Category Archives: Devotional

Sometimes it’s not in *how you say it* – Luke 7:31-35

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After Jesus reassured the crowd that John the Baptist was pretty much the greatest man that ever lived, the tax collectors and various others present were satisfied.  Not so much the Pharisees and lawyers, who rejected Jesus after rejecting John.  Jesus went on to describe their response, or the lack of one.

31 To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’

33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.

Pastors and churches like to be relevant, and that is great – to a point.  There is a temptation to let our thinking run wild in that direction.  We may daydream, “Well, if we can only do this, and add this, talk like this, dress like this, and change the decor to this, then …”  

The responses to John the Baptist and Jesus provide some much-needed counterweight to that tendency.  

It would be hard to find two personalities or presentation styles that contrasted more starkly than Jesus and John.  John was famous for wearing rough clothing, preaching in the wilderness and eating mainly bugs.  Jesus was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard.  He never seemed to turn down a free dinner or an invitation to a party.  Rather than hanging out strictly in the wilderness, he wandered all over the countryside and traveled by water.  He was found in the towns and cities of Galilee, in the synagogues or on the seashore, and then in Jerusalem for the holidays.  

The message of both these men, however, was more or less the same.  It may have sounded different, or looked different, if one looked at the messenger.  But they mainly agreed that repentance from sin was needed, and that good works were a corollary to faith.  Jesus drew people to himself, which John did not, but then John also pointed people to Jesus.  

In the end what they said differed little.  The difference was in how they said it.  So what was the difference in response?  Well, there was none.  The same people who followed John also went after Jesus.  Those who rejected John rejected Christ.

Jesus compares his detractors to children in the marketplace that won’t join the game no matter what game is being played. 

“Let’s dance!” one shouts, and begins playing a flute.  No response.  

“How about a nice dirge!”  (OK, it’s a weird idea, but Jesus is just making a point.)  No response in that case either.

For those of us who are attracted to making the message relevant, let this be a caution.  Sometimes, if we are faithful to the message itself, how we say it won’t make any difference.

That golden rule – Luke 6:31

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And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Jesus mentioned this principle in the same breath with “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you,” and so on.  The evidence indicates he meant what he said.  This is extreme stuff.  

It isn’t easy to love enemies.  No matter how hard we try, or what action we take, they can possess the uncanny ability to treat us badly somehow once again.  That is just how it is with enemies, right?  

Yet, love in the truest sense needs to stay focused on others and their needs.  That’s why Jesus made this command a positive one – a “Thou shalt” rather than a “Thou shalt not.”  He didn’t want to give us an easy way out.

There is a story in the Talmud, in Shabbat 31a, that tells of a Gentile who came to a rabbi and said, “Convert me on condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I am standing on one foot.” That rabbi had no good answer.

The same Gentile came to the sage Hillel the Elder, who was grandfather of Gamaliel, the teacher of Paul the Apostle.  Hillel said, “That which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, and the rest is its interpretation. Go study.” The man was converted.

It’s a great story and it is probably true, but with all due respect to the incomparable Hillel, we might say it is incomplete, based on this teaching of Jesus.  If we don’t do that which is hateful to people and stop there, we might possibly not do much at all – even nothing!  That’s the nature of the “Thou shalt not” in a command.  It is a prohibition rather than a positive task.  

Surely Hillel, if he had more time than the Gentile balancing on one foot was willing to give him at that moment, would choose to elaborate.  Jesus was still young when the aged Hillel finally died and, perhaps while not under time constraints, may have even thought of his improved version of the golden rule based upon the rabbi’s words.  

Again, he has us imagine what we might wish for ourselves in Luke 6:31.  And again our text, 

And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Let’s leave that just as it is, without further elaboration.

Cleansing a leper – Luke 5:12-14

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12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

The leprous man expressed his faith by coming to Jesus and falling on his face before him.  In response, Jesus reached out his hand to touch him.  Normally this was prohibited because anyone touching a leper would become unclean.  In this case, the opposite happens, the leper becomes clean.  Christ’s ability to cleanse the leper was greater than any power the leprosy had to make Christ unclean.

Then Jesus sent him to the priest.  There was an offering specified for those cases in which a leper was cured, by which the priest would declare him clean.  The biblical definition of leprosy seems to have been broader than ours, so we need not conclude that people were constantly being healed what of we would call Hansen’s disease today.  The offering, however, is instructive for us regarding the cleansing work of Christ.  We find it in Leviticus 14:3-7.

3 …Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, 4 the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live clean birds … 5 And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water. 6 He shall take the live bird …, and dip … the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. 7 And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field.

Cyril of Alexandria 376-444

Cyril of Alexandria (376 – 444)

It’s a fascinating parallel. One bird is killed, the other is dipped in the slain bird’s blood and then released.  As Cyril of Alexandria once said it, 

We may see then, in the birds, Christ suffering in the flesh according to the Scriptures … That the one bird was slain, and that the other was baptized indeed in its blood, while itself exempt from slaughter … For Christ died in our place, and we, who have been baptized into his death, he has saved by his own blood. *

Each of us is a lot like this leper.  We are unclean because of our sin.  Jesus touches us, but never becomes unclean or sinful himself; he makes us clean instead.  Christ’s ability to cleanse us is greater than the power of sin, by which we make ourselves unclean.

* Found in Arthur A. Just Jr., Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003, 91.

A custom of Jesus – Luke 4:16

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And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day … 

Sometimes Christians fall a little short (or even a lot) by attending church on Sunday, but letting that be about all there is to their Christian life.  More regular or deeper fellowship with other believers is not high on their list of priorities.  Daily encounters with God through the Bible or prayer are seldom had.  

And then there is another kind of problem.  One frequently encounters professing Christians who rarely if ever go to church at all.  Once in a while a person is willing to admit that it is just through negligence or laziness or what used to be called sloth.  If you’ve ever had the good fortune to see a genuine mammalian, tropical sloth in action, or sloth inaction, you understand why the word applies.  If this is your problem, take this as a simple reminder that Christ normally went to synagogue services on the Sabbath.  It was his custom according to Luke 4:16.  Make it your custom too.

Worse yet is the person who says in a somewhat self-satisfied way, “I am a Christian and think highly of Jesus, but I do not take part in a church.”  This person sees no need for the fellowship of the saints, the regular teaching of the Scriptures, or the exercise of his or her gifts in the context of a local body of believers.  

Frequently, this person has been wounded by a church or its leaders and sometimes more than once.  That’s sad, really, but so often true.  We should not lightly brush off a person’s deep struggles or too quickly minimize their experience.

The same truly wounded person should still take a lesson from the custom of Jesus.  If anyone knew of the hypocrisy of religious people, it was Christ.  If anyone could afford to do without an empty religious tradition, it was Christ.  He was rejected in the synagogue in Nazareth, where he grew up, and almost killed by those people here in Luke 4.  Later, in Capernaum, he encountered a demonized man at a synagogue service, who then began shouting at him and made Jesus the center of attention.  

The truth is, we need a weekly dose of God’s people, with all their good, bad, wonderful, stupid and terrible qualities.  Since the days of the New Testament, Christians have gathered together on the first day of the week and there is no compelling reason to change that custom now.  Learning to get along with all these imperfect people is one of the main ingredients in our spiritual growth. 

If you don’t find encouragement with other believers, find a church and go there to be an encouragement to them.  If you find hypocrisy, make it a point to be the least hypocritical person in the room. 

And then, on top of everything else, humbly admit that you may have a problem.  Perhaps your previous wounds have made you overly judgmental or somewhat too critical of others.  This is understandable, but it still is not good.  Maybe you are a little too afraid of what may or may not happen again.  Understandable again, but it is no way to live.  If you honestly talk about your issue you are likely to find someone else there who will know exactly what you are talking about and might have some encouragement for you on that level.  In other words, this sort of wounding happens a lot, so you are not alone in your experience.

Once again, take this as a simple reminder that Christ normally went to synagogue services on the Sabbath.  It was his custom according to Luke 4:16.  Make it your custom too.