves, how could we offer them one?  So we hate them instead of hating ourselves and who we have become.  The foundation was laid, but we have moved no farther.

Jesus continues in verse 31 saying … “Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? [verse 32] Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.”  We are at war today.  Not war with a physical enemy, or even war with a virus we do not see.  We are at war with ourselves, with who we are, and who Jesus longs to re-create us into, with whether we will allow Him to change us that way, or not.  But here is where hope begins to emerge once again.  Jesus tells us we are outnumbered.  Jesus tells us, it is time to find peace, to surrender and suffer no more.  On the other side of peace is a life waiting for you like no other.  On the other side of death to who you are today, is a new creation that has no limits.  The best life you can imagine is not enough to describe what Jesus first will create in you.  The conditions of this world cannot touch it.  And the conditions of the world to come, will be once again beyond all imagining.

Jesus concludes this section beginning in verse 33 saying … “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.  [verse 34] Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? [verse 35] It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”  Letting it all go.  Leaving it all behind.  To seek Jesus first, God first.  To turn yourself over to Jesus entirely no matter the outcome, no matter who you will become, who He will make you into.  This is what it means to be a disciple, to be a follower of Jesus.  It may someday mean you are poor, perhaps dirt poor.  Not because you did not have money, but because you gave it all away without so much as a second thought or single regret.  You long only for the opportunity to give more.  It may someday mean, you are divorced, or isolated from your entire family for the strength of your love for Jesus.  But in that passion, your family may bear witness to who you have become, and your ever-present love for them, grounded in Jesus.  It may be that your entire family seeks the same Lord to find that kind of love for themselves.  And in being willing to let them go for the sake of Christ, that they are all brought to the feet of Christ and saved for themselves.  If Adam had been willing to let Eve go, and trust her to the love of Jesus, humanity would have had a very different fate, and Eve would still not have been lost forever.

But lest you think what the church is today, is enough, examine the analogy of salt losing its savor.  You can’t fix that.  You can’t make it better.  It becomes useless.  It becomes a church made of people who carry the name of Christ, but cling to everything in their lives but Jesus.  And in so doing, the world is not led to Jesus, but instead led away from Him.  The image of a condemning God is maintained by a people more prepared and willing to condemn others than to love them unconditionally.  A Jesus-first-church, is willing to let their entire lives go, and find themselves made into something else, something better.  A Jesus-first-church begins to think of the salvation of others, not by pointing out yet more attention to their sins, but by loving them first while they are yet in their sins, and then pointing them to Jesus for relief from the pain of their sins by the quiet example of their own lives.  No condemnation ever need be spoken, the world is not searching for yet another condemnation of itself.  But the world is desperately looking for a love that does not fail, and gives it reason to seek change, to seek a better way.  If we offer no better way in the example of our own lives and love, then we are salt that is no longer a seasoning of flavor, but just empty granules of nothing.

To let it all go sounds like sacrifice from this point of view.  But across the transformation horizon it is the deal of the century.  It is the letting go of our pain, for His joy.  It is the letting go of our self-inflicted stress and worry for His peace that nothing can touch.  It is the letting go of what we call love, for a pure love that comes from the throne of heaven itself and is reflected through you, without self-interest, but with only genuine care for another, for any other, whether sinner or saint.  And the un-healed cancer patient facing death can see this transformation in their own mind and hearts, and wind up living every moment from now to the grave in a state the world cannot ever know.  Each moment of life being made precious by a ministry for others, even though the disease never leaves, even if it kills them.  This world is but an introduction to a far better one.  And finding Jesus here is all that matters, it is all that makes life worth living, it is the meaning of life itself.  Letting it all go, means putting what matters most to you, in that hands of a loving Savior.  It means trusting God with your wife, your kids, your family, your job, and your money.  For it will only be as Jesus transforms you, that you may ever be able to reach those you love, to truly minister unto them.  And that is all that matters.  It begins, as you let it all go, but it has no end, ever better, ever more.

 

Unexpected Parties ...

There was a time when an invitation to a party or a feast, was more commonplace.  Just a couple years ago you would not have thought twice about one.  Going to family for Thanksgiving or Christmas has been baked into the psyche since you were a child.  Regular family meals and get togethers were a dime a dozen.  But this year?  Those simple gatherings begin to nudge into the doubt column, or into the dangerous one.  I love my mother, the grandma of my children.  I want to celebrate events with her.  But with covid-19 hanging around, any one of those celebrations could literally expose and then kill her.  So my love for her must take an expression to find safer ways to share and keep in contact with her, but not physical ways for the time being. 

I wish everyone loved my mother as much as I do.  In heaven, this will be the case, the commonplace.  But here, it is not so.  Many claim to love her; but think nothing of attempting to meet with her personally.  Not because she requested it.  But because they did.  They had the time.  They were going to be available.  It was going to be convenient for them.  They do not share my thoughts about trying to protect her, to keep her safe during this time.  Yet all of these folks know about her pre-existing conditions.  She still fights cancer, has only 50% lung capacity and requires oxygen every few minutes to get around.  She is ~80 (not allowed to say the exact number, vanity being what it is).  And all the folks who want personal, physical time, in her presence know all these factors.  Yet their own interests, desires, needs, become the only things of focus for them, and so they push to meet someone whose life they now knowing gamble with.  And this is called love; it’s not.  It is love of self, not a real love of my mother.

Many might say I go too far in trying to be safe.  My hair is longer now than it has ever been in my entire life.  I look horrible (well more horrible I guess 😊).  It isn’t that the hair salons have not re-opened, they have.  But in my mind, the virus is still here.  When our governor opened up our state way too early, and turned everyone loose, I predicted our case counts would explode 4-6 weeks later.  They have.  When the protests took place, I predict our case counts will once again explore in another 4-6 weeks after that.  The lives we try to make matter will now be exposed to a killer who has no compassion, and who has no heart that can be moved with pity.  A killer who preys on the weak and the infirmed harder, but who hits the young and healthy as well, causing damage that will never be undone.  If staying home as much as possible avoids that, then call me crazy.  What is my vanity to look better stacked against that ever-present threat?  But I am a man.  My mother is a woman who has made it a practice of getting her hair done every week since she was very young.  And her vanity could not resist.  So all my efforts to protect her from contact with me (as my wife is a frontline worker), come to naught.  Last week her hairdresser called her the very next day to tell her she was symptomatic and confirmed with covid-19.  My mom has been exposed, up close and personal.

I wonder now, would all those people who claimed to love my mother still want to go meet with her now?  Or would her definite exposure cause them pause?  Her test results are not back yet.  Would you go, to an unexpected party at her house now?  Or would you be less willing to take a risk with your own life, once you understood it was a real risk?  Would you be more thoughtful of your own mother’s life or family’s lives that carrying something from contact with my mother right now might bring to you?  All of the sudden the risk becomes more real to you.  But the risk is a death sentence to my mother should she have it.  Only God can remedy now, what vanity could not resist.  In this climate, invitations to a party or a feast, are unexpected, and very possibly life threatening even when no intent of that ever existed at all.  But as we all know, this was not always the case.  And we hope one day after a vaccine takes its course, and an effective treatment regimen is developed, all the risk and fear and threats of the day will dissolve back into our memories once again.

Jesus once attended a feast at the home of the chief Pharisee of His day.  Talk about an unexpected party invitation.  But He went.  And He remained who He was throughout, even as He ministered.  And as Jesus sat at that feast, He could not resist using the occasion to compare it to the Kingdom of Heaven.  So Luke records in his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why, the parable Jesus chose to offer while at this stately feast put on by perhaps the richest and most important man in the area roundabouts.  He picks up in chapter fourteen and verse 15 saying … “And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.”  One of the other guests at this feast recognized the importance of what was taking place.  He was eating with the long-awaited Messiah.  And while that was a stunning event.  It was still here in this wicked world filled with sin.  This believer looked forward in his own mind, to the day in which he might eat again with the Messiah, in the Kingdom that has no end.  To eat then together, would be to truly be blessed.

Jesus responds with his parable in verse 16 saying … “Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: [verse 17] And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. [verse 18] And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. [verse 19] And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. [verse 20] And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.”  Oh the good old days, when no fear entered our minds; but then, only unfortunately taking-gifts-for-granted was the norm.  These first invitees were called of God.  They knew who God was.  They had likely dined with Him on other occasions, taking in His gifts, and knowing the full favor of the Lord.  But on this occasion, they were too busy to make time for some unexpected party.  The association with God could wait, there were other more important things to attend to (as said by every person ever to discard Sabbath observance for similar reasons).  But this was a bigger problem than that.

It took time to get things ready.  Perhaps all the time it takes to make ready the second coming of Jesus Himself.  Time to go home and eat at that final banquet prepared for dining with the Messiah Himself at the beginning of the end of the former.  It was that important.  It was that big a gift from God for us.  We were to be that close.  But we just bought land, and needed to go attend to it.  We used our wealth, the wealth God sees fit to give us as His blessing to us, on you guessed it, on ourselves.  And we needed to go see what our new goodie was like, what it might do.  Our happiness was now to be centered in the things our wealth would buy.  And for that, we would skip out on the second coming itself.  Still others of us were obsessed with career.  Like the invitee with 5 oxen who need to go get them prepared for the fields, we turn our focus to what we do, and allow that to fully define us.  We put career ahead of church, for without our jobs, we would not be able to survive.  We put our trust in jobs, and remove it from God.  We think we only need God when times are bad.  We fail to see that careers are also meant to be gifts from our God, not intended to so preoccupy our minds so that we have no time or space or priority for anything else.  Lastly are those of us consumed with love of family.  Our wives and husbands, yet another gift of God, are taken to such extreme we lose sight of the importance of God in maintaining our homes, assuming if we work hard enough on love we can make love wonderful all by ourselves.  Until we realize the heart is only the province of God, and He alone can make love where no love exists, or has grown cold.

Was Jesus really talking to these guests at this unexpected feast, or was He really talking right to you and I?  Jesus continues with the story in verse 21 saying … “So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. [verse 22] And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.”  Now we get a glimpse at the heart of God when He must yet endure the rejection of those He has poured so much love into.  All those gifts He gives us, for no other reason than He loves us, yet we take the gifts and reject the giver.  The first-called were supposed to be ready.  This was supposed to be the big day.  But none of us were ready to put anything else aside to be with Jesus when invited.  So who was called next to this feast?  Those who had NO ability to attend it on their own.  The poor had no funds to travel there, the maimed needed help to even take one step to this unexpected party.  The halt could not walk, they needed to be carried.  The blind could not see, they needed to be led.  These people knew they had need of Jesus, all the other gifts of the world could not distract them from their own need.  Their need was ever with them, it was a part of who they were.  And if help was needed, if they needed to be carried, or led, they were not too proud to put themselves in the complete care of the Master of the feast in order to attend it.  From a group of church goers who should have had no priority greater than this, to a group of sinners who knew they would never deserve such an honor, but went anyway, fully depending on Jesus to get them there.  And still there was room.

Jesus continues in verse 23 saying … “And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. [verse 24] For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.”  Then the entire world is bidden to come, the gospel is preached in the highways (the places where many travel), and the hedges (the places that may appear dark, or way out of the way).  Everyone is bidden.  But the state of those who were first invited is left horrible.  Because they valued other things more than God, they refused to be humbled to submit themselves for transformation to the love of Jesus.  They thought themselves as already “good enough”, in no need of a Savior.  They already knew of Jesus.  They already knew the scriptures.  They already had forgiveness, though they could not for the life of them, remember what they might need forgiveness for.  They were blessed of God.  Just look at their wealth, or their careers, or their wives and husbands – they had all they needed right now.  What need is there of transformation when you already have the favor of God?  So this would be one invitation they would pass up.  Never knowing it would be their last invitation, and that time is not without limit.

So many of us today are truly in the first-invited category.  We do know of Jesus.  We wait for that second coming.  But while we wait … do we lose sight of everything that matters?  This is the time when our need should be driving us to the realization that it is we who are blind, and crippled in our hearts.  We need this time for His transformation to make us into people we know not yet.  If we push Him away now, we may push Him away forever.  There is so much more to life in this world.  There is so much more to living.  Even in this world of covid-19, there are ways to love and serve others, that protect them at all costs.  Should we not value the lives of others above all things?  Someday, we are to receive an invitation to an unexpected party for eternity, by the Messiah Himself.  Someday, there will be a time when at last everything is ready.  Everything else that is.  If we are to be ready, we must realize we need to be carried there, to be led there.  If all we value then is what is convenient to us, what we have time for.  Then as the parable predicts, there will be many who push aside the final call for other more pressing matters.  For love of self, thinks only, of self.

 

The First Casualty is Pride ...

How does one minister to the rich and the powerful?  This seems a rare question discussed in the modern church of today.  Most all the emphasis today is upon the poor, the desperate, or perhaps the middle class if such a thing still exists.  A crashing economy, and an active pandemic, manufacture many more poor than anything else these days.  And it is certain that Jesus seems to have much more interaction with the poor throughout scripture than He does with the rich.  But that may well be because the poor recognized their need of Jesus, far more often than the rich did.  Still, the rich and powerful had need of Jesus, perhaps even more so because they did not often recognize that need.  And Jesus did not come to save just one type of person.  Jesus came to save everyone.  He loved everyone.  Jesus knew the difficulties of being poor, and He recognized the burden of carrying wealth.  Poverty exposes need.  Wealth covers it up.  Yet the same need exists.  So when the rich and powerful made attempts at including Jesus in their social circles, Jesus did not run away.  Nor did He scold them for an invitation.  Instead He gladly accepted it and went into their homes when invited.  You might think that out of character for Someone who ministers so often to the poor.  But that is whole point, His character was same towards both rich and poor, He loves them and us like only our Creator God could love us.

Jesus was the perfect picture of humility.  Such a stark contrast to hearts of mankind.  We think of ourselves as rich or powerful when we measure against those we know, or have heard about.  We like to “take pride” in our homes, or our careers, or our families.  We lift ourselves up.  But it is vanity.  It is false pride and arrogance.  Jesus, by contrast, is the God of Creation, the God of Life, the God of the Universe.  There is no position across time and space which would be more exalted.  Yet He carried Himself in our world, and in His ministry to us, as the chief servant of everyone.  He carried Himself this way, He did not push you away because you didn’t.  Jesus did not require the poor to confess their worthlessness before He would stoop down to minister to them.  No, Jesus saw the poor as the invaluable treasure they are, each person of infinite value to Himself.  And so He treated us as kings, when we should be nothing.  The same was true of the rich.  Jesus treated them with the same love.  He did not require the rich to abase themselves first, before He would minister to them.  Instead He showed us all, how we should live, love, and treat each other.  His sermon was His living example.  Are we willing to follow that approach?

Luke tells us of an incident around ministry to the rich and powerful in his gospel letter in chapter 14.  This incident begins with a Sabbath feast to which Jesus has been invited.  Picking up in verse 1 it begins … “And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. [verse 2] And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.”  Jesus had been invited to one of the chief Pharisees for a Sabbath feast.  And He went.  These men were far from fans of Jesus.  Rather this invitation may well have been to spy on Jesus, to watch Him up close and find some occasion to trip Jesus up with law.  Ironic that foolish men would even attempt to trip up the Lawgiver with His own laws, but such is what happens when vanity rules the heart, instead of love for others.  And whether by chance coincidence, or through a setup of conspiracy, along the way to the feast there is a poor man afflicted with dropsy.

Consider for a minute what you might do in the same circumstance?  You know these rulers are not fans.  You know they believe that healing on Sabbath is a big break in the rules Moses handed down.  If you heal the man, you will decidedly cause mayhem with the folks you are trying to minister to.  So do you delay the healing perhaps?  Maybe have the disciples find out this man’s home address and come back to him as soon as the sun goes down.  Or perhaps minister to the man orally right there and then, but have his healing take effect as soon as the sun goes down.  Either of those options is exactly what the rich and powerful would prefer.  In fact, they always state exactly that kind of approach.  You can heal all you want, just wait till after Sabbath.  And what is so wrong with that?  Only one thing.  It cares more for the “rules” of Sabbath observance than it does for the victim who needs healing.  In fact, it twists the ideas of Sabbath observance to be performed without deep love for each other.  And how can the Sabbath be observed, if we do not love?  Short answer, it can’t.  Jesus knows this.  And Jesus will not change “who” He is, or how He loves, because we do not hold the right view of doctrinal beliefs.

So Luke continues in verse 3 saying … “And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? [verse 4] And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; [verse 5] And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? [verse 6] And they could not answer him again to these things.”  Jesus hits them (and us) where we live.  Whether for pity, or greed, or fear, these men would have helped their animals in distress upon the Sabbath.  They would not wish them to wait until sundown, and prolong their suffering, they would take action to end that suffering right there and right then.  Perhaps because more of us feel more sympathy for a wounded pet, than a wounded soul.  But the of our Lord cannot be contained.  He loves us too much, to see us wait until sundown, before He relieves that suffering.  Jesus heals, right then, and right there because this is where our need is.  Jesus is keen to meet our needs right as He encounters them, as we bring them to Him, as we let Him heal us.  The man was healed.  And the nature of love of Jesus was revealed to that man, to all those in attendance.  And if it were possible, an error in how we observe the law would have been corrected.  But vanity likely prolonged the error, despite the revelation of Truth given them (and perhaps us).

The invitation to the feast was not rescinded because of this incident, and they traveled on to arrive at the Pharisee’s home.  In those days, many homes had open courtyards in the center of the home, and rooms on the lower floor that surrounded them.  Of course, the rooms on the second floor, or upper floor, also surrounded those courtyards but because they were elevated, they had a much better view of center gardens and decorations below, as well as the city or countryside facing outwards.  So over time, the upper floors became the rooms of prominence and tended to be reserved for the most important invitees to a feast of any kind.  Vanity being what it is, being placed in one of the upper rooms would enforce the idea that “you” were an important guest, an important person generally.  This was especially true as the space in any home was always limited, so not everyone could be placed in the upper rooms, there were always folks who had to be placed on the first floor.  They were less important guests, less important people in general.  And as this procession with Jesus arrives at the home of the chief Pharisee, Jesus takes note of the people all heading up to the upper rooms before they fill up.  Each man believing, that he is important, regardless of what the owner of the home thinks, or what other thinks.

Jesus continues in verse 7 saying … “And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, [verse 8] When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; [verse 9] And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. [verse 10] But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. [verse 11] For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”  Jesus offers practical advice to everyone.  Put yourself in the lowest rooms by choice, of free will, and with no expectations.  Be happy there, as you should be happy to attend any feast as a guest in another’s home.  If such is the occasion that the owner of the home did not intend you to be seated there, let them come to you, and bring you up to where they intended.  Putting yourself in the prominent place, could lead to you being forcibly placed in lower floors, with a good degree of shame in the process.  Our vanity will lead to our humiliation.  But our humility may well lead to our exaltation.  We should not fain humility in order to be exalted, we should be happy in the state of our humility.  For it is only in a state of humility, that we are truly able to minister to others.  And it is that ministry, which should be our goal.  For us to be effective ministers, pride must be the first casualty.

But the lessons Jesus wished to convey were not only for those invited to attend, but for those blessed enough to be able to host such a wonderful Sabbath feast.  Jesus continues in verse 12 saying … “Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. [verse 13] But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: [verse 14] And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”  So often, we give with silent expectation that our giving will be rewarded back to us again.  I send you a Christmas gift, I figure you will send me one in return.  Who wants to be “that guy” who never returns a gift or gesture like that?  Usually in fact, if you have someone who you send a card to every year, or a gift of some type, and that gift or card is never returned in kind.  You stop sending them.  Why?  Because you think the recipient did not appreciate it (you may not know that) – more likely because you never get anything back.  How often do you loan money to someone who never pays you back before you make it practice not to loan money anymore?  This kind of thinking pervades our social fabric until it is so woven into who we are, we do not even notice it is there.  This was true in the days of Jesus as well.

So Jesus asks us to break from our normal behavior and try something new.  Jesus asks us to give to people we absolutely know cannot ever pay us back.  People we know are too poor, or too sick, or to lonely to ever make a difference in our lives.  The “unimportant” people.  Look at that list of who to avoid for starters.  No friends, no family, no rich folks – people we would all tacitly expect to reward our giving in some way.  No, the new feast is not supposed to be for them.  But instead for the poor, the maimed or crippled or disabled, the blind – people who in those days would likely be beggars by profession as no other professions were left to them.  These “homeless” folks did not have means to repay you even if they wanted to.  They did not have upper rooms, or lower rooms, or food for feasts.  They struggled to live everyday.  Jesus asks us to give to them freely, and be happy in the giving, with zero expectation of reward.

And what is the recompense at the resurrection of the just (by the way, another subtle reminder to the Sadducees that they had this doctrine wrong)?  When your heart is fully and finally remade by Jesus at that resurrection.  You will finally love others, like Jesus loves other, and perfectly.  When your heart is filled with only that kind of love, what you have given here, freely and without expectation, will be the only truly happy memories you carry with you into the next world.  When you realize what effect you may have had on those in need, while they were yet in need, nothing else will mean as much to you.  Your reward will not come in gold, or diamonds, or recognition to feed a vanity that no longer exists.  But your reward will be more precious to you than all of those things, as it will live on in your heart forever.  One less thing to have to wipe tears away from, and one more thing akin to the love that lasts forever.

If we are to minister to the rich, let us begin by striving for the humility of Jesus in our hearts.  Let pride be our first casualty and not demand that of those we try to serve.  Let His love reflect through us.  We need not change “who” we are to be accepted by the rich.  We need only allow Jesus to change “who” we are that we might share in His ministry to everyone.  Let our transformation become sermon by example.  For rich and poor are drawn to the selfless love of Jesus, and if that love is reflected through you, you will become a beacon to point them to His great light of love.  Those will be memories you carry into the next world that will forever warm your heart.  His grace, through you.

 

A Light in Jerusalem ...

The modern American Christian community has long been fixated upon Jerusalem.  They seek the literal fulfillment of prophecies that would point to the end of all things.  So underlying political interests have always found an ally within the Christian community for support for Israeli longevity.  Hitler became nothing more than a catalyst for a “never again” philosophy, and a nation was born.  But it was not a deep and abiding love for our Jewish brothers and sisters that has maintained America’s support of Israel.  It has been political self-interest in a hostile region, and a twisted view of what prophecies may yet reveal themselves in Jerusalem.  But I would submit, modern Christians are looking for the wrong things, the wrong ways, and without the love that should truly motivate them.  What remains of anti-Semitism in this country is proof of that.  If the citizens of the world had held a deep and abiding love for our Jewish brothers and sisters in their hearts so many years ago; Hitler would have been nothing but a lunatic in a need of an asylum.  Instead quiet disinterest, apathy, and perhaps an active resentment for how Jesus was treated so many years ago, has led the world to witness systemic exterminations.  And now, even decades later, continued prolonging of the original conditions we swore would never happen again.  Quiet racism continues in our hearts, because the primary teaching of Jesus to love others, has never truly found a home there.

The city of Jerusalem has a vaunted history.  It was King David who conquered it from the Jebusites, and made it the capital of the burgeoning nation of Israel.  It was King Solomon (David’s son) who constructed the greatest Temple ever constructed for the honor of the true God.  David made the plans, and collected the materials, but it was Solomon who actually constructed it.  David was forbidden because of the blood that stained his hands.  When Solomon was finished, perhaps the greatest light ever known in history to that time then stood proud in Jerusalem.  But over the years, as hearts grew cold, and wickedness prevailed, that same city witnessed the executions of the very prophets of God, who modern Christians still look to for prophetic fulfillment.  And the city lost its light, to the point where the sacrifice of its own children replaced the sacrifices our God called for.  When abomination had reached that kind of zenith, Jerusalem was overthrown, conquered, and its people scattered to the winds and enslaved.

Generations later, Jerusalem was rebuilt.  The glory of Solomon’s Temple could not be replaced, but what emerged in Jerusalem was a light far greater.  The Messiah came.  Jesus Christ walked among us.  And now for certain the greatest light of all time walked within Jerusalem.  The glory not of earthly Temples, but of universal prominence, now walked those city streets.  But even then, hearts had grown cold, particularly in the leadership.  And so craving for control, lead to a betrayal of the Lamb of God.  And once again the capital city, heart of the nation, rejected the glory that had been sent unto it.  But this did not happen casually, or because God simply permitted it.  Quite the opposite.  God is never “content” just to see us choose evil, and then walk away.  Instead God turns over every rock He must, in the pursuit of our salvation.  If there is a chance, He will take it.  If there is a way, He will pursue it.  The greatest difference between us and God is found in the light illuminated in His heart.  When you examine His heart,  you find His love overflows the boundaries of His heart.  Whereas our love, is so small, it is barely measured in a trickle.  And once again the light is snuffed out.  But this is not the will of our God.  Luke talks about the heart of Jesus on this matter.  He picks back up in the 13^th chapter of his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why.

Beginning in verse 31 it reads … “The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. [verse 32] And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.”  Here at the outset, there is a threat against the greatest Light that would ever walk the streets of Jerusalem or the nation in general.  Herod was a vain ruler, who like every other man granted power, sought to keep his power absolute over the people.  And Herod was fine with killing anyone who threatened it.  But before we simply read this as Herod being a wicked man (and who of us is not), how is it different with any modern ruler of our age?  Oh sure, perhaps political murders are less common today, but political corruption has almost become the norm.  We expect it.  We see it and turn a blind eye to it.  When a politician is caught, we are seldom surprised.  If anything, we are surprised they got caught, not surprised at what they did wrong.  Men who are granted power, seldom are happy to relinquish that power, more often they want more, and will do what it takes to get more.  In Herod’s case, if that meant murder, he was fine with it.

But Jesus had a mission.  And He did not waste this opportunity to tell even the Pharisees the outcome of seeking His life.  Today He would cast out devils and do cures, and tomorrow as well, but on the third day, He would be perfected.  Behind every wickedness is the self-love that would motivate that wickedness.  It was self-love that molded Lucifer from the perfect creation of our God, into the pathetic creature of Satan, twisted, and full of nothing but evil.  That evolution, is undeniable.  And as we choose to embrace evil, and look away from Jesus to save us from it, we find ourselves on the same road as Lucifer, ever inching towards Satan, until the difference between us and Satan is imperceptible.  Even church leadership is subject to this phenomenon.  Think about it.  It was Pharisees and the Sanhedrin that became the sworn enemies of Jesus.  Jesus loved them.  But they hated Him.  Not because He was evil, but because they were.  Are we so certain we are different?  When we lose love for others, quiet evil is allowed to persist in our hearts, and the depths to which it will go, Hitler did not even define the bottom of.

Jesus continues in verse 33 saying … “Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. [verse 34] O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”  Again Jesus offers a veiled reference to what awaited Him in the capital city and heart of the Israelite nation.  Jesus knows that He travels towards His own torture and death at our hands.  He will be murdered by His own church, carried out as they would gladly betray Jewish blood into sadistic Roman hands.  And this is not new to our God.  When His people strayed, our God sent the prophets that preceded Jesus.  But those prophets often met the same fate Jesus was traveling towards.  They were stoned and killed as well.  Instead of breaking the hearts of His people that they might return unto Him.  His people became hardened to their own evil, even to the point where murdering the messenger of God, seems preferable than having to listen to that same message.

Are we any different here and now?  How often are you willing to hear the words of our Bible, when what it says runs counter to the pathway of your life?  What do you do when you discover this?  Do you put the Bible back on its shelf willing to let it collect dust and never touch it again.  So many do.  So many Christians look to find a grace that is content to permit sin, to excuse sin.  They do not seek a remedy for sin, only a justification for it.  We are content with forgiveness, but do not seek reform.  This would leave us looking to extinguish the light of Heaven itself were we given the chance, rather than have to face our inadequacies in the light of His divine mirror of Love.  Our evil today is no different than the evil that preceded us.  A different time, but the same disease.  A different people, and technology, and set of abilities, yet all content to misuse what we have been given until it becomes the method of our own destruction.  Few of us look at a message different than what is in our hearts and ask to have our hearts change.  Instead we ask for forgiveness and wish for God to wink at our sins as we have every intent to continue them.  And nothing has changed.

But what God wants is not this.  What God wants is to love us, like the love of a mother hen, who would bring her chicks under her wings where it is safe and warm.  It is the mother hen who puts herself between any danger of the world, and her baby chicks who reside under her wings.  This is what God wants.  He wants to love us, and nestle us under His divine protection and keep us in His very heart.  But then come the saddest words Jesus could utter: “and ye would not”.  Instead of looking for a warm safe place where we could be showered by the love of God, we look to stay away from that very place.  We don’t want to have our sins, and sinful desires, cleansed from us.  Instead we define ourselves by those very sins.  We falsely state that you cannot separate the sin from the sinner.  When in truth, our salvation is just that.  We are to be saved from “who we are”, from what we want, from what we do as a result.  Our very salvation was meant to be a gift to cleanse us from who we are, so that we are not ever forced to our knees again in repentance.  Salvation is more than just forgiveness.  That is only a beginning.  There is more, so much more.  There is freedom beyond your current imagining.  But do you run away from this, or are you willing to run towards it?

Jesus concludes this segment picking back up in verse 35 saying … “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”  What is the result of running away from the love of God?  It is a house left in desolation.  Not the desolation caused by the will of others, but by the choices we make for ourselves.  For love of self put in action destroys the happiness of others, and ultimately of ourselves.  And it is empty, it is void of meaning.  But there is another light on the horizon.  If we were to examine Jerusalem in the context of history we know of its greatness.  If we look to its future, it carries the honor of being the site where Heaven itself will descend and come to rest at the end of all things, when the earth is to be remade new.  But what of the intervening time?  What about now?  A stricter read of this passage would seem to indicate there is no role at all for Jerusalem until Jesus returns.  So much for all that hope around as yet unfulfilled prophecy.

The desolation Jesus speaks of here was not meant only to apply to Jerusalem, or to the sinners of His own day.  Desolation is the hallmark of any who choose to embrace sin, and look away from the gift of salvation Jesus offers.  It is the second half of this verse I find interesting.  You will not see Me, Jesus says, until the time comes when you will say, “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord”.  Blessed is he that comes.  You could argue that was the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  You could argue that is a reference to the second coming itself.  But what if Jesus is talking about you?  What if the light in Jerusalem is “you” who are willing to go, to live, in the name of our Lord.  There are Christians today who still live in Jerusalem.  They profess His name.  And if they are willing to love like Jesus loves, are they not still the light that remains in Jerusalem.  When a Christian can love his Jewish, and his Muslim brothers, as Jesus would love them still – is not that Christian a reflection of the love and light of God?  For light will always point to love.  It is only in darkness where love cannot be found.  Light will always illuminate love.

And beyond the borders of the city of Jerusalem.  What of the light meant to illuminate the world?  Between now and the end of all things the world craves the light and love of God.  Will you be willing to be a reflection of that light, or merely look to be its customer?  We cannot see Jesus again, until we find one who comes in the name of the Lord.  That messenger is blessed, as we are blessed from encountering them.  But what if it is you who Jesus is referring to?  What if Jesus always intended you to be a reflection of His light to the world around you in the here and now.  Are you willing to accept His ideas for your life, even if they come, at the loss of your own ideas?  So many of us think we have a plan for our lives.  We have desires we have so long pursued.  We have jobs, homes, and families, and count them all as among our accomplishments, instead of as blessings of the Lord.  But we then take His gifts and elevate them beyond the gifts they were intended to be.  We make our lives revolve around what we have been given, instead of around the transformative love of Jesus Christ.  We live for career.  We live for family.  But we do not really live for Jesus.  We simply squeeze Jesus in, when we have time, or find ourselves in time of need.  But our jobs, and our families are not His light, they are His gifts.

It is our love alone, a love reflected through the very Son of God, empowered by it, sustained by it, that could ever be the light of Jerusalem, or the light of the world around you.  The love for others, will be illuminated in your own heart and mind, as Jesus re-creates you back into His image.  And in so doing, you become a light to others, to point them back to the same Savior we all so desperately need.  I don’t know about you, but I want a place under the mother-hen-wings of Jesus.  As a baby chick, I know I need it.  And the last thing I ever want said about me, is that “I would not”, that I refused for the mystery of iniquity.  I want instead the good riddance of iniquity.  Let us live and reflect His love in such a way, that no matter where we are, we bless those who see us coming.  Let us be a light in Jerusalem once again.  There is no prophecy more powerful than that.  There is no promise more meaningful to you or the world around you than that.  It is in love where quiet racism finally disappears forever.