(Click here to read Luke 10)
This seeker was not looking for an answer from Jesus that would challenge the way he lived.
Luke
10:21-24
21
In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank
you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these
things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little
children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22 All
things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who
the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and
anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
23 Then turning to the
disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what
you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired
to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear,
and did not hear it.”
The tenth chapter of Luke begins
with Jesus and his disciples firmly on the road toward Jerusalem
(Luke 9:53). Jesus has set his face, and he's not looking back (Luke
9:62). In the previous chapters, the question has been raised as to
the identity of Jesus. In chapter ten, Jesus levels with the
consequences of a wrong conviction on this question.
The chapter begins with Jesus
commissioning his disciples to go and share the good news of the
kingdom. This time, however, he sends more of them – seventy-two
disciples are sent in pairs. There is a sense of urgency and sobriety
to the mission. Jesus tells them they are lambs among wolves (v3). He
asks them to pray earnestly for more workers (v2). He tells them to
go to their cities so quickly that they aren't to even stop to greet
someone on the way (v4 – the customary greeting was actually quite
long and involved).
Jesus instructs the disciples to
stay only as long as they are received. If they are rejected, they
are to wipe the dust of the town from their feet – a strong
response, indeed (v11).
Luke
10:16 - “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who
rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who
sent me.”
Jesus pronounces woes on the
cities that reject him. He warns them of a day of judgment for those
who do not change, put their faith in action in the new Kingdom of
God. There is no pulling punches here.
When the disciples return, they
are excited to share about the Kingdom authority they've demonstrated
as they ministered abroad. “Even the demons are subject to us in
your name” (v17), they say to Jesus. Jesus' response reminds them
and us that such an excitement has an immature perspective. Life
lived as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, period, is as powerful
and exciting as it gets. The enemy is defeated. The battle is won.
The heavy lifting is done. The good news is that the Kingdom is here,
and we can live according to its freedom and justice now.
A more personal example of what
it means to accept or reject Jesus is found in the story of Mary and
Martha (Luke 10:38-42). Here, Jesus is in the home of two sisters.
Mary is at his feet, listening to his teaching (v39). It is notable
that she is described exactly as a disciple would have been. Not
every man in Jesus' culture would have believed a woman should be
taught, but Jesus teaches Mary willingly (see previous entry on Jesus
and women in Luke's gospel). Martha is in the kitchen, preparing food
and working hard to give hospitality. From the kitchen, Martha
becomes upset, and tells Jesus to get her sister Mary to help her
(v40).
Jesus responds by telling Martha
that she needn't be anxious over many things (v41). Only one thing is
necessary (v42), he says, and it is what Mary has chosen.
The good news being offered to
these cities by the seventy-two disciples is not a message of burdens
or oppression. Jesus came to set people free, not keep them bound.
The world's system keeps us anxious and troubled over many things.
The culture of the powers of this world teach us to strive upward for
material, power, influence, prestige. But Jesus doesn't require these
things. In Jesus, we are free to live outside of the arrogant
striving of the world. He is sufficient. In Jesus, we are equal and
fully acceptable just as we are.
The unfortunate truth is that we
often prefer our rugged individualism to a humble rest in the arms of
a holy God. We are offered freedom as a gift, but many of us trip
over our pride as we try to earn it ourselves. But such a freedom
will never be earned according to the ways of this world. The freedom
promised in this world is a carrot designed to keep us enslaved. We
believe we are lords of our own destiny, our liberty just over the
next bend, but it is an illusion.
The Kingdom of Heaven is in
peace. It is at rest. It is at the feet of Jesus.
+
When asked by a lawyer how he may
inherit eternal, Jesus answers by asking him what the Law of Moses
records, showing his deep respect for its' authority, as well as the
dignity and responsibility of the man who posed the question. The
lawyer responds by paraphrasing the Hebrew SHEMA, the
undisputed most important law of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Luke 10:27-29 (ESV)
And he answered, "You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your
neighbor as yourself."
And
he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you
will live."
But
he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my
neighbor?"
He desired to justify himself. He
was looking for an affirmation that his life was already enough, a
pat on the back and assurance that he was already in the way of the
Kingdom. Clearly, the law as stated was more radical than he was
willing to accept. As a good lawyer, he asked for a clarification,
and hoped for a loophole.
But it was the wrong question.
What he wanted to know was who he could exclude. For whom did he not
need to live unselfishly.
This seeker was not looking for an answer from Jesus that would challenge the way he lived.
Luke
10:30-37 (ESV)
30 Jesus replied, “A
man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among
robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half
dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and
when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a
Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other
side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was,
and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and
bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his
own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And
the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper,
saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will
repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you
think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the
robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And
Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
The story of the Samaritan turned
the lawyer's question back on itself. The right question was “how
can I be a neighbour”. In this case, it was, like the Samaritan, to
give love and care even to an enemy, to a stranger, and to give as
much as was necessary, even more. Jesus' answer required a change of
behaviour on the man's part, and it was uncomfortable. Jesus wasn't
interested in affirming the man's self-righteousness. He was more
interested in making him holy than making him happy.
Like Martha, the lawyer preferred
the life the empires of the world offer, with its quantifiable levels
of success and accomplishment by which we may judge and be judged. In
the world's way, we look upward toward a thousand paths of false
power, security, or affirmation.
But there is only one way in the
Kingdom, and that way is humble surrender. It is love and compassion
for the least of these.
+
v22
– Jesus reveals the Father.
v27
– Summary of the Law – the Hebrew SHEMA
v33
– today Samaria is part of the West Bank. Today’s “Samaritans”
are Palestinians.
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