Monthly Archives: February 2020

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – INVITE THE MISFITS

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INVITE THE MISFITS

‘Then He turned to the host. ‘The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbours, the kind of people who will return the favour. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be – and experience – a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favour, but the favour will be returned – oh, how it will be returned! – at the resurrection of God’s people.'” Luke 14:12-14.

Today my contribution is in the form of a testimony. Several years ago, the leadership of my church caught this vision and decided to do exactly what Jesus said, invite those who were ‘from the other side of the tracks’. The combined churches of our town run a soup kitchen, so we gave formal invitations to those who came regularly for their soup and bread.

The church members ‘came to the party’ with great enthusiasm. Donations of food poured in – a beast from a farmer and sacks of vegetables were turned into a sumptuous banquet for the down-and-outs. There were ice creams for everyone, a warm ‘beanie’ hat and fruit to take ‘home’ after the party (and who knows where ‘home’ was?). The young people made the church hall into a festive dining room with balloons and streamers, and then, on the appointed day, the people came streaming in, ragged, dirty and smelly but very excited and orderly.

And in with them came the awesome sense of God’s presence in such power that some of us were weeping and others trembling as the people filed in. It was almost as though Jesus Himself had come to grace the party. And He had, for did He not say, ‘If you have done it to the least of these, my brothers, you’ve done it to me’?

The people were seated in a circle and served as though they were royalty. Never had they received such a welcome and been treated with such honour. It was all about them and we, the ones who were so used to having the good things and being served, tasted the joy of turning the tables for an afternoon, serving without any anticipation of a return invitation.

The food disappeared at lightning speed – some enjoyed up to three and four helpings of delicious stew cooked over an open fire. Adults and children ate until they were ready to burst. Together with their meal came a simple gospel message told by a man whom God had rescued from the gutter and given another chance at life.

What a memorable day! At the end of it we were bone-weary, deliciously happy and filled with a deep sense of God’s pleasure. He was there and we felt it. We were smitten with a vision and experience which has never left us. Since that first banquet, which we dubbed our ‘kingdom extravaganza’, our church has held several more banquets and a party for the children of AIDS-infected and affected families.

‘Misfits from the other side of the tracks’ may be our opinion of the unfortunate ones who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths, but to Jesus they are His brothers. To Mother Teresa who served the homeless and dying from the streets of Calcutta, they were ‘the face of Jesus in a disturbing disguise.’

Isn’t it time the church of the Lord Jesus climbed down off her high horse and put on the apron of servanthood and, like her Master, knelt down and washed feet instead of engaging in useless rituals which have nothing to do with the reason why Jesus came?

He said, ‘Follow me’, that’s all. We made up the rest.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – SIMPLY BE YOURSELF

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SIMPLY BE YOURSELF

“When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’ That will give the dinner guests something to talk about! What I’m saying is, if you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face. But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself,” Luke 14:10-11.

Strange how pride and self-promotion actually do the opposite of what we want to achieve! Jesus gives us a bit of homely wisdom which may not appear to be important in the bigger scheme of things but it will make a big difference to our lives in the long run. ‘Don’t promote yourself,’ He said, ‘Let someone else recognise who you really are and give you the place of honour.’ When we are so self-absorbed that we see no-one and nothing else, we are likely to trip over our own big feet!

King David, in his teenage years as a shepherd caring for sheep and living close to nature, made a discovery which influenced his whole life and contributed to his greatness as Israel’s model king. He captured his discovery in his most-loved psalm – Psalm 23. We miss the impact of what he was saying in the translation. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want,” is so familiar to us that we are comforted by the promise of God’s faithful provision for all our needs. But why should we be amazed that God does what He said He would do because He is who He is – a loving and caring Father?

The underlying thought in this observation is far more significant than God’s faithful provision for His children, as great a promise as that is for us. God is far more interested in who we are than in our circumstances. Let’s explore the deeper meaning of David’s words. “The Lord is my authority (implying that He has the last word – no-one can contradict or oppose Him); therefore I shall never be diminished.”

God is all for giving us understanding of who we really are. Our sin nature has an inbuilt capacity to diminish us in our own estimation and Satan has a field day with our ‘self-worth’. We have to bolster it up by self-importance and self-promotion, like the person who elbows his way to the top of the table. Jesus assures us, ‘You don’t need to do that because your real worth lies in who you are, not where you sit or who notices you.’

We evaluate ourselves, very often, by the way we feel, and our feelings follow our interpretation of events. For example, a woman who was molested as a child feels dirty, guilty and responsible for what happened to her. She interprets her worth according to her feelings and, consequently, diminishes herself and believes that everyone else diminishes her as well.

When Israel was in slavery in Egypt, they were diminished to the status of ‘property’ and were treated like possessions to be handled by their slave-owners as they chose. God had to re-educate His people to the realisation that they were people, not possessions and precious and beloved to Him. His first promise, hidden in the words of His preamble to the Ten Commandments (“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of slavery, out of the land of slavery…”), has this assurance in the Hebrew words, ‘Your authority grows inside the boundary of your submission and worship’. In other words, ‘As long as you submit to and worship me as your God, you will never be diminished.’

That’s the key to understanding who we really are, not in the attention and accolades we seek from so-called ‘important’ people (who are they really but ordinary people like ourselves), but in the value God puts on us as His sons and daughters, created in His image to reflect Him. And so Jesus concludes, ‘If you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself’.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – YOU’RE IN THE WRONG PLACE

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YOU’RE IN THE WRONG PLACE

“He went on to tell a story to the guests around the table. Noticing how each had tried to elbow into the place of honour at the table, He said, ‘When someone invites you to dinner, don’t take the place of honour. Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host. Then he’ll come and call out in front of everybody, ‘ You’re in the wrong place. The place of honour belongs to this man.’ Red-faced, you’ll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left.'” Luke 14:7-9.

Seating around the table at a Middle Eastern dinner party in Jesus’ day was somewhat different from the way westerners do it. The table was low and the guests reclined on cushions on their left elbows. This meant that each guest had his back to the person on his left. The place of honour would be the place on the left of the host because that person was close enough to engage in conversation with the host.

The one on the right of the host would be on the right of the host at the end of the table – leaning against the host. This was probably the place occupied by John at the Last Supper and the place of honour, on Jesus’ left, by Judas because Jesus was able to converse freely with him and offer him the sop.

What is it about us human beings that we have a craving to be noticed? From early childhood, the little one cries, “Look at me, daddy; look at me, mommy!” To be the guest-of-honour was to be noticed, to be important in the eyes of the host. Why do we crave to feel important? Is it because we have a deep, inborn sense of worthlessness which we can only deal with by constantly seeking affirmation and approval? Every guest wanted the place of honour, to be noticed by the host.

Being important has temporary significance but it is, in fact, like an addiction which has to be fed. Significant people’s approval stills that craving for a while but it keeps coming back. What lies behind this ‘approval addiction’? Is there some deep-seated insecurity that drives us to seek attention and to be important to someone? When the father-child relationship is disturbed for whatever reason, the need for approval from someone significant drives people to seek attention elsewhere.

If alienation from our earthly fathers fuels that craving – how much more alienation from our heavenly Father? When we have settled the problem of sin that created the rift between us and God, through Jesus, we experience a sense of security in Him which sets us free from that need to be noticed.

That brings me to something else. What was it about people that Jesus noticed? He noticed the Pharisees and was thoroughly put off. He also noticed the tax collectors and sinners and was drawn to them. Why? I think it was the difference between hypocrisy and honesty. The Pharisees liked to draw attention to their external ‘righteousness’ to get people’s approval, but Jesus saw through them. It was a cover-up for the rottenness inside which they refused to admit.

The other group had nothing to hide. They knew they were bad; they knew Jesus was good but they loved to be with Him and He loved to be with them anyway. Their bad behaviour did not put Him off as much as the Pharisees’ dishonesty did. Jesus can handle our sin but He cannot handle our pride.

We often find it easy to be honest about other people. We open our mouths freely about what we don’t like about them and take pride in our being ‘straight’ with people, but what about honesty about ourselves? That’s a different matter because it takes humility to own up to who we are. And that’s exactly the point! God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. If you are honest about your own faults, guess what! Jesus has no issues with you. You will be free to occupy the seat of honour at His table.

But it’s your choice, once again…

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – STUMPED!

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

STUMPED!

“One time, when Jesus went for a Sabbath meal with one of the top leaders of the Pharisees, all the guests had their eyes on Him, watching His every move. Right before Him there was a man hugely swollen in his joints. So Jesus asked the religion scholars, ‘Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath? Yes or no?’

They were silent. So He took the man, healed him, and sent him on his way. Then He said, ‘Is there anyone here who, if a child or animal fell down a well, wouldn’t rush to pull him out immediately, not asking whether or not it was the Sabbath.’ They were stumped. There was nothing they could say to that.” Luke 14:1-6.

How often did this scene not repeat itself and how often did Jesus not have to say the same thing and yet the same criticism was levelled against Him time after time. ‘Sabbath-breaker!’ What was wrong with the people that it was so difficult for them to understand the simple message of Jesus? He spoke it and lived it for three years and they still didn’t get it.

So what is this message that we have failed to grasp for the past two thousand years and are still not getting in spite of Jesus’ glaring example? It’s about mercy and compassion, not religion! Every time I encounter the ritualistic mumbo-jumbo that is done in the name of Jesus, I ask myself the question, “Is this why Jesus came?”

We have even managed to turn the work of the gentle Holy Spirit into a ritual. We lay hands on people and they have to babble or fall down, otherwise the Holy Spirit has not touched them! Is that really what we glean from God’s Word? How it must grieve the heart of Jesus that His church has wandered so far from His example and mandate.

The Pharisees were so stuck in their notion of God that not even the Son of God Himself could shift them from the beliefs and traditions that overruled their own Scriptures. They were so blinded by their arrogant pride and self-centred performance that they were unmoved in the presence of God Himself.

Strange that the ones who claimed to know God, never experienced Him right there and yet, people like Matthew and Zaccheus, greedy and wicked men, were transformed after one encounter with Him. And what of adulteresses, prostitutes, thieves, irreligious and thoroughly bad people?  They melted in the presence of His holiness and were drawn to Him like moths to a candle.

When we meet in His name, what is the purpose of our gathering together? Is it to perpetuate our beliefs, traditions and practices or is it to have an encounter with Him that heals our ‘swollen joints’ and releases us from our pain and imprisonment? Jesus did not come to start another useless religion. There are enough of those already. He came to show us the compassionate heart of the Father and to release us from the bondage of Satan’s deception into the freedom of the sons of God.

Jesus is about taking us to the Father and introducing us to Him as “gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). He is about reconnecting us to the Father and to one another so that we can experience our true humanity in unity with our Creator and His creation.

How does our futile religious gobbledegook contribute to His purpose? What does eating this and not eating that, or doing this and not doing that, do to help us do life together with one another and with God? Does keeping laws do anything to rescue a child or an animal that has fallen down the well on the Sabbath?

You decide…