Parables 1c. Distraction

The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity.

Luke 8:14

If passion is the experience and the obsession of youth, as I wrote about in my previous reflection on this parable, cares, riches and pleasures are the distractions of later life. The reality seems to be that as much as we talk it up, and as long as it may last, passion for a thing or person eventually fades. The thing or person is no longer interesting, it (or they) no longer monopolises our attention. Our eyes and our minds wander, looking for a new thing or person to be passionate about, but perhaps it is not a thing or person that we really desire, but the feeling of passion itself. We long to fall in love again, because we remember the wonder, the intoxication, of that heady feeling. We do anything to try to recreate the feeling, but getting it back is elusive…

It is easier to get stuff than to get feelings, and sometimes stuff gives us those heady feelings as a bonus, even if they are temporary. We live in a materialistic world, in which we pursue wealth and pleasure with almost religious fervour, dreaming of the happiness if we will have when we just get that one more thing.

Yet we all know the emptiness that often comes after we get the things we want, the creeping meaningless as we look at all our possessions, our healthy bank balance, our new car or boat or house, as we find ourselves wondering what the point of it all is, the let down that so often follows the “holiday of a lifetime.” Yet rather than question the pursuit, we go after something else, as if the next thing we get, whether it is an object, a person, or an experience, will finally give us the fulfilment or excitement or comfort or security that we crave.

These are the distractions of life. Jesus says they crowd out the message, just as thorns and weeds will choke the important, the beautiful, plants in a garden, causing them to wither and die. In a garden we put a lot of effort into getting rid of thorns and weeds, to allow the flowers to thrive, to allow the plants to bear fruit. Why do we let them grow in the seedbed of our hearts?

Jesus does not just mention riches and pleasures here, but also the cares of life, the worries, the anxieties, the fears. Just as we all know the emptiness that can come as we look at all we have attained, accumulated, achieved, we also know the anxiety can come as we look at how little of things we have managed to get. This too can choke the message. Just as we live in an age of materialism, we live in an age of anxiety. Is not this anxiety so often a response to comparison with others, with an ideal of life to which we are painfully aware we can never measure up? For young people it is often about comparing themselves to the beauty, or popularity, or success of their peers. For older people it can just as easily be about comparing themselves to the status, or possessions, or achievements of those around them, or the image projected by the world of what a successful life should look like.

We can easily be deceived at many levels in this life. We believe the lie that being a certain way, looking a certain way, living a certain way, having the right friends, the right stuff, will result in happiness and fulfilment, and we spend the energy of our lives either striving to get those things, or else obsessing over being unable to get them, for whatever reason. All this effort and obsessing hardly leaves time or energy for the message of Jesus. It is simply choked out.

People fall away. They lose their first love. Jesus’s disciples could see it. We see it. Jesus explains it with this parable. First they (we) are deceived, into believing that certain things will satisfy. Then they (we) are distracted by the never ending pursuit of getting those things. Or we are weighted down the anxiety that we can never get them. In the end we forget the message of Jesus: the message that says only he can satisfy, the message that says true happiness is found only in being reconciled to the Creator and following his directions for life, the message that says the greatest problem in the world is not lack of material possessions or worldly success, but the darkness in our own hearts. We listen instead to the messages delivered by the world and the devil, the enemies of Jesus, the message of materialism.

According to Jesus the cares and riches and pleasures of this life are like weeds and thorns in a garden. If we let them grow, if we don’t pull them out, throw them onto the scrap heap, incinerate them, they will choke the flowers and fruits in our gardens. The challenge is to see them, to recognise them for what they are, and to deal with them before they destroy the thing of beauty that was once planted in our hearts, but which can so easily be choked and destroyed.

A mature, well tended garden is a thing of joy. Let’s attain to that.

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.

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

Self sacrifice

“Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭9:23-25‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus made this comment to his disciples long before he had staggered up a hill dragging a cross to his own execution. It must have made so much more sense to the disciples years later after those awful events when they thought back to all the things that Jesus had said during his life. “So that’s why Jesus said that,” they would have thought as they recorded his words for generations of believers to come.

Yet Jesus’ meaning must have been clear to them even before the crucifixion. The disciples, and anyone else listening in to Jesus’ teaching, were familiar with crucifixion and the Roman custom of making the condemned man carry his own cross to the place of execution. When Jesus said “take up your cross daily,” a vision of criminals being led out to their death would have immediately flashed into the listeners’ minds.

Jesus said that following him was similar to the experience of those criminals. Except that it was voluntary. Give up your own life, Jesus said, and follow me. That is the key to your salvation. This is an unusual way to advertise discipleship, to say the least. We have got so used to this expression of Jesus that it is easy to miss just how shocking it is.

We grow up in an atmosphere where we are constantly urged to discover ourselves and “live our best life.” We are encouraged to follow our dreams, find the thing that we are passionate about, and then give our life to that. The guiding light for our life is realisation of self, not realisation of anyone else. The concept of laying down our self, giving up our own ambitions, is not one that is promoted to us or our children. We are consistently reminded by advertisers that the most important person in the world is me. But that is not what Jesus says.

The attitude of self sacrifice for a bigger or more worthy cause than ourselves has become more and more foreign to the modern mind. Yet that is what Jesus challenges us to: to reprogram our minds to embrace the thought that there is something and someone bigger and more important than ourselves in this life. Something and someone that is worth giving ourselves and all our dreams and passions up for.

Am I willing to consider such a possibility? Are you? Jesus says it is the way to life. The way of the world, which refuses to consider this crazy possibility, will lead, according to Jesus, to a meaningless death.

Attitudes of discipleship

Luke the doctor wrote his “gospel” – his version of the good news of Jesus – apparently for someone named Theophilus, “so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.” (Luke 1:4) The six middle chapters of the gospel – chapters 9 to 14 – while continuing the historical account of the life of Jesus, contain much of Jesus’ instruction about what it means to follow him, instructions about discipleship. There is much recorded there about the task of discipleship, but there is also a good deal recorded about what kind of attitudes a disciple should have.

What is an attitude? The Oxford Dictionary of English defines an attitude as “a settled way of thinking or feeling about something.” This is exactly what these chapters of Luke’s gospel describe – the way a follower of Jesus thinks and feels about things. The following is a list of some of the attitudes that I have noticed scattered through these chapters. In essence they describe the mind of Christ, the attitudes of Jesus, which are the attitudes of God. We who have adopted the identity of Christian – followers of Jesus – are called to have the same mind as Jesus, the same way of thinking and feeling about things. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippian church, “you must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had…” (Phil 2:5)

So in chapters 9 to 14 of Luke’s gospel, these are some of the “attitudes” that I have spotted. There are doubtless more to be gleaned as you read through those chapters. Over the coming weeks I will write some short reflections on these.

• Self-sacrifice. Luke 9:24
• Honouring nobodies. Luke 9:46-48 
• Tolerance. Luke 9:50
• Ignoring enemies. Luke 9:54
• Undivided devotion.  Luke 9:59-62. Luke 14:16-24
• Joy. Luke 10:20
• Love. Luke 10:25-37
• Teachability. Luke 10:39
• Dependence Luke 11:1-13
• Willingness. Luke 11:28
• Flexibility. Luke 11:37-54
• Avoid hypocrisy. Live in the light. Live  Luke 12:1-7
• Public Christianity. Luke 12:8-12
• Attitude to possessions. Luke 12:33-34 
• Readiness. Luke 12:35-48
• Repentance. Luke 13:1-9
• Mercy. Luke 13:10-17, 14:1-6
• Humility. Luke 14:7-14

Entering the Kingdom

Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s kingdom, for many will try to enter, but fail.

Luke 13:24-27 NLT

Jesus was always teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven. He clearly indicates that for those of us who are his followers, this Kingdom is to be our first priority. Seek first the Kingdom, Jesus says, in response to recognizing the other priorities that many of us have – food, clothes, shelter, material wealth. But what does it mean to Seek the Kingdom? Simply this, to look for it, and to work for it. Here in Luke 13 he again emphasizes its importance: “work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom.” It is about where we place our energies in this life. Do we use what we have been given for God’s Kingdom, or for something else? What are we working hard for? Hard work is sometimes seen as part of the Protestant work ethic. But it is not simply working hard that is important. It is working hard to enter the Kingdom. 

This command comes after some illustrations of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, Jesus says. It starts off as something small, but grows into something large which provides a home and shelter for the birds. The Kingdom of God is like yeast, he says. It is something invisible which changes the whole consistency of the dough, and permeates every part of the bread. Jesus encourages us to be part of this kingdom, to enter this kingdom. It sounds as though it should be an easy thing, but Jesus exhortation to work hard to enter the narrow door into the kingdom implies that it is a significant task. It is, I believe, our lifelong assignment as Christians, something we continue to work at from the time we choose to follow Jesus. It is, in fact, at the very core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. 

Jesus goes on to explain that many will try to enter but fail, because they have left it too late. Is that not what we often see? People procrastinate. We know deep down that this is important, and we think, I will just sort my life out, get established, get a house and a job and a spouse and a family, get established in my profession, store up a little wealth, and then I will focus all my attention on the kingdom. But such people can miss out, because they have left their run too late, they have focused on the wrong things during their time on earth. Think of another story that Jesus told, about the man who built bigger barns to hold his wealth. Then he died before he got to enjoy the fruit of his hard work. By contrast, if we work hard for the kingdom, death makes no difference, because our treasure is in heaven. Sell your possessions and give to those in need, Jesus says, because this will store up treasure for you in heaven (Luke 12:33). 

Entering the kingdom is not a one off act, nor is it an add on, an optional extra to all the other tasks of life. It permeates our whole existence as believers, giving shape to every other activity in our lives. It should not be put off till later. It is something for today, and every day, throughout our lives. 

When Jesus speaks of the latecomers it is frightening: 

When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. You will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ Then you will say, ‘But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ And he will reply, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you. 

Luke 13:25-27 NLT

What does he mean really? 

I can’t help thinking of that part of the world which was once called “Christendom” but is now called “The West.” This is the part of the world where the values of the Kingdom have over many centuries become established. Of course few secular thinkers ascribe these values to Jesus and his kingdom. They tend to see them as the result of social evolution, education, civilization, “common humanity,” human enlightenment. In our post Christian world, it is fashionable to see the good things in society as the result of human wisdom and understanding, and to see the bad things as a result of religious ignorance and oppression. 

But a careful examination of world history I believe bears witness to the transforming power of Jesus and his teaching, the effect of his Kingdom being established in society, as unseen and unacknowledged as it often is. We do not give credit to God, or the kingdom, but take it for ourselves. But at the last day many who never gave God a second thought will realize that so much in society that was so good was the result of God and his kingdom, which had been there like yeast permeating society the whole time, but they had never seen it. That is when they will say, “but we ate with you and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.”

But that is not enough, Jesus says. These people have seen Jesus, they have even enjoyed company with him, heard him speaking in their streets. They are acquainted with Jesus and his Kingdom. But they have never embraced him, or made his kingdom their focus – their number one priority – even if they have enjoyed the effects of the kingdom in their lives. They never prayed, “your kingdom come, your will be done,” because they were too busy pursuing their own kingdom, their own will. They never even realized or acknowledged that so much in their society that they have seen as good is actually the result of God’s kingdom come, rather than the kingdom of humanity, as they believed. 

But in the end when all is revealed, they realize that the kingdom is their in their midst, and it is the place they want to be, and they rush to get in, but Jesus says to these people that it is too late. He says to them, “I don’t know you.” They may have worked hard their whole life, but it was for the wrong thing. The realization that after all their efforts they have got nothing, makes them desperately sad. They mourn, they weep, they “gnash their teeth,” to use the quaint but evocative language of the Bible. It is a tragic picture, because the kingdom was always there in their midst, but they ignored it until it was too late. 

I am often distracted by the things of the world. I am guilty of prioritizing other things, setting my heart and mind on my own kingdom, where I am king, rather than God’s kingdom. Perhaps you are too. But there is still time. Let’s refocus where we put our time, our money and our energy. Let’s start seeking the Kingdom first, start working hard to enter that kingdom. For Jesus says clearly that those who seek find, that to those who knock the door will be opened. “For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.” Luke 12:32

Kingdom first

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.

Luke 12:31-32 NLT

The context of this command is anxiety, which is an emotion that is familiar to me. Specifically it is anxiety about having enough to get by. Food, clothes, shelter. I worry about these things. In my context it is living expenses, bills, mortgage, pension. I worry that we will die penniless and have nothing to leave our children.

But I am a doctor! How can I be poor? How can I be 58 years old and still have a mortgage? How can it be that I do not have a healthy “nest egg” for retirement? Mismanagement, people would say. I have not been wise in my financial planning. I have frittered away that which God has given me. I have no-one to blame but myself.

And indeed, I blame no-one but myself. But blaming myself or anyone else is not the point. How I got here is not the point. But I am here nevertheless, and I know there are many like me. For those who like me are his followers, Jesus says, don’t worry. He tells us to set our minds on other things, not whether we will have enough to get by. He promises to take care of us. In fact over the last few years God has repeatedly reminded me that he is in control, and that I am where I am (financially as well as geographically) because that is where he wants me to be. But still I succumb to worry, and my faith fails me.

Of course I am not, we are not, really poor. Maybe we only own a fraction of our house (the rest is owned by the bank), but at least we have a roof over our heads. There are many in this world who do not. We are able to pay the bills, when I know that many struggle to do so. I am still able to work, and for that I am thankful. God gives me the health and strength I need to generate an income. So there is no need to worry, even on a human level.

But I do worry, and I am ashamed of that. Because in worrying I am looking at myself and my own ability, forgetting that it is my Father who is my ultimate provider, not myself. I can think I provide for myself, but it is he who has given me the ability to do that. And if that ability to work should be taken away, he will continue to provide for me somehow for as may days as he intends me to live in this world. Looking at myself can easily produce worry. But I know he is a generous Father…

Jesus challenges me to look at him, and his provision. He challenges me to remember the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. He reminds me that God cares for me, as he cares for birds and flowers. It is true that flowers fade, and that ageing is a similar experience. But he cares for them, and he will care for me. He will “give me everything I need.”

But there is a condition: seek the kingdom of God above all else, he says, and he will give you everything you need. We think that to get everything we need we must be successful – financially, professionally, socially. But God does not ask us to be successful. He simply asks us to seek first his Kingdom. Then we will see his provision.

What does that mean, to seek first the Kingdom? I have come to understand it in two ways. On the one hand it means to go looking, to search for the Kingdom. On the other hand it means to work for the Kingdom. Jesus was always talking about the Kingdom. It is like a treasure that we go searching for, and when we find it, we are happy. It is like a seed that is planted in the ground, and when it grows to its fullness, it provides shelter and sustenance for many. There are many stories, many pictures. This Kingdom is what we are to seek.

The message is simple: make the Kingdom of God your first priority, not your house, or your clothes, not even your family or your friendships. All these other things do deserve energy and planning, but none of them should be the number one priority. That should be given to the Kingdom of God, and number one in the Kingdom of God is the king himself, that is God.

This exhortation is about our primary task in life, but it is also about our primary relationship. The task is the Kingdom, to find it and to build it. Jesus says, if we seek it, we will find it, for “it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.” The relationship is with God, our Father and our friend, through the Holy Spirit. If we ask for it, the Father will give us that too: “if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” (Luke 11:13)

Everything else in life comes after these two things: Kingdom and relationship with the king. How seriously do I take this command?

Anxiety is all about where I set my mind. Is this exhortation of Jesus a solution to anxiety? As simplistic as it sounds, I believe it is. We cannot change anything by worrying. Worrying does not bring the control we believe we need to ensure our security in this world. When I feel my thoughts travelling down the path to anxiety, or onward to panic, then I need to set my mind somewhere else. On finding the Kingdom, and on knowing the King.

Prayer: the best gift

“You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

Luke 11:11-13 NLT

In the first half of Luke chapter 11 Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray. First, in the Lord’s prayer, he instructs them in what they should pray about. Then, in a story about getting food from an uncooperative neighbour, he teaches them howthey should pray, with persistence. Now, in the paragraph above, the focus changes from the disciples to the Father, he speaks of the one his disciples are praying to. The message is simple. God does not deceive us. He will not respond to our requests by giving us something that will cause us harm, like a snake or a scorpion. God will give good things to his children when they ask.

Or more specifically, Jesus said that the Father will give us the Holy Spirit when we ask. Which is interesting because up until this point in Luke’s narrative, Jesus hadn’t talked a whole lot about the Holy Spirit, and certainly the concept of the Holy Spirit was not one that was familiar to his disciples in the way it is familiar to us. The idea of “receiving the Holy Spirit” was not introduced by Jesus until somewhat later, just before his death, and not really experienced in its fullness until the day of Pentecost, after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension. The concepts of “fruit of the Spirit” and “gifts of the Spirit” were not really developed until the apostle Paul wrote about them years after Jesus had ascended into heaven.

Mind you, I’m sure the disciples had some concept of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is mentioned from time to time in the Old Testament, so it was a familiar idea. I think of David’s cry to God when he realised the enormity of his sin in taking Bathsheba as his wife (which required the effective murder of her husband). “Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me,” he cries out in Psalm 51, showing that he had some notion that the Spirit of God was with him or in him. He feared (justifiably perhaps) that God would punish him by withdrawing his Spirit, which in David’s mind meant withdrawing his favour, which David saw as the source of his personal joy and success in life.

However, the idea of asking for the Holy Spirit and receiving it would have been foreign to the disciples. Yet here is Jesus speaking of just that. The context is one of understanding that God wants good things for his children, just as an earthly father wants good things for his. The good thing, in this case, is not a fish or an egg (as good as they might be in certain situations!), but the Holy Spirit. Was Jesus saying that he would not give a fish or an egg to those who ask, but rather the Holy Spirit? I don’t think that was Jesus’ intention here. The bit about the fish and the egg was simply to say that God is not a cruel trickster, but rather a loving Father. That is the nature of God. He sees what we need and he gives it to us.

But Jesus also seems to be saying that the Holy Spirit is the best thing the Father could possibly give to us, and that if we ask for the Spirit, we will receive it. Which is an interesting conclusion to Jesus’ teaching on prayer. He has taught us what we should pray for in the Lord’s Prayer. He has taught us how we should pray, in the story about waking a neighbour with a request for bread, with persistence, never giving up.

He finishes by saying that one thing that we should ask for perhaps more than anything else, is the Holy Spirit. That is the greatest treasure, the source of godly success and prosperity, the source of wisdom and strength. King David knew it, as did all the great men and women of faith down through the ages. According to Jesus’ teaching here, it is ours for the asking.

Prayer: temptation

“Jesus said, “This is how you should pray: “Father, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. Give us each day the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation. ””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭11:2-4‬ ‭NLT

The concept of temptation implies a worldview in which there are things that we know are wrong, but which we feel drawn to doing or thinking or saying. It implies something that we call conscience. It implies that there is such a thing as right and wrong. It implies the existence of a mysterious force that pulls us toward something that we know we should stay away from.

Such a worldview is not popular these days, for even though most of us readily admit that there are certain actions that are absolutely wrong, we at the same time generally believe that good people would not be tempted to these things. I’m thinking of the “big sins” like murder, rape, theft, pedophilia, which are all indisputably evil in the modern mind; few of us feel tempted to do such things, and if we did we would struggle to admit it, even to ourselves. We have a higher opinion of ourselves than that.

There are other misbehaviours which we may admit being drawn to, but for many these “sins” are seen as “not that bad.” What sort of things am I thinking of? There are many, but for a sample think of the so called “seven deadly sins.” Over a millennium ago the “desert fathers” conceived this list – pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth – which they believed, from their understanding of God’s laws and the teachings of Jesus, were human failings with deadly consequences. That sounds a bit extreme to the modern ear. Few of us would deny that these things are “bad,” but deadly? Somehow these behaviours seem more understandable, more “forgivable,” than the really “big sins” listed above. 

So when it comes to sins, there are the big ones, and most of us feel we are at no risk of falling into them, and there are the little ones, and we have a tendency to think they don’t matter so much, and are readily forgivable. As far as temptation is concerned, we don’t feel tempted by the big ones, and we feel that we can manage the little ones on our own. Even if we should slip up and commit a little indiscretion, we feel that we can be forgiven. So why does Jesus say that in our daily prayers we should ask God for help to not yield to temptation? Do we even think we need help?

The fact that Jesus included this phrase in the prayer he taught his followers would seem to indicate three things about Jesus’ understanding of humanity: firstly, that we are capable of sin, secondly, that we are tempted to it, and thirdly that we need supernatural help – the help of the Father – to resist.

He suggests that we acknowledge our vulnerability and ask for supernatural help, something that we don’t particularly like to do. We don’t like it because we don’t like to think of ourselves as bad. We prefer the view that we are all inherently good, and that anything bad we might do is the result of forces outside us – that our misdeeds are therefore not our fault. We also don’t like it because we don’t like to think of ourselves as weak and vulnerable, as needing help to resist evil. We like to believe that we have the strength within us to resist temptation. Jesus says that we have as much potential in us for great evil as we do for great good, and he says it is God in us who will give us the strength to resist the former as much as to achieve the latter.

A slightly different version of the Lord’s prayer is recorded in Matthew’s gospel. It adds a bit: “don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13) This adds another dimension to the discussion about temptation and sin: evil is not just an abstract idea, it has a personality. That personality is referred to as “the evil one,” which in other places it is referred to as the devil, or Satan, and the Bible seems to indicate that this Satan, or devil, was once an angel in heaven who defied God and “fell” to become his enemy. Jesus clearly believed in the existence of this person, and indicated that the devil was a threat to believers.

This is also an unpopular concept in the modern mind. Talk of the supernatural, of angels and demons, of God himself, makes many sneer. They dismiss such things as foolish superstition. Unless of course they are in a Netflix series when such stories are devoured for the sake of entertainment. 

Jesus appears to not only believe in the devil, but to take the evil one very seriously. The gospels clearly state that Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, and that resisting the temptation was not straightforward for Jesus. He too needed the assistance of the Father to overcome temptation.

There are, then, these two aspects to our lives, the natural and the supernatural. We are tempted by our own desire for evil, but we are also tested by the devil, who wants to turn us from God. We are part of a spiritual battle, a cosmic conflict, in which the honour of God, and our eternal welfare, are at stake. The results of giving in to temptation are not just personal, but societal. Sin will lead to a breakdown of human society. 

When we pray each day, “don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one,” we are acknowledging the battle we are in, we are acknowledging our very nature as sinful beings, we are acknowledging our vulnerability and weakness, we are acknowledging our need for the Holy Spirit to triumph in the battle. 

We neglect this part of the Lord’s prayer at our peril.