Weeping for Wretches

Luke 19:41-42, And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes."

The crowds during Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem celebrated the earthly peace they believed would come through the Messiah. However, Jesus wept that Israel did not know the true meaning of peace. Rather, in their continual warfare against God, they were about to commit the greatest atrocity known in history: the creature would strike down God. How could they know the peace they clamored for when they were not willing to accept the vineyard Owner’s own Son (Luke 20:13-14)?

Though knowing the fickleness of this mob, their hearts of rebellion, and what crimes they would commit against Him in Jerusalem, far from ripping into Jerusalem with righteous anger, Jesus wept for this people. Knowing His own imminent death at the hands of these miscreants, the Savior nonetheless grieved for them and the suffering they brought upon their own heads by rejecting Him. What a blessed mystery You are, Lord! How far short of Your example we fall who too often respond to wretches with wrath and not weeping.

Luke 19:10, The Outcasts

In Jericho, there lived two men. One was fantastically wealthy and the other miserably poor. One enjoyed a position of high power in the government and the other sat amid the road-dust kicked up by his betters. The one was feared and hated, the other pitied or scorned. Though separated by a huge social gulf, these two men shared one thing in common: they were both overlooked. And it was with these two men, the tax collector and the beggar, that Jesus had business on the day He travelled through Jericho. This was the Messiah's last journey through that region. In a few days, the enthusiastic crowds that now followed Him would be calling for His blood. Yet Jesus would not take the road to the cross until He had restored the two outcasts in Jericho.

Bartimaeus's cry for the Son of David was drowned out in the commotion of the crowd rushing from Jericho to glimpse the great miracle Worker from Galilee. Heedless to his pleas for help, the multitudes streamed by the blind man begging by the roadside. When they did notice him it was only to angrily hiss, "Silence! The Rabbi has no time for you!" Yet the great Shepherd had come to Jericho listening for the cry of His sheep, and amid the chaotic babble of the multitude, He heard Bartimaeus bleating for help. In perhaps the most tender moment in redemptive history, the Creator God knelt down in the dust before the filthy, shaking beggar, the man no other man had taken time for, and asked, "What would you have Me do for you?"

The following miracle only caused all of Jericho to erupt in ecstasy. Young street urchins ran through the alleyways of the city announcing that Jesus of Nazareth was on His way and had just restored the sight of old Bartimaeus who once begged by the roadside. The crowds pressed hard against the narrow street straining for a glimpse of the powerful Healer.

Trapped within the swarming throng was Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of the region. A man of pretended dignity, he had no real respect among his fellow Jews. He demanded passage, but when the mob saw the hated and short tax collector trying to shove his way to the front, they both cursed him and laughed at him, deliberately blocking his way. Most men as rich as he would have instantly received a place of honor in any crowd, but Zacchaeus met only with the turned backs of his own people. He had traded his place among his own countrymen for wealth, and nobody was going to step aside to let this sinner see the great Prophet in Israel.

He looked up and saw several young boys dangling from the branches of a nearby sycamore tree. Desperate, Zacchaeus threw aside any pretense of august stateliness and did what no other self-respecting man of stature in Jewish society would do. He knew he would be the mockery of the city for years, yet he hefted himself in a gangly mess into to tree's embrace and clung desperately to the branches groaning under his weight. The scornful barbs from watchers below flew fast and stung him in humiliation. Soon everyone under the tree was hurling insults and making mockery of him. He shouted back angrily, waving a pudgy fist, and nearly tumbled off his branch which only heightened the mirth of the crowd.

Suddenly, the Shepherd was there, standing there beneath the tree, watching His frightened and angry sheep butt against shadows, perilously close to toppling back down the dark ravine of doubt, hurt, and self-consumption. In a soothing tone, He reached for the lamb, calling it with the voice He knew it would recognize: "Zacchaeus, come down. I must stay at your house today."

The mocking crowd hushed in disbelief. The Rabbi had not only spoken to this sinner, this traitor, He would now eat with him? In his home? Surely to darken that door would be instant impurity!

Bounding lamb-like down the tree, Zacchaeus ambled beside the great Prophet with childlike glee. Later at supper, Zachaeus, so filled with rapture and the joy of acceptance, stood impulsively and declared to all that he would give up his swindling ways, pay restoration to all, and distribute half his wealth to the poor. Lover of money though he had been, the tax collector felt nothing but deep satisfaction as he gave up his golden idol.

To the grumbling and disgruntled crowd, the Savior spoke these measured words, which summed up the eventful day: "The Son of man has come to seek and to save the lost." The Shepherd had come to Jericho to bring home the outcasts.

It Has To Hurt If It's To Heal

Luke 18:18, 23, And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ...But when [the ruler] heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

The rich young ruler knew that for all he actually possessed, assurance of salvation had escaped him. He probably came to Christ tormented, anguishing in his heart over the state of his soul. And Christ seems to have blown him off (see here for the rest of the story)! But Christ wasn’t being a jerk; far from it, Mark 10:12 claims Jesus loved the man and, therefore, was only exposing the man to his own lostness. The ruler had to recognize his inability to save himself and come in childlike dependence upon Christ. This anguish of soul was the first step to discovering the dependence necessary for salvation.

If only we Christians today weren’t so afraid of “offending” people with the truth of their own sinfulness and lostness we might see more souls come to salvation. God, give us courage to tell those around us the saving word that, like most treatments, must first sting before healing. And let us not be so afraid of unfavorable outcomes that we fail to speak at all; note, that Jesus seems to have "lost" the ruler as a convert, but of course we don't know the rest of the story. At any rate, this man's self-confidence (a common trait especially among Westerners) was shattered and this made for the first step toward salvation.

Of Debts and Debtors

Luke 17:7-10, Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, "Come at once and recline at table"? Will he not rather say to him, "Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink"? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty."

I think there is something in contemporary Westerners that balks at Christ's example here. Americans in particular prize equality and "giving a man his fair share." If you've worked hard, you deserve recompense and you shouldn't have to bow and scrape to anyone to get it! Of course, for most of humanity both outside the West and across the span of history such egalitarianism and "square deals" have never been prevalent or even popular, contrary to what Westerners tell themselves.

Though these ideals doubtless have their virtues, they have too their latent "poisons" as do all things consumed in large quantities. The worst effect of a whole-hearted embrace of rights and dues is an inoculation against grace! In a world where everyone "deserves" this or that, the concept of grace is foreign and even loses its potency. (Of course, grace was as alien to those in Christ's day as it is in ours which is why grace will be the wonder of eternity.)

You don't see much praying happening on the silver screen but on the few occasions I have, I've noted a common refrain, last repeated in Mary's prayer for Matthew in Downton Abby season two: "If I've ever done anything good, do this for me." You have to admit this is commonly our attitude toward God. Even when we're doctrinally savvy enough to never actually voice those sentiments, they still roil deep within our hearts. Often, all we have to do is look at our response to God when something happens to us we don't think we deserve. Accusation. Anger. Rebellion. And my favorite, an attempt to "get back at God" as though anything we do could hurt Him more than it does us. How often have you responded to your "unfair" circumstances with "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord"?

I love the corrective to our skewed hearts Christ gives us in this passage. Having lived as God has called us, we dare not think we are doing God a favor! God hardly owes us something because “we’ve been good.” Let those anxious to speak of debts and "just" deserts first gaze deep into the mouth of hell, our rightful home.

Yet even were we to have never fallen and have lived a life in perfect harmony with God's precepts, we would still only fulfill the role of a servant to his Master who needn’t thank His slave for doing as he was told. Perfect lives, were they at all attainable, are merely what God expects from us. And there is no way to exceed perfection and thus put God in our debt. Far from it, because we are fallen creatures and the expected standard of perfection wasn't even a dream for the apostle John, our failure to meet God's requirements only earn us damnation. And still we have the arrogant audacity to exact pretended debts from a God to whom we are deeply indebted for any good thing we enjoy in life!

How wonderful to serve a God who keeps no record of our debts, who like the prodigal's father joyfully throws good money after bad when his errant son returns with nothing in his hands but the scars of a failed past and the muck of a swineherd. Oh to grace how great a debtor, daily, I'm constrained to be!

Christian Living: God's Measure of Faith

Luke 17:3-4, "Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him."

Far from remaining detached from the spiritual state of our brethren, we must have a vested interest in their wellbeing, even though it comes at injury to ourselves. After all, in our non-confrontational age, who has the courage to rebuke another for sinning knowing this could well mean the end of a close friendship (note that the rebuking takes place among brethren)! What kind of friend are we if we see a sin imperiling the spiritual vitality of one we love and remain mute? That's like refusing to warn your little sister she's about to step on a copperhead or cobra, reasoning thus: "Well, I'm sure she sees it and knows what she's doing, and I wouldn't want to upset her." Where's the love in that?

Yet how much easier we find it to ruthlessly tear into people who's sins affect us personally. Rather sad, isn't it, how completely opposite to God's wise ways our human tendencies are? We silently watch those we love ruin themselves yet viciously attack people who have slighted us when our new Christian nature would have us speak with loving alarm when evil threatens our brothers and, in Christ's own lamb-like patience, suffer personal offense in silence. Yet we remain so flippin' self-centered.

I love the disciples' response in v. 5, "Lord, increase our faith!" They knew, selfish as they were, they couldn’t handle this kind of responsibility toward each other and prayed for greater faith to do the impossible. However, Jesus’ reply (in v. 6) indicates that God doesn’t expect the kind of living described in the verses above only from those with great faith. Rather, those with even a little bit of faith should be capable of great feats and, as though it were a given, Christian living!

An interesting thought, isn't it? The strength of our faith is measured by how we comport ourselves among other Christians. Oh how small my faith is when held to this standard! Lord, increase our faith!