The Life vs. Death

Hello everyone.

I'm continuing my exegesis of Luke 7 today, looking at verses 11-17, the story Jesus raising the widow's son from the dead. According to verse 11, Jesus left Capernaum and went to a nearby town called Nain.  As he was entering the town, Jesus met a funeral procession of a young man who had died.  This young man was the only son of a widow.  

This widow was now left with nothing.  Her husband was dead. Her only son was dead.  Who was going to care for her?  Jesus, as always, is full of compassion, raised the young man from the dead and gave him back to his mother.  The Greek word used here to describe Jesus compasion is Ἐσπλαγχνίσθη (Esplangknisthay). I have translated as ‘felt compassion.' The TNIV translates it as 'his heart went out to her.'  The word involves the feelings that come from deep within us. In his compassion, Jesus reaches out to her and says, “Don’t cry.”  He first gives her comfort verbally, but then he takes action, raising her son from the dead.  Obviously, Jesus has a power that the rest of us do not possess, the ability to bring life back into a dead body.  But, what we see in Jesus is that comfort comes in both words and in actions. 

Jesus had exercised authority over many things in Luke, to this point, including fish, different illnesses and infirmities and evil spirits. Now, he, the Son of Man, shows that he has authority even over death. That is a lot of authority. In John 14:6, Jesus says “I am the way and the truth and the life.”  In this story, The Life faces off against death and The Life wins. 

The witnesses to this miracle were seized with fear and began to praise God.  Both responses are understandable.  Jesus simply spoke this man back to life.  I would be afraid of him too.  And it should be obvious to all present that God was there. Who else could perform such incredible miracles? Healing blindness, disease and other infirmities is one thing.  Healing death is quite another.  So naturally, the news of this incredible miracle spread all over the region quickly. 

According to Darrell Bock, this is the first time that Luke refers to Jesus as Κύριος (Kyrios) or “Lord.” (Bock, 650-651). But after this, Luke uses the term often.  Luke has presented the all-encompassing authority of Jesus in many different ways, and now begins to refer to him as Lord. 

In verse 14, Jesus reached out and touched the funeral bier.  This action would make Jesus ceremonially unclean.  He did it anyway.  But Jesus, being the Son of Man, undid the uncleanness of the dead body, and brought cleanness to it.  Jesus addresses the dead body directly.  How ridiculous would Jesus appear, if he told a dead body to get up and it didn’t.  Jesus had no doubt that this man would be raised from the dead.  Jesus knew and understood that all-encompassing nature of power and authority that he carried.  

In verse 16, Jesus is rightly recognized by the witnesses, as a great prophet, along the lines of Elijah and Elisha, two OT prophets who had raised someone from the dead. (Elijah in 1 Kings 17 and Elisha 2 Kings 4).  As we have through our study of Luke Jesus is certainly a prophet, but so much than that as well. 

Tom 

Amazing Faith

Greeting everyone.

Today I will start sharing with you my exegesis of Luke 7.  We will looking at the verses 1-10, where Jesus encounters a man, whose faith amazes him.  In chapter 6, Jesus had been teaching, and in 7:1, he leaves that place and goes on to Capernaum. In Capernaum there was a Roman centurion who had a faith that impressed even Jesus. This Gentile’s faith in Jesus was greater than any from his own people that he had encountered so far.  

What can see in this man's character that made him so impressive, even to Jesus? Here is my translation of Luke 7:1-10.  What do you notice about the centurion that may have impressed Jesus?

1 After the people there had heard all that Jesus had to say, he went to Capernaum. 2 There was a centurion there who had a servant, whom he valued greatly, who was very ill and near death. 3 When he heard about Jesus, he sent some of the Jewish elders to ask Jesus to come and heal his servant. 

4 Upon their arrival, the elders sincerely urged Jesus, saying, “This man is worthy to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation, and has built a synagogue for us.” 6 So Jesus went with them. 

When Jesus was nearly to the house, the centurion sent friends to Jesus, saying, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, because I am unworthy to have you come in under my roof. 7 This is why I did not consider myself worthy to come to you.  But, rather, say the word and my servant will be healed. 8 For I am also a man under authority, having soldiers under me. So I say to them, “Come” and they come, and to others “Go” and they go, and to my servants, “Do this,” and they do it.” 

9 Upon hearing this, Jesus was amazed, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I’m telling you that I have not found this much faith in Israel. 10 When those he had sent returned to the house, they found the slave had been healed.

1. He was a caring and compassionate man.  He cared about the welfare of his servant  and he cared about the welfare of the Jewish people, a people that the Romans were currently dominating.  
2. He was generous. He had built the Jews a synagogue.  His compassion and generosity had been such that the elders of Capernaum were willing to speak on his behalf and say, “This man is worthy to have you do this.” 
3. He was humble.  Other people said he was worthy.  He said he was unworthy.  He sent to different groups(first, the elders, and second, friends) to Jesus, and did appear before Jesus himself, at all, considering himself unworthy. 
4. He understood authority.  He had authority, but was also under authority.  He, also seemed to understand that Jesus had authority, even over disease.  He said to Jesus , ‘just say the word and my servant will be healed.’ He seemed to grasp Jesus absolute authority far better than his contemporaries. 
5. He had a faith in Jesus that was obvious.  Jesus had not encountered this kind of faith in Israel.  

A couple of thoughts before I close: The centurion did not come to Jesus in person because he did not consider himself worthy of it. But, Jesus did not comment on the man’s worthiness or unworthiness.  The man was right.  He was unworthy, but that was not an issue that Jesus touched upon. In spite of his unworthiness, Jesus was still impressed by his faith and granted his request.

The story tells very little of the healing of the servant. Jesus does it from a distance, without even entering the house. Instead its focus is on the faith of the centurion. There is a lot to learn about faith from this centurion.  The New Testament only mentions Jesus being amazed twice.  Here, (along with a parallel passage in Matt. 8) and in Mark 6:6 where he was amazed at their lack of faith. 

Tom

The Jesus Lifestyle, Part 4

Hello everyone,

Today, I'm going to finish my exegesis of the sermon from Luke 6.  We will look at verses 43-49 and then sum it all up.  Jesus has been teaching his disciples, his way to live.  It is a radically different way to live, and Jesus has a few thoughts on how to live before he concludes. 

In verse 43, Jesus starts talking about plants and trees. Saying that a good tree produces good fruit, and bad tree produces bad fruit.  Fruit-bearing plants produce after their own kind. Figs and grapes don't grow on weeds. We learn from this that who we are and the fruit that we produce comes from our hearts.  The good that we have within our own hearts produces the good fruit that comes out of us.  The bad that we have in our hearts produce the evil that comes out of us. 

We had a pear tree when we moved into our house. Sadly, this tree produced pears that rotted before they reached any size, and then fell off the tree. When we cut the pear tree down, we saw that it was rotten on the inside. Jesus was correct. My rotten tree produced rotten fruit. 

Obviously, we are more complex than trees, and have both good and bad within us.  What is brought to the surface from our hearts is the fruit that we produce.  (Let us hope is that we produce more good fruit than bad; If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will produce His fruit, and it is all good. Gal. 5:22-23.)

In verse 45, Jesus tells his audience that it is out of the abundance of the heart, that the mouth speaks. It is clear, our mouth is connected to our heart. Since these two body parts are connected, we should examine what comes out of our mouth.  It will show us what is in our heart. Someone who has only negative to say is drawing from the bad that has filled their hearts.  Someone whose speech is generally encouraging and uplifting, draws from the good that is stored up in their heart.   

In verse 46, Jesus asks people why they would refer to him as Lord, but then don’t obey him.  It is a good question, because if they are not really obeying him, then he is not really Lord. (The double use of Lord adds to the emphasis.)  He gives this parable to show the difference between those who call him Lord and do what he says, with those who call him Lord but do not do what he says.  

Think about some of the things that Jesus has just said in this sermon. There are many difficult teachings in it, like loving your enemies and examining ourselves rather than examining and harshly judging other people.  These difficult teachings are the kinds of things that he is calloing us to put into practice. 

So here is his parable to illustrate his point:  Two men build houses.  One digs deep and lays his foundation on rock, while the other builds his house on the ground without laying a foundation.  One is anchored on rock, while the other is anchored on nothing.  When the storm came, the house on the rock stood, while the house without foundation collapsed. 

The application is obvious.  Obedience to Jesus' hard teachings is like the man who builds his house on the solid foundation. The man who builds without foundation, has no spiritual roots and is  disobedient to Jesus.  His life gets completely destroyed by the storms that inevitably hit us all. Again the application is obvious.  When we live the way that Jesus described in Luke 6, we are a different people, more able to withstand the storms of life, but Jesus' way is hard.  It includes:

• Loving your enemies.
• Doing good to those who mistreat you.
• Blessing those who curse you.
• Praying for those who abuse you.
• Turning the other cheek.
• Treating others the way you want to be treated. 
• Being merciful.
• Not judging or condemning. 
• Forgiving others.
• Giving without expecting anything in return. 
• Examining ourselves first, before helping others. 

Jesus’ call here is challenging, but obedience to this message can make all the difference.  It is a stark contrast between what Jesus calls his followers to be like and what the Pharisees of his day were like.  It is also a stark contrast between what Jesus calls his followers to be like and what many religious people are like today.  

Self-righteous and arrogant behavior in the name of Christ is actually pretty easy to accomplish.  Sadly, that kind of religion turns many people off, and they never really get to know the true Jesus.

Jesus has laid out a different kind of lifestyle.  One that is challenging, but rewarding, as it is the path to weathering the storms that life will undoubtedly bring to us. 

Tom 

The Jesus Lifestyle, Part 3

Hello everyone.

Today's post will continue to examine Jesus' sermon in Luke 6, this time focusing on Luke 6:37-42. As Jesus continues this sermon, he is teaching us the kind of people we ought to be.  He has just established in verse 36 that we are to be merciful, as God, our Father, is merciful. In what follows, Jesus explains to us how we can be merciful.  These imperstives that Jesus gives also back up the Golden Rule that Jesus gave in verse 31, treating others the way that we would like to be treated.  For example, I don't want to be judged, therefore, I should not judge. Here are four imperatives to help us live the Jesus lifestyle:

• Don't be judgmental. This is what the Pharisees were like.  They felt free to judge everyone.  But that did not give them the right to judge.  Only God has that right.  It is our nature to be self-righteous and make judgments on other people, but this is not the Way that Jesus is presenting here. Jesus’ way is to extend mercy and non-judgment. 
• Don’t condemn.  This seems to go along with the whole non-judgment thing.  If we do not offer condemnation to others, we in turn, will not be condemned. 
• Forgive. God has forgiven us, and we, in turn, must forgive others.  This doesn’t mean that we pretend that the guilty are innocent, but we should learn to let go of the offenses committed against us.  Forgiveness is hard, but necessary for us and for others.  Forgiving is being like Jesus, who forgave those who were killing him, even as they were doing it. 
• Give to others. Jesus makes it plain here, that how we give will determine how we are given to.  The measure that we use will be used toward us.  In fact, it seems that if we give of ourselves generously, we will reap far more than we have given.  If we are stingy, we will receive very little in return.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into our lap. (verse 38) The blessings will just keep coming if we are generous. 

This is how we show mercy, and how we obey Luke 6:31.  This is the Jesus Lifestyle. We live a life among others without judgment or condemnation against them, forgiving them and giving generously to them.  An important note here is that this is not about physical blessing.  This is about greater blessings of not being judged, not being condemned and being forgiven.  

Darrell Bock points out that these four imperatives are to be taken together.  Each also brings a promise.  Bock says this, “What is commanded is an attitude that is hesitant to condemn and quick to forgive.  What is probitied is an arrogance that reacts with hostility to the worldly and morally lax, viewing such people as beyond God’s reach.  What is censured by Jesus is an attitude like that of the Pharisee….Such an attitude is really self-righteous and usurps God’s role. (Bock, 605-606)

After teaching us how to obey the Golden Rule and be merciful, Luke says that Jesus teaches them a parable. His parable begins with two questions: ‘Can a blind man lead a blind man?  Would they not both fall into a pit?’ These are great questions with obvious answers.  A blind man should not lead another man because they would both fall into a pit.  Jesus then talks about teachers and students.  The student is not above the teacher, but does become like the teacher. The teacher cannot teach something that he or she does know about.  

So, if a spiritual teacher is in truth spiritually blind, think Pharisees and teachers of the law, they really have nothing of value to teach, and their disciples will learn nothing and fall into a pit. In Luke 6, Jesus is not specifically addressing the Pharisees, but in Matt. 15:14, he does say basically the same thing about them.  ‘Leave them (the Pharisees); they are blind guides.  If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.’

Choose your teachers carefully, otherwise, you may find yourself in a pit.  Jesus is offering a comparison between good teaching and bad.  The Pharisees are judgmental and arrogant.  Jesus is neither of those things. He is the good teacher that we should follow, and when we are fully trained, we will be like Him. 

 Jesus continues to talk about self-righteousness.  He paints an image of a man with a wooden beam sticking out of his eye, trying to remove a speck from another man’s eye.  The image is actually somewhat comical, because we all know that the man with just a speck in his eye is going to get whacked in the face by the guy with the beam in his eye.  It is not that the speck shouldn’t be removed.  It should be.  But let the man with the beam in his eye remove the beam first.  This makes it safer to remove a speck without doing serious harm to the other man.  

Jesus, calls the beam-eyed man, Hypocrite.  And in truth, that is what he is. The beam-eyed carefully examines others, without any real self-examination.  He makes judgements on others while missing his own glaring weaknesses. If I were to have a beam sticking out of my eye, then I am in reality, blind.  Real self-examination, stemming from a humble walk with God, leads me toward the ability to teach others. These four imperatives, the questions that Jesus asked and the story of the man with the wooden beam in his eye, all seem to point back to being merciful as God is merciful and obeying the Golden Rule of Luke 6:31. If we can be like this, then we living like Jesus - the Jesus Lifestyle. 

Tom 

     Darrell Bock. Luke, Volume 1 - 1:1-9:50. Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Academic. 1994. 

The Jesus Lifestyle, Part 2

We will continue to look at the lifestyle that Jesus puts out there for his in Luke 6.  We will look at verses 27-36 today.  Again, much of this parallels the Semon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.   Jesus has already deliver a part of his message with a series of blessings and woes that seem counter-intuitive to the way that we tend to think. Now, in verse 27 Jesus says, “But I say to those of you that will listen.”  The heart of Jesus' message is challenging, a message that not everyone will listen to. 

His message begins with ‘Love your enemies.’  This is a hard sell, right there.  We all have reasons that we would consider someone to be an enemy. Whatever those reasons might be, they would make it hard to love someone. In fact, there are likely people in lives that we find hard to love, and don’t even consider them enemies.  Making the idea of loving someone who has deeply wronged, is a challenge and an upward call.  

But Jesus doesn’t stop there.  As his message continues, it all seems very contrary to our nature:

• Love your enemies.
• Do good to those who mistreat you.
• Bless those who curse you.
• Pray for those who abuse you.
• Turn the other cheek.

We tend to be the opposite of this:  Blessing those who bless us, but cursing those who curse us.  That is more our nature.  Jesus says that this is a very low bar.  Everybody does that, and doing that doesn’t make us special.  

Jesus follows this in verse 31 with a well-known statement. I translated like this: "And the same way you want people to do good things to you, do those things for other people.” We often refer to this as the Golden Rule. Jesus uses the Greek word Ποιεῖτε (poiete) which means 'do.' In this form Ποιεῖτε is an imperative.  So this is a command. To obey this command, we have to be the initiator in doing good.  We treat people as we want them to treat us, not necessarily how they have treated us. 

In the verses that follow, Jesus spells it out for his audience.  If we only do good for those who do good to us, we really haven’t done anything special.  Everyone does that.  To follow Jesus, and be like him, we must do good to all people, especially to those who would do us harm.  The call here is to love all people, even those that we would consider our enemies.  Following Jesus is a high call.  Think about these two things he asks of his followers in verse 35:

• Love your enemies and do good to them,  That's a hard one.  It goes against our nature, which is to seek revenge on our enemy.  
• Lend without expecting repayment.  This is a hard one, too. There are very few things that we protect more than we protect our money.  

But, Jesus says, if we do these things, we will have great reward and be children of God.  Why? Because when we act in this way, we are being like God. The end of verse 35 tells us that God is kind, even to those who are ungrateful and to those who are evil.  God is full of mercy and so Jesus calls us to be full of mercy as well. Truth be told, it is hard to be kind to those who should be grateful to you, but are not.  It makes us angry.  To be like God, we have to continue to be kind, even in the face of ingratitude.

To sum up: The Jesus Lifestyle is challenging, because it goes against our nature.  It calls upon us to love all, and be kind and merciful to everyone, regardless of how they may be treating us.  Jesus lived it and calls upon his followers to live it as well. 

Tom 

The Jesus Lifestyle

Hello everyone.

In my previous post, I mentioned that in Luke 6, Jesus comes to a level place and delivers a sermon.  The sermon has a striking resemblance to the Sermon on the Mount.  Is Luke simply giving a shortened version of the sermon matthew recorded, or is it a sermon delivered at a different time and place? To me, those details are not as important as the consistant message of Jesus.  In his message, Jesus offers up a new and radical way to live.  Today, let's take a look at verses 20-26.  

In these verses, we have here a comparison of blessedness and woes.  They line up very well.  Blessing to the poor and woe to the rich.  Blessing to the hungry, woe to the full.  Blessing to the crying, woe to the laughing.  Blessing to the hated, and woe to the liked. But, everything seems backwards here. Those who appear to have been blessed are the ones that Jesus issues woes to.  Those who appear to be cursed are the ones that Jesus blesses.

Honestly, what Jesus syas here sounds alot like what Mary said in her song back in Luke 1. Compare Jesus' Beatitudes in Luke 6 to what Mary said in chapter 1:

51 He has performed powerful acts with his arm;

         He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts in their hearts. 

52 He has removed powerful people from thrones,

       And he has lifted up the humble. 

53 Those who are hungry, he has filled with good things,

       While those who are wealthy, he has sent away with nothing.

In both, God will bless the poor, feed the hungry, while the wealthy are turned away with nothing. God is creating that seems very upside down to us. 

In his sermon, Jesus offers up beatitudes.  Each beatitude comes in the second person present, many end with a promise in the future tense. The situation is this way now, but in the future, it will be different. He uses the Greek word Μακάριοι (makarioi) - According to the Greek-English Lexicon of New Testament Words, this word means - "pertaining to being fortunate or happy because of circumstances, fortunate, happy, privileged or blessed. Also gives this definition - pertaining to being especially favored." So, this is what Jesus says of the poor, the hungry, those who are crying and those who are persecuted. They are blessed, or fortunate. 

On the flipside. Οὐαὶ (Ouai) According to aforementioned lexicon, this word means "interjection denoting pain or displeasure, woe." 

The thoughts Jesus expresses here are a blow to the prosperity gospel.  People often assume that they have wealth because they are blessed by God and in a right relationship with Him.  This is not necessarily the case.  Our reasoning would conclude that the rich are blessed and the poor are being punished for their sins.  Jesus says the opposite. 

The key to all of this is in verse 22.  The poor, hungry and weeping are all tied to this as well.  Jesus blesses those who are connected to Him.  But we have to understand that those who are connected to Jesus face hatred, insult and persecution. This verse helps us to understand that Jesus is not just talking about our socioeconomic status.  He is talking about how well connected we are to him. 

The comparison between the rich and poor is an interesting one.  The poor receive the kingdom of God.  The rich are receiving their comfort right now.  This implies that the comfort given to the poor comes later.  

Another interesting comparison is the 4th beatitude.  Being persecuted for the sake of Jesus is compared to having everyone say nice things about you.  The false prophets of old would say what people wanted to hear, and were therefore well-liked and popular.  The righteous prophets gave God’s message and were persecuted. 

Then in verse 23, Jesus calls us to rejoice in the face of persecution and difficulties. Why would we do that? Jesus tells us that when we are persecuted because of him, that “Great is your reward in heaven.” The reward of being connected to Jesus comes later.  In these verses and those that follow, Jesus presents a new way of living and thinking.  It is often counter-intuitive, but those who choose it end up blessed and those who reject it end up with woes.

Tom