Luke 13:22-35

Luke 13:22-35

“Imprint upon our heart such a dread of Thy judgments as to make us afraid to offend Thee”. Christianity, in many ways, is not a comfortable or comforting religion. Jesus is asked about how big is the circle of salvation. The questioner may have been thinking in terms of devout Jews vs. Ethnic Jews. Jesus changes the picture and focus. I need not worry about how extensive the circle of salvation is and where the line of inclusion versus exclusion is to be to drawn. Jesus points to the individual.

The word translated "strive" is from the Greek word from which we get the word agony. Have agony to get in to the kingdom. We may be vaguely aware of the agony an athlete goes through to make it to a premiere team. Last-minute efforts are bound to fail. What does the Lord mean by this story? First those who have not entered the agony will not enter the kingdom. Second those who wait to the last minute will find the door locked and shut against them. The procrastination of dealing with our sins, by repentance, will mean that those sins will have such a hold on us, that we will because of them, be excluded. We were guilty of having loved the sin more than the Lord. Third casual knowledge of Jesus is worthless. Horrifyingly evil people may have an occasional religious practice, symbol, or Christian talisman. The harsh reality is that the Lord makes a declarative statement and then gives a command. He declares “I don't know you”. Admission to the Grand Banquet is not based on casual knowledge. He makes the command: "Go away". Without a doubt the worst moment in the universe is the realization that our rejection of Him causes us to be rejected.  There is no hope then, there is only one hope now: Grace at work in us by the power of the Spirit. 

"Lord, have mercy help me to know You. Help me to die to self, to be changed by You and live what that new life means. AMEN"

Luke 13:10-21

Luke 13:10-21

We see Jesus in a synagogue for the last time in Luke's gospel. On this occasion Jesus meets a woman who as result of the work of the demonic has for 18 years been crippled. Jesus heals her. It is Jesus's default setting to have mercy. We might recall the ancient prayer that reads, “But Thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy”. We might assume that in some way this woman had opened herself up to the power of the demonic. At some point in her life she had, perhaps, given herself over to the powers of evil and the demon took control, twisted her and held her. Jesus simply heals her without any expectation for her to clean up her life, reform her ways or realign herself spiritually. She may have been a mess, but Jesus didn't care. He simply healed her. She, and the others Jesus healed, are presenting in our art and imagination as lovable people. The pictures I've seen depicting this occasion portray her as a grandmother who might be on her way to bake cookies.

But maybe she wasn’t like that. Maybe she was like a lady I once met. She lives in a shabby, run-down trailer in a swampy part of Florida. She came to the door with a broom, with which she beat at her dog, but if she had mounted it and flown off it would have fit Hollywood central casting. When she opened the door the smell of body odor and dog feces was overwhelming. Her conversation was laced with profanity; she seemed to live with a low-grade anger that boiled over into fury quickly and easily. She disliked people of color and “other foreigners”; she hated the cars on the road and even the trees beside the road. Her hair was greasy and needed washing, (apparently she burned her bra in a 1960’s protest and never replaced it), she wore a thin, dirty “wife beater”. Her face was marked by anger and facial hair. Maybe this is what the woman in the synagogue was like. And Jesus saw the need beyond the symptoms and His default setting of mercy moved Him to act.

The glory of Christ is manifested in His acts of power. But it is also manifested in that He expressed His mercy to the most undeserving people, all of us, including those who never respond to that love and mercy. We have no evidence that this healed woman became a disciple of Jesus. Perhaps this woman held onto that which enabled the demon to dominate her and she never responded to Christ’s love. Christ, far too kind to impose Himself. He accepts that His love is, at times, unrequited. The objects of His love can be most objectionable.

As a disciple of Jesus, if I really want to be like Him, I must understand that no one should be outside of my heart’s reach. This must include the awkward teen that strives for attention to the point of annoyance, the arrogant elitist so convinced of his superiority that they would be a racist but for the fact they consider everyone their lesser, the social and relational leech that demands and demands and then demands more, never lifting a finger to help themselves or offering a word of thanks, or the unhygienic old woman living in filth of a home and perhaps a heart.

But I only want to deal with people that are nice and responsive and grateful and interesting. This is not about walking in someone else’s shoes to try to understand them. That can degenerate into so much psychobabble and lead to patronizing condescension. No, what I must do is by the power of the Holy Spirit have my default setting reordered so that my first response is to have mercy. I can’t do it by myself; this must be the gift of grace. It will only come as I die to self and live for and in Christ. What I can do is make that choice and ask for forgiveness for my past attitudes and seek the Holy Spirit’s judgment and help.

“Lord, help me to be like Jesus, merciful. AMEN”

Luke 13:1-9

Luke 13:1-9

Pilate was the wrong kind of ruler for the Jewish people. It is unlikely that anyone would have ruled that Province successfully. But Pilate was in almost constant conflict. Jesus talks of two groups of people who died and the guilt associated with their death. The first group may have been anti-Pilate and anti-Roman agitators. The second group may have been collaborators who were working on Pilate’s Aqueduct project. Of these two who were the greater sinners seems to be a question on the minds of the people. Two groups from opposite ends of the political spectrum and Jesus said they were not more sinful than the rest. Galilean or Jerusalemite, Rebel or collaborator, death by murder or by accident, the point is not to look at any of these two and assign guilt. The point is to see them as a reminder of our need for repentance.

Then Jesus applies this principle with a parable. The unfruitful fig tree. John the Baptist says and Luke 3:8 “Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance”. In the parable the fruitless fig is given the opportunity, season after season, and the stimulus, motivation, and fertilizer to produce fruit. If after time and motivation it remains fruitless it has but one end. God is patient with us: He gives us time, in some cases years, to produce fruit of repentance. He gives stimulus and motivation in His word, His Spirit’s promptings, the circumstances around us and even the death of all kinds of people to remind us to repent; to produce fruit of repentance. But there is a limit.

We talk about the God of second chances but what we want is the God of unlimited additional chances. At some point there comes a day of reckoning. For the one who rejects with a hard heart God's stimulus to repent God will withdraw the opportunity to repent. We need not concern ourselves with who out there is a greater or lesser sinner. We need to make sure that we are people of repentance.

“God grant me a heart that is truly and honestly repentant. AMEN”