Say What?

Luke 6:20-49

“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.” – Luke 6:27-28 NLT

Whenever I read some of the message of Jesus, I can almost hear those in His audience looking around at each other with confused looks on their faces, and shrugging their shoulders, as if to say, "What is He talking about?" Most of us have heard these messages a thousand times and we have grown used to them. But those in Jesus' audience on the day He delivered these words would have been shocked at what they were hearing. Some of what He said probably sounded like nonsense. How in the world could the poor be blessed by God? For those in the crowd who were hungry because of a lack of food or funds, Jesus' talk of blessing and satisfaction would have contradicted their experience. If you happened to be in sorrow that day due to the circumstances surrounding your life, having Jesus tell you that a time of laughter was on its way would have sounded hollow. Oh, and it gets better. "What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man. When that happens, be happy!" (Luke 6:22-23 NLT). Now let's be honest. Think about just how ridiculous that sounds. Now imagine how it must have sounded to the common Jew sitting listening to Jesus speak that day. They were already hated, excluded, mocked and cursed in so many ways. Their own religious leaders looked down on them. Yet here is Jesus promising them more of the same if they would simply follow Him.

Then Jesus really confused them. He began to contradict their long-held concepts regarding prosperity and righteousness. Their faith system had taught them that the blessings of God were materialistic in nature. To be wealthy and prosperous was a sure sign of God's blessing. Yet Jesus pronounces a series of woes on the rich, fat and happy of His day. He paints a completely different picture on how to view these things. Basically, Jesus says that those who find their fulfillment, happiness and satisfaction in the things of this world, instead of in God, will someday be sorely disappointed. The tables will be turned. The justice of God will set all things right. This message would have been a shock to the system of His hearers. All they had been taught and believed would have been turned on its head by Jesus' words.

And then He really rocked their boat by giving them a whole new way of relating to their enemies. For the Jews, enemies were everywhere. They were then, as they are now, a despised people. They were under the iron-fisted rule Rome. Their entire history had been one of constant wars, living as a conquered people, putting up with oppression, captivity and the degradation of living as little more than slaves in their own land. But Jesus tells them to love their enemies, to do good to those who hated them, to bless those who cursed them, to pray for those who hurt them. This was radical stuff. Not only that, it was impossible. These requirements would have seemed onerous and off-setting to the Jews in Jesus' audience. His suggestion to turn the other cheek would have sounded ridiculous and repulsive to their middle eastern sensibilities.

But what Jesus was doing was clarifying the standard by which God judges. Jesus tells them, "If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them!" (Luke 6: 32 NLT). Doing good to those who return the favor takes no special capability. Anyone can pull that off. What Jesus is suggesting is impossible. It goes against our very nature as human beings. But it is the very nature of God. Which is why Jesus told them, "You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate" (Luke 6:36 NLT). He is the standard. And what God wants from His people is godliness, not just more humanness. Our humanness is what got us into trouble in the first place. It is our very humanity that will be the death of humanity. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul tells them "Imitate God, therefore in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ" (Ephesians 5:1-2 NLT). What Jesus is describing for His listeners is the life of a believer. But He was still in His incarnate or earthly state. He had yet to die, be resurrected or ascend back to heaven. The Holy Spirit had yet to be given. The lifestyle He was describing WAS impossible. Apart from a relationship with Christ, none of these things would be possible. Later on in His ministry Jesus would say, "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5 NLT). But those who placed their faith in Jesus Christ would be given the power to pull off what Jesus was saying. Their live would be marked by a new set of rules, new power, a new nature, and new capacity for living in the difficult surroundings of this fallen world. Jesus closes out his message with a promise. Those who would listen to His teaching and follow Him, all the way to the cross, would have a firm foundation on which to stand amidst the storms of life. They would receive the power to thrive in this world and live a distinctively different life just like the one Jesus describes in this passage. And we who are in Christ today, are the recipients and beneficiaries of that promise.

Father, even today, some of what Jesus said sounds so impossible. But never let me forget that all of this is only possible through Your grace and mercy. I need Your power to pull it off. If I try to do it in my own strength I will fail. But with You all things are possible and apart from Christ I can do nothing. Amen.

Prayerful Decision Making.

Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16

"One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles.” – Luke 6:12-13 NLT

The choosing of the twelve. If we're not careful, we can easily view Jesus' calling of the disciples and His choosing of the twelve as one and the same event. We can also mistakenly view this process as having been somewhat random and indeliberate. After all, in His calling of the various disciples named in this list, Jesus appears to have just stumbled upon them and invited them to follow Him. But there was a method to His madness. Luke and the other Gospel writers record that sometime earlier, Jesus had begun the process of calling certain men to follow Him. "One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God. He noticed two empty boats at the water's edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water" (Luke 5:1-3 NLT). Simon did as he was told. And not long after that, he followed Jesus' further instructions and was witness to a miraculous catch of fish. As a result, Simon and his business partners, James and John, "left everything and followed Jesus" (Luke 5:11 NLT). Jesus would also end up calling the other men found in this list. But they would be among a larger group classified as followers or disciples of Jesus. But today's passage records a very special and separate occasion in which Jesus chooses from among all His followers a group of twelve men. He called all of His followers together and selected those men who would be His apostles. The Greek word used to convey this choosing process is ekléxo and it is very similar to the Greek word ekklesía which is translated "church" in the New Testament. It simply means "called out." It refers to a called people. The men listed in this passage were called out by God for a very specific purpose. He appointed them to be apostles, or "sent ones." These men were going to be sent by Jesus as His ambassadors and representatives to the world, witnessing of who He was. His choice of these twelve men was both conscious and calculated.

It is interesting that only Luke makes a point of including what took place prior to Jesus action of selecting the apostles. He refers to Jesus having spent the entire night prior to this event in prayer. And the word he uses describes an all-night prayer vigil. In other words, Jesus bathed preceded this process with intense and intimate communion with His Father before He did or said anything. While He was the Son of God, He did not take His position for granted, but modeled for us the very attitude we should have have when considering a decision. He consulted with His Father. He listened. He shared. He sought guidance. He took direction. And He sought confirmation. It was only after an entire night in prayer that He was willing to move forward with His choice. His list of names had been communicated and confirmed by God Himself. But Jesus probably prayed for more than just a list of names. Once He knew the men who would be chosen the next morning, He probably lifted each of them up individually, asking God to prepare them and protect them for what lie ahead. I have a feeling His prayer sounded much like what He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane right before His betrayal. “I have revealed youto the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word.Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the message you gave me. They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me.My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory. Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name;now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are" (John 17:6-11 NLT).

This was a momentous decision. He was choosing, setting apart the very men who would take His message of salvation to the world once He was gone. And isn't it fascinating that His list included the name of the very man who would betray Him? Because Judas' role was essential in the whole process. His betrayal of Jesus is what would help set in motion the final assault on the Son of Man and lead to His trial, crucifixion and death. Judas was not just a bit player, but a integral part of the plan of God for providing redemption to the world. His choice was bathed in prayer as well. Jesus knew what Judas would eventually do, but He prayed for him just the same. More than likely, Jesus prayed, just as He did in the garden on the night of His betrayal, "Your will be done" (Matthew 26:42 NLT). Jesus prayed for the will of God. He sought for the will of God. He ultimately obeyed the will of God, because His choice of the twelve was the very will of God. A decision bathed in and based on prayer.

Father, what a powerful reminder of the many, many decisions I make that are prayerless in nature. I tend to decide far too quickly and without talking to You first. Forgive me and thank You for reminding me that decisions that will make a difference for eternity are those that begin at the throne of Heaven, kneeling before You in humility, obedience and eager anticipation. Amen.

Healing Power.

Matthew 12:15-21; Mark 3:7-12; Luke 6:17-19

"Everyone tried to touch him, because healing power went out from him, and he healed everyone.” – Luke 6:19 NLT

Having read the stories surrounding Jesus' earthly ministry for so long, it can be easy to become callous about the countless miracles He performed. We read about Jesus casting out demons, restoring sight to the blind, causing the lame to walk, the mute to speak, and making the diseased completely whole as if they were everyday occurrences in our world. For many of us, the miracles of Jesus have become mundane. They have lost their power and significance. But imagine what it must have been like in those days. Consider what the atmosphere surrounding Jesus would have felt like as hundreds, if not thousands of people flocked to Him everywhere He went, all in the hopes of being healed by Jesus. Think about it. There were few doctors in those days. Medical care was scarce and disease was a regular part of everyday life. Injuries and ailments abounded and there was little people could do about it except suffer with it. The general misconception was that most disease and illness was a result of sin, so there was a social stigma attached to it as well. So if given a chance to be made well, who wouldn't have jumped at it? And the rumor was that all you had to do was touch Jesus and you would be made whole. That's why Luke adds, "Everyone tried to touch him, because healing power went out from him, and he healed everyone." Jesus wasn't just a celebrity, He was a source of hope and expectation for thousands of people who had long ago given up and resigned themselves to a life of pain, suffering and despair.

So the people came from all over – north, south, east and west. Luke says "there were people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from as far north as the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon" (Luke 6:15 NLT). Many walked for miles just to get to where Jesus was. They may have journeyed for days to get to the village where Jesus was last known to have been seen, only to find out that He had moved on. But in spite of their infirmities and disabilities, they kept pursuing Jesus. Their need drove them. Their helplessness motivated them. Their hope that Jesus could do something for them energized them. And Mark tells us that there were so many of them that Jesus had to tell "his disciples to have a boat ready so the crowd would not crush him" (Mark 3:9 NLT).

Jesus had healing power. So much so, that just to touch the hem of His robe would activate that power in a person's life. A little later on in the Gospels we have the story of the woman who had suffered for years from constant bleeding. She had spent all her money pursuing treatment from doctors, but was simply poorer as a result, not better. In fact, she had actually gotten worse. Mark tells us, "She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, 'If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.' Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition" (Mark 5:27-29 NLT). Jesus was immediately aware that something had happened. Even in all the pushing and shoving of the crowd, He noticed that "healing power had gone out from him" (Mark 5:30 NLT). And that power revolutionized a woman's life forever. Jesus told her, "God in peace. Your suffering is over" (Mark 5:34 NLT).

The miracles of Jesus were designed to reveal who He was and to reinforce His claim to be the Son of God. The demons certainly had no problem recognizing that reality. Every time Jesus cast one of them out of an individual, they would scream, "You are the Son of God!" There was no doubt in their demented minds that Jesus was just who He claimed to be. His power was self-evident to them. They were no match for Jesus. And while the people who happened to receive healing from Jesus may not have fully understood who Jesus really was, they had no trouble recognizing the fact that He had healing power. They had experienced it first hand. Their lives had been changed by it. They were walking billboards of Jesus' miraculous healing power. And we should be too. Each one of us who have been healed from the deadly disease of sin should be a living testimony to the healing power of Jesus. We have not only been healed, we have been given new life. We were dead, lifeless and hopeless, with no means to do anything about our situation. Like the woman in the story, we had exhausted all our resources trying to fix our situation ourselves, only to be worse off than when we started. But Jesus touched us. His healing power transformed us. We immediately went from being spiritually dead to alive. He removed our sinfulness from us and replaced it with His righteousness. He took away our disease and replaced it with wholeness. He did for us what we could never have done for ourselves. But we run the risk of treating our miraculous transformation just like we do the stories of Jesus' healings in the Scriptures. It can become old hat and pedestrian, losing its significance. We can easily forget what Jesus has done for us. We can take our healing for granted and allow our miraculous salvation to become mundane. Which is why we need to remind ourselves daily of what has happened and what Jesus has done. We must see ourselves in the lives of the people in these stories. We shared their hopelessness and helplessness. We were just as despairing. We were outcast and rejects, deformed and disfigured by sin. But when all hope was lost, the healing power of Jesus touched and transformed us. And our suffering was over.

Father, never let me take for granted the amazing transformation that has taken place in my life through the healing power of Your Son. I don't want it to become old hat and old news. May I constantly be amazed at just what has happened in my life because of Your love and Jesus sacrificial death in my place. I am healed and whole. I am alive and well. I am sinless and righteous before Your eyes because of what Jesus has done for me. Amen.

Hardened Hearts.

Matthew 12:9-14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11

"He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts.” – Mark 3:5 NLT

Another Sabbath and yet another confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus was teaching in the synagogue in the village of Capernaum. In the crowd there is a man there with a deformed hand. But there is also a group of Pharisees who are closely watching Jesus' every move to see if He attempts to "work" on the Sabbath by healing someone, thus breaking the law. In fact, Matthew records the question they posed to Jesus, in hopes that His answer would condemn Him. "Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?" (Matthew 12:10 NLT).

Jesus knows their hearts and so he brings up the man with the deformed hand and has him stand in front of the crowd, in full view of everyone. Then Jesus confronts His antagonists and asks them a simple question in return: "Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?" (Mark 3:3 NLT). His enemies are speechless, not knowing how to respond.  So Jesus continues, "If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn't you work to pull it out? Of course you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:11 NLT).

This exchange between Jesus and these religious leaders causes Him to be both angry and sad. He is angry at their insensitive hearts and their indifference to the needs of those around them. They are more concerned with their rules and regulations than they are for the people under their care. But who exactly were these men and what were their responsibilities. In essence, the Pharisees were a religious sect or order. Their name seems to mean "separated ones." But what or whom were they separated from? The general consensus is that they separated from the 'people of the land,' the 'am ha'ares. This was a designation of the illiterate and the unrefined people of the land, the peasants, whose illiteracy impeded any careful fidelity to the religious duties such as concerned tithes and cleanness" (Alan Ross, The Religious World of Jesus). They tended to view the common people as ignorant and cursed (John 7:49). They tended to equate their separateness with holiness. That's why they were constantly shocked by Jesus' decision to eat and associate with the common people, including all manner of sinners. These men also prided themselves in their refusal to be tainted by the influence of the Greeks and Romans. They considered themselves the few remaining "pure" Jews, who kept themselves untainted by outside influence. They were prideful, arrogant and brutally condemning of all those who disagreed with them.

Jesus is angered by their attitudes and saddened by their hard hearts. In all their religious fervor, they had become hardened to the real point of having faith in God. They didn't share God's heart. They were incapable of seeing the world from God's perspective. In fact, they had attempted to fit God into their own mold, and force Him to operate according to their standards. To them, God was just another Pharisee or rule-keeper. And yet Jesus, as the Son of God, revealed to them the very heart and nature of God the Father. He was compassionate, caring, empathetic, loving, sensitive and responsive to the needs of men – all men. He had a special place in His heart for the condemned, disenfranchised, broken, helpless, hopeless, sinful and needy. It was God's love for mankind that motivated Him to send His Son in the first place. It was not that God jettisoned His law and replaced it with love. No, God still had exacting standards and His requirement was still sinless perfection. But He knew that no man, Pharisee or other, could ever meet that standard. He gave His law to reveal to man his insufficiency and need. Then He sent His Son to do what no man had ever done before – keep the law of God perfectly and live His life sinlessly. He became the perfect, sinless sacrifice to pay for the sins of man. That is just how much God loves us.

But the Pharisees represent all self-righteous individuals who still believe that it is the keeping of rules that sets us apart from the rest, that our ability to perform earns us favor with God. But this attitude angers and saddens the Savior. It keeps us from recognizing our need for Him, and it prevents us from seeing ourselves as no better than any other man or woman who walks the face of the earth. We too, are sinners saved by grace. We are in need of the mercy of God every day of our lives. Of all people, we should share Christ's passion for the lost and a heart for those still suffering from the effects of sin.

Father, give us a heart like Your Son had. Help us to see the world the way He did. Don't let us live our lives or view ourselves as somehow better than everyone else. We have been transformed because of Your grace and mercy, not because we somehow deserved or earned it. Give us the ability to see others the way You do. Motivate us to extend grace in the same way it has been extended to us. Amen.

Lord of the Sabbath.

Matthew 12:1-8; Mark 2:23-28; Luke 6:1-5

"Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people,not people for the Sabbath. For this reason the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” – Mark 2:27-28 NLT

The Pharisees had turned the requirements of God into a set of ridiculously impractical religious rules. They had expanded God's law, adding an overwhelming list of additional prohibitions that made keeping it burdensome. All the while, they missed the point of the Law altogether. The Law, like the Sabbath, was created to protect man from himself. The original law given by God regarding harvesting on the Sabbath, was to prevent farmers from allowing their greed to allow them to ignore God and, in essence, worship material gain instead. It also protected them from forcing their workers to labor on the Sabbath. The Sabbath itself was designed that man might have rest one day out of the week. The fourth commandment given by God reads: "Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy" (Exodus 20:8-11 NLT).

The Sabbath was to be a day of rest, It was a day to be set apart for the Lord. But the Pharisees had turned even the observance of that day into a list of rules to keep. Rather than restful, it had become laborious and cumbersome. For the average Jew, the day was filled with fear and trepidation because you never knew if some simple act you performed was violating some new rule added in by the religious leaders. So it is no surprise that the Pharisees confronted Jesus and His disciples, accusing them of harvesting on the Sabbath just for rubbing a few heads of grain together in order to satisfy their hunger. According to the Pharisees, they were working. But their keeping of their own laws was quite subjective in nature. On another occasion, Jesus had a similar conversation with the Pharisees after he had healed someone on the Sabbath. They were appalled. Jesus simply replies, "If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out? Of course you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:11-12 NLT). In other words, Jesus knows that these very same, self-righteous men would violate their own rules if it involved something of value to them. And that is Jesus' point in this story. People are more valuable than the religious and ritualistic observance of the Sabbath. And because He is the Son of God, Jesus has authority over the Sabbath. He can do what He chooses to do, and because He is doing the will of His Father, it is NOT in violation of the Sabbath, but in keeping with God's original intent. Jesus would later say, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:28-29 NLT). Jesus came to bring mankind rest from the weariness of trying to keep the Law. He came to bring rest from the burden of trying live under the overwhelming requirements of religious rule-keeping.

When asked one time what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40 NLT). Loving God and loving others trump all other laws. Every other law given by God was based on these two. The Pharisees had missed this point. They loved their rules more than they loved people. They loved their rules more than they loved God! Keeping their rules had become an idol to them. That is how they could look past the miraculous healing of a man on the Sabbath, and only see the violation of their rules. And we can be guilty of the same thing today. We can have our own list of denominational rules or standards. We can have a stack of religious requirements that we put on ourselves and others that are not based on a love of people, but a love of rules. We burden others with our own rules, burdening them down with requirements rather than easing their load with love. We require people to clean up their act, THEN we'll love and accept them. Jesus loved people as they were. We require people to learn our rules and live by them, then we'll consider them part of our community. Jesus accepted people as they were. We are to love God and love others just as He did. If any rule, requirement, or religious standard keeps us from doing either, it is not of God. If our rules drive others away from God rather than to Him, they are of our own making, not His. Jesus came to ease burdens, not create them. The same thing should be true of us.

Father, it is easy to fall into the role of the Pharisee. Without even knowing it, I can find myself creating rules and standards that I hold others to, but that are not from You. Those rules can become burdensome and drive others away from You rather than to You. Help me to see this tendency and change it. Show me how to put loving You and others ahead of any rule I may hold sacred. Amen.