ABC Extra – When Family Members Don’t Believe
It always concerns me when I’m talking to a parent of a young child and he says something like, “I’m going to let my child make his own decisions about religion as he grows. I may take him to church every once in a while, I’ll give him a Bible, but ultimately, it’s up to him. I don’t want to cram religion down his throat.” I once heard of some parents who took their daughter to church until she was eight, at which time they began to ask her: “Would you like to go to church this morning, honey?” I leave it you to guess which decision she made.
This past weekend in worship and ABC, we kicked off a new series titled, “All in the Family: Discovering God’s Plan for Your Family.” In this series, we are taking a look at the roles God has given husbands, wives, parents, and children to play in their families. At the heart of each of these roles, however – whether your role is that of a husband, a wife, a parent, a child, or some combination thereof – is the preeminence of Christ. In other words, if you are part of a family, you should never simply leave it up to another family member’s discretion as to whether or not they want to “be religious.” Rather, you should clearly, compellingly, and persuasively present Christ’s gospel. You should model to and for your family what a Christ-centered life looks like.
In our text from Matthew 10, Jesus gives us a straightforward estimate of the cost of a Christ-centered life: “I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:35-37). A Christ-centered life means that you are to love Christ and follow Him above all else – even your family. And if this upsets your family – if this turns them into “enemies,” as Jesus says in verse 36 – so be it. It is important to remember that at the same time the gospel of Christ unites, it also can divide. It is a “stumbling block” to those who refuse to believe (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:23).
Interestingly, the Greek word Jesus uses for “enemies” is ekthros. This word is first used in the Bible in Genesis 3:15, when God curses the Satanic serpent for tempting Adam and Eve into sin: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your Offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.” The Greek word for “enmity” is again ekthros. This is the Bible’s first prophecy of Christ, reminding us that He, as a descendent of Eve and the very Son of God, will crush the head of Satan on the cross. We also are to be enemies of Satan and all he teaches and touts.
Sadly, sometimes, even within families, one person teaches and touts the truth of God while another teaches and touts other things not of God. In this way, they become an enemy of the faith as Jesus says. But there is still hope!
In the early days of Christianity, it was not uncommon for two pagan people to marry and then for one to convert to Christianity. This created a situation where one spouse was believing and the other was not. Thankfully, the Bible offers some guidance on how to graciously and whimsically witness to those in our family who do not have faith in Christ. Though much of the biblical guidance is given specifically to husbands and wives, it can certainly be applied in the context of other family relationships as well. So here are three thoughts on how to witness to unbelieving family members.
First, remember that even if a family member does not trust in Christ, they are still part of your family! The apostle Paul writes, “To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). Notice what Paul says: If your spouse is an unbeliever, you don’t disown and divorce him or her; rather, you stay in the marriage. After all, that person is still your spouse! He or she is still your family! Thus, a difference in faith is not a basis for estrangement.
Second, your life in Christ and for Christ is a powerful to witness to family members who do not believe. The apostle Peter writes to wives who have unbelieving husbands: “Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives” (1 Peter 3:1-2). Peter’s goal is for wives to “win over” their husbands by their witness to Christ, even if their witness to Christ is a silent one. This witness to Christ is one born out of behavior and purity. Thus, as we spend time with unbelieving family members, it is important to ask: What kind of witness – in word and in deed – am I giving for Christ?
Third, your greatest affection must be for Christ, not for your family. Jesus could not be clearer: “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37). Your highest allegiance and affection must be for Christ. To love anyone – even your family – more than Christ is sinful. Indeed, it is only by loving Christ that a person can truly learn how to love his family. For the best love we can give our families is a love that is from and of God. Any love that we give our families apart from this love is only a cut-rate love. And who would want to give their families that?
Having unbelieving family members is never easy. But, by God’s grace working through His holy Word, unbelieving family members do not need to stay unbelieving forever. They can be transformed. Jesus can save them. After all, he saved us. And if Jesus can save a guy like me, there’s hope for us all!
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
Weekend Extra – The End?
Mark’s account of Jesus’ resurrection is my favorite of all the Gospel accounts. I know that John’s account holds a special place in the hearts of many, perhaps because, at least in the many Easter services I’ve attended, it always seems to be the appointed Gospel lesson for the day. And no doubt the picture it paints of Peter running to the tomb and finding it empty and his companion John seeing and believing is gripping and exciting, but nevertheless, Mark’s account holds a special place in my heart, mainly because of how it ends: “Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. The End” (Mark 16:8).
Well, “The End” is not actually in the Greek text, and that’s part of the problem. Because with an ending like this, many in the early church thought, “Surely there must be a better, more appropriate ending than three women, scared out of their wits, fleeing from an empty tomb where they have just encountered a young man dressed in white!” And so, in most Bibles, there is Mark 16:9-20, appropriately culminating with Jesus’ great commission in verse 16, His ascension into heaven in verse 19, and then a strange line about snake handling in between these verses. But don’t worry, that verse about snake handling probably wasn’t in the original, divinely inspired text. Whew! Am I a glad about that one!
If you’ll notice, after verse 8 in most Bibles, you’ll find a notation: “The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16:9–20.” In other words, even though Mark’s gospel wraps up nicely with Jesus’ great commission and ascension in verses 16 and 19 respectively, the earliest manuscripts of Mark end with wary women. This leads textual critical scholar Bruce Metzger to comment on verses 9-20, “The section was added by someone who knew a form of Mark that ended abruptly with verse 8 and who wished to supply a more appropriate conclusion” (Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 105). It is important to note that Metzger also explains that verses 9-20 have a long storied history in the Church, first being attested to by Irenaeus and Tatian’s Diatessaron in the second century. Thus, though these verses were probably not written by the Evangelist himself, they did not come long after him.
But even with all this in mind, I kind of like that we seem to have nothing more of Mark’s Gospel after verse 8. After all, if I found a missing body and a supernatural looking guy in white hanging out in Jesus’ tomb, I think I’d be scared too! And yet, we all know that the women shouldn’t have been scared. After all, Jesus had foretold His death and resurrection time and time again (cf. Mark 8:31, 10:33-34). The women should have known better.
But then again, so should we. For we, like the women, have the promise – and the fulfillment – of a risen Savior! We, like the women, can say with the young man in the tomb, “Christ is risen!” And just as the young man told the women that Jesus was going ahead of them into Galilee where they would see Him (Mark 16:7), Jesus tells us that He goes ahead of us as our Good Shepherd, leading us through this life, and even into the next (cf. John 10:4). So why in the world do we worry? Why in the world do we fret? For what reason in the world do we have to be afraid?
Perhaps we are more like the women than we care to admit. For we have the same message as the women: “Christ is risen!” But we also have the same response: We are trembling, bewildered, and afraid.
But we don’t have to be. For Jesus, as our Good Shepherd, invites us, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). Fear may mark the end of Mark’s Gospel, but it does not have to mark the end of our lives. For Jesus’ gospel in and through our lives is still being written.
So, of what are you afraid? Your finances? Your future? A person? Perhaps even your eternity? Remember that the message of Easter is not only, “Christ is risen,” but also, “Do not be alarmed” (Mark 16:6). For we serve and follow a living Lord who can take care of and take away our fears. I hope you’ll let Him. Because although verse 8 may be a good place for a Gospel to end, it’s never a good place for a life to end.
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message!
Resurrection! It’s Not Just for Jesus
One of my favorite parts of Holy Week is the music. Last night in Maundy Thursday worship, we sang of Christ’s body and blood, given for us sinners to eat and drink. I’ve been singing the words to this hymn this morning:
God’s Word proclaims and we believe
That in this Supper we receive
Christ’s very body, as He said,
His very blood for sinners shed.
Today, as we reflect upon the cross of Christ, we will sing another of my favorite songs:
Mighty, awesome, wonderful,
Is the holy cross.
Where the Lamb laid down His life
To lift us from the fall.
Mighty is the power of the cross.
And then, on Easter, will come this powerful anthem:
I know that my Redeemer lives;
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my ever-living head.
The words of this final song, of course, are taken from the book of Job where, even after Job has lost everything, he declares his faith in God and his desire for an advocate to plead his case to God: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me” (Job 19:25-27)! These words have long been taken by Christians as a foreshadowing of Christ’s resurrection. Hence, the reason we sing these words on Easter! Interestingly, however, it’s not just Christians who have found hints of a resurrection in Job’s story, the ancient Jews did too.
In the third century BC, a Greek translation of the Old Testament was commissioned. Because of the rampant Hellenization of the ancient world, many Jews could no longer read Hebrew, the language in which the Old Testament was originally written, and so this work of translating the Bible into Greek was undertaken so that people could read the Bible in their language. The Septuagintal translation of Job is especially interesting because whoever translated it seems to have a love for resurrection! Consider these passages:
- Job 14:14: Hebrew – “If a man dies, shall he live again?” Greek – “If a man dies, he shall live!”
- Job 19:26: Hebrew – “After my skin has been thus destroyed…” Greek – “And to resurrect my skin upon the earth that endures these sufferings…”
- Job 42:17: The Greek Septuagint adds a line to this verse not in the Hebrew text: “It is written of Job that he will rise again with those whom the Lord will raise.”
Clearly, the translator of Job believed in the resurrection! Thus, the book of Job not only foretells Jesus’ resurrection in that famous line from Job 19, it foretells the resurrection of Job and all the faithful as well. For because Christ has risen, we will rise! In the words of the prophet Daniel: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). For those who trust in Christ, we will be raised to everlasting life. Because Christ has risen, we will rise. The translator of Job knew and believed this. I hope you do too. For if you know and believe that your Redeemer lives, you can know and believe that you will live…forever.
Holy Week Sorrow and Celebration
Right now in my personal devotions, I am reading through the book of Lamentations, a sorrowful song written by the prophet Jeremiah, which describes Israel’s defeat and exile at the hands of the Babylonians in 586 BC. Some of the language Jeremiah uses to describe Israel’s demise is grotesque and gut wrenching:
- The tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst. (Lamentations 4:4)
- Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become dry as wood. (Lamentations 4:8)
- The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people. (Lamentations 4:10)
Clearly, this is a tragic, despairing time. Indeed, even for a professional prophet such as Jeremiah, who has seen much sin and tragedy, the despair of the exile seems overwhelming. And Jeremiah places the blame for this despair squarely at the feet of God.
In chapter 3, Jeremiah laments his plight:
I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath; He has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me He turns His hand again and again the whole day long. He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; He has broken my bones; He has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; He has made my chains heavy; though I call and cry for help, He shuts out my prayer; He has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; He has made my paths crooked. He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; He turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; He has made me desolate; He bent His bow and set me as a target for His arrow. He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. He has filled me with bitterness; He has sated me with wormwood. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes. (Lamentations 3:1-16)
Notice the pronoun Jeremiah employs again and again to describe who is responsible for his misery: “He.” “He” has brought Jeremiah misery, trouble, pain, and despair. It’s “His” fault that Jeremiah’s plight is what it is. Who is this “He”? None other than God, of course. God has afflicted Jeremiah in the most miserable of ways.
And yet, even in his misery, Jeremiah has not lost all hope: “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:21-23). Jeremiah believes that finally, ultimately, God’s steadfast love will prevail. Indeed, it’s interesting the way Jeremiah describes this steadfast love just verses later: “Though He cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love; for He does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men” (Lamentations 3:32-33). Though God does afflict and grieve people because of their sin, Jeremiah says, He does not willingly do so. God’s will is not to pour out His hot wrath, but His steadfast love. The Hebrew word for “willingly” is milibo, a word meaning, “from His heart.” Thus, Jeremiah is saying that from God’s heart does not come affliction. Rather, from God’s heart comes His steadfast love. God’s will is wrapped in love.
Luther describes God’s wrath at sin and God’s will of love by making a distinction between the “alien” and the “proper” work of God:
We must know what is meant by the work of God. It is nothing else but to create righteousness, peace, mercy, truth, patience, kindness, joy, and health, inasmuch as the righteous, truthful, peaceful, kind, joyful, healthy, patient, merciful cannot do otherwise than act according to His nature. Therefore God creates righteous, peaceful, patient, merciful, truthful, kind, joyful, wise, healthy men…But He cannot come to this His proper work unless He undertakes a work that is alien and contrary to Himself…Therefore, since He can make just only those who are not just, He is compelled to perform an alien work in order to make them sinners, before He performs His proper work of justification. Thus He says, “I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal.” (AE 51:18-19)
God must judge us before He can justify us, Luther says. His alien and His proper work go hand in hand. Thus, both God’s alien work of judgment and God’s proper work of love are needed in Jeremiah’s life. And both God’s alien work of judgment and God’s proper work of love are needed in our lives too. But lest we forget, through faith in Christ, God’s proper work prevails!
The alien and the proper work of God meet most clearly in the death and resurrection of Christ, which we remember during this Holy Week. Luther explains:
God’s alien work is the suffering of Christ and sufferings in Christ, the crucifixion of the old man and the mortification of Adam. God’s proper work, however, is the resurrection of Christ, justification in the Spirit, and the vivification of the new man, as Romans 4:25 says: “Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification.” (AE 51:19)
God judges His Son on the cross, killing Him for the sins of the world. This was not something He delighted in doing – it was alien to Him – but it was necessary. For Christ’s crucifixion satisfied God’s righteous wrath at sinners…sinners like you and me (cf. Romans 3:25-26). And with God’s wrath satisfied through Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, God could now move to His proper work: Giving to His children His steadfast love which never ceases.
This Holy Week, spend some time meditating on both the alien and the proper work of God. For both are needed. But finally, one prevails! For God’s work does not end in an alien way. Rather, it ends in its proper way. It ends in our salvation through faith in Christ. Praise be to God!
Weekend Extra – Jesus, the Donkey Tamer
It was the first new vehicle I had ever purchased. And when I drove off the lot in my brand new 2003 forest green Chevrolet Silverado, I was beaming with pride. Never had I owned a truck so spotless. Before this, I sputtered around in a beat up Ford Ranger. But now, I cruised smoothly in a Chevrolet. I even got to take in that famed new car smell. I couldn’t wait to show off my new truck to my buddies. “Look!” I exclaimed as I pulled into my buddies’ apartment, “This truck is sweet.” And my buddies agreed. Of course, the three of us had to appropriately break in such a fine new vehicle. And so we ventured out on a ritual right of passage, precious to young men everywhere: the road trip. After all, there’s nothing like Slim Jims, Dr. Pepper, and several hundred miles to appropriately break in a new truck.
In our reading for Palm Sunday from Mark 11, Jesus takes a road trip with His disciples to the city of Jerusalem. But instead of breaking in a new truck for His road trip, Jesus breaks in a new donkey: “As Jesus and His disciples approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of His disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here’” (Mark 11:1-2). For this occasion, Jesus wants a donkey “which no one has ever ridden.” Two things are notable about this request.
First, unlike a truck that has never been driven, a donkey that has never been ridden was no smooth ride, for the donkey wouldn’t have been “broken.” That is, it wouldn’t have been used to carrying any sort of a burden. Thus, the animal would have normally tried to buck any burden off its back. Jesus, however, seems to have no such problem: “When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it” (Mark 11:7). There is no mention of the animal making any fuss whatsoever. At this scene, one cannot help but think of the kind of power Jesus has over creation. He can calm a storm (Mark 4:35-41) and whither a fig tree (Mark 11:12-14, 20-21). Nature submits to His command. Who is this? Even the wind and the waves, the fig tree, and a donkey obey Him (cf. Mark 4:41)!
The answer to this question, of course, is that Jesus is the Holy One of God. He is God’s Messiah and, as such, fulfills the Isaianic promise: “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain” (Isaiah 11:6-9). Christ, as God’s Holy One, rules God’s creation and brings peace and rest to it – even to unbroken donkeys.
This takes us to the second thing that is notable about Jesus’ request. Jesus’ request for an unbroken animal hearkens to the Old Testament sacrificial system, where unbroken animals were used as sacrifices to God. For instance, in Numbers 19:2-3, we read: “This is a requirement of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.” A sacrificial animal was to be unbroken and un-ridden. And so here we have an unbroken donkey. But this time, instead of being the sacrifice, the donkey is bearing the sacrifice. For Christ, just days later will be sacrificed on a cross.
In the Old West, the cowboys had a saying. “Hold your horses!” they would say when an equine got out of control. On Palm Sunday, the cry rings out from the disciples: “Hold your donkey!” “Hold your donkey,” for the Savior needs it to ride into Jerusalem. And though it has never been ridden, it will not gallop out of control. For the Holy One of God is sovereign over nature – even donkeys. “Hold your donkey,” and do not give it to someone else, for this unbroken donkey will bear the sacrifice broken for sin…and sinners. What an honor it must have been for that donkey to bear the Christ. And what a blessing it is for us that our King has come to us “righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9).
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Josh’s
message!
Adult Bible Class – God in the Gap
What is hell? Is it a real place? Do real people go there? Find out in this Adult Bible Class from Concordia Lutheran Church.
Weekend Extra – Tough and Weak Prayer
Recently, I heard the story of a lady whose husband was terminally ill with a heart condition. For years, he had fought valiantly against his sickness, but now, his ability to fight was waning. The time came when he had only days left. He was in the hospital. The doctors were scrambling to prolong his life. And this man’s wife had a decision to make. Should she advise continuing treatments for her husband, who was unable to decide for himself, or should she advise against it? She prayed to her Lord. A couple of hours later, word came from the nurse: “He will not be getting better. It’s all downhill from here.” She took this word to be her divine answer and told the doctors to keep her beloved husband comfortable rather than to try to treat his disease. He passed away a couple of days later.
This past weekend in worship and ABC, we took a look at Jesus’ Parable of the Unjust Judge:
In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, “Grant me justice against my adversary.” For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, “Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!” (Luke 18:2-5)
Upfront, Luke states the purpose of Jesus’ parable when he writes, “Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and never give up” (Luke 18:1). This, then, is a parable about prayer. Indeed, in this little parable are embedded some very valuable lessons that can help us tremendously in our own prayer lives.
First, we must remember that prayer is tough. The woman in Jesus’ parable is persistent in her entreaty of the judge. We should be the same in prayer. But being persistent is not always easy. All too often, we can be tempted to give up when the answers to our prayers come slower than we might like. In our quick fix, microwave, lightning fast, high speed society, we are conditioned to want answers from God and want them now! But sometimes, God makes us wait. And this is good. For patience can build our character and our trust in God. But waiting is not easy.
Prayer can also be tough when the answer we receive to a prayer is not the one we want. I think of that lady and her husband. Surely she was praying for a miracle. Surely she was begging for her husband to be healed. But her answer from God through a nurse was loud and clear: “No. His time has come.” To receive an answer like this in prayer and then to make a medical decision like the one she had to make is never easy. Prayer is not easy. This we must remember.
Second, we also must remember that prayer is for the weak. There is an interesting paradox that permeates prayer. Prayer is tough, and yet it is for weak people. It is for people who know that by their own devices, know-how, and strength, they cannot prop up, fix up, or wrap up their lives. In Jesus’ parable, it is a widow who entreats a judge. This is purposeful. For widows were well known to be weak and vulnerable in this day. Without a husband, a widow often had no financial resources for herself or recourse against those who would seek to take advantage of her, as did this mysterious adversary in Jesus’ parable. Prayer, then, is for people who are weak…and know it. It is for people who understand that the most profound things of life happen not with our cajoling and coaxing, but by God’s providence and power. Prayer demands more trust in the supremacy of God and less trust in the supremacy of self. Prayer is for weak people and to a powerful God.
Finally, then, the question of prayer is this: Are you tough and weak in prayer? Are you persistent and powerless in prayer? The good news of our prayers is that they do not fall on the ears of an unjust judge, like the widow in Jesus’ parable, but on the ears of a righteous heavenly Father who wants to help. We do not have to persuade Him to care about us as does the widow with the judge. He already does.
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
ABC Extra – Facebook and Salvation
The other day, I noticed a conversation between some of my Facebook friends on the parable we studied this weekend, Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus from Luke 16:19-31. I found it fascinating the way one of my friends described the point, or as I like to put it in ABC, the “transcendent truth” of this parable: “What I get is that God is not happy with rich people who do not care about the sufferings of others, especially the poor. Why is the rich man in Hades? Because he did not help his neighbor Lazarus.”
I’ve spent some time pondering the “point” that my Facebook friend took away from this parable. On the one hand, she is right. Jesus’ subsequent conversation with a rich ruler in Luke 18 makes her point all too soberly:
A certain ruler asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good – except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’” “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. (Luke 18:18-23)
This man’s great wealth kept him out of the Kingdom of God because he refused to love his neighbor and share his wealth. This selfishness was damning for him and to him. My friend is right in her Facebook post.
And yet, something is missing. Because although it is true that refusing to be a neighbor to someone in need – as both the rich ruler in Jesus’ conversation and the rich man in Jesus’ parable do – does damn a person to hell, the inverse is not true. Giving to the poor, being a neighbor to those in need, and even keeping all of God’s commandments does not get a person to heaven! No, only Jesus, through His work on the cross, gets a person to heaven. Indeed, it is vital to note how Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus ends. The rich man is talking to Abraham in heaven and he says:
“I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.” “No, father Abraham,” he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” (Luke 16:27-51)
The rich man’s five brothers can avoid the fires of hell not by being really good guys who help their neighbors, but by listening to Moses and the Prophets. In other words, they can receive salvation by believing what the Scriptures say about salvation. And if they refuse to believe what the Scriptures say about salvation, they will not believe even if someone rises from the dead to preach salvation to them, which, of course, is precisely what Jesus did. And, precisely as Jesus warned, many people still did not believe. Helmut Thielicke explains the situation well:
Do not imagine that a messenger will come from the beyond and confirm what is said in Moses and the prophets, what seems to you to be so unverifiable, so mythological. Father Abraham will not send you any such occult confirmation. For anybody who has an interest in evading God will also consider an appearance from the dead and empty specter and elusion. Nor will the heavens open above us and God will perform no miracle to bring us to our knees. For God is no shock therapist who works upon our nerves; He loves you as His child and it’s your heart He wants.
So there will be no one appearing from the dead, no voice from heaven will sound, nor will there be any miracle in the clouds. None of this will come to you…We have only the Word, the Word made flesh and crucified, that namelessly quiet Word which came to us in one was was poor and despised as His brother Lazarus. For He really wanted to be his brother…
Accordingly, there remains for us…nothing but “Moses and the Prophets” and all they have to say about this Jesus. He who does not hear these and is not saved here cannot be helped by messengers from the dead.” (Helmut Thielicke, The Waiting Father, 50)
How are the rich man’s brothers to escape the fires of hell? They are to hear and believe all that Moses and Prophets have to say about Jesus. And the same is true for us.
We never learn the fate of the rich man’s five brothers. We simply know that Lazarus rests in Abraham’s bosom in heaven and the rich man is consigned to agony in hell. This is purposeful. For, you see, we are the five brothers in this parable. This parable is ours to finish. For we are, by nature, destined for hell because of our sin, but able to obtain salvation full and free by God’s grace through faith in His Word, Jesus Christ. Will you believe what Moses and the Prophets have to say about Jesus?
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
ABC Extra – Jesus Likes It When You’re Humiliated
No one likes to be humbled. After all, being humbled is, well, humiliating. Being humbled wounds your ego. Being humbled shatters your pride. Being humbled can even make you question your competence. But although being humbled is not an enjoyable experience, Jesus says it is a good – and sometimes even a necessary – one.
This past weekend in worship and ABC, we studied the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector from Luke 18:9-14. Jesus ends His parable with this thought: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (verse 14). This one, seemingly simple, statement is worth pondering.
First, it is worth noting that Jesus’ statement concerning humility and those who are humbled and exalted does not prima facie show it self to be apparent in the lives of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee, who haughtily “thanks God that he is not like other men” (verse 11) and the tax collector, who cries out, “God, have mercy on me, the sinner” (verse 13) do not depart from the temple any more visibly humbled or exalted than when they came in. In fact, it is reasonable to suggest that they did not feel any more humbled or exalted than when they came in. The Pharisee leaves still secure in his own righteousness. And the tax collector leaves probably still struggling with guilt from his past misdeeds. However, regardless of how things may appear to outsiders or even feel on the inside for the Pharisee and the tax collector, something radical happened spiritually: the Pharisee has been humbled and the tax collector has been exalted. Jesus says so. Thus, it seems possible for a person to be humbled or exalted in God’s Kingdom and not even know it. And so, even when we feel humiliated by the world, we trust that, through faith, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). God exalts His people, even if hiddenly.
The second thing worth noting is that, in God’s Kingdom, exaltation comes in and through humiliation. The Greek word for “exalt” is hypso. This word is taken up by the apostle Paul in his famous hymn from Philippians 2:8-9: “Being found in appearance as a man, Christ humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name.” Here the word for “exalted” is hyperhypso, the prefix hyper- intensifying the thrust of the verb. In other words, Jesus is not just exalted, He’s hyper-exalted! But notice the route He travels to arrive at such exaltation: He humbles Himself and becomes obedient unto death – even death on a cross. Thus, exaltation for Jesus involves not just a lofty heavenly perch, but a humiliating death. Jesus Himself speaks similarly when He prophesies, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). Again we find the word hypso, this time translated as the phrase “lifted up.” In the Gospel of John, to be “lifted up” does not mean to be lifted up in exaltation on throne, but to be lifted up in humiliation on a cross. Humiliation is exaltation for Jesus!
So what does all this mean? It means that in the Kingdom of God, humiliation and exaltation are closer than we think. Indeed, we find exaltation in humiliation. This truth should lead us to humble ourselves in service to our God and to others. Consider: Who is it that needs your strong hand? Or who is it that needs your gentle words? Who is it that needs your time in companionship? Or who is it that needs your prayers for healing? These tasks may seem menial and humble, but these are exactly the kind of tasks to which we are called. For in such humble service, we are exalted – not in the way the world views exaltation, but in the way God grants exaltation. And that’s the kind of exaltation we want anyway.
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
ABC Extra: Not So Neighborly
When I moved to Austin in 1996 to go to college, I was a scrawny seventeen year-old. As I settled into college life, hung out and ate Top Ramen in our 1950’s rundown dorm, and turned eighteen, I felt the need to “bulk up.” After all, I was on my own now. And I was eighteen so I was a “man.” And so, I hit the gym with one of my buddies. Almost immediately, my eyes darted to the bench press. “This is exactly what I need!” I thought to myself. “I’ll be benching a couple hundred pounds in no time at all.” Of course, I needed to start with a little less than two hundred pounds. After all, I hadn’t bulked up yet. And so, I lugged four twenty-five pound plates onto the bar for a mere one hundred pounds. “I’ll just lift this to get warmed up,” I thought to myself. I couldn’t even lift the bar. So, I switched out the plates and reduced the bench press to eighty pounds. Still no dice. Finally, I tried fifty. This, I managed to lift. But I also forgot to put the pins on the ends of the bar. And the plates quickly came crashing down.
I thought I was strong. But I wasn’t nearly as strong as I thought. A similar thing happens when many of us think about our righteousness and goodness. Most of us like to think of ourselves as “good people.” I was recently reading an article by Dr. Neal Mayerson, founder of the VIA Institute on Character. In his article, he noted what psychologists refer to as an “actor-observer bias.” This refers to the tendency that we all have to excuse our immoral behavior by appealing to circumstantial reasons that we had to act the way we did. In other words, we think we’re good. But we’re not nearly as good as we think. And when we are confronted with our own immorality, we try minimalize and rationalize it.
The “actor-observer bias” comes out in our text from this weekend from Luke 10 when an expert in the law approaches Jesus with a question: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life” (Luke 10:25)? Rather than responding to his query directly, Jesus instead prods this so-called “expert” to answer his own question. And so the expert does. He gives his take on the requirements for eternal life. You must “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, Love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). Jesus is impressed: “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live” (Luke 10:28). Notably, the Greek word for “do” is in the present tense, denoting a continuous action. So it’s not just that this expert in the law is to love God and his neighbor once. Or even regularly. It’s that he is to love God and his neighbor continually – as in constantly. And no matter how highly the expert in the law might think of himself, this is something he cannot do. This expert in the law may think he is good. But he’s not nearly as good as he thinks. Indeed, Jesus’ subsequent parable makes this sobering fact all too clear.
In His Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus relays the story of a man who is mobbed and robbed as he is traveling the steep trail which leads down the side of a mountain from Jerusalem to Jericho. Indeed, in the first century, this road was well known as a haunt for thieves and thugs. Being beaten unconscious and left for dead, a priest passes by and sees this man, clearly in need of assistance. But probably due to concerns for ritual cleanliness – for, according to Old Testament law, to touch a dead person would render one ceremonially “unclean” for a whole week – he passes the man by. The same thing happens with a Levite, also probably out of concerns for ritual cleanliness. It is a Samaritan – a person from a nationality despised by the Jews – who stops and helps this man.
In our day, we like to think of ourselves as the Samaritan. “Surely!” we think to ourselves, “If I someone half-dead on the side of the road, I would help.” But alas, this is merely our own “actor-observer bias” rearing its head. If you don’t believe me, consider these scenarios:
- Have you ever failed to stop to help someone with car trouble because you were in a hurry?
- Have you ever not picked up the phone because your caller ID told you who the person on the other end of the line was and you didn’t feel like talking to them?
- Have you ever lied and told a panhandler, “I don’t have any change” simply because you didn’t want to get into a discussion with them?
If you have ever done any of these things – or a whole host of other similar things – then perhaps you are not as helpful as you think you are.
Finally, when we read the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we are called to think of ourselves not as the Samaritan, but as the priest and the Levite. Helmut Thielicke, the rector of the University of the Hamburg in the 60’s and 70’s, explains the parable like this: “The point of the parable is that we should identify ourselves with the priest and the Levite and repent” (The Waiting Father, 167).
So who, then, is the Good Samaritan if he is not us? The early church fathers thought he was Jesus. Origen says unequivocally, “The Samaritan was Christ” (Homilies on Luke). How did they arrive at such a conclusion? They knew that all of us failed to continuously love God and our neighbor. Thus, only Jesus can play the part of the Samaritan. This does not mean, however, that we are not invited to follow in our Savior’s footsteps. Jesus’ admonition at this end of His parable, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37) makes this clear enough. We are called to love our neighbor by being a neighbor. We are called to help others.
So be a neighbor to someone in need today. After all, before you were called to become a neighbor to someone else, Christ became your neighbor on the cross.
Want to learn more on this passage? Go to
www.ConcordiaLutheranChurch.com
and check out audio and video from Pastor Tucker’s
message or Pastor Zach’s ABC!
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