Understanding

At that same time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and he said, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.
“My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Luke 10:21-22 NLT

Jesus is praying. And he must have prayed out loud, for those who had gathered around to be able to report it to Luke, who recorded his words so those of us who have come after, we “latter day disciples,” could benefit from Jesus’s words as those first disciples did. What does it teach us?

First, Jesus is thankful to his father, for two reasons: one that God has hidden spiritual truth from “those who think themselves wise and clever,” and second, that he has revealed these very same truths to the childlike. So we know that spiritual truth will not be apparent to everyone we meet, but that there will be some who never understand. But what are “these things.” And what is the key to seeing and understanding?

He is surely referring to the things that had happened just before he prayed this prayer, that report of the returning “missionaries” who had been sent out to heal the sick, cast out demons and proclaim the Kingdom. The disciples had returned full of joy because “even the demons obey when we use your name!”

The disciples had experienced the power of Jesus’s name. They had experienced the wonder and excitement of being involved in Jesus’s mission, the greatest task ever given to anyone in this world. They had seen people healed, seen demons flee, seen people’s minds opened to the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus is delighted with their breathless excitement and joy. But he reminds them that the greatest joy is not to be had from the wonders they had witnessed, nor the power that they had at their disposal. “Don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Rejoice, in other words, because you are saved, because you live in relationship with the Creator, despite your sinfulness, and that you are now residents of heaven, for now and for eternity.

These, then, are the things that are hidden from some and revealed to others: spiritual truth. He is speaking of things which we cannot see with our eyes. He is referring to a reality which is unseen, which many in our world relegate to the realm of fairy tales, fantasy, wishful thinking – little more than a Netflix entertainment. He is speaking of a world behind this world, a dimension in which the Creator is clearly known, where spiritual beings – whether they are angels or demons, are clearly seen, where the true source of all power – God himself – is undisputed. He is speaking of heaven, a place of which all people seem to have a vague notion, but which only they, his disciples, have begun to understand. He is speaking of his disciples assured place in that kingdom, their registered citizenship in their true home.

The second thing that we learn from this passage is the prerequisite for having these truths made known to us, the way we come to understand things that are hidden from others. It is about attitude. It is not about intellect, not about education. We can be the smartest people in the world, the best educated, have the most academic qualifications framed on our walls, and yet still not understand. Or we can be intellectually disabled, psychologically or emotionally screwed up, total losers in the eyes of the world, and yet understand the truths of which Jesus speaks.

That does not mean, however, that intellectual prowess is a barrier to understanding, nor that we need to be stupid, naive, or gullible to know the truth. Jesus is not saying that we need to give up our minds to understand the Kingdom, that there is some kind of virtue in ignorance, or that education and study is a bad thing. As Paul wrote, many years later, disciples are to “be transformed by the renewal of your minds” – not by the removal of your minds!

Understanding comes independently of intellectual knowledge. It is given to people with a certain attitude – that of childlikeness, rather than that of thinking ourselves wise and clever.

I think of a meeting I attended many years ago at which a visiting speaker was teaching about these very things – the reality of demons in our world, and his ministry of praying for people to be released from demonic power – casting out demons. Despite my knowledge of the Bible, and what is recorded there, I was sceptical. I thought that what he was saying was a lot of rubbish. But I did not challenge him, just wrote him off in my mind.

During a time of prayer after one of his talks, despite the fact that I had never spoken to him, he called me out, not publicly but privately, when we had all been asked to stand up and he went from one to another praying for each. He knew nothing of me, not even my name, but ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit he laid his hands on my head and spoke a “word of knowledge.” He said that I was well educated, that I had a university education, and that I was proud of what I had achieved. He said, in effect, that I “thought myself wise and clever.” But he perceived, as he prayed for me, that I was under the influence of a demonic power, a spirit of unbelief.

Despite his apparent supernatural knowledge of my background, I thought what he was saying was nonsense. I was conflicted. I did not think that I was under any demonic power, because I had already intellectually assented to the truth of Jesus – I believed I was a Christian, I believed I was saved. But I had to admit that there was much in the Bible, much that I was being taught, which I did not understand, did not believe, and I truly wanted to go further with God. And I had to admit that what he was saying was true, that I was proud of my worldly achievements – I had a medical degree after all.

But as he prayed I began to hyperventilate, and try as I might I could not control it. I knew in my mind what would happen, that I would soon become dizzy and start to tingle in my hands and feet and face, and that eventually I would collapse. I was determined not to give him the pleasure of seeing me fall to the floor: I knew that these charismatic leaders loved to see such things, but I was too clever for their tricks. But try as I might the hyperventilation continued, completely out of my control.

The tingling in hands and feet and face did come, but I did not fall to the floor: God has a sense of humour. But tears began to flow, and the crying became weeping which degenerated into uncontrollable, and extremely undignified, sobbing. Instead of falling to the floor, I sat down on the floor and sobbed like a baby for some twenty minutes or more – I lost track of time. The speaker had left and moved on to pray for someone else.

When eventually I was able to collect myself I stood up and wandered out of the room to lunch, which was provided for us, even if the lunch hour was long past. Someone asked me what had happened to me. I was bewildered to say the least, and said simply that I didn’t really know, but that I felt different. Now, many years later, I know what had happened: the Holy Spirit had broken something in me, and as I “sobbed like a baby” I had become like a child. It pleased the Father to do it this way, to break my pride and reveal the truth to me, the truth of myself, and the truth of his power.

It was not until the days that followed that I realised that something more had occurred. Suddenly I was able to read the Bible in a new way. Suddenly the Bible became an “open book” for me, instead of the boring dusty tome that I had previously thought it to be. Suddenly I understood what I was reading, everything made sense. Things that I had read so many times which were like water off a duck’s back, suddenly were infused with deep meaning, giving me great joy and wonder. I became like the returning disciples, joyfully reporting to those I met, the Holy Spirit has opened my eyes. Now I understand!

I could never have made these things happen. I was not even aware that my attitude was wrong. I believed that I was wise and clever and had a good understanding of the the things of God, better, in fact, than the people around me, better even than the speaker in that meeting. But such thoughts were what kept me from God. Expelling such thoughts from my mind was not something I could do myself. It took a sovereign work of God in me to make me like a child. With childlikeness came understanding.

Disciples of Jesus who read this will no doubt have similar experiences to report, similar turning points in their lives, when they have gone from darkness into light. They too will recognise that somehow God made these things happen, often against their will, against their “better judgement.” What happened to me that day? Was I baptised in the Spirit? Maybe. Was I born again? Maybe. It is so hard to put into words the experiences of the disciple. People use all kinds of terminology.

Suffice to say that God, in his kindness, broke into my life, and revealed himself and his kingdom to me, and broke the power of evil in my life. I have never been the same.

Humility

When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in the seats of honor near the head of the table, he gave them this advice: “When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? The host will come and say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then you will be embarrassed, and you will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table!
“Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, ‘Friend, we have a better place for you!’ Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Luke 14:7-14 NLT

Humility is not a natural human attribute. It is a strange thing really, that the default setting for all of us is pride, the belief that we are better than others, that we deserve more, that we are “entitled.” Even when we take the lowest seat at a gathering, is it not true that we often are plagued by the thought that “I should be up there with the best, because I deserve it.” We naturally look down on others, and even when it is blatantly obvious that others are better than us in some way or other, we have this bizarre, even delusional, thought that we could be better than them, had circumstances been different.

Why do we default so readily to pride, to self centredness, to entitlement? Why do we so often think that we deserve better?

The Bible doesn’t really answer those questions. It does provide a name for this mindset and it’s associated behaviours. The Bible calls it sin. The book in the Bible that deals with origins, namely Genesis, describes the way this apparently pre-programmed self-centredness came to happen – the result of succumbing to the whispered temptation of the enemy, Satan. It also describes the effect of this event on the relationship between Creator God and humanity – separation, a break in fellowship. But it does not explain why humanity chose Satan’s way instead of God’s.

Satan and humanity are created beings, so we can only assume that God created them with extraordinary brains, hearts and minds that were as capable of rejecting God and his ways as of accepting them. Presumably this was because he wanted a different kind of relationship with them (angels and humankind) to that he had with all the other created beings. He wanted a relationship of mutual love and respect, he wanted to be able to communicate meaningfully with humanity and guide them into all his wisdom and beauty. He wanted them to know his love, and he wanted them to love him. But he did not want pre-programmed love and respect. He wanted them to love him of their own free will. Sadly, we chose our own way, seeking equality with God, rather than relationship. The result is human history, which despite its triumphs has been marred by tragedy since the very first day.

Of course, evolutionists would say that an attitude of pride and self centredness is essential to survival; that an attitude of humility, of putting others first, will result in extinction of any who practice it. They would say that the reason human beings are proud and self centred and seek to trample on others is because these enable the species to survive, and as the survivors reproduce, these attitudes and behaviours are propagated. The result, however, if that was the end of the story, would be a society of ruthless beings in which “dog-eat-dog” would be the pervading ideology, where winning would be the only important thing, where the poor, the weak, the unattractive, the unintelligent, the incompetent, would be gradually wiped out. Moreover diversity would not be tolerated, where minority groups, whether their identity was based on race, or culture, or gender or sexuality or simply political difference, would be stamped out. Some people would say that this is a reflection of modern society. Others even claim that such attitudes are those of the conservative Christianity.

But the worldview that Jesus taught was vastly different. He promoted an attitude of humility, teaching his disciples to count others as more important than themselves, no matter who they were. He taught them to take the least prominent places at dinner parties and social events. He taught them to seek out the marginalised, the unattractive, the uninteresting, and befriend them and care for them. Is it any wonder that so many churches have so many misfits in them?

Jesus did not just teach such ideas. He lived them. And he challenged his followers to imitate him. Paul the apostle years later penned an amazing poem, which some say was possibly set to music and sung as a hymn in the early church. We would do well do do the same.

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Philippian 2:1-11 NLT

Compassion

There are two stories of healings recorded in successive chapters of Luke’s gospel (chapters 13 and 14) which teach us something absolutely foundational about Christian discipleship, namely compassion. Disciples of Jesus are people who care for those who are suffering. Let’s look at those two stories.

One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised God!
But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. “There are six days of the week for working,” he said to the crowd. “Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.”
But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Each of you works on the Sabbath day! Don’t you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the Sabbath and lead it out for water? This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn’t it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?”
This shamed his enemies, but all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things he did.

Luke 13:10-17 NLT

One Sabbath day Jesus went to eat dinner in the home of a leader of the Pharisees, and the people were watching him closely. There was a man there whose arms and legs were swollen. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in religious law, “Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath day, or not?” When they refused to answer, Jesus touched the sick man and healed him and sent him away. Then he turned to them and said, “Which of you doesn’t work on the Sabbath? If your son or your cow falls into a pit, don’t you rush to get him out?” Again they could not answer.

Luke 14:1-6 NLT

When we read these stories, it’s easy for those of us who work in healthcare to be distracted by clinical questions: what was the diagnosis in each case? Ankylosing spondylitis? Heart failure? We can also be puzzled by Luke’s willingness to perpetuate a supernatural worldview since he was purportedly a doctor. How could a doctor, being a scientist, accept that disease could be caused by satanic bondage? Yet Luke’s worldview was very different from ours, and he does not question the contemporary understanding that here was a woman “crippled by an evil spirit.” But what makes us so certain that our modern “naturalistic” scientific rationalism is superior to Luke’s worldview? There is no evidence, I hear people cry! But philosophically such a viewpoint is hard to justify. Our modern understanding of evidence is lacking in many areas. I could write a whole reflection on such questions.

But I don’t want to be distracted by such questions, because I believe that Jesus’s focus in these situations was not these questions was not medical or philosophical debates, but the teaching and demonstration of one of the most important attitudes of the disciple, namely compassion. 

The interaction between Jesus and the religious leaders serves to highlight the difference in their priorities. Jesus sees a woman who is suffering, and moved by compassion, heals her, without regard to which day of the week it is. The leader of the synagogue does not see the woman, or the need for deliverance from Satan. He sees only an infringement of Sabbath law. At a time when there were not medical practices and hospitals scattered through the community the synagogue was probably the natural place in the community to seek healing. But not on the Sabbath, because then the sick person would be asking the synagogue leader to work, since healing in their minds was work, not something for the Sabbath day. Jesus, however, did not see healing that way. For him, physical healing was as much a thing of the Spirit as of the body. And such things belonged to the Sabbath as much as to any other day. Jesus was not plagued by the Greek idea of separation of body, mind and spirit. He understood that a person’s sick body could be as much a malady of the spirit as of the flesh, and the healing of the body was as much a spiritual thing as the healing of the body. Furthermore, he understood that there were laws of the Spirit that were over and above the laws of the Sabbath.

How easy it is for all of us, like the religious leaders, to ignore suffering when we focus on the wrong thing, or when we ignore God’s priorities. How important it is for us, like Jesus, to keep our focus on the people around us and the mind of God, rather than getting preoccupied wth our own agendas, whatever they might be. 

Jesus is hard on the leader of the synagogue, pointing out his hypocrisy. He knows that this very same person would not hesitate to “work” on the Sabbath if one of his own children or animals was suffering. Jesus confronts him so bluntly because the man is not prepared to treat an ordinary person in the same way. Jesus is angry because this religious leader places rules above compassion, thus showing his misunderstanding of the nature and character of a loving God. His message is clearly not intended for this one individual synagogue leader, but for all the religious leaders who had been watching him, trying to find fault, trying to catch him out. Jesus’s response, according to Luke, “shamed his enemies.” 

In the second story, the Pharisees are more circumspect. They are simply observing as Jesus is faced with a similar situation, and Jesus is very aware that they are watching him closely, looking for some legal infringement for which they can condemn him. Jesus knows their thoughts and their intentions and this time challenges the Pharisees before he acts. He puts the ball in their court, asking them what is right to do, since it is the Sabbath, when there is a man suffering from a disease in front of them, and Jesus has it in his power to heal him. Having learnt from the previous experience, the Pharisees this time say nothing. Jesus heals the man. He gives his onlookers the same advice, presenting his onlookers with a question: “which of you doesn’t work on the Sabbath?”

What do we learn from all this? It would seem that there are two laws, two principles, which govern our behaviour as people of God. There is the law of the Sabbath, set down in the Old Testament, a law given to Moses by God – remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Do no work on the Sabbath, just as God did no work of the seventh day. Jesus never contradicts this law. But there is also the law of compassion, the law of love. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. 

Jesus seems to imply that there is a hierarchy of laws, and that there will be times when the Sabbath law will need to be put aside for the more important law of compassion. I wonder if this is what Paul the Apostle was thinking about when he wrote the following words, many years later:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:1-2 NIV

The Pharisees were all ready to condemn Jesus for his apparent infringement of the Sabbath law, but Jesus invokes the “law of the Spirit who gives life,” which sets us free from the “law of sin and death.” It was this “law of the Spirit” which the Pharisees did not understand, and the outworking of the law of the Spirit in this case was the attitude of compassion, leading to acts of mercy. In the mind of Jesus, the law of compassion trumps the law of Sabbath. Both laws come from the heart of a loving God, but it is love and compassion which is supreme.

The Pharisees had not yet come to understand that they were enslaved to the “law of sin and death.” They did not understand that there was a “law of the Spirit” that could set them free. One Pharisee, namely Paul, would come to understand that some years later, and would spend the rest of his life expounding the concept.

As I examine myself I find that I am often more like the Pharisees than like Jesus. There is something about black and white rules that I like, and perhaps that is the nature of humanity. We prefer the “law of sin and death” to the “law of the Spirit,” because it is easier to manage. When we think of something as vague and fluffy as compassion and mercy we get tied up in knots, and find ourselves starting to wonder who is worthy of mercy, who deserves it… and there it is again, our defaulting back to the law of sin and death. But we can’t help wondering to whom we should show mercy. Is the person who has smoked all his life worthy of an operation to cure his lung cancer? Is the person with hepatitis C worthy of a very expensive treatment to cure him when his disease is the result of iv drug abuse. Is the murderer or rapist or pedophile worthy of compassion and mercy?

For Jesus, the demonstration of mercy is nothing to do with the worthiness of the recipient. Compassion is simply an integral part of Jesus’s nature and character. He can’t help himself. It is simply who he is. Perhaps this is the crux of the matter, and it is the take home message from these stories in Luke’s gospel. If we are to be disciples, followers of Jesus, compassion and mercy need to become part of our very nature, part of who we are. Working out who is worthy of this treatment or that treatment will be far down on our list of priorities. 

The Pharisees saw Jesus healing on the Sabbath and saw a sin being committed, a sin that was worthy of punishment. Jesus’s actions imply that what he did was not a sin. In fact he implies that the attitude of the Pharisees was the greater sin in this situation. Here we are confronted with this idea of situational ethics: what is a sin In one context is not a sin in another context. But that is a philosophical and ethical minefield, creating all sorts of dilemmas. It is almost a frightening concept if it is carried to its logical conclusion. 

Such discussions must always come back to the two laws that Paul writes about, the law of sin and death, and the law of the Spirit who gives life. Working out what that means in each situation that we face is the ongoing challenge of our lives. I believe that our focus must always be to understand the law of the Spirit, which can only happen as we allow the Spirit of God to control our minds as well as our hearts. Compassion is not just a feeling, but a way of thinking. It is the way of Jesus, the way of God.

Repentance

About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”

Luke 13:1-5 NLT

This little discourse recorded by Luke touches on some of the big questions of life, subjects which most of us prefer to ignore because they are too hard: sin, suffering and death. When it comes to sin, we are quick to point it out in others, only too ready to blame the ills of the world on the greed and self centred ness we see in society around us, but we find it all too easy to ignore the same tendencies in ourselves. When it comes to suffering, especially the suffering of innocents, we are distressed but easily push it out of our minds to avoid the pain and confusion it brings. As for death, in modern Western society we are good at hiding it away in hospitals or aged care homes, and have become expert at living our lives as if we will never die. Death, especially our own, is not something for polite conversation.

But every now and then these things force their way into our consciousness in a way we cannot avoid: a war, a natural disaster, an epidemic, a tragic accident, a suicide. That is what had happened to the people in the story that Luke relates: they had been confronted by the suffering and death of some Galileans, who had been murdered by Pilate in the Temple, while they were worshipping, and by the deaths of eighteen people who had been crushed when a tower had fallen on them. These were tragedies that they could not ignore, and like all of us when such things happen, they looked for explanations. Why did these people have to die? Where was God when they needed him? What protection was afforded by being people of God?

The standard explanation, of course, then as now, was that they “had done something wrong.” Or in religious talk, they were “sinners.” We may live in a world that has done away with God, a world where science has trumped all that “religious nonsense” of the olden days of ignorance and superstition, a world where sin is a religious word only heard in church, but we still look for explanations, and we still have a natural tendency to think that the suffering people endure is caused by something they have done wrong. We have become experts in “blaming the victim,” whether that victim be the woman who is raped (“it was the clothes she was wearing – it was her fault”), or the person who is poor (“it is because he is lazy and would rather live on handouts”). At the time of the story recorded above it may well have been, “the Galileans had it coming to them, they are such political agitators, what did they expect? – it was their own fault,” or “those people who were building the tower for the Romans were collaborators, assisting the enemy with their empire building – God was right to punish them!” We have a cause and effect mentality, and our natural tendency is to think that when we do bad things we will be punished, and when we do good things we will be rewarded. Many people who believe in God see him only as a judge, one who hands out punishments and rewards.

However, in this little discourse Jesus explains that things are not so black and white. Were the Galileans worse sinners than others, he asks? No, they were not. Were the people crushed by the falling tower being punished for their sin? No, they were not.

So why did they suffer? Why did they lose their lives? Jesus does not answer that question. He does not say what the reason was for their suffering, but he does say what the reason was not. It was not because they were more sinful than others. His listeners were left wondering, as we often find ourselves wondering.

It is as if Jesus simply accepts that 1. suffering and death is normal, it is the common lot of humankind, and 2. everyone is sinful and death is a consequence of sin. The suffering and death of an individual may or may not be the result of their own sin. In the examples that Jesus was given, he says that they were not, even if the deaths may have been the result of someone else’s sin – Pilate’s, or the architects of the tower that collapsed.

Jesus believed what the Old Testament teaches – that sin entered the world when humanity turned its back on God, way back at the beginning of human history. He also taught that the consequence of sin is death, and that this is the common destiny of humanity.

But he took this opportunity to point out that there is a solution to these problems – sin, and its consequence – death. The solution is a simple reversal of the original mistake that humanity made when it turned away from God: it is to turn back to God. That is what repentance mans: to turn around and go the other way, to change your mind and change your direction. Jesus does not just say, “suffering and death are normal, there is no hope, get used to it.” He is not so nihilistic. We do not have to resign ourselves to misery and hopelessness. There is something we can do to respond to the reality of death and suffering in the world, something that will save us. “You will perish too,” Jesus says, “unless you repent of your sins and turn to God.” But if we turn back to God, we will live.

Repentance, I believe, is not a one-off event, but an ongoing attitude of all disciples of Jesus. It involves two elements. The first is recognising that we have a natural tendency to turn away from God, to go our own way, to live by our own wisdom, our own strength. Indeed this is something that is praised by the world in which we live – depending on no one and nothing, but creating our own destiny by making good decisions and carrying them out. But Jesus indicates that such independence is not, in fact the path to our “best life,” and certainly not the path to “eternal life.” He describes a better way, in fact he says it is the only way, to life. That way is the second element of repentance: turning back to God, acknowledging him as the creator and ruler of this world, learning to depend on his wisdom and understanding and direction for our lives.

It sounds a bit threatening when Jesus says “unless you repent, you will perish, too.” But rather than feeling threatened it is more helpful to look beyond that and see that what Jesus is in fact offering is good news. Living in an attitude of continual repentance doesn’t just save us from death, but it leads to life. An expression that is often used these days is “living your best life.” Jesus says that continual repentance is the key to that. Repentance is the solution to death, the key to life, and the pathway to true joy during the time we have been given on this earth, whether that time be short or long.

True life, true joy, is found in turning from our own way, as brilliant as it might seem to us, and turning back to Jesus.

Ready

“Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning, as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks.

Luke 12:35-36

You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.”

Luke 12:40

I was talking to an elderly patient of mine recently about some unexplained cardiac symptoms which had prompted her to ring the ambulance, because she thought it might have been “something serious.” The symptoms passed, she was “checked out,” and nothing untoward was found. We discussed further investigation and referral, which she declined. One of the corollaries of saying no to this, of course, was that the symptoms may indeed have been a harbinger of “something serious,” something that could lead to her death. She laughed it off and said she “was ready.”

I reflected on her response when I read the words of Jesus recorded in the twelfth chapter of Luke’s gospel, and from which I have recorded the two extracts above. What did my patient mean when she said she “was ready?” What does Jesus mean when he says that his followers are to be ready?

For the old lady, she meant that she was ready to die. For many of us, Jesus’s words here mean being ready for his second coming. But of course 2000 years of believers have died without seeing the “second coming” of Jesus. It is easy for us to look at them and subconsciously live our lives as if it will be the same for us. We will have long died before Jesus appears again on earth. And because we live with that subconscious thought we easily slip into forgetting the “being ready” bit.

For us, as for the old lady, our death may well come before Jesus does. In that case, being ready for Jesus, the Master, means being ready to die, which is when we will meet him again. For when we die it is as if we sleep, and when we are woken from that sleep it will be Jesus who wakes us. And as it is when we sleep, the time between when we fall asleep and when we wake again is as no time at all. At least that is my understanding of death and what comes after. So when “the Master returns,” for most of us, will be the day we die. If we are to be ready for the Master’s return, we need to be ready to die.

So back to the original question. What does it mean to be ready for Jesus, or to be ready to die? We are not talking here about the last of Kubler-Ross’s five stages of dying, that of calm acceptance, though of course acceptance is part of any “good death.” Jesus describes “being ready” as an active process. It means “keeping the lamps burning” while we are waiting. It means being ready to “open the door and let him in the moment he arrives.” It means being on guard against burglars who would break in and steal – those who would destroy the Master’s possessions or work. It means “managing his other household servants and feeding them.”

It is up to each one of us to decide how we will keep the lights burning in the Master’s house, how we will fight against the powers of evil that would destroy the Master’s house and possessions (the “kingdom of heaven”), how we will serve the our brothers and sisters in Christ – his other servants.

So being ready in this teaching of Jesus describes an attitude, but also a way of life, which his followers – us Christians – will choose to adopt, in the days given to us before we die – or before he comes again. Ultimately that is what it means to be ready to die. As believers in the death and resurrection of Jesus we should not fear death in the way that non-believers fear death. We should not be preoccupied with death or its avoidance. We should be able to say, like my old lady with a chuckle, “I am ready,” even though we may be “young” in the world’s terms, for we never know when our time will come.

Our readiness will not be the result of what we have achieved, how much we own, how famous we are, or even the result of having successfully navigated Kubler-Ross’s “five stages of death and dying.” If we have kept the lights on for Jesus, if we have fought against the powers of darkness in the world, if we have faithfully served our fellow humans – then we will be ready for the Lord’s coming.

And then, whenever he comes, he will reward the servants who are ready.

Luke 12:38

Read the whole passage:

“Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning, as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks. The servants who are ready and waiting for his return will be rewarded. I tell you the truth, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat! He may come in the middle of the night or just before dawn. But whenever he comes, he will reward the servants who are ready.
“Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would not permit his house to be broken into. You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.”
Peter asked, “Lord, is that illustration just for us or for everyone?”
And the Lord replied, “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. But what if the servant thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? The master will return unannounced and unexpected, and he will cut the servant in pieces and banish him with the unfaithful.
“And a servant who knows what the master wants, but isn’t prepared and doesn’t carry out those instructions, will be severely punished. But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.

Luke 12:35-48 NLT

Wealth

One of the things that should mark disciples of Jesus out from the rest of the world is their attitude to money, possessions and wealth. I use the word “should” because as I look at my own life and the lives of Christians around me I realise that we are much more like “the world” than what Jesus teaches here. Perhaps non-believers would take us more seriously if we followed this teaching of Jesus more closely. It is one of the areas of Jesus’s teaching that is easy to ignore, especially living in a world which constantly gives us a message about the meaning of life which is quite the opposite.

Luke 12:13-34 is a longish passage, 21 verses, and worth reading in its completeness and reflecting on the whole thing (see the end of this blog). I will just pick out a few verses that struck me now as I read it again, and record a few thoughts.

The passage starts with a challenge to Jesus by “someone from the crowd”: “Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.”

How familiar this sounds. I work in aged care and one of the things that saddens me is the fighting over inheritance that I see repeatedly (though not invariably) as the elderly approach the end of their lives. There is enough sadness in the separation that comes with death; why must those who survive so often bicker and argue, to the point sometimes of complete breakdown of relationships, over “who gets what.” It is not unusual to see long lost relatives appear during a person’s final days to make their claim on what they perceive to be their rightful inheritance. Such claims are often bitterly contested, not just by other family members, but by the dying person themselves. The result, in the midst of the suffering of death, is often anger and resentment. Again, as so often in life, the attention is taken away from the important things, namely relationships and the eternal, and focused on the unimportant, namely money. The god of materialism once more claims our devotion.

Jesus responds to the request with apparent surprise. He points out that he is not a judge or lawyer. He did not come to decide such things as these; he had other things on his mind, other things that he wanted to teach about. But at the same time he recognises that what he is hearing is a common concern among ordinary people, many of whom would have been quite poor and could only dream about being rich, and he does not hesitate to address the issue of money from his own unique God perspective. We gain a glimpse into how God thinks about money and possessions, which instructs us on what our own attitudes to these things should be, if we are to be “like Jesus”. He teaches us an essential attitude of those who dwell in the kingdom of heaven.

In response to the man’s request, Jesus said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” (Verse 15)

Jesus reveals what is happening in the man’s request, and names it. He sees an attitude of greed behind the words. Greed is simply wanting more than you need. Greed, defined in this way, would describe one of the ruling authorities in our world. It is rare to find a person who is content with just what they need. Most people want more. A bigger house, a better job, a more exotic holiday, a better pay package, more things. We envy those with the most. We want more, more, more. We are greedy people, at least many of us are. Our lives become a chasing after things, of creating and storing up and keeping wealth. Those who have achieved wealth are the role models, the success stories, the measure of what a successful person should be. We would rather be like them than like Jesus, who had nothing (except a rich relationship with God and his friends!).

And then we die, as Jesus points out quite bluntly in the parable that he tells. We die, and what is it all about? Someone else will get it all. We are, in the end, no more successful than the person who has nothing. We end up the same. Dust. A lifetime of effort, of wheeling and dealing, of saving and investing, buying and selling, and we end up dead in a box. What was the point?

There really is no point, Jesus says. We have spent our life’s energy on the wrong thing. We may have achieved much in the world’s eyes, but we cannot take it with us beyond the grave. In the context of eternity it means very little.

Jesus says bluntly, “a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”

There you have it, Jesus’s summary of what we should spend our life striving for: not wealth, but a rich relationship with God.

But we worry. All very well, we say, to be all heavenly minded and spend our time thinking about Jesus, praying, worshipping, serving. But how will we survive? We fear we will end up on the streets, penniless and hungry. Jesus’s ideas are noble but crazy, we suspect. We have to be practical. We need houses and cars, and food and holidays. Otherwise we will never make it through this life. We will be homeless and hungry and pitied by the world, the last thing we want to be.

Jesus knows that we will worry about such things. And he responds simply: “if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?”

He says we should stop worrying about all those things, and let God provide for us. Not something that we particularly want. We don’t want to be provided for, we want to be independent, self made, self funded. We don’t want to be dependent on the goodness and grace of God. We are not sure that we can trust him anyway, and even if we truly believe that God can come through and provide everything we need, we still would rather look after ourselves thank-you very much. We don’t want to be indebted to anyone, especially God.

We can easily spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about these things: money, security, comfort. If we do, we are more like unbelievers than believers. We should be different, according to Jesus. Our number one concern should be the Kingdom of God. If we make that our top priority, God will provide everything we need. Not everything we want, mind you, but everything we need. Are we willing to believe that?

This teaching of Jesus is all about our attitude to riches. Jesus says simply, “wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” By seeking first the Kingdom of God, we build up our treasure in heaven, and our hearts become more and more centred on heaven. By seeking first worldly wealth, we may well build up treasure on earth, but when our days on earth come to an end, it becomes meaningless. God has put eternity in our hearts. We are made for more than our “three score years and ten.”

God wants our hearts to be centred on heaven, on his Kingdom. It will mean a constant going against the values of this world. It will mean making decisions that are different to the decisions that non believers make. But it means that when we die, it will not all be over.

Luke 12:13-34 NLT

Then someone called from the crowd, “Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.”
Jesus replied, “Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?” Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”
Then he told them a story: “A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have room for all my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’
“Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”
Teaching about Money and Possessions
Then, turning to his disciples, Jesus said, “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear. For life is more than food, and your body more than clothing. Look at the ravens. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for God feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than any birds! Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?
“Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
“And don’t be concerned about what to eat and what to drink. Don’t worry about such things. These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world, but your Father already knows your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.
“So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.
“Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

Public Christianity

“I tell you the truth, everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, the Son of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God’s angels. But anyone who denies me here on earth will be denied before God’s angels. Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when you are brought to trial in the synagogues and before rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how to defend yourself or what to say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to be said.”

Luke 12:8-12 NLT

Since the very beginning, perhaps the very essence of following Jesus has been acknowledging him. But what does that mean? And more specifically, what does it mean to acknowledge him publicly?

Responses to Jesus

Since Jesus walked the dusty roads of ancient Israel during the days of the Roman occupation 2000 years ago, people have been divided in their response to him. Either people have believed in him, and the claims he made about himself, the world, and the nature of all things, or people have denied him, written him off as deluded, a madman, saying that his claims are ridiculous and he is at best, pathetic, at worst, dangerous. Today, despite the fact that in a large part of the world his name is well known, many choose to ignore him altogether. They live their lives as if he does not and did not exist. If they were asked what they thought about Jesus, they would see the question as irrelevant. The name of Jesus is for them just an exclamation mark, used in conversation much like many swear words. 

Acknowledging Jesus

When Jesus spoke of people “acknowledging” him, he was not speaking of people who simply drop his name into their conversation as a punctuation mark, nor was he speaking of people who acknowledge that he exists but write him off as a madman. Rather he is speaking of people who acknowledge that he was who he said he was, and who believe the things he taught about God and the world, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth. 

Such people are nowadays generally called Christians, for obvious reasons – they acknowledge that Jesus was the “Christ,” the chosen one of God, sent into the world to make it possible for those in the world to know and live in relationship with the creator of the world. They acknowledge that Jesus is, in fact, the human expression of the eternal God, and that his death was sufficient payment for the sins of the world, and that his resurrection was evidence that death has no power over him, because he is, in fact, God. They acknowledge too that an ongoing “relationship” with God is possible because his Spirit relates to our spirits, communicating with us in a supernatural way by bringing to our hearts and minds the words, direction and love of God, while he listens intently to the words of our hearts and minds directed to him.

Jesus made clear that it was not only important to acknowledge all this in our hearts and minds, but in our words. That is what he meant when he spoke of acknowledging him publicly. It is clear that Jesus was saying that if we want God to be proud of us “in the presence of his angels” then we should be proud of him in the presence of our fellow human beings. 

What prevents us?

God is good. Jesus’ words and actions are wonderful. That we can have a relationship with the creator through his Spirit is amazing. Why ever would we be ashamed of him? Why would we deny him? Why would we “blaspheme” the Holy Spirit? (Here I take blaspheming as being the action of denying that there is a Holy Spirit, of actively working against the Holy Spirit’s actions or words. In other words, of actively opposing God. I have to admit that I don’t really understand what Jesus was getting at when he differentiated between speaking against the Son of Man and blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which in some ways seem to be the same thing.)

Surely the main obstacle to us publicly acknowledging is simply this: fear. I have written about fear before, and it is a very real force in our lives. What it boils down to is this: which do we fear most, man or God? The reality is that we often fear man far more than we fear God. It is because we derive so much of our identity and value from what others think of us and say of us. We are terrified of being disliked, judged, excluded, laughed at. We do anything to ensure the approval of others, because that is what makes us feel good about ourselves, what makes us feel that we are worthwhile, valuable. 

In the midst of our desperate search for love and acceptance and approval, we literally forget God. We forget that his love and acceptance and approval is freely available to us if we simply acknowledge Jesus. We forget that his Holy Spirit is waiting to communicate that love to us on an ongoing and continuous basis, because we can’t see him. We are so focussed on the things we can see and touch and feel (and own) that we forget the most important thing.

How can we acknowledge Jesus publicly in our day to day life? I believe that the most foundational level of this is simply to be willing to talk about Jesus as if he is real and present and active in this world and in our lives. To include him in our day to day conversations, not just with Christians but with everyone. 

Trouble

We know that this will bring trouble. Because we know that some of the people to whom we talk will have responded to Jesus and his claims in a different way to us. They are the ones who have written him off as a madman, pathetic or dangerous. And if we speak of him as alive and well and present and active in the form of his Holy Spirit communicating with our spirits we know that people will write us off as mad, pathetic or dangerous too. This is quite a common response to Christians in the “post-Christian” Western world in which I live.

What is more we know that since the very beginning of the Christian movement 2000 years ago, Christians have been actively persecuted and in many cases killed for their beliefs. They still are in different parts of the world. And though there is little if any physical killing of Christians in the Western world, there is no shortage of psychological punishment being inflicted on Christians every day by bullying, mockery, exclusion, ignorance, rejection, dismissal by a world which discounts Jesus and his words. We are, if we are honest, afraid of such treatment, and afraid that we will not know what to say when such experiences beset us. Better to be quiet than to say something stupid. 

Supernatural lessons

But Jesus says that if we are willing to stand in that place, the place of trial – by our friends, our families, the governing authorities, anyone – that the Holy Spirit will give us the words to say. He will teach us, Jesus says. Teaching, it might be added, is not only a sudden supernatural dropping into our minds of words that have never occurred to us before (though it might well be that). If we want to be able to speak in the time of trial, then we need to live our lives willing to be taught, constantly and continually, by the Holy Spirit. 

This teaching of Jesus shows us much about the attitudes of the disciple. We need to have attitudes of willingness (to speak publicly about Jesus), of boldness (to lay aside our fear of man and replace it with the fear of the Lord), of teachability (to live constantly sitting at the feet of Jesus and allowing ourselves to be taught by the Holy Spirit). The rewards are great. Jesus will be proud of us, and will acknowledge us before God’s holy angels. 

So much depends on our willingness to live as much in the reality of the spiritual world (“the heavenly places”) as in the reality of the physical world. That is the key to avoiding blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

Fear of the Lord

“Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that. But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he’s the one to fear.
“What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.

Luke 12:4-7 NLT

In this short discourse, Jesus speaks about fear. Fear is one of the most powerful human emotions. Where does it come from? What are we afraid of?

The context that Jesus spoke into was very different to ours. He lived in a society in which the common people experienced the oppression of both the Romans, who were foreigners, and the Pharisees, the religious authorities, who were Jews. Fear ruled their lives from both without and within. Both of these oppressors used death as a punishment for infringements of their respective laws. The Romans crucified offenders. The Pharisees stoned them. The common people obeyed the rules out of fear of punishment and death.

Jesus said simply, don’t be afraid of these authorities, because they can only kill the body. Their power over you stops there. Rather fear God, who can kill the body and the soul. Get some perspective, he says, somewhat brutally. Why fear the little people, when there is something so much bigger to fear?

But then he goes on to teach us something about God, and he uses the example of sparrows, for whom God cares with tenderness. He does not forget a single one of them, Jesus says. And human beings are of much greater value to God than the sparrows. God knows each one of us intimately, and cares for us deeply. He knows the very number of hairs on our head – in other words, he knows us better and more completely than we know ourselves.

Jesus says Fear God because he has infinite power. He also says Don’t fear God, because he has infinite love. This can be a bit confusing!

There have been times in human history when believers have focussed much more attention on the first aspect of God: his infinite power. But because we humans tend to associate power with cruelty and oppression, there is a danger that focussing too much attention on this attribute of God will lead us to the conclusion that God is cruel and oppressive, without mercy. That is what we have so often seen in humans who wield much power. We imagine God is like them. But God is not like that, as much as we might worry that he is.

Right now in human history there is perhaps too much focus on the infinite love of God, which can lead to the conclusion that God doesn’t mind what we do, that no matter how far our lives stray from the will of God, it doesn’t matter, because God loves us and will forgive us. We can end up disregarding God’s standards and laws completely, and living exactly as we see fit, in whatever way feels good to us. We imagine that God’s love is like our love, in which it can often happen that when we love someone we give them exactly what they want and make life as comfortable as we can for them, make no demands. But God is not like that, as much as we might like him to be.

In both cases we create God in our own image, rather than seeking to get back to his image created in us. When we create God in our image, we end up with a picture of God which is nothing like the God that Jesus showed us. We perceive him as either cruel and oppressive, without mercy, or weak and insipid, without backbone.

There is an expression that is used in the Bible that describes a foundational attitude of the believer: the fear of the Lord. We see it, for example, in the Psalms of the Old Testament: “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It is a concept that is often forgotten in our day and age, when we tend to focus on God more as a person to cuddle up to than one to fear. But how can it be, since God is both to be feared and not to be feared according to Jesus?

The fear of the Lord means many things, but at its root it is about seeing God, acknowledging him, respecting, honouring, worshipping, loving him. If we fear God we will not ignore him. We will “seek his face,” to use Bible language. We will make efforts to know him, to understand his rules and regulations as well as his love and mercy. We will seek to be like him. We will seek to love him. We will build his kingdom, a place where he is known for who he is, honoured, respected and obeyed. A place where his love and mercy and peace flows like a river over us.

As much as anything, the fear of the Lord frees us from the fear of death, whether it is temporal or eternal. Jesus teaches us that we do not need to fear physical death, because there is an eternal life that exists beyond it. We do not need to fear eternal death, because God has given us the key to overcoming it, a simple key called faith.

The key to freedom from the fear of death, either physical or spiritual, is, quite simply, the fear of the Lord.

Transparency

Meanwhile, the crowds grew until thousands were milling about and stepping on each other. Jesus turned first to his disciples and warned them, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—their hypocrisy. The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!
“Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that. But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he’s the one to fear.

Luke 12:1-5 NLT

The Pharisees were the religious experts in Israel at that time, and Israel was a place where religion was the centre of life. Jesus, however, was openly critical of these religious experts. This made the Pharisees angry, but the common people were fascinated. How could this man, who clearly had an anointing from God (how else could he perform his miracles?), be so negative about God’s representatives on earth, the Pharisees?

Jesus explains: it was their hypocrisy that made him so angry. Jesus had the advantage of being able to see behind the perfect exterior the Pharisees presented. He knew that they were sinners just like everyone else, and their attitude of superiority and judgement riled him. They put themselves in the place of God, but they were not God, and they lacked the humility to be open and honest about that and stand with the people before God, not over them. Jesus explained that their “secret sins” were known to God and will one day be made public, as will everyone’s.

It is easy for us to be self-righteous too, just like Pharisees. Jesus condemns such behaviour in anyone, not just leaders or influencers. The media are the modern Pharisees. They delight in finding fault in people and institutions, and the more highly regarded the person or institution the more their delight in finding some “secret sin.” Jesus hates self righteous, judgemental hypocrisy wherever he sees it. Even the secret sins of the media will be revealed.

What, then, does he require of us, whether we be leader or follower (or even journalist)? Simply this – honesty and humility. We need to see ourselves, and present ourselves to the world, as we are, and not imagine that we are somehow better than others. We need to understand that we, like all of humankind since Adam, have fallen far short of the glory of God, and that we are all in the same boat. We should avoid the temptation to hide our mistakes, to present a facade to the world that is not real. We should be willing to be known for who and what we are.

It is not easy to be transparent about our weaknesses, our failings, our mistakes, our sin. It is not easy to acknowledge the truth about ourselves, before others, even to ourselves. We are much better at pretence. We are much better at hiding behind a facade, and letting others think more highly of us than they have reason to. Human beings love to be “above” others. We love to look down on the people around us. Like the Pharisees we love public acclaim, the applause of the people around us. We love to feel that we are better than others. It makes us feel good about ourselves.

Why do we do this? Jesus says it is “fear” – the fear of man. What are we fearful of? Simply this, that people will know the real us, that they will discover all our dirty little secrets. That they will see that we are flawed, broken humans, and they will lose faith in us, like us less. The Pharisees presented the front that they did because of fear of man. We laud it over others because of fear of man.

Jesus says we need to fear God more than we fear men. We modern day Christians need to rediscover the “fear of the Lord.” The trouble is we often don’t believe in the God that Jesus presented to the world. We forget that God is one who sees and has the power to destroy us for our sin. We do not like the idea of a destroying God. So we ignore that picture of God, and continue on with our fear of man. We forget trying to please God and try to please the people around us, so that they will like us more.

We need to hear what Jesus is saying here. He is saying be honest, be transparent, tell the truth about yourself. Don’t be like the Pharisees, don’t seek the praise and acclamation of man. Fear God instead, which is another way of saying, be more concerned about what God thinks of you than what other people think of you. Because ultimately the worst thing another person can do to you is kill your body. God has the power to banish your soul to hell. It sounds harsh, but these are the words of Jesus, so we cannot ignore them.

Do not be a hypocrite. Do not pretend. Do not make yourself out to be better than you are. Do not look down on others for their failures, their mistakes, their problems. In the end you are the same, just in different skin.

Instead be open, be honest, be transparent. If that results in people rejecting you because they think you are not good enough for them, then so be it. Surprisingly it often has the opposite result. But we are so often too fearful to reveal the real us. The only way to overcome our fear of man is to fear God more.

Jesus gives good advice. Let’s try to follow it.

Distraction

There are pitfalls in the life of the believer. I wrote the other day about how easy it is to miss the “great” because we become enamoured with the “good.” Today I have been reflecting on one of the occasions Jesus came into conflict with the Pharisees. He was uncompromising in his criticism, but why? Once again it seems that it was because they had missed the point. They had succumbed to one of the pitfalls of the Christian life, becoming distracted by rules rather than focusing on inner holiness. They had become so focused on appearances that they had neglected the real thing – being clean on the inside. In fact, they didn’t even seem to care about the inside, as long as the outside looked good. But Jesus was exactly the opposite, less interested in the outside than the inside.

You can read the whole story in Luke 11. Jesus had been invited to the home of a Pharisee for dinner. Before they had even started eating a conflict arose, over the matter of washing hands. It was not really about hygiene, but about religious ritual. Jesus simply neglected to perform the customary hand washing, raising questions in the minds of the Pharisees. He knew what they were thinking, and used it as an opportunity to launch an attack on the religious leaders. It was embarrassing and offensive, but Jesus didn’t seem to care. The crux of the matter is in the following few verses:

Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness! Fools! Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside? So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.

Luke 11:39-41 NLT

The Pharisees were the ultimate keepers of the Jewish law. They knew the ancient scriptures back to front – not just the books of the Old Testament with which we non-Jewish Christians are familiar, but the books of rules which remain central to the Jewish faith to this day. The Pharisees were experts in these writings, memorising them, studying them, interpreting them, debating them. They were the academic theologians of the day, and they were held in the highest regard, much as are university academics of our day.

The Pharisees were not “bad people” any more than any of us are bad people. One of the greatest Christians who ever lived, Paul the apostle, was a Pharisee. The problem was simply that they had missed the point of the ancient writings, they had missed the point of the law, they had missed the point of God’s commands. They had chosen to focus not on God, but on the rules that they understood to be from God. They were experts at keeping the rules, but they were far from God. Jesus shows, by his response to them, that keeping the rules, as important as it may be, is not the key to God’s approval. Keeping rules is not the pathway to salvation.

We human beings love rules. We love to know what the rules are so that we can know whether we are being good or bad. There are those who take great pride in keeping the rules, because it makes them look good to the world. There are those who love to break the rules because that can makes them look good to others whose approval they crave. But without rules we would all be lost. We would not know what was good or bad, and we would not know where we stand.

Rules are not bad in themselves. But an unhealthy focus on the rules is. Keeping the rules is not bad. But if that becomes the sum total of our lives we can end up, according to Jesus, being filthy on the inside, even when we look great on the outside. Keeping the rules does not make us into the people God wants us to be. Rules easily become a distraction from the real thing.

But what is the real thing? What is important to God? Surely he wants us to know his rules and follow them? Surely that will win his approval?

Actually, no. The thing that brings God’s approval is that we are clean all over, not just on the outside, and according to Jesus, on this occasion, the key to inner cleanliness is “giving gifts to the poor.” Pretty simple really. Yet apparently this was something the Pharisees had neglected. They knew that there were many poor people in their communities, but they accepted this as the way things were, and they did not see that they needed necessarily to do anything about it. If they did give alms to the poor, it was because it made them look good. You get the feeling that their giving was more about themselves than the people they were giving to.

Following rules is so often about ourselves, about being justified, approved of, in our own eyes and the eyes of the world. It can easily be a form of “virtue signalling,” showing the world how good we are. The rules that we follow in our own day and age are different to the rules the Pharisees followed. In the contemporary secular community, following the rules is called being “politically correct.” We do what we think will gain the approval of others. In the Christian church community, following the rules may be about saying the right things at the right times, looking good, engaging in activities that will gain the respect and approval of church members or leaders.

But God is not interested in any of our “political correctness,” or our “looking good,” in the world or in the church. He is interested in whether we are “clean.” And it would seem that becoming clean is not about how we appear to others, but what we do for others, especially the poor, and how we do it, the attitude that lies behind it. Not to look good, not to be approved. Not even to be seen. God is not interested in the flags we fly at our workplaces to signify that we welcome any particular kind of person. He is interested in whether we actually welcome such people.

We live in a world that is obsessed with appearances. We strive to look good, we strive to achieve, we strive to be recognised. We are awestruck by people who have it all, beauty, wealth, success, knowledge, expertise. But Jesus clearly says that what is seen on the outside is not the important thing. Rather it is the inside of a person which is important. The world may not see it, but God sees it. We too can discern the inside to a certain extent by looking at a person’s deeds, what they actually do, though only God really knows the heart of a person. Inner cleanliness is about our attitude to others, especially those less fortunate than ourselves, the people the Bible calls the poor.

Where we focus our attention in life is supremely important to God, and is a reflection of what we are really like on the inside. Where we focus our attention will be shown by what we actually do from day to day. It is easy to get distracted by things that are not important – rules, the way other people see us. The Pharisees did that. We do it. We may think it leads to success. But in God’s eyes it is worthless. It is the inside that is most important to God.